[Closed] The Hundred

It has been discussed in the STW TMS thread which is a proxy for the cricket thread really rather than just test matches. Although as there's a good game on just now, it hasn't made a lot of discussion recently.

I've enjoyed some of the games I've seen, of course a close game is always likely to add to the enjoyment and the shorter the format, the less chance of it being totally one sided. And some of the skills on view are frankly ridiculous, particularly as a bit of a purist myself. Root even had the Dilscoop out on the Saturday of a Test Match at Lords such is the way the short game is influencing! Lord knows what John Arlott would have said!!

I think the hundred deserves it's own thread.
Despite my cynicism it's proving to be a great success.
The double headers are working well but...punters coming in for the womens' game mid-afternoon and then pouring down the booze until the men's evening game is possibly reducing the appeal for families on a sporting day out.
Another concern is that the ECB didn't initially see this as a competition with women's teams as important participants; definitely wrong on their part but they've now, apparently, integrated women's teams into the competition.
It's worth reading Izzy Westbury's posts about this on Twitter and in the various papers she writes for; regrettably, one of them is the Torygraph.

Headingley on Thursday was brill (vs local rivals, nice weather, good mix in the crowd, raucous, first 200 of the series). It’s been a good thing to dip into on the telly too. I love the concept of the first innings being a ‘count up’ and the second being a ‘count down’.

I'm loving it.

Full grounds with new fans, women's games in the spotlight, exciting finishes and some little known players making a name for themselves. What's not to like! And I'm a real test match lover.

It's still depressing though looking at the comments sections on the BBC pages how many haters there are. They seem to think the pinnacle of domestic cricket is a 4 day draw played in April drizzle in front of 3 spectators and a dog. Sorry, but sport has moved on and if cricket is to survive and thrive then tournaments like the hundred is what will stop cricket becoming a fringe sport like handball.

Yes indeed! Been to two games at headingley, both been a great day/evening out. Was gutted to miss the women’s game on Thursday even though they got beat. Can’t recommend getting to a game enough.
RM.

Looks good, but the team names are cringe inducingly awful.

We're loving it! We went to Headingley kast Thursday and saw the Superchargers' women get hammered (was gutted Jemi Rodrigues didn't do her thing) but then thoroughly enjoyed the drubbing the fellas handed back out to Manchester. We tried to get tickets for Tuesday's game but it's sold out.

It's a good thing, especially for women's cricket (and women's sport in general) - finally they're getting to play at first class grounds in front of decent crowds, all of their games have been freely available on Youtube and if this inspires the next generation of young women to stop worrying about nonsense that just doesn't ****ing matter and be strong and powerful and fierce and awesome then that can only be A Good Thing. See also: the medals in BMX and skateboarding at the Olympics.

Limited-overs cricket is far and away my favourite format of the game.

It’s still depressing though looking at the comments sections on the BBC pages how many haters there are. They seem to think the pinnacle of domestic cricket is a 4 day draw played in April drizzle in front of 3 spectators and a dog.

It takes a certain type of person to comment on a Bbc article. Did they also moan about having to pay their licence fee because one of the many bbc mediums dared to show something that they personally didn’t like?

There is a lot to like about the Hundred. Cricket on the telly in a format that works for a wide TV audience. It's bringing new fans to cricket (as this thread shows), promoting the women's game in particular and it's great to see such a diverse mix of fans in the ground. I've watched a few games on TV though and while it's good for a bit of fun it's hard for me to care about the result. I like to see a good contest between bat and ball and not just a slog fest where you swing at everything and whether it coms off or not is largely down to luck. But then cricket for me has always been TMS burbling in the background for days on end.

The games are fine, I just don't see why we need it in addition to T20.

I think the answer is because the 100 allows you to have the men's and women's competitions alongside each other. So you then argue that have a women's T20 alongside the existing competition but there isn't the strength in depth that will support 18 women's counties vs 8 superfranchises. And the counties won't give up the T20 so we end up with both.

It's a fresh-ish start, isn't it? T20 is too mixed up in the county game and is much less accessable (I have no idea how to watch it on telly- is it even on the telly?)

I thought originally that they should've just rebooted T20 rather than make a whole new thing, but they had to start from scratch in order to start with teams that were (on paper anyway) equal to each other, there must be players playing together on the same Hundred team that are contracted to different county teams that would ordinarily play against each other. See also the spending cap that's meant to keep teams reasonably similar in level so no one team can dominate for too long.

It’s a subtle change but even as a seasoned cricket fan I think they have really hit on a way to make it as exciting and accessible as possible. I’m a fan.

I think the answer is because the 100 allows you to have the men’s and women’s competitions alongside each other. So you then argue that have a women’s T20 alongside the existing competition but there isn’t the strength in depth that will support 18 women’s counties vs 8 superfranchises. And the counties won’t give up the T20 so we end up with both.

None of that is intrinsic to the format though, is it? Given that I've watched T20 international men's and women's games on the same day, and that T20 franchises are the norm everywhere but England it seems. Whilst not quite zero sum, the introduction of a fourth format has come with a penalty - the further devaluation of the county game and a new devaluation of the 50-over game.

and that T20 franchises are the norm everywhere but England it seems.

This is the thing though, isn't it? The ECB (I'm assuming) chased the Sky £££ and subsequently domestic T20 cricket's been locked behind a paywall for the last however many years. I reckon the only way around the existing county-based broadcasting rights contract was to start a new non-county tournament with a [i]slightly[/i] different format to T20.

