It would be nice to think that, after having tried hard to perform the quart-and-pint-pot trick yet only succeeded in provoking uproar, the members of the HPR would now grow a pair and go back to the ECB with the view that as long as The Hundred exists, there is no prospect of a sensible domestic season.
It would also be nice to think that their brush with Allen Stanford would have taught the ECB that when you sell cricket's soul to wandering mercenaries, you are likely to regret it in the long run. Sadly, I don't think they care. Money first: cricket nowhere.

It's a very easy answer for me. I fell out of love with T20 almost as soon as it began and I now have no interest in it. You could have daily audiences of 50 million and I wouldn't care.
The point should be that it is not a binary choice. They are different games with different audiences. Why does hit-and-giggle have to monopolise the fixture list?

Some years ago I had a long and friendly conversation with my dentist, who was Swedish and didn't understand cricket. Not only that, but he didn't understand how anybody could understand cricket. We concluded that you had to grow up with it, in which case it entered your soul and stayed there. That's how it is with me: I grew up watching what was then 3-day cricket and have loved it ever since. Sadly, kids today will not have that chance. Red ball cricket has been off accessible TV for donkey's years. The CC is played at times when families cannot attend - and even if they did they would find a poor welcome: try going to any of the major grounds (including Edgbaston) as a paying spectator at a CC game and see how long it takes you to find either a sandwich or a toilet that isn't locked.
But then you see how the players react. Ben Stokes and Jimmy Anderson have both recently lauded red ball cricket. Late last year I was listening to radio commentary on one of the games from our push for the title. An injured OH-D was on the mike and pointed out that Chris Woakes had chosen to play in this CC game when he could have been playing IPL "because this matters". Quite. I wish the ECB could see that.

James Hildreth has announced that he will retire at the end of the season. Whilst his pomp is somewhat behind him now, he remains a model for those of us who believe that batsmanship should contain some style as well as power. Good luck to him in whatever comes next.
He is the present holder of a title once held by Andy Moles, namely which current England qualified player has scored the most first class runs without playing a Test Match? He has nearly 18,000 of them. If you don't like spoilers, look away now, but next in line is Darren Stevens (about 17,000) and Steve Davies (in the 14,000s). Both those two could well be retiring at the end of the year too. There are then a few players betweeen 9,000 and 12,000 currently lead by Sam Northeast. I have often wondered if this title would eventually fall to Sam Hain ...

I have a Sky Sports subscription - largely so that I can watch Test cricket. In bored moments recently, I have turned on to the "Sky Hundred" channel in the hope of something watchable. Mistake. I can rarely last more than a dozen or so balls before dismissing it as glorified pub cricket. The standard is genuinely dire.
OK, so it's not meant for me and to that extent the ECB have hit the bullseye. There are, though, two things that would really worry me if I were promoting this competition. The first, as noted by paulbear, is the lack of "names". Fat, semi-retired has-beens and kids from nowhere do not a competion make. The second is the number of times the commentators feel compelled to say how "exciting" everything is. No it isn't and the more often your contract requires you to pretend it is, the less credibility you have.
Now, you can launch a product on hype alone but, at some point, it has to offer something of quality. The Hundread is a long way short of that and, whilst I would love to see it gone, that would leave a massive hole in the ECB and County finances. Fold it back into the Blast, please, as soon as possible.

Someone coined the term "donkey slog" for T20 cricket, which I thought was rather apt. In the spirit of Monty Python's competition to find a derogatory term for the Belgians, though, I don't think I can find a more derogatory name for the new competition than "The Hundred".

And the shot of the day was Sibley's lofted drive over extra cover. True, if the fielder there had been a bit taller he would have been caught but that was not the case. Great to see him have the confidence to play such a shot.

You could make a sensible schedule out of one red ball and one white ball competition. Three limited overs competitions is just insane. Counties are effectively trying to fund three squads: CC, Blast and RLODC as the main players from the Blast get drafted to the Hundred. Surely that is not sustainable - but maybe that's the ECB's plan....

