Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

The new five-week competition would take place alongside the existing T20 Blast, which the ECB says will be unaffected by the proposed format changes.

westoelad wrote:Not surprisingly the ultra- traditional Cricket Society view the Hundred with contempt but in the true spirit of cricket offer their own innovations to the competition to Grocer Groves.
In the interests of equality each team must contain at least 2 females and one member of the LGTB community.
To assist in adhering to the limited time frame they suggest
1 During power plays the fielding team employs 2 dogs to patrol the outfield trained to chase, retain and return the ball to the bowler.
To avoid delays caused by 12th man bringing drinks and food supplements on to the field at the fall of the wicket
2 The umpire at the bowling end should carry a cool box and open a tinny for the bowler to signal the end of the over. He should also have an oxygen cylinder strapped to his back for the benefit of the bowler who is charged with delivering the 10 ball over.
3 To provide the energy supplements the square leg umpire must supervise the barbie
placed there ensuring that the chops , burgers and sausages are turned regularly.
Good to see the Cricket Society contributing to the frivolity.

sussexpob wrote:Increasingly likely that the hundred will be the torpedo that sinks Colin Graves and his merry bunch of idiots. It has been reported in the last couple of days that the ECB called the counties to a meeting to discuss finances, and the counties were told that the costs of staging the tournament had dramatically gone over budget, from an initial under 10 million, to a revised 13 million, to now a running cost of £40 million!! This is no small drop in the ocean!!!

Of course, what this means for counties is quite a stark problem, as with costs up 3-4 times their initial assessment, the bribery they were given in the shape of huge profits that the tournament would replace from the holes it blew in their turnover, are now pretty much disappearing. Reports indicate that counties are furious, with one unnamed person who asked to remain anonymous suggesting Graves position as head is under threat.

The counties under the existing model were promised I believe 1.5 million each as compensation for the tournament. That is 27 million quid.... the difference between the original budget costs when this profit share was promised, and the now budgeted costs is..... 27 million. The ECB have spent the profits that they intended to give away, so what exact benefit is there going to be? I have also seen that the trial events are seemingly being deemed failures.

The ECB has lost 72 million in cash reserves. They have made no lie about the fact the 100 is going to make a loss in the first couple of years. They have promised cash as compensation to the county game, but now costs have ate that up. With now no large cash flow to fall back in to cover the 100s losses, the continuation of this project seems foolhardy, and thats before we even debate that it seems the traditional T20 competition will run alongside it, and looks like it will even be swelled to an extra 2 games.

This is madness. The ECB seem the only people on earth who understand the need for this giant piece of rubbish, but in backing it, are they going to destroy the English game? Drive it to financial ruin?

We are consistently faced with business men in suits running the game on the perceived wisdom that it makes business sense, and in recent times the game has suffered for this, but at least financial stability was a result? Now, we seem to be getting neither.

Slipstream wrote:
A VERY BIG GAMBLE by the ECB. What happens if it doesn't work?

Arthur Crabtree wrote:All seems a bit murky.