So You Enjoyed The Hundred. But Did You Miss the Point?

The book has been written, apparently. The Hundred, a bit like Welsh Fire themselves, took on ‘the haters’ and secured a comprehensive victory against all the odds. Stakeholders like Michael Vaughan and Kevin Pietersen, plus the entire Sky and BBC commentary teams have declared, in George W. Bush fashion, that the mission was accomplished. The ECB’s new tournament was a runaway success, they claim, and therefore they were right all along.

As for those haters – the dinosaurs and luddites who are so impervious to change that they’ll only ever accept an antiquated county system – well, they’ve been left with copious quantities of egg on their face. It doesn’t matter that shrewder judges like Mike Atherton have pointed out that the Hundred can only be judged in five years time when its full impact on the domestic game and our Test and ODI sides can be analysed.

So let’s all just slow down and take a breath. Let’s also correct a few fallacies about opponents of The Hundred and why they opposed it. After all, most of us have wanted some kind of reform for years. We just didn’t think The Hundred was the best kind of change for several sincere and well-intentioned reasons.

The presence of some younger faces in the crowds wasn’t a dagger to the critics’ hearts. It was a joy. We’ve been droning on about getting cricket back on terrestrial television for 15 years. This is precisely the reason why. You reach a new audience by showing the game to a broader proportion of the population. That’s what free to air was made for. In that respect, perhaps the ECB’s longstanding critics should feel vindicated today.

We’re also pleased that approximately 500,000 people, many of whom were apparently new to cricket, attended the games. It’s also good news that a peak audience of 2.4 million watched the Hundred final. Most of us never doubted that cricket could appeal to a wider audience. After all, if we bloody love the game then why can’t others? Our concern was always the collateral damage that The Hundred will inevitably cause.

Although many say that The Hundred can’t possibly have damaged the England Test team because it’s been in decline for years, they’re ignoring the fact that the Hundred is just the latest (and highest profile) manifestation of the ECB white ball bias. Everything has led to this moment. The Hundred is now here to stay – an immovable object slap bang in the middle of the calendar at the height of summer – and it’s hard to see how the championship can be accommodated in an already jampacked calendar moving forward.

Some say they should run first class cricket concurrently with The Hundred but this is surely a non-starter. Players find it extremely difficult to switch formats and back again in short periods of time. Therefore, it’s impossible to see anything other than a championship programme shorn of its best players. The quality would therefore be diminished and it would serve as no preparation for Test cricket. The RLODC ran alongside The Hundred this year, remember, and that was seriously devalued.

So is this price worth paying? Now it’s time to delve down into the statistics. After all, I’m not so sure that the ECB’s figures are the triumph that many claim. Whilst a total attendance of 500,000 seems like a big number, don’t forget that nearly one million people attended T20 Blast games in 2019. If the intention is to grow the game, then it’s clearly better to have seven figures attending 18 different venues across the land than half that figure attending just 7 urban centres? Some claim that Hundred spectators were ‘additional’ cricket viewers. But I’m not convinced. People don’t always have limited funds, or time, to attend multiple games. Some cannibalisation is surely inevitable?

What’s more, that 2.4 million TV figure was actually a tad underwhelming when put into context. The T20 against Pakistan was watched by 2.7 million. And when the BBC Tokyo Olympics highlights show only attracted 2.7 million one day (viewership was half that achieved in Rio) it was considered a massive concern.

But let’s, for the sake of this discussion, stick to the cricket. A massive 8.3 million watched the ODI World Cup final on Sky and C4 combined two years ago. Indeed, 4.5 million watched on C4 alone, even though this was arranged at the very last minute. Meanwhile, over 8 million watched the Ashes in 2005. The 2.4 million for The Hundred final therefore doesn’t look so impressive.

Some might argue that this isn’t a fair comparison because those other games were internationals whereas The Hundred final was a domestic fixture. However, I think the unprecedented marketing budget levels the playing field here. What’s more, The Hundred was advertised by Gary Lineker during the Euro Final between England and Italy at half-time. That’s a huge advantage – an advert to over 20 million sports fans for free.

Nevertheless, I tried to find a domestic comparison – which is obviously hard because there has been no domestic cricket on FTA television since, what, the late 1990s? What I unearthed isn’t perfect, because it was Sky’s audience for Blast finals day in 2015. This was a worrying low that the ECB used to try and justify their franchise project. Circa 388k (overall audience) watched that occasion on Sky. I read that the Hundred final was watched by approximately 350k on Sky. They can’t be pleased with that, surely? Sky’s audiences for Test matches in the past have been significantly higher.

So do these figures represent success? I’m unsure. Whilst the boost to the women’s game was indisputably welcome (and an unqualified success for them) I imagine that behind closed door’s the ECB will have mixed feelings about the success of the men’s event. They’ll be relieved that the event wasn’t a disaster, which at least enables them to pretend it was a triumph, but I imagine they were hoping for more.

What’s indisputable, however, is that these figures would’ve been so much better had the ECB adopted a less controversial plan for returning the game to terrestrial television. Millions more would’ve tuned in had the Hundred not received such a poor press (by those who didn’t have vested interest in the competition’s success, of course). It would also have been better supported by existing fans if didn’t damage first class cricket and by extension the England test team. This has been my main beef all along, although I’m also, especially as a Worcestershire supporter, worried about the long-term consequences for smaller counties. This is a concern to hundreds of thousands.

