The Hundred is a franchise 100-ball competition launched by the ECB which is due to commence this summer.
There will be eight city-based teams in the competition, both having a men’s and women’s team.
The idea behind the concept, is to attract a new type of audience, being young children and women, with the competition being held is summer holidays.
Each team is allowed one centrally contracted England player, including the likes of Ben Stokes and Test Match captain Joe Root, as well as two local icons and three overseas players.
Birmingham Phoenix, London Spirit, Manchester Originals, Northern Superchargers, Oval Invincibles, Southern Brave, Trent Rockets and Welsh Fire are the eight teams making up the competition which kicks off on the 17th July, although could be forced to postpone due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Former England captain David Gower is interested to see if the new competition does actually attract it’s intended audience.
“First off, I’ll be interested to see what the demographic is. I know they said they want to get more women and young people involved, they want a new audience but being cynical about this, most of the people who are going to watch the Hundred will be curious about how this is going to go on and already be cricket fans and only time will tell, Gower exclusively told Park Life Sport.
It was announced earlier this week that professional cricket in England is suspended until at least the end of May, just seven weeks before the start of the Hundred.
“This is probably the worst time to start the competition, that’s the luck of the draw, very unlucky but only time will tell how these crowds are made up because there will still be people coming down as they do with T20s thinking, we’ll get a few beers, watch a game of cricket and see a few sixes before going home again and they could be the same audience as goes to see a Nat West Blast game,” Gower concluded.
Further announcements on whether the tournament can go ahead on time are expected in due course.
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