The Hundred: Everything You Need to Know About 100-Ball Cricket
The Hundred is England's franchise cricket competition using a 100-ball format instead of 20 overs. What makes it different from T20, why the ECB invented it, how the competition is structured, and the debate about whether it is good for cricket.
What Is The Hundred?
The Hundred is a professional franchise cricket competition created by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and launched in 2021. Each innings consists of exactly 100 balls rather than 20 six-ball overs. Bowlers bowl either five consecutive balls from one end or ten consecutive balls split between both ends. A side change of ends mid-over (effectively mid-set of balls) is possible. Matches are played by 8 city-based franchises: London Spirit, Oval Invincibles, Southern Brave, Welsh Fire, Trent Rockets, Birmingham Phoenix, Manchester Originals, and Northern Superchargers. Men's and Women's competitions run simultaneously. Finals Day is held at Lord's each August.
How 100 Balls Differs from T20 Cricket
The primary tactical difference between The Hundred and T20 cricket is bowling management. In T20, each bowler can bowl a maximum of 4 overs (24 balls); in The Hundred, a maximum of 20 balls per bowler. Captains have five balls or ten balls to play with rather than six-ball overs, which changes when they make bowling changes. Fielding restrictions apply for the first 25 balls rather than a powerplay of the first 6 overs. The format was designed to be faster to watch — 100 balls with no innings break can be completed in approximately 2.5 hours compared to T20's typical 3+ hours — and more accessible to new audiences who find cricket's traditional timing complex.
Why the ECB Created The Hundred
The ECB's stated rationale for creating The Hundred was reaching new audiences in English cities — specifically younger fans who had not grown up watching cricket and were accustomed to shorter-format sport. The franchise teams are city-based rather than county-based, meaning they do not directly represent the 18 county cricket clubs that existed before. This was deliberate: the ECB believed county identity was a barrier to attracting non-traditional cricket audiences in London, Birmingham, and Manchester who lacked connection to county cricket. The Women's Hundred was embedded in the competition from the start as a gender-parity experiment — giving England's professional women players equivalent exposure, pay, and audiences to the men.
The Controversy
The Hundred created significant opposition within English cricket. County cricket fans and traditionalists objected to a competition that appeared to disrespect the county system by bypassing it. Critics argued that 100 balls was arbitrary and that T20 cricket already existed as a shorter format, rendering The Hundred redundant. The players unions expressed concern about the centrally contracted structure. Overseas players — including Rashid Khan, Andre Russell, and David Warner — participated, which critics argued reduced opportunities for English county players to develop. Supporters argued that the Women's Hundred was an unequivocal success, drawing crowds many times larger than any previous women's domestic competition in England.
The Competition's Impact
By 2026, The Hundred had embedded itself in the English cricket calendar. TV audiences for the first years were large by English domestic cricket standards; the Women's competition regularly drew crowds of 15,000-25,000 at major venues. Finals Day at Lord's sells out annually. The ECB sold 49% stakes in the eight franchises to private investors in 2023-24, raising hundreds of millions of pounds that were distributed to county cricket. The format has not been adopted internationally — no other major cricket board has introduced 100-ball cricket — but franchise investments have made The Hundred financially significant regardless of whether the format spreads. It remains controversial among purists and popular among newer audiences.