The Hundred

A new cricket format starts today and you can watch the very first match now on BBC2.

The game between Surrey Women and Lancashire Women at the Oval kicks off at 6.30pm.

The half hour hype before the game is already too much for me but to be fair it is all aimed at the youngsters.

I'm also not a great fan of women's cricket (I'm not really selling this too well am I?) but I'll stick with it to see how it goes.

It's also on iplayer if you want to catch it later.

On big plus for me - the women DIDN'T NOT take the knee!

Some sense at last!

GB Women at the Olympics today still did though!

Well I watched it but I doubt I will again, it isn't for me.

It's good for the young ones/family day out - with the fireworks, DJ's playing music and all the other glitzy stuff but I'm too old and more focussed on the cricket rather than the razzmatazz - and quite frankly that was poor.

I've nothing against women playing sport but it is just a biological fact that they simply don't have the power, size and strength of male athletes and the comparison is stark when watching women's cricket to men's (similarly in football too and probably that extends across all physical sports).

I'm happy to support my daughter in any sport she chooses to do - she's very into Boxercise at the moment (no contact boxing training) and I'd happily take her to a woman's cricket or football match, or anything else but if I wanted to watch bowling at 50mph (or 5 ft 7inch goal keepers) I could simply go to the local park and see that!

I'm not a big fan of '6 or out' type cricket and tbh I didn't like the concept of five ball overs and it didn't impress me seeing it in action.

Anyway good luck to it, I hope many people get to like it but if you're going to do something like this then why not use T20 model that works perfectly well (with a few tweaks) for the IPL and the Big Bash leagues?

I just don't see the point of the Hundred, we have T20 which is great so why bring in another format when T20 works so well? Its meant to try and attract people with no previous interest in cricket and i just can't see it happening.

It will end up being a costly mistake by the ECB i'm betting.

I'm man enough to admit when i'm wrong as the Hundred seems to be successful. I was watching the game at OT last night and there was a big crowd in and it was entertaining to be honest. Seen bits of other games and the grounds have been full for every game.

Funnily enough I watched some of that men's match yesterday on the telly and in the end I had to switch it off because it was just 6 or out stuff to me.

If you like that kind of thing - and it's aimed at the kids and it is good to see family's enjoy it - then fantastic, it just isn't for me.

Matt Parkinson's catch was brilliant though!

Sluffy wrote:Funnily enough I watched some of that men's match yesterday on the telly and in the end I had to switch it off because it was just 6 or out stuff to me.

If you like that kind of thing - and it's aimed at the kids and it is good to see family's enjoy it - then fantastic, it just isn't for me.

Matt Parkinson's catch was brilliant though!

I've gone right off cricket. Far too much of it. And as for the Manchester Originals......really? What next, the Buxton Black Sox?
They'd play in ballet tights if they thought they could make money.
Now we've got players whining that they won't play in an Ashes series in Australia unless they can take their families with them.
They complain of mental tiredness and fatigue, but, when the IPL comes around, they're off like a shot looking for the big bucks. How many of them take their families over to India?
The old boys used to travel to Australia by ocean liner. There and back. 
Give it a rest.

The Hundred with all its razzmatazz is good fun for youngsters and seems popular enough with families (even if many of the tickets are complimentary ones at the moment) but it's rammed into a calendar that's already full and takes a slot when those who have their eyes on playing Tests for England need to be honing their skills in County Cricket......which many people consider "proper" cricket.

boltonbonce wrote:I've gone right off cricket. Far too much of it. And as for the Manchester Originals......really? What next, the Buxton Black Sox?
They'd play in ballet tights if they thought they could make money.
Now we've got players whining that they won't play in an Ashes series in Australia unless they can take their families with them.
They complain of mental tiredness and fatigue, but, when the IPL comes around, they're off like a shot looking for the big bucks. How many of them take their families over to India?
The old boys used to travel to Australia by ocean liner. There and back. 
Give it a rest.

Times change mate.

People have different tastes and values to what we have these days.

I guess the pressures and scrutiny they face are also different too - take Biles in the Olympics for instance.

Today people want 'immediacy', they want it now, they live on their phones and can see and speak to people anywhere in the world instantaneously, so they want to see 'fours' and 'sixes' every over not duals between batter and bowler building up over the hours.

They follow the hype and the players follow the money.

It's not for me and you but it is for todays generation.

Time moves on.

I'm sure Norpig (and his family?) enjoyed his day at the game - 200 balls - about 34 overs in real money - 250 runs and say 14 or 15 wickets, a dozen or more 'sixes' and three or four times more 'fours' per each and every game.

Kids probably enjoy it, wife has a break for a couple of hours, McD's on the way home perhaps - that's what it is all about for them - not meant for the old codgers like thee and me.

If I was a kid I'd probably be loving it myself.

Catch them young type thing.

That's the market (and the money) they are after.

Researchers now say human beings have an attention span of 8.25 seconds.

A goldfish has an attention span of 9 seconds.

Says a lot.

I was only watching on telly last night so cost me nowt and i'm glad to be seen as young un even at nearly 50 

On a serious note though all this white ball cricket is playing havoc with our test team and it's no wonder results are slipping. The ECB have concentrated too much on white ball cricket over the last few years.

Norpig wrote:I was only watching on telly last night so cost me nowt and i'm glad to be seen as young un even at nearly 50 

On a serious note though all this white ball cricket is playing havoc with our test team and it's no wonder results are slipping. The ECB have concentrated too much on white ball cricket over the last few years.

