Marcus Hook’s Surrey CCC column: The Hundred lacks identity and has flaws which prevent supporter buy-in

What’s great about cricket is it can be played in a variety of formats, so there’s something for everyone. You pays your money and you makes your choice.

Indeed, we’ve reached that point in the domestic season when county cricket goes its separate ways for a month or so.

The traditionalists will continue to follow their county sides (even if, for most, it’s akin to watching the reserves), while the new audience the game is seeking to woo will be treated to The Hundred, which, again, will see most of Surrey’s first eleven on show.

The Hundred, which is the shortest format, is a mixture of the best cricketers in England plus a smattering of overseas talent shuffled into eight squads on the basis of a draft system. There’s men’s teams as well as women’s.

Its major flaw is fans struggle to remember who plays for who (the knock-on effect being sides lack identity) as well as what the various teams are called.

Ever since the introduction of a 60-over competition to run alongside the County Championship in the early 1960s, the game’s administrators have attempted to widen cricket’s appeal. In some cases – the Indian Premier League being an obvious example – it has been done very successfully.

But on occasions not long after a new demographic of cricket follower has bought into the latest thing, the temptation to further re-invent has proved irresistible. Result – the modern audience drifts away, with a sense that they have served their purpose.

What I really struggle to get my head around is how fans can connect with a team that has no heritage; moreover, one that hires rather than develops players.

How many of us follow the club we do because that’s what our father, our grandfather, or other members of our family did? How many of us grew up listening to them recount going to see the greats and the matches they played in?

Maybe I’m wrong and maybe the sporting world is moving on.

Should Surrey create a bit of history and become only the second team to achieve the double of winning the County Championship and the Domestic T20 in the same season, I guess it will matter little that they suffered heavy as well as unexpected defeats just as the respective competitions were poised to go into a break.

Given the Oval outfit’s dominance in T20, who could possibly have foreseen their 86-run loss to Kent, who still ended up finishing bottom of the South Group?

The innings and 278-run defeat to Hampshire in the championship, just prior to the initial stages of the Blast, was an embarrassment Surrey couldn’t wait to remedy. When the schedule switched back to red-ball briefly, Worcestershire and Essex were swept aside convincingly.

Let’s hope the same thing happens when the T20 Blast resumes, because it’s been a long time for a club of Surrey’s stature – 2003, and just one T20 title in 21 attempts.

The South Londoners’ 50-over warm-up game against Cambridgeshire last Sunday ended in somewhat controversial circumstances.

The first 64 overs produced good, competitive cricket in seemingly ideal conditions. But with the hosts on 45-2 in reply to Surrey’s 223, two deliveries from fast bowler Nathan Barnwell leapt sharply, at which point the umpires got together and concluded the pitch was too dangerous for the game to continue.

PICTURE: PA