Sata: Has the new tournament been successful?

Fireworks smoke has drifted away over the great pavilion of the Lord.

At the end of The Hundred’s first season, the focus shifts from newly formed teams that are gold, bright red, or bright blue, and back to the test and county game.

No one would say it would have been straightforward – questions remain – but Saturday’s one hundred final in cricket’s historic home, where Oval Invincibles was crowned first female champion and Southern Brave won the first men’s title, if this opportunity points to this new tournament is the future.

A crowd of nearly 25,000 people was packed to the Lord. As the six sailed into the stands, the spectators shouted. But this was different from a typical Lord Saturday.

The children wore homemade signs and the families sat side by side among the tougher groups in their 20s. Others posed for pictures outside the famous area when they first visited.

The audience during the 31 days of the tournament – attendance has been close to 90% of availability – have shown one innocence to be undeniably wrong. Someone who cares. In fact, thousands, even millions do.

It is understood that about 20% of the tournament spectators were children, which is a big jump in Twenty20 Blast in recent years. A total of 21% of the tickets sold were bought by women.

Both are encouraging figures for the tournament, which aims to bring cricket to a wider and more diverse audience.

Viewership rates have been impressive and have increased the revelation of free television. The 1.6 million people who followed the opening night broke the women’s cricket record.

The figures for women’s games have still exceeded forecasts. The men’s matches have been largely as expected – but still in Blast.

At least anecdotally, there seems to be a trend suggesting that the tournament will reach people who have not previously been interested in domestic cricket. The participation boom of adults and young people is also promising, although much of this is The Dynamos Program of the Cricket Board of England and Wales, rather than a direct consequence of Hundred.

On the field, teams received significant withdrawals, mostly Covid pandemic or bubble-related, but in reality, the tournament has not missed global superstars in the first round.

Whether it’s the Northern Superchargers men who collected 200 or the dramatic battle of the Oval Invincibles in the women’s eliminator, the field action has been immensely entertaining – a few disappointments aside.

New names have been hacked – think Will Smeed, Lauren Bell or Alice Capsey – in the absence of David Warner, Ellyse Perry and Meg Lanning.

If those big stars play next year, the quality of cricket will only go in one direction.

But speaking of numbers, the biggest success of this tournament has been the pace given by the women’s game.

Never before in this country has women’s cricket had a platform that it has enjoyed over the past month.

The players made striking performances and the fans responded – the 17,116 entrants to the women’s final broke the record set on the opening night of the tournament for the world’s largest audience in a domestic women’s cricket match.

“I have to pinch myself,” English legend and brave coach Charlotte Edwards said this week. – We play home games in front of 10,000 people and that is pretty normal.

“I’ve had the best four weeks of my life watching these girls play cricket, see the fans and see the girls think cricket.”

The impact on the women’s game is a crucial factor in assessing the success of a tournament.

That doesn’t mean Sata is perfect – far from it.

Some of the crowds were more brazen than you would have liked for a family reunion – family wards and non-alcoholic zones could become more prominent. The strange regularity of the field attackers in the men’s group stage was depressing. The pay gap between women and men must also be taken into account.

And the question remains how The Hundred fits into the English cricket calendar.

There is no easy answer. This new tournament has been added and is the best venue of the summer, but three already existing – County Championship, One -Day Cup and Blast – have not stopped.

Because The Hundred is focused on bringing in young cricket fans, it’s not going to give up school holidays.

Most would agree that the current schedule left the English test team under-ready for their series against India and there were no four-day matches in the lead.

Nevertheless, blaming just a hundred for England’s weak defeat is too simple. England’s top ranking collapsed like a deck of cards long before this new tournament was even discussed.

However, efforts should be made for a better compromise.

If it works at its best, The Hundred should be able to compliment county cricket instead of hurting it.

It has already brought in more money through a recent TV rights agreement. Organizers hope it can bring in more funds and, most importantly, attract a new generation to the wider game.

The situation before the rain was not beautiful, and many provinces suffered financially. The ECB chose the extreme option, and now it must remain true to its word that The Hundred will help fund county cricket instead of forcing it to submit.

It is far too complicated to answer whether the latest project in English cricket has succeeded with a simple yes or no.

Isolated, it’s “yes” – cricket has been impressive, the women’s game has been thrown to the forefront and a younger audience has appeared.

Outside of that, it’s harder to say. The hope is that it will succeed. It is, after all, a cricket sport that many of us love.