Watching Bumrah & Root, thoughts of BCCI & The Hundred

As India and England clashed at The Oval in the fifth and final Test of a thrilling series, a quieter but potentially more consequential drama was playing out off the field. The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has sold majority stakes in six of its eight The Hundred franchises, raising over £520 million—roughly Rs 5,600 crore.

The ECB has hailed the move as a long-term solution to its financial worries. But even its top officials admit that The Hundred—a 100-ball format introduced in 2021 to attract new, younger fans—has failed to bring audiences into the wider game.

“There is no evidence that The Hundred has brought new fans into other formats of cricket,”

said Richard Gould, the ECB’s chief executive, in an interview with the British media.

That admission comes even as The Oval was near capacity on Thursday, with fans cheering every Bumrah inswinger and every Joe Root straight drive. While the players battled on in the game’s oldest format, their administrators were betting the future on its newest—and most divisive—format.

India’s campaign in this series has been bold: five different playing XIs across five Tests. England, meanwhile, have relied on their core red-ball stars. In both camps, there’s been intense focus, strategy, and a sense of history. But in the ECB boardroom, the emphasis is shifting from tradition to transaction.

“This is a landmark moment in the history of The Hundred and the wider game,”

declared Richard Thompson, ECB chair, in a press statement released earlier this week.

“Harry lost millions by not playing in the IPL. It was a massive sacrifice. But that’s the mentality we now have in the England team,” Thompson said during a rain delay at The Oval on Day 1 of the fifth Test.

The comment referred to rising England star Harry Brook, who turned down a lucrative IPL contract this year to be available for England’s full Test calendar. While administrators sell off short-format teams to private investors, players like Brook are being celebrated for sacrificing personal gain to serve their country. The contradiction is hard to ignore.

In India, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has kept a tight grip on player availability. Indian cricketers are barred from playing in overseas franchise leagues. The IPL is king, and national duty still dominates calendar planning. But Indian corporations already own teams in South Africa’s SA20, the UAE’s ILT20, and the Caribbean Premier League.

If The Hundred becomes a bigger financial success, Indian firms may soon own parts of English cricket, too. And with that could come the same tensions England now faces: how to balance private franchise priorities with national pride.

India’s cricket economy is far larger than England’s, but not immune to market saturation or audience fatigue. As IPL expands, and as Indian fans juggle Tests, ODIs and multiple T20 leagues, The Hundred serves as a warning: new formats and big branding don’t always translate to loyal viewership.

As another British media outlet reported this week, despite four seasons of The Hundred, ECB data shows little “cross-format conversion”—that is, fans of The Hundred are not necessarily becoming followers of Test or ODI cricket.

At The Oval, none of that uncertainty mattered. The cricket was compelling. Bumrah’s reverse swing. Root’s elegance. The weight of history. Fans—many of them Indian—braved the weather and the Tube delays to be part of a story that still means something.

Whether The Hundred’s financial windfall will help sustain that spirit—or gradually replace it—is an open question. But the fifth Test offered a timely reminder: some formats don’t need reinvention. They only need respect.

(The writer is the London correspondent for The Tribune)

Sports