Cricket’s evolution: The Hundred

Cricket is now a big business house as it is commercialised in almost every country. Now, it is viewed as a money generating industry where players are looked at as icons and not just specialists of the game. Earlier, people used to follow test cricket with true love for the sport. But now, with the introduction of franchise cricket, it is perceived as an entertainment industry. 

For the sake of entertainment and considering the demands of present viewers, the English and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has introduced an even shorter version of cricket called The Hundred. It is a hundred ball cricket tournament where an innings consists of twenty overs but each over having 5 legal deliveries in it. The first edition was held in 2021 and since then it is conducted annually. 

It is  a highly electric and volatile format as the game is shrinked to merely 100 balls. This format promotes power hitting and players participating here are immensely benefited as their skill level is going up, they are able to hit more sixes, thus matching with the tempo of modern day cricket. 

The Idea of creating a league like The Hundred was proposed by Mr. Sanjay Patel (then ECB’s chief commercial officer). It was supposed to start much before but got delayed due to COVID19.

Special rules and regulations 

The rules and regulations are slightly different from a regular cricket match. They might seem to be a little vague, and that is the beauty of the tournament as it is not a monotonous cricket match, but a blockbuster game itself! These are some of the rules:

• Duration of each match is 2.5 hours, with 15 minutes break between innings 
• It is twenty over game but each over consists of 5 balls
• A bowler can bowl 2 consecutive overs
• Penalty of no ball are 2 runs 
• Two consecutive overs to be bowled from each end and batters shall not change ends between overs 

About the tournament 

Total 8 teams participate and the format of the tournament is round robin and playoffs. Top team of the league stage directly play the finals and teams with second and third position play eliminator, then the winner from this match plays finals. The matches are Broadcasted by Sports18. 

In total, there are 32 league matches, where each team gets 4 home and 4 away matches. To promote women’s cricket, all men’s and women’s matches are held on the same day at the same ground, and the spectators do not have to pay for 2 tickets, they can watch both the matches with one ticket only. 

Teams in The Hundred 

Team	Home Ground	Men’s captain	Women’s Captain
Birmingham Phoenix	Edgbaston	Moeen Ali	Evelyn Jones
London Spirit	Lord’s	Dan Lawrence	Heather Knight
Manchester Originals	Old Trafford	Jos Buttler	Sophie Ecclestone
Northern Superchargers	Headingley	Wayne Parnell	Hollie Armitage
Oval Invincibles	The Oval	Sam Billings	Dane van Niekerk
Southern Brave	Rose Bowl	James Vince	Anya Shrubsole
Trent Rockets	Trent Bridge	Lewis Gregory	Nat Sciver-Brunt
Welsh Fire	Sophia Gardens	Tom Abell	Tammy Beaumont

Squads

Birmingham Phoenix

Men’s Team: Sean Abbott, Moeen Ali, Jacob Bethell, Aneurin Donald, Ben Duckett, James Fuller, Tom Helm, Benny Howell, Louis Kimber, Liam Livingston, Adam Milne, Dan Mousley, Rishi Patel, Jamie Smith, Tim Southee, Chris Wood

Women’s Team: Ellyse Perry, Emily Arlott, Hannah Baker, Suzie Bates, Chloe Brewer, Sophie Devine, Richa Ghosh, Amy Jones, Emma Jones, Sterre Kalis, Katie Levick, Alice Macleod, Charis Pavely, Seren Smale, Fran Wilson, Issy Wong

London Spirit

Men’s Team: Daniel-Drummond, Ravi Bopara, Matthew Critchley, Liam Dawson, Nathan Ellis, Richard Gleeson, Shimron Hetmyer, Ryan Higgins, Keaton Jennings, Dan Lawrence, Jimmy Neesham, Micheal Pepper, Ollie Pope, Tom Prest, Adam Rossington, Andre Russell, Olly Stone, Matthew Taylor, Dan Worrall

Women’s Team: Ellie Anderson, Erin Burns, Charlie Dean, Abbey Freeborn, Danielle Gibson, Sarah Glenn, Eva Gray, Cordella Griffith, Niamh Holland, Hannah Jones, Heather Knight, Meg Lanning, Sophie Munro, Tara Norris, Georgia Redmayne, Deepti Sharma

Manchester Originals 

Men’s Team: Tom Aspinwall, Jos Buttler, Scott Currie, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Tom Hartley, Max Holden, Josh Hull, Matthew Hurst, Wayne Madsen, Usama Mir, Jamie Overton, Sikandar Raza, Phil Salt, Mitch Stanley, Paul Walter

Women’s Team: Kathryn Bryce, Sophie Ecclestone, Bethan Ellis, Lauren Filer, Kim Garth, Phoebe Graham, Danielle Gregory, Liberty Heap, Eve Jones, Emma Lamb, Alice Monaghan, Beth Mooney, Fl Morris, Ellie Threlkeld, Laura Wolvaardt 

