The Hundred is here – so how does it work and what are the rules?

The matches

The blurb on the Hundred website sums up the goals from the simplicity of the game to the desired audience: “Seven cities, eight teams, 100 balls. The Hundred is played over five weeks during the school holidays and is a great way for families to enjoy cricket. ”

The ECB’s market research showed that two and a half times more respondents identify with a city than with a district; 75 percent of families said they prefer short games that end by 9 p.m., and 19 percent of those who don’t watch cricket said the complicated nature of the sport’s terminology is the main barrier to participation in games. These answers underpinned the design of the tournament.

The broadcasters will try to make it easier to say which team will win. For the team to hit first, the scoreboard will show runs that have been revealed by balls (57 runs with 25 balls), for the team with the second hit, required runs and remaining balls (75 required out of 51 balls) with Sky using the Winviz’s equation as well (which shows the percentage chance that each side will win updated ball by ball).

Each team’s innings are 100 balls long (plus no balls and wides) with ten lots of ten balls from each end. The captains decide whether a bowler throws five balls in a row or stays all ten balls. Bowlers can bowl a maximum of 20 balls per innings and can bowl two five ball overs in a row from either the same end or alternating ends.

The decision verification system that Hawkeye is using will be available for the first time in home cricket in England, as well as an “intelligent replay” system that will not automatically call balls (resulting in a free hit).

One of the main reasons for the Hundred is to finish games in two and a half hours that end at 9 p.m. to attract young families. The teams will be on the clock the entire time. Broadcasters are given 50 seconds to switch pages.

The field team can call a two-minute break if the head coach can come out and discuss tactics with the players. It is not mandatory and can only be called after 25 legitimate balls have been thrown in an innings.

There will be a 25-ball power play when only two field players are allowed outside the inner circle and the umpires call “five” at the end of an over instead of “over” as has traditionally been the case. They also hold up a white card to indicate the end of the first five legitimate balls from one end.

Do you have it all

The competition

There are eight new teams, all based in the city, competing against each other at home and away in the group round of 32 games. The team in the end qualifies for the final and the teams in second and third place play an eliminator to determine the other finalist.

Both the men’s and women’s finals will take place on August 21 at Lord’s in a short time slot between the third and fourth friendly against India, which means that the English men’s team is available.

The men’s salaries have been cut by up to 20 percent this year due to Covid losses in 2020. The men will earn between £ 30,000 and £ 125,000, a blatant difference in wages with women. Their salaries have not been cut, but they will only be paid between £ 3,600 and £ 15,000 to enter the tournament.

However, the prize money will be the same. The winning men’s and women’s teams will each receive £ 150,000 and the runners-up will receive £ 75,000.

The players

Each squad is allowed 16 players with three overseas. The star quality has been badly hit in the last few weeks. There are no Indian players in the men but five in the women, including teenage superstar batsman Shafali Verma (Birmingham Phoenix).

Greats like David Warner (Southern Brave), Steve Smith and Mitchell Starc (both Welsh Fire), Glenn Maxwell (London Spirit), Marcus Stoinis (Southern Brave), Kane Williamson (Birmingham Phoenix), Shaheen Shah Afridi (Birmingham Phoenix) and Kagiso Rabada (Manchester Originals) all pulled out for various reasons, but mostly to avoid a Covid quarantine or international commitments. Salaries are nowhere near the IPL’s, another reason many felt able to stay at home.

Afghan leg spinner Rashid Khan (Trent Rockets), South Africans Quinton de Kock (Southern Brave) and Faf du Plessis and West Indian T20 star Keiron Pollard (Welsh Fire) are the main attractions outside of England’s white ball stars like Jason Roy, Eoin Morgan and Adil Rashid.

An unintended boost to competition is Jofra Archer’s having to make his return to the Hundred with no championship cricket planned.

Each team has been given an England Test Contract player, though limited to the first week of competition and the final with the India Series starting August 4th. Morgan is the captain of the London Spirit, where he will work with coach Shane Warne.

source https://outdoorsportsnews.com/the-hundred-is-here-so-how-does-it-work-and-what-are-the-rules-2/