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Welsh Fire is still basically just a name, some clothing, some words on the internet. Losing eight from eight is Welsh Fire Men’s Hundred team’s most convincing claim to any kind of actual life. Could this be the most grippingly pointless sporting entity ever created in this country? Here we have a losing machine in a space where losing doesn’t matter, but where it must be broadcast to the nation eight times in 29 days by a cult-like TV commentary crew willing to pretend, energetically, that Welsh Fire losing has any objective meaning.
Read Barney's article
BBC viewing figures for the Hundred fall by up to 20 per cent in serious blow to competition
Nick Hoult Telegraph
BBC audiences for the Hundred are dipping by up to 20 per cent in a setback for cricketing chiefs overseeing the format's second year.
A fall from an average of 615,000 per match last summer to just over 500,000 this campaign comes despite bumper numbers for Test match highlights.
Ben Stokes and the England team are now pulling in one million-plus BBC Two numbers – double the Hundred's current average.
Figures obtained by Telegraph Sport show a particular slump for the new competition in recent weeks:Aug 28: 490,000 watched Birmingham Phoenix men vs Manchester Originals (a 6.7 per cent fall on normal BBC Two audiences at that time).
Overall, figures from the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board conservatively suggest viewing is down around 18.9 per cent on last year's tournament, when the two 2021 finals are not included.
Tom Harrington, an analyst at Enders Analysis, said: "Maybe up to half of that decrease you could put down to general decline in television viewing, while the rest would be due to some combination of fixture quality, competition in slots and loss of interest in the event itself."
The BBC numbers paint only a partial picture as coverage is shared with Sky Sports, but the paid-for broadcaster's viewing figures were unavailable for like-for-like comparison. Whatever the reason for the fall in viewers, the numbers will concern the England and Wales Cricket Board, given the Hundred got off to such a promising start on the BBC.
BBC audiences for the Hundred are dipping by up to 20 per cent in a setback for cricketing chiefs overseeing the format's second year.
A fall from an average of 615,000 per match last summer to just over 500,000 this campaign comes despite bumper numbers for Test match highlights.
Ben Stokes and the England team are now pulling in one million-plus BBC Two numbers – double the Hundred's current average.
Figures obtained by Telegraph Sport show a particular slump for the new competition in recent weeks:Aug 28: 490,000 watched Birmingham Phoenix men vs Manchester Originals (a 6.7 per cent fall on normal BBC Two audiences at that time).
- Aug 24: 260,000 viewed London Spirit women vs Welsh Fire women, while 570,000 tuned in for the men's match (eight per cent down on normal audience).
- Aug 22: 320,000 watched the Welsh Fire women vs Southern Brave women afternoon match, while 480,000 watched the later men's match (seven per cent down).
- Aug 14: 500,000 viewed Northern Superchargers men vs London Spirit men (up 2.9 per cent)
- Aug 11: 510,000 watched Oval Invincibles men vs Northern Superchargers men (down seven per cent).
Overall, figures from the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board conservatively suggest viewing is down around 18.9 per cent on last year's tournament, when the two 2021 finals are not included.
Tom Harrington, an analyst at Enders Analysis, said: "Maybe up to half of that decrease you could put down to general decline in television viewing, while the rest would be due to some combination of fixture quality, competition in slots and loss of interest in the event itself."
The BBC numbers paint only a partial picture as coverage is shared with Sky Sports, but the paid-for broadcaster's viewing figures were unavailable for like-for-like comparison. Whatever the reason for the fall in viewers, the numbers will concern the England and Wales Cricket Board, given the Hundred got off to such a promising start on the BBC.
Despite the blanket marketing, the viewers are beginning to realise these teams have no identity and are just bunch of random cricketers brought together for eight matches.
ReplyDeleteIt’s not cricket
ReplyDeleteIt's not entertaining
ReplyDeleteIt’s crap
ReplyDeleteYeah it is crap
ReplyDeleteJust listened to the sky hyped up commentary of the the so called London Spirit against the Manchester Originals. The only thing that links the team members is money. Players drop out others are brought in. I am sick to death of this so called tournament. Who or what are we called to support? It’s a tournament designed to remove money from peoples pockets. Also give money to the players. I can’t take any more of the fake hype. Where is the expansion of the great game of cricket.
ReplyDeleteIf only the other formats of the game were given as much promotion in the media as the Hundred.
ReplyDeleteIt was originally marketed as 'cricket for people who don't like cricket'. I like cricket so have never watched it and never will.These games will soon be forgotten whereas great performances in first class and fifty overs games will be remembered..
England became world champions of the 50 overs game and then the ECB devalue the domestic form of that format! No other country plays the pointless hundred ball format.
Hype hype and more hype.
