Today marks the opening of the first ever ‘The Hundred’ tournament and here at Stride School we are welcoming the event with open arms!
The brilliant concept is promising an action packed 5 weeks throughout the summer holidays with plenty of entertainment and inclusive family fun.
But what makes The Hundred any different or special compared with any other cricket events?
Why do we think this is an event that can spark inspiration for cricket for girls in schools?
Well, to start with, history is about to be made today as The Hundred opens the tournament with a stand alone women’s game. This will be the first time a team tournament for both men and women will be opened by a women game as Oval Invincibles take on Manchester Originals at 18:30 at the Oval.
Refreshingly, The Hundred has aimed for complete gender parity and is leading the way for how the future of all sports tournaments should look. Both men and women are receiving the same standards in transport, changing facilities and accommodation as well as equal share of the overall £600K prize fund.
The tournament will host matches across 8 world class venues and will be broadcast across the BBC and Sky Sports and once the tournament is underway will feature matches as double-headers where women’s matches will be followed by mens on the same date.
The Hundred is completely overhauling the traditional cricket perceptions of long drawn out test matches. Promising fast-paced entertainment, players will need to make every ball count as teams chase the most amount of runs.
So what does this mean for girls cricket in schools? The link isn’t immediately apparent with the whole event focussed around the summer holidays, but we think this is the start of something wonderful for promoting more activities in the summer term.
The Hundred will make female cricketers into household names. You might not know the names Natalie Sciver, Katherine Brunt or Georgia Adams yet - but The Hundred will help these, and so many others to become renowned names in the domestic game. It will provide girls with some vitally needed role models in a game where they can aspire to be treated equally to their male counterparts.
Next Summer we hope to see many ‘The Hundred’ campaigns across schools after what will be a groundbreaking summer for the sport this year. Talking about the tournament in schools doesn’t have to be all about teaching cricket skills. From the concepts alone we relate our own work back to key themes that should be highlighted consistently in Girls P.E. Being fearless, tenacious and creative are themes from the new game format that we can certainly share back with our girls as strong values.