“I still think it’s too long.”
Eoin Morgan has been the most vocal advocate of The Hundred ever since its inception. The new format, designed to attract a new, younger audience, has been a roaring success by any measure. But despite the ICC lobbying for cricket to gain Olympic status for 2028, Morgan does not believe The Hundred is cricket’s way into the Los Angeles Games.
“I still think it’s too long,” he says, after a deep sigh and some audible deliberating.
“Cricket gets great exposure as it is. To take advantage of being granted an Olympic sport, I think it needs to be shorter and more condensed.
“You need to be able to host a full round robin tournament in the space of five days, just because there’s so many other sports going on, and more popular ones than cricket.
“If we do get that opportunity, it has to be shorter.”
But make no mistake, Morgan is “all for cricket in the Olympics.”
Whether an even shorter format of the game would go down well is up for debate, with much of the cricketing world adjusting to The Hundred. But while there was scepticism before its launch, what is undeniable is the tournament’s success.
Sell-out crowds, closely fought, exciting matches and many more eyeballs on the women’s game has breathed new life into the cricket in a manner that the ECB could only have dreamed of.
“The constant thrust of a game on every night, with some of the best players in the world, in a pure entertainment arena,” is a factor in its popularity, Morgan explains while driving home from his London Spirit side’s first win against Manchester Originals at Old Trafford.
With each team being given at least one player in possession of a central contract with England, part-time cricket fans will always have a recognisable face in the game, even if some have been called up to the Test series against India.
“It’s taken our level of popularity in our own country to a new level. It normally takes an Ashes series or a World Cup year to generate this much interest in cricket,” he says.
Despite the concerns around the shorter format, Morgan always believed it would fulfil its purpose.
“From the first time The Hundred was pitched to me, right up until the beginning, there was nothing that I ever thought would ever not go well.
“Playing at Test venues, with new teams, and only eight of them… The cricket would be brilliant, the competition would be very high. Naturally that would attract a lot of attention.”
He is keen to point out that “every game bar one or two have gone to the final five balls of the game,” highlighting how evenly matches the teams are – as a result of the draft system – and how that viewing experience has captured the imagination of fans watching at home.
The cricket schedule this summer is packed enough as it is, with concerns remaining over the Test side’s lack of red ball practice going into the current series against India and later this year against Australia. Only time will tell how The Hundred affects the players’ form and fans’ attention towards other competitions, namely the Vitality Blast, but Morgan is confident it will only bring positive change to the game.
“They can all be successful at the same time. Every format and every county has a huge role to play in English cricket,” he explains.
“The purpose of The Hundred is completely different to the Vitality Blast – it’s to generate a new audience. For a long time we have been behind the 8 ball when it comes to selling our game in the right way with regards to a shorter tournament with fewer teams, but I think we’re finally there.”
His only surprise is how smoothly everything has run, compared to other tournaments he has played in abroad where “there are a lot of glitches.”
“I think we’ve nailed it in year one.”
He seems unfazed by the notion that some cricketing purists might not have been converted to the new format.
“I hope they have. If they haven’t, we still have three other formats for them to enjoy. Our target is to inspire young kids into a new game and motivate them to take up a new sport. We’re achieving that at a rate I didn’t think we would.”
Eoin Morgan is captaining London Spirit men’s team for The Hundred, the new 100-ball cricket competition. Buy your tickets at thehundred.com
