The 'Hundred' - new England/Wales city-based franchise cricket competition

[Kevin Farnell]

I move that the Hundred tournament be restricted to an end of season competition whereby players can have fun with the traditional season be preserved with an emphasis upon First Class cricket with the intention of strengthening the Test Team before England are mentioned with Zimbabwe as examples of how to manage a national team!

All votes in favour gratefully received.

You have my vote 100% Jenny. Let's keep real Cricket alive. Sadly, though I feel that those in charge (particularly the TV companies) see The Hundred as a money spinner. Part of the enjoyment of First Class Cricket, are the tactics. When to go for one run on the last ball of an over? When to play a defensive shot? Can you force the follow on? When to declare? That's just a small example of the complexities of First Class Cricket, which is like a physical sport combined with the strategies of Chess. The Hundred on the other hand is just slog, slog, slog. No real need for the brain to be involved. To me. The Hundred could be described (or even catch phrased) as 'Cricket for people who don't like Cricket'.
As a kid, I didn't like Cricket (I found it slow and boring). However today I love it. Had 20:20 cricket existed back then , I think I would have been more interested. So, as an introduction to Cricket I can see it's value (followed by ODI). The Hundred though I find a monstrosity. It messes with so much that is fundamental to Cricket. Not for me!

Rant over.

Kevin

 

[Poshgirl]

Yesterday's debacle proved how poor Root is as a captain. I've seen better batsmen in my local park matches! Does he never watch videos of former captains to see how it's done. Mike Brearley was the master tactician. There have been others since him but too few to mention. Lots of pundits highly critical of Adil Rashid when he joined the test squad. Not good enough/should never be playing international cricket, said Michael Vaughan. Then Eoin Morgan picks Rashid for limited over cricket and the doubters are now saying he's one of the best spinners in the world. The most telling comment came from the man himself "Morgan is the best captain I've ever played for".

Lots of issues at play here (excuse the pun!). Inept selectors, inept captain who only considers picking his mates. Okay, he's been injured lately, but the way Chris Woakes has been treated is disgraceful.

There have been many hints in the media at the poor attitude with some of the players, if they are to be believed. Jonny Bairstow defying Joe Root to drop him. James Anderson and Stuart Broad bullying tactics in the dressing room. Anderson's behaviour yesterday a disgrace. It's time for these two guys to move over and given someone else a chance. Ben Stokes is not captain material either; his tenure in that post will mirror Ian Botham!

As for the Hundred, an end of season bit of fun is the best place for it if England are not to become the laughing stock of international cricket.

Rant over!!

 

[rollo]

And if today's performance in the Test is anything to go by, a number of the England team should go back to their county for some overdue practice!!

That's very much part of the problem as there is little or no county cricket or proper cricket if you like so no real practice is available, I'm afraid the one day game or three hour game is now king. I endured much of yesterdays feeble England attempt to turn potential victory into defeat.

I am tempted to watch Warwickshire's sorry the Birmingham Phoenix game tonight in one last attempt to like it, the commentary and graphics are dreadful what on earth is a batter? to me it's something you get with fish and chips or use to make Yorkshire pudding but then again I know nothing.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Players, especially batsmen, have to learn to play properly before they improvise in one-day cricket and especially in 20:20. If they don't, or aren't given the opportunity because of the sidelining of English first-class cricket in the season, 20:20 or The Hundred if it persists (and I believe it will) will eventually become like the village blacksmith cricket of olden days where the biggest slogger is king - it's getting that way now.

It's not only batsmen who increasingly struggle to stay out in the middle for long periods in first-class cricket. Bowlers are often confused too. In first-class (including test) cricket they have to be able to bowl out the opposition twice to win a match. In white ball cricket the emphasis is on containment, where restricting the run rate is as important, usually more so, than taking wickets. Hence we see the so-called 'death bowlers' who are brought on at the end of a white ball match innings. Their task is not to take wickets, although if they do it's a welcome bonus, but to restrict the batsman from scoring runs by employing such methods as well-directed 'yorkers'.

That's why there are both batsmen and bowlers who are now regarded as white ball specialists but who are unable to completely take their skills into the first-class game. England's top order yesterday and Curran are examples of this.

Giving back first-class cricket primacy in the English county season is not going to happen - yet anyway. As has been said, there is too much money in the white ball competitions and the tv companies love it, particularly the very short version such as 20:20 and The Hundred. It encapsulates today's society's very short attention span so the incessant dumbing down of cricket may well continue.

