The Hundred Betting Offers 2020

Given that the sport of cricket was played for the first time in the 16th century and the nature of the sport has been well-established in the years since then, you’d be forgiven for thinking that there couldn’t really be any new ways of playing it. Yet whether it be the invention of one-day cricket or the creation of Twenty20, the sport has always had a way of reinventing itself to allow it to appeal to a wider market.

The Hundred is a good example of that, taking the best aspects of short-form cricket and combining it with the excitement of American sports such as baseball and American football. It does this by pitting eight city-based teams against one another, with the teams made up thanks to a draft system. One of the key things about the event is that each of the franchise teams will field both a men’s and a women’s team, ensuring that it is appealing to as many people as possible.

The inaugural Hundred will be played in the summer from mid-July to September.  This is a good time of year for betting too as there is not much football or other sports on meaning the bookies will give it their full attention.  To save you the effort we’ve collated the best deals below.  Further down you can read about the teams and players, event format and history.

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The Format Of The Hundred

The original plan was for the new tournament to be based around the Twenty20 format of cricket, but the ECB was keen to try to attract new fans and was concerned about the competition structure’s relevance. For that reason, the England and Wales Cricket Board announced on the 19th of April 2018 that 100-ball cricket would be the format for the new competition.

The plan was to have 15 standard 6-ball overs followed by a final over of 10-balls, with the Leg-Before-Wicket rule also removed from the game. This idea didn’t last long, with the ECB confirming in February of 2019 that the game would involve ten 10-ball overs and the bowlers would deliver either 5 or 10 balls consecutively.

100-ball cricket sees two teams play a single innings that is made up of 100 balls, giving a limited over form of the sport. The format of the game is as follows:

• 100 balls are bowled per inning
• The ends change after 10 balls
• Bowlers deliver either 5 or 10 balls consecutively
• The maximum number of balls that a bowler can deliver per game is 20
• There is a strategic Time-Out available to each bowling side of up to 2 and a half minutes
• Each team will start with a 25-ball power play
• During the power play, two fielders are allowed outside of the 30-yard circle

The Structure Of The Tournament

The Hundred tournament takes place during the school summer holidays and lasts for 38 days. It will run from the middle of July until the start of September, with the 8 city-based teams playing four times at home and four times away.

The structure will be similar to the Australian Twenty20 Big Bash League, which also features 8 city-based franchise teams. Each team will play their closes rivals twice, resulting in 32 games having been played in total by the time the play-offs come around.

At the end of the league campaign the top 4 teams move into the play-offs, using a similar format to that which you might have seen in play in the Indian Premier League/ The top 2 teams play each other, with the winner going into the final.

The teams that finished 3rd and 4th play each other for the right to play the losing from the match between 1st and 2nd, with the winner of that game joining the winner of the first game in the final.

How The Teams Are Made Up

The squads of each team will be made up of 15 players, with a maximum of 3 of those players able to come from overseas. Two players in each team will be made up of those that played well in the t20 Blast competition, and at least 1 England Test player will be in each of the men’s team.

The way that players are assigned to each team will be decided according to a draft system, similar to those that you might have seen in other franchise-based sports. When the draft was carried out in 2019 ahead of the 2020 version of the tournament, each women’s team had two players from the England team and the men’s had one male England player. The men’s also had a ‘local icon’ player assigned to them.

You can read more detail about each team and the venue they play at further down this page.

Team Names

When the idea for The Hundred began to take serious shape, it was decided that none of the teams would bear the identity of any of the county teams in existence, nor the cities, counties or venues where they would be based.

In reality they didn’t didn’t stick resolutely to that plan, with the following names being assigned to the men’s teams:

• Manchester Originals (Old Trafford)
• Northern Superchargers (Headingly)
• Birmingham Phoenix (Edgbaston Cricket Ground)
• Trent Rockets (Trent Bridge)
• Welsh Fire (Sophia Gardens)
• London Spirit (Lord’s)
• Oval Invincibles (The Oval)
• Southern Brave (Rose Bowl)

Money

Obviously none of the players are playing for free, so there are salary bands in place. There are seven bands (plus the Central player), with as many as two players selected from each of the following bands:

• £125,000
• £100,000
• £75,000
• £60,000
• £50,000
• £40,000
• £30,000

Captains will get a £10,000 bonus on top of their fee. When it comes to the time for the draft each player is entitled to select a minimum salary band that they’ll be willing to play for, but if their self-chosen price isn’t met then they won’t be picked during that main draft.

