The Hundred starts next week amid scepticism as to whether it is a good thing for cricket. Naysayers reckon it is a gimmicky, bastardised form of the game which demeans the original while Cheerleaders claim it as cricket’s saviour, a means of attracting a precious new audience in an increasingly time-challenged world oblivious to such things.
This butting of heads between the game’s traditionalists and progressives is familiar. Over the past 80 years elite cricket has re-invented itself many times. One-day cricket, Sunday afternoon cricket and T20 under floodlights, have all met with init...