10 Things 22

GH on The Hundred and hats

1/ There’s some one-dayers on in England, and I notice that Autocorrect changes this to ‘one-payers’, which is probably all you need to know.

2/ Speaking of which, a friend has been kind enough to flick me the information memorandum for Project Gemini - the sale of equity in the eight franchises of The Hundred.  It is predictably replete with reverberating assertions.  ‘UK is the birthplace of cricket, with a 140+ year legacy of elite sporting talent and renowned stadia, providing The Hundred with immediate global credibility.’  Well, just fancy!  ‘Investors have an opportunity to partner with established cricket leaders at the ECB and the Hosts, creating a foundation to build the world’s premier cricket competition.’  Colour me amazed!   ‘The ECB is poised to be a dynamic and innovative partner to new ownership groups in The Hundred; driving progressive change from the forefront of cricket and building the world’s best professional cricket product.’  If we do say so ourselves!   

3/ Just in case you were wondering: ‘The Hundred’s simplified innings format and presentation (100 balls which countdown to 0) make it more approachable for new and young cricket fans versus the traditional structure…Alongside special rules, the format generates excitement as it incentivises more aggressive batting and fielding, leading to shorter, more digestible games of ~2h30.’   Where incentivise goes, monetise and privatise are bound to follow.

4/ Harder to digest are the figures.  The BBC contract is up for renegotiation this year, but the domestic media rights currently held by Sky are not due for renewal until 2029, while the sponsorship projections, overwhelmingly reliant on the future franchise owners, are pure blue sky. 

Source? ‘The Hundred’. Beware the orderly growth prediction in a world so uncertain. Actually, as you might as well be relying on astrology, I checked Gemini too: ‘Have you been indulging in too many goodies, Gemini? You might feel under the weather because of all this abundance. You probably should take it easy. Think about reorganizing your priorities. Is a second piece of chocolate cake more important than your energy and health? Indulging can be important to your psyche, but don't forget about moderation - and don't forget that there are many other ways to indulge.’  

5/ But don’t take my word for it. Ask Lalit Modi.  And potential buyers sure as hell don’t seem to be queuing round the block. The ECB are saying it’s not a race.  Very reassuring.

6/ Maybe the most telling graphic in the information memorandum is this.

Thanks to various roundings, each of England and Australia can be seen as containing one per cent of the world’s cricket fans.  If this doesn’t sound much, consider that those in the West Indies and New Zealand add up to zero.  The ECB presents this as demonstrating ‘fan interest extending far beyond the historic foundation of the sport’.  What it actually conveys is that anyone interested in accessing the cricket market would, on the principle that Willie Sutton articulated for banks, be crazy to invest anywhere other than India, home of seven in ten of the global cricket public.  It’s a no-brainer. Which is why their administrators can do as they damn well please.

7/ Anyway, we at Cricket Et Al have been basking in our new role of news breakers, after this week’s must-listen podcast put Greg Chappell, David Warner and baggy green in the same postcode.  Mind you, I was actually more interested in the back story to the Greg Chappell Sun Hat, which I had Greg confirm my understanding of - that it was something he brought back from Australia’s tour of Pakistan in 1980.

8/ But wait, there’s more.  Greg told us that the original model was the headgear of Majid Khan, which reminded me of the charming insouciance with which Majid wore his yellowing sunhat on Pakistan’s 1976-77 tour of Australia, even challenging Dennis Lillee to knock it off his head. 

In his classic The Unquiet Ones, furthermore, Osman Samiuddin reports that Majid actually bought his hat in Australia - from a Perth sports store in November 1972 where Zaheer Abbas had bought one earlier.  So there: the route to your favourite sunsafe apparel can be traced back more than fifty years and spans two continents, enhanced since by Albion C & D’s nylon double stitching and the Cancer Council’s brim specifications.   

9/ What do I wear?  This is my sun hat, getting ready for another season - a gift ten years ago from Madhav Gothoskar, when he was kind enough to show me round the Azad Maidan.  

10/ MV wore his own lid with almost as much panache as GC, and his book is a classic.