The ECB hoped for better, but will the 2024 edition prove enough to entice the investors?
Matt Roller19-Aug-2024This was not a vintage year for the Hundred, just as it has not been a vintage English cricketing summer. The season’s main event – the men’s T20 World Cup – happened overseas, the touring men’s Test teams are ranked No. 7 and 8 in the world, and the Olympics and football’s European Championship have dominated the attention of general sports fans.For the ECB, the 2024 instalment of their shiny new thing has been about consolidation and proof of concept. They will hope that the prospective investors in hospitality suites across the finals weekend were engaged enough by some tense knockout games that they paid scant attention to declines in scoring rates and crowd numbers which defined the rest of the season.The sales process will officially get underway next month, with stakes of 49% or more in each franchise on offer. The stated aim is to “take the competition to the next level” – most obviously, by staving off competition from overseas leagues for the best players in the world through higher wages – with the proceeds shared across English cricket.Official figures showed a seven percent decline in ticket sales from 2023, from 580,000 to 540,000, most obviously outside of London. Between them, Lord’s and The Oval hosted 10 matchdays out of 34 but contributed around 46% of the Hundred’s total attendance this year: no wonder London Spirit and Oval Invincibles are expected to be the most sought-after franchises.Rob Hillman, the ECB’s director of major events, said the board were “immensely proud” of the Hundred’s fourth season, citing record-breaking attendances at women’s fixtures. “We look forward to seeing how it grows in the future and how we build on these foundations as we seek partners to help make the Hundred even bigger and better,” Hillman said.The women’s tournament remains some way ahead of the men’s in its status relative to the global game. “I can’t speak highly enough of how it’s put the women’s game on the map,” said Heather Knight, whose London Spirit side won their first title. “You look at the crowd and it’s so different to what you’d see at a men’s Test match… it’s brought different people to the women’s game.”The cricket itself was a mixed bag. The first week of the men’s competition suffered on account of clashes with Major League Cricket and England’s third Test against West Indies. That was compounded further by Jos Buttler’s calf injury, which deprived the Hundred of its best player and badly exposed Manchester Originals’ previous reliance on his runs.A batch of balls that swung and seamed early on, combined with indifferent pitches and heavy investment by teams into their bowling attacks prompted a sharp decline in scoring rates: around 14 runs per 100 balls in the men’s competition, and seven per 100 balls in the women’s. It brought bowlers back into the game – but probably too much so for casual followers.Nicholas Pooran arrived without luggage for his first game but found form for Northern SuperchargersThe success of Oval Invincibles – back-to-back champions, three defeats in two seasons – has benefitted the men’s tournament as a whole, with their focus on continuity in recruitment helping them to create an identity as a side. In the women’s game, the best stories were Welsh Fire’s resurgence and the unexpected struggles of Southern Brave, whose title defence culminated in a wooden spoon.The overlap with MLC caused a swathe of farcical one-match signings: Mohammad Amir bowled 15 of the first 20 balls in the men’s competition, then flew straight to Canada’s Global T20. Nicholas Pooran, the top draft pick, arrived with his luggage stuck in transit after a night on a transatlantic flight, then made 10 off 15 balls using a borrowed bat on Northern Superchargers debut.The women’s competition proved that investment can attract the world’s best players, with a 60% increase in top salaries tempting Meg Lanning and Ash Gardner to feature for the first time. Annabel Sutherland, another top-bracket £50,000 signing, was named MVP after starring with bat and ball for the Superchargers.But this season was a reminder that short-form leagues live or die on the quality of domestic players as much as their overseas stars. Lanning’s involvement was a major coup but she averaged 17 with a single half-century; Pooran batted brilliantly after his false start, but Andre Russell earned nearly £1,400 per run during an abject season for London Spirit’s men.Related
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There were only four overseas players in the men’s final, with Spencer Johnson injured and Andre Fletcher running the drinks for Southern Brave. But there were still 15 players with international caps involved in a high-quality game. “Our domestic pool of players is phenomenal,” said Sam Billings, the winning captain. “The standard is only second to the IPL.”England player availability is just as – if not more – important than that of overseas players, so Ben Stokes’ hamstring tear in his fifth-ever Superchargers game was a PR disaster. The ECB responded by resting Chris Woakes and Gus Atkinson ahead of the Sri Lanka Tests; next year, the Hundred has a clear run from early August, starting immediately after India’s tour.The public response to Stokes’ injury underlined the fact that the tournament remains hugely unpopular in some quarters. “There’s a few Lancs fans who want me burned at the stake,” Keaton Jennings said – perhaps only half-joking – having captained them at the start of the Metro Bank Cup only to sign a replacement deal with London Spirit a few days later.The imminent sale means nobody knows exactly what the 2025 season will look like. “It is a huge unknown, of course,” Billings said. “There will be big change.” Any alterations to team names or salaries may wait until 2026, as details of investments are finalised: “We are going to take our time in order to make sure that we get to the right decisions,” Richard Gould, the ECB’s chief executive, said.The Hundred is now four years old and for all the division that it has caused, it has shown signs of delivering on two of its core objectives: accelerating the growth of the women’s game, and attracting new fans to cricket. This winter’s sale process will dictate whether it can achieve a third, and its biggest yet: underpinning the sport’s financial future in England and Wales.
