According to the Daily Mail, The Hundred, a short-form cricket tournament based in the UK, may be transformed into a Twenty20 competition. Although discussions regarding the tournament’s future are at an early stage, the newspaper claims that the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is concerned about The Hundred being the only 100-ball cricket competition established, while Twenty20 cricket continues to thrive around the world.
The newspaper said that one proposal involved inviting semi-professional county clubs to participate in an expanded competition to provide promising cricketers with a pathway into the professional game. Any change to The Hundred’s format would require the consensus of the first-class county teams, with the ECB open to suggestions.
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This speculation has come about after a report by Fanos Hira, the chairman of Worcestershire County Cricket Club, stated that The Hundred made a loss of £9 million in its first two years, while the ECB claimed that the tournament had made a profit of £11.8 million.
The ECB had received an offer of £400 million for a 75-per-cent stake in the tournament, but it has now decided not to sell The Hundred at any price due to the lack of similar 100-ball cricket tournaments anywhere else.