As the name suggests, The Hundred will feature 100 balls per innings, 20 less than a traditional T20 game, with a duration of two and a half hours.
The six-ball overs are done away with in this competition, and replaced by a set of five deliveries known as ‘fives’
English cricket makes an audacious dive into the unknown with the launch of The Hundred — a unique 100 balls per side format, touted as the game’s fourth version — on Wednesday.
Cricket already has three formats at international level — five-day Tests, 50-over duels, and T20s. Even though T20s have been conceptualised in England, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) believes a slimmer version is needed to attract a younger and more ethnically diverse audience to the game. “The idea behind The Hundred is to bring mums and kids during the summer holidays,” Andrew Strauss, former director of England cricket had said.
The ECB had plans of kick-starting this competition last year before the pandemic derailed their plans. The Hundred will consist of eight franchises, featuring men’s and women’s teams, beginning on July 21 with the women’s match between Oval Invincibles and Manchester Originals at The Oval.
How is The Hundred different from a T20 game?
As the name suggests, The Hundred will feature 100 balls per innings, 20 less than a traditional T20 game, with a duration of two and a half hours. The six-ball overs are done away with in this competition, and replaced by a set of five deliveries known as ‘fives’. The umpire will hold a white card to signal the end of the first set of fives. It’s the fielding captain’s discretion whether to allow a particular bowler to bowl 10 balls (two consecutive fives) from one end or one ‘five’. There’s a two-minute timeout that a fielding side can take after the first 25 balls, though it’s not mandatory. The term ‘batsman’ does not exist in The Hundred. It’s replaced by a gender-neutral term called batter.
A few other changes are as follows:
* A bowler can bowl up to four ‘fives’.
* The first 25 balls in each innings will be a Powerplay, where only two fielders are allowed to be stationed outside the inner ring.
* In The Hundred, no-balls are worth two runs, followed by a free-hit.
* A fielding captain can station a maximum of up to five fielders on the leg-side.
* If a fielding team doesn’t finish its quota within the allotted time, they will have to bring an extra fielder inside the ring till the time they end the innings.
* Unlike in a T20 game, the non-striker does not take strike even if he has crossed during a dismissal.
* An amended Duckwoth-Lewis-Stern method, which will look at the number of balls and not overs during rain-hit games.
* In case of a tie in the group stage, both teams will earn one point each.
* If it’s a tie in the knockout stage, a ‘Super Five’ tie-breaker will be used. If the second Super Five is also tied, the team that finished higher on the ladder during the group stage will progress.
Why does English cricket need this format?
Simpler and shorter when compared with the T20, The Hundred is aimed at making the game more accessible to a wider audience, especially mothers and kids. The popularity of the Indian Premier League has prompted the ECB to create its own prototype, one that’s unique and stood out from the rest. In an interview with Sky Sports, Tom Harrison, while terming The Hundred as “a profit centre”, reckoned the cricket board would stand to earn upto £11m as profits by staging the Hundred this year — inclusive of broadcasting rights, sponsorship deals, tickets sale and merchandising. Harrison argued this would help ECB tide over most of the losses incurred during the last 18 months due to the pandemic.
If that’s the case, why are people opposed to The Hundred?
The Hundred is termed gimmicky and unwelcome addition to an already congested calendar. The ECB has also received considerable flak for downplaying the intelligence of their target audience —“mums and kids” — by suggesting that conventional cricket was too complicated a sport for them to understand.
Critics have also labelled it an “attempt to reduce the number of counties by stealth.” The home-grown 50-over domestic tournament, which was a showpiece event in the English summer, has now lost its sheen, with the final being played on Thursday, and not on a weekend. In essence, this will see an exodus of players to The Hundred, with counties like Surrey losing a dozen players. Resultantly, many feel the level of competition in domestic cricket will reduce considerably. In a similar vein, the T20 Vitality Blast is now being squeezed into a smaller window. Even the first-class fixtures’ itinerary have been scuttled around — played between April and May and the second half during September — thereby giving The Hundred a much bigger stage. (Indian Express)
Sri Lanka’s involvement ?
