atypical_boro
Well-known member
Well, that is perhaps a fair opinion but the Hundred is a creation of the counties themselves and they claim they need it to survive. I can't say they're wrong, especially after how close Durham came to going under.
The Hundred
- Thread starter Grrreds
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atypical_boro
Well-known member
Pietersen has advocated this. Not sure it will fly for a good few years yet. There's still too much affiliation with the counties from (mostly) older fans at this stage. That may continue to dissipate over time.
Do you have any stats on that? The Blast gets pretty good crowds / gate receipts compared to the 1DC and CC, but I imagine the TV deal and KP sponsorship delivers some good numbers for the Hundred, but tehre wont be much difference on gates per game between Hundred and Blast, and the blast has more games.
atypical_boro
Well-known member
The initial Sky deal meant all 18 counties (regardless of whether or not they 'host') got £1.3m every year, increasing over the life of the contract. They also had the KP sponsorship as you say that, I'm pretty sure, was to be shared out by the ECB amongst all 18 counties. The purpose of the Hundred was always to benefit all 18 counties, not just the 8 who host the matches. The T20 Blast was/is shown on Sky but pulls much lower figures and Sky have never paid much for the rights at all.
I mean maybe it is all 'greed', without looking at the books who is to say, the only point I am making is that the Hundred is not run by some external organisation who are here to wreck the place and take all the money, its literally been created by country cricket itself. People often talk about it with this rhetoric that the poor counties are being screwed over - they invented it! They devised the concept and voted heavily in favour of implementing it.
I've no interest in it personally but it's not aimed at me. Three-day county cricket has depended on cross-subsidy for years. It's only sustainable if you can raise money from other sources. It's light entertainment but so is watching Manchester United if you live in Beijing. If it gets kids playing then good luck to it.
atypical_boro
Well-known member
Good summary, I think that's basically the crux of it. If cricket really had just stayed loyal to its 'traditions' and exclusively been a multi-day sport all about patience and skill, with no big hitting batsman, close finishes and the like, there's a fair chance it would have just melted out of existence by now and not been able to compete for anyone's time in the modern world.
People who love test and red ball cricket (and I'm one of them) often struggle to empathise with that view, but I really think it is true.
asredastheycome
Well-known member
Why don't the T20s attract similar numbers. It's nothing to do with cricket as it's prot slightly better than the 100. Probably due to the razzamatazz which attracts the non cricketing adults who take their kids. Might be wrong on this but know a couple who follow the 100 who have no interest in any form of cricket.
atypical_boro
Well-known member
I’d say because 18 teams of mostly county standard players just isn’t as big a draw as 8 teams made up of England centrally contracted players and a handful of international stars in each one?
Then there’s the whole thing about the games being scheduled with men/women on the same bill etc so that young boys and girls can support the same “team” with 2 strands.
People are very binary about what a “cricket fan” actually is on this subject. The vast majority of cricket fans in this country pay attention to the Ashes, the World Cup, other England matches and barely pay any attention to domestic cricket of any kind, and certainly don’t go to any matches. These people still count as cricket fans.
In fact I often post on this board during a test series against Bangladesh or whoever and it doesn’t get anywhere near the same kind of response as during the Ashes. Plenty of “big” cricket fans but a large amount who just have a very passing interest (these are the 'Made in Chelsea' fans referred to above I guess). I bet its a small proportion of this board that have actually attended a Yorkshire or Durham match this season.
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Otto42
Well-known member
One of the things us older folk forget is that probably with the exception of Yorkshire most under 25s and urban dwellers don’t have a clue which county they are in, so there’s no recognition. This is why Warwickshire rebranded to Birmingham for T20.
I imagine Northern/Welsh are only called so rather than Leeds/Cardiff so as not to alienate the rest of their possible catchments. Perhaps Northern also get the non Mancs in the North West?!
I imagine Northern/Welsh are only called so rather than Leeds/Cardiff so as not to alienate the rest of their possible catchments. Perhaps Northern also get the non Mancs in the North West?!
BobUpnDown
Well-known member
the on screen graphics are terrible, even on a 55" screen they take up way too much room & are pointless: just the fact stats pls..
the game, meh.. it's probably better there than on TV..
the game, meh.. it's probably better there than on TV..
asredastheycome
Well-known member
They could schedule the T20 so England players could compete. And here is a way out theory if the England players played for their counties when not tied up with England or playing golf maybe Yorkshire would not have been relegated.
atypical_boro
Well-known member
Maybe, although many of them will just support Manchester I guess since its closer.
My kids don't have a clue which county they live in. Officially its Greater Manchester, in the County Borough of Stockport, the town of which is formerly in Cheshire but the part north of the Mersey (where we live) was always historically in Lancashire. How are you meant to explain that to a kid?
atypical_boro
Well-known member
They used to. They can only do that again if they bin off the Hundred, and they've clearly decided that after over a decade of the T20 Blast not being profitable enough despite having England players playing, they need to try something new.
Otto42
Well-known member
Yes and try explaining to a young scally that they are from Lancashire and you’ll probably get a pasting for suggesting their a woolly back
.I’ve given up trying to explain to my partner from Coventry that she’s from Warwickshire years ago. I just got Coventry’s not in Warwickshire it’s a unitary authority!
asredastheycome
Well-known member
The Hundred is the IPA of cricket.
asredastheycome
Well-known member
atypical_boro
Well-known member
Ha perhaps.Bad parenting
What I would say is that most of us Englishmen who weren't born within any of the traditional borders of the 3 Ridings linked to the White Rose (despite how close North Tees Hospital may be to that boundary, in my case), don't really care what 'county' we live in and who we pay our exorbitant council tax rates to. We've still got to pay them whether they have a White Rose on the letter or not
.That wouldn’t happen though, as they’d bang in more internationals. They’ve cut out the whole of August for The Hundred so England players can play, it can be on terrestrial tv and it’s on when the school holidays are on.
Next year the final home international is end of September/beginning of October. When did that ever happen? Imagine the weather. They’d just be brought forward and England internationals would be tied up.
I imagine the Blast couldn’t be restructured because of deals already tied in such as Sky’s tv deal as one of the key points to The Hundred is to be on terrestrial tv.
SmallTown
Well-known member
Its the Madri of cricket surely?
atypical_boro
Well-known member
Yeah. Eventually the Blast will just be enveloped into the Hundred. That competition will have either 100 or 120 balls.