The England & Wales Cricket Board consulted Mumsnet, the largest parenting website in the U.K., in the "lead up to its announcement last week of a 100-ball format for its new eight-team competition" that starts in '20, according to Elizabeth Ammon of the LONDON TIMES. England Cricket Dir Andrew Strauss said on Sunday that the new format was aimed at attracting "mums and kids in the school holiday." The ECB's research has shown that moms are the "primary decision-makers in families about the activities that their children undertake in their free time" and that "making sure matches are shorter and simpler was a key part of the advice given on how to make sure the new competition attracts the audience the ECB wants." Mumsnet has more than 4.5 million unique visitors each month and in '13, its founders, Justine Roberts and Carrier Longton, were "assessed as the seventh-most powerful women" in the U.K. by the BBC. The new competition, which has the working title "The Hundred," will be played over a five-week period during the school holidays in July and August. Weekday matches will start at 6:30pm and finish by 9pm, "making them more suitable for younger children than the T20 Blast, which can go on after 10pm." There will not be any sponsorship deals with alcohol companies for this new competition and the ECB is "exploring the possibility of raising the price of beer and decreasing the price of soft drinks at games" (LONDON TIMES, 4/24).
