sport news PAUL NEWMAN: Why I WON'T be covering the inaugural Hundred games this week

sport news PAUL NEWMAN: Why I WON'T be covering the inaugural Hundred games this week
sport news PAUL NEWMAN: Why I WON'T be covering the inaugural Hundred games this week

It was 18 years ago that an ECB administrator called Stewart Robertson came up with the idea of Twenty20 ostensibly to provide a financial boost to struggling counties.

I remember it well because, in a different role for this paper, I had a conversation with the then cricket correspondent about how we should cover the first game at the Rose Bowl.

'This is not a job for you,' I told him. 'It's not real cricket. Let's send a feature writer.'

I won't be covering the inaugural games in the Hundred this week beginning on Wednesday

I won't be covering the inaugural games in the Hundred this week beginning on Wednesday

Too much has been invested in this by Tom Harrison and the ECB for it to be a flop now

Too much has been invested in this by Tom Harrison and the ECB for it to be a flop now

Which is how the Daily Mail's initial verdict — on what became the monster that revolutionised the world game — was, 'It'll never catch on'. Not exactly a headline to be trumpeted years later.

So that is why I won't be covering the inaugural games in the Hundred this week. I don't want to be that Mr Grumpy who rushes to condemn the even shorter, more controversial new format the ECB have gambled our game's future on.

Not because I could be made to look very silly in years to come but also because the game I love cannot afford for this to fail. The stakes are too high and too much has been invested in this by the governing body for it to be a flop now.

The consequences would be ruinous but, despite that, the ECB, in their wisdom, are basically risking English cricket's future on one spin of the roulette wheel.

The consequences would be ruinous and the ECB are basically risking English cricket's future

The consequences would be ruinous and the ECB are basically risking English cricket's future

I would prefer colleagues with more of an open mind to have a go at reviewing the Hundred's opening nights at the Oval on Wednesday night and Thursday because from day one, three years ago now, I have struggled to see why the ECB are doing this. It seemed crazy at the time and nothing has happened since to change my mind.

We have already got a short form that works. The Mail quickly realised our day one verdict was, to say the least, wide of the mark. Cricket found a way of making itself accessible in the modern, impatient world through Twenty20 and Robertson's invention became an international phenomenon.

So why change now? Why change when England's county T20 competition remains a huge success. No, it's not the IPL but the Blast has been gaining spectators year on year and finals day remains one of the most popular in the calendar, even since it was shunted to September.

I have sat at Lord's and watched Middlesex play

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