An ode to Mel Jones and why The Hundred must learn from the CPL draft

Make no mistake, as far as auctions go, this was supremely handled. Class from outset to final curtain. But this was a long afternoon in Fulham; near enough three and a half hours with a break in between. And yet, how do you improve upon it?

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There was a moment towards the end of the Caribbean Premier League draft yesterday that it struck me.

“I wonder whether those overseeing The Hundred are watching this,” another member of the audience mused in my direction. It wasn’t so much a question as a moment of self-thought. For, in amongst the streams of names read out – both global stars and local journeymen, there is, if nothing else, plenty of time for reflection.

In a sense, it isn’t terribly dissimilar from your standard university graduation ceremony; an impossibly long list of people queuing inordinately for their moment in the sun, some of whom are of little interest to your own ears and others you simply haven’t heard of.

Yet, to label it as an unbearable affair is to be narrow-minded; parents and grandparents live for that one minute when their offspring take to the stage for the arbitrary handshake that officially completes their education. It is a long old ceremony but, without it, there is no graduation.

Likewise, no franchise tournament can exist without its draft; it goes against its very nature. While you might only care about the destination of Andre Russell or Lasith Malinga, there are still 17 more rounds to go through. It is both a necessary oddity and an odd necessity.

An oddity in the sense that two decades ago – when Twenty20 had little meaning beyond your annual eye-test, you would have been laughed out of town for suggesting that such a setup might exist in this grand old sport, where traditionalism was everything and innovation was scorned upon as an exercise purely thought up with disruption in mind.

And yet, there we were, all sat in our rows at London’s Gfinity Esports Arena, with cricket the order of the day. There is, of course, an irony there. Cricket and esports could scarcely be further apart on the sporting spectrum. Yet, that is not what the CPL is about - it is a modern product for the modern fan.

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Rahkeem Cornwall will play for the St Kitts & Nevis Patriots this year.

It parades itself as a beacon of fun and razzmatazz; ‘the greatest party in sport’, it calls itself. Indeed, the choice of venue was very much deliberate. And with its Caribbean colours complementing the jet black surroundings of this amphitheatre of video games, nobody could argue with the attempt to make a calypso atmosphere of the occasion.

But, you see, an auction is an auction. And the greater the number of products up for sale, the longer it takes. The more food you buy from the supermarket, the longer it takes to pay. But you can’t leave without doing so. It is the same notion.

And no amount of vibrant island music can change that particular fact. And that, perhaps, is why the thought of The Hundred drafting away eight teams worth of cricketers fills me with a mixture of both dread and fascination.

Make no mistake, as far as auctions go, this was supremely handled. Class from outset to curtain. But this was a long afternoon in Fulham; near enough three and a half hours with a 45-minute break slotted in between.

And I should say – and this is the crux of it, I thought it was done bloody well.

Mel Jones – straight off a flight from Australia – sat alongside former West Indies skipper Daren Ganga and presenter Alex Jordan. Michael Hall, the tournament’s director of operations, doubled up as a self-styled governor of the draft’s regulations, situated alone on his raised platform as if a superior being. Jordan would revert to ‘Michael’s Corner’ when controversy broke out. A quick tap of his touchscreen monitor would soon clarify any issues. He was the Bryan Swanson of the peak Deadline Day years.

It really was as slick as could be, especially for a show being broadcast live. It was a mightily impressive production. Jones, especially given her jetlag, was fantastic. A fine broadcaster in any case, this was professionalism at its most consummate level. Her levels of conversation never tired, nor did she or Ganga ever stumble over the lesser known local players being discussed.

There was never really an awkward silence, never a moment when the analysis ran dry. Complimentary examples were drawn from the IPL, the Big Bash, the women’s game. The content of the punditry was often first-class. The collective endurance was better still, even if Jones – understandably – looked increasingly knackered by the close.

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Jones was the star of the show, speaking fluently and with the right mixture of detail and wit for the duration of the draft.

Behind the trio sat the team officials, tapping away irrepressibly at phones and keypads. The Guyana Amazon Warriors brought their coach along in Johan Botha. Other teams brought high-level execs.

You felt that you were never really more than ten yards away from an analyst of some kind. But that is the game; and this is serious business. Cricket and esports are never closer than when experts are huddled around a console, working against a clock. The two have more in common than either would care to believe.

Alex Hales, the first player plucked out as the Barbados Tridents’ first-round pick, was present and he was briefly interviewed on stage. His World Cup withdrawal more or less ignored, Hales spoke freely about his excitement at joining his new teammates come September. He recalled his fond memories of the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, where he made his fifth ODI hundred in 2017 – in happier times, one might suggest. Given his personal circumstances, his brave face and good-natured, witty conversation could only be applauded.

Meanwhile, Chris Gayle – the Universe Boss – sat towards the back of this curious ‘stadium’, content hidden among the audience, though always visible by a cap that screamed of the 40-year-old; yellow and adorned with the number 333. The Universe Boss, as always, on brand.

And this was all great. It was so on-message and it was all that the CPL is and wishes to be; a mixture of world-class cricket T20 and one great big party. They could scarcely have put together a better show.

But even so, it was long. It was long even though it was as short as it could have been. I don’t really know what the CPL – or anyone else, for that matter – could possibly do differently, given the number of teams and the sheer quantity of players bursting to put their names down for a month in the Caribbean.

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Alex Hales made 110 at the Kensingon Oval back in 2017 as England racked up 328 against the West Indies.

And that, right there, should have the ECB’s ears pricked and eyebrows shooting aloft.

The Hundred, from what we know thus far, is all about attention spans, attracting a new audience, proving to cricket-sceptics that the game doesn’t have to be long and stodgy.

It would certainly be ironic if a tournament whose format has been shortened by the demands of broadcasters lost its target audience even before the games had begun due to a tedious amalgamation of Flog It and QVC.

The CPL has its audience; it is – rightly – an enormously respected competition. The 536 names available to the six teams in London were testament to that. The Hundred has none of that yet. It is, effectively, a startup. And like any startup, it can ill-afford a botched launch. Every error thus far has been pounced upon, each misstep reveled in by many who cannot stand neither concept nor principle.

If they can match this attempt, they’ll be doing well. Objectively, this was a mighty fine effort. There was a lot for others to follow and replicate. But even then, will it have to be shorter if it is to appeal to those most sought-after customers? After all, that is what it's all about, isn't it?

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