No doubt you have all been avidly following The Hundred Player Draft (not).
As far as I can see, there will be seven Bears players in The Hundred and therefore not available for the Bears during August:
Chris Woakes, Moeen Ali, Chris Benjamin, Dan Mousley (Birminham Phoenix)
Danny Briggs (Oval invincibles)
Sam Hain (Trent Rockets)
Alex Davies (Southern Braves)
What will be frustrating will be if someone like Dan Mousley doesn't actually get picked to play and sits on the sidelines when he could be getting valuable experience and helping the Bears' cause. That's largely what happened to Sam Hain last season.

Surely not having Davies available is a positive?

Is Lintott not playing with anyone?

GerryShedd wrote:

No doubt you have all been avidly following The Hundred Player Draft (not).
As far as I can see, there will be seven Bears players in The Hundred and therefore not available for the Bears during August:
Chris Woakes, Moeen Ali, Chris Benjamin, Dan Mousley (Birminham Phoenix)
Danny Briggs (Oval invincibles)
Sam Hain (Trent Rockets)
Alex Davies (Southern Braves)
What will be frustrating will be if someone like Dan Mousley doesn't actually get picked to play and sits on the sidelines when he could be getting valuable experience and helping the Bears' cause. That's largely what happened to Sam Hain last season.

Surprisingly, it looks as if Lintott wasn't picked up by anyone - see the full squads here:
https://www.skysports.com/the-hundred/news/36888/12841357/the-hundred-how-the-mens-and-womens-squads-look-for-2023-after-player-draft

In 2016, the ECB predicted that The Hundred would make a profit of £27 million a year. The ECB now says that it has made a profit so far of £11.8 million.
However, a 120 page report by Worcestershire Chair Fanos Hira, a chartered accountant, says that it has actually made a loss of £9 million. And that doesn't include the additional £24.7 million paid by the ECB to the counties and MCC, part of the original deal the counties made in 2019 in return for supporting the new competition. If it did, the total losses from the first two years of the competition — including extra money paid out to venues as staging costs — would be £37.1 million

Who do you believe?

I confess I haven't read the sources, other than the headline figure that it's made a huge loss over 2 years. It should be relatively easy to work out the truth though. There is an accountant, or a CFO person, on this forum though and I reckon they would be able to answer relatively easily. Perhaps Reabank? I can't remember.

I think we all know the point of The 100 in its current form is to road test franchise or city based organisations. If it makes a loss after four or five years, then there's no way it will continue. Rugby is proving financial unsustainability at the moment and cricket will be aware if this. I think the broadcast deal is up in a few years. If it is still loss-making by then I think it's done.

GerryShedd wrote:

In 2016, the ECB predicted that The Hundred would make a profit of £27 million a year. The ECB now says that it has made a profit so far of £11.8 million.
However, a 120 page report by Worcestershire Chair Fanos Hira, a chartered accountant, says that it has actually made a loss of £9 million. And that doesn't include the additional £24.7 million paid by the ECB to the counties and MCC, part of the original deal the counties made in 2019 in return for supporting the new competition. If it did, the total losses from the first two years of the competition — including extra money paid out to venues as staging costs — would be £37.1 million

Who do you believe?

Whilst it's true that we have less players in the Hundred squads than we did last year, there is still potential for others to be called up (thinking of Miles at least last year) when there are injuries/international call ups to current squads.

Re Mousley, based on his early form it looks like he may be starting in CC and T20 games so actually should be getting enough experience.

Atm we seem to be losing about the right amount of players that we can still field a decent 50 over team, but also give some youngsters a chance.

It was rumoured that this year, players in squads for the Hundred might be released to play in 50 overs matches for their county if not selected for a Hundred match. But I haven't heard if that is actually going to happen.

A brilliant and utterly comprehensive dismantling of The Hundred and all the fallacies that surround and sustain it

Well worth a read

https://beingoutsidecricket.com/2024/02/20/is-the-hundred-a-success/

the greatest success The Hundred has had is in persuading people to say that it’s successful.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2024/02/22/ecb-hundred-potential-investors-put-off-joint-venture-plan/

Complete Control is what they want and then they'll be wanting more after being handed this too.

