ECB could delay the Hundred until 2021 and unveils £60m aid package

ECB chief Tom Harrison says costs have to be cutFocus will be on ‘core audience’ when cricket resumes

The England and Wales Cricket Board has given its strongest hint yet that the launch of the Hundred may have to be delayed until 2021. Announcing a £60m rescue package for the domestic game, the chief executive, Tom Harrison, said the sport’s “core audience” would be the priority amid what he described as “the biggest challenge the ECB has faced in its history”.

The prospect of a significant part of the 2020 season being lost appears to have focused minds, with one upshot being a marked shift in the rhetoric surrounding the flagship 100-ball competition. “It is at times like this when you go back to what is really important,” Harrison said via conference call. “We are going to have county fans who won’t have seen any cricket, players sitting around. All of our decisions are based on those factors.”

Related: Covid-19 checkpoints a possibility as ECB considers staging internationals

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