Domestic cricket’s newest sensation The Hundred will return at the start of August with men’s defending champions Southern Brave taking on Welsh Fire.
The tournament will run from 3 August through to to a showpiece finals weekend on 2-3 September.
Last year saw the competition play out its inaugural, controversial, season with Brave winning the men’s competition and the Oval Invincibles winning in the women’s format.
The women’s Hundred will begin a week later than the mens, on 11 August, due to women’s Twenty20 cricket being included in this year’s Commonwealth Games.
The month-long schedule will clash with English cricket’s one day format as well as a series of matches, across multiple formats, with South Africa.
Many have said the focus on even shorter formats of cricket is a contributing factor to a dwindling player pool in Test cricket.
That said, The Hundred has been an astonishing success when it comes to viewer numbers – a record-breaking 267,000 people attended women’s matches in the first season of the competition.
Around 55 per cent of ticket buyers last year said they hadn’t bought a ticket for cricket in the UK before.
Sanjay Patel, managing director for The Hundred said, “The Hundred helped grow the game last year.
“With more than 500,000 tickets sold and issued and 16 million watching on TV – with half of them being new to cricket – we saw a new audience enjoying the game for the first time.
“We can’t wait to build on that this year, bringing world class cricket and an incredible family day out to fans across England and Wales.”
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