On the eve of The Hundred John Arlott on post-1945 English cricket (The Guardian 1st January 1969)
A year late The Hundred, cricket administrators latest plan to get money and interest into the game, is finally set to start.
Over 50 years ago in the first edition of The Guardian for 1969 John Arlott wrote a piece reviewing where football and cricket were and were likely to head. 1969 was the year that the John Player League, Sunday afternoon, limited over cricket, was introduced.
The penultimate paragraph of his piece reads:
Post-war cricket has gone from the sometimes forgotten popular peaks of 1946, 1947 and 1948 through crises of finance and image and through changes some of which appeared to be made solely for the sake of change. Now it makes the most important change in its modern history. In 1969 first-class counties allocate more than 20 days to one-day matches and the control of the game in all but law making, passes away from the MCC.
It sounds in many respects rather familiar but we might also remember that Arlott, perhaps best known for his commentaries on Test Match Special was actually one of the TV commentators for Sunday League matches…
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