The Hundred is an experiment designed mainly to attract a new TV audience, both on satellite and terrestrial, that wants to see a cricket match lasting for little more than two hours - and not everyone can spend all day watching Tests or championship matches.

The current trials consist of two days of women’s games at Loughborough last Thursday and Friday, and three days of men’s games at Trent Bridge starting last Sunday. The main novelty is the block of 10 balls from one end before switching to bowl 10 balls from the other end (although blocks of 25 balls may yet be tried). Each block of 10 balls may be delivered by one bowler bowling all 10, or by one bowler bowling five then another bowling five.

The contest between bat and ball is familiar. The question is whether re-inventing the wheel is worthwhile. The building blocks of every cricket match have been the six-ball over, but this will be replaced by the block of balls from one end. The longer the block, the more like baseball the game becomes - or should that be bashball?

What is the Hundred’s USP?

One point is that it is shorter than T20, which now takes almost three hours in England, and more in the IPL. Each innings in the Hundred takes one hour, give or take a few minutes. In the first match on Monday North took one hour and six minutes - including a time-out of 2 ½ minutes - to score 137 for seven, while South took 57 minutes (including a time-out) to score 128 all out, off 97 balls. (In the next game South took only 52 minutes to be dismissed off 92 balls.)