Southern Brave Coach: Mahela Jayawardene
The Hundred full Squads
Birmingham Phoenix Men’s: Chris Woakes, Dom Sibley, Moeen Ali (captain), Pat Brown, Adam Hose, Tom Helm, Benny Howell, Chris Cooke, Liam Livingstone, Tom Abell, Daniel Bell-Drummond, Miles Hammond, Adam Milne, Imran Tahir, Finn Allen, Will Smeed, Dillon Pennington
Women’s: Amy Jones (captain), Shafali Verma, Ria Fackrell, Marie Kelly, Evelyn Jones, Emily Arlott, Kirstie Gordon, Phoebe Franklin, Abtaha Maqsood, Thea Brookes, Gwen Davies, Isabelle Wong, Georgia Elwiss, Erin Burns, Katie Mack
London Spirit Men’s: Zak Crawley, Dan Lawrence, Eoin Morgan (captain), Mohammad Amir, Jade Dernbach, Mohammad Nabi, Luis Reece, Adam Rossington, Mason Crane, Joe Denly, Josh Inglis, Roelof Van Der Merwe, Mark Wood, Ravi Bopara, Chris Wood, Blake Cullen
Women’s: Deandra Dottin, Naomi Dattani, Deepti Sharma, Heather Knight (captain), Amara Carr, Aylish Cranstone, Danielle Gibson, Susie Rowe, Chloe Tryon, Charlie Dean, Freya Davies, Sophie Munro, Tammy Beaumont, Grace Scrivens, Alice Monaghan
Manchester Originals Men’s: Jos Buttler, Joe Clarke, Phil Salt, Matt Parkinson, Kagiso Rabada, Jamie Overton, Tom Lammonby, Steven Finn, Colin Ackermann, Richard Gleeson, Tom Hartley, Carlos Brathwaite, Colin Munro, Ollie Robinson, Sam Hain, Fred Klaassen
Women’s: Kate Cross, Danielle Collins, Mignon du Preez, Harmanpreet Kaur, Alice Dyson, Cordelia Griffith, Hannah Jones, Lizelle Lee, Georgie Boyce, Natalie Brown, Ellie Threlkeld, Alex Hartley, Emma Lamb, Sophie Ecclestone, Laura Jackson.
Northern Superchargers Men’s: Ben Stokes, Adil Rashid, David Willey, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Adam Lyth, Brydon Carse, Chris Lynn, John Simpson, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Matthew Potts, Matthew Fisher, Harry Brook, Callum Parkinson, Faf du Plessis, Jordan Thompson, Ben Raine
Women’s: Hollie Armitage, Katie Levick, Jemimah Rodrigues, Lauren Winfield-Hill (captain), Helen Fenby, Bess Heath, Beth Langston, Linsey Smith, Alice Davidson-Richards, Laura Kimmince, Laura Wolvaardt, Sterre Kalis, Kalea Moore
Oval Invincibles Men’s: Sam Curran, Rory Burns, Tom Curran, Reece Topley, Alex Blake, Sunil Narine, Jason Roy, Nathan Sowter, Sam Billings, Laurie Evans, Will Jacks, Sandeep Lamichhane, Saqib Mahmood, Colin Ingram, Brandon Glover, Jordan Clark, Jordan Cox
Women’s: Fran Wilson, Georgia Adams, Tash Farrant, Megan Belt, Eva Gray, Marizanne Kapp, Rhianna Southby, Sarah Bryce, Alice Capsey, Jo Gardner, Dane Van Niekerk, Mady Villiers, Shabnim Ismail, Danielle Gregory
Southern Brave Men’s: Jofra Archer, Liam Dawson, George Garton, Chris Jordan, Tymal Mills, Delray Rawlins, James Vince, Alex Davies, Max Waller, Craig Overton, Ross Whiteley, Danny Briggs, Devon Conway, Quinton de Kock, Jake Lintott, Colin de Grandhomme
Women’s: Maia Bouchier, Freya Kemp, Smriti Mandhana, Tara Norris, Carla Rudd, Paige Scholfield, Anya Shrubsole, Stafanie Taylor, Danni Wyatt, Lauren Bell, Sonia Odedra, Fi Morris, Sophia Dunkley, Amanda-Jade Wellington, Ella McCaughan, Charlotte Taylor
