Today we have a protest poem by Mojo Wellington. You can read it below but I strongly recommend listening to the audio version here instead. He articulates what many of us feel about The Hundred superbly.
I Oppose The Hundred
For the simple fact
Professional cricket doesn’t need another shortened format
With T20 and one-day already in existence
Who decreed to proceed down the path of most resistance
There are ways to innovate and modernise the sport
Without the trashing of the existing band of travelling support
I Oppose The Hundred
The assault on the county game
The ECB ignoring fans, whatever they may claim
England won the men’s World Cup by the skin of their teeth
Failure to build on that success truly does defy belief
50 over cricket domestically downgraded
The World Cup barely lifted while the counties are grifted and raided
I Oppose The Hundred
And the scrapping of the Super League
Where’s the planning for the future in this mindless, thoughtless blitzkrieg
Why is women’s cricket being shoved into a corner
With all the tact and diplomacy of a sledge from David Warner
I Oppose The Hundred
And the patronising claim
Women and children cannot understand a complicated game
Cricket is convoluted, idiosyncratic in charm
The way to learn the game is by watching
Tell me what is the harm of making the sport more attractive, with tickets reasonably priced
Without a new competition where cricket is sliced and diced
I Oppose The Hundred
And its tinkering of cricket laws
The MCC abetting change it traditionally abhors
I Oppose The Hundred
Feel as sick as a pig
Seeing old players becoming lackeys in exchange for another gig
Hankering for the commentary box or a coaching role in one of the sides
All the while embracing a scheme that so openly derides
Existing fans faithful to their team
For the sake of a new competition replete with garish colour scheme
I Oppose The Hundred
Each team with a stupid name and draft pick rules designed by fools that complicate the game
I Oppose The Hundred
For I can count to six
A five or ten ball strategy play is not a simple fix
I Oppose The Hundred
The money thrown in the air
After Allen Stanford you’d think they’d take more care
The helicopter may have gone
But dear prudence is still playing second fiddle
To a political play, where the pawns in the game
Are the players out in the middle
Cricket was taken off free to air for the big money from Sky
But as grassroots have dwindled the ECB won’t eat humble pie
Instead they look at the franchised IPL and Big Bash
Heads have turned, 20 balls burned
By the allure of televisual cash
I Oppose The Hundred
A shameless rotten beast
Despised across the land from the south-west to the north-east
I Oppose The Hundred
For I truly fear the end of the county system is drawing ever near
I Oppose The Hundred
And the vast expense
How will The Hundred help a 50 over World Cup defence
I Oppose The Hundred
And am deeply cynical
Administrators truly believe Test cricket is the pinnacle
I Oppose The Hundred
And all it represents
The ECB still ploughing on despite all common sense
I Oppose The Hundred
Most of all because
The ECB and the powers that be don’t care about the likes of us
Mojo Wellington
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Who is going to buy a Hundred kit? I want the one based on a packet of Skips.
I’d be putting any Hundred gear in a skip :-)
Horrible aren’t they.
Very heartfelt the above may be but as they say, ‘the proof of the pudding is in the eating’
If the Hundred takes off with the public it will be justified per se. It then boils down to what is going to be sacrificed to make room for the tournament in an already overcrowded schedule. No one knows.
There is evidence to suggest, with the interviewing of Gary Kirsten that the ECB is taking the future of test cricket seriously. With Giles and Strauss both making noises to that effect there is room for limited optimism.
Using the phrase ‘common sense’ is ludicrous as there’s not yet evidence to the contrary, as the tournament has yet to be played. It is the refuge of those who see their opinion as fact.
If we hadn’t won the World Cup would any nostalgic reference be made to another white ball tournament.
How’s the Hundred a shameless beast, has it suddenly developed human characteristics?
Tinkering with crickets laws has been a constant throughout its history. The county championship as we know it hasn’t been around more than a few decades. Hardly a tradition written in stone.
Agree about following the money, but that’s hardly a novelty is this acquisitive age.
Agree also about ECB egos wishing to put their stamp on the game, but that’s just standard business practice of the new broom sweeps clean variety. Wholly contemptible but again, hardly a novelty.
Like so may emotional outbursts, however understandable, it’s just pissing in the wind.
We live in an Intolerant age which fears change and seeks to ban things at the drop of a hat. We all want to find simple solutions to complicated problems, hence the popularity of the Trumps and Johnsons of this world, so all we have to do is get rid of the Hundred and things will work themselves out. Don’t think so!
A sad but probably true assessment Marc.
To be frank James there seems to be little interest in the 100 on here with hardly any posts. As the gentleman says above you can’t really pass final judgement until it’s actually played. It seems obvious that proper cricket watches have said their bit, they don’t like it. Might be better to just forget for now.
I can’t really ignore The Hundred because it’s currently the big issue in domestic cricket. I might write something about the new uniforms but I’m undecided.
The number of comments don’t always indicate traffic / interest by the way. We’ve had much better traffic than expected since The Ashes and yet relatively few comments. Sometimes it works the other way around too i.e. an article gets lots of comments yet relatively few reads. It often depends how much there is to argue about!
Ok fair enough.
Now I see the Sponsor is a junk food company. Well it is KP but he’s not in it. You couldn’t make this up. ECB decline to comment by the way!
The Hundred publicity machine is going in to overdrive. Yesterday there was coverage on various TV channels and most annoyingly I had communication from Worcester CCC via Facebook and email. The one on Facebook referred to ‘your Birmingham Phoenix’, which as, anyone with a modicum of knowledge about local rivalries will know, is like a red rag to a bull to Pears. All the responses on Facebook were negative.
Then, shortly before retiring to bed.I had a testy conversation with my wife about the Hundred and she had got hold of the wrong end of several sticks. I explained the facts as calmly as possible, after which she said she could understand why I was so upset by the disruption to the game I love.
Yesterday’s whamfest of an introduction to the ‘new’ signings was as tacky as I’d expected and, I understand, gave the impression to some that teams would be mixed sex. But I think we can be fairly sure of seeing crisp packets being blown across grounds, pursued by players in outfits based on said crisp packets. What a jolly jape it will be. Needless to say, all the initial signings are wildly enthusiastic, as one would expect.
As for me and hundreds of thousands of supporters of real cricket, voting will be done with my feet.
(Good poem, by the way).
Professional sport is totally dependant on public interest, without it there’s no point. Clearly the present structure of the county championship doesn’t do this and hasn’t for many years, so alternatives have to be found in order to keep the games profile high enough to attract future generations. It’s not about personal likes of dislikes or even standards, it’s about popularity. We live in a dumbed down world of formulaic entertainment and the public is responsible for this. Don’t blame the marketing men, they’re just the monkeys, we are the organ grinders driving it all.
The costs of the 16.66 are what probably did for Flower in the end so I guess it’s not all bad.
Quite a number of players who’ve been announced as playing in the new tournament seem to have international commitments when it’s on. Are they playing a handful of games then trotting off – or are the international matches going to become second XI series (with accompanying price deductions I’m sure, ha ha).