The Hundred — English Cricket's Divisive Experiment

By the mid-2010s, English cricket's domestic structure had accumulated several broadcast rights deals, formats, and competitions that were in tension with each other. The county game's T20 Blast was successful on its own terms, but it sat in a different part of the broadcast deal from the rights the ECB was trying to sell to Sky Sports and new streaming services. The ECB identified a gap in the market — a primetime, accessible cricket product that could attract a mainstream television audience that had not been watching cricket.

The proposal that emerged was extraordinary in its ambition and its willingness to break with convention. A 100-ball format would feature eight city-based franchises — not aligned with counties — with a draft system for players. The format would feature novel structures: 10-ball sets (equivalent to overs), a mid-innings break for drinks, and a different conceptual language designed to make the game accessible to people who had never watched cricket before.

The reaction from traditional cricket fans was immediately hostile. The concept was leaked before the ECB had a full communications strategy in place, and the backlash set a narrative of opposition that the ECB spent years attempting to counter.

The Hundred was officially announced in April 2018, with a planned launch in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic delayed the debut until July 2021. In the intervening three years, the controversy rarely subsided. County cricket administrators were furious at being excluded from ownership while their grounds were used. The T20 Blast, held around the same time of year, was effectively cannibalised.

The ECB's messaging shifted frequently. First it was about reaching new audiences; then about the women's game; then about broadcast revenue that would trickle down to counties. Critics argued that none of these justifications addressed the fundamental problem: English cricket already had a successful short-form domestic competition, and creating a new one in the same window was a commercial gamble with institutional cricket as collateral.

Player reactions were mixed. Overseas stars, attracted by competitive salaries in the draft, were broadly enthusiastic. English county players were more ambivalent, aware that the new competition was partly coming at their expense. The county clubs, ultimately bought off with a £1.3 million per year compensation arrangement, remained resentful of an ECB they felt had imposed a competition on them.

The Hundred was launched by the England and Wales Cricket Board in 2021 as a completely new format — each innings consisting of 100 balls rather than the traditional over-based structure. The competition featured eight city-based franchises, a new jargon (including "25-ball PowerPlay" replacing the traditional PowerPlay), and was marketed primarily at families and new audiences rather than traditional cricket fans.

The backlash was fierce. Traditional cricket supporters and county cricket advocates argued the ECB was cannibalizing existing domestic cricket — particularly the T20 Blast, which was already successful — to create a format nobody had asked for. Counties were sidelined from ownership and governance, despite their grounds hosting the matches. The simplified rules (no more counting to six for an over) were seen as patronizing to potential new fans. Critics labeled it a vanity project driven by broadcast revenue rather than genuine cricketing need.

Defenders pointed to improved diversity in audiences, the women's competition which received unprecedented visibility and investment, and strong broadcast numbers. The ECB argued traditional cricket was failing to attract younger, more diverse audiences and radical innovation was necessary. However, the competition continued to generate controversy over its impact on county cricket finances, player availability for international matches, and whether the ECB was investing enough in grassroots cricket. The Hundred remains one of the most polarizing innovations in cricket history.

“Nobody asked for this. Nobody was sitting at home thinking: I'd really enjoy cricket if only there were fewer balls per over.”

“The Hundred has done more for women's cricket in three years than we managed in the previous thirty.”

“We needed to do something radical. Cricket in England was getting older, less diverse, more niche. We couldn't just keep doing the same thing.”

“The problem is they confused the audience. New fans don't know what an over is, and now you're explaining a 'set of five'? That's harder, not easier.”

The Hundred survived its first few seasons and showed growing commercial momentum. Broadcast deals, live crowds, and social media engagement all improved. The women's competition was widely acknowledged as a genuine success story, bringing women's cricket to a mainstream BBC audience that would not otherwise have watched county cricket or international women's fixtures.

However, the structural concerns did not disappear. County clubs continued to grumble about compensation arrangements and the loss of their best fixtures to city-based franchises. The England men's Test team, by contrast, showed an apparent disconnect — as more players preferred The Hundred to county red-ball cricket, fears grew about the depth of talent available for Test cricket.

The ECB's decision to partially privatise The Hundred in 2024 — selling stakes in franchises to private investors — added another layer of controversy, with critics arguing that English cricket's assets were being sold off to financial interests rather than being protected for the long-term health of the sport.