Trent Rockets Men’s: Joe Root, Rashid Khan, Alex Hales, Matt Carter, Dawid Malan, Tom Moores, Steven Mullaney, Ben Cox, Lewis Gregory, D’Arcy Short, Luke Wood, Luke Wright, Samit Patel, Timm van der Gugten, Sam Cook, Marchant de Lange
Women’s: Katherine Brunt, Nat Sciver, Kathryn Bryce, Abbey Freeborn, Nancy Harman, Lucy Higham, Michaela Kirk, Ellie Mitchell, Heather Graham, Sammy-Jo Johnson, Rachel Priest, Ella Claridge, Emily Windsor, Sarah Glenn, Teresa Graves
Welsh Fire Men’s: Ollie Pope, Jonny Bairstow, Tom Banton, Ben Duckett, Qais Ahmad, Ryan Higgins, David Payne, Liam Plunkett, Jake Ball, Iain Cockbain, Josh Cobb, Matt Critchley, David Lloyd, Jimmy Neesham (first three games), Glenn Phillips, Leus du Plooy
Women’s: Katie George, Alex Griffiths, Georgia Hennessy, Lauren Filer, Sophie Luff, Natasha Wraith, Amy Gordon, Bryony Smith, Sarah Taylor, Piepa Cleary, Georgia Redmayne, Bethan Ellis, Lissy Macleod, Nicole Harvey, Hayley Matthews.
The Hundred Full Schedule
21 July, Oval Invincibles v Manchester Originals (women’s), Kia Oval
22 July, Oval Invincibles v Manchester Originals (men’s), Kia Oval
23 July, Birmingham Phoenix v London Spirit, Edgbaston
24 July, Trent Rockets v Southern Brave, Trent Bridge; Northern Superchargers v Welsh Fire, Emerald Headingley
25 July, London Spirit v Oval Invincibles, Lord’s; Manchester Originals v Birmingham Phoenix, Emirates Old Trafford
26 July, Trent Rockets v Northern Superchargers, Trent Bridge
27 July, Welsh Fire v Southern Brave, Sophia Gardens
28 July, Manchester Originals v Northern Superchargers, Emirates Old Trafford
29 July, London Spirit v Trent Rockets, Lord’s
30 July, Southern Brave v Birmingham Phoenix, Ageas Bowl
31 July, Welsh Fire v Manchester Originals, Sophia Gardens; Northern Superchargers v Oval Invincibles, Emerald Headingley
01 August, Birmingham Phoenix v Trent Rockets, Edgbaston; London Spirit v Southern Brave, Lord’s
02 August, Oval Invincibles v Welsh Fire, Kia Oval
03 August, London Spirit v Northern Superchargers, Lord’s
04 August, Birmingham Phoenix v Oval Invincibles, Edgbaston
05 August, Manchester Originals v Southern Brave, Emirates Old Trafford
06 August, Welsh Fire v Trent Rockets, Sophia Gardens
07 August, Southern Brave v Northern Superchargers, Ageas Bowl
08 August, Oval Invincibles v Trent Rockets, Kia Oval
09 August, Birmingham Phoenix v Welsh Fire, Edgbaston
10 August, Manchester Originals v London Spirit, Emirates Old Trafford
11 August, Southern Brave v Welsh Fire, Ageas Bowl
12 August, Northern Superchargers v Manchester Originals, Emerald Headingley
13 August, Trent Rockets v Birmingham Phoenix, Trent Bridge
14 August, Oval Invincibles v London Spirit, Kia Oval
15 August, Trent Rockets v Manchester Originals, Trent Bridge
16 August, Southern Brave v Oval Invincibles, Ageas Bowl
17 August, Northern Superchargers v Birmingham Phoenix, Emerald Headingley
18 August, Welsh Fire v London Spirit, Sophia Gardens
20 August, Eliminator (both women’s and men’s), Kia Oval
21 August, Finals (both women’s and men’s), Lord’s