Legendary Indian batsman Sunil Gavaskar is not too pleased with what he has seen of the inaugural edition of The Hundred so far. Gavaskar, on his impressions of the 100-ball competition, opined that it is “insipid”.
“Having seen it on TV, the only word that comes to mind is insipid.
The cricket is ordinary and the coverage average with basic mistakes in player information which, if made in the sub-continent, would have been mocked at especially by the former England players, not to speak of the headlines that the tabloids would have generated.”
Gavaskar wrote in his column in the daily Mid-Day.
Gavaskar further wrote in his column, while the fans have filled the stadiums in the first week of The Hundred, a sense of “fierce loyalty” with any of the eight franchises has been missing.
The first man to breach the 10,000-run mark in Test cricket added that the experience at grounds may be different, but the competition has not so far had a “great” impact on him.
However, Gavaskar did not rule out the possibility of The Hundred gathering more acceptance within the wider cricket community. But he also made an important assessment that the tournament needed the kind of launch the IPL enjoyed back in 2008 because of Brendon McCullum’s swashbuckling innings in Bangalore.
Gavaskar wrote the IPL had a “vertical take-off” after McCullum’s unforgettable knock, but “The Hundred hadn’t quite got that.”
