These are exciting days for cricket

These are exciting days for cricketing fans like me. The game is changing fast in a bid to attract more families and encourage more children to play and follow the sport.

Like many thousands of others, I have been glued to the television for the past two weeks watching the new Hundred competition. I was slightly skeptical at first, thinking it was a bit too gimmicky, but I have to admit I am now really hooked.

Let me try and explain how it works for those who are confused by the rules of this exciting new format.

The Hundred is a professional franchise 100-ball cricket tournament involving eight men's and eight women's teams located in major cities across England and Wales. The tournament is run by the England and Wales Cricket Board" England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). 

The format was invented to attract younger and more diverse crowds to watch cricket, with the expectation that the shorter format will mean each match lasts around two-and-a-half hours.

The BBC is showing free-to-air broadcasts of the competition, while all of the women's matches and some of the men's matches are available to stream for free on Sky Sports.

The tournament will give equal weight to both men's and women's sides, with almost all the matches taking place as back-to-back double-headers at the same venue on the same day. One ticket will give access to both the men's and women's games, while men and women will share the same prize money.

Franchise cricket is now very big business with all the best players receiving huge salaries performing all over the world.

The teams in The Hundred wearing very gaudy kits gets a but of getting used to and each team is sponsored by a popular snack food, such as Pombears, which I thought was pushing things a bit, especially at a time when there is a big campaign to stop children consuming so much salt.

This competition has been a huge boost for women's cricket, the standard of which is much higher than I anticipated. The men's teams include some of the best cricketers from all over the world and virtually every game ends in an exciting run chase.

There's a few more gimmicks such as a disk jockey blasting out music between overs but there's no doubt the crowds really get in the spirit of the occasion and the kids clearly love it.

White ball cricket – that is limited over cricket – is already very big all over the world with T-20 competitions and one-day internationals. The Hundred is an extension of this concept and in my view will do wonders for the future of cricket as a global sport.

Already there are numerous initiatives to get children involved in cricket and this is bound to help youngsters fall in love with the game.

And I'm pleased to see that limited over cricket has come to this part of the world in the form of the East Devon Bash T-20 competition, which has been sponsored jointly by my company, Lyme Regis Media, and the Nub News website.

The final took place on Sunday between the Uplyme Muffin Men and the Seaton Pirates. It was a very competitive game with a tense finish with the Pirates winning by just seven runs. It was a great game to watch.

Whilst on the subject of local cricket, congratulations to Ben Morgan, the captain of Seaton 1st X1, a talented all-rounder who wrote himself into the cricketing history books when he took eight wickets at a cost of just ten runs, a feat which got him on the Play-Crocket national honours board in fourth place.