The Hundred & the One Day Cup: the future of English & Welsh cricket in the balance.
Starting on 21st July English and Welsh cricket takes what is now an annual break from the traditional formats of the game. There are no County Championship games or Test matches until the third week of August now.
Instead we have the relaunched and newly franchise owned The Hundred and the Metro Bank One Day Cup based on the traditional Counties.
Of course both formats can be watched and enjoyed but the media coverage and hyperbole will be with The Hundred. It has certainly provided a significant (if unintended) boost for the women’s game. It has also attracted some new audiences(how much is less certain- Welsh Fire say 40% of ticket sales for 2026 are from people who have not attended a game before.
The reality is of course that The Hundred only exists because the ECB did not trademark the 20 over format which they pioneered and so had to tweak the format to get franchise money on board. That job is now done.
The One Day Cup is being covered by BBC radio commentary but don’t expect to see matches on Sky TV even though they have the contractual rights to show them.
Supporters of County cricket underline and rightly so that The Hundred is designed to take support away from the County game and remove the membership system, where supporters in effect form the basis of clubs.
How this will play out remains work in progress and there are battles still to be fought over the future of English and Welsh cricket beyond the hype that we will be getting about The Hundred.
Kmflett's Blog 
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