ReplyDeleteLike all things it was a novelty game. Good for one season. Now people are bored. What will they do next to keep people interested maybe exploding stumps or a jump half way down the wicket. Or now this is a novelty let’s just play club cricket. Let people identify with their team being red or white ball cricket. Let’s also stop the non stop stream of tripe being uttered by the sky commentators who have been told to hype it up. Enough is enough. NCCC is for playing cricket not Rocket Franchise,respect the game.
Is anyone going to be able to afford going to watch this next summer, even if the want to ?( can’t think why folk would but there’s no accounting for taste) foxy
ReplyDeleteI’ve put two going’s in one sentence, let’s hope it’s going going gone. Foxy
DeleteSo Trent Rockets won the competition, so what. As a member of Nottinghamshire CCC, what interest would I have in it? It's not Notts! It's not Nottinghamshire cricket in the wider sense! It is some activity that approximates to cricket, taking place on four days a year within the confines of Trent Bridge Cricket Ground. It's only significance is the negative impact that it has on Notts CCC cricket through-out the rest of the season and during the month that those four days fall into. The whole concept is probably the real reason why younger players clamour for first team exposure, to get noticed to get drafted. It's all about the ££££ not the standard of "cricket" or improvement of individuals' game.
ReplyDeleteHow long before we see
ReplyDeleteWELCOME TO TRENT BRIDGE
HOME OF
THE TRENT ROCKETS
Emblazoned on our beloved ground. Not forgetting beer glasses and coffee cups. Don’t tell me the powers that be have not thought about it??
Will not be attending the Members’ Forumn tomorrow, which will be the first one i have not attended by the way, as i have no wish to listen to the top table telling half-truths, evading issues and sitting their with their usual smug faces.
ReplyDeleteIt did surprise me to see the Nottinghamshire Director of Cricket come onto the field at the end of the Trent Rockets game and greet Alex Hales before the camera panned away. Does anyone know what current role he has with this franchise ? He was in his now customary casual gear that he wears and has no involvement in any of the coaching roles, leaving these to Flower, Franks, Swanny et all so what was his involvement in coming onto the field when the celebrations were in full swing ? If he’d got the usual, corporate hospitality as DoC with his CEO then fair enough but this suggests he still retains some involvement with the Rockets in addition to what I thought was his day job as DoC for Notts CCC ?
Regarding the tournament itself. I watched most of every game purely as it was on around my dinner time and it was cricket(of a fashion) to watch each day. I am curious how the games governing body have spent all this money on this new franchise but actually ended up with a product that is LESS entertaining than the original T20Blast. Quite an achievement? The final summed up the whole tournament to me. A low scoring game, played on a used pitch with very few boundaries being hit that became exciting to some degree in the last 5 overs(or sets of 5 as they are now called, when the commentators actually remember).
There were some exceptions to the above. Smeed & Jacks scored the first centuries of the franchise and my main focus was seeing how good or bad the Notts contingent faired. Then there was also the ridiculous overhyped audio by both sets of commentators on BBC2 and SKY respectively with every 6(and in a lot of games there were not too many)being referred to as a ‘monster’.
So we have now introduced a new tournament that has NOT improved the cricket, is now and will be doing in future, massively messing-up the domestic county structure we real cricket fans cling to so dearly and meaning that games are now played on more outgrounds which whilst i enjoy personally, know many loyal members who do not/cannot get to these venues for varying reasons, so consequently just miss 3 or 4 games from their Notts cricket fixtures.
In case anyone misconstrues my comments above, i did NOT attend any games and just watched on tv and whilst wanting the Notts contingent to do well in it, had NO interest whatsoever in which franchise side won each game, who got to the eliminator match and who won the tournament as they were not proper County sides i was watching just a collection of players from anywhere around the globe brought together this year who next year will no doubt be representing a different franchise on the whole. Obvious exception to this is the Trent Rockets which will presumably be crammed full of Notts players still, but surely, Mullaney, Fletcher, Harrison and Carter(who astonishing played in the final as Rashid Khan and Tabraiz Shamsi were missing for the game) will not get any more deals in this gravy train in the future ?
Thanks, for very heartfelt posting.
ReplyDeleteShamsi got a better offer, maybe Rashid did too ?
I didn’t watch it , any of it , and am no longer a member because of it. Foxy
ReplyDeleteDid you summer well?
ReplyDeleteSo, when you boil it down, we had no championship cricket for 6 weeks, many of the players didn’t play in that time,we were banned from Trent Bridge for the whole of August all for 4 poxy 100 games.! Foxy
Atherton: “Let’s not pretend why the hundred was brought in. It was brought in for the ECB to sell in the future. The stuff about growing the game: you could do that anywhere. Let’s be clear, it’s a commercial asset for the ECB to sell in the future”
ReplyDelete