- Sat Jul 31, 2021 12:58 pm
#32307
So the tournament is now underway, and what have we learnt?
It certainly isn't anything like the failure that some predicted. As I expected, the crowds look largely similar to those for big-ground Blast games. Cricket was never going to conjure 20,000 people with no interest in cricket to go to a cricket match.
At the same time, crowds for the 50 over cup appear to have held up well, or in fact exceeded expectations. Somerset v Yorkshire tomorrow will be a full house, if the stupid rain goes away.
In the short to medium term, I don't expect anything major to happen. Next year's calendar will presumably look the same in terms of layout. On the basis that there will be unrestricted crowds from now on, it will be an interesting test in 2022. That will mean both Blast and Hundred games to be marketed. How does it work if you live in Birmingham? Do you just support the Birmingham Bears and Birmingham Phoenix as variations on the same thing, or pick one of them. We will see.
As for the game itself, I have only watched one, the opening match, as it was free to view on Sky through their YouTube channel, as are 4 other upcoming games. To me it's T16.4, what surprised me was how similar it is to the Blast. The Sky coverage is much the same as for the Blast. I have read some scathing comments about the BBC's coverage, but I don't have access to BBC TV.
- By filedown00