England’s cricketers ended their year with a terrific Test whitewash of Sri Lanka, but the ECB’s work in 2018 is far from finished as a testing fortnight looms.
This Wednesday, the ECB’s new Hundred format and competition will be put to the organisation’s board for sign-off.
County chief executives have met with Rob Calder and Mike Fordham, two of the new competition’s key players.
The ECB are resistant to the desire of host counties — which are still not confirmed — to have greater control of the identity of the teams that will play at their grounds, such as by having some crossover of players. Seeing the new competition as solely an ECB project, counties are increasingly occupied with protecting the T20 Blast.
Crucial elements like playing conditions — with five-ball overs, fewer changes of ends and specialist fielders among the innovations — are up for board approval, but the ECB are some months from revealing the identities of the teams’ brands or key dates.
That is followed by, hopefully, the final chapter of the Ben Stokes saga, which creeps into its 16th month as he and Alex Hales face a two-day hearing before a three-man panel from the ECB’s independent Cricket Discipline Commission, charged with bringing the game into disrepute.
England’s selectors cannot meet to pick the squad for January’s tour of the Caribbean until this is settled as it is possible both players could receive further cricketing sanctions. Stokes, who was found not guilty of affray at Bristol Crown Court in August, has missed a total of six Tests and 11 white-ball internationals, while Hales has missed just two ODIs for his part in the late-night saga.
