After extensive market research, the ECB planned to introduce a new short-form competition in 2020 with a series of teams taking part in games which lasted under three hours, with each innings lasting a maximum of 100 balls. Designed to attract a new and younger audience, eight franchises were created, each with a men’s and women’s team, with the one based at Cardiff known as Welsh Fire and including representatives from Gloucestershire and Somerset, as well as Glamorgan.
Each team plays a series of eight group games – four at home and four away – followed by a semi-final, or eliminator, where the 2nd and 3rd place time meet in a challenge game for the right to meet the top placed team in the final. The initial schedule for 2020 included four men’s group games at Sophia Gardens, plus two women’s matches at Bristol, one at Bristol and one at Cardiff.
However, COVID-19 meant that these initial matches were cancelled and, when the competition belatedly began, all of the games became double-headers at the host’s headquarters. These have been hugely popular and, in particular, have widened interest in women’s cricket as well as participation in girls’ cricket, especially by youngsters who have been inspired by watching the international stars and home-grown players in action.
All of the matches in The Hundred have been televised – either on satellite TV or on terrestrial channels, whilst there has been a real family atmosphere in the double-headers, especially at Sophia Gardens, with the player’s signing autographs after the games, besides mixing with their family e members.
Whilst the Welsh Fire Men have yet to progress beyond the group stages, 2023 saw the Welsh Fire Women reach the Eliminator at The Oval, only to fall foul of bad weather as a violent thunderstorm broke over the ground as they were making decent headway towards victory. The Women’s team made amends for their disappointment by topping their table in 2024 and automatically reaching the Final at Lord’s where they narrowly lost to the London Spirit.