550,000. These were the ticket sales for the 2026 season of the Hundred as reported by the ECB on August 14. Factor in the 27,000-odd attendees from the final, and even then the numbers are roughly 3,000 short of what they were in 2025 at 580,000.
The Hundred has been the ECB’s biggest experiment thus far. A bespoke franchise competition with a unique format that’s played nowhere else in the world. The ambitions for this tournament were through the stratosphere. Many expected it would redefine franchise cricket, bring men’s and women’s cricket to equal footing and compete, if not surpass, the juggernaut that is the IPL. Six years in, they’ve achieved one out of three of those things, and that too sort of.
Despite the unique format, the statistics and accolades from the Hundred are noted down under the T20 format, since it is just 20 balls and an unnecessarily complex separation of overs differentiating the two. The women’s competition does get a solid following, but the empty seats were glaringly obvious on afternoon weekday games, especially in this record-breaking English summer.
And finally, this season of the Hundred saw the ECB cave in and allow foreign investors, including from their “competitors”, the IPL, to purchase stakes in the Hundred franchises.
Has the IPL takeover been a success?
Four of the eight franchises were bought by those with IPL pedigree, overhauling the team image and identity established for half a decade to align more closely with their global brand. Oval Invincibles became MI (pronounced my) London, Northern Superchargers became Sunrisers Leeds, and the Manchester Originals became the Manchester Super Giants.
The only one that retained the name were GMR Group’s Southern Brave, who kept only that, but changed the club colours to red and blue, closely matching the Delhi Capitals brand.
These drastic changes in identity were done only to the Indian owned teams, as the other four franchises kept the image that they had since the start of the Hundred, despite selling their stakes to various American conglomerates and capital firms. The prime example of maintaining their image are the Trent Rockets.
The Nottinghamshire-based franchise was valued the lowest at roughly £79 million, with the county selling 49% of their stake to the Cain and Ares consortium, the former of which is founded and run by Chelsea FC’s owner Todd Boehly and club director Jonathan Goldstein, who played a more hands-on role with the Rockets than Boehly.
Almost a double for the Rockets
Trent Rockets dominated both men’s and women’s tournaments at the 2026 Hundred, topping the group phase in both competitions, and winning the women’s title, agonizingly missing out on the first-ever double in the Hundred as the men’s side fell short to the Manchester Super Giants in the final.
Regardless, the overall performance handed the Trent Rockets the Hundred Helix trophy, an award for the franchise with the most total points across both tournaments in a season.
“A big part of what we sort of learnt on day one of being part of the Trent Rockets is they didn’t want it to feel too different,” said Trent Rockets’ Georgia Adams, who won player of the match in the women’s final.
“We’ve got owners who, you know, I have no doubt are hugely passionate about us doing well but they’ve sort of remained in the background and trusted our staff to do their thing and trusted in the coaches who know what they’re doing and, you know, credit to everyone really and all the staff involved.
“I think the benefit of the Rockets, probably the only club that there’s not been too much change,” said Trent Rockets men’s captain Sam Billings.
“Yes, of course, the personnel’s changed, but actually as a club and as an identity, I think it’s kind of felt like the sixth year of the Rockets as opposed to kind of a first year of every other franchise. That’s how it’s felt to me.”
“So consistency, it might not necessarily be fashionable or, you know, the world we live in, people want quick changes, but actually consistency with a lot of things actually builds trust,” he added speaking about Nottinghamshire’s director of cricket, Mick Newell’s work with the Trent Rockets over the years.
“You can then, of course, you’re going to tweak here and there, but I think the trust element and consistency is the foundation of a lot of success.”
That emphasis on consistency and trust brings us back to the attendance numbers of this Hundred season. Based on the average attendance numbers for each venue at the Hundred this season released by the BBC, Trent Rockets’ home Trent Bridge in Nottingham had the second-highest average attendance in both men’s and women’s competition, averaging 73.74% of the total capacity for the men’s and 47.48% for the women’s.
“I’ve loved playing our cricket at Trent Bridge,” said Adams about the support her Trent Rockets side have had this season.
The crowds have been excellent. They’ve brought the energy. They’ve created an amazing atmosphere to, you know, play cricket and again out there today (in the final at Lord’s), yeah, it was a wonderful occasion to be part of and yeah, really grateful for the fans coming to cheer us on.”
Compare this to the Manchester Super Giants. Prior to Sanjiv Goenka and his RPSG group’s investment into the Lancashire franchise, the team were called the Manchester Originals. Ironically, the originality was the first to go as the new investors rebranded the franchise to make it an extension of their Lucknow Super Giants franchise in the IPL, complete with the same logo and jersey, which was already poorly received by the Lucknow supporters in India.
The cherry on top was the announcement video, which was just shoddily rendered ‘AI slop’, filled with hilarious errors, leading to a swift deletion from their social platforms.
A trophy at last for Goenka
While the campaign may have been a mess, that certainly would not be how the Super Giants season would be described. The men’s side won their maiden Hundred title, which was a first for both the Manchester franchise and Sanjiv Goenka among his numerous global cricketing endeavours, and even the women’s team just narrowly missed out on a place in the eliminator, finishing in fourth place.
Both teams also possessed T20 and cricket icons such as Jos Buttler in the men’s team and the likes of Smriti Mandhana and Meg Lanning in the women’s team. But these players and the quality of cricket alone could not draw a crowd at home. Manchester had by far the poorest attendance across both their teams, with the men having an average attendance of 44.11% of Old Trafford Cricket Ground’s total capacity, and the women averaging a measly 20.58%.
Buttler stepped up as Manchester’s captain after Aiden Markram departed early due to personal reasons. The 35-year-old has been a part of Lancashire Cricket since 2014, and has represented only the Manchester franchise in the Hundred. The title win was incredibly close for him, and he offered a positive outlook to Goenka’s involvement with his county.
“I think the tournament, you know, has gone from strength to strength”, said Buttler
“It’s still young, with the tournament being six years old and, obviously, a rebranding for a few of the teams this year. But I just see it when the product is so good on the field, which it feels like that as a player.I’m sure, you know, around the country, the interest is there, and I love seeing great players on show.”
Barring that initial campaign, the Manchester Super Giants made great strides to win the support of their fans, with free jerseys being included with a match ticket as one of those steps. Outside the Hundred, the RPSG group has purchased land next to the Old Trafford Cricket Ground to develop a high-performance cricket centre for Lancashire, showing that they are here to stay.
“You can’t give them enough credit really,” said Buttler about the RPSG group’s work with the Manchester Super Giants and Lancashire Cricket.
“It’s very easy to say they just want to come and be part of the Hundred. But what they’re going to do for the facilities at Old Trafford is going to benefit Lancashire cricket and English cricket, I’m sure.”
Not the end of The Hundred yet
Thus, it might be easy to call the time of the death for the Hundred by looking at stagnant attendance numbers and eccentric rebranding; it doesn’t paint a full picture. The 2026 Hundred has by far had the most changes the competition has ever seen, and with the change there will always be a lot of positives and a lot of negatives. Comparing it to the IPL is just not compatible.
Cricket is a religion in India, whereas here in the UK it competes with a packed calendar of other sports, and within itself with multiple domestic competitions. So yes, there has been a major overhaul with the Hundred, but the players, owners and fans will need to be patient to see the effects of that overhaul, which won’t be limited to just the Hundred, but, as Buttler said, English cricket as a whole.
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