This summer has seen the start of a new cricket competition, The Hundred. This has been developed to make cricket more accessible.
Each side faces 100 balls, bowled in lots of t e n balls rather than six- ball overs. The shorter games produce greater excitement, are more attractive to families and provide entertaining television. Needless to say, traditionalists are outraged. Simon Heffer has written that it is a ‘bastardisation of a once-great game.’ Many have repeated the obvious cliché that The Hundred is ‘just not cricket’.
When the Equalities Act was passed more than a decade ago, it seemed to limit the freedoms that Christians had long taken for granted.
It became unlawful to discriminate against others on grounds of religion or sexual orientation with the result that, for example, a Christian-owned hotel could no longer refuse a room to a same-sex couple. Similarly, a Christian could not serve as a magistrate and take the view that children were always better adopted by a heterosexual couple. New laws against hate speech meant Christians were more fearful of preaching the gospel in case they offended others; and they faced the possibility of disciplinary action in the workplace if they challenged transgender ideology. These changes reflected the fact that we live in a secular, post-Christian context. Christian views and values are no longer widely shared across society and deemed worthy of privileged status. Instead, government has to balance the interests of competing opinions in a multicultural society.
What can cricket’s new competition teach us?
This summer has seen the start of a new cricket competition, The Hundred. This has been developed to make cricket more accessible.
Each side faces 100 balls, bowled in lots of t e n balls rather than six- ball overs. The shorter games produce greater excitement, are more attractive to families and provide entertaining television. Needless to say, traditionalists are outraged. Simon Heffer has written that it is a ‘bastardisation of a once-great game.’ Many have repeated the obvious cliché that The Hundred is ‘just not cricket’.