The Hundred -You're Fired!

Very much through the lens of the BBC having their own vested interest.

Players due to take part in The Hundred this summer have had their contracts terminated by the England and Wales Cricket Board.

On Thursday, the new tournament was postponed until 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The eight men's teams selected their squads in a draft in October, while the women's teams were in the process of completing their squads.

The ECB sent players a letter to inform them of the decision.

An ECB statement said: "We can confirm that a letter terminating current player contracts has been issued today to all involved.

"This letter is necessary paperwork to legally update and inform players of the situation, which follows a notification last week around the launch of the new competition being moved to 2021.

"We are working closely with PCA on a number of options for players regarding next year's launch."

The 100-ball competition, involving eight teams in separate men's and women's tournaments, was due to begin on 17 July and end on 15 August.

By Matthew Henry and Callum Matthews

The Hundred, cricket's flagship new tournament, has become the latest sporting casualty of the coronavirus pandemic after being postponed until 2021.

The competition's organisers, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), hoped it would deliver a new, more diverse audience to the sport and have invested millions of pounds into it.

Eight new city-based teams - a first for the sport in the UK - had been created, star players had been signed up to big-money contracts, and some matches were to be shown live on BBC television for the first time since 1999.

But what happens now? What are the ramifications for cricket following this latest sporting postponement of a competition which had a £40m budget in its first year?

Can it just all go ahead as planned in 2021?

After announcing news of the postponement, ECB chief executive Tom Harrison told BBC Sport that The Hundred would be going ahead in 2021 "as had been planned" for this year, with the same eight teams playing the same 100-ball format.

"This is a competition that is designed not only to become a commercial powerhouse but to grow the audience of cricket around the country for young people, for diverse communities, and build on what we have with cricket in this country," Harrison said.

Fifteen players were signed by each of the eight teams in October and organisers hope to largely move forward with the same squads for next year rather than holding a new draft.

That said, international player availabilities for 2021 could well prove to be a sticking point.

Leg-spinner Rashid Khan, for example, was signed for the maximum price of £125,000 by Trent Rockets for 2020 but, as it stands, has international commitments with Afghanistan in July and August 2021.

Further complications will be caused by the changes to rules regarding Kolpak players after Brexit.

Kolpak contracts allow sportsmen and women from countries with associate trade agreements with the European Union, such as South Africa, Zimbabwe and Caribbean nations, to be afforded the same right to free movement as EU citizens.

Fourteen Kolpak players were signed as non-overseas men's players for 2020 but when rules change when the UK leaves the EU, those players will no longer be eligible as domestic players and all overseas spots are currently taken.

One area the cancellation of The Hundred in 2020 may be acutely felt is the women's game.

The men's and women's tournaments were set to run simultaneously and, while the men are able to fall back on their county wages, there is no equivalent for women.

Discussions are ongoing regarding player salaries for 2020 but those talks remain at an early stage.

A number of options are on the table, including players receiving a percentage of what they were due to earn or deferring contracts until next year.

After the Kia Super League was disbanded, The Hundred was due to be the only source of income for many female cricketers in England, other than for the 21 players centrally contracted to England.

Spinner Alex Hartley, who was part of the England team which won the World Cup in 2017, lost her central contract last year and fears she could end up being lost to the game.

"I am missing out on a significant amount of money that I was relying on to support myself," the 26-year-old told BBC Sport.

"I am playing things by ear but you might see me stacking toilet roll in Tesco by the end of the summer if no cricket is played because I will have no job."

Prize money was set to be equal but, unlike the men's contracts, the individual deals earned by women's Hundred players have not been disclosed.

The salary brackets are far lower than the men's, however. The lowest paid men's player was due to earn £30,000, while the highest paid women's player was set to take home £15,000.

"I haven't played cricket since August last year," Hartley added.

"Why would a team want to pay me to play cricket for them if I haven't played cricket for 18 months?"

Harrison said there has been "no dilution on our commitment to women's cricket".

The ECB still intends to award 40 new full-time contracts for female players this year, as previously announced.

Will players receive 'life-changing' salaries?

Male players signed for The Hundred were set to earn up to £125,000 for the five-week tournament and some had "their lives changed" by October's draft, according to England and Yorkshire's Dawid Malan, who was set to play for Trent Rockets.

"They probably got picked up for more than they get paid in county cricket," Malan told BBC Sport. "It was a massive financial boost for the players who got picked up."

Somerset's Eddie Byrom, 22, was a surprise signing for Manchester Originals and told BBC Sport he was planning to put his £30,000 deal towards a deposit for a house - plans which may now be put on hold.