Each of the teams also gets the chance to choose a Wild Card, who will be chosen during the T20 Blast tournament and they will be paid £30,000.

The Women’s Team

As is the case in most walks of life, the women aren’t being offered as much money as their male counterparts. instead, their salary brackets are as follows:

• £15,000
• £12,000
• £9,000
• £7,200
• £6,000
• £4,800
• £3,600

The women’s captains will get a bonus of £1,200.

The Teams and Venues

Each of the 8 city-based men’s teams will play their matches in a specific cricket ground. Here’s a little bit of information about each of them:

Manchester Originals: Old Trafford Cricket Ground (Manchester)

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Not to be confused with the football ground of the same name and located in the same city, Old Trafford Cricket Ground opened its doors in 1857 and is the home of Lancashire County Cricket Club. It has a capacity of 19,000 for domestic cricket matches and 26,000 for those of an international flavour.

When the ground lost its Test status in 2009 it was decided that it should be thoroughly modernised, resulting in redevelopment of it in order to increase its capacity and restore sections of the venue. The Point was created at a cost of £12 million. The pitch is known as being one of the quickest in the country, but spin can be used later in games.

Northern Superchargers: Headingley Cricket Ground (Leeds)

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At the time of writing the venue is known as the Emerald Headingley Cricket Ground because of sponsorship. It opened in 1890 and is the home of Yorkshire County Cricket Club, who also own it. It stands next to the Headingley Rugby Stadium as part of the Headingley Stadium Complex.

It boasts a capacity of 18,350 and has been a Test ground since 1899. It has enjoyed countless sporting moments over the years, including in 1902 when the Australian Test team was dismissed for 23 in the second innings to hand England an unexpected Ashes victory. Donald Bradman, widely thought of as the best batsman ever, notched up 309 runs in the first Ashes Test of 1930 here.

Birmingham Phoenix: Edgbaston Cricket Ground (Birmingham)

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Typically referred to simply as Edgbaston and known locally as the County Ground, Edgbaston Cricket Ground opened in 1882 and has a capacity of 25,000. Warwickshire County Cricket Club call it home, it was the first English ground other than Lord’s to host a one-day international final when the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy final took place here.

Only Lord’s, Old Trafford and The Oval are bigger than it in terms of capacity. It was the site for the first ever senior game played under floodlights when Warwickshire and Somerset went head to head in July of 1997. 20 years later it became the first venue to host a day / night Test match when England went up against the West Indies in August of 2017.

Trent Rockets: Trent Bridge (Nottingham)

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The cricket ground is based on the other side of the River Trent from the city of Nottingham, hence its name. It has a capacity of 17,500 and was opened in 1841. It is in the sports hub of Nottingham, being located close to both Notts County’s home ground of Meadow Lane and Nottingham Forest’s City Ground.

It hosted its first Test match in 1899, around 61 years after the first game of cricket was played in the area. It saw the world’s largest electronic scoreboard at any cricket ground installed in 1950, which was something of a claim to fame at the time. Regenerated throughout the 1980s and 1990s, many consider it to be one of the best places in the world to watch cricket.

Welsh Fire: Sophia Gardens (Cardiff)

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The only ground used outside of England for The Hundred, Sophia Gardens has been used as a cricket ground since Glamorgan County Cricket Club moved into it in 1967. The Sport Wales National Centre sports hall complex is based next door. The venue has been used for Test cricket since 1999 when it hosted the Cricket World Cup match between New Zealand and Australia.

