Hundred’s days now look numbered but alternatives seem sure to provoke a row

The ECB gathered at Edgbaston more than 30 of the nation’s most talented white-ball players, men and women, last Monday to kickstart the publicity drive for August’s third season of the Hundred. Inevitably, many were asked about the competition’s future.

“With everything there’s going to be critics,” said Matthew Potts, the Durham and England bowler who plays for Northern Superchargers. “All I would say is be patient with it. Almost accept it just for the time being and see how you feel in a couple of years when the tournament has had time to bed itself into the game.”

On the same day, Rob Key, England’s managing director of men’s cricket, gave an interview to the BBC and the future of the Hundred was discussed. “I don’t see why our competition can’t be the second-best to the IPL,” he said of its place in a calendar increasingly crowded with short-form franchise tournaments, adding that long-term commitment is required “because we are building towards something in the years to come”.

By Thursday, sources at the ECB were briefing that the tournament might be heading for the sporting scrapheap. There is a chance this was part of a cunning promotional campaign – the news certainly got people talking about the Hundred in a way organisers of the Edgbaston gathering could barely dream of – but more likely this is the beginning of the end.

So the dance starts again. Though a mid-season World Cup has made this year an anomaly, the key elements of the English football calendar – a professional league split into four national divisions that start in August and end in May, an FA Cup that leading teams enter in January at the third-round stage and a League Cup, have been unchanged since 1960-61. Cricket’s administrators, by