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

editor said:
Entertaining match report here:

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Oval Invincibles continue with South London cricket circus in late Sunday night win over Trent Rockets

The Oval Crisp Invisibles beat the Trent Rockets by nine runs at another BOOZE fest at The Oval in South London on Sunday evening.
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What’s with the pearl clutching against drinking? The crowd often drinks at every cricket level and in every format. I’ve played at grassroots matches where players drink pints while fielding. Where’s this prudishness coming from?

Accusing the delay of the start of the match due to the authorities wanting to flog more beer is also bollocks. They stop serving around 8 to 8:30pm the other night. If they wanted to fully cash in on drink they’d keep serving.

The author also misjudged the target audience of the Hundred with referencing offending the middle class. The competition is city focussed to engage other people than the white middle class. If this was an old fashioned first class Surrey match would you even want it featuring on your blog?

One of the other major positives of the competition is the promotion of the womens game. It was rained off on Sunday but at least an acknowledgement of its existence would be have appropriate.
 
The groups of pissed up lads are the white middle classes aren't they. As has been pointed out before, they're essentially the same pissed up middle class lads who make up a big chunk of Surrey's existing crowd.
 
RileyOBlimey said:
What’s with the pearl clutching against drinking? The crowd often drinks at every cricket level and in every format. I’ve played at grassroots matches where players drink pints while fielding. Where’s this prudishness coming from?

Accusing the delay of the start of the match due to the authorities wanting to flog more beer is also bollocks. They stop serving around 8 to 8:30pm the other night. If they wanted to fully cash in on drink they’d keep serving.

The author also misjudged the target audience of the Hundred with referencing offending the middle class. The competition is city focussed to engage other people than the white middle class. If this was an old fashioned first class Surrey match would you even want it featuring on your blog?

One of the other major positives of the competition is the promotion of the womens game. It was rained off on Sunday but at least an acknowledgement of its existence would be have appropriate.
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I agree it's great for the women's game. The standard is really high, perhaps surprisingly so for many. You obviously aren't going to see Adam Milne bowling 95mph torpedoes or Livingstone hitting it out of the stadium but it's still fun.

As for the drinking, I agree. It's a bit prudish to complain too much about that. AFAIK you're still allowed to bring in four cans at Lords and let's face it, by lunch, it's an open air pissup with champagne corks flying down onto the field from the members and a good sing along happening in the cheap seats. And nice civilised drinking out of picnic baskets out on the nursery.

But the Hundred itself. It's just so shit as a concept. Even the commentators laugh as they correct each other saying things like 'that's the end of the over, sorry, set'. It's kind of like the ageing guy at work who is constantly changing his fashion sense to keep up with the youth. You don't see major league baseball constantly coming up with bullshit like this. They've got a great sport, they dont fuck with it, we do as well, so please, don't fuck with it either.
 
While I don't hate it I have thought they have missed a few chances to increase their aims of getting more people into it..

1) commentators. Should have got a whole new team of younger commentators to do it. Maybe people like Greg James who are huge cricket fans. Much as i love tuffers... The style doesn't fit the format

2) More use of stats to back up the commentary. It's a game played in balls yet there is no runs per balls required graphic for the chase etc. A good stats man in the commentary seat drawing on stats, eg batter out lbw 15% of times, but bowler gets lbw 7%... Make those match ups mean something. I keep thinking about how an American comms team would commentate on it and I think that style would work for this format.

3) why not make it a mixed game rather than back to back? 4 hundred ball innings, 1 each for the men and women. So a team might want to put the women in first, to save the men for 3rd or 4th innings etc

4) mic up some players and speak to them during the game

5) stump mics turned up and fully broadcasted even between balls, let's hear what's being said

6) maybe show an angle other than the behind and centre view for every ball that is bowled...

