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Counties are concerned about ticket sales but dual system has worked elsewhere

Matt Roller24-May-2022This town ain’t big enough for the both of us. That was the conclusion drawn by some after the inaugural season of the Hundred last year; that for all the T20 Blast’s success in its 19 seasons, the advent of a new competition with a huge marketing budget and commercial backing rendered it useless.”My personal view (hard hat at the ready) is that given the overwhelming success of the Hundred, the Blast should now be discontinued,” tweeted Harry Gurney, the former England seamer who was part of the BBC’s commentary team during the Hundred. Few joined him in saying so publicly, but many shared his sentiments in private.But as the Blast enters its 20th season, the big-picture question is not about one competition superseding the other but about how they can coexist. Clearly, they are an odd couple: the county game is financially dependent on ECB distributions – which include £1.3 million a year as part of the agreement to introduce the Hundred – while the Hundred cannot take place without the players and stadia which the counties provide.This summer will be the first real test as to whether there is appetite for two men’s short-form competitions in England and Wales, after attendances were limited by Covid restrictions for the vast majority of last summer’s Blast. Some counties have reported slower sales than anticipated: the competition starts two weeks earlier this year than in 2021, and the fixture list was published two months later than usual due to uncertainty over the schedule.”We’re tracking to get back to somewhere near where we were in 2019,” Neil Snowball, the ECB’s managing director of county cricket, told the BBC last week. “We’ve got some pretty ambitious targets for the Blast this year, it being the 20th anniversary. If we can get up to that level, it would be a pretty incredible year after two years of hiatus in between.”Related

• Smeed pledges to be 'greedy' as Somerset look to go one better

• David Lloyd: 'The Blast is the best T20 competition in the world'

• Wright captains ESPNcricinfo's all-time T20 Blast XI

• Players call for quality over quantity in PCA consultation

• Strauss calls on ECB to be 'ambitious, bold and radical' in resetting red-ball fortunes

