New Hampshire chairman: Hundred growth ‘makes good sense’

Hampshire’s new chairman believes that increasing the Hundred “makes good sense” for English cricket and is open to chatting with potential buyers because the ECB and counties proceed to debate the competitors’s future.

Hampshire had been distinguished advocates of a city-based, short-form competitors in English cricket underneath their long-serving chairman Rod Bransgrove, and that stance can be maintained by his successor. Nick Pike, an authentic investor within the membership’s guardian firm in 2001, formally took over from Bransgrove in the beginning of the 12 months and stated: “The Hundred is clearly important to the game.”

Pike instructed ESPNcricinfo: “Expanding it in a way that is profitable is important: it is good for the watching public and for the brand itself. We’ve got to be honest, there are quite a few pressures on the forms of cricket within the English game, and indeed at the global level. There are more and more short-form competitions around the world.

“We must have sturdy venues to ship that kind of high quality of product rapidly, and we have to have one of the best gamers taking part in in it. Rushing to an answer that does not retain these two issues, I believe could be incorrect. I do suppose growth makes good sense so long as it is managed and thought by from these factors of view.”

Tim Bostock, Durham’s chief executive, said last month that he is “100% dedicated” to hosting a team and hinted at the possibility of investment from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund in a potential north-east Hundred team, following their takeover of Newcastle United Football Club in 2021.

“To me, it is like every enterprise: you wish to seize that chance and to contemplate potential change. We want to know earnings streams, the calls for of the general public and every part else across the sport. So how will we then make that work, given these modifications? I believe we’re properly positioned not solely to deal with, however possibly be the driving force of a few of these modifications.”

“The Hundred has gone well: the obvious reason is the success [of Southern Brave] on the pitch, but I would also point to the public, families, and new watchers of cricket coming in, which has been very strong. With the talk about ownership of teams… could there be linkages across countries? I’m sure there could well be, yes, but I just don’t know how that is going to shake out.”

The majority of counties function as members’ golf equipment however Hampshire – together with Durham and Northamptonshire – are an exception. “That means we have control of our destiny and the opportunity to determine which way we go,” Pike stated, “but ironically, I think we’re a lot closer to our members than many members-run clubs.

“Hampshire have at all times, within the 20 years I’ve been right here, been a progressive membership. It’s not a ‘who owns what?’ kind of factor: if there are alternatives to vary the possession construction [of Hundred teams] then it’s only good if it results in growing and rising the sport. I’d wish to suppose that, at Hampshire, we’re very properly positioned for whichever means we would transfer forwards.”