I didn’t watch The Hundred draft live. I wanted to but my my wife and kids insisted on watching something else (there’s a message in there somewhere). However, I whizzed through the recording this morning and I have to say that I found the whole experience quite entertaining – albeit perhaps not quite in the way that Colin Graves and Tom Harrison intended.

First of all I have to say that Sky did a relatively good job. And now that the disparate marketing snippets – by which I mean the competition logo, the team logos, the uniforms etc – have been brought together, you can kind of see what they’re trying to do. I’m not sure that the marketing agency employed has any idea whatsoever about Cricket, in fact I’m sure they don’t, but the ECB would probably say “that’s the whole point”. I found it all desperately cheesy but maybe younger people will feel differently?

Whether this new approach, which is based on bright garish colours and an ostensibly simpler form of cricket, can actually win over a new audience is a completely different question. I suspect it won’t – although they’ll do their best to massage the figures to prove whatever they like afterwards – but there we go. I could be wrong.

However, did anyone else think it was a little odd seeing three middle aged men, Nasser Hussain (51), Rob Key (40), and Ian Ward (47) trying to market something that’s supposed to be cool? I think they would’ve been better off going even younger and trying some entirely new commentators, perhaps with a 2:2 male and female split and more ethnic diversity. It’s just a thought.

So what can I tell you about the whole event? Predictably they started off by trying to hype the hell out of the tournament:

“100 balls and every single one counts!” (as if every ball doesn’t count in T20)

“The best players in the world” (although India players won’t be there, and South African & Kiwi players will have limited availability)

“Bold, bright, fast” (except for the strategic timeouts one assumes)

“And everyone’s invited” (unless you live in one of the 62 UK cities that doesn’t have a team)

However, you can’t blame the broadcasters for trying. And the players did their best to play along too – although they did look a bit sheepish at times. There was one immortal moment when they asked Jonny Bairstow a question and he clearly wasn’t listening (he was too engrossed with his phone). When prompted he looked up, nodded politely, forced a smile, and then got back to Grinder or whatever he was looking at.

Ian Ward also asked Jofra Archer and Joe Root whether they were “feeling the buzz” for the new competition. Archer is so laid back that I doubt he gets excited about anything. Meanwhile, Joe Root put on his serious corporate face (the one he uses at press conferences when England have lost), and confirmed to all and sundry that there was indeed “a buzz” and everyone really was indeed feeling very “excited”. And of course, he didn’t waste a great opportunity to mention how The Hundred is “a great opportunity to grow the game”. Box ticked.

The set itself went for maximum drama and an somewhat urban feel. Everything was black and shrouded in darkness except for the booths where the respective team coaches were located. There was a colourful monolith displaying each franchise’s logo behind each 3-man braintrust.

It was good to see some impressive coaches there, although some of them clearly hadn’t done much preparation. When Rashid Khan was selected first by the Trent Rockets, the South Brave, who were choosing next, seemed completely thrown. It took them what seemed like an eternity to choose Dre Russell. Surely they should’ve known who the top two players on their board would be before the Hundred draft started?!

Overall the atmosphere seemed ok, although it felt a bit like Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, especially when cheesy dramatic music started to play in the background when coaches were pondering their picks. The players in attendance were obviously delighted when their names got called. Ravi Bopara looked like Mr Happy on prozac when he was selected for £100k. No wonder the players are in favour of The Hundred. You can finally pay off that mortgage now, Rav.

Although the draft process itself was a bit surreal, I actually found it quite entertaining in the end. The programme lasted for 3 hours – which is longer than the games themselves – so I expected to find it all rather tedious. But instead I found myself relatively engaged with proceedings. Some of the picks seemed extremely left-field to me, so I was trying to work out the coaches’ thought-process.

I’m not sure the average Joe would find the draft itself particularly engrossing – if the ECB are aiming for a new audience then they wouldn’t have heard of any of the players anyway – but I happen to like this kind of thing because I’m a nerd. I love the NFL draft and watch it for three days straight, so I’m quite predisposed to this kind of thing. The Hundred has a lot of work to do before it’s anywhere near as slick and dramatic as the process stateside, and I doubt Kevin Costner will be lining up a Hollywood drama on the subject quite yet, but there might be some potential here.