Northern Superchargers

Men’s Team: Ben Stokes, Harry Brook, Colin Ackermann, Pat Brown, Graham Clark, Jordan Clark, Ben Dwarshuis, Adam Hose, Colin Ingram, Tom Lawes, Callum Parkinson, Dillon Pennington, Nicholas Pooran, Matthew Potts, Adil Rashid, Ollie Robinson, Mitchell Santner, Matthew Short, Reece Topley 

Women’s Team: Hollie Armitage, Grace Ballinger, Ella Claridge, Kate Cross, Alice Davidson-Richards, Jodi Grewcock, Bess Heath, Lucy Higham, Marie Kelly, Phoebe Litchfield, Davina Perrin, Linsey Smith, Annabel Sutherland, Sophia Turner, Georgia Wareham 

Oval Invincibles 

Men’s Team: Mohammad Amir, Gus Atkinson, Sam Billings, Jordan Cox, Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Merchant De Lange, Donovan Ferreira, Will Jacks, Spencer Johnson, Tom Lammonby, Saqib Mahmood, Dawid Mallan, Tawanda Muyeye, Nathan Sowter, Harrison Ward, Mark Watt, Adam Zampa

Women’s Team: Chamari Athapaththu, Georgia Boyce, Alice Capsey, Amara Carr, Jo Gardner, Laura Harris, Marizanne Kapp, Ryana Macdonald-Gay, Paige Scholfield, Megan Schutt, Lizzie Scott, Rachel Slater, Sophie Smale, Mady Villiers, Amanda-Jade-Wellington, Lauren Winfield-Hill

Southern Brave:

Men’s Team: James Vince, Rehan Ahmed, Jofra Archer, Danny Briggs, James Coles, Alex Davies, Leus du Plooy, Laurie Evans, Andre Fletcher, George Garton, Akeal Hosein, Daniel Hughes, Chris Jordan, Tymal Mills, Craig Overton, Kieron Pollard, Joe Weatherley

Women’s Team: Georgia Adams, Lauren Bell, Maia Bouchier, Lauren Cheatle, Tilly Corteen-Coleman, Naomi Dattani, Katie Jones, Freya Kemp, Charli Knott, Sophie Luff, Smriti Mandhana, Kalae Moore, Rhianna Southby, Mary Taylor, Chloe Tryon, Danni Wyatt-Hodge

Trent Rockets

Men’s Team: Joe Root, Lewis Gregory, Tom Alsop, Tom Banton, Sam Cook, Chris Green, Sam Hain, Alex Hales, Calvin Harrison, Rashid Khan, Adam Lyth, Riley Meredith, Rovman Powell, Ollie Robinson, Jordan Thompson, John Turner, Imad Wasim, Luke Wood 

Women’s Team: Ashleigh Gardner, Nat Sciver-Burnt, Kira Chathli, Aylish Cranstone, Katie George, Kirstie Gordon, Heather Graham, Josie Groves, Alana King, Classidy McCarthy, Grace Potts, Grace Scrivens, Bryony Smith, Alexa Stonehouse, Nat Wraith

Welsh Fire 

Men’s Team: Tom Abell, Jonny Bairstow, Jake Ball, Joe Clarke, Chris Cooke, Mason Crane, Stephen Eskinazi, Ben Green, Matt Henry, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Josh Little, David Payne, Glenn Phillips, Harris Rauf, Roelof Van der Merwe, Luke Wells, Ross Whiteley, David Willey

Women’s Team: Tammy Beaumont, Sarah Bryce, Kate Coppack, Freva Davies, Georgia Davis, Sophie Dunkley, Georgia Elwiss, Phoebe Franklin, Alex Griffins, Shabnam Ismail, Jess Jonassen, Beth Langston, Hayley Matthews, Ella McCaughan, Emily Windsor

Records and Statistics in The Hundred

Men’s The Hundred

Highest total- 208/5(100 balls) by Manchester Originals vs Northern Superchargers

Lowest total- 75 (74 balls) by Birmingham Phoenix vs Manchester Originals 

Most runs- James Vince (980)

Highest score- Will Smeed (101*)

Highest wickets- Tymal Mills (43)

Best bowling figures- 5/25 by Imran Tahir

Current champions- London Spirit both 

Most successful team: Oval Invincibles - 2 titles 

Women’s The Hundred 

Highest totals- 181/3 (100 balls) by Welsh Fire vs Trent Rockets

Lowest totals- 73(98 balls) by Southern Brave vs Oval Invincibles 

Most runs- Nat Sciver-Brunt (967)

Highest score- Tammy Beaumont (118)

Most wickets- Amanda-Jade Wellington (45)

Best bowling figures- 4/15 by Alana King

Current champions- London Spirit both 

Most successful team: Oval Invincibles - 2 titles 

Public Reaction

General public had a very mixed opinion about this new format. Some took it in a very optimistic way, while others were against it. People against it even started a trend on social media as ‘#OpposeThe100’.

Indian legend Virat Kohli felt that such tournaments commercialise the sport and hence they disrupt the true nature of the game. While, elite english players like Joe Root, Ben Stokes etc were in support as they felt it could revolutionise the game completely. 

Overall, it has benefited players and helped in immense growth of women’s cricket, hence, it is a successful project initiated by ECB!