ANNIE CHAVE

As the ECB and the counties discuss financial terms for the privatisation of the Hundred in the England and Wales domestic game, it feels as though the growth of cricket in other parts of the world is developing at a pace that threatens far more than just the county game.
It is the age of franchise cricket. It is the age of the franchise player and of the cult status that comes with the franchise wage. The expansion of the game is potentially so huge that it could begin to destroy itself, or at least the vestiges of a gentler pleasure that has long entertained and beguiled so m...