Counties are considering the possibility of playing short-form cricket under the names of their local football and rugby clubs as they prepare to vote on the future of the Hundred.
As revealed by The Times, the controversial 100-ball tournament could be entirely scrapped and replaced with a county-based competition, played in a football league-style pyramid, as ECB officials grapple with the long-term future of the Hundred and the increasing pressure on budgets.
The ECB will present county chiefs with a number of options for the direction of the men’s competition next month, which include: keeping the Hundred as it is with the eight existing teams; increasing it to a ten-team tournament to include a team based around Taunton/Bristol and a team based in Durham; or getting rid of the eight existing teams and replacing them with county-based teams in a larger competition to be played in a league system, with promotion and relegation.
The proposals will also include ideas about garnering private investment into either the existing Hundred by selling equity in the teams, or a new model whereby the 18 first-class counties — or all 39 first-class and National (formerly minor) counties — can bring in their own private investment.
There have already been discussions between some counties and their local football or rugby club that could lead to counties playing under different names in an attempt to harness other local sports fans. For example, Sussex could play as Brighton & Hove Albion or Durham as Newcastle United.
One area up for discussion will be whether it is sensible to continue having two short-form competitions: the T20 Blast and the Hundred. Some counties have noticed a negative knock-on impact on their Blast ticket sales because it has been squeezed into a shorter time period, meaning more games being played on the traditionally difficult to sell evenings of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
English cricket is facing financial pressures and these will be substantially increased when the ECB announces an equality and diversity action plan next week in response to the recommendations made by the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket this year.
The action plan will contain a number of areas of work to improve equality in the sport but they come with a
price tag of more than £5 million a year, which, combined with the costs of giving women cricketers the
same level of match fees as the men and the pressure to increase the value of central contracts to combat the threat from franchise leagues, means the ECB is under significant financial pressure.
www.thetimes.co.uk
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