The Hundred: cricket’s saviour or a load of marketing crap?

[littlebabyjesus]

Changing from overs is the biggest change and the biggest mistake, I think. A player was interviewed after the women's match and admitted she still thought in terms of 'keeping it to under 12s' as in per over.

Given that the rest of their cricket lives will continue to consist of 6-ball overs, it's just stupid to try to change people's thinking on that. What do you gain? It actually comes across as rude tbh to expect people to recalibrate all their thinking just for this one competition.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Hopefully the whole nonsense won't catch on and will be over set of 5 soon

Thing is, the whole thing has been worked out backwards from the idea that 'The Hundred' is a good name for it.

100 doesn't divide by 6.

That's it. All the rules have been worked out from that. And it really, really shows.

 

[Petcha]

I just figured out that those awful arrows on each side of the screen are actually draining down towards the target of each side like that gameshow on afternoon tv. I'm very slow.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

They spent 50 million quid devising all that shit.

It's too big to fail. That's the problem.

 

[Mumbles274]

Agree

 

[planetgeli]

All this format has done is remove the use of the word over

Brilliant.

 

[Mumbles274]

One of the most annoying things for me is that we had 3 fantastic formats of the game that worked and could have been promoted and we have this.. And the cricket so far has been good, this is a great ending to a match, but the run chase doesn't make sense in my head for most of it because they don't use overs. Only in the last 6-12 balls does it make sense in balls

 

[littlebabyjesus]

One of the most annoying things for me is that we had 3 fantastic formats of the game that worked and could have been promoted and we have this.. And the cricket so far has been good, this is a great ending to a match, but the run chase doesn't make sense in my head for most of it because they don't use overs. Only in the last 6-12 balls does it make sense in balls

Exactly. We're all conditioned to think like that. The fact that we're thus conditioned is a good thing. It helps us to understand what's going on. When I was watching the other day, I was dividing the number of balls left by 6 to get an idea how things stood.

In terms of attracting new people, if people don't like t20, then they just don't like cricket. They don't like watching people chucking a ball for other people to try to wellie it with a bat. That's fine. It's not cricket's problem that some people aren't bat and ball sports fans.

 

[planetgeli]

Thing is, with this shortened format, you will get 'closer' and by definition more (as in more of them) exciting games. There is less time for one team to run away with it. I've noticed these first games going down to the last 3 or 4 balls. Sounds close. But they weren't really.

Down to the last 3 or 4 balls over 50 overs? Can be exciting.

Down to the last few overs/half a session of a 5 day Test? That's more than exciting. It's, literally, a different ball game to this.

 

[Mumbles274]

What makes cricket exciting? :

T20 needs to be last ball
ODI last over
Test last 5 days

 

[planetgeli]

FWIW I also think this might prove to be unbalanced, giving an advantage to the side batting second. Not wholly, because everyone can bowl badly or bat brilliantly first time around, but a smaller target, which there generally will be because mathematics, is easier to chase down.

 

[RileyOBlimey]

Brilliant.

If mumbles reads the thread he’d know that The Hundred is much more than T20 without overs.

 

[planetgeli]

If mumbles reads the thread he’d know that The Hundred is much more than T20 without overs.

But it isn't.

You are well overplaying the appeal to the working class/people of colour/women angle. The only thing this has going for it is terrestrial TV coverage - which is being done appallingly. There is no community base, this is franchise land. And people feel disenfranchised already. The London team is supposed to cover Northamptonshire. There is one Northamptonshire player in the whole squad. And he's not playing tonight. 'Welsh Fire'. Think about that name. Then note there is only one player born in Wales in their whole squad. Though I'm sure all those in Swansea will be devastated by the loss of captain Jonny Bairstow to England duty.

Though not as devastated as most England fans.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Anyone who thinks just standard T20 doesn't potentially have a wide appeal is someone who's never been to a T20 game.

Free to air tv coverage is the key aspect here, and it may well allow the ECB to declare the Hundred a success. But it will have done as well as it does despite the ridiculous format not because of it.

This is the ECB thinking it can create something as money-spinning as the IPL. It can't and won't ever be anything like the IPL. But it's about money. It's not about the fans.

 

[Mumbles274]

If mumbles reads the thread he’d know that The Hundred is much more than T20 without overs.

If you read my first post on this thread you will see my opening position was one of how this new format should be more accessible and my comment was about how the commentary is too dense for "non-cricket" people to make it that possible. But the format itself, is normal cricket without overs

 

[Mumbles274]

If mumbles reads the thread he’d know that The Hundred is much more than T20 without overs.

