Looking Back on ‘The Hundred’

With the conclusion of The Hundred, the ECB’s new 100 ball cricket tournament, Holly Senior reflects on the successes of the competition’s second year.

Holly Senior

Saturday 3rd September saw the women’s Oval Invincibles defend their 2021 victory, beating the Southern Brave by 5 wickets, thanks to outstanding captaincy by Suzie Bates; and notable performances from Marizanne Kapp, Alice Capsey, and Shabnim Ismail. The men’s game followed in the evening with captain, Lewis Gregory, scoring the winning runs for the Trent Rockets against the Manchester Originals.

The Hundred, designed by the ECB with simplified rules, a higher pace, and bright colours, successfully attracted a wider, more diverse audience in its second year. Sky Sports reported a total TV audience of 14.1 million, 5.9 million (42 percent) of which were new to watching ECB cricket, with a particular increase in women, children, and families watching the game.

All matches were successfully broadcast via a dedicated Sky Sports The Hundred channel and a selected 18 were shown on the BBC (10 men’s and 8 women’s), including the finals. Social media channels were used for regular updates and highlights, and for the first time games were streamed via TikTok and YouTube. The series was kept easy and clear to follow with The Hundred App, which was used to buy tickets, display match statistics, and provide feature articles, as well as interactive games and polls.

Crowd attendance also surpassed 2021 figures with over 500,000 spectators across the whole tournament. Overall, there were still smaller crowds for the women’s games in the afternoon compared to the men’s in the evenings; however, having the matches in succession has raised the profile of women’s cricket. The final saw a record attendance for any women’s domestic cricket match, with a crowd of 20,840. This is very promising for the future of women’s cricket and women’s sport in general, with the potential for increased participation rates and funding in the sport. Hopefully, this will inspire more girls and ladies to set up teams in clubs across the country in the coming years. The ECB have announced revenues will be invested into funding free spaces on All Stars and Dynamos courses, and the tournament is set to go ahead for another year in 2023. Last year a study by The Women’s Sport Trust (WST) found that The Hundred was a key driver in boosting the British TV audience for women’s sport in 2021, with cricket accounting for 41 percent of viewing hours. It’s not only The Hundred that will raise the profile of women’s sport this year after the huge footballing victory for the England’s Lionesses at Wembley, winning the UEFA Women’s Euros against Germany earlier this summer.