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Post by flashblade on Sept 2, 2019 11:06:03 GMT
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Bazpan
2nd XI player
Posts: 191 
County club member: Kent
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Post by Bazpan on Sept 2, 2019 13:02:50 GMT
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Post by sussexforever on Sept 2, 2019 19:16:35 GMT
I follow the 'England cricket' page on facebook and Hundred related articles are popping up now.
The latest from about 20 minutes ago has 120 comments and rising. Of those about 3 are positive.
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Post by flashblade on Sept 3, 2019 13:19:49 GMT
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Bazpan
2nd XI player
Posts: 191
County club member: Kent
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Post by Bazpan on Sept 17, 2019 13:30:27 GMT
The Hundred's Managing Director Sanjay Patel said back in July: “We’ll have a team partner who’ll be on the front of all the shirts ... What we are determined to do is think about partners who are in keeping with the strategy of the Hundred."
And of course that team partner turned out to be KP Snacks. Some have questioned whether the people behind Butterkist, Pop Chips and the like are a great fit (I'm starting to talk like them) for an undertaking purporting to help families get active. But whenever I find myself slumped in an armchair, surrounded by empty McCoys Grab Bags and with Choc Dips all down my front, it often reminds me that I ought to get out on my bike more.
The snacks-Hundred interface is mirrored by some of the marketing commentary on the new competition. The Sports Industry Group have commented that "the ECB is pinning its hopes on the Hundred being able to reach beyond those vertical audiences and engage with generation z and its younger sibling, generation alpha ... Can the simplified format of The Hundred play meet this challenge? Will it lend itself to the snackable, highlights-focused content this audience consumes?". (To which all I can say is: what do they know of the Hundred who only the Hundred know?)
www.sportindustry.biz/features/opinion-2019-will-be-cricket%E2%80%99s-biggest-summer
And there's this from marketing consultants, Engine: "What made the World Cup Final such a jaw dropping, is-this-really-happening, nation-unifying moment wasn’t the previous 95 overs on a poor pitch; it was the ‘will they, won’t they?’ run chase of the last five overs, followed by the sheer sporting madness of the Super Over. The country ... was effectively watching countdown cricket. The type of easy-to-understand, ‘snackable’ cricket which the ECB is putting its weight behind with the start of the Hundred in 2020."
https://lbbonline.com/news/why-the-cricket-world-cup-final-was-the-ultimate-teaser-for-the-hundred/
The ICC's head of media rights and digital, Aarti Dabas, seemed to have snackable cricket in mind when she said about the World Cup that "we wanted to target that younger audience, who are consuming less and less live, and more bite-sized content". But she went on to talk about the ICC placing "a focus on building stories and narratives around cricket as part of its wider engagement strategy ... The focus for us was really on storytelling ... What is the story of the match? But also of the players, of the rivalries? We want to build heroes for cricket, tell the players' stories more"
https://www.sportbusiness.com/news/icc-reveals-record-breaking-digital-engagement-for-cricket-world-cup/
She seems conflicted about portion control. Bite-sized storytelling is a bit of a contradiction (outside of Reader's Digest Condensed Books). With one breath Ms Dabas says she wants to provide fleeting, context-free thrills for the attention-poor, and with the next she seems to be acknowledging that comedy overthrow compilations on YouTube aren't the way to attract and retain a new audience for cricket. I think she was right second time (if only she could clean her language up a bit). After the World Cup final, colleagues and friends of mine who'd previously shown no interest in cricket but happened to watch the final spoke of feeling "wrung out" by the end, and how that amazing climax "wouldn't have meant anything if I hadn't watched everything that led up to it". Quite so! There's storytelling for you. I wouldn't kid myself that my mates and colleagues are necessarily going to make cricket a part of their lives, but the next time they go looking for it they'll want all the unfolding complexity and fluctuating fortunes and emotions that they experienced watching the World Cup final. Fun-size cricket snippets aren't going to do it for them.
