T.The County Championship opening round may have been played in temperatures similar to the previous crew on the HMS Terror and only brought back three wins from the nine games, but there was plenty to enjoy over four days.
Glamorgan’s Headingley draw was a blow to those of us younger siblings when Billy Root raised his hundred from older bowling brother Joe, while Darren Stevens did so for those of us in our fifth decade when he was 44 and 344 days old was. He became the oldest centurion since 1986 with 116 in the Northamptonshire draw.
At Chelmsford, the Essex champions were kept in check when Worcestershire’s Jake Libby produced the second longest innings in the competition’s record books – 120 seconds from first place – when he hit 11 hours and 21 minutes for his unbeaten 180. And at Trent Bridge Libby’s old club Nottinghamshire showed that it wasn’t just a collection of white ball dashes with a good rear guard on day four to deny Durham.
Gloucestershire, promoted in 2019 but not rewarded by the redesigned format, brought a nice win over Surrey. And although the Spin saw a cool standoff between Warwickshire and Derbyshire, Liam Norwell’s five-wicket move after 18 months of injury was encouraging and Matt Critchley’s slap in the eye.
Hampshire defeated Leicestershire thanks to James Vince’s double century and six wickets for Mason Crane in a match that caused opprobrium when Lewis McManus “blunted” Hassan Azad with the ball in his glove. And the most notable result came at Lord’s when Middlesex wasted not one but three winning positions in a four-wicket loss to Somerset.
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The snow stopped playing, the pitches were unusually harmless for spring and the fans won’t be closed until mid-May at the earliest. But the new expanded streams served audiences well, and while social media isn’t always a reliable barometer, there seemed to be a surge in positivity at the start of a major cricket season.
All of that brings us to the hundred. On Monday, Sky announced its talent roster for the new tournament and the pick was one to be largely agreed with: Andrew Flintoff is an understandable employee who crossed the sport in 2005 and has remained a household name in his second career as an entertainment broadcaster . also Kevin Pietersen and Stuart Broad (if he is not playing test cricket).
Kass Naidoo and Zainab Abbas are smart signings from South Africa and Pakistan, both committed and experienced anchors, while Dinesh Karthik won English hearts with his charismatic analysis and wardrobe during the last India tour. Overall, it looks fresh and there was news that the entire women’s tournament will be available for free on Sky’s YouTube channel. Great move.
Later in the day, the Daily Telegraph reported that the term “wickets” could be replaced with “outs” as part of a simplified lexicon controlled by focus groups in the new competition. This is a legitimate conversation to have. The use of “batters”, for example, seems reasonable as a gender-neutral term and goes back further than many believe. Instead, a tsunami of negativity and ridicule broke out online. the most recent reminder of the challenge facing the Protestant organizers of the Hundred.
The Hundred will use the term “Batters” as a gender-neutral term throughout the competition. Photo: ECB / PA
In Malcolm Gladwell’s book The Tipping Point, he outlined the law of the few when ideas or products spread successfully thanks to a small number of connectors, mavens, and vendors. Connectors boast social connections, salespeople are persuasers. But mavens are key in using their expertise on a subject to educate and energize others. They simplify complex ideas, but in particular have no legitimate interest or ulterior motives.
The existing cricket fan base and the unrighteous media should be ready to play this vital role for the Hundred. Yet the cascade of PR missteps since the controversial move away from Twenty20 in 2018 has either spoiled a good number before a ball was thrown or made others nervous about supporting it.
As such, the hundred continues to be bred primarily by those on the payroll, be it rights holders, gamblers, or the “influencers” hired to flood Instagram with posts that have the hashtag #ad required by law. Authentic endorsements still seem to be in short supply, and with launching in less than 100 days this must be an issue.
Maybe the power of the BBC, Sky, and a monster marketing budget will be enough. Ticket sales are said to be encouraging, and when the tournament begins and the recalibrated cricket takes control, all concerns will vanish when new and old supporters gather together. But if the hundred are really supposed to tip this way, they can hardly afford outs until then.
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