The Hundred Is Getting Big Cash, But The Cricket Feels Too Casual

LONDON, ENGLAND – AUGUST 18: Sam Billings, Captain of Oval Invincibles celebrates with the Hundred trophy after defeating Southern Brave in The Hundred Final match between Oval Invincibles Men and Southern Brave Men at Lord’s Cricket Ground on August 18, 2024 in London, England. (Photo by Alex Davidson – ECB/ECB via Getty Images)

ECB via Getty Images

The Hundred, English cricket’s answer to the Indian Premier League, is in its fifth iteration. Having started amid much fanfare and considerable eye-rolling from purists, the tournament is about to enter a new phase of cash injection.

The Hundred offers a cosy domestic dose of garish colors, potato crisp team sponsors and big shots. It still feels like cartoon cricket, with world-class superheroes mixing with local lads to play for a team that has no history. Millions of pounds of private investment is now on the table to make it a megabeast. Or at least a big kid brother of the IPL, valued at a cool $12 billion.

On the eve of the 2025 The Hundred, the England and Wales Cricket Board admitted there was no evidence that the nascent competition had created a ripple effect for supporters to follow other formats of the game. Its mere presence has eliminated Test matches from the August calendar.

The ECB carried out that crime of passion to take cricket to families and youngsters who speak a different social media language. The DJs and music aren’t exactly Caribbean party stands, but it’s all part of the carnival.

“We know the interest is there, we just need to get people to come more often for all formats, rather than just that ‘I’ve been to the Test once a year’ type of thing,” said ECB Chief Executive Richard Gould. Official figures for last season showed a decrease in ticket sales from the 2023 Hundred edition, falling from 580,000 to 540,000.

The game changer could be coming in 2026. Six of the current eight teams in the Hundred have sold stakes to private investors, including four owners of IPL franchises. Overall, the total valuation of eight teams is about £975 million ($.1.3 billion).

Trent Rockets are in the final stages of a deal with Ares and Cain Investment, the latter run by Chelsea FC co-owners Todd Boehly and Jonathan Goldstein. Oval Invincibles, the holders, agreed in principle to a £60 million ($81 billion) offer by Reliance Industries, headed by Mukesh Ambani. The Ambanis are India’s richest family and owners of the Mumbai Indians. There are some issues preventing completion.

There is talk of synchronizing the format from the current one hundred deliveries with the more universal T20, as well as rebranding team names, which is said to be holding up the Invincibles sale. For instance, Manchester Originals will become Manchester Super Giants according to Sanjiv Goenka, owner of Lucknow Super Giants.

The creation of a Champions League format is on the agenda, and a switch to auctions from the current draft format is also likely to be discussed.

As for the cricket, the product had the misfortune to follow the epic Lord Mayor’s Show that was the England and India Test series. In the very first game, London Spirit, whose Silicon Valley-led minority shareholder is Tech Titans, fell in a heap against the Invincibles. Several games have been over as a contest before the halfway point.

Sam Billings’ team appear to be one of the few sides that has a consistent and clinical approach to winning. They have dominated the last two editions. The women’s side has also won two titles.

“It’s very easy to look at the guys who grab the headlines, but collectively as a group, every single man in that squad has put something towards this, even if they haven’t played, they’ve given so much to the group,” said Billings after his team beat the Southern Braves in last year’s final.

Gould mentioned the importance of fandom built around a team, and at the moment, the cricket feels like a good bit of professional fun between friends rather than a true trophy. It’s only the Oval franchise that looks and acts the part. There’s no sense of tribal loyalty towards teams.

The BBC and Sky Sports have entered into the spirit of the Shiny Happy People kind of vibe. Mic’d up players like David Warner and Steve Smith engage in some forced banter with the commentary team. The one edgy clash on the pitch was the sledging that Birmingham Phoenix batter Liam Livingstone copped from his England teammate Sam Curran.

One of the true beneficiaries of The Hundred has been the women’s game. The double-header, different gender matches create some momentum for a home atmosphere and that has converted into record-breaking crowds of up to 15,000. Thirty-one per cent of ticket sales in 2024 were from females.

The gender pay gap has widened to £135,000 between the men and the women, although the ECB has argued that is down to the commercial realities of promoting the elite men’s bracket in a competitive global market.

The new investment and big owner cojones will surely ensure that the staging is better and the product is slicker. It’s just hard to envisage a rival to the highs and lows of an IPL match. That sense of jeopardy will always beat The Hundred jocularity every time.