Vitality Blast to be this summer's key domestic competition as uncertainty over The Hundred grows

HUWZAT ON WEDNESDAYS: While counties were prepared to give The Hundred a chance, their own T20 tournament suddenly looks pivotal

• The Hundred could be postponed until 2021
• Cook expresses concern over Championship future

As lockdown replaces throwdown in the cricket world, there is speculation about what domestic cricket, if any, will be played this summer.

It looks as if the 50-over game will be put in mothballs now England have that World Cup safely in the bag.

And there seems to be a growing feeling that The Hundred will be put on hold for a year. Durham chief executive Tim Bostock told talkSPORT's Cricket Collective podcast: “A view will be taken if this is the right time to launch The Hundred. Tom Harrison has been pragmatic. I certainly get the impression if we get a two-month season what's the point of launching this tournament now, why not launch it properly next year?”

That leaves the County Championship and the Vitality Blast.

Most people would be devastated if there was no four-day cricket this summer, but the consensus view seems to be that the Blast should take precedence. It brings in the bucks for counties, will engage the youngsters and general fans, and it should be used to fine-tune England’s squad ahead of the other World Cup, the T20, hopefully to be held in Australia in October and November.

Whichever way you look at it, it is more disappointing news for The Hundred, which has had a troubled birth to say the least.

Before the Corona/Covid-19 crisis there was evidence that the tectonic shifts were moving yet again anyhow, however.

Like Brexit v Remain, anybody who thinks The Hundred v county cricket civil war has ended should think again.

Pre-Corona lockdown, I spoke to county bosses and they now seem to accept that they need to support the new competition, or at least be seen to, but they are clear it’s very much on trial. Some say it has a year; some two or three. (Although it could be five – we know it is a fundamental part of the Sky/BBC TV deal from 2020–24).

^{T20 Finals Day in 2020 is already a virtual sell-out}

Yes, a lot of counties have financial worries, and need the £1.3m per year, although the salary collar stipulated by the new County Partnership Agreement means a few won’t feel the full benefit of this. It requires all counties to spend at least £1.5m a year on player salaries by 2024. At the moment the collar is just £750,000. Most counties already spend £1.5m, but a few do not, and it will eat into The Hundred payment. What one hand giveth, the other taketh away, and all that.

But the counties seem to have found new resolve. They are taking stock, at the moment working out how they can persuade the ECB that they are worthy of the two capital investment pots up for grabs, one worth £50m, the other £25m.

Their chief executives were tied up, pre-Corona, not just with trying to meet the key performance indicators of the CPA (how many England-qualified players they produce, backing women’s and recreational cricket, ensuring the game reaches every corner of their counties); but on health and safety matters – ensuring their facilities are up to scratch: that they have enough fire sprinklers in place, and so on.

They will give The Hundred what help they can, and try to be optimistic – but bear in mind whenever they promote it on their social media accounts they come under ferocious attack, like a cat gate-crashing a dinner party of hungry dogs. They stand poised to euthanase the new competition if and when they feel it’s flopped... and are intrigued to know what incoming ECB chairman Ian Watmore makes of it.

What will constitute a flop? The ECB are projecting for crowds of at least 60 per cent, and a county boss tells me that they expect spectators to be funnelled into key areas where the cameras are pointing.

Television ratings will also be key.

And recreational participation has to be arrested. To paraphrase the name of the ECB’s latest strategic plan, a generation has to be inspired.

^{This summer was meant to be the big kick-off for The Hundred}

Otherwise, the counties could strike back: 12 is the magic number, I was told.

Or two-thirds of the 18 in the first-class game. And then it will be revert to plan B (for Blast); an eight-team T20 Premier League with a 10-team ‘championship’ (like the footy one, not cricket’s four-day version), with two or three promoted and relegated.

I discussed my interview with ECB chief executive Tom Harrison, in the March edition of The Cricketer, with a county head honcho, and they latched on to one of the cover lines, about Durham and Somerset-based teams possibly joining The Hundred from 2025. And it really isn’t difficult to see why counties feel endangered, despite Harrison’s genuine desire, I believe, to protect all, or as many of them, as he/the ECB can. He does seem to covet a future where Hundred teams and counties co-exist, to quote pop group The Beloved, “in sweet harmony”.

Yet to me and many others that just doesn’t seem feasible. This town ain’t big enough for both of them. There are not enough days in the summer.

Ten or 12 Hundred franchises, eventually playing all forms of the game...

Or, perhaps, 14-16 counties.

In the long run surely the choice will have to be made.