Ben Duckett surprised by lower Hundred crowds despite improved quality

Trent Rockets opener Ben Duckett admitted he was surprised by the lower crowds at the start of this season's Hundred, despite leading his side to a comfortable win in Cardiff. Attendance figures are down by a few thousand compared to the same stage last year, with noticeable declines also recorded at Headingley and The Rose Bowl, where IPL owners have rebranded the teams with new colours.

Duckett believes the sparse crowds do not reflect the quality of cricket on display. He described Trent Rockets' opening home crowd at Trent Bridge, where they edged London Spirit in a thrilling contest, as pretty awesome. However, he said he could not understand the overall drop in attendances, especially as he feels the standard of the competition has improved this season following the introduction of a fourth overseas player in every playing XI.

"Just looking around the grounds, there must be a reason for it, so I'm not having a go at the fans or anything. I mean, this is a Wednesday at 3pm - it's probably never going to be a packed house. But yeah, the standard of cricket this year has been awesome. I've been watching every game [on TV],” said Duckett as quoted by Cricinfo.

"There's a reason why I struggled with that new ball: you've got [Marco] Jansen, Chris Woakes, Lockie Ferguson. Sam Cook didn't even bowl in the powerplay. Everywhere you look, there's not many weaknesses at all,” he added.

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The left-handed batter may have struggled to find his rhythm, but he relied on the experience he gained during two seasons with Welsh Fire at Sophia Gardens. He is currently the leading run-scorer in this season's competition, having registered two half-centuries and a knock of 49.

"I'm very happy we won. We came here with one job, and that was to win the game. I just struggled out there: it was tough. I've been a bit ill in bed for the last couple of days, so I'd have probably taken it at the start of the day, but it wasn't the fluent best I'd like… I was a lot more fluent at Trent Bridge,” said Duckett.