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Post by burgesshill on Jul 5, 2019 7:23:10 GMT
Wisden are reporting that Steve Elworthy is to become the ECB's new Head of Special Projects. "It is expected that one of Elworthy’s key roles will be the deliverance of the ECB’s new competition, The Hundred". I like that choice of word, 'deliverance'. Of course technically you can use it where you would normally say 'delivery', but no one does. The way it always gets used is more along the lines of the online Free Dictionary's definition:- "rescue from moral corruption or evil; salvation", which seems quite apt (if an improbable outcome in this instance).
There have been some additions to the Hundred website, including some actual news (though nothing you won't have read elsewhere): confirmation that Simon Katich has been appointed as coach for the Manchester Originals. He dutifully refrains from getting them stuck with that name by saying "I am incredibly excited by the opportunity to lead the new men's Manchester-based team". Just keeping their options open in case an even better name occurs to them, I suppose. (There are rumours that Leeds Superchargers might change their name to the less provocative Northern Superchargers, which would reduce to three the number of city-based franchises actually named after cities).
There are some other new bits on the Hundred website, including an overwrought (though uninformative) preview of the player-selection process.
www.thehundred.com/news/1257404/get-ready-for-the-men-s-player-draft-?utm_campaign=76327_Draft%20Article&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ECB&dm_i=582Q,1MW7,15VLE6,53MG,1
"The men's Player Draft is coming soon - Are you ready? ... Player Drafts have become big news all around the world. Now it’s time to bring all the thrills and spills to this country ... A WHOLE NEW TEAM. ALL AT ONCE ... Selecting one or two players is one thing. But the men's Player Draft means picking an entire team. In one go ... Picked from a host of English stars, international big hitters and the most exciting up and coming players ... WHAT'S THE LOWDOWN? ... Three international icons. England stars and home-grown talents. Each team will pick a boundary smashing squad of 15, ready to play cricket at its fastest, wildest best. Who will make the grade? ... WHO'LL BE THE STEAL? ... The most inspired picks will come from out of nowhere. The ones others have ignored in favour of a household name. Who will use bat and ball to make themselves the hero of an entire city? ... FEEL THE DRAMA ... When the heat is on, who’ll keep their cool? Watch teams make split-second choices that could make or break their entire competition. A cheeky bid here. A surprise choice there. Can you second guess which players will go where? ... HOLD YOUR BREATH ... The men's Player Draft will be a wild ride. But it’s not just one day. Speculate. Predict. Dream your team. The suspense will build and build as the big day approaches ... EVERYBODY’S INVITED ... Tune in. Log on. Be part of it."
Well, are you ready? Personally I'm going to try and ignore the suspense building and building, and postpone my own state of readiness until the big day itself. It can't be healthy to maintain this hyperventilating level of anticipation for another 16 weeks.
Very few overseas players will be able to commit to the hundred some nine months before the competition starts, so I would think it will be mostly english players, so like the hundred itself, a bit of a non event. |
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Post by burgesshill on Jul 5, 2019 7:25:52 GMT
I find the quote system on here hard to use.
My reply to Bazpan was the the last sentence on the above post, but it looks like I quoted him without adding anything myself.
so- Very few overseas players will be willing to commit to the hundred nine months out, so it will be mostly english players, making the auction a bit of a non event.
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Post by flashblade on Jul 5, 2019 8:33:55 GMT
I find the quote system on here hard to use.My reply to Bazpan was the the last sentence on the above post, but it looks like I quoted him without adding anything myself. so- Very few overseas players will be willing to commit to the hundred nine months out, so it will be mostly english players, making the auction a bit of a non event. I know exactly what you mean. When the quote appears, before you start typing, immediately click below the quote box so that the cursor is under (not in) the box. Hope this helps. |
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Bazpan
2nd XI player
Posts: 191 
County club member: Kent
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Post by Bazpan on Jul 10, 2019 23:10:13 GMT
The good people at the Hundred have alerted me to a probing interview with Manchester-based men's side Head Coach, Simon Katich.
www.thehundred.com/news/1265270?utm_campaign=83676_Simon%20Katich%20Q%20%2B%20A&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ECB&dm_i=582Q,1SKC,15VLE6,5JXH,1
It's pretty thin stuff actually. The only thing that just about kind of jumped out at me was Katich's reference to "10-ball overs". If he displeased his ECB masters by invoking the O-word, he might reasonably retort "Aw look! We've got to call them something, and we do have this ready-made term that seems as good as any". Now that the franchise names are out, one of the remaining peripheral pleasures afforded by the Hundred will be seeing what they're going to call the batches/sequences/clumps of deliveries. Clearly they're still struggling with this one, or Katich would have been provided with the new word to use.