At this stage, it seems like an optimistic prediction. The Hundred’s ticket-pricing strategy has been admirable in one sense, cutting prices to make the tournament as accessible as possible, but an unintended consequence has been to undercut the price of Blast tickets: the cheapest available adult ticket costs £24 for Hampshire vs Gloucestershire at the Ageas Bowl in the Blast but some are on sale for £16 for Southern Brave’s double-header against Manchester Originals in the Hundred.The Blast’s lock-out last year saw many of its regular supporters roll through the gates in the Hundred, best evidenced by raucous chants of “Yorkshire! Yorkshire!” from Headingley’s Western Terrace as Northern Superchargers racked up 200 in their men’s fixture against Manchester Originals.The ECB were keen to highlight the younger, more diverse profile of ticket-buyers at the Hundred and the arrival of new fans – but it remains to be seen if they will be drawn to county fixtures too. “The early signs are that people who attended the Hundred are also attending the Blast this year,” Snowball said, while acknowledging that “we’ll get a much better sense of that this year”.Perhaps the Blast’s biggest problem as a competition is its sheer scale, with 126 group games packed into a five-and-a-half week block which also contains two rounds of County Championship fixtures. Sky Sports, the rights holders, can only televise a small fraction of them and the sheer volume of fixtures means that many storylines are lost to those who are not there to witness them in-person.In 2019, AB de Villiers smoked nine sixes in 35 balls for Middlesex against Somerset but only the 4,000 or so fans at Old Deer Park witnessed it live. “If it’s not on TV, did it really happen?” administrators often ask rhetorically; most counties have invested heavily in their live-streaming services but viewing figures suggest their appeal is generally restricted to hardcore supporters.Counties rely heavily on Blast fixtures for income, both in terms of ticket sales – which far outstrip those for other formats – and commercial revenue, though with the tournament squeezed by the Hundred’s August window, most teams face the prospect of playing midweek fixtures this year.The ECB highlighted a younger, more diverse demographic of fans at the Hundred•Getty ImagesThe schedule has been uneven for several seasons, with nine teams per group playing 14 fixtures each. It would be no surprise for Andrew Strauss’ high-performance review to recommend reverting to a format with three regionalised groups of six, with a full home-and-away schedule: each county would lose two home games but would be able to target marketing and avoid the unglamorous Monday and Tuesday-night slots which have proved a hard sell.Players are relieved that this year’s schedule at least sees the Blast’s knockout stages played immediately after the end of the group, after a five-week hiatus last summer. “We came back to play in the quarter-finals and we had lost all our momentum,” Nottinghamshire’s Samit Patel recalled. “I’m happier now it’s in a block: it’s done and dusted by mid-July and that’s way better.”The biggest tension at the heart of the debate around the two tournaments’ futures is the split between those counties who host Hundred games at their home grounds and those who do not, one which was exacerbated further when the ECB doubled-down on the decision to stage women’s fixtures as double-headers with men’s games rather than taking them to smaller venues.In the women’s game, there are no great concerns about the professional schedule: the women’s domestic T20 competition, the Charlotte Edwards Cup, is a short, sharp competition with six group games per team and few commercial pressures, providing players with opportunities in a lower-stakes competition before the arrival of overseas players and heightened scrutiny presents a step-up in the Hundred.But in the men’s, in Snowball’s words: “some counties and some venues have got an oversupply and some have got an undersupply.” Taunton, for example, will host only four games in August, all featuring a weakened Somerset side in the Royal London Cup; Emirates Old Trafford, by contrast, hosts four Hundred matchdays, two RLC games and an England men’s Test match against South Africa in the same window.From a playing perspective, the co-existence of two short-form competitions is a huge positive for England’s white-ball depth: players involved in both the Blast and the Hundred will play 22 games of short-form cricket every summer even if their teams are knocked out in the group stages.Blast form is the main guide for coaches and analysts drafting Hundred teams and eight players are selected as Hundred ‘wildcards’ at the end of the Blast’s group stages, rewarding them for their performances and providing an additional incentive. Last year, Jake Lintott signed for Southern Brave after an impressive Blast and was their leading wicket-taker as they won the competition; while counties may resist losing more players at short notice, plans to turn another £30,000 draft pick into a second wildcard spot have been discussed.Jake Lintott was Southern Brave’s wildcard pick in 2021 – and their leading wicket-taker•Getty ImagesThe quality of overseas players in the Blast has been aided by the Hundred, too: Sunil Narine has never played for a county and Kieron Pollard has not since 2011 but both were picked up by London teams in the Hundred draft and opted to extend their summers in the UK by signing for Surrey, too.”The Hundred has probably helped us get them over,” Ollie Pope said. “It’s great for the standard of the Blast, having guys like that involved.” A number of overseas players at other counties without Hundred contracts have entered the overseas ‘wildcard’ draft on June 9 and are hoping to push their case for selection by starting the T20 season strongly.The dual system has worked well in India and Pakistan, where the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and the National T20 Cup have given players the opportunity to impress and be fed into the IPL and the PSL respectively. Australia’s talent pool is smaller due to the lack of a national competition beneath the BBL – teams plucked players from grade cricket during Covid outbreaks last season – and Pollard voiced his frustrations at the fact the CPL is the only region-wide T20 tournament in the Caribbean during his tenure as West Indies captain.But how will the high-performance review square the benefits of a dual short-form system with a multitude of other demands? Players want fewer games and for the best in the country to play 50-over cricket, while ensuring the Blast remains “an elite competition”, the Hundred is “central” and more Championship games are played at the height of summer.It is near-impossible to untangle that web of internal contradictions and with Strauss calling for “ambitious, bold and radical” solutions, there has rarely been less clarity. But one thing is self-evident: that as the Blast turns 20, it must find a way to coexist with its noisy neighbour.

From Eastbourne to the MCG to the polling booth, Pakistan’s prime minister has always relished a challenge