Couldn't agree more. Time and again, Test Match cricket has shown itself to be the real jewel in the crown, and we ignore that fact at our peril.
Everyone remembers the great Test series. Limited overs games are farts in the wind. Forgotten in a day.

Cricket is absolutely bonkers.

You've got a test team made up of supposedly the best 11 players of the long form of the game, but in reality the majority of these players have played hardly any 4 or 5 day matches in the last 5 years. How many times has Jos Buttler turned out for Lancashire in the County Championship in recent seasons? Once? Twice? It's no wonder the England test team is pants.

Then, if the fancy takes them, they can just fook off to the IPL for a few weeks and return as if nothing happened.

Can you imagine the FA telling Spurs to rest Harry Kane for months on end so he can play for England in a couple of matches? Or Harry Kane telling Spurs "...I'm off to play in China for a few weeks, see you when I get back". Not a fooking chance.

The cricket authorities have pampered these players for too long. Make them choose between the IPL and English cricket. If they want to move to India, so be it. And stop resting the buggers, how the fook will they get better if they never play any county cricket?

You're right Nat, gone are the days when cricketers had to get a job in the winter to make ends meet, they can just keep moving round the various T20 competitions around the world.

The most worrying thing for me is the talk of resting and rotating players when we go to Australia for the Ashes. Just play the best team available as you know the Aussies will be licking their lips at that.

Agreed. We will get smashed by Australia with this current crop of players.

Natasha Whittam wrote:Cricket is absolutely bonkers.

You've got a test team made up of supposedly the best 11 players of the long form of the game, but in reality the majority of these players have played hardly any 4 or 5 day matches in the last 5 years. How many times has Jos Buttler turned out for Lancashire in the County Championship in recent seasons? Once? Twice? It's no wonder the England test team is pants.

Then, if the fancy takes them, they can just fook off to the IPL for a few weeks and return as if nothing happened.

Can you imagine the FA telling Spurs to rest Harry Kane for months on end so he can play for England in a couple of matches? Or Harry Kane telling Spurs "...I'm off to play in China for a few weeks, see you when I get back". Not a fooking chance.

The cricket authorities have pampered these players for too long. Make them choose between the IPL and English cricket. If they want to move to India, so be it. And stop resting the buggers, how the fook will they get better if they never play any county cricket?

They get paid stupid money to play the IPL, so it is a no brainer which they would plump for.

This is a good read from a couple of years ago -

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2018/dec/21/sam-curran-england-ipl-millionaire-cricket

English cricket simply can't compete and so it has to work around the IPL and players desire to enrich themselves even if it fooks up our national sport.

We'd simply be a nursery club for producing players to go off and play IPL (and the Big Bash and other one day '6 or out' cricket, across the globe).

It is what it is - money talks - it always has.

Sluffy wrote:They get paid stupid money to play the IPL, so it is a no brainer which they would plump for.

This is a good read from a couple of years ago -

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2018/dec/21/sam-curran-england-ipl-millionaire-cricket

English cricket simply can't compete and so it has to work around the IPL and players desire to enrich themselves even if it fooks up our national sport.

We'd simply be a nursery club for producing players to go off and play IPL (and the Big Bash and other one day '6 or out' cricket, across the globe).

It is what it is - money talks - it always has.

Yes, the IPL offers silly money, but if English cricket made them choose I'm sure most would stay in England. If you're only playing cricket 8 weeks a year in India your ability to draw sponsorship diminishes massively in the much more lucrative western market.

Plus, if you're not playing in domestic cricket how are you going to get noticed by the IPL? And even if you make it to the IPL, one shite season and you're dropped with no way of working your way back in by playing for England.

Make them choose, see how long they last.

Not so sure that players would give up the IPL money just to play for England these days? How much is a central contract worth these days? Not as much as the IPL pay i bet.

Norpig wrote:You're right Nat, gone are the days when cricketers had to get a job in the winter to make ends meet, they can just keep moving round the various T20 competitions around the world.

The most worrying thing for me is the talk of resting and rotating players when we go to Australia for the Ashes. Just play the best team available as you know the Aussies will be licking their lips at that.

Apparently, some players are reluctant to tour this winter as they will be away from home for a long time, including over Christmas and New Year.....families won't be able to fly out to be with them, of course. 

The schedule is ridiculous, prioritising money above all other considerations. When Stokes is stressed, and top, normally super-fit stars are getting muscle injuries, you know something's wrong.

Australia are also experiencing some poor recent results, having  just lost a one-day series to Bangladesh 4-1, despite fielding close-to their best eleven available. The country's highly critical response to their ball-tampering still hangs over them, fuelled anew by revelations from scapegoat Bancroft who suggests that the whole squad and management knew exactly what was going on at the time. 
They'd be ripe for a beating if only we could get our act together.

Norpig wrote:Not so sure that players would give up the IPL money just to play for England these days? How much is a central contract worth these days? Not as much as the IPL pay i bet.

Did you read my post you humongous tit?

If you have a shit season in the IPL and they don't draft you the following season how do you get back in? You can't play county cricket or for England. Your career is over.

Big risk if you're in your twenties.

Natasha Whittam wrote:

Did you read my post you humongous tit?

If you have a shit season in the IPL and they don't draft you the following season how do you get back in? You can't play county cricket or for England. Your career is over.

Big risk if you're in your twenties.

Even if players have a shit season in the IPL they would still have a county to play for back here or move on to one of the many other big bashes around the world, it may not pay as well but they would still have the chance to build up again.