Incidentally, I understand the term 'dumbing down' originates from the pre-war American film studios where films were often edited to become simpler and easier to follow for people thought incapable of following anything more complicated. Resonance with The Hundred there I think.

As to captaincy, the best player isn't necessarily the best captain: different skills are needed. In football top managers are often former players not of the very highest rank whereas there are numerous examples of star players becoming mediocre managers.

 

[Poshgirl]

Many cricket fans don't like the word "batter". However, now the women's game is in the ascendency there needs to be a general description to cover all genders. Yes, it's a sign of the times we live in and there's no way of escaping it to avoid discrimination.

I don't have Sky so rely on BBC TMS. What really surprised me was the pundits debating the origins of the word "googly". As former players, they should know! Mr Tufnell and Mr Vaughan, it's not funny.... You should be advocates for all forms of the game but seems you only want to be trendy.

A young aspiring cricketer (12) used to live next door to me. Has played at county level; for some reason didn't make this year's squad. Of Indian descent, he obviously knows current squad, but go back beyond Tendulkar and he'd never heard of Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, etc. It's a shame "the powers that be" think the game only needs to appeal to the young. There's so much that can be learned from history. Us older, more experienced people are easily ignored and not just in sport.

TLY's comments about captaincy are very true. Geoff Boycott could never be a successful captain because of his single-minded attitude. Yet as a pundit, a lot of what he says is true. Ian Botham, the superstar with bat and ball, the same. Was David Gower the master tactician? Same goes for Mike Gatting and Michael Atherton. The only recent one to possibly claim some tactical skills was Andrew Strauss.

And yes, in my rant about the openers, bowlers and selectors I forgot to mention Curran. He's just a county cricketer, no more.

 

[JENNYJET]

Tactical awards go to Douglas Jardine as the English Captain that defeated Don Bradman. I am not particularly interested in the merits of Leg Theory or if it warranted a diplomatic incident, the game of that era was to win and win well and team discipline was most important. Captaincy is like the House Masters at the likes of Eton, Harrow and Rugby Schools. Not so much an honour but a duty to the chaps to help them through the ordeal!

 

[JENNYJET]

Had Lord's dreamt up the Hundred in those days, Jardine may have run all the way back to Bombay leaving his England Caps as a parting shot!

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Many cricket fans don't like the word "batter". However, now the women's game is in the ascendency there needs to be a general description to cover all genders. Yes, it's a sign of the times we live in and there's no way of escaping it to avoid discrimination.

I'm certainly against discrimination in all its forms whether it's on the grounds of gender, race, religion, sexual orientation or plain bullying. I do though wonder whether at times matters are taken too far and liable to deflect the real issues in the fight against such prejudice.

After all, is calling someone a batsman or batswoman as the case may be any more discriminatory than calling someone a man or woman in everyday life? There are far more important battles to fight when it comes to opposing bigotry.

Gender-specificity seems to be viewed with distaste in many circles these days. Or does it? Perhaps it's more likely when it's male focused.

For example, many hospitals still have sisters and matrons, some even when the person is a man. Had nursing been predominantly a male profession down the years and the ward supervisor called a nursing brother you can be sure that would have been altered to something gender-neutral a long time ago.

A couple of years ago my wife and I were guests at a meal in a private house with a number of others of varying ages and backgrounds, with an even spread of men and women. One of the other guests is a thespian and he was holding court about the word actress. He was adamant as is, he averred, the profession at large that all who act are actors (I've never been sure about acting being regarded as a profession but that is to digress). He told us that to call a female actor an actress is demeaning and suggests she is subservient to a male colleague. It generated a lot of discussion and opinion, much of it out of sync with his view, but he would not be persuaded. By coincidence, I used the word actress in a post in an LBA thread this morning. So far no-one has taken exception to the word.

 

[JENNYJET]

Not just in UK, Germans now tend to avoid Fraulein and instead use the given name after permission is sought, and given name is preferred to Christian name allowing for the growing Muslim population. Treading on eggshells is not a British problem alone, I suggest that it may have begun in USA with the concept of political correctness and it's migration across the world.

 

[Poshgirl]

Taking the discussion one step further, we now have gender fluidity so there could be objections to .....man or.....woman. It's a complicated issue.