Paul Edwards14-Jul-2020That CB Fry should once have been offered the throne of Albania is seen as another eccentric feature of an already eccentric life. It has become a quiz question. That Imran Khan should have wanted to become prime minister of Pakistan is viewed as almost a natural ambition from a man whose thirst for achievement appears unslakeable. It has become a reality.Other world-class cricketers have also sought to make a difference to life outside the game when they retire. All too often their plans founder as they struggle to cope with environments in which 6000 Test runs or 200 wickets do not seal contracts or persuade investors. After a few years they are content to return to the worlds they know and in which they lead fulfilling lives. They are reassured to see pictures from their pomp on the front of the cricket papers and in time they might have a pavilion named after them. Imran has had his face on the cover of magazine and has built a cancer hospital in memory of his mother.The Pakistani establishment told him he couldn’t build such a hospital and then they said he couldn’t run an institution in which about 75% of cancer sufferers receive free treatment. He did both things. They took him nearly ten years. “I have never not believed I am going to win,” he told Mike Atherton in 2016.ALSO READ: Odd Men In – Bill Farrimond and ‘Hopper’ LevettSome cricketers attend their county’s annual reunions and are pleased to be recognised by members who reminisce about the best days of distant summers. Imran has done so much since he retired in 1992 – virtually none of it connected to cricket – that a few junior players, even in Pakistan, might take a moment or two to recall that their prime minister once captained the national team on the greatest day in its history. Then they will recall photographs of a floodlit Melbourne Cricket Ground on a late March evening in 1992 and their captain in his lime-green shirt holding aloft a Waterford crystal trophy and saying how this victory over England should help him achieve his other ambitions. Nobody but Imran knew it at the time but he had played his last match. He was 39 and the best cricketer his country had ever produced now turned his formidable attention to other things.Imran’s continuing desire to fulfil his ambitions outside the game was perhaps sharpened by his being born into his country’s sporting aristocracy. Why achieve only the obviously achievable? Two of his cousins, Javed Burki and Majid Khan, were Oxbridge Blues and both captained Pakistan. (When Imran followed them as skipper of the national team, he dropped Majid from the side on the morning of his first Test in charge in 1982. There is as much steel as suavity in his character.) The family’s affluence ensured that he attended Aitchison College, which is Pakistan’s most famous school and was situated a short distance from the family home in the quiet Lahore suburb of Zaman Park. The high-quality coaching and excellent facilities at Aitchison helped to develop Imran’s burgeoning talent and on the strength of 11 first-class games he was included in the party to tour England in 1971. He was 18 years old.If his first trip to England proved to Imran that he was not yet ready for international cricket, it at least introduced him to the country where he would play the majority of his 382 first-class matches. He completed his secondary education at Worcester’s Royal Grammar School and spent three years at Oxford, captaining the university in his second year and playing for Worcestershire when term had ended. Having once been an inswing bowler who could score a few runs, he was gradually becoming a proper all-rounder whose top-order batting could change games and whose fast bowling included a wicked bouncer. The leap in his delivery stride made you catch breath, especially, perhaps, if you were female.Imran Khan is hoisted up by his team-mates after winning the World Cup•Tony Feder/Getty ImagesSome Oxford contemporaries said Imran was aloof but all of them appreciated his strength of will once he was resolved on a course of action. That determination would be revealed in other ways. Having represented Worcestershire for one full season and been capped when his century and 13 wickets set up an innings victory against Lancashire, he moved to Sussex the following year in 1977 so that he could be nearer London, where his increasingly active social life was based. (For many years the gossip columnists would be as interested in his doings as cricket correspondents. Mercifully the two groups have rarely overlapped.)He was banned for the 1978 Pakistan tour of England because he had joined Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket but he would later declare that his two Australian summers had been time well spent: Mike Procter had advised him on his run-up while John Snow had shown him how turning his left shoulder more towards fine leg would help his outswing.Before long Snow’s own county would be the beneficiary of those coaching clinics. Imran helped Sussex win two knockout trophies and had a leg-before appeal not been turned down in 1981 he might have been in the first Sussex side to win the County Championship. He did not want for self-confidence that summer, a trait noted by his skipper Johnny Barclay during the game against Derbyshire at Eastbourne where the visitors had five wickets in hand and a lead of over 230 on the final afternoon. A draw seemed in prospect. Imran decided he should bowl…”Imran immediately trapped Steele lbw and, a man inspired, wiped out the rest of the batting. Four wickets in five balls, all bowled or lbw. Rarely have I seen such a devastating spell of bowling with an old ball.

