18 August, 2025

The Competition That Never Shall Be Named: Nottinghamshire Every ball Count


18/08


So far during this year's H*ndred Competition, the TEN (as of 16/08) Nottinghamshire players signed to the variety of franchises have achieved:

BATTING

Balls face: 254      Runs scored: 267        Rate: 105

BOWLING

Balls bowled: 110   Runs conceded: 170    Wickets: 11   Rate: 155

PLAYERS USED: 7 Ahmed, Clarke, Duckett, Tongue, Stone, Harrison, Moores


Player release from the H*ndred rules

Freddie McCann and Liam Patterson-White given a pass to play for Notts Outlaws from Birmingham 13/08

Dillon Pennington given a pass to Notts Outlaws from the Trent Bridge franchise 17/08


07/08

ECB ditches controversial Hundred-branded balls

The balls used for this year's men's and women's competitions are from the same batch used in the T20 Blast

The ECB has ditched a controversial batch of white Kookaburra balls that was blamed for low scores in the Hundred last year after consistent negative feedback from players.

Scoring rates in the men's Hundred dipped to 1.37 runs per ball last season, significantly lower than other short-form leagues like the IPL, Major League Cricket and SA20 despite the shorter format in theory lending itself to more attacking batting. Specialist new-ball bowlers like Daniel Worrall and Tim Southee thrived, and players anecdotally blamed the batch of balls used.

The balls used in the first four seasons of the Hundred had the tournament's logo - a large 'H' - imprinted on them, which players felt required additional lacquer and gave them a 'plasticky' feel. "The seam seems to be massive," Moeen Ali told the Cricketer. "Every game, it seems the ball is nipping. Most teams are 30 for 5 in most games."

Kookaburra insisted that they were made to identical specifications as the white balls used in other domestic and international cricket, beyond the logo, while the ECB commissioned an extensive study over the winter which found minimal evidence that the balls behaved differently to those used in other white-ball cricket in England and Wales.

Ball-tracking data did suggest a spike in seam movement and swing at the start of Hundred games in 2023 (compared to 2022), which continued last season. This was attributed primarily to pitches, weather, and the Hundred's unique format - which allows bowlers to bowl 15 of the first 20 balls - rather than any change to the condition of the balls.

But the ECB has opted to ditch the Hundred-branded balls regardless, reverting to the same batch used in the T20 Blast for the 2025 season. Their hope is that the switch will satisfy players after consistent negative feedback and that the perception of less assistance for bowlers will lead to higher scoring rates.

The change made no apparent difference in Tuesday night's curtain-raiser, with London Spirit's men bowled out for 80 by Oval Invincibles on a slow, low surface. "It was a tough wicket to bat on," Rashid Khan said, after taking 3 for 11 on debut for the two-time defending champions.


ECB admits no evidence Hundred has attracted new fans to other forms of cricket

 

  • Richard Gould: ‘That’s work we need to do’
  • ECB long boasted tournament attracts different audience

 

Simon Burnton, The Guardian

 

Thu 31 Jul 2025 13.34 BST

 

Richard Gould, the England and Wales Cricket Board’s chief executive, has admitted his organisation has no evidence that new fans attracted by the Hundred have gone on to attend other forms of the game. The ECB has long boasted that the tournament has attracted a different audience to existing formats.

 

“The Hundred is all about throwing cricket’s doors open – and it’s already delivering,” the ECB’s then chief executive, Tom Harrison, said after the first tournament in 2021. “We need to grow cricket, reach more people, and that’s exactly what the Hundred does.”

 

A report published last October found that 31% of tickets for the Hundred have been bought by women, 23% were bought for juniors and 41% of buyers attended in family groups. But on the day counties received their first down payment on the windfall generated by external investment into the eight Hundred franchises Gould said no work had been done into finding out if any of those new fans remain involved in the sport when the tournament is out of action.

 

“That’s probably a bit of work we need to do,” he said. “Just to check that when people do come in, where do they go? Because you might get some coming in to Test cricket [who] then go to the Hundred and Hundred into Test cricket. We haven’t done that work in any great detail.” That lack of work is surprising given cross-pollination between formats is one of the ECB’s primary goals.

 

“Fandom is really important for us, whether it’s England, Leicestershire or London Spirit,” Gould said. “That’s the key. We’ve got a really dedicated core audience, which is relatively small compared to other sports. Then we’ve got lots of people that are very interested in cricket, but perhaps don’t come to it as often as we want.

 

“We know the interest is there, we just need to get people to come more often for all formats, rather than just that ‘I’ve been to the Test once a year’ type of thing.”

 

This year’s Hundred, which starts at Lord’s on Tuesday, is likely to be the last before new owners start to push through significant changes, from team names and kits to the length of the format itself. “That’s the kind of conversation we’re starting to get into now,” said Vikram Banerjee, the tournament’s managing director. “It would be slightly odd to bring all these great people in and then just leave it as it is.”

 

Deals for the sale of part or full stakes in six of the eight Hundred franchises were finalised this week, with the final two expected imminently. The total investment has been put at £520m, of which an initial sum of “just north of £400,000” has been released to every county. Host counties can expect to receive a minimum of £18m and non-hosts around £25m.

 

The possibility of adding a ninth team has already been discussed, but non-hosts have been warned against spending their windfalls on unnecessary stadium upgrades. “When giving guidance as to what a future expansion team needs to look like in terms of facilities, we’re not going to be setting huge capacities,” Gould said.

 

“What we don’t want is a load of empty plastic seats around the place. We’re not looking to see investment going into creating white elephants.”



16/07

The Haves and the Have Nots



15/07

Wild card day for those eight franchises.

