The Hundred: Cricket's newest avatar

Moneycontrol News 

The ICC T20 World Cup is slated to be held in in Australia in 2020. While the Aussies would be  going all out to cash on the the cricket's shortest format, England is gearing up to start another cricket revolution.

The year will  witness the birth of cricket's newest avatar, The Hundred, in England.

ESPN Cricinfo on February 21 reported that England Cricket's governing body the ECB has won the votes from 17 of the 18 first-class counties for  The Hundred, which is due to be launched next year. The only county that has voted against the motion is Surrey.

The concept of the Hundred is to further trim cricket and reduce it to a hundred-ball affair.

With criticisms of the purists notwithstanding,  ECB Chief Tom Harrison has staunchly backed the idea.

"The Hundred will help cricket to reach more people," Harrison said.

The format will see eight new city-based teams play the hundred-ball cricket over a five-week period in the English summer of 2020.

According to a report in The Guardian, ECB has already signed media rights deal worth eye-popping £1.1 bn. This, Harrison  believes, has generated excitement in England's cricketing circles.

So what are the rules and regulations of cricket's next revolution ?

1.  As the name suggests, it is a 100-ball per innings affair.
2. A change of ends 10 balls.
3. A bowler delivers either five or 10 consecutive balls.
4. Each bowler is permitted to bowl a maximum of 20 balls in a match
5. The bowling side gets a strategic timeout of two and a half minutes
6. Poweplay is 25-ball long and starts at the beginning of an innings
7. Two fielders are permitted outside of the 30-yard circle during powerplay

While ECB is mooting the idea of hundred-ball cricket, the cricketing fraternity remains divided on the concept.

Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli has discarded the idea. For him this is further commercializing the sport and the real quality of the cricket will be ruined. In an interview to Wisden Cricket Monthly, Kohli had said: “Obviously for the people involved in the whole process and the set-up it will be really exciting but I cannot think of one more format, to be honest."

Like Kohli, former Indian skipper  and current member of the MCC’s World Cricket Committee Saurav Ganguly is also not in favour of the idea.

"You got to be very careful that it should not be such that before a spectator comes and blinks, the thing (match) is over. The shorter the format gets, the difference between the very good and the ordinary becomes much lesser,” Ganguly said.

However, the Hundred finds  few international heavyweights by its side.

Former South Africa skipper AB de Villiers has expressed his interest to play the tournament.

"I can't see anything wrong with trying something different," he had told the BBC.

Like de Villiers, Chris Gayle too has shown keen interest in playing the tournament.

“Well, if I don’t start it (the Hundred), it won’t be a tournament,” joked Gayle.