Imran Khan is one of those very few people who has a sense of personal greatness and personal destiny… He is the nearest thing cricket has produced to a world historical figurePeter Oborne

‘That was clever bowling,’ he said, as we left the field. ‘Now I want to bat… I want to bat high in the order, I feel it is my day, we must beat this lot. I think I shall bat at four. The others won’t mind.'”Imran made 107 not out, reaching his century with 11 fours and three sixes in 88 minutes. By the end of the match, nobody gave a monkey’s where he had batted, not least the large crowd on the last day of Eastbourne Week. Yet this determination to wrench a game of cricket into a shape of his own devising would be seen again on the game’s far larger stages. Most notably, perhaps, it would be seen in Test series against the mighty West Indian and Australian sides of the 1980s, against whom Imran led Pakistan in six series, winning one, drawing three and losing only in Australia (where he had helped New South Wales win the Sheffield Shield in 1983-84.) Imran instilled a sense of common purpose into a Pakistani team whose capacity to tear itself apart had often seemed unbounded.If anybody had doubted the new skipper’s resolve they were quickly disabused of their misgivings when he declared with Javed Miandad on 280 in the fourth Test against India at Hyderabad in January 1983. The match was won by an innings deep in the fifth day, a result which sealed a series victory. Imran’s approach to the various tasks of leadership was established. Then again it hardly harmed the cause that he had players of the quality of Miandad, Abdul Qadir and Wasim Akram in his side.And if defeats in three successive World Cup semi-finals were lowlights in his international career, first series wins in both India and England in 1987 were quite the opposite. Imran took ten wickets at Headingley to secure Pakistan’s only victory in the second of those five-match series and then made 118 at The Oval to ensure the overall victory was secure.Imran Khan addresses a political rally•Getty ImagesThere were many other days of glory and each of his millions of fans in Pakistan had their favourite. Despite a stress fracture in his left leg which prevented him bowling for three years Imran finished his career with 362 Test wickets and 1287 in all first-class games. There were also 17,771 first-class runs and 117 catches. But sitting in the garden of his home in 2016 he had to be persuaded to talk about his cricket by Atherton. After all it was a long time ago and there are other things in life. More important things, though he did not say this.”I always wanted to leave cricket once I had finished playing,” he said, “I think the potential of a human being only grows when we challenge ourselves. Once life becomes easy it is all downhill. Once I was no longer challenged I always felt I would decay. I never wanted to take the easy road and stay in cricket… In life to succeed you have to have total passion and total commitment. Everything else takes second place… The day I left cricket it was over for me.”He has not been inured to the controversies of his country’s cricketing past. He deeply regrets the match-fixing committed by other players and admits that he once changed the condition of a ball with a bottle-top. But those things, too, are in the past. Now there are hospitals to oversee and a country to run. When Pakistan’s wealthy élite refused to help him construct a memorial to his mother, he went to the people and asked if they could help. His place in sporting history is for others to judge. No one is better placed to do so than Peter Oborne, who, with Richard Heller, has written one of the two fine histories of Pakistan’s cricket.”Imran Khan is one of those very few people who has a sense of personal greatness and personal destiny,” Oborne said. “That destiny first of all manifested itself in an amazing cricket career when he forged a national team and made it the best in the world. And then it forged itself in this enormous monument to his mother: the great hospital which is still there. And then in a political career. [He] is the nearest thing cricket has produced to a world historical figure.”The gossip columnists have long been replaced by political journalists. Armed guards stand at the entrance to Imran’s house and accompany him wherever he goes. His Tehreek-e-Insaf (Pakistan Movement for Justice) party is in power and is the subject of constant scrutiny. Its aim is to build a modern, egalitarian, democratic country, still Islamic, and with a welfare state. Most former cricketers are content to cast their vote every five years or so. Odd Men In

Philadelphia Phillies star Bryce Harper was the latest player to vent his frustrations at an umpire after some very questionable calls but somehow he was able to avoid being ejected for his actions on Sunday.

With the Phillies trailing the Angels by six runs, Harper worked a 3–0 count in the bottom of the eighth inning. A pitch that seemed to be out of the strike zone made it a 3–1 count and then a few moments later a similar pitch was called for strike three by Steven Jaschinski.

Instead of earning a walk, Harper headed to the dugout. But before he did that he shrugged his shoulders and waved his hand in disgust at Jaschinski two times.

This is often enough to get you tossed from the game:

The Phillies would go on to lose the game, 8–2.

Arsenal have held ‘new’ talks with the representatives of a Juventus star who Xabi Alonso has recommended to Real Madrid, according to a report this week.

