How new owners are reshaping The Hundred
After private investment brought rebrands to several The Hundred franchises, the tournament has seen both on-field success and mixed fan reaction. Organisers point to growing new audiences even as overall attendance dipped slightly.
English cricket's The Hundred has completed its first season since private investment reshaped several franchises, giving them new names, logos and colours. Manchester Super Giants, formed after Indian businessman Sanjiv Goenka's group bought a 70% stake in the former Originals franchise, capped the season by winning both the men's and women's titles for the first time in the team's history. Lancashire, which retains 30% ownership, says building the new brand required bold moves, including giving away almost 30,000 free shirts to fans.
Other franchises took a different route. London Spirit kept their existing colours while adding stripes linked to new investor Marylebone Cricket Club, and demand for their replica shirts has already outstripped the stock set aside for both this year and next. By contrast, Oval Invincibles, previously the tournament's most successful side with five titles from ten competitions, became MI London, adopting a more generic blue kit similar to their owners' other franchise teams.
Overall crowd numbers and ticket sales are slightly down compared with last year, though tournament organisers stress how much operational change the competition underwent this season. Several county officials say the tournament continues to draw a younger and more diverse audience, with roughly half of ticket buyers at some grounds attending for the first time and large shares of tickets bought by women and families.
Internationally, this year marked the first time the tournament aired in India on the same platform as the Indian Premier League, though the England and Wales Cricket Board's chief executive insists the competition's core focus remains the UK market. Organisers also pushed back on suggestions the format could shift toward T20, arguing the tournament's distinct 100-ball format is central to its appeal to broadcasters.
