Cricket's The Hundred may lose glitter before take-off

LONDON: Many stars -– including Australian David Warner and West Indies' Kieron Pollard -– may skip The Hundred, a new 100-ball format to be played this July-August in England, due to commitments with their national teams and stringent the Covid-19 quarantine rules.

These and other stars would mostly be busy with their national teams between July 21 and August 21, when The Hundred, a novel concept of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), is scheduled to be played.

Australian stars Glenn Maxwell, Warner, Aaron Finch, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa and Jhye Richardson have all signed up for the maiden edition of The Hundred. However, Australia are due to travel to West Indies for five T20 Internationals and three ODIs between July 9 to July 24. And all these players, along with D'Arcy Short, are in the preliminary Australia squad named for the West Indies tour. Australia may then tour Bangladesh too for a limited overs series that could act as warm-up for the T20 World Cup, scheduled to be played this October-November in India.

Besides Aussie stars, some prominent West Indies players, like Kieron Pollard, Andre Russell and Nicholas Pooran, may also have to skip the tournament as they will be busy against visiting Australians at home. IANS

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