Hundred heroes
In the opening three seasons of the Men's Hundred, each year saw a new champion stand on the winners podium. During the 2023 edition of the competition, the Oval Invincibles emerged victorious after beating the Manchester Originals by 14 runs. Having lost the toss, the Invincibles were put in to bat first and, thanks to a partnership of 127 runs by James Neesham and Tom Curran, set the Originals a target of 162 to win. Despite Phil Salt opening for the Originals, the leading overall run-scorer in the first three Hundred seasons could not muster more than 25 runs, and the Originals suffered their second Hundred final defeat in as many years.In the women’s competition, the Oval Invincibles have also found success, claiming back-to-back titles in 2021 and 2022. However, the 2023 season saw the Southern Brave win its first title, beating the Northern Superchargers by 34 runs in the final. Instrumental in the Brave's campaign that year was Danni Wyatt, who not only top-scored with 59 runs off 38 balls in the final, but ended the season as the competition's leading run-scorer. Meanwhile, despite finishing as the leading wicket-taker in the 2023 Women's Hundred, the Superchargers' Georgia Adams failed to take a wicket in the final.
Cricket for new audiences
One of the key aims of The Hundred was to bring cricket to new audiences. In terms of live attendance, the 2023 season certainly showed progress, with the number of spectators growing by 16 percent from the previous year to 580 thousand. Meanwhile, among the half a million in attendance during the 2022 season, some 28 percent were female and 22 percent were children. The women’s game in particular saw a huge boost to its popularity. The average attendance at The Hundred women’s matches grew from under eight thousand in 2021 to over 10 thousand in 2022, with many stadiums breaking attendance records for domestic women’s games.While the majority of matches in the tournament are shown on pay TV channel Sky Sports, some are also broadcast for free on the BBC. In the first year of the tournament in 2021, an average of 615 thousand viewers watched games on the BBC, however, this fell to 500 thousand in 2022. Meanwhile, across the tournament as a whole and across all broadcasters, The Hundred's average TV audience rose in 2023 over the previous year for both the men's and women's competition. While these signs of growth are tentative for a competition that is essentially still in its infancy, they are nevertheless promising and point towards the format becoming a mainstay in the cricketing calendar for years to come.