The Hundred continues to polarize opinion

On Sunday, Aug. 16, the men’s and women’s finals of The Hundred will be contested at Lord’s. The competition is in its sixth year and has been a disruptive force since its conception in 2017.

The format is disruptive, consisting of 100 deliveries, broken into sets of five, with a bowler able to deliver 10 successive balls. Players for this year’s event were acquired mainly by auction, rather than selection, with four overseas players, instead of three, allowed in each starting XI.

A further disruption occurred over the winter when equity shares were sold in the eight franchises. And ticket prices have been increased.

Speaking after the first week and the 11th match on July 29 between the Trent Rockets and the Welsh Fire, England’s opening batter, Ben Duckett, expressed his surprise at the number of empty seats at several grounds.

His reasoning was: “You look at every side, and it’s just world-class opponents. I’d be desperate to watch some of these guys play cricket.” At 3 p.m. in Cardiff on a Wednesday, there were around 7,400 spectators. This compares with a record 11,796 attendance for the Welsh Fire’s opening match against MI London the previous Saturday evening.

Critics of The Hundred were quick to seize onto the fact that overall attendance in the first week of this season was reported to be 18 percent lower than in the first week of 2025. In aggregate, the first six men’s matches drew a combined attendance of 89,413 compared with 109,519 in 2025. Several explanations have been advanced.

One is the transition to whole or partial private ownership. The new franchises need to work closely with the host county cricket clubs and there are suspicions that some marketing campaigns may have been slow to start; the