LPL vs The Hundred
The Hundred has been on the cards for a long time. The ECB press release announcing the tournament may have been drafted as far back as the Triassic. Teams were named. Sponsors were found. Rules were incrementally floated and fine-tuned. Coaches and icon players were systematically assigned. If the tournament was coming together on the world's slowest production line, it's because every detail was meticulously attended to. Tens of millions of pounds were poured in. And then the pandemic happened and the ECB postponed the whole thing.
Let's compare this to the LPL. Sri Lanka Cricket, a board that repeatedly failed to organise a T20 league during non-pandemic years, rocked into late 2020 unsteady as ever. Then, with air travel across the world hampered, their own government imposing strict quarantines, the north-east monsoon still coming down in parts of the country, and with barely any money in the coffers, they managed to somehow string together a tournament that, for now, has produced competitive cricket, and captured the nation's attention.
For the ECB, this must be like when you study conscientiously all year, only for the guy who's barely been at class to stagger in halfway through the exam niffing of booze and weed, to get way better marks.
https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/30432681/the-hottest-contest-right-now-shahid-afridi-vs-universe
The Hundred has been on the cards for a long time. The ECB press release announcing the tournament may have been drafted as far back as the Triassic. Teams were named. Sponsors were found. Rules were incrementally floated and fine-tuned. Coaches and icon players were systematically assigned. If the tournament was coming together on the world's slowest production line, it's because every detail was meticulously attended to. Tens of millions of pounds were poured in. And then the pandemic happened and the ECB postponed the whole thing.
Let's compare this to the LPL. Sri Lanka Cricket, a board that repeatedly failed to organise a T20 league during non-pandemic years, rocked into late 2020 unsteady as ever. Then, with air travel across the world hampered, their own government imposing strict quarantines, the north-east monsoon still coming down in parts of the country, and with barely any money in the coffers, they managed to somehow string together a tournament that, for now, has produced competitive cricket, and captured the nation's attention.
For the ECB, this must be like when you study conscientiously all year, only for the guy who's barely been at class to stagger in halfway through the exam niffing of booze and weed, to get way better marks.
https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/30432681/the-hottest-contest-right-now-shahid-afridi-vs-universe