PCA Warning on Hundred

'The Hundred' could create ‘super-counties’ warns UK PCA.
Ali Martin.

The Guardian.

Sunday, 3 February 2019.

PTG 2714-13566.

The UK Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) has warned that the England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) new 'The Hundred’ competition could lead to the creation of super-counties and compromise the integrity of domestic cricket if the eight host venues are allowed to transfer existing coaching set-ups over to their new teams (PTG 2713-13559, 2 February 2019).

The players’ union and the ECB had wanted to ensure differentiation between the new 100-ball competition and the county game by having independent directors of cricket and coaches at the eight teams. It would mean Alec Stewart, say, could not run both Surrey’s first XI and the ‘Hundred' side based at the Oval.

The counties reported rejection of the separation principle in favour of allowing cross-over, something the PCA chairman, Daryl Mitchell, fears could become hugely problematic. The first player draft is due to take place in October and playing budgets of £UK1.2 million ($A2.2m) per team for the men’s competition, which starts in 2020, and conflicts of interest could arise.

“From the outset this competition was sold as fresh and completely different but if you have local directors or cricket and coaches running the team, it’s potentially neither”, Mitchell told The Observer. “You run the risk of the game going towards eight super-counties and end up with a situation where it leads to player bias in terms of recruitment".

“Everyone of our players deserves a chance to be considered in the draft but without independent coaching set-ups it could also lead to player bias by those selecting squads. Will it be the best 96 [English] players or will it depend on who plays for who in county cricket?  We have already had members asking us whether they should look to join a host county and, believing these management roles to be independent, we have always said this shouldn’t make any difference to their chances of featuring in The Hundred”.

A comparable situation occurred in Australia last year when Western Australia were accused of contract bundling – handing out generous state deals to players as a way of keeping the Perth Scorchers under the Big Bash League’s salary cap. Justin Langer, who was head coach of both teams at the time, denied it had taken place.

Mitchell said: “Doubling up directors of cricket [at counties and their equivalent Hundred team] could in effect be sticking an extra million quid on that county’s salary cap. Another issue that could arise is when a Hundred team decides whether or not to release squad players back into the county 50-over competition [which will run concurrently]. Teams could question whether this has been done to favour one team or go against another.  I’m not saying this will necessarily happen but it could lead to situations where it is questioned and that is a perception issue. That would lead to ill-feeling in the game and undermine the whole integrity of the competition. It opens up a whole can of worms”.

Meanwhile the ECB is close to having The Hundred’s playing conditions signed off by the 18 first-class counties. The governing body received ten “yes” votes from ten ballot papers at the start of last week, with just two more required for the green light.

Counties Attempt to Mould Hundred Form

Counties force ECB’s hand on the ‘Hundred’.
Matt Hughes.

The Times.

Friday, 1 February 2019.

PTG 2713-13559.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has suffered a significant defeat in its battle with the counties for control of the new ‘Hundred' competition by being forced to abandon its demand for independent coaches and general managers to run the new teams.  

The city-based 100-ball-a-side tournament, which will be launched next year and will run for four and a half weeks, will be contested by eight teams who have yet to be named but who will be based at the existing Test match grounds in Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Southampton, Nottingham and Cardiff, plus Lord’s and the Oval in London.  It has been developed by the ECB with the aim of widening the appeal of cricket.

The proposal to create independent directors of cricket and list managers, whom the ECB wanted to appoint on April Fool’s Day to work on the auction process for the new tournament, has been unanimously rejected by the counties.  The ECB’s defeat is likely to preface further conflict with its new teams. The governing body, which is committed to investing £UK180 million ($A324m) in the Hundred over the first cycle of 2020-24, wants the new teams to run independently from the existing county set-up, but the venues disagree and have won the first battle.

Glen Chapple, the Lancashire head coach, will now be permitted to run the team based at Old Trafford, for example, and Stuart Law, the Middlesex coach, the north London team at Lord’s. This is likely to lead to considerable overlap between the new teams and existing county staffs, which the ECB had wanted to avoid.

A number of executives at the host venues have told 'The Times' that they will seek to recruit as many of their own county players as possible at the auction in October, with some estimating that as many as 10 of their 15-man squads could come from within their existing set-ups. Each team will have a budget for coaching staff of £UK200,000 ($A359,910), in addition to the £UK1.2m ($A2.2m) player salary cap.

This anticipated synchronicity is likely to lead to a further row over player release, as the clubs want to be able to make any non-playing squad players available for their counties in the 50-over One Day Cup, which will run concurrently with The Hundred. The ECB is resisting this, which could lead to a potential legal challenge from the counties, as well as opposing the new clubs’ attempts to retain some of their existing identity in their new team name.

'The Times' has also learnt details of The Hundred auction process, which will be broadcast live on Sky Sports. With each team requiring a squad of 15, the available players will be divided into five salary bands for the tournament — £UK120,000 ($A215,825), £UK100,000 ($A179,855), £UK80,000 ($A143,885), £UK50,000 ($A89,925), and £UK25,000 ($A44,965) — and allotted three picks at every level.

The centrally contracted England players will be auctioned off separately, with the team given the first pick in the main auction getting the last choice of international stars and vice-versa, which could lead to anomalies such as the England captain and Yorkshire icon Joe Root not playing for the Leeds-based team for example.

In addition to the players recruited in the auction, each team will have the opportunity to recruit one or two “wildcard players” in June 2020 based on their performances in the ECB’s county-based Twenty20 ‘Blast’ series, the existing competition that will remain contested by the 18 counties.