What, exactly, is “The Hundred”?

For the uninitiated, “The Hundred” is an annual, 100-ball cricket tournament run by and, until recently, funded by, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It is a fairly recent addition to the cricketing calendar, having first been staged in 2021, and involves eight, purpose-built franchises, based at major venues around the country. Competition, for both men’s and women’s teams, takes place over a five-week period during the school summer holidays, with matches held at the same venue on the same day.

Each team plays eight matches, four at home and four away, making a total of 32 matches, in the league stage of the tournament. The top three teams in the league progress to “Finals Day”, with the team that finishes top automatically reaching the final and the teams that finish second and third playing off in the “Eliminator” for the remaining final place. At the time of writing the reigning champions are and London Spirit, who beat Welsh Fire by four wickets, albeit with just two balls to spare, to win their inaugural women’s title at Lord’s on August 18, 2024, and Oval Invincibles, who retained their men’s title with 17-run victory over Southern Brave later the same day.

The Hundred format was intended to create a faster, more exciting form of cricket, which is more attractive to a younger, more diverse audience than the traditional Test, One Day International (ODI) or Twenty20 (T20) formats. Granted that 41% of the 540,000 tickets sold in 2024 were bought by families, and 30% by newcomers to cricket, few could argue that it has been successful in achieving that aim.