In 2009 it became the 100th Test match venue when it hosted the opening match of the Ashes series and ten years later it was one of the grounds for the Cricket World Cup. The stadium was redeveloped in the 2000s, re-opening in 2008 with a match between the Glamorgan Dragons and the Gloucestershire Gladiators.

London Spirit: Lord’s (London)

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Based in the St John’s Wood area of London, the ground is named after the man who founded it: Thomas Lord. Owned by Marylebone Cricket Club, Middlesex County Cricket Club call it their home. It’s also the base of the ECB and the European Cricket Council. The world’s oldest sporting museum is based here, with the ground being known as the ‘home of cricket’.

Opened in 1814 and offering a capacity of 30,000, the location of the modern Lord’s is not actually at the site of the first one that Thomas Lord opened. In actual fact it is at the third venue that he used. In 2013 it was proposed that the ground should be redeveloped over a 14-year period at a cost of £200 million.

Oval Invincibles: The Oval (London)

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Currently known as The Kia Oval thanks to sponsorship, the ground opened in 1845 and has a capacity of 25,500. In 1880 it became the first ground in England to host Test cricket, with tradition dictating that the final Test match of the English season is hosted by the venue. Located in the Kennington area of London, Surrey County Cricket Club have played here ever since it opened.

Whilst it is obviously best-known for its relationship with cricket, it was also the first venue to host an England football match when they played Scotland here. It was also the venue for the first ever FA Cup final in 1872, then in 1876 it hosted England’s rugby matches against Scotland and Wales.

Southern Brave: Rose Bowl (Hampshire)

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Called the Ageas Bowl because of sponsorship and known as the Hampshire Bowl when it hosted matches during the 2019 Cricket World Cup, it is both a cricket ground and a residential hotel complex. It was established in 2001, which is also when Hampshire County Cricket Club started playing their matches there. It was built to replace the County Ground in Southampton, which had hosted Hampshire’s matches since 1885.

As well as One Day internationals and Test matches, the venue has also played host to Twenty20 internationals. It was only able to host Test cricket thanks to redevelopment that was carried out in 2008, resulting in increased capacity of the ground. In 2011 the lease was sold to Eastleigh Borough Council when Hampshire Cricket Ltd was found to be in financial trouble.

The History Of The Hundred

In many ways, the true history of The Hundred is yet to be written, given that the event will take place for the first time in July of 2020. Even so, there’s still plenty that we can tell you about how the competition came into being in the first place.

The original idea behind 100-ball cricket was proposed by the England and Wales Cricket Board in September of 2016. It followed discussions between the 18 different first-class counties, the Marylebone Cricket Club and the Professional Cricketers’ Association. They voted 16-3 in favour of the format being introduced.

The Competition’s Basis

At a meeting of the 41 members of the ECB on the 26th of April 2017, a vote was taken on the idea of introducing a city-based competition. The members voted to approve the idea, with each county being guaranteed at least £1.3 million per year. The only three that didn’t vote in favour of the proposal were Kent, Essex and Middlesex.

Despite two of those three counties being against the idea, 31 votes was the amount needed to see it gain approval and it achieved 38 votes in favour. Kent chose not to put forward a vote, whilst Middlesex wouldn’t have benefited from the use of Lord’s as it is the only county that does not own its own home ground. Essex, meanwhile, had concerns that the limited number of sides would mean that the competition would have a focus in certain parts of the country.

Reactions To The New Version Of The Sport

The reaction to the idea of The Hundred has been split from the start. Some felt that the ECB were making a misstep with it, whilst others felt that it would be a brilliant innovation that would bring new people to the sport. Joe Root, the England Test captain in 2019, was encouraged by the new format that he believed would see cricket gain a whole new audience.

One dissenting voice from within the sport came from Jimmy Neesham, the New Zealand all-rounder. Who didn’t understand why the ECB was so keen to change an already successful formula. A former chief of the MCC, Keith Bradshaw, seconded that, declaring it to be an ‘innovation for innovation’s sake’. Some cricket fans also took against the idea, especially those who would not be getting to watch the tournament in their home county.

There are also the usual criticisms that the idea behind the event is money motivated as much as it is designed for fans.