Well the franchise names are still maturing. As rumoured, the Superchargers have been unmoored from Leeds, now preferring to characterise themselves as simply 'Northern'. And the Oval Greats are now the Oval Invincibles. Still a bit too self-admiring for my taste. Even the 1948 Australians didn't get called The Invincibles until they'd demonstrated their invincibility.
Risible though the name Trent Rockets is, I still think river-based franchises would be a better idea all round. As the ECB are finding, cities are really divisive. Get a mile away from a particular city and everyone's flicking two fingers at this oppressive metropolis exerting a malign influence on all of their lives. Whereas, rivers - they go all over the place and are fundamentally benign. I live far enough away from London to feel no connection with the city (still less the Oval), but the Thames Estuary practically runs past my house and I have great affection for it. If I wanted to get into the Hundred, I (and, I suspect, thousands of others) would much more readily support a Thames-themed franchise than a London or Oval one. The name Severn Fire would seem welcoming to twice the number of counties that Welsh Fire does. Etc.
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Post by Wicked Cricket on Jul 19, 2019 9:42:19 GMT
Invigorated by the World Cup Trophy, the '100' is starting to rock and roll.
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Post by Wicked Cricket on Jul 19, 2019 9:43:32 GMT
An interesting response from our Club Captain.
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Post by flashblade on Jul 19, 2019 10:22:49 GMT
An interesting response from our Club Captain. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz . . . |
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Post by flashblade on Jul 19, 2019 10:28:28 GMT
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Bazpan
2nd XI player
Posts: 191
County club member: Kent
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Post by Bazpan on Jul 19, 2019 12:43:20 GMT
[I see Flashblade beat me to linking that Times article. Sorry for being too lazy to edit my post accordingly.]
Just a minor bit of intel for franchise-name fans. I wouldn't be surprised if the Glamorgan/Gloucestershire/Somerset collective, Welsh Fire, is about to lose its explicit connection with the Land of Song. The law firm used by the ECB to register Northern Superchargers as a trademark also applied, the following day, to register Western Fire. Things might seem a bit static at the moment on the Hundred front, but obviously there's a lot going on behind the scenes.
Three cities
Three compass points
One river
One Hundred
(Have I missed my calling?)
In truth, there is a fair bit going on. Squabbling, mainly. This Times article is worth a read if you can get at it. (Two free articles a week, if you didn't know).
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/disputes-infighting-and-some-left-wondering-if-hundred-is-needed-at-all-jscmjfqrh
"The 18 county chief executives were due to meet at Trent Bridge on Tuesday to discuss The Hundred, with many expected to call on the ECB to hold a formal review into its governance ... neither the staging agreements with the eight host venues nor the framework agreement which includes governance regulations have been signed, leading to fears that the competition could unravel. No contracts have been signed and no new companies have been set up."
The counties aren't happy that the ECB will assume full control of the Hundred as sole owners (apparently the counties were told in 2017 that they would share the ownership). " ... this set-up also has potential financial implications for the counties, many of whom will become solely dependent on the £1.3m ECB handout they will receive for taking part in The Hundred. Beyond that annual payment the ECB’s only financial commitment to the counties is to share 1/19th of the profits generated by the new competition, but, given the size of the marketing budget that will be used to promote it, The Hundred is not expected to be profitable for several years."
The distinction between counties and the relevant franchises has become blurred to the dismay of many, as some counties are intending to use guaranteed upper-band Hundred contracts as an incentive for star players to sign full county contracts.
One county has made a formal complaint to the ECB about "one of the counties that they are to partner in the new competition". So Lancashire are in the clear, and if we can infer that the complainant has multiple partners, this doesn't concern any of the two-county franchises either. That would mean the internecine activity is confined to one of these three groups:-
Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire
Glamorgan, Gloucestershire, Somerset
Middlesex, Essex, Northamptonshire
In addition, many counties are concerned about the domestic 50-over competition being sidelined.
Well it's all depressingly predictable, and the counties' own governance isn't looking too clever. Naivety and greed are rarely a winning combination.
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Post by flashblade on Jul 19, 2019 14:48:50 GMT
I am enjoying following The Hundred's Facebook page; virtually every post from The Hundred has drawn a massive number of hostile and adverse comments. Have a look -it's great entertainment! www.facebook.com/thehundred/ |
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Post by deepfineleg on Jul 19, 2019 16:28:26 GMT
Well at least they haven't signed up a Troll Factory to post loads of positive comments.
