Healthy crowds, an abundance of talented young English players and a competition that offers a varied geographic spread across the country. Welcome to the Metro Bank One Day Cup.
Maligned as a second-string development competition since the start of the Hundred in 2021, England’s only professional 50-over tournament has arguably been cricket’s sleeper hit of the summer.
Much has been made of the lower attendances at this year’s Hundred, with the influx of foreign investment resulting in higher ticket prices and three of the eight teams – Oval Invincibles (now MI London), Manchester Originals (Manchester Super Giants) and Northern Superchargers (SunRisers Leeds) – changing their identities.
Playing at the same time as the England & Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) divisive cash cow was meant to kill off the One Day Cup, a competition with a proud lineage dating back to the original Gillette Cup in the early 1960s.
Arundel Castle is one of the One Day Cup’s most idyllic outground venues (Photo: Getty)
