"Discard the 10-ball rule," Daryl Mitchell on The 100

The England and Wales Cricket Board has received a new setback regarding their newest conceptualized format, The 100. They came up with the idea earlier this year as a part of expanding the diminishing popularity of the sport in the country, to formulate a form of cricket that would attract a new segment of viewers to the game because of it's shortened length. But now, the ECB faces a challenge to go through with the idea, given the disapproval of a lot of English cricketers with respect to the format and certain rules.

Most of all, the 10-ball last over rule has come to the fore of disagreement. Introduced to quantize the 100 balls into an integral number of overs, the ECB decided to go with 15 regular 6 ball overs and one 10-ball over.

"There’s certainly strong opinion among the players that there shouldn’t be a 10-ball over," Darryl Mitchell, chairman of the PCA, told Sportsmail. He added, "People who are going to bowl at the death are concerned about that because of the physical demands and mental well-being. I don’t think it would be possible to ask, say, Tymal Mills to bowl a 10 ball over at 92-93 miles per hour, especially if you throw in the odd wide or no ball.

"Then it becomes 12 or 13 balls and I don’t think that’s good for the game as well as the bowler. You want the genuine quick bowlers to come steaming in because that’s what people want to see and six balls is enough for them."

The additional format and its new playing conditions have also come under the radar of criticism because on one hand, they claim to be created to draw the attention of "non-cricketing family audience" to cricket by simplification of the sport, but in essence, all these variable and non-uniform playing conditions will only complicate the game.

However, the ECB is very insistent on getting this format rolling as a part of their $1.1 billion deal with Sky Sports starting in 2020, lasting five years. So much so that they are even willing to pay each county side a lucrative $1.3 million out of their acquisition from the deal with Sky to get on board with this new concept in unison.