Arsenal face Brentford after Man City steal dramatic win at Fulham

Arsenal return to the Emirates Stadium tonight seeking to reclaim their winning touch when they host Brentford in a vital Premier League clash, made all the more important by Man City’s dramatic 5-4 win at Fulham last night.

The Gunners have seen their lead at the top cut to just two points following their frustrating 1-1 draw at Chelsea over the weekend, even if Arsenal’s impressive 17-game unbeaten run continues since that early-season defeat to Liverpool.

Arsenal’s unbeaten run in all competitions since defeat to Liverpool

Arsenal 3-0 Nottingham Forest

Athletic Bilbao 0-2 Arsenal

Arsenal 1-1 Man City

Port Vale 0-2 Arsenal

Newcastle 1-2 Arsenal

Arsenal 2-0 Olympiacos

Arsenal 2-0 West Ham

Fulham 0-1 Arsenal

Arsenal 4-0 Atlético Madrid

Arsenal 1-0 Crystal Palace

Arsenal 2-0 Brighton

Burnley 0-2 Arsenal

Slavia Prague 0-3 Arsenal

Sunderland 2-2 Arsenal

Arsenal 4-1 Tottenham

Arsenal 3-1 Bayern Munich

Chelsea 1-1 Arsenal

Mikel Arteta’s side dominated possession at Stamford Bridge but could only manage a point, despite Chelsea playing with ten men for much of the contest.

Arsenal face a significant injury conundrum with Gabriel Magalhaes sidelined due to a thigh problem picked up on Brazil duty.

Related Fabrizio Romano: Berta eyeing "bargain" move for player likened to "top" Arsenal star

He could be a snip.

Posts ByEmilio Galantini Dec 2, 2025

Arteta recently hinted that he could be unavailable until 2026, while Kai Havertz continues his recovery from a knee injury which has kept him out since the opening weekend.

William Saliba is also a doubt after missing the Chelsea trip, though Arteta has provided a seemingly positive update suggesting the Frenchman is just days away from returning.

Away from the pitch, sporting director Andrea Berta reportedly continues plans to reinforce Arsenal’s squad, even if they spent nearly £270 million on eight major signings in the summer.

Real Madrid star Rodrygo is believed to be a target for Arsenal, with Berta sensing an opportunity amid the Brazilian’s increasingly uncertain future at the Bernabeu.

Ironically, Arsenal are also after someone who Real could replace Rodrygo, as per Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport.

Arsenal hold 'new' talks with Juventus star Kenan Yildiz

Corriere state that Alonso has personally recommended Juventus sensation Kenan Yildiz to Real as a target, but they now face stiff competition from north London.

Juve are attempting to tie the 20-year-old down with fresh terms and ward off suitors, but these negotiations are still ongoing and there is currently significant ground to cover when it comes to Yildiz’s wages.

Yildiz is demanding nearly quadruple his current salary to bring him in line with top earners like Jonathan David, while the Old Lady have offered below his desired amount so far.

The forward also wants assurances about his role and Juve’s plan to win major trophies, so while the priority is to continue in Turin, talks over a new deal are believed to have stalled for now.

Corriere reports that Arsenal have made ‘new moves’ to discuss conditions with Yildiz’s representatives, and Arteta’s side are said to be ‘captivated’ by the Turkey international.

Unfortunately for Berta, other recent reports from Italy claim that Juve want around £88 million to part company with their young superstar, so it could require a major investment on Arsenal’s part after an already-massive summer outlay.

Many Americans are interested in learning other languages, but have no idea where to begin outside the confines of Duolingo or similar programs.

Roberto Campos—an Cuban outfielder in the Detroit Tigers' farm system—is here to help. On Friday, in an interview with Jason Beck for MLB.com, Campos disclosed that he used American popular music to teach him English—namely, Taylor Swift.

“Thanks, Taylor Swift,” he said. “She’s incredible.”

Beck wrote that Campos's learning regimen included speaking English with teammates in the clubhouse and watching action movies with subtitles as well.

“My first year, I wasn’t able to speak English. That was so hard for me,” the Havana native said. “My second year was more relaxed because I can be fluent in English.”

Campos, 21, slashed .272/.342/.425 with 10 home runs and 66 RBIs in 2024 for the High-A West Michigan Whitecaps of the Midwest League.