Bringing in the aviation theme, cabin crew/flight attendants used to be called air stewards/stewardesses. The change seemed to be fairly seamless although flight attendant is associated more with our friends across the pond and in Asia.

Who would have thought we'd be talking about women cricketers or even footballers. The issue has to be handled sympathetically not a knee-jerk reaction to satisfy someone's personal agenda (politicians, for example!).

Back to the Hundred. Very entertaining match last night. Well done Birmingham Phoenix, awesome batting!!

 

[TheLocalYokel]

The first season of The Hundred finished this evening with wins for the London-based Oval Invincibles who beat the Southampton-based Southern Brave in the final of the women's competition, and for Southern Brave who beat Birmingham Phoenix in the final of the men's competition.

Unfortunately, neither game was an edge-of-the-seat thriller with the two successful teams comfortably winning their match. The women's match took place in damp conditions for much of the game which made underfoot conditions and fielding difficult.

I didn't watch a lot of the games that were on the BBC (I don't have Sky so couldn't watch the Sky-only matches anyway) but kept in touch with the competition by regularly reading reports and scorecards on websites. It seemed to me that there were not an awful lot of close finishes although those who like to see sixes hit were usually well satisfied.

I've said before that I didn't think The Hundred would be for me and from what I saw of it my mind hasn't changed. However, there is no doubt that many people did enjoy the competition enormously and I suspect it is here to stay despite voices in the cricket press suggesting that 20:20 would be a better format. There has also been a lot of media debate about white ball cricket generally, especially 20:20 and now The Hundred, being given too much precedence this summer in the England and Wales cricket calendar to the detriment of test cricket and county cricket.

It will be interesting to see what if any notice the ECB takes of this concern when next summer's cricket calendar is announced.

 

[JENNYJET]

I would like the Hundred competition to fade away as a stop gap should.

My one question, why add another format to the game when all kinds are catered for? What next? A third innings added to tests to prevent a drawn game or make the game more suited to American limits of patience?

 

[Kevin Farnell]

I would like the Hundred competition to fade away as a stop gap should.

My one question, why add another format to the game when all kinds are catered for? What next? A third innings added to tests to prevent a drawn game or make the game more suited to American limits of patience?

I too, would like to see the Hundred disappear. Having said that, I'm sad that the Birmingham Phoenix didn't win, as I will always support any West Midlands club over any other in any competition.
As for 'make the game more suited to to American limits of patience', I think this is what the Hundred is aiming for but would add to that the limited patience of the young. Whilst I prefer First Class and Test Cricket, I would much rather see 20:20 than the Hundred, as the basic laws of Cricket are more similar.

Kevin

 

[Poshgirl]

I'm a purist and didn't really take to the Hundred, although there were some excellent performances. Liam Livingstone is stand out one for me plus Tahir the spin bowler for his celebrations alone!

Instead of addressing the main problem, this has been used as smoke screen. ECB wanted to make a quick buck instead of addressing the real problems with cricket. There are too many side issues such as not going for a test match win to preserve world test ranking. That's why people lose interest in that format. NZ captain very good with declarations but why should he bother when England blatantly dismissed his gesture. People pay lots of money to watch cricket and expect to be entertained not insulted by their national team's performance.

Rant over!

 

[TheLocalYokel]

The ECB has this almost insoluble dichotomy to address: white ball cricket (Ashes test series excepted) brings in more money; red ball cricket, the traditional and purest form of the professional game, is the only way that players can learn their craft and, incidentally, enable them to improvise effectively in white ball cricket.

In recent years and especially this season the ECB has leaned more heavily towards the white ball game with the obvious result that players' ability in test cricket is often found wanting.

Somehow they need to find a middle ground.

Apart from its format the problem for me with The Hundred and indeed the other versions of franchised cricket around the world is that the teams are artificial.

People who support football, rugby or county cricket clubs know that they are an institution within the area and part of the local community. These clubs develop and nurture young players who they hope will become good enough in time to play for the first team. Players who are brought in from outside usually stay for a few years at least. They all become part of the identity of the club with which supporters relate.

Franchise teams are here today-gone tomorrow disparate groups of players who are merely borrowed from established clubs for the limited duration of the franchise competition before returning to their 'home' teams. The draft system makes the link between franchise team and player even more tenuous.

