My punishment to call the hundred the worst in cricket? A day in a hundred | Barney Ronay

“THat was so cool! “What is cool here?

Perhaps the singer Sapphire Cool is present to perform a live world premiere of her new single during the interval, which she started just when the rain came down, causing 10,000 people from the stands to be stamped while the open nuts go out. Until her credit Sapphire continued Gamely, Serenade with the empty seats. The new single is called Pessimist. Her last was in crisis. These are probably all from the upcoming career-ending side.

In fact, the answer was none of these. It turns out that Ben Stokes is cool. The test captain of England was shown to the Utilita Bowl, cap drawn, an hour in the opening episode of the southern Braves versus Northern Superchargers women-men Double-Header. It was here that the good happened.

Stokes saw the pair of staring children over a mini-roundabout, said, said Hello, drew a piece of paper and then continued to tremble through the otherwise unconscious passers-by, leaving a few very happy in advance fans.

In his own words, he is ‘milling around’ during his injuries, present to offer Aura, Optics, Star Power. Later in the day he could be seen who spread his own big Stokes energy from the Superchargers bench while the men’s team pursued the victory, just another part of the carpet about what was actually a very good day, a day where everything was good, clear, chipper and unknown functional.

Come for the hundred: the hundred will also come for you. Last week I wrote a column with a rule that suggested that the hundred was the worst that Cricket ever did. To be honest, this was based on an extensive attitude of his foolish format, cult-like tone, not complying with his own goals and the destructive nature of his subsidized planning.

But yes, of course the hundred is not as bad as rebel tours or concussion. It is better than the recently collapsed Caymans Max 60 League, described as “The Fyre Festival of Cricket”, while unpaid players fled the islands. So yes. Better than that.

But the article was sufficient to draw accusations from Curmudgeoness, not to get it, to be insufficiently progressive per time, and so on. “Yes. I saw you,” was the verdict in the Utilita Bowl press room of one of the warmer followers of the hundred. Not enjoyed. Read. Let’s be clear.

The punishment is this. A day out of a hundred. Or at least, the requirement to also talk about the other things. Because the fact is, many people seem to like this, or are at least willing to consume it. Sometimes the Rose Bowl was almost four fifth full, this for a non-international match between two recently invented teams. What happens here? And is it good?

Even on a resentment lime -green August morning, the Utilita is a beautiful location, from the forest that stands out behind the tent head stand, to the Groovy raised walkways around its sides plastered with wrap stalls and pig rasters and beer bars.

People came in the stands from 10.27 am, an orderly conga of bags and shorts and hoodies, the complete English summer day defense system. The stage looked shiny, epic and coherent, with the DJ stage at one end and the Sky Sports Commentary Hutch mainly in place, such as the world’s most illustrious kebab van.

“Let’s, the utilita -come! Come on, let’s go. I can’t hear you! Pump it up!” To be honest for the internal DJ, which was reasonably good all day, is not the ideal time slot for delivering Vibes. But the crowd was still good here, almost 4,000 before the start of the women’s competition, and dominated by family, as a result of the planning of the school holiday. What’s going on in Hampshire? What is on Hampshire recommends Portsmouth Cathedral, the Fordham Reptile exhibition and a Jane Austen tour through Basingstoke.

For once, everything that actually works for this thing is, which is not a mistake or a Gotcha or proof of betrayal, but a rare copy of good cricket planning. The lesson is: if you sell it, they will come. If you make it cheap, they will come. Why did no one gave enough to work this out earlier?

From the start the atmosphere was super-maxed, superhappy, super-up. But the women’s competition was also sabotaged by the early start time and by a slow, tired field. This is a recurring problem: 10 for one of the 15 balls became 26 for three. Phoebe Litchfield, a brilliant young batter, played an exciting oblique stripe through covers and then chopped on a ball that was used to being used to.

Cue tongues of fire, flowering music and a light haze of disappointment. Annabel Sutherland, who has three test hundreds, scratched around while the ball nibbled and got stuck. Hollie Armitage played a late blinder, but also one of those punches that tells you that the conditions have been relaxed and you are going to lose.

There was at least a glimpse of the sublime cover drive of Laura Wolvardt while the brave house ran. Fortunately enough, the crowd seemed involved enough, stuck and pushed through the internal soundtrack. Is this good? It felt good. It is difficult to argue with a plan that is implemented.

The problems with the hundred are the size itself, which is too tight, too breathless, too mega-dumped for players to really excel. The flowing tone can be called back from desperate and alienating to simply encouraging. The curing of any other size from the middle of the summer, because this still seems strange.

The good things are also pretty clear in the meat. The cricket board of England and Wales is obliged by his own Jamboree to finance and present the women’s game properly. People look at it, consumers instead of fans, who learn to love this thing or not, but people all the same.

And this has always been the underlying tension here, a matter of property. For whom is this actually? An indication arrived the same morning as the Braves versus the Superchargers in the form of an e -mail to every one hundred subscriber warned that “as part of the change of ownership” would now pass on your personal information to the franchise owners as part of the sale.

Oh. Ok then. But then this was always the deal. The month of August in England now belongs to a different class of person, no families and virgin eyeballs, but tech titans, investors, finance bros. Now bring the money for a segment of your own morning: this is not a free hit. Something is lost, the control from the control.

In reality, the hundred is still in its Chrysalis phase. It has always been an entrance gate, if only for private equity to find its way to the summer. How long are the hundredth one hundred? How long does it take before the thing itself focuses in other directions, extensive, extensive and formalized.

But this was still a good hundred days. Fun, cricket had been delivered, that weird, Bouthonder, a hundred atmosphere to 11. By late afternoon, the men’s match had produced a real thriller, won a last ball six from Graham Clark. And at that moment it felt cool; Or at least as a strange, plastic format, product sport, finding his own kind of moment.