T20 Could Have Helped Cricket Qualify For Olympics; The Hundred Wasn't Really Needed: Ian Chappell

Former Australian skipper-turned commentator Ian Chappell believes that the T20 format of the game is enough to propel cricket’s participation in the Olympics and that the newly created Hundred competition wasn’t really needed.

The 100-ball competition is a brainchild of the England and Wales Cricket Board which aims to bring a new audience in the form of young kids and women in the game.

The first season of both men and women competition is currently underway in England.

“Apart from reducing the number of balls to obtain a terrestrial television deal, the reasoning behind the Hundred could well be that it improves the chances of cricket fulfilling the Olympic dream. This is often cited as a way to spread the game’s popularity to a wider audience. Surely the T20 format could achieve that same outcome without yet another reduction,” Ian Chappell wrote in his column for ESPNcricinfo’

Chappell believes that performance satisfaction plays a role in youngsters falling in love with the game.

He further adds that the more the length of the game is reduced, the greater is the chance of players just making up the numbers.

“Cricket is a team game ideally played by 11 members a side. Performance satisfaction is a big reason why youngsters fall in love with the game. Administrators would do well to remember that before they rush into devising shorter forms of the game. The more the length of an innings is reduced, the greater chance that there will be players “just making up the numbers”. Even those players crave occasional performance satisfaction,” he added.

Further giving his thoughts on ‘The Hundred’, Ian Chappell wrote-

”Throughout my playing career, I believed there were two possible solutions to a problem: a simple one and a complicated one. I also believed that to the benefit of Australia, England would regularly choose the complicated solution. They’ve done it again. To overcome the being the perceived problem of public being fully conversant with cricket, they’ve concocted another form of the game – The Hundred. That’s right, they’ve reduced by a mere 20 balls a format that was extremely popular with players and the public,” he added.

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