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The Hundred 2026: Everything that's changed for the new season originally appeared on Cricket News. Add Cricket News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- The new combined trophy rewards the best overall men's and women's The Hundred franchise.
- All eight teams now have overseas owners, and several have rebranded to match the change.
- First auction sees big-money buys, including £390k for James Coles.
The Hundred 2026: A tournament built differently
England's premier hundred-ball tournament returns for its sixth edition on July 21, with defending champions MI London set to play the opener against Sunrisers Leeds.
The Hundred continues to stand apart from England's traditional domestic setup, running as a 100-ball-per-side competition across eight franchises.
Rather than being tied to counties, these teams represent major cities and regions, with identical branding shared across both the men's and women's tournaments.
First introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board back in 2021, the competition has now reached a stage where its ownership landscape and structure look almost unrecognisable from its debut season.
MORE: The Hundred 2026 players list: Full squads for all teams and latest updates from the auction
A new trophy rewarding both sides equally
Perhaps the most notable structural change this year is the introduction of a combined trophy, awarded to whichever franchise performs best across both the men's and women's competitions together, alongside the separate individual titles still up for grabs in each tournament.
Every match victory, regardless of whether it comes in the group stage, eliminator, or final, contributes four points, with a franchise's men's and women's tallies combined into one overall score.
Additional bonus points are also on offer, with four points awarded to whichever side, men's or women's, tops their respective league table and progresses straight to the final without needing to go through the eliminator.
Should two franchises finish level on points overall, the tiebreaker favours whichever squad won a final outright; if both or neither achieved that, the count of finalists reached, and if still unresolved, combined net run-rate, will determine the eventual winner.
Fresh owners, fresh identities in The Hundred 2026
Every single franchise in the competition now carries overseas investment, marking a significant shift in the tournament's ownership structure. Deals finalised in late 2025 saw Reliance Industries, backed by the Ambani family, acquire a 49 per cent stake in MI London, formerly known as Oval Invincibles, while Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly's Cain International secured an identical stake in Trent Rockets.
England footballer Jude Bellingham has also entered the picture, holding a 1.2 per cent stake in Birmingham Phoenix and taking on a role focused on growing grassroots cricket participation.
The majority 48.4 per cent stake in that franchise belongs to Knighthead Capital Management, the ownership group behind Birmingham City football club, which also counts NFL icon Tom Brady among its minority shareholders.
Elsewhere, GMR Group has taken a 49 per cent stake in Southern Brave, expanding a portfolio that already includes IPL side Delhi Capitals and English county side Hampshire.
Meanwhile, American investment group Tech Titans now controls 49 per cent of Lord's-based London Spirit, and Indian-American entrepreneur Sanjay Govil, who also owns Major League Cricket franchise Washington Freedom, holds a 50 per cent stake in Welsh Fire.
MORE: The Hundred team names explained: Full List of Men’s and Women’s teams including old and rebranded franchise names
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New kits in The Hundred 2026
This wave of overseas investment has directly influenced team colours too, with IPL-linked franchises now sporting kits that mirror their Indian sister teams. MI London, who played in green as Oval Invincibles, now don blue with gold trim to match Mumbai Indians, while Sunrisers Leeds have swapped purple for orange in line with Sunrisers Hyderabad's identity.
Southern Brave have similarly dropped their green look in favour of blue and red, matching Delhi Capitals, while Manchester Super Giants trade their black and grey combination for the red and blue stripes associated with Lucknow Super Giants.
Birmingham Phoenix step out in black this season after previously wearing orange and yellow, while London Spirit retain their blue base but now feature MCC's signature yellow and red "egg and bacon" stripe across their jersey.
Big spending defines the new auction era
The new ownership groups have collectively invested more than £500 million into the tournament through their purchases, and that financial muscle carried straight into the competition's first-ever player auction held earlier this year.
Sussex all-rounder James Coles, who recently featured in England's white-ball squads against India, went to London Spirit for £390,000 in the men's auction, while Welsh Fire spent £200,000 to secure Jordan Cox following his standout player-of-the-tournament form for Oval Invincibles in 2025.
The women's auction proved equally eventful, with England all-rounder Dani Gibson commanding a £190,000 deal from Sunrisers Leeds, while established stars Beth Mooney of Australia and New Zealand's Sophie Devine each secured £210,000 contracts with Trent Rockets and Welsh Fire respectively.
Adding to the tournament's growing reputation for life-changing paydays, 18-year-old England spinner Tilly Corteen-Coleman was picked up by Southern Brave for £105,000.
The Hundred is growing up fast & quick into a behemoth
What's happening here goes well beyond cosmetic rebranding. Linking overseas ownership directly to IPL franchises effectively turns The Hundred into an extension of global T20 leagues rather than a standalone English competition, and that's a smart commercial move, even if it slightly dilutes the tournament's original English identity.
The combined trophy system deserves genuine praise too, forcing franchises to invest seriously in their women's teams rather than treating them as an afterthought. Big auction numbers for both established stars and teenage talents like Corteen-Coleman also show the format is finally becoming financially rewarding enough to attract and retain quality players long-term.
The Hundred has the potential to become a commercial behemoth within a few years. However, the ECB must carefully balance their financial ambitions with their sporting objectives, lest the homegrown talents get ignored.
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