Warwickshire chief executive insists The Hundred and Vitality Blast can coexist

Warwickshire chief executive Stuart Cain rejected the “lazy” assertion that Vitality Blast ticket sales have been primarily affected by The Hundred.

Ticket uptake ahead of the 20th edition of England’s domestic T20 competition, beginning on Wednesday, was described by one county source in the Daily Telegraph as “very slow” almost “across the board”.

In the first year where there will no limits on crowd capacities since The Hundred’s inception last summer, those remarks have led to questions about whether the two white-ball competitions can coexist.

Cain is adamant they can, pointing out Warwickshire’s own ticket sales are comparable to pre-pandemic levels, as he urged counties to stop the blame game and find ways to make both competitions successful.

He told the PA news agency: “Is The Hundred a good or a bad thing? Well, that was agreed a couple of years ago when all the counties voted to do it. The genie’s out the bottle with that one.

“It would be unrealistic to think there would be no impact on the Blast, of course it’s going to have an impact. I just think there’s got to be a bit of balance, it’s a bit lazy to blame The Hundred.

“There’s room for the two. You’ve just got to think holistically about how do you fill the summer with those white-ball tournaments? How do we address some of the things that have hit us this year?

“We’ve got to think cleverly about how we market the Blast and The Hundred. It’s about focusing on that rather than keep fighting among ourselves about whether The Hundred is a good or a bad thing.”

Edgbaston is set for a bumper summer, including staging the entirety of cricket’s return to the Commonwealth Games for the first time since 1998, with Cain encouraged by “massive” ticket sales.

Cain