| 01 | What It Got Right |
A Competition That Has Changed English Cricket
The Hundred is done for another year, and whatever your view on the format, I think it deserves far more credit for what it has achieved.
When The Hundred launched, it was bold, different and deliberately disruptive. It looked great, felt fresh and got people talking about domestic cricket in a way we hadn’t seen for a long time.
More importantly, it has delivered something English cricket desperately needed: attention, relevance and investment.
Confidence The arrival of some of the smartest and most successful investors in global sport is a huge vote of confidence in the future of English cricket. |
Value for the counties That investment has created enormous value and provides an opportunity to strengthen the county game for years to come. |
A new audience It has attracted major players, broadcasters, sponsors and a new generation of supporters. |
For that, the ECB and the people who created it deserve real credit.
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| 02 | What Comes Next |
The Case For T20
For me, the next evolution should eventually be a move to T20. Not because The Hundred has failed. Quite the opposite.
The Hundred has done the difficult job.
It has established the teams, created the brands and built the platform. Moving to T20 would simply allow that platform to connect more naturally with the rest of the global game.
Players understand T20.
Coaches understand it.
Fans around the world understand it.
And crucially, the investors who have now bought into English cricket are increasingly operating in a global franchise ecosystem built predominantly around T20.
The rights cycle Sky and the BBC hold the rights to a 100-ball competition to the end of 2028, and the ECB chair has said he doesn’t expect the format to change inside the current cycle. |
And when that moment comes, changing the format shouldn’t be viewed as scrapping The Hundred.
| ◆ | Keep the teams. |
| ◆ | Keep the investment. |
| ◆ | Keep the brands. |
| ◆ | Keep the window. |
| ◆ | Keep the energy. |
Just evolve the cricket.
If it becomes one of the world’s leading T20 competitions, the Hundred-ball format will still have served an incredibly important purpose. It will have been the catalyst that transformed English domestic cricket.
And that would make The Hundred a success.
What should the next chapter of The Hundred look like?
Vote below. Results in the next issue.
What should the next chapter of The Hundred look like?
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| 03 | The Money Map |
Where The Money Actually Came From
I said last year that you’re an absolute idiot if you don’t think India runs the world of cricket. Nothing since has proved me wrong.
The IPL hasn’t expanded. Still ten teams, still India, still a few weeks a year. What has expanded is the group of people who own those ten teams.
| 6 of 6 | SA20 franchises |
| 3 of 6 | In the UAE |
| 3 | In America |
| 4 of 8 | In The Hundred |
Sanjiv Goenka’s group alone owns a team in India, a team in South Africa and a team in Manchester.
Same name, three continents, one strategy, and Manchester won the thing in their first season under that flag.
You don’t put that kind of money into a competition and then leave the format alone forever.
They’ll want uniformity, and they should get it.
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| 04 | Nobody’s Uncomfortable |
Your Opponent Is Your Team-Mate Now
Here’s the problem with Test cricket, and it isn’t the one people normally reach for.
You don’t see the battles any more.
The players play with each other all day, every day. We’ve just finished The Hundred. Everyone in it was sharing dressing rooms, sharing tactics, talking about their team-mates.
Then they go away and play against each other and pretend they’ve never met.
That isn’t the players’ fault, it’s the calendar. But Test cricket was built on hostility, on not knowing the bloke at the other end. Take that away and you’ve taken something the format needs.
Coming next How Test cricket survives is a whole different article, and I’ll do that one next issue. |
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| 05 | The Match Winner |
Don’t Make Him Sensible
Rishabh Pant plays on instinct. He hasn’t got a single fear in his body about getting out.
That isn’t a flaw you manage. That’s the whole asset.
You build your team with players like that and hope that more than once in a series he comes off. When he does he wins the match on his own.
The rest is construction: you need players around him who knock it around and play the correct type of cricket. That’s what makes him affordable.
You never, ever, ever want to get rid of match winners.
Keep a match winner a match winner. Encourage him and let him be the player he can be. The moment you make him sensible, you’ve lost the exact thing you picked him for.
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| 06 | Player Power |
If I Was 22 Again
Everything fits into the global franchise circuit now. People argue about it as though it’s undecided. It isn’t.
The ECB have accepted that the IPL is where their players need to go and play.
When the best players have that many choices the balance shifts. If I was 22 again I wouldn’t agonise over any of it.
For the first time, the player is holding the pen.
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If you haven’t voted in the poll yet, scroll back up. I’ll run the results at the top of the next issue.
See you in a fortnight.
Kevin Pietersen
