The Cricketer surveyed fans' opinions on The Hundred at The Oval... to mixed reviews

SIMON HUGHES: The Cricketer's Inside Cricket podcast canvassed opinion among fans attending the County Championship match between Surrey and Hampshire, who were younger than anticipated, to assess the reasons behind the idea

^{Simon Hughes with cricket fans at The Kia Oval}

Is The Hundred - the ECB’s new short-form tournament inspired or insane?

The Cricketer's Inside Cricket podcast canvassed opinion at The Kia Oval amongst fans attending the County Championship match between Surrey and Hampshire, who were younger than anticipated, to assess the reasons behind the idea.

I revealed how I first got the 100-ball idea from watching an Under 13 colts match and presented the concept to the ECB three years ago but, as I've mentioned before, I have some reservations about it now.

The conclusion among the group was that the idea is a tacit admission by the ECB that they didn’t properly capitalise on their original invention - T20, introduced in 2003 - and that it was a major error to give all live cricket to one satellite broadcaster after the surge of interest in the game from the 2005 Ashes.

"More people watch black and white movies on Channel 4 than watch cricket on Sky," says one of our Oval gaggle.

The Hundred is regarded as an almost desperate measure to compensate for those mistakes and seduce the BBC to get back into bed with cricket.

^{The ECB say they are targeting a new audience with The Hundred}

"Why do we need this?" says another. "We’ve already got a successful short format of the game. This will just become Celebrity Big Batting. You might as well just get a bowling machine in so every batsman can come in and have a slog."

The new MCC chief executive Guy Lavender, formerly the boss of Somerset, sounds a more positive note about the new tournament, declaring that the MCC will fully embrace it and see it as a catalyst to help Lord’s fully engage with the local population, with much more affordable ticket prices and a relaxed policy about entry into the pavilion.

He also reveals that his two teenage sons, once only interested in T20, are now converts to the Test format.

"Three or four years ago they weren’t interested in watching a Test match, they only wanted to watch T20," he said.

"Now they are and people do get bored by T20. I’m not as pessimistic as some about the future of Test cricket. It has enduring appeal and I think we will see more people making that transition from T20 to Tests."

Perhaps more people will buy into The Hundred as the concept sinks in but it appears at the moment there is a fair degree of scepticism. Then again, six of the 18 counties voted against T20 when it was first mooted.

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