Could The Hundred's 10-ball over be on the scrapheap?

The ECB will have its work cut out to see its 10-ball over gimmick come to pass after being told by PCA chairman Daryl Mitchell that it is completely impractical when considering the wellbeing bowlers who would have to bowl it

Plans for a 10-ball over to close out the innings in the controversial “Hundred” concept could be on the scrapheap after meeting with stern opposition from the Professional Cricketers’ Association.

The ECB will have its work cut out to see its 10-ball over gimmick come to pass after being told by PCA chairman Daryl Mitchell that it is completely impractical when considering the wellbeing of bowlers who would have to bowl it.

The death overs of limited-overs cricket are almost invariably the realm of fast bowlers, and Mitchell believes that it would be asking too much of them to bowl a 10-ball over at the speed and intensity generally expected of them in the crunch period of an innings.

“People who are going to bowl at the death are concerned because of the physical demands. I don’t think it would be possible to ask Tymal Mills to bowl a 10-ball over at 92-93 miles per hour…if you throw in the odd wide or no ball then it becomes 12 or 13 balls and I don’t think that’s good for the game.”

Since the ECB announced that the new competition, starting in 2020, will be a bizarrely abbreviated version of the globally popular T20, there have been concerns voiced about how one fits an innings consisting of a century of deliveries into the traditional cricketing DNA of the six-ball over.

^{PCA chairman Daryl Mitchell has questioned the 10-ball over concept}

With the 15 overs of six and one of ten seeming certain to be shelved, alternatives were brought forward in these talks between various players, headed by Mitchell, and the ECB’s marketing specialists at the helm of the “Hundred”’s conception.

“I don’t think [the ECB] want to go too far away from cricket now,” Mitchell continued, “so they don’t want 20 five-ball overs. Maybe we could have eight-ball overs at the start and end of an innings to make up the hundred.”

Another idea discussed is giving the fielding captain power to call time on an over after four balls. This would be used as a tactical decision to stop a thunderous batsman wreaking havoc in his tracks where every ball has disappeared to the fence. It would enable the captain to get the likes of Jos Buttler or AB de Villiers off strike and put the bowler out of his misery.

This would raise the eyebrows of players, pundits and supporters alike just as much as 10-ball over did, and critics will say it is hardly sticking to the ECB’s brief of making the game simpler to a potential new audience.

It is understood that the ECB will meet next month with a working group consisting of numerous high-profile figures, including administrators, broadcasters, coaches and county execs to discuss and dissect just how the Hundred will be constructed.