Hussain says it is "absolutely vital" men's and women's competitions continue to be aligned, wants family feel at games to be maintained and more global white-ball stars in 2022 edition, including from Pakistan; Hussain admits Hundred has caused "collateral damage"
Friday 28 January 2022 13:03, UK
Nasser Hussain says the success of the opening season of The Hundred shows the tournament does not need tinkering with - but he would like to see some more top names in the 2022 edition and the family flavour maintained…
As a single entity, The Hundred was definitely a success. If anyone was watching on their TV sets or in the ground, it was a wonderful tournament. Fresh, new, quick, colourful and simple.
My family and I were at the first game in the women's competition between Oval Invincibles and Manchester Originals and you knew immediately the tournament was going to be successful. The atmosphere was outstanding.
The tournament polarised opinion and still does to a degree, so it was a bit fingers crossed and into the unknown on that first night at The Kia Oval.
But you immediately felt there was an affinity with the home side. Beforehand, the talk was 'why would you follow this this team?' but immediately the green Invincibles shirts came out. There was also an event atmosphere like in a Roses clash between Lancashire and Yorkshire.
I think having the men's and women's sides playing on the same day in this tournament worked perfectly and I think it is absolutely vital that the competitions continue to be aligned.
They were a joint group, not just men's and women's sides. You could see that every time you turned up. You also had coaches working with each other. Speaking to the women's players, I know they enjoyed it and the impact it had on their game.
You cannot doubt what impact The Hundred has had on women's cricket - the skills on show and the way it attracted a new audience, young girls who realised cricket was cool and wanted to play it.
The women were under pressure to deliver and absolutely delivered. Some of the fielding in the tournament was outstanding.
A lot of Australia Women’s depth comes from how successful their Big Bash has been. I think that’s the end product of The Hundred. Yes, it’s a great domestic tournament but, surely, it also has to increase the standard of England Women in international cricket.
I now don't want a lot changed - I don't think you need to tinker. You only have to look at what's happened in the Big Bash where it has been made far too long and it has lost its impact.
If anything, come down even harder on those regulations.
In The Hundred, you have to bring a fielder in if you have not bowled your overs in time, so stay very strict on that. You cannot have these games going on late into the evening so that mums and dads are worried about getting their kids home.
There were also one or two occasions where the beer-drinking mentality spilled over into the family area. We don't want to see that.
We want to see people enjoy themselves and have a beer if they want but maybe segregate the two areas so you keep the family flavour.
The way to improve the tournament is with players.
Hopefully Covid dies down and restrictions are lifted further so you can get Aaron Finch, Glenn Maxwell, David Warner, Andre Russell, Kieron Pollard etc.
Some of the great white-ball players we couldn't get over last summer.
I would also love to see a couple more Pakistan players come over.
I think their white-ball cricket has gone through the roof so people like Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, get them over as the interest among the British Asian community is growing.
Add with the names. That has to be the direction of this tournament - the best against the best.
There is collateral damage to The Hundred which means there are now two white-ball tournaments in mid-summer with the Vitality Blast as well.
So how much red-ball cricket is being played then? How much are batters getting used to the best time to bat? How much spin is being bowled in that time?
I won't knock people who are desperate for Test cricket not to be forgotten. You only have to look at the reaction from the Ashes to realise how much people still care about Test cricket.
But England were rubbish against Australia before The Hundred. We were 20-4 against every side we played against before The Hundred. So not everything is The Hundred's fault.
We do have to look at the repercussions of this tournament and the areas where we can improve the other parts of our game. Otherwise, every time England are 20-3 in a Test match, The Hundred will get knocked.
Speaking on the Sky Sports Cricket podcast, the Press Association's cricket correspondent, Rory Dollard said: "If last year was about The Hundred justifying itself as a tournament, I think they got it over the line.
"I think this year has to be about how it fits, and if it fits, into the wider cricketing ecosystem. The Hundred can't live on its own terms forever. It has to engage and interact as it feeds off the county game and the players that get fed up from the system.
"I don't know whether we can have every competition at the highest level and not have our pitches and players being too tired.
"A lot of the scepticism initially would have come from some quite confusing messaging from the launch. It was almost setting up the culture war from ball one by saying it wasn't for traditional cricket fans.
"I think other people felt disenfranchised because it was only happening in seven cities and a lot of the cricketing country felt a bit cut out in terms of attending games.
"But I took my kids - a six-year-old and an eight-year-old - to Headingley for a game. I briefly took off my journalist's hat, became a dad, and watched my kids fall in love with it.
"Together we watched Liam Livingstone produce one of his masterclasses and pump 10 sixes. I paid for my son's seat but he never sat in it as he was up bouncing the whole time!
"I saw The Hundred through the eyes of somebody it was pitched at. My kids didn't know about the buzzwords or all the things that had wound people up. They just watched the cricket, which was fantastic, and they are badgering me to go again.
"Just because my family had a nice day out, though, that doesn't mean there are not people feeling cut out or left behind and I still think there is work to be done on that front.
"Also, I am really surprised the ECB did not look to blood some more English coaches in the head coach roles.
"I know there are English coaches on the staff but the ECB created this competition and a lot of the conversations after the Ashes were about a lack of up-and-coming coaches and leaders.
"I am not sure by leaning on the star overseas names whether they gave themselves the best chance to create candidates.
"Northern Superchargers now have a vacancy [after Darren Lehmann's departure] and I would like to see that go to someone the ECB think might work with them in the future."
Watch the 2022 edition of The Hundred live and in full on Sky Sports between August 3 and September 3.