It will be interesting to see if the concept of the draft takes off in subsequent years. They’ll need to tweak the format a bit though. My main criticism is that picks were made far too quickly, so there was no time for analysis after each one. In the NFL draft there’s a lot more room for speculation before each pick, an immediate look at the players strengths / weaknesses (and a highlights reel) as soon as the pick is made, and then reflection afterwards.

In The Hundred Draft all the picks were made within about a minute of each other, so analysis was basically restricted to Wardy and Nasser asking the England contracted player sitting in the studio whether they were looking forward to playing with X, Y, or Z. This produced some pretty mind numbing television because the likes of Root, Stokes, Bairstow and Archer weren’t exactly going to say “David Warner on my team? Yuk”. Instead viewers had to read between the lines and try to work out if the inevitable smiles and thumbs up were contrived.

There was one superb moment when Jos Buttler’s Manchester Originals selected Lancashire keeper Dane Vilas. Jos looked about as thrilled as I do when I discover cat crap on my lounge carpet. Of course, these guys are rivals at Lancs and Vilas usually keeps when the two of them are playing. Tots awks … as the kids might say!

Overall however, although I quite enjoyed the Hundred draft, my lasting impression was how the “best players in the world” slogan rang somewhat hollow. Why? Because most of the franchises seemed to prefer English domestic talent over the big foreign imports. Bopara, Phil Salt, Liam Livingstone, Tom Abell, Liam Dawson, Sam Billings, and Lewis Gregory all went for £100k or more. Meanwhile, the much hyped Chris Gayle and Lasith Malinga weren’t picked at all. I won’t cry for universe boss.

Consequently, when one looks at the team rosters, they’re mostly filled with County regulars plus the odd exotic overseas spinner and / or second rate Aussie. The standard will certainly by higher than the Vitality Blast but I don’t think it will be too much better. The Trent Rockets, for example, have Rashid Khan (who played for Sussex last year anyway), Darcy Short (who’s a good player but hardly a big draw over here), Nathan Coulter-Nile (ditto), and then eleven county stalwarts. The Birmingham Phoenix, meanwhile, have Kane Williamson (who will miss some of the competition on international duty) young Pakistani Shaheen Afridi (hardly a household name), and Adam Zampa (who has previously played for Essex). It’s hardly the heavyweight championship of the world.

With teams restricted to 3 overseas players I suppose it was always going to be thus. However, seeing all these county players signed up to play for distant franchises just felt wrong. Ben Foakes will be playing in Leeds, Liam Plunkett is now an adopted Welshman, and Liam Livingstone is apparently a Brummie.

Thank heavens a lot of franchises opted for players from their county catchment areas when in doubt. I imagine this is because the ECB and the franchises are worried about ticket sales and think local players might boost attendances (and entice some existing fans away from county fixtures during the competition).

One thing we mustn’t neglect to mention, however, is the negative effect The Hundred is going to have on domestic 50-over cricket. Hundred supporters have been very keen to remind us that 50 over cricket – you know, that format we’re World Champions at – won’t actually stop during the franchise event but this is incredibly disingenuous. The remaining county sides will be hugely weakened by the absence of their star players.

Take my county Worcestershire for example. Seven Pears were selected for The Hundred: Moeen Ali, Pat Brown, Ed Barnard, Ross Whitely, Ben Cox, Riki Wessels, and Wayne Parnell. That’s most of the first team. I’m not sure we’ll actually have enough professional players on the books to field a team in the 50 over stuff. What’s more, how is Pat Brown (who is in England’s T20 squad) going to make the transition to international 50 over cricket in the future if he’s not actually going to play that form of the game domestically anymore?

Basically, whatever you think of The Hundred (and there are a few people who support it), one shouldn’t forget what’s being sacrificed to make room for this new experiment. And we haven’t even mentioned the effect on the county championship yet.

What’s more, although it’s good to see players from your county enjoy a substantial pay day, let’s not forget the dedicated county servants like Daryl Mitchell, Sam Northeast, and James Hildreth – players who deserve a big pay day more than most – who are being left behind. How long will it be before the raison d’etre of all county players is to win a Hundred contract rather than excel in red ball cricket? It’s a slippery slope folks.

James Morgan

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