The Hundred is now just 50 days from returning to packed grounds, noisy school-holiday crowds and the sort of cricketing theatre that tends to arrive wearing neon, grinning broadly and refusing to sit quietly in the corner.
At the Kia Oval, players from all eight teams gathered to unveil the new kits for the 2026 season, with Kate Cross, Tom Curran, Davina Perrin, Sam Billings, Fi Morris, Jamie Overton, Phoebe Franklin and Leus du Plooy among those helping to give the competition its first proper visual jolt of the summer.
There was also something new on show beyond fresh shirts and carefully arranged launch-day poses: a brand new team trophy, introduced for 2026 to reward collective performance across both the men’s and women’s competitions.
In a sport that often talks about joined-up thinking before misplacing the screwdriver, this is a genuinely neat idea.
A New Trophy For The Whole Team
The new team trophy will sit alongside the existing men’s and women’s trophies, adding another competitive layer to The Hundred by recognising the combined efforts of both squads.
That matters because The Hundred has always sold itself as something slightly different. Shorter, louder, brighter, more accessible and, crucially, built around the men’s and women’s games sharing the same shop window.
The new award leans straight into that identity. It says a club’s success should not be judged in isolation, but across the full breadth of its programme. In simple terms: everybody’s runs, wickets, catches, dropped sitters and last-over heroics now feed into a wider team story.
MI London’s Alice Monaghan and Tom Curran, along with SunRisers Leeds pair Bryony Smith and Reece Topley, posed alongside the new trophy in their 2026 kits. The two sides will open the competition at the Kia Oval on Tuesday 21 July, which gives the whole thing a pleasingly tidy narrative: new kits, new prize, opening night, lights on, nerves jangling like a drinks trolley over cobbles.
Kate Cross Relishing The Return Of The Hundred
For SunRisers Leeds player Kate Cross, the appeal remains rooted in the atmosphere The Hundred has managed to create since launch: big crowds, family audiences and a fixture list dropped neatly into the school holidays.
SunRisers Leeds player Kate Cross said: “The Hundred has really become one of the most exciting parts of the summer for us. The way it’s played, in the school holidays and in front of big crowds, means it’s always a great atmosphere and we love being a part of it. I’m looking forward to getting out at Headingley in front of the orange army, but the opener in 50 day’s time at the Kia Oval is going to be a brilliant way to kick off the competition.”
That “orange army” line will travel well around Headingley, where subtlety has never been the primary dress code. And that, frankly, is part of the fun. The Hundred is not designed to whisper. It is designed to pull in families, first-time cricket watchers, regulars, schoolchildren, loyalists, sceptics and the odd person who still claims not to understand the format while somehow watching every match.
Jamie Overton Backs The Shared Team Concept
London Spirit player Jamie Overton also welcomed the new team trophy, particularly for the way it strengthens the connection between the men’s and women’s sides.
London Spirit player Jamie Overton said: “I really like the idea of the team trophy. The Hundred was pretty novel in terms of bringing the men’s and the women’s teams together and when you look at other sports, nobody else has really done it as well as cricket and I think that’s been a pretty big factor in The Hundred enjoying the crowds it has.
London Spirit women’s team have obviously had a good run in the competition across the last couple of years and I know we’re keen to emulate their success in the men’s team so hopefully this will help provide some extra inspiration to both teams.”
It is a fair point. The Hundred’s greatest trick has not simply been compressing cricket into a snappier format. It has been giving the women’s game equal billing in front of broad, energetic crowds and making that feel normal rather than worthy.
That is where the team trophy has teeth. It turns shared branding into shared jeopardy. One team, two competitions, one broader prize. Suddenly, every result has a little more connective tissue.
Fans Invited To Name The Trophy
There is, however, one small issue. The trophy does not yet have a name.
Fans are being invited to submit suggestions, with a panel of experts set to choose the name they feel best captures the spirit of the competition. The winner will receive two tickets to The Hundred Final.
This is dangerous territory, naturally. Ask the British public to name anything and you risk ending up with something heroic, poetic or deeply unserious. But that is also precisely why it works. A competition built on colour, noise and accessibility should probably let its audience have a crack at christening the silverware.
Tickets Now On General Sale
With the countdown now at 50 days, tickets for The Hundred are on general sale and available at early bird prices.
Junior tickets are priced at £5, with adult tickets from £15.50. Prices are due to rise on 30 June, so those planning to attend are being nudged towards booking early rather than performing the traditional British summer ritual of waiting too long and then muttering darkly at a laptop.
Tickets are available at http://www.thehundred.com/tickets.
The competition returns on Tuesday, 21 July at the Kia Oval, with MI London hosting SunRisers Leeds in the opener.
A Sharper Edge To Cricket’s Summer Showpiece
The kits will grab the first glance. They always do. Colours, sponsors, sleeves, poses; the usual pre-season pageantry with just enough fresh tailoring to make everyone feel newly dangerous.
But the more interesting story is the trophy. The Hundred has built its reputation around speed, accessibility and spectacle, but the new team prize gives the 2026 season a slightly sharper sporting edge.
It rewards breadth. It rewards balance. It rewards clubs who can build momentum across both sides of the draw.
And in a competition where the margins can be rude, sudden and occasionally hilarious, that extra incentive might be enough to turn a good summer into a wonderfully noisy one.
