The Hundred: The career maker and potential county cricket breaker
There are many differing opinions of The Hundred, you could see it as the marmite of the domestic game, a gimmicky broadcasting deal for the ECB or the launchpad for domestic players to become potential stars.
For Abtaha Maqsood, it is certainly proving to be the latter. The 23-year-old Scottish International spinner has taken her opportunity with both hands while playing for Birmingham Phoenix.
“I loved it, I loved every second of it. It was my first time playing for an English team so I hadn’t really been inside these big grounds before and it was pretty amazing.
“Without a shadow of a doubt, the best place to play is Edgbaston. Playing at home with the crowd is amazing, the atmosphere is brilliant. The first time I walked out was very, very scary. I think there was around 12,000 people at the first game there and when you’ve got the pyrotechnics going off, it was like nothing I’d ever experienced before,” she said.
For the women’s game, The Hundred has been revolutionary, as it has placed the women’s game on a level playing field with the men’s game.
All the women’s games get televised along with the men’s, while in pretty much every match barring exceptional circumstances, the women’s and men’s games are played on the same day as part of a ‘double header’.
Maqsood, who wears a hijab while playing, says that this has been key in bringing new crowds to the game.
“It’s definitely skyrocketed the women’s game and I think that’s because men and women have been put in the same playing field. After every game, me and a few girls do a lap of the boundary to meet fans. The number of girls that would come up to me and say they’ve been inspired by us and were wanting to go down to their local club was so wholesome and heartwarming.
“There were quite a few South Asian girls as well and they were talking about how important representation was to them and they said how they’d never seen someone who looked like them on that type of stage before. To be that person to people is quite important and even though the cricket is vital, to be an inspiration to others makes me really happy.”
While Maqsood inspires the next generation, performances on the pitch are earning the Glaswegian plaudits, which has led to her securing a third consecutive season with the Phoenix along with a first ever full-time professional contract.
“I’m playing for a regional team called Sunrisers at the moment. Signing for them happened off the back of The Hundred, which has totally changed my life. It was cool to get my first ever professional full-time contract and I owe The Hundred a lot.”
While the women’s competition has been a huge success, the jury is still out on the men’s competition.
It has been sandwiched into an already chaotic county calendar and has led to the One Day Cup being sidelined as a competition for playing reserve players and bringing youth through, akin to Rugby Union’s Premiership Rugby Cup.
Journalist and Editor of the County Cricket Matters magazine, Annie Chave, thinks that The Hundred is having a significant impact on the county game.
Chave said: “You have 18 counties playing their County Championship, their T20 and their 50 over and The Hundred comes in like a magpie. The problem is that you have 18 counties and you only have eight counties with a team in The Hundred.
“That leaves the remaining counties with the bare bones of the cricket during the peak time of the season, when the weather is ideal for longer form cricket. For example, Somerset played just four one-day games across the whole of August last year, the fans were desperate to watch cricket there and people may argue that the fans could watch Welsh Fire at Cardiff, but that wasn’t the cricket they wanted.
“However, there are positives as the 18 counties are all still playing and you effectively have a second eleven. You get a chance to give these second team players an opportunity, like Somerset’s James Rew, who come through and excel in the first team.”
The evidence is there to show that the traditional domestic formats are still proving to be successful, despite suggestions to reduce the number of county games. We look at the past year and how the England Test Team has evolved and the iconic moments they provided in Wellington and Rawalpindi. These moments would not have happened without the county game supplying quality players to the national set up.
Chave added: “You look at Harry Brook, he was playing County Championship and T20 Blast this time last year. Now he’s off scoring bags of runs for the test team and he has a big contract at the IPL.”
The Hundred is now penned in for every season until at least 2028 and Chave admits that while she doesn’t like the competition, cricket fans should try to embrace it.
“You cannot touch the broadcasting deal of August and we can’t for a while, we just have to live with that. We can try to embrace it, there’s a massive divide now: you either like The Hundred or you don’t and I don’t think it’s as simple as that.”
