The Times - UK (2022-05-25)

60 Wednesday May 25 2022 | the times

SportCricket

Sport or light

entertainment?

Modern pentathlon yesterday announced details of the specific challenges that will form part

of the obstacle course discipline they plan to introduce in place of equestrianism before the

next Olympics. Some of the obstacles seem familiar from light entertainment television

shows such as Ninja Warrior, The Krypton Factor, and Gladiators

Rope swingi Ascending steps Monkey bars 1.5m wall Low crawl Rings rig Offset steps Wheels rig Angled ladders Under-over Balance beam ‘Tsunami’ curved wall

It will be the Olympics meets Ninja

Warrior and Gladiators: athletes in the

modern pentathlon will have to

negotiate an obstacle course complete

with monkey bars, a rope swing and a

“tsunami” curved wall as the new fifth

event of the competition.

The announcement of the discipline,

which has been lined up to replace the

equestrian event, has caused fury

among many in the sport, including

‘Insane obstacle course risks safety of athletes and credibility’

Kate Allenby, Britain’s bronze medallist

from the 2000 Sydney Olympics, who

called it “insane”.

The obstacle course will make its

debut at the Pentathlon World Cup

final in Turkey later this month. If

approved at the congress of the sport’s

international federation, the UIPM, in

November it will replace showjumping

from the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics

onwards, subject to the sport keeping

its place in the Games.

UIPM described the addition of the

discipline as “the biggest shake-up of

the Olympic sport in its 110-year his-

tory” and added: “Athletes have been

invited to run, walk, climb, crawl,

slither, scramble or otherwise propel

themselves to the finish line of a

bespoke course in Ankara next month.”

Allenby told The Times: “These are

professional athletes and there is a real

risk to their credibility. It is insane.

There are also questions over whether

they will be safe and even if they will be

insured to do it.”

Equestrianism was dropped after

Kim Raisner, the German coach, struck

a horse at last year’s Tokyo Games

when it refused to jump a fence, which

led to widespread criticism.

Modern pentathlon has been left off

the initial programme for the Los

Angeles Olympics in 2028 and Thomas

Bach, the IOC president, has warned

that the proposal for showjumping’s

replacement, and the overall competi-

tion format, must be finalised before it

can be included.

Two to four athletes will race at one

time over the course, which will be up to

100m long. The UIPM has also claimed

obstacle-tackling athletes would have a

route to the Olympics if they are able to

add swimming, fencing and running

skills to their repertoire.

Pentathlon United, a group formed

to block the removal of equestrianism,

wrote to the IOC seeking an interven-

tion, saying that the UIPM’s consulta-

tion process was “illusory at best”. The

letter claims a survey of 310 past and

present athletes revealed 95 per cent

are unhappy with the change while 90

per cent feel the UIPM is not able to

“build a strong future for the sport”.

Modern pentathlon

Martyn Ziegler Chief Sports Reporter

seriously in 2003 to a serious

competition that players trained hard

for and that winning really mattered

— even in that short space of time.

We then discovered that Thursday

and Friday nights were the best nights

for it.”

As the Blast enters its 20th season,

it now faces competition from an

even shorter form in the Hundred.

How this, the original T20

competition, sits within the English

domestic structure in the future is up

in the air but there is still a lot of love

for it. Finals day tickets sell out almost

as soon as they go on sale and the

county players all relish a trip to

Edgbaston for what some say is the

best day of the cricketing summer.

‘W

e didn’t really take

it seriously. We just

rocked up and

played,” is Chris

Adams’s summary

of the first Twenty20 match which

took place between Hampshire and

Sussex at the Rose Bowl in 2003.

“We didn’t really even think it was

here to stay, it was just an add-on to

what we were already playing,” the

former England batsman, who

captained Sussex that day, says.

Now starting its 20th season — the

first two matches of the 2022 edition,

the Vitality Blast, take place tonight

— it turns out that T20 cricket was

very much here to stay. The T20 Cup,

as it was called then, was the

brainchild of Stuart Robertson, the

marketing manager at the ECB at the

time, and was proposed to counties in

2001 but wasn’t met with universal

approval. It was only voted through

by a narrow 11-7 margin.

Even 20 years ago, the cricketing

authorities were worried that the

sport had lost its appeal to younger

audiences and after the demise of the

Benson & Hedges Cup in 2002, it was

this new T20 format that was to take

its place. It had the backing of the

broadcasters and was designed to be

short and sharp but not entirely

serious competition. The first edition

lasted only three weeks with each

county playing five group matches.