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Post by philh on Jul 19, 2019 16:34:27 GMT
Surely Western Fire would be better in the 999 rather than the Hundred. Mind you, 999 balls wouldn’t make sense that would be 166 overs and leave 3 balls left over.
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Bazpan
2nd XI player
Posts: 191
County club member: Kent
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Post by Bazpan on Jul 19, 2019 18:49:07 GMT
Surely Western Fire would be better in the 999 rather than the Hundred. Mind you, 999 balls wouldn’t make sense that would be 166 overs and leave 3 balls left over. Easily fixed by finishing with a nine-ball over to be shared by up to three bowlers. It would add a "fresh tactical dimension".
The American version would be more numerically satisfying: 150 overs followed by a Super XI.
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Bazpan
2nd XI player
Posts: 191
County club member: Kent
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Post by Bazpan on Jul 19, 2019 23:50:21 GMT
I am enjoying following The Hundred's Facebook page; virtually every post from The Hundred has drawn a massive number of hostile and adverse comments. Have a look -it's great entertainment! www.facebook.com/thehundred/It's pretty relentless isn't it?! Sometimes I wonder whether sticking the boot in to the Hundred risks becoming gratuitous. (My own posts on the subject are a bit one-note, I know). But being as objective as I can, I just can't think of anything the Hundred's got going for it. (I don't like T20, but that's got plenty going for it). The near-unanimity of the derision for the Hundred isn't just a feeding frenzy; there's just nothing you can really say for it.
Its defenders will of course talk about the money it'll bring in, which is debatable. As for the format itself, the best that people can say about it tends to be along the lines of "At least they're trying to do something a little bit different, so we should give it a chance". Doing something a little bit different isn't a justification in itself, particularly when the stakes are so high. If you think about some of the major format innovations throughout the history of the game: two-innings matches, a county championship, Test matches, a one-day knockout tournament, a Sunday league, ODIs, World Cup, T20 - they were all, variously, a logical extension of a popular existing format, or meeting an apparent demand, or such an inspired idea that it simply deserved to succeed. The Hundred is none of these. It's just arbitrarily (and annoyingly) different.
Andrew Strauss said the other day "If you look at things objectively The Hundred is the best opportunity to engage the people who tuned in for the first time to that Lord's final and make them more than just casual fans."
Thanks for the objectivity lesson, but how should we decode that strange statement? To me it reads like 'You probably struggled to get your tiny minds around the six-ball overs, but don't worry - it only gets easier from here on. The next time we meet, you'll be counting down from a hundred in irregular groups of five and ten, and the format will be almost unrecognisable from the match that you've just enjoyed so much. Better still, the games will be over before you know it, so you'll get none of that infuriating ebb-and-flow that you witnessed in Sunday's game, with first one team having the advantage, and then the other team, and so on ad nauseum.'
The Radio Times website has a feature on the Hundred.
www.radiotimes.com/news/sport/2019-07-17/the-hundred-cricket-start-2020-tv-watch-live-stream/
"Intrigue, confusion, excitement and everything in between – those are the emotions ahead of the inaugural cricket tournament, The Hundred."
Well that's one way of putting it.
"RadioTimes.com has rounded up everything you need to know about The Hundred."
including ... "Overs will be upped from six balls to 10 for the competition, meaning 10 extended overs each for the teams involved."
Actually now I am confused, and I thought I understood it. That's quite an achievement - that their research seems to have sidestepped any reference to the counting-down-from-a-hundred aspect, that being supposedly the competition's fundamental selling point. The writer thinks we're still going to have overs, just that they'll be four balls longer than normal.
It's just as well the ECB won't be relying on their free-to-air broadcasting partner's listings magazine to promote their new competition. Incidentally, since they're happy to say they'll be spending five times as much on marketing the Hundred as they do on the England team's entire home programme, it makes me think facetiously that there should be a law against this - just as there are legal limits to what can be spent on election campaigns. The ECB are going to act all vindicated when no one goes to watch the denuded, well-concealed One-Day Cup, but some people go to Hundred games because they remember from a year ago that cricket can be surprisingly fun and this is the only version of it getting any promotion.
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Post by philh on Jul 20, 2019 5:55:37 GMT
It was a shame that the Hampshire game was washed out. When the toss took place, the game was set to be a 14 over contest. This would have been just 16 balls less than a Hundred game without any funny overs. I must say The Eighty Four has a certain ring to it.
On a less flippant note, it does seem strange that the 50 over competition is being demoted to a slightly stronger 2nd XI competition when we have just won the World Cup in that format. Or, is Strauss’s objectivity suggesting that the public will now just want games that are one superover in length? A T1, indeed.
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