Franchise name latest:- Trademark applications were submitted last week for both Oval Invincibles and London Invincibles. The Oval-based franchise looked to have won the argument about not having London in their name, but the ECB seem to be finding it hard to accept that there'll only be one London-themed franchise.
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Bazpan
2nd XI player
Posts: 191
County club member: Kent
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Post by Bazpan on Sept 20, 2019 15:14:43 GMT
Plenty to think about in this Cricinfo article about the Hundred draft.
www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/27650130/details-hundred-draft-revealed
I'll need to study it more closely before I'm able to hold my own in a conversation about bundled non-playing icons or whatever. For now, this bit caught my eye:-All players coming from overseas will be booked on business-class flights, and players will be given a daily allowance of £35 to cover basic expenses like food and drink. "Luxury coach travel" will be provided for away games.
Why does "Luxury coach travel" need quotation marks but business-class flights doesn't? It sort of implies "If you can call it luxury coach travel ... "I wouldn't necessarily have expected overseas players to get a daily expense allowance on top of their salary, but since they will, thirty-five quid a day walking-around money just feels a bit cheap? I'm not suggesting we should set up a Just Giving page to help keep overseas Hundred stars in Cristal and lobster, but it's all a far cry from the grotesque opulence of an IPL after-party. Actually I think they should just get a daily £3 Sainsbury's Meal Deal voucher. It's all they deserve. Maybe a Nando's card for the evenings, and that's it.
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Post by Wicked Cricket on Sept 21, 2019 10:26:50 GMT
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Bazpan
2nd XI player
Posts: 191
County club member: Kent
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Post by Bazpan on Oct 1, 2019 22:34:39 GMT
Sixteen overseas players have been announced as having registered for the Hundred draft. I think. Most articles only list 15. The Hundred website teases us with a mere 10 registered players: 8 overseas plus Morgan and Moeen. "This is just a sample of the players who have registered to be part of The Hundred. There are many more to come." (There'd better be! You're going to need at least another 110 of them.)
The official website mentions Mohammad Nabi, whose name is absent from the overseas-player lists published elsewhere, so we've got 16 to be going on with. I was just trying to work out what their availability will be, based on the ICC's Future Tours Programme.
i.imgci.com/db/DOWNLOAD/0000/0045/ftp_2018_2023.pdf
The FTP divides each month into four weeks for the purpose of blocking out the period over which any two countries will play a certain number of Tests, ODIs or T20s against each other. There are no specific dates so it's difficult to accurately compare the FTP with the scheduling of the Hundred (17th July until 16th August, including a reserve day for the final). But you can get a feel for which countries' players will be available for how much of the Hundred. And the actual dates for England's summer programme have been published. They play their last ODI v. Australia on 16th July (the day before the Hundred starts), and these are the dates for the Test series v. Pakistan:-
Thu 30 July-Mon 3 Aug - 1st Test at Lord’s
Fri 7-Tue 11 Aug - 2nd Test at Old Trafford
Thu 20-Mon 24 Aug - 3rd Test at Trent Bridge
That eight-day gap after the 2nd Test will allow the England players to keep their appointment with the climax of the Hundred. Possibly not the greatest preparation for the 3rd Test (ditto playing in the first week or so of the Hundred ahead of the 1st Test), but perhaps the thinking is that the games are over so quickly that the Test players won't have time to acquire the Hundred habit. Actually I doubt the ECB have troubled themselves with any such thinking. All English cricket - not just 50-over development competitions but Test matches as well - shall cower before the might of the Hundred. And if, as a result, England lose the Test series 3-0, well Gordon Hollins might say that's just another "price that has to be paid".
Back to these overseas players' availabilities. To check it against the ICC's Future Tours Programme, if we say that the Hundred will occupy weeks 3 & 4 of July and weeks 1 & 2 of August, then this looks like the number of weeks of the Hundred (out of 4) for which the overseas players announced so far will be available:-
Aaron Finch, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, David Warner, Shahid Afridi & Lasith Malinga: 4 (Australia have no scheduling conflicts. Afridi & Malinga have retired from international cricket.)
