How did The Hundred succeed in changing the idea of watching cricket

If anyone was asked ahead of the start of the tournament whether The Hundred will be able to pull off what it promises, especially with the stars of both the men’s and women’s game all gone due to covid-19 and national duties? The answer would have been a huge NO. Even before the start of the tournament, leading cricket websites called it just a shenanigan. 

However, with 32 league games done and with almost all the Men’s games having full house attendance and Women’s games seeing attendance numbers never heard of before in Women’s domestic cricket, there is only one word that could consume it all and it is spelt as SUCCESS. 

But that success cannot only be measured in terms of in house attendance. Also, there are certain publications in and outside the United Kingdom that are terming the large attendances as a result of very low priced to almost free tickets, DJs in the stadium and all that WWE kind of entry to batters and teams, and most recently some ven termed Hundred games as the ‘entertainment place of drunken lads’. 

But is it really that? If the Stadiums for both Men’s and Women’s games are showing record numbers for domestic cricket in England in the recent past, then can the reason for it be degenerated to ‘just because of freebies’?

If the stadium numbers are due to freebies (which is definitely not the case as sure people have many things to do during an English summer than watching free cricket if they don’t like it) then, the record digital and traditional (TV) viewership that has soared through the roofs could also be termed due to free to air broadcast. But again I would ask the same question, would people really watch something in this day and age if they are not interested? 

But this debate could be left for another day. The crux of the matter is, with 8.54 million people watching the matches in the first week on telly with 3.33 million of them being first-time viewers of the game, there is surely something that The Hundred has changed in England. The peak numbers for Men’s games on TV was 2.5 million while 1.95 million was the highest registered audience for a women's match.

There are few reasons as to how that could have been achieved. In one word, we could say that it was by making cricket viewing simpler. But how did they do it?

Treating cricket like an individual sport

On the screen during The Hundred games, the most prominent things are the names of the batters and the bowlers. That is at the centre bottom of the screen as you can see in the picture (tweet) below. On the side, the horizontal bars show runs and balls with team logos. That’s it. And that’s basically all that matters- runs, balls, batters and bowlers. 

The rest of the things such as economy rate, average, strike rate, dot ball percentages are part of reading between the lines. The main thing for a new audience is batter and bower and runs and balls and The Hundred was able to crack that code. 

Also, if cricket is analysed, it is totally different from other team sports such as Football, Rugby, Hockey, Basketball etc. Baseball is the only other sport that somewhat compares to it. Why? Because in other sports, you can’t have the game going on without almost all the players being in the same frame for a viewer. 

But in cricket, basically, it is a duel between a batter and bowler, which is more like an individual sport, where two people are competing against each other, but with a difference that the other 20 players are on the same pitch, but their involvement in the game depends upon the action of these two individuals who occupy the central frame. 

And that is why giving batters the theme music-fireworks- WWE kind of entry is possible and justified too. Similarly justified is the new style of scorecard where bowlers and batters are more important than the team and that has definitely hit a chord with the audience. 

The rule changes working in favour

The non-changing of the strike

For a new viewer, it is not easy to follow cricket with batsmen running and strikes changing. What is even more confusing is that when a batter gets out caught,  the new batter is not on strike, rather the non-striker comes in. To end this confusion, the new rule of the Hundred says that no matter how the batter gets out, the new batter will be on strike.  And this has surely helped audiences come in tune with cricket, rather looking for rules all the time. 

The 10-ball rule

Also, the new rule of five balls per over and also allowing 10 balls to be bowled at a stretch by a bowler and making bowling two overs from one end compulsory make the game swift. Not only does it make the game move fast, but it also gives an opportunity for the audiences along with the players to get their thinking caps on and guess which bowler will be trusted with a 10 ball over, at which stage of the game will that be applied and so on and so forth. 

Time limit rule

Another interesting thing about The Hundred which catches audience attendance is the time limit. The overs could be as long as it gets with all the discussion between the captain and the bowler, especially in a tense situation and with all the Decision Review System coming in, they keep on getting longer. While most of the time it works as an add on to the cricketing experience, but sometimes it can feel like a stretch too. 

The idea of setting a time limit of 65 minutes for each innings and adding a penalty of bringing one fielder in the inner circle as and when the team exceeds the time limit could be hugely detrimental to the eventual result of the game. Thus comes another feature that gets the audience involved all the much more as they are keeping a tab on the time too. 

Ringside commentary

The final change in the rules, which makes it mandatory for the commentators to be commentating from a trailer parked just outside the boundary line, with balls coming to them directly, gives a ringside commentary feeling. So now instead of commentators sitting in cosy comm boxes in the media pavilions like an elite, the boxing loving audience of the United Kingdom could have the ringside feeling with cricket. 

It has definitely worked as an add-on as the real reactions of commentators are coming out with every ball and they are able to connect more with people. 

Two matches one club: The doubleheaders formula

Women’s cricket has touched a different pedestal altogether with The Hundred. An average 7500 audience pre-game for 32 matches is previously unheard of in domestic games in women’s sport in England, yes not even in Women’s football. It is almost 10 times more than an average of 800 odd during the Kia Super League, the former T20 domestic competition for England Women. The average viewership, as mentioned has soared for women too. What actually is the reason behind it?

The experts say it’s the format where both Men’s and Women’s games are played on the same day and could be watched on the same ticket. 

“If we’re honest, we didn’t quite know how the double headers were going to go,” Beth Barrett-Wild, head of the Hundred women’s competition was quoted as saying by The Guardian. 

“The core proposition of the Hundred – men’s and women’s sport on the same platform. The marketing has really signposted the fact that this is one matchday – two matches, one club. We’re not trying to sell two separate competitions – it is one competition played by men and women, and I think that really helps,” she added. 

And the idea indeed has taken off. People are able to see two games in one ticket by basically watching their club being represented by both men and women on the same day. This could actually revolutionise women cricket and lead the way for Women’s T20 leagues all around the world. But that again is a topic for another day. 

The English summer holidays did the trick

The last and probably the biggest reason for such large numbers in terms of viewership and stadium audience is the timing of the league. Although marred by Covid-19 and pull-outs by stars and being botched into the tight English summer, the one thing that worked in favour of The Hundred is the summer school holidays in the entire UK. 

The target audience of the tournament for the ECB was the youth and they have been successful in reaching out to them. With Women’s players going as far as gifting team T-Shirt to young audience members, the league came close to the hearts of the people, and such huge numbers might baffle pundits, but it is the result of all these efforts put in by the board and the players and the organisers that has resulted in what we are now calling Success.