His team-mate Tom Abell was also snapped up by the Originals, on a £100,000 contract, and he explained how the postponement will not only have a financial impact, but could affect his career aspirations.

"The opportunity it would have presented, and hopefully still will in the future, is immense," Abell said while, like Byrom, stressing there are more important things going on in the world at present.

"My dream and ambition is to play for England. If you want that to be realistic you have to be playing in these sorts of competitions."

Some players, including Tymal Mills and Harry Gurney, had reportedly taken out insurance on their earnings.

Malan added: "There could be a lot of players losing a lot of money because of this, but we can't really complain about that because there are people all over the world who are unemployed because of this situation."

What about the counties?

The Hundred's cancellation comes at a time when the finances of the 18 first-class counties are under significant pressure because of coronavirus.

Last week, Glamorgan, who will host Welsh Fire at their Cardiff home, said they are still supportive of the competition, a view held by many other counties.

The ECB has already paid out half of the £1.3m due to each county from The Hundred, while a £61m rescue package was announced this month to help the counties deal with the crisis.

That said, one county told BBC Sport they will miss out on about £2.7m they were expecting to receive through hosting fees, hospitality and retail had the tournament gone ahead as planned.

'The Hundred could be bigger than the IPL'

The ECB still hopes to host some cricket, both domestic and international, this season, potentially behind closed doors, but Harrison said cricket will be dealing with a "very significant financial impact" after the pandemic.

On Monday, a report from financial advisory firm Oakwell Sports recommended allowing external investment into the eight Hundred teams to lessen the financial burden on the governing body.

It said foreign investment could also help grow the competition overseas by attracting foreign fans and players, particularly from South Asia.

Speaking to the BBC on Thursday, Harrison did not rule out foreign investment and said one of the benefits of The Hundred is it can help "diversify revenue streams going forward".

Businessman Salman Iqbal, who owns Pakistan Super League team Karachi Kings, told BBC Sport he would "love" to invest in a Hundred team and if the competition allowed investment it could become "bigger" than the Indian Premier League (IPL).

"All sports need investment," Iqbal said. "They need good investments and owners who know cricket and know how to market sports."

From the Kent CCC website

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has today confirmed that the launch of The Hundred will now take place in summer 2021. The news follows a meeting dedicated to the subject, where the Board concluded it was not possible for the competition to be staged this year.

The ECB statement, issued on Thursday 30th April reads:

The new competition has a vision to grow the game and is part of the ECB’s long-term strategy to inspire a new generation to choose cricket.
A number of reasons were outlined for the decision including:
o Operational challenges caused by social distancing, alongside ongoing global travel restrictions, making the competition’s ambition to feature world-class players and coaches, unattainable in 2020.

o A behind closed doors competition directly contradicts the competition’s goal to attract a broader audience through a unique event experience for viewers and spectators.

o With significant furloughing across the partnership network of 20 venues, the logistics of delivering a brand-new sporting event, without a tried-and-tested delivery plan, would be incredibly challenging.

Refocused efforts will now look forward to 2021, centering on the competition’s four key objectives to support the game, which will be even more imperative as the nation emerges from this pandemic:

1. Engaging a broader audience in cricket to grow the game
2. Driving participation throughout the game with the support of partners Sky and BBC
3. Delivering guaranteed revenues and support for First-Class Counties (FCCs), MCC and the wider game
4. Developing young talent as they grow their skills playing for and against teams made-up of world-class players and coaches

ECB Chief Executive Officer, Tom Harrison, commented: “The situation we find ourselves in as a country means that delivery of The Hundred will not be possible this summer. Whilst we are naturally disappointed that we won’t get to realise our ambitions this year, The Hundred will go ahead in 2021 when we are safely able to deliver everything we intended to help grow the game.”

“As we emerge from the fallout of COVID-19, there will be an even greater need for The Hundred. Our survival as a game, long-term, will be dependent on our ability to recover financially and continue our ambition to build on cricket’s growing fan base. That need has not gone anyway, if anything, it is now more critical.”

“The Hundred will create millions in revenues for the game, through hosting fees, hospitality and ticket sales, as well as delivering £25m in annual financial distributions to all First Class Counties and MCC. Its role in driving participation alongside supporting the development of the women’s game will be material in generating take-up of our game across country-wide communities.’’

‘’The Hundred is an important element of the game’s Inspiring Generations strategy, which has been debated and agreed upon across the whole game. While financially, our plans may be impacted, our ambition, ‘to inspire a generation’ should in no way be diluted.’’