Next season, for example, Southern Brave who won the men's competition could easily find itself with a different squad of players, all borrowed from existing clubs, although a trend is growing where some players only play white ball cricket and hawk themselves around the world as mercenaries from one international franchise to another.

 

[JENNYJET]

I take it as read that Centrally Contracted players are not free to market themselves as Test Cricket is their job above all else, leaving the remaining strength free to meander through the remaining days of their playing careers. Franchise teams filled with the dregs of the game or perhaps a nursery for future star players for the First Class game, I do not know what to think except feeling that the Test team is badly served by ECB.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Centrally contracted players are allowed to play in The Hundred and a number did, although appearances were limited for some because of the test matches taking place at the same time. Some such as James Anderson opted out of The Hundred.

Even here anomalies were thrown up. The Leeds-based Northern Superchargers' centrally contracted player until he took a break from cricket was Ben Stokes whose county cricket club is Durham. This left no room at Superchargers in that category for Yorkshireman Joe Root who instead was drafted to Nottingham-based Trent Rockets.

An example of the artificiality of the franchise teams.

A number of England's centrally contracted players appear in the Indian Premier League and other short-form franchise competitions around the world.

The rationale of the 'Gold Standard' 20:20 franchise competition, the Indian Premier League, is to include a number of world-class players from around the globe supported by local players, a number of whom are youngsters. The Hundred was conceived on similar lines but the pandemic prevented a number of international players who were originally drafted for the subsequently cancelled 2020 The Hundred from coming in 2021 because of virus restrictions. This left much of the overseas representation below par with replacements not of the standard of some of those who would have played in a pandemic-free world.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Three of the Daily Telegraph cricket writers (two men, one woman) got their heads together at the end of the inaugural The Hundred and suggested the following alterations/improvements.

1. The ten-ball blocks should be bowled by one bowler instead of the option to change bowler after five deliveries which apparently became almost the norm. They feel that keeping the same bowler would increase the 'gladiatoral' aspect and lead to larger innings totals which they regarded as low in The Hundred this year.

2. Call the block of ten balls an over.

3. Welsh Fire's name should be changed to Western Fire and some games played in South West England to reflect the team's connection with that part of the country. This was a point I raised at the beginning of this thread.

4. The Hundred was meant to be the shortest and sharpest version of the game but with 50-second mandatory breaks after each block of ten deliveries and a tactical timeout the games have been lasting almost as long as 20:20 matches. The breaks and timeouts should be abolished.

5. Combine the points totals of the men's and women's teams in each franchise so that there is just one league and not separate ones for men and women.

6. Alternate the start times for men's and women's matches that would means the women don't always play the first match which is invariably in the afternoon.

7. Take the women's matches around the country to other venues to build on the increase in interest in women's cricket that The Hundred has brought about.

8. Provide identifiable caps to be worn by the competition's current leading run scorer, wicket taker and six hitter, as happens in the Indian Premier League.

 

[JENNYJET]

All very nice, but complicates a simple format. Why not amend the 20:20 game to satisfy the 'stakeholders ' ?

 

[Kevin Farnell]

Three of the Daily Telegraph cricket writers (two men, one woman) got their heads together at the end of the inaugural The Hundred and suggested the following alterations/improvements.

1. The ten-ball blocks should be bowled by one bowler instead of the option to change bowler after five deliveries which apparently became almost the norm. They feel that keeping the same bowler would increase the 'gladiatoral' aspect and lead to larger innings totals which they regarded as low in The Hundred this year.

2. Call the block of ten balls an over.

3. Welsh Fire's name should be changed to Western Fire and some games played in South West England to reflect the team's connection with that part of the country. This was a point I raised at the beginning of this thread.

4. The Hundred was meant to be the shortest and sharpest version of the game but with 50-second mandatory breaks after each block of ten deliveries and a tactical timeout the games have been lasting almost as long as 20:20 matches. The breaks and timeouts should be abolished.

5. Combine the points totals of the men's and women's teams in each franchise so that there is just one league and not separate ones for men and women.

6. Alternate the start times for men's and women's matches that would means the women don't always play the first match which is invariably in the afternoon.

7. Take the women's matches around the country to other venues to build on the increase in interest in women's cricket that The Hundred has brought about.

8. Provide identifiable caps to be worn by the competition's current leading run scorer, wicket taker and six hitter, as happens in the Indian Premier League.

Simple - just abolish The Hundred!

Kevin