The Hundred: first time as tragedy..
The Hundred is back this week. A hundred ball a side cricket competition it is backed by the cricket authorities Sky and BBC.
It appears in the middle of a very busy cricket schedule and the question remains why it exists. The original plan was to tweak the existing 20 over format (120 balls) and as a short form game the Hundred is very similar.
There are two plus sides to the Hundred. The first was the boost that it gave to women’s cricket. This was not intended and reflected years of neglect by cricket authorities. The other was free to air coverage. Sky cricket coverage gets a few hundred thousand viewers mostly one suspects men of a certain age. Free to air gets a much bigger and broader audience. As the Lionesses underlined, if you can see it you can be it.
The substantial downside was that the Hundred was designed to destabilise the existing structure of cricket and lead to a move away from its County base- which in the main is decently supported, even if struggling financially as it has done for many years.
The Strauss Review has placed the whole question on a wider level though and while the Hundred was a motor for that its not the only factor now.
Then of course there is the whole issue of racism in cricket and the widening of the basis of support and participation in the game. The ECB finally recognised the issue after the Hundred was devised. What is the competition doing to address and change things? Perhaps scrutiny of the evening crowds for games at Lords and the Oval will give some idea
Anyway will the crowds show up in season two? We shall see..
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