There was almost immediate

success, though, with more women

and children coming through the

gates than for a normal county match

— for that first game the Rose Bowl

was almost at capacity and a few days

later 23,000 packed into Lord’s for

Middlesex against Surrey.

Adams explains that the players did

Blast ticket sales struggle as ECB ‘puts the Hundred first’

Ticket sales for the

Vitality Blast are

“worryingly slow”

according to a number

of counties, who cite an

earlier start to the T20

competition and the

ECB prioritising the

Hundred as the main

factors (Elizabeth

Ammon writes).

This year’s Blast,

which begins today, is

the first time since 2019

that counties have been

allowed full crowds. In

2020 it was played

behind closed doors

and last year Covid

restrictions mostly

limited them to 25 per

cent capacity crowds.

Blast ticket sales were

at record levels in 2019

but that was during a

bumper summer of

cricket, which included

England’s victory as

hosts of the 50-over

World Cup. Most of the

counties are reporting

that ticket sales are

substantially down from

2019. Some county
      chiefs believe this is
      because of the ECB’s
      focus on marketing and
      promoting the Hundred,
      which started last year.
      It is understood that
      the ECB turned down a
      request from a number
      of counties for extra
      financial resources for
      marketing the Blast.

‘We treated T20

as a bit of a joke

when it started’

not really know what to make of it.

“We were given a big presentation by

the ECB and their pitch was for us to

embrace it and have fun with it,” he

says. “There was no real money

incentive beyond a bit of prize money.

No one would have predicted the

global explosion that happened.

“But to be honest I don’t remember

it being that much fun. We had all

been brought up to play the game in a

certain way and all of a sudden here

was a short form of the game. Back

then we were trying to play it in the

traditional style and hit the ball in a

traditional way. To be honest, we

were a bit hopeless. We weren’t very

good at it.

“We turned up for that first game

without any specific training, just a bit

of a net beforehand. We didn’t know

the tactics, couldn’t play the shots and

just saw it as a bit of fun.”

Even Adam Hollioake, the captain

of the Surrey team who won the first

edition of the tournament, didn’t take

it too seriously.

“We spent a lot of time in the field

just laughing and taking the piss,”

Adams says. “I remember one game

against Surrey and Adam Hollioake

just took the piss every ball — we just

thought it was a bit of fun [and] the

championship was still the pinnacle.

“We had no idea what it would

become and that players can now

become millionaires from it. Even the

top international players back then

couldn’t even have dreamt of making

seven figures from cricket.

“I think we did quickly realise,

though, that this was a format that

was going to stay, was going to be

backed by the television

broadcasters and was going to bring

the crowds in.”

It was not long before interest in

the tournament started to rise.

“It was a bit of the unknown but

the hype did increase as the

competition went on and the first

finals day really did cement the

competition as a success,” Adams,

who is now an ECB scout, says.

“I retired in 2008 and I saw it go

from something we didn’t take

The Blast returns this

evening. Chris Adams

tells Elizabeth Ammon

how the players reacted

when it began in 2003

NIGEL PARKER/SHUTTERSTOCK

Five young stars to watch

Chris Benjamin

Warwickshire

The 23-year-old

wicketkeeper-batsman

used last summer’s

Hundred as a

springboard with Birmingham

Phoenix en route to the final. Has

the full array of tricks.

Archie Lenham Sussex

In making his debut for Sussex last

year as a 16-year-old, Lenham

became the first player born after

the inaugural Twenty20 Cup to

feature in England’s domestic

competition. Took three for 14 on his

second appearance.

Jacob Bethell

Warwickshire

A top-order batsman

who bowls left-arm

spin, he hit a 42-ball 88

for England Under-19 in

the World Cup quarter-final in the

winter. The 18-year-old has blitzed

195 runs at 11.58 an over in three

T20s for Warwickshire’s second XI.

Tom Prest Hampshire

The England Under-19 captain has

an appetite for big scores in the

longer format, has passed 50 in

three of his four innings in the

second XI T20 competition, and

top-scored for the first XI in winning

their Blast quarter-final against

Nottinghamshire last year.

Will Smeed Somerset

The 20-year-old opener had a

breakthrough season last year to

earn a Pakistan Super League deal

with Quetta Gladiators, for whom he

scored 97 off 62 balls and 99 off 60,

both against Peshawar Zalmi.

Lenham’s grandfather and father Neil, the former Namibia coach, played for Sussex By Elgan Alderman

Kent v

Somerset

Vitality T20 Blast

Today, 7pm

TV: Sky Sports Cricket/

Sky Sports Main

Event