BTW I just watched the women's match. What did you think of it?

 

[littlebabyjesus]

If you read my first post on this thread you will see my opening position was one of how this new format should be more accessible and my comment was about how the commentary is too dense for "non-cricket" people to make it that possible. But the format itself, is normal cricket without overs

Which is a shit idea.

Overs are a good idea. That's why the idea has endured.

I'm with Dobell on cricinfo. This thing will probably stay because it's too big to be allowed to be seen to fail, but it will become a t20 comp because the feedback will be that the format is shit.

But it will have done its job of wrecking county cricket.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Prediction: Captains are going to give up on this '10-ball set' idea. It's not a great idea to give batsmen a look at the same bowler for that long. That's why in t20, bowlers often only bowl one-over spells.

 

[Mumbles274]

Which is a shit idea.

Overs are a good idea. That's why the idea has endured.

I'm with Dobell on cricinfo. This thing will probably stay because it's too big to be allowed to be seen to fail, but it will become a t20 comp because the feedback will be that the format is shit.

But it will have done its job of wrecking county cricket.

I hope your wrong, about it wrecking County cricket but I'd like to think a franchise T20 got up and running in this country. I like the franchise format, I also like all the counrty 20/20 competitions, the tests, odis, blasts, big bashes etc etc...

What we don't need is a game that changes just by dropping the word Over

Eta I also love the way the women's and men's matches are back to back

 

[Petcha]

If you read my first post on this thread you will see my opening position was one of how this new format should be more accessible and my comment was about how the commentary is too dense for "non-cricket" people to make it that possible. But the format itself, is normal cricket without overs

It does have overs. They're just 10 balls long with the option of halving them to five. Which obviously simplifies the game massively.

 

[Mumbles274]

It does have overs. They're just 10 balls long with the option of halving them to five. Which obviously simplifies the game massively.

They are clearly not referring to bowling 5 or 10 balls as 'overs'. I've heard the word 'set' used multiple times in commentary and at no point do they refer to any part of an innings as a subsection of 100balls

Eta maybe if they did it would make more snese

20 sets to play with here in this game, can be bowled in sets of 5 or 10...

Ooo.there is one more change, you can bowl 2 overs sets back to back

 

[littlebabyjesus]

I hope your wrong, about it wrecking County cricket but I'd like to think a franchise T20 got up and running in this country. I like the franchise format, I also like all the counrty 20/20 competitions, the tests, odis, blasts, big bashes etc etc...

What we don't need is a game that changes just by dropping the word Over

Eta I also love the way the women's and men's matches are back to back

Back to back women's and men's matches is a great idea. First done in the Aussie Big Bash, of course.

I swore not to go on about this, but the 50-over county competition is also going on at the moment - I'm going to a match next week. The players in it are the Hundred rejects - oldsters, youngsters and red-ball specialists.

What that means is that, if this idea continues, the best English white ball cricketers will never play competitive 50-over matches other than odis. Do they want England to go another 50 years without winning the World Cup?

 

[Petcha]

They are clearly not referring to bowling 5 or 10 balls as 'overs'. I've heard the word 'set' used multiple times in commentary and at no point do they refer to any part of an innings as a subsection of 100balls

semantics

 

[Mumbles274]

semantics

That didn't need changing in the laws of a game

 

[Mumbles274]

semantics

There would literally be 20 overs in a 5 ball over game of a hundred balls. In a 6 ball over, there are 120 balls in a 20 over match. Spot the difference

 

[Mumbles274]

"hey, I've just been watching the hundred, is there any other cricket I can watch or hopefully play"

"er Well, yeah, about that"

 

[RileyOBlimey]

BTW I just watched the women's match. What did you think of it?

I’ve been impressed with the skill and enjoying mash up of international players in the teams. Having the womens and mens games on the same day is a win.

 

[Petcha]

Does anyone know what this shit song is the idiots in the crowd seem to be able to manage to bellow out all game long? Is it a football one?

 

[RileyOBlimey]

Does anyone know what this shit song is the idiots in the crowd seem to be able to manage to bellow out all game long? Is it a football one?

You’re a bundle of joy aren’t you?

Don't take me home
Please don't take me home
I just don't wanna go to work
I wanna stay here and drink all your beer
Please don't please don't take me home

 

[RileyOBlimey]

Another excellent game, some great fielding and crazy shots galore.