"Wild", Notts fans can be entitled to be livid as another player from our regular One Day Cup squad is signed-up by the Birmingham franchise.

The biggest name in the H*ndred mens* will be Liam Patterson-White, eighteen characters plus the hyphen.

As for those Notts cricket supporters that can stomach the August competition and still feel that they support the real Nottinghamshire club with integrity with no conflict, then perhaps rather than watch the Trent R*ckets they should splash out on tickets at Edgbaston as their franchise has the most Outlaws representing them: Duckett, Clarke, Freddie and now Liam, whereas the Trent Bridge franchise only has Calvin and Dillon in its squad. Not even Silver Fox could get his inform son drafted, now that he too has a snout in the R*ckets' feeding trough.



*One more character than Barrel, "Tilly Corteen-Coleman" in the women's


 The H*ndred sale saved up to six counties

16 comments:

  1. Freddie McCann is also at the Birmingham franchise - DH

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    Replies
    1. Indeed, but as an injury replacement he is yet to appear on th BBC's squad lists, similarly Dillon isn't on their list of Rocketeers.

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  2. Four of the five young Lancashire cricketers signed up by Hundred clubs (Tom Hartley, Tom Aspinwall, Mitch Stanley and Rocky Flintoff) were not selected to play in the first round of the Hundred matches.

    Their chances of playing much cricket during August look slim, which hardly helps their development.

    Instead of reducing cricket to address concerns about overworked players due to the county championship being compressed into the fringes of the season, the ECB and county bosses need to come up with practical solutions to a problem that is solely of their own making.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So agree, "too much cricket" is totally untrue, it is terrible scheduling. Re article above, 7/8 for Notts players in franchise thing, it really is "Blankety Blank". While 2 kids do great stuff for Notts in Metro Bank.

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  3. 82 NOT OUT
    Seems a pretty meagre return for nine Notts players employed by the 100 bosses
    A total of 121 runs
    And 8 wickets
    Money for old rope for some of the chosen few ??!!

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  4. 82 NOT OUT
    Ref todays Rockets match . Can a rejuvenated Tom Moores work his magic ?

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  5. So was the farce at Trent Bridge today begun with a minute's silence for the great Bobby Simpson ?
    I suspect not, they have no feel nor love for OUR game.
    They will not know that Bobby started his successful period as Australian Ashes captain at Trent Bridge. That here, in that match, he took a superb catch to dismiss Geoff Boycott for 49, to end GB's first Test innings. They have zero respect for cricket history, locally, or of anywhere. They are parasites, sucking everything out of it to make their money.

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    1. 82 NOT OUT
      RICH - its now a different world to the time you watched all the matches at TB
      Today Rocket attendance at TB was near capacity 14,256
      Thats probably DOUBLE the best BLAST TB attendance this season . Those crowd numbers cannit be ignored . The Rockets and 7 other “Teams” are selling a product that people want to see .
      Us “proper”cricket fans may not like it but the goalposts in cricket have moved ( daft thing to day) .
      We have to accept
      that a fair part of the “ cricket” fanbase has changed .
      We dont like change as we get older . But let the new young generation have their day in the sun
      We have had ours.
      We cannot turn the clock back - lets just accept the new situation and accept the vast amount of “ new money “ that will help keep some Counties solvent .

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    2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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    3. Not being at Trent Bridge yesterday, with my only indication of the crowd being the images of the Tom Moores' sixes shown in clips on SM - all I can say is that for a near sell out crowd, there were an awful lot of empty seats in the Smith Cooper Fridge - check them pictures out yourself.

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    4. Fair points, but ir is fair to say that The Blast was pulling 11,000 at Trent Bridge, sometimes more, before the competition was downgraded and moved, time wise, with all the promotion going to the new "kid" on the block. I do also feel that cricket has lost it's soul, and many of it's skills. Saw club match yesterday, plenty of young lads playing, and it was still the game we love.





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  6. 82 NOT OUT
    The 14,000 plus crowd yesterday was the official one and not an estimate .
    Ref the TB T20 glory days . I went down one Friday night after the match had started. I couldnt find s seat - so I came back home .
    Personally I like a bit of space so a crowd of 7/8,000 suits me fine .
    I wonder how many of the 14,000 TB crowd yesterday no longer attend Blast matches ?
    Also , why do they prefer the 100 ball format ? Does thr 100 Comp appeal more to families with younger children and has a friendlier atmosphere.?
    Some boozy Blast Friday nights can seem a bit threatening because the focus for Notts ccc is selling overpriced alcohol and the cricket is secondary !?
    What do others think?

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    Replies
    1. I'm not quibbling about the 14K number, as capacity is 17K, there will be spaces. It's a little odd that the family stand would be where I saw some of those spaces - perhaps the kids were engrossed in other activities laid on at that time under the stand. When Outlaws were getting 11, 12, 13, 14 thousands attendances, the Blast was played during July and August. Warm evenings etc etc - marketting emphasis is no longer on the Blast - the ticket office has been laminated / shrouded in TR colours for weeks (and was probably during the Blast). The average TR ticket purchaser travels over 100 miles matchdays. The average Outlaws ticket purchaser lives in or around NG2. Hype draws people in and the hype for the H*ndred has been in your face for months up and down the country - a new audience but not a local audience necessarily.

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  7. 82 NOT OUT
    DAVE - you quote an amazing stat in your last post .
    The average Rockets TB customer travels a return distance of 100 miles . I assumed ( incorrectly) that the 14,000 crowd yesterday would mainly consist of locals .
    So the 100 ball net is cast far and wide

    ReplyDelete

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