7)show more of the head cam footage

8) crowd catches cash prizes

9) all of it has to be free to view

10) have half of the women's matches after the mens
 
The whole point of this was to speed everything up. So 4 innings of 100 balls would kind of defeat that purpose. I like the idea of a mixed game though just don't see a way cricket could do it.

Most of your other points are already being covered in t20. I agree about removing tuffers but if you watch the sky coverage it's all younger people. It's possibly even more cringe though.

The miking up of players is usually really awkward to behold as well. Most of them are rightly focused on the ball and those who aren't are usually mouthy aussies.

Does anyone think this will see another season?
 
Asking a young relative if they’ve watched the Hundred and enjoyed it. They replied, as sullen teenagers do “its alright”…”but it goes on a bit long” :eek:

Their jaw dropped when I mentioned test cricket.
 
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I tuned into today. There's some guy commentating called 'Daggers' who sounds like Partridge fused with Kermit the Frog and knows absolutely nothing about cricket. Who the hell is he? And then you've got Darren Gough out-Yorkshiring even Boycott. Oh and there was a wedding proposal in the stands by someone in a Jack Grealish alice band while some shit music played in the background.

It's awful. Please don't let a generation of kids think that this is what cricket is. Just put actual cricket back on terrestrial TV. And kill this off, pronto.
 
Rashid Khan was playing tonight. Partridge didn't seem to notice one little bit that he was barely celebrating his wickets as his country was being abandoned while pissed estate agents in the crowd sang away to coldplay.

I'm surprised he played tbh.
 
I love five day cricket. But that does not mean I am interested in any old set of rules somebody cobbles together just because it involves wickets and batting and bowling. None of the things I love about cricket as a sport are represented by something that is just a run chase. It’s like only ever watching the third act of movies. I have limited interest even in fifty-over cricket, but this is stupid.

It would be great to see the fusty traditions surrounding cricket smashed. But not by changing the sport itself.
 
kabbes said:
I love five day cricket. But that does not mean I am interested in any old set of rules somebody cobbles together just because it involves wickets and batting and bowling. None of the things I love about cricket as a sport are represented by something that is just a run chase. It’s like only ever watching the third act of movies. I have limited interest even in fifty-over cricket, but this is stupid.

It would be great to see the fusty traditions surrounding cricket smashed. But not by changing the sport itself.
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Problem is the power I cricket these days is very much in India, and they love the IPL. The rest of the cricketing world pretty much has to fall in line.
 
1927 said:
Problem is the power I cricket these days is very much in India, and they love the IPL. The rest of the cricketing world pretty much has to fall in line.
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It’s true. I don’t have to watch, listen or otherwise engage with it, though, if it doesn’t interest me!
 
I really like it. It's exciting, everybody is having a laugh, crowd are up for it.

And the wickets flash when they take the bails off.
 
Petcha said:
They do all that in T20 as well. This is adding nothing to that.
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Apart from recognising and promoting the womens game, a city focussed tournament to be inclusive of non-white cricket fans, ensuring some matches are free to view to make cricket available to those arent paying through the nose for the privilege…and generally promoting cricket.
 
RileyOBlimey said:
Apart from recognising and promoting the womens game, a city focussed tournament to be inclusive of non-white cricket fans, ensuring some matches are free to view to make cricket available to those arent paying through the nose for the privilege…and generally promoting cricket.
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You could literally do all that with T20.
 
RileyOBlimey said:
Apart from recognising and promoting the womens game, a city focussed tournament to be inclusive of non-white cricket fans, ensuring some matches are free to view to make cricket available to those arent paying through the nose for the privilege…and generally promoting cricket.
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How the actual fuck was/is cricket exclusive of non-white cricket fans before this nonsense? Please explain.
 
strung out said:
You could literally do all that with T20.
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Yes, and they do all that in Australia. The women's teams are all fully professional, and well paid. And the 'product' is far more entertaining and realistic than this shit. I've enjoyed the women's game more in the hundred actually as the players actually seem to give a bit of a shit.
 
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