ECB’s “The Hundred”

Some good real cricket on yesterday & today in the RLC - the enhanced youtube coverage this year is very welcome.

MrOneLung said:

Rothko said:

Btw, I've not heard much concern for the women's game in these discussions, only concerns for men's county cricket. 

Yeah, on page 6 I mention how bad this is for the women’s game as they have scrapped the women’s T20 for the hundred but there are more overseas players so the English women’s cricketers now have even less opportunity to
play and earn. 

and yet one of the breakouts from this has been a 16 year old English women, with the Hundred we've has seen more players play in front of decent crowds and earn.

But lets go back to the Super League, where they were lucky if they sold 4,000 for the final at Hove. 

MrOneLung said:

There are fewer opportunities for the English girls to play. Surely that cannot be good ? 

Am sure the super league would have had higher crowds if they were added on as freebies to a men’s match like they are in the hundred. 

There are more teams in the Hundred, so 2 additional squads to make, and more opportunities to play and earn. 

I can't see how playing in front of crowds the women would never do otherwise and alongside great international players isn't a good thing for them and their game.

cafc999 said:

Rothko said:

MrOneLung said:

There are fewer opportunities for the English girls to play. Surely that cannot be good ? 

Am sure the super league would have had higher crowds if they were added on as freebies to a men’s match like they are in the hundred. 

There are more teams in the Hundred, so 2 additional squads to make, and more opportunities to play and earn. 

To play and earn only over the duration of the competition though. One swallow does not make a summer

Which was what happened with the super league, and do you think they were getting paid by their counties in the past? 

Chizz said:

cafc999 said:

Rothko said:

MrOneLung said:

There are fewer opportunities for the English girls to play. Surely that cannot be good ? 

Am sure the super league would have had higher crowds if they were added on as freebies to a men’s match like they are in the hundred. 

There are more teams in the Hundred, so 2 additional squads to make, and more opportunities to play and earn. 

To play and earn only over the duration of the competition though. One swallow does not make a summer

There are more, full-time, professional women cricketers than there have ever been. 

There are 41 full-time professional women cricketers but, as Kate Cross says above, only five domestically-contracted women are earning a good wage now. The rest are part time and some have had to take annual leave to play in this competition with at least one being told that she has a choice to make as to whether she plays in it or leaves her job.

"Their hands are tied," said one professional cricketer of those players forced to choose between participating in The Hundred and holding down an external job. "The money could do so much good. But it didn’t even exist until [the ECB] got found out."

There are currently ten times that number full-time male professional cricketers.

Rothko said:

cafc999 said:

Rothko said:

MrOneLung said:

There are fewer opportunities for the English girls to play. Surely that cannot be good ? 

Am sure the super league would have had higher crowds if they were added on as freebies to a men’s match like they are in the hundred. 

There are more teams in the Hundred, so 2 additional squads to make, and more opportunities to play and earn. 

To play and earn only over the duration of the competition though. One swallow does not make a summer

Which was what happened with the super league, and do you think they were getting paid by their counties in the past? 

Whilst the rest of world plays 50 over one day cricket & T20 cricket don't you think it would have been a good idea to invest in those formats instead of taking a gamble on a new one? The level of money, playing times, double headers, free to air TV coverage and free tickets would have, IMHO,  given exactly the same result as the 100 but with the benefit of gearing players up for 50 over & T20 cricket on a world level.

This is about control and money.

MuttleyCAFC said:

You would imagine the skills required for T20 and The Hundred are interchangeable.

Yeah you’d think, but not for the purists.

as for control, the ECB were burnt by how the counties fucked up the Blast with their need to add more and more and more games to it, and the desire to follow a City/Regions Franchise model will always require a certain amount of control. The counties are raking the Money in thanks to the control the ECB have got 

killerandflash said:

How many people are going to the first part of the double headers, the women's matches? Surely part of the appeal of T20 cricket midweek was that you could go to it after work, which is fine for the men's 100 matches at 6:30, but not the women's at 3? 

If I'm going to a match for 3pm, I'd rather go and see a day night 50 over match.

The whole point is it’s time boxed in the school holidays, so 3 o’clock for the kids is not a issue

Addick Addict said:

Chizz said:

cafc999 said:

Rothko said:

MrOneLung said:

There are fewer opportunities for the English girls to play. Surely that cannot be good ? 

Am sure the super league would have had higher crowds if they were added on as freebies to a men’s match like they are in the hundred. 

There are more teams in the Hundred, so 2 additional squads to make, and more opportunities to play and earn. 