“We would like to thank our broadcast partners, for their extraordinary commitment and support to get The Hundred to this point and our commercial partners for their ongoing support. We very much look forward to working with them as we build to the 2021 launch.”

PAUL NEWMAN: Scrap this rotten idea called the Hundred for good and write off the wasted millions so we can put our marketing and promotional efforts into a revamped T20 Blast

• The postponement of the Hundred gives the ECB a chance to admit their mistake
• This is not the time to criticise anyone at the governing body given the crisis
• Let's go back to what they should have done initially and revamp the T20 Blast
• Give it two divisions with promotion and relegation and have a Premier League

By PAUL NEWMAN FOR THE DAILY MAIL

One of the options the ECB may consider in their review of the future of their new Hundred competition is to involve all 18 counties and their players while employing existing coaching staffs. They may even change the number of deliveries.

Great idea. Why don't we have, say, 120 balls per innings? That might be better. And if we are using all 18 counties, we won't need any of those cringeworthy new team names such as Manchester Originals and London Spirit. Lancashire and Middlesex will do nicely.

We would just need a name for this new-fangled concept. How about the T20 Blast? There's even a far more suitable sponsor than a snack company interested in backing it, too, called Vitality.

It might, in the uncertain future awaiting cricket on the other side of the virus, just work.

Truly, if the brains at the ECB who came up with the Hundred in the first place want to protect their reputations and egos by quietly abandoning their new baby, going back to what has been proven to work and dressing it up as a review, then let them.

This is not the time to criticise anyone at the governing body trying to cope with the biggest crisis of our lifetimes.

ECB chief executive Tom Harrison and his staff could not have done any more, so far, in their quest to 'keep the lights on' at Lord's and throughout the game.

But the postponement of the controversial new format for at least a year — which will be confirmed on Friday — gives the ECB the opportunity to admit their mistake and go back to what they should have done in the first place.

Let's scrap the Hundred, write off the millions of pounds that have already been wasted on a format that has brought so much condemnation from followers of the game and put our marketing and promotional efforts into a revamped T20 Blast.

Give it two divisions with promotion and relegation. Have a Premier League. Show that it is special by treating it with respect as the highly popular and still growing competition it already is. There should be no issues with broadcasters either because Sky Sports and the BBC bought the rights to a new competition, not specifically the Hundred. A revamped, all-singing and all-dancing Blast with all 18 counties involved would be just that.

There is, of course, irony in Harrison's stated aim of rewarding cricket's 'core' audience by giving them the most popular and lucrative types of cricket first in whatever season we are destined to have later this summer. For it was the core audience that was so blatantly disregarded by the ECB when it arrogantly came up with an expensive format, apparently on the back of market research that still hasn't been adequately explained, in search of a mythical new audience.

Well, cricket is going to need every one of that under-appreciated army of followers when it is finally able to open its doors or, initially, put on a show behind closed ones.

And one of the best ways to do that is to accept that, in the T20 Blast, they have a jewel of a competition that is far better than the 'mediocre' product it was so embarrassingly and damagingly labelled by outgoing ECB chairman Colin Graves four years ago.

There is no question, whatever the ECB say, that the Blast would have been undermined by the arrival of the Hundred if this had been a normal season.

It would have been the beginning of the end of it and the beginning of the end, too, of an 18-county structure.

There are not many silver linings to the clouds hanging over the whole world at the moment, but here's one for the ECB to embrace. When it comes to the Hundred, let's call the whole thing off.

By MATT HUGHES FOR THE DAILY MAIL

PUBLISHED: 22:30, 22 April 2020 

• The new Hundred has been postponed for a year due to the coronavirus crisis
• Players with Hundred deals are entitled to 12.5% even if it doesn't take place 
• Cricket stars will receive appearance fees, some of which are worth over £10K 

County cricketers and overseas stars with Hundred contracts will receive appearance fees that could be worth more than £10,000 this summer despite the launch of the new tournament being postponed for 12 months.

Sportsmail has learned that, under the terms of contracts signed following last year’s draft, all players are entitled to 12.5 per cent of their deals even if the competition does not take place.

The ECB are expected to confirm the postponement of the inaugural Hundred until 2021 at a board meeting later on Thursday, but will honour players’ contracts. 

Australians Steve Smith and Mitchell Starc and Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan were among the top draft picks on £125,000, and England one-day batsman Tom Banton collected a contract worth £100,000. Many county players will also receive a percentage of deals that started at £25,000.

Writing off this year’s Hundred will cost the ECB more than the £10million already spent on player salaries, marketing and production.

This is in addition to the £23.4m the ECB are committed to paying to the 18 counties — £1.3m each — which they are expected to honour.