Chris Gayle & Kieron Pollard: 4 (West Indies are engaged in all international formats throughout the Hundred, but I don't suppose Gayle and Pollard will let that keep them away from the Hundred, even though they both played limited-overs cricket for WI as recently as August.)
Rashid Khan & Mohammad Nabi: 3 (Afghanistan have three T20s v. Ireland commencing week 2 of August.)
Kane Williamson: 3 (New Zealand have three ODIs and three T20s v. West Indies in weeks 2 & 3 of July.)
Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis & Kagiso Rabada: 1 (South Africa have two Tests and three T20s v. West Indies in week 4 of July and weeks 1 & 2 of August.)
Shakib al Hasan: 1 (Shakib is a regular in Bangladesh's Test team. They are playing three Tests v. Sri Lanka in week 4 of July and weeks 1 & 2 of August.)
Babar Azam: 1 (Pakistan have three Tests v. England commencing 30th July and ending 24th August. I'm guessing that they'll spare Azam for about the first week of the Hundred before he joins the Pakistan squad ahead of the 1st Test starting 13 days after the Hundred begins. And that they won't allow him to shuttle between the Hundred and the Test squad once the Test series is under way - although that's the plan for the England players.)
Some of these registrations seem speculative at best. Will any franchise want to use up one of their 15 squad places for a player who can only make it for about a week? On the face of it, current internationals from South Africa, West Indies, Bangladesh and Pakistan are a bad bet for the Hundred. Similarly with Sri Lankan Test players (three Tests v. Bangladesh in week 4 of July and weeks 1 & 2 of August). And of course the BCCI won't permit any Indian players to take part. I can't help thinking events are somehow going to prove me wrong, but on the evidence to hand it looks as though the international flavour of the Hundred will be largely restricted to Australasians, Afghans, and West Indian refuseniks. Perhaps there'll be some Dutch players. They've got nothing on all Hundred.
And despite the ECB's strenuous efforts to make their own players available, will that be such a treat in the event? If a Hundred team is working well together and heading for the play-offs, how keen will they be to disrupt the side just because a centrally-contracted England player has choppered over on a mercy dash straight after stumps in the 2nd Test? I must be missing something, because I can't see how this can all play out as billed. The eventual composition of the playing sides iwill probably be more interesting than the matches themselves.
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Post by Wicked Cricket on Oct 2, 2019 8:17:31 GMT
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Post by Wicked Cricket on Oct 3, 2019 9:39:21 GMT
Click on box to get the SKY video explaining it all.
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Post by Wicked Cricket on Oct 3, 2019 12:48:08 GMT
That's me off to the former Ageas Bowl next summer rather than the Oval then. Presumably, we won't know about Luke Wright, Laurie Evans and Phil Salt until the 20th. Hopefully, they'll become Southern Braves too. The more Sussex Braves the better. Will supporters need to dress up in Red Indian garb?  |
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Post by sussexforever on Oct 3, 2019 13:06:10 GMT
That's me off to the former Ageas Bowl next summer rather than the Oval then. Presumably, we won't know about Luke Wright, Laurie Evans and Phil Salt until the 20th. Hopefully, they'll become Southern Braves too. The more Sussex Braves the better. Will supporters need to dress up in Red Indian garb? I'm sure you and the other 50 attendees will enjoy it. |
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Post by Wicked Cricket on Oct 3, 2019 13:16:49 GMT
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Post by sussexforever on Oct 3, 2019 13:26:28 GMT
Don't be such a misery guts. This will be the only time you'll see Jofra Archer play alongside other Sussex players in 2020. Not for Sussex though is it. For a fake team nearly 2 hours away from where I live. No affiliation to it and I really hope it falls on its arse. All that was needed was to get some of the blast on FTA, plus some internationals. I have seen a rumour online of an ECB breakaway being discussed by county chiefs next month. Graves has a lot to answer for. |
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