To play and earn only over the duration of the competition though. One swallow does not make a summer

There are more, full-time, professional women cricketers than there have ever been. 

There are 41 full-time professional women cricketers but, as Kate Cross says above, only five domestically-contracted women are earning a good wage now. The rest are part time and some have had to take annual leave to play in this competition with at least one being told that she has a choice to make as to whether she plays in it or leaves her job.

"Their hands are tied," said one professional cricketer of those players forced to choose between participating in The Hundred and holding down an external job. "The money could do so much good. But it didn’t even exist until [the ECB] got found out."

There are currently ten times that number full-time male professional cricketers.

My understanding is that there are now 41 full-time, professional women cricketers contacted. Kate Cross knows more about professional women's cricket than I do, but I'm not sure I follow the idea that only five of them are not part time. 

But it's good to see that there are more professional women cricketers than there ever have been. 

cafc999 said:

Chizz said:

cafc999 said:

Rothko said:

MrOneLung said:

There are fewer opportunities for the English girls to play. Surely that cannot be good ? 

Am sure the super league would have had higher crowds if they were added on as freebies to a men’s match like they are in the hundred. 

There are more teams in the Hundred, so 2 additional squads to make, and more opportunities to play and earn. 

To play and earn only over the duration of the competition though. One swallow does not make a summer

There are more, full-time, professional women cricketers than there have ever been. 

Not because of the 100 and it's five week duration though

I'm not sure I understand what your point is. The fact is there are now more professional women cricketers than there ever have been, and the Hundred is one of the reasons for that. 

So the hundred and only the hundred is saving the women's game in a way the super league couldn't?

Play the super league in school holidays, stick it on free to air, tag a mens blast game on to it and give away thousands of comps.  Think they might get more than 4k for the final at Hove as someone who is such in favour of the women's game mocked. 

No one is watching it because they changed the team names and the number of balls.  They are watching it because its cricket, its on free TV, its been heavily promoted, and there are loads of free tickets. 

Cafc43v3r said:

So the hundred and only the hundred is saving the women's game in a way the super league couldn't?

Play the super league in school holidays, stick it on free to air, tag a mens blast game on to it and give away thousands of comps.  Think they might get more than 4k for the final at Hove as someone who is such in favour of the women's game mocked. 

No one is watching it because they changed the team names and the number of balls.  They are watching it because its cricket, its on free TV, its been heavily promoted, and there are loads of free tickets. 

Is the Hundred saving womens cricket? it's certainly helping and creating exposure/coverage for the sport that the KSL never could, the ECB put £3m in over 4 years. Kia paid a token amount to be title sponsors, a lot of counties washed their hands of it (hello Kent) and had the games played at out grounds with a token one at the main ground, and it took Loughborough Uni to bail out the east midlands counties when they couldn't be arsed.

So having a combined event, which is generating £40m a year in TV rights, plus numerous other commercial deals, and making the women game as important as the men's is a massive step forward for the game. 

The total prize fund for the KSL was £65k a year, the runners up in the Hundred get £75k (the same as the men's) and there is equal prize fund through out, and on salaries, as Heather Knight said: 

“It would be wrong for us to expect to immediately earn the same salary as the men’s players – the women’s game isn’t played on the same scale as the men’s game at the moment.

“What it’s about is the direction of travel and everyone who works in cricket will know that women’s cricket is moving forward all the time. Equal prize money is another important development, and one day we’ll move towards equal pay."

You could hand it to free to air broadcasters, and they would give it a pretty minimal investment in terms of production, and shove it behind a red button service or stream online, which the BBC did for example with the WSL and made sure Sky got the rights for it from next season. 

I think the women game deserves a sell-out final at Lords with the men as part of the Hundred, and not be in a second rate competition with a final played at not even a second-tier county ground. 

Rothko said:

MuttleyCAFC said:

To be honest, I have been to a Friday night Blast match at the Oval and I would estimate about 50% of the crowd were there for the atmosphere and drink. Feed the snake! Isn't the Oval sold out for the Invincibles' match this weekend? And the purists said the same things about T20. Having the women's match is a great addition if you have enough time to catch them both. 

The same people complaining about the Hundred, complained about T20, and complained about Central Contracts, who complained when they got rid of the 60 over one day cup, and complained when the Sunday league wore coloured clothing or Durham being let into the closed shop, and complained when they brought in 4 day County Championships games, and still haven’t forgiven Kerry Packer or the introduction of covered wickets  

I can only remember the governing bodies complaining about Kerry Packer because they missed out on money. Do not remember anyone complaining about your other points though.