The Hundred in England can definitely be second to IPL: Sam Curran

LONDON: England’s left-arm pace all-rounder Sam Curran feels The Hundred has definitely in it to be the second-best tournament in the franchise cricket circuit after the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Curran will be playing in Sunday’s final of The Hundred for his team Oval Invincibles, and has played for Punjab Kings as well as Chennai Super Kings in the IPL, apart from representing MI Cape Town in the inaugural edition of SA20 in South Africa.

“I think players are more used to the format, and teams have been pretty stable over the three years so they are familiar faces to the fans. Good crowds, good pitches, lots of close games … we have had fantastic support. England is a great place to play cricket with all the big grounds and definitely it can be second to IPL.”

“All the domestic talent we have should make us achieve that anyway. England have so many fantastic white-ball players and that has made this a great competition. Hopefully it can make it bigger and better,” Curran was quoted as saying by The Telegraph.

Curran was the player of the match and player of the tournament in England winning the Men's T20 World Cup in Australia last year. With Sunday’s final of the Hundred at Lord’s being a sold-out, Curran is convinced that the tournament is working its magic on getting kids drawn to the sport.

“The timing of it in the school holidays was designed to encourage a new audience and there are a lot of kids at matches, which has been nice. The support in the third season, it is noticeable that the fans now have teams they want to back and have familiarity with the format as well.”

“There are a lot of Surrey players involved here, and that helps with familiarity for us. Of course there will always be some people who don’t like it but the game is moving fast and we have to keep going with it. We see a lot of kids wearing the shirts and waiting after the game to get autographs and caps and that kind of stuff. It is about inspiring those people to one day play in these grounds,” he concluded.