LONDON: The chairman of England’s Professional Cricketers Association (PCA) and Worcestershire player, Daryl Mitchell on Tuesday said that the ECB’s brainchild format ‘The Hundred’ will have a good amount of takers despite being a work in progress. Following the completion of all the men’s pilot 100-ball matches organized by the PCA this month, the players involved in them were generally positive in their reviews.
Mitchell added that it is only after the women’s cricketers complete their trial game on September 27 that the PCA will submit its holistic feedback report to the ECB.
“Having played in three games over two days, it is definitely still cricket which is something I, along with lots of other members were sceptical about,” Mitchell said in an interview.
“Generally, the players involved did enjoy the format and there was some good cricket played with a productive feedback session on Sunday.
“However, only 38 PCA playing members participated in these pilot games and as chairman it is my role to represent every player and we have over 400 members who did not play at Trent Bridge or Loughborough.
“Although the men’s trial games have concluded, the England Women will be having a trial on September 27 so we will wait until that has taken place and then we will survey all current players as we welcome all of their input to present our findings to the ECB.
“The ECB have been in regular dialogue with the players since the announcement of ‘The Hundred’ through small groups and PCA staff so consultation has been good so far.
“However, we are now potentially just over a year away from the first draft so we are on a short timescale. It is important to get things in place and over the next few months there will have to be a blueprint of exactly how this competition is going to work.
“It must also be noted that although the format of the game played in the middle is important, there is so much going on behind the scenes in terms of contracts, squad sizes, payment, and how this competition is going to look from top to bottom.” he signed off.
The ECB’s maverick idea has courted mixed reactions and controversy alike in the cricketing world with the likes of India’s captain, Virat Kohli not being open to the idea of participating in it ever in the future.
