The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is determined to make The Hundred an “unmissable event”.
The 2026 edition will wrap up at Lord’s on Sunday, when Trent Rockets’ men’s and women’s sides meet the winners of Friday’s eliminator matches at the Oval.
Today’s contest sees the SunRisers Leeds Women play Southern Brave while Manchester Super Giants Men take on the SunRisers.
The year’s competition is the first since the Hundred moved from ECB control to private ownership, with stakes in all eight teams making over £500million.
That money is to be reinvested back into the domestic game.
Some 550,000 tickets have been sold for the 2026 tournament, the third-highest total since its roll-out in 2021.
The competition has seen growth in junior fans and families in its audience.
The Hundred’s managing director, Vikram Banerjee, is hopeful that the competition will cement itself as a key sport each summer.
The ECB are determined to make The Hundred an ‘unmissable event’
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He said: “We have always talked about the core elements and the core DNA of the Hundred remaining. The objective of the Hundred being growth, being about throwing cricket’s doors open, that remains.
“We now need to move to becoming an unmissable event of the summer, and so each of the different teams will build on what they have done – whether that is shirt giveaways, whether that is Jude Bellingham or music acts such as Tinie Tempah.
“There has also been some great learning between the teams [on what has worked].
“I can see that audience, that fandom and that tribalism really growing and deepening in 2027.
The Hundred sold 550,000 tickets this year
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“The Hundred is fast becoming the unmissable event of the summer.
“I’ve loved seeing families in their team kit travelling to and from games. I think if you’re at these games, watching this cricket, and seeing these crowds, it’s hard not to be impressed and excited, and I’m already looking forward to next year.”
ECB chief executive Richard Gould described this year as “ground-breaking” for the competition.
He said: “The energy is off the scale in terms of what new investors are bringing into it.
The Hundred’s managing director, Vikram Banerjee, is hopeful that the competition will cement itself as a key sport each summer
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“You have got ownership with experience of the IPL, the [football] Premier League, the leading global tech companies across the world.
“There is so much added insight coming from such a wide variety of areas, and you are just starting to see that work its way into the teams in the way that they operate.”
The 2027 tournament is anticipated to start on August 3.
