Colin Graves, chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), has come under scrutiny after it emerged that the organisation’s new competition, The Hundred, could cost significantly more than originally planned.
Graves met with the chairmen of England’s first-class county clubs last week to discuss the new event. According to The Independent, Graves informed the chairmen that the cost of organising the competition would likely be close to £40m (€45m/$52m) and not £13m as originally planned.
The Hundred had already been unpopular among counties and the meeting is said to have further soured relationships between them and Graves. One source who attended the meeting told The Independent that Graves’ chances of landing a second term as ECB chairman were “non-existent”.
The meeting took place at The Oval, where Graves had been due to award Surrey with the County Championship trophy. After the meeting ended in disagreement, however, Graves did not attend the trophy ceremony, with Jim Wood, a non-executive director of the ECB board, taking his place.
The ECB first revealed plans for a 100-ball format of its new limited-overs competition back in April. The eight-team domestic competition is scheduled to come into effect in 2020.