The Hundred

[garryowensneck]

Think the idea is just to get kids interested in cricket hence it being on during the summer holidays.

So, why not use the well attended and popular T20 format for that?

I don't disagree but cricket like all sports is trying to make money, a county game this time of year gets around 500 watching the 100  will get 10k, simple maths.

[Cheshire East Baggie]

The bringing in of the boundary ropes by upto 5/10 yards tells you all that you need to know ... a slogfest where even a mishit is a boundary. It's not a contest between bat and ball in any way.

I was opposed to the Hundred and it has screwed up the domestic game. You could easily draw parallels between that and the sharp decline in England's white ball achievements on the world stage.

Having said that, it's quite a spectacle. It will change (and probably not for the better) when the world's big franchises get hold of all of the teams. Just another step towards the ECB completely losing its grip on British cricket.

I don't think the bat always dominates the ball. Of four matches played so far, only one has seen high scores, two of the other three were below 100. Interesting to see that seam bowling is key, bowlers who can bowl "magic balls", rather than spinners who maybe need a whole over to trick the batter out. Different from T20 despite the similarity in format.

Jimmy Anderson got a bit of hammer yesterday. One season too far for the old fellow?

[Ted Maul]

The Hundred isn't it, just this week the ECB have had to come out and admit that there is no evidence it has seen an uptick in new people watching cricket. The huge positive from the Hundred is the impact it's had on the women's game, which cannot be understated.

With all the discussion currently ongoing about playing conditions for the coming year and the counties voting on what FC, OD and T20 cricket should look like in the future it feels like a good time to have a review of what the Hundred is and where it goes. For me the county game in this country would be helped by one of, or all of the following:

- The Hundred is remodelled to fit the county model, teams are given the same branding budget and we create a competition to rival the other T20 leagues around the world, rather than the half-arsed Blast that we have now. I'd be against removing the Blast and just having a standalone franchise T20 competition, as this is the money spinner for the counties who don't have test grounds.

- Play more FC games in August, on the best pitches FFS.

- Actually reward players for their FC performances and create a pathway into the England setup. Jacob Bethell I'm sure will be good in time, but he's faced about 250 balls and bowled a further 200 this summer. There is absolutely no way he should be anywhere near a test team, not least one that is going toe-to-toe with India in the fifth test of a long series with the series on the line. Show players there is a pathway and that it isn't a closed shop and you'll improve the quality of the competition.

- To address the balance between the counties with test grounds and those without, bring the Lions and proper tour warm up games back to the grounds like New Road etc. Give the fans there access to elite players and watch how the ground is full for 2-3 days.

The ECB are frustrated and are hearing that the game is dying, the CC isn't well attended etc. There isn't a four-day competition in the world that is well attended, they don't need to be. The money spinner is the short-format cricket. The problem the ECB have now created themselves is that the Blast, which should be the counties main source of summer income has been sidelined by a competition that no one cares about or has any allegiance to. In the three years they've been playing it, I have not been able to think of one good reason why they couldn't have done everything they've done with the Hundred with the Blast to make it more appealing.

[Loanee]

It’s also just a clique of cricketers (mates) that always seem to get chosen in these teams no matter how they perform.

There are so many good players proving themselves in t20 & the county game that don’t get a look in