Sam Curran believes The Hundred could become second-best franchise tournament after IPL

Source: Twitter/Sports_Himanshu

Sam Curran, a left-arm pace all-rounder for England, believes The Hundred has a strong chance of surpassing the Indian Premier League (IPL) as the premier competition in the franchise cricket circuit.

In addition to representing MI Cape Town in the inaugural SA20 tournament in South Africa, Curran will play for his team, Oval Invincibles, in the The Hundred final on Sunday. Curran has also played for the Punjab Kings and Chennai Super Kings in the IPL.

“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.

Ravindra Jadeja Breaks BCCI Protocols – No Sanctions Expected

Keshav Maharaj: First South African Spinner To Reach 200 Test…

Rishabh Pant Punished Himself After ‘Stupid Shot’…

When England won the Men’s T20 World Cup in Australia last year, Curran was both the game’s and the tournament’s best player. Curran is confident that the competition is doing its magic to attract young people to the sport because Sunday’s Hundred final at Lord’s was sold out.

“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.

-IANS