I find it astonishing that the county chiefs and the ECB would string the game along like this. Promises to Somerset and Durham and presumably Kent, Leicestershire and Worcestershire too of the distant prospect of relevance and "purpose"

The ECB hopes the model it has drawn up connects the counties and the Hundred, and keeps purpose among counties that do not currently host a team to strive to have one in future.

FFS!!!

What the counties want is first-class county championship, first team 50-overs and T20 Blast cricket to host for their members, supporters and community throughout the peak summer months

Lancashire held a forum yesterday

They put together a pdf document for public consumption of what we might refer to as 'positive spin' about the discussions taking place currently on the future of the 100 and private investment in it and impacts (they try to suggest there will not be any negative ones) for the counties

Club Update on the future of The Hundred and external investment – Frequently
Asked Questions

What is NOT on the table for discussion:

• Is the Hundred going to continue to be played between 2024 and 2028?

Yes. This is already contracted.

• Will Manchester Originals continue to play at Emirates Old Trafford between 2024 and 2028?

The Manchester Originals have a non-exclusive lease to play for three-and-a-half weeks during August between 2024 and 2028. Lancashire Cricket continue to have the right to play county cricket at Emirates Old Trafford on non-hundred match days (4 days).

• Is there any discussion to try and reduce the number of domestic red ball games from 14?

No. There is no such discussion happening.

• Is there any chance that The Hundred competition could increase?

There is the potential for the competition to increase from 2029, to allow one or two additional teams. However, Lancashire Cricket would not support this if the length of the window that the current tournament is played in increased as a result.

• Is there any proposal for Lancashire Cricket to sell any shares to a third party?

No. There are zero plans for Lancashire Cricket to de-mutualise or sell any shares.

• Is there any proposal for any assets as part of Emirates Old Trafford to be sold?

No. There are zero plans for Lancashire Cricket to sell/transfer/put any assets of Emirates Old Trafford at risk.

What IS on the table for the Club to consider:

• Would the Club consider receiving an equity share giving it control of the Manchester Originals
and why?

Yes, this would cost the Club zero. The Club would not be giving up anything in return, cash or
otherwise. Currently Lancashire Cricket has no control over Manchester Originals, therefore bringing the men’s and women’s teams into the Lancashire Cricket department would enable day-to-day control of something that it has limited influence over currently. It would also enable a strategic approach to player recruitment for the benefit of Lancashire Cricket and enable an aligned growth strategy for domestic women’s cricket across the North West. This would also give us opportunities to leverage greater sponsorship for the benefit of Lancashire Cricket.

• Would the Club receive a cash injection if the ECB sold any of its remaining shares in
Manchester Originals and would the Club have to give up anything to receive this?

Yes, the Club would receive a cash windfall in this event. This cash would be used for the benefit of Lancashire Cricket which could include for example debt reduction. The Club would not have to give anything up to receive this cash windfall.

• If the Club accepted a free equity stake in Manchester Originals and the ECB sold some part of its current stake to a third party into Manchester Originals, would that impact Lancashire Cricket’s ability to compete and play across all county cricket or reduce the number of games in the County Championship?

No

.

Any thoughts?

Interesting and thanks for putting up. I've no inside knowledge but looking on I think the ECB under its new(ish) chairman is trying to be more consensual and saying to the counties what do you think. But the counties all think different things. Lancashire love the Hundred as it is and don't want to see it expanded. The medium sized counties would like to join an enlarged Hundred. The smaller counties don't care for The Hundred but like the £1.3m the ECB pays in return for them accepting it. The ECB likes The Hundred just fine but doesn't like the £1.3m it pays to every county.

By my count, there will be nine Bears players involved in the men's version of The Hundred this year and therefore not available to play for Warwickshire for a chunk of July/August.

The Hundread could create massive damage to the real game of cricket if allowed to continue unchecked