Whether the Hundred was ‘a success’ or not therefore shouldn’t be the main focus. The main point everyone seems to be missing (while they argue over the figures) is that the ECB’s aim to grow the game and reach a new audience could have been achieved in numerous ways. But the ECB chose possibly the most destructive way possible – a way that actually hamstrung, or limited, the impact of cricket’s long awaited return to free-to-air television. It’s the collateral damage that’s the problem. Had they chosen a route that was collateral damage free (or at least minimised) then a better outcome, or an even better outcome depending on one’s perspective, was surely guaranteed?

Had the ECB actually considered the impact of their new vision on Joe Root’s team (who are currently staring down the barrel of four series defeats in a row with the worst batting line up in living memory) then so many more people would’ve been onboard. Hell, even I would’ve been onboard and used this very blog to help spread the word if the ECB adopted a sensible and sensitive plan to bring cricket back to the masses – something I’ve always wanted, of course.

As a marketing man by trade, I know the power of word of mouth. Imagine how successful The Hundred would’ve been if all (or even most) county cricket supporters were behind it. “Check out this new competition” we would’ve said. Instead, what we’ve got is a game divided like never before. And we’ve had huge swathes of supporters actively slagging off and boycotting the event. It was a totally unnecessary own goal.

I will never understand why the ECB shoehorned something through that even the counties were extremely sceptical about, although they eventually realised (those that weren’t coerced) that it was a dangerous game to anger Colin Graves. Remember when he threatened to exclude Surrey when they raised concerns? The whole scheme seemed devious and authoritarian. And it’s alienated thousands of cricket supporters along the way.

The Hundred really should’ve been cricket’s big moment. We can all argue about how big this moment actually proved to be. But what’s indisputable, surely even to the competition’s most ardent advocates, is that it should have been bigger. They could’ve got closer to the World Cup final’s 8.3m rather than a quarter of it. But the ECB, in typical fashion, bungled it.

Now we have to wait and see how badly they’ve bungled it or whether the inherent brilliance of cricket, and the benefits of finally getting the sport back on television (albeit a decade too late), can mask their failings.

James Morgan

10 comments

  • It sums up the stance of the ECB that the final of the previously most prestigious one-day competition, the Royal London Cup, this year was played on a Thursday, with virtually no big name players on show – I think there were perhaps 3 with test caps, and none of these recenly.

  • You quote the massive audience for the Ashes in 2005, when Netflix wasn’t really around and streaming wasn’t widespread. A comparison, but not a great one. Also, The Hundred (domestic cricket) versus The ODI World Cup Final? This feels like apples vs oranges. And while the T20 Blast from Edgbaston feels like a TV comparison, the rest simply does not.

    Otherwise, a well-written and thoughtful piece!

    • Simply can’t agree. The Hundred had an enormous advertising campaign behind it. The World Cup on C4 was organised just a few days in advance without bombarding social and traditional media. Even the Pakistan T20 got more, with zero fanfare. The point is that all those cricket fans who watched the World Cup switched off. Imagine if they were actually behind the project?! Wasted opportunity.

  • I’m not worried if there’s still space for the CC in midsummer (there isn’t – that’s old news), I’m worried if there’s still space for Tests. Where do you think they want the Archers, the Buttlers, the Stokeses, to be playing? In Tests? Really?

    Are there are any figures for BBC viewing except the first game and Final? If not, why not? If figures for watching cricket can be presented in such a duplicitous manner – with lack of proper context, dubious methodologies and misleading impressions – might not the same be true of statistics about things that make even more money? Especially when presented by epople with books like ‘How to Lie with Statistics’ in open view on their desks?

    Well, anyway, the 16.66 was a roaring success in its true goal:
    https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/aug/23/senior-ecb-executives-to-share-21m-bonus-despite-covid-job-cuts

    Denying it was a success is like saying the US ‘failed’ in Afghanistan. It depends what you believe the objectives were. The apparent goals are not always the true ones, for that one needs to look deeper and draw your own conclusions.

  • I imagine the free ticket give-aways helped swell the attendance numbers. Were the tickets cheaper than T20 Blast ones? So many aspects of this could skew the numbers. As the Government has been demonstrating for 18 months, you can pick whatever numbers suit the narrative anyway!

  • Who would I have supported had I wanted to watch the 100?
    I am a Lancastrian not a Mancunian.
    Lancashire’s best one day batsman was playing for Birmingham Something or other.
    Were I not a life member of the Club I have supported for many years I would certainly not be renewing my membership next year.
    All the Counties will suffer-not just the smaller ones

  • The Hundred is essentially a selfish tournament. To suggest any of the organisers give a damm about the county structure which is being turned on its head to provide room for the interloper, is a non starter. As I have said before, if the T20 blast had received the same kind of publicity and support would viewing figures have been any disfferent. Haters of this gimmick are not red ball dinosaurs, we know white ball cricket is critical to public support of the game in general, we’re not stupid. However the desire of the ECB hotshots to put their selfish mark on the game without considering the disruption to the existing program and the effect this will continue to have on standards, evident particularly in the test arena, the zenith of the game, is not being challenged in the media generally. Obviously Sky and the BBC have a vested interest.

  • Two interesting perspectives and of course statistics can be framed to support any particular argument. I’m an ancient cricket fan but was thoroughly absorbed. What was also fascinating is that I became an ultra modernist- following a star rather than a team. As a supporter of Lancashire – and not one of those who gags and wretches at the very mention of Manchester – it was Livingstone for me all the way. I only hope he is grabbed by the Mancs next time around.

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