Nirvana cracked it, so did Blur, but the second album is never easy. The fanfare is bigger, but the expectations greater, last year’s innovations already old hat.
The BBC viewing figures for the Hundred’s second season, revealed by the Telegraph on Thursday, did not make particularly cheerful reading for the new ECB chair Richard Thompson, over the froth of a Lord’s cappuccino. In the tournament’s second year there has been a drop of up to 20% in the numbers switching on for games – from an average of 615,000 per match in 2021 to just over 500,000 this year. The bright and shiny 2021 opening match, the women’s game between the Oval Invincibles and Manchester Originals, attracted 1.6 million; this year’s starter for 10, Southern Brave against the Welsh Fire, brought in only 550,000.