You can see the progression in the women's game already, the domestic players are looking sharper and more confident as a result of being able/allowed to play more games at proper grounds in front of more people (live and on the TV/Youtube). This is A Good Thing. Hopefully it'll lead to more England Women's games being played up here at Durham or Leeds too. We'd go and watch them play but they're always relegated to playing at smaller grounds down south (on used pitches, FFS)

This is the thing though, isn’t it? The ECB (I’m assuming) chased the Sky £££ and subsequently domestic T20 cricket’s been locked behind a paywall for the last however many years. I reckon the only way around the existing county-based broadcasting rights contract was to start a new non-county tournament with a slightly different format to T20.

It's farcical, isn't it?! The obvious answer was franchised T20 for men and women, which would achieve what we're now getting from the Hundred, without overloading the season. As I said before, I haven't seen any benefits intrinsic to "T16.4" as a format.

You can see the progression in the women’s game already, the domestic players are looking sharper and more confident as a result of being able/allowed to play more games at proper grounds in front of more people (live and on the TV/Youtube). This is A Good Thing.

It's a good thing for the women's (in particular) and men's games in the shortest formats

For me, we've yet to see what the damage will be to the county and 50 over domestic games, and repercussions if any for England.

I quite like it but all the junk-food sponsorship is pretty inappropriate IMO, and it took me a while to work out what was actually going on with the graphics.

The hatred against it mainly seems to come from people who claim they love county 4 day matches but don't actually ever go and watch them, judging by the 'crowds' they get in most of the time.

I've been to a couple of games and watched a few on TV. I've also been to a test, a One Day international and 2 days of County Championship this year.

I really like it for what it is. It's fast paced, it works well on TV and live it's brilliant fun. I think the way the women's games have become part of the spectacle is awesome too. I've enjoyed it, and more to the point, so has my wife who doesn't like cricket.

I do think the same could have been achieved with a revised T20 format, but from what I understand, this was tried but the Counties wouldn't play ball, forcing the ECB's hand.

Personally, I love the contrast between the types of cricket. Test will always be my number 1, but the 2 days I had sat in an almost empty Edgbaston for a County Champ game were also wonderful. The Hundred is a great contrast, the form lacks some of the nuances of the longer formats but that's nature of the shorter forms on the game.

I'll be back buying tickets for next year.

I’ve got really into it. I love following the test matches on TMS, but I’ve never got into the shorter formats. The Hundred feels like the extreme end of reduced overs cricket makes a bit more sense, and I like the idea of live music between games too. Big thumbs up, especially for bringing women’s sport more into the spotlight.

County cricket and the middle ground formats never quite got my interest though.

It’s a good thing for the women’s (in particular) and men’s games in the shortest formats

Hmm. I disagree that it's only going to benefit the shorter formats, surely any introduction to any sport, in whatever format, is good? Just because it's different to what people are used to doesn't necessariy make it wrong. Stuff's allowed to change and move with the times. Who knows, it might fetch out some real talent that can be selected for England, look at the 'emergency' ODI team that was selected to play against ****stan, it fetched out some really good players that were being overlooked in favour of the usual (out of form) suspects.

Also, yeah, we'll be buying season tickets for Headingley next year 😎

Hmm. I disagree that it’s only going to benefit the shorter formats, surely any introduction to any sport, in whatever format, is good?

Why is it automatically good? I mean, it might be, overall, but it's inarguably the case that other formats have been downgraded in order to make room for it.

I don't think it other formats have been downgraded, look at all the players who were in the Hundred that are now in the test side, thereby downgrading their respective Hundred sides in favour of test cricket 😉

Quick reminder that both games today are live on regular telly - BBC2 from 14.45.
RM.

It's OK for what it is.

I don’t think it other formats have been downgraded,

They absolutely have. The county championship has been shunted to the margins of the season, and the One-day cup is now officially a "development competition".

Went to Old Trafford with the family, the girls loved it. 10/10 will cricket again.

Well its working on me. I've never previously been bothered about cricket, but I watched about 6 games in full now, especially as it's free-to-air.
In fact I'd go as far as saying I might go to a game next year, so they must be doing something right.
Great to see more equal footing for the womens game too.

A bit of an under-par score set for me, great bowling to stem the tide.
I like how the Beeb show the live music, not sure why Sky don’t?
RM.

I love watching cricket (rubbish at playing it). Ideally the ECB would have had an eight team franchise T20 and drop the Blast (the counties T20 comp). But that was never going to work. An 18 team T20 comp doesn't really work, where an 8 team league does. As such, while The Hundred is an artificial number of balls - (and after all T20 is not) it does work. And is fun and has crowds and has a good standard cricket.

The big issue of developing red ball cricketers is almost unrelated. To develop them we need a smaller number of higher quality County's playing each other. The current 18 County system does not work, good players in weak teams are under no pressure. But as the ECB is effectively run the 18 County's then there will be no change.

The current structure also requires the ECB to sell the broadcast rights to the highest bidder and thrash the top players. For most counties they can only survive with the handouts from the ECB generated by the TV rights.

But I'm enjoying The Hundred

Liam Livingston's batting was ridiculous earlier!

Was mental wasn't it, the catch in the crowd was great too.