😡😡😡😡😡

I was at that match and still recall Clayton's "protest". I guess it wasn't long before fielding restrictions were brought into play but it was all legal then.
Looking at the scorecard, I see that Sonny Ramadhin played in that match but I confess I have no recollection of him. I really didn't think I was old enough to have seen Ramadhin....

When he's fit, he'll be with an England squad so what's the point. Sadly, the ideal County player these days is one who is not quite good enough to play for England.

The first thing that occurred to me on seeing the TV clip was to ask whether the wickets had been put down properly. It would be nice if, occasionally, a side were rewarded for actually knowing the laws.
I wouldn't have wanted to be the umpire who called for another TV review live, though.

What actually happened on that final, final ball? Did anybody legally break the stumps with a batsman out of his ground? The keeper broke the stumps his end but the runner was in. Then all sorts of people were pulling up stumps at both ends with or without the hand holding the ball.

Just being pedantic, wouldn't question the result as given.

Yes, I used to be a member there and in the early days it was a pretty and friendly ground. Then they started pouring concrete and the atmosphere disappeared. The writing was on the wall when the van selling £2.00 bacon rolls was replaced by a £4.50 bacon ciabatta.....

That's a frighteningly dreadful interview containing barely one word with which I could agree. I'd be embarrassed if I were that incoherent after ten pints.
In particular, how does anyone come up with the idea that 12 teams playing 10 games constitutes a sane competition?

I'll suggest Nick Knight against Hampshire in 2002.

It sometimes happens that after one side puts up a big score, the other side has a meltdown. Looks like that's what happened to us: the top order were out to a combination of brain fade and bad luck, then Lamb & Burgess got good balls. Hey, ho the draw is still possible with rain predicted for Sunday.

I'm pleased that McAndrew got some runs. Flying half way round the world to post figures of 0-100 on debut must be pretty gut wrenching. Will Rhodes did everything he could to gift McAndrew a wicket this morning but even the Somerset tail weren't going to co-operate. Nice to hear the rest of the team still encouraging him in the field. Perhaps a decent lower order knock will give him a lift.

We were second best today. The pitch did look a bit green at the start but if there was any help to be had for the bowlers, we didn't find it. Yes, it's early and no doubt he will have better days but McAndrew looked underwhelming. Quickish but not express - I would say Norwell is quicker. Oddly, McAndrew seemed to be getting significantly less bounce out of the pitch than OHD and Miles. He's not particularly tall for a seam bowler (about the same as Will Rhodes) and his shoulder comes through quite low when he bowls so perhaps that is a feature of his style. Whether that helps or not remains to be seen.

From a spectator point of view, I have to say that Renshaw is a good watch when he gets going. He scores quickly, all round the wicket, without resorting to slogging. A good overseas signing.

Re Burgess, he's certainly putting his name in the frame. Good for him and also good for whoever decided to recruit him. I didn't see this coming.
It's hard to know what England might do as there's no management there at present. Who gets to pick the team? Notwithstanding a mediocre West Indies tour, I would still have Foakes as automatic choice if fit. He is streets ahead of any other gloveman and a more than useful batter. So if he's injured, England would be looking for only a temporary replacement. They'll have Bairstow in their ear demanding the gloves (there are worse options). With Rob Key in the hierarchy they may go for Sam Billings, who is a good player but still a bit of a stranger to red ball cricket. They may also want the excuse to have another look at James Bracey as they seem to think he could be a top order batter.
I think there are some England Lions games this year which might see Burgess get a chance but I don't think he'll play Tests. All the better for us.

Ageing pedant here. When we played 40 over games on a Sunday, weren't we playing 3 day Championship games? Saturday, Monday, Tuesday and then another one on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. 32 CC games a year plus one against the Tourists and the Universities. Membership was certainly worth it then!

Meanwhile, does anyone know how close Burgess & OHD were to a record 10th wicket partnership today?