IPL 2026is scheduled to start from28 March, but India has suddenly been woken up by the news of aplayers auction to form teams for a white-ball professional league calledThe Hundred.

This tournament commenced in the2021 English cricket season, but with our own IPL being the envy of the cricketing world, and with none of the Indian stars participating (in the mens event), India never seriously paid attention to The Hundred.

Suddenly, this year everything has changed, andanother IPL-style mens and womens event mdash; though quite different from the IPL mdash; is making news in India.So, what exactly isThe Hundred?

Organizers

The tournament is organized by theEngland and Wales Cricket Board (ECB)and is played in theUnited Kingdom.

Concept

To differentiate it from the already crowdedT20 leagues, a100-ball cricket format(one innings of 100 balls) was adopted. For statistical purposes, performances in the tournament are recorded under theTwenty20 format.

Time for One Match

Aroundtwo and a half hours.

Other Important Playing Conditions

One over consists of 10 deliveries.The bowling ends change after every 10 balls. Bowlers can deliver eitherfive balls or 10 consecutive balls(decided by the captain), meaningtwo different bowlers can share one overif five balls each are bowled.

Each bowler can deliver a maximum of 20 balls per match.

Timeout:Each bowling side gets astrategic timeout of up to two and a half minutes. During the timeout, the coach can walk out to the middle and discuss tactics with the players.

Powerplay:A25-ball powerplayat the beginning of each innings.

Teams

There areeight city-based teams (from seven cities). The teams for2026are:

Birmingham Phoenix (Edgbaston)

London Spirit (Lord#39;s)

Manchester SuperGiants (Emirates Old Trafford)

MI London (The Kia Oval)

Southern Brave (Southampton)

SunRisers Leeds (Headingley)

Trent Rockets (Trent Bridge)

Welsh Fire (Sophia Gardens)

Current Title Holders

Northern Superchargers(nowSunRisers Leeds) won theWomens Competition, whileOval Invincibles(nowMI London) won theMens Competitionfor athird consecutive year.

Auction for 2026

For the first time, afterretentions (four players)ordirect signings(or a combination of the two), the remaining players for both themens and womens teams were acquired through auctions.

After five seasons,The Hundred will be played in a new lsquo;avatar this year, widely seen as avirtual takeover of the event by IPL franchises. TheECB decided to partially privatize the eventto raise funds and help county clubs deal with mounting debts. The process mdash; termedthe great Hundred sell-offrdquo;mdash; has become one of the most eventful stories in modern cricket.

The extraordinary auction of theeight franchises, based on a totalpound;975 million valuation, brought aninitial pound;520 millioninto the games coffers.

England had never seen a contest like thethree-hour bidding battle between Silicon Valley tech titans and an IPL billionaire for the Lords-based Hundred franchise, where the price jumped bypound;3 million every 15 minutes.

Eventually, theSilicon Valley consortium Cricket Investor Holdings Limited, which includes among others theIndian-American chief executives of Google and Microsoftand heads of other major tech companies, valuedLondon Spirit at pound;295 millionandpaid pound;144.5 million for a 49 per cent stake.