Sheffield Cricket Lovers' Society Year Book 2022

arguments for their love of the game in a way which makes the whole thing seem grumpy, old and irrelevant to all generations. Talk up what you love and ignore that you don’t. It’s not an argument which applies to everything in life of course. As Sky’s Nasser Hussain said, “We must never stop asking questions of the Hundred.” I know I certainly won’t. It’s deeply frustrating to those who adore so much that which came before the Hundred, that those with the money chose not to back the county system. Attempts to derail that appear to have failed. So people will no doubt continue that ght and I don’t suggest they stop. But, if you can be bothered, give some thought as to how the county game can be made to look every bit as exciting as the Hundred. I undoubtedly think it is. Di erent pace, di erent environment but contests and players who so easily captured the public imagination in the Hundred and will do so most times they take to a cricket eld. ere is genuinely reason to be concerned that county cricket will be shoved to the sidelines, even more than now. What county cricket needs to do is just promote all that is good about it. Guess what? at’s families, inclusivity and great cricket, arguably more absorbing than the Hundred, but that’s subjective. I disagree that the Hundred taking over the school summer holidays is such a great issue. I’m a father of a teenager and we are as likely, if more likely, to go and watch cricket in June and July as August; a fact that post COVID may yet hit the hundred crowds. Is my view a sugar coated world which allows the corporate ‘few’ to take their money and run? Quite possible. I’m not ready to admit defeat in giving up on County cricket which, in the case of the Championship, still provides the sternest test, as most players will testify. Television coverage of the Hundred does give a platform not a orded to the rest, but there are numerous ways of getting the games into our lives. It shouldn’t stop us learning the lessons of talking up the game we all love and enjoy. 13