The Hundred Set-Back Until Next Year?

cricket.com.au

The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to delay the launch of England's new cricket competition The Hundred by a year, placing Australians' involvement in some doubt.

Steve Smith, David Warner, Mitchell Starc and Aaron Finch are among 10 Australian male players who signed up for the domestic league in England, which will feature a format consisting of 100-ball innings.

Some eight members of Australia's XI from the recent Twenty20 World Cup final were confirmed starters in the women's Hundred.

Simon Katich is one of five Australian head coaches in the eight-team men's tournament, the maiden season of which was set to run from July 18 until August 16.

But the growing expectation is it will be pushed back to 2021 as cricket tours and events continue to be affected by the health crisis, including this week's indefinite postponement of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

The United Kingdom remains in shutdown and its coronavirus death toll was 12,868 on Thursday.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is mulling whether it will be practical or possible to play some games without crowds during its home summer, including Australia's limited-overs tour.

However, the chief focus of The Hundred was to bring new fans through the gate and that will almost certainly be impossible this year.

"There has been a lot of speculation about The Hundred, given it's a new tournament, that it probably doesn't make sense for it to be played in front of empty stadiums if it was OK to play in that July window," Katich told SEN.

"So there has been speculation about it potentially being delayed until next season.

"I've got no problem with that and I think a lot of people would think that's probably the way to go, if things keep tracking the way they are in the UK."

Shane Warne, Darren Lehmann, Andrew McDonald and Tom Moody are the other Australian coaches involved in the men's Hundred.

Securing their availability in 2021 should be straightforward, with the possible exception of McDonald given he is Australia's senior assistant and has already been earmarked as Justin Langer's likely successor

But the same can't be said of the 10 Australian players given how congested the international calendar will likely be in 2021.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) faces an incredibly difficult job attempting to rejig the Future Tour Programme and squeeze in the various games that will be scrapped because of COVID-19.

The ICC's most pressing issue is deciding whether to delay, cancel or continue with this year's Twenty20 World Cup.

It was set to be held in Australia during October-November; dates that IPL organisers are reportedly eyeing off as a potential window for that tournament.

IPL Suspended Indefinitely 

Nagraj GollapudiNews editor, ESPNcricinfo


The BCCI has suspended the 2020 edition of the IPL until further notice because of the Covid-19 pandemic. It is understood that the BCCI has not set a new window yet for the tournament, which was to be held between March 29 and May 24 originally.

On Wednesday morning*, all the eight franchises were informed of the decision by Hemang Amin, the IPL's chief operating officer. Amin told the franchises that, following the extension of the nationwide lockdown till May 3 by the Indian government, there was no possibility of hosting the event in the regular summer window.

The decision follows a meeting among the BCCI's top brass over a conference call on Tuesday evening. Among those involved in the discussions were BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, secretary Jay Shah, IPL chairman Brijesh Patel, BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal, and Amin.


This is the second time the BCCI has been forced to defer the IPL. Last month, after the government had put the country in a three-week lockdown, the board had pushed the start date of the tournament back to April 15.

On Tuesday, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi announced an extension of the lockdown until May 3, even as all domestic and international travel in and out of the country remained blocked. This made it apparent that there would be no chance of hosting the IPL in the foreseeable future.

Although it was preparing for this scenario for some time, the BCCI had also been optimistic about conducting a month-long IPL with the final scheduled in the first week of June. Also, as part of its contingency planning, the BCCI was looking at staging all the matches behind closed doors in limited centres.

All those plans had to be pushed to the backburner after a spike in Covid-19 infections around the country. As of Wednesday, over 11,000 people have tested positive in India with deaths inching towards the 400 mark. With several restrictions put in place by the government in terms of social distancing and travel bans, and overseas players unable to participate with their own countries in lockdown, the BCCI was left with little choice but to put off the IPL.

This leaves the tournament's stakeholders, including the players, facing a big setback. At the auction last December, a total 62 players were bought by the eight franchises, who spent INR 140.30 crore [USD 18.4 million approx.] overall. Australian fast bowler Pat Cummins became the most expensive overseas buy in IPL's history after Kolkata Knight Riders bought him for INR 15.5 crore [USD 2 million approx.].

None of the IPL players will receive any money until the tournament actually takes place. As per the norm, franchises make payments in two instalments: the first a week before the tournament starts and the rest after the season is over. The franchises, too, will feel the pinch as they rely heavily on the IPL's commercial revenue, which also includes broadcast rights which were bought by Star India for a record sum for a five-year period in 2017. Every franchise, since then, was assured a minimum share worth INR 150 crore [USD 19.7 million approx.].