How the Hundred is going to kill the T20 Blast – and it’s halfway there already

Given the glitz of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and the enormous sums pumped into the Hundred, it’s easy to forget that the more humble T20 Blast was the format’s original professional tournament.

First played in 2003, it was seen as little more than a gimmick at the time. But it effectively saved English cricket from financial implosion.

Back then, the thought of private investment flooding into the game was as likely as a ramp shot off a 90mph thunderbolt.

Now, though, the Blast occupies a very different world, as anyone at Lord’s last Sunday will have appreciated.

Middlesex and Surrey used to be one of the tournament’s most marketable fixtures, one that would regularly sell-out at the Home of Cricket.

Last weekend’s match, in contrast, attracted a crowd of around 7, 000.

Attendance figures for T20 Blast fixtures aren’t readily available. But it’s safe to assume that the record of 920,000 spectators recorded in 2019 isn’t in danger of being toppled anytime soon.

Sean Jarvis, the former CEO of Leicestershire – he left Grace Road at the end of last summer – believes that change is on the way and that sustaining both the T20 Blast and the Hundred over such a short period of time no longer represents a feasible future.

“Having two similar tournaments so close to each other is naturally going to affect one of them,” he tells The i Paper.

“I guess the question is – has the Hundred created a new audience, or has it cannibalised it?  My fear is probably the latter.

“I’ve worked in football [Jarvis was the commercial director at Huddersfield Town during their stay in the Premier League] and the Blast almost feels a bit like the EFL Trophy: you get fairly sparse crowds in the early rounds and then you get sell-outs in the semi-finals and final.

“But I think the two competitions will merge, that’s completely inevitable. It’s just a question of how quickly it happens.”  

The prices charged by some counties may be having an impact on Blast attendances in more constrained economic times.

Sam Billings, Kent’s T20 skipper lambasted the £38 ticket adult price charged by Middlesex for last Friday’s match-up, labelling it “ludicrous” on social media.

He has a point but that’s not to say that every county is struggling.

Somerset, for example, sold out their first game of the competition against Hampshire at Taunton last week.

Surrey, meanwhile, consistently attracts crowds in excess of 20,000.

But with the non-Hundred counties actively involved in conversations over what their future might look like, there’s an increasing feeling that something has to give.

“The Hundred will become the short format of the English game but it will be in a T20 rather than the Hundred ball form,” says Rob Wilson, Sports Finance expert at the University Campus of Football Business (UCFB).

“You’ll then have this international competition where you’ll have teams from the Big Bash, the IPL and the South African T20, coming together to play each other: cricket’s answer to the Champions League.

“Where does this leave those counties who don’t host internationals or have an associated Hundred franchise? That’s the million dollar question, I guess.

“My feeling would be that they play in a second division of the Hundred and effectively become feeder clubs for these bigger teams.

“The ECB, meanwhile, stops funding the teams in the top tier, who should be making enough thorough the Hundred and through hosting England games to be self-sustaining, and uses that money to fund those other counties.”

That’s a realistic vision, albeit one which wouldn’t necessarily win widespread approval at Hove, Derby and a fair few places in between.

For a competition that’s only 23 years old, you could argue that the Blast has witnessed more change in its sport than the FA Cup has in its 154 year existence.

Whether it’s now a relic itself is a moot point.

There are plenty who believe that a bit of imagination and a large dollop of marketing expenditure could have turned the Blast into one of the world’s most attractive T20 leagues.

And it’s still largely popular with the players.

James Vince is the leading runscorer in the competition’s history and has returned to Hampshire again this season to lead his county.

“The Blast gives you the opportunity to play for your county and for your supporters to support the county they love,” he says.

“It’s become a bit of unique competition, it’s not franchise cricket and it has a very different feel to it.

“It’s always nice to come back here and see familiar faces. It’s still a tournament I love and I think a lot of other players would tell you the same thing.”

In cricket, though, as recent history has proved, money talks.