ENG vs IND: Airplane with banner "sack the ECB and save Test cricket" flies over Headingley

A banner reading “SACK THE ECB & SAVE TEST CRICKET” on the tail of an aircraft flew over Headingley during the third day of the third Test between England and India. Notably, the England and Wales Cricket Board has been in the line of fire by many purists of the game owing to the introduction of cricket’s newest format – The Hundred, which was solely responsible for disruptions aplenty in the County Championship 2021 and England’s T20 Blast.

Notable cricketers including the likes of Kevin Pietersen have been vocal over how England’s struggle in the longest format is nothing but a byproduct of the decreasing importance of county and increasing preference of short-format leagues. There have been even questions regarding whether the sport even needed a new format like the Hundred and would it not be tinkering the sport too much needlessly.

However, ECB remained bent to give the shiniest new product in the name of Hundred a go over everything, as they finally materialized one long-standing dream. The 100-ball tournament ran parallel with the County Championship, leading a number of teams significantly depleted as many white-ball players left their teams to serve ECB’s showpiece event. The board’s persistence did not hamper only the age-old County Championship as the T20 Blast’s window was crunched, with teams, at times, playing twice on the same given day.

The inaugural edition managed to attract the attention of the crowds, though, with the Hundred Women also garnering plenty of footage. Certain moves, including ensuring that the fixtures are completed within the promised time, have been welcomed by the masses, but that ECB remained stubborn enough to alter the entire domestic schedule to stage an event which might not have been as urgently needed as they made it appear in their vision was always bound to raise questions.

It might not come as a surprise to many that a critic went on to the extent of displaying a banner urging the “sacking” of the cricket board to “save” the sports’ grand old format: Test cricket.