Twenty20's success is no guarantee the Hundred will produce the numbers


When the short form was conceived in 2002 the cricket calendar was not so crowded and the format was one club players had been enjoying for years

A common refrain to those of us who are not hanging out the bunting at the news the Hundred will be on our screens and in our Test grounds in 2021 is that all the curmudgeons were just as negative about the advent of Twenty20 cricket in 2003.

This is an easy parallel to draw and a simplistic one. Let me try to correct it. The proposal to introduce T20 cricket 18 years ago was truly radical; the ECB was introducing a new format for professional cricketers (though club players had been enjoying a similar version for years).

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