The lesson for Anglophone Americans looking to sharpen their Spanish or French: Bad Bunny and Stromae await you.

Being a referee in the Premier League is arguably one of the toughest jobs in football, with a select group of officials regularly entrusted to take charge of top flight fixtures.

Even though VAR is still causing plenty of controversy week in, week out, decisions on the field are now more important than ever, with technology doing its best to try and not get involved unless it is ‘clear and obvious’.

The game is also arguably faster than it’s ever been, so referees need to be extremely fit and quick to react. But who is the best referee in the Premier League right now?

Rank

Ref

1

Anthony Taylor

2

Michael Oliver

3

Stuart Attwell

4

Craig Pawson

5

Jarred Gillett

6

Darren England

7

Chris Kavanagh

8

Simon Hooper

9

Andy Madley

10

Peter Bankes

11

Robert Jones

12

Michael Salisbury

13

Tony Harrington

14

Samuel Barrott

15

Thomas Bramall

15 Thomas Bramall

One of the least experienced referees in the Premier League, Thomas Bramall was the man in the middle that made a huge mistake by disallowing Aston Vila’s goal against Man Utd on the final day of the 2024/25 season.

That arguably cost Villa a place in the Champions League, but the PGMOL have stuck with Bramall, who, at 35 years of age, appears to be a referee in the early stages of his top flight career.

14 Samuel Barrott

One of the card happiest referees in the Premier League, Samuel Barrott is one of the most inexperienced officials in the top flight after making his debut in 2023/24.

He took charge of 23 games in 2024/25, apologising for one mistake he made in Crystal Palace’s defeat to Brentford after wrongly ruling out Eberechi Eze’s free-kick.

13 Tony Harrington

Tony Harrington is among the referees to average the least amount of fouls awarded per 90, but that doesn’t make him a bad official.

He made his Premier League debut in 2021/22 but just hasn’t been given a regular run of games in the top flight. Harrington’s best tally of games came in the 2024/25 season where he officiated 18 fixtures.

12 Michael Salisbury

Michael Salisbury has never been a regular in the Premier League after taking charge of his first game in the 2021/22 season.

He was on VAR duty and instructed referee Robert Jones to look at Josh King’s goal against Chelsea which was incorrectly ruled out. Salisbury was dropped by the PGMOL shortly after.

11 Robert Jones

Nottingham Forest aren’t the biggest fans of Robert Jones, with Evangelos Marinakis’ side lodging an official complaint against the 38-year-old after a series of decisions against the Reds.

He was the first Premier League referee to ever perform a red-card rejection, however, some of Jones’ decisions are controversial and he averages awarding a penalty every three games.

10 Peter Bankes

Peter Bankes has now reffed more than 100 games in the Premier League since 2019, however, the Merseyside-born official has regularly come in for criticism from fans.

Former referee Keith Hackett even said Bankes looked “out of his depth” in 2025 after a decision he made in Man Utd’s clash with Bournemouth.

9 Andy Madley

A FIFA licensed referee who has taken charge of the FA Cup final, Andy Madley has taken charge of more than 100 Premier League games since 2017/18.

More recently, he has made some controversial decisions, including one between Everton and Man Utd which resulted in Toffees fan Tony Bellew calling him a “cheat”.

8 Simon Hooper

Often blowing early instead of allowing advantage, Simon Hooper has enraged Premier League players and managers in recent years.

An experienced top flight official after making his debut in 2015, Hooper has often come in for criticism and was actually injured at the end of October in Liverpool’s defeat to Brentford, while he was also the man in the middle during the Reds’ controversial defeat at Tottenham in 2023.

7 Chris Kavanagh

Chris Kavanagh has been a hot topic of conversation in recent years, whether it be for sending off Declan Rice for kicking the ball away or leaving Bruno Fernandes upset after he missed his penalty.

The Greater Manchester official has been on FIFA’s books since 2019 and is closing in on 200 Premier League matches at the age of 40.

6 Darren England

Another FIFA referee, Darren England caught the eye of the international governing body after two years as a Premier League official.

He was a part of the VAR team that somehow incorrectly ruled out Luis Diaz’s goal for offside in Liverpool’s defeat to Tottenham, but in recent years on the pitch, has been consistent.