Record crowd for women's domestic cricket match seen at Lord's on Saturday as 20,840 people watch Oval Invincibles beat Southern Brave in the final; increase in tickets for children and women in 2022 than in last year's inaugural season
Sunday 4 September 2022 14:09, UK
More than 500,000 people attended games across the second season of The Hundred with more families buying tickets than in the inaugural campaign, according to figures from the England and Wales Cricket Board.
Families made up 41 per cent of ticket sales, up from 36 per cent in 2021, while there was also an increase in tickets for children (up from 19 per cent to 22 per cent) and women (up from 21 per cent to 28 per cent).
The women's fixtures were watched live by 271,000 people across the competition, with a record crowd for a women's domestic cricket match in the UK of 20,840 seeing Oval Invincibles retain their Hundred title by defeating Southern Brave in Saturday's final at Lord's.
With all men's and women's games shown live on Sky Sports and selected matches across the BBC, a total of 14.1million watched some of the action on TV, with women making up a 31 per cent share of the audience.
Of this audience, 42 per cent had not watched any other ECB cricket in 2022 prior to The Hundred, resulting in 5.9m new viewers.
Sky Sports broadcast every women's match and selected men's games for free on YouTube, while for the first time, Sky streamed games on TikTok.
Bryan Henderson, Sky Sports Director of Cricket said: "We couldn't be happier with The Hundred after two years.
"Since its inception, the competition has reached more than 13.5m people across Sky Sports platforms and the aim of bringing cricket to new fans is proving successful as our audience over the last two years is younger and more diverse than other formats of the game, with more women watching than ever before.
"Our award-winning coverage has again been well received, with our on-screen team proving incredibly popular for both new and existing cricket fans.
"We're incredibly proud of implementing further innovations into our coverage to give the viewer even more insight into the game through technology such as helmet cam and power rating, while player avatars have once again proven popular.
"We're thrilled to continue working with the ECB as we keep bringing this competition to cricket fans old and new until at least 2028."
Sanjay Patel, Managing Director of The Hundred added: "It's been brilliant to see more families, more kids and record numbers attending the games this year.
"The Hundred is all about welcoming more people into cricket, and it has delivered on that again this year. It's wonderful to see and hear so many families being inspired by a mix of great cricket and great entertainment."
Away from the games, over 300 players from all eight teams made time to take training sessions and chat to grassroots cricket players as well as those experiencing the sport for the first time.
The ECB says it is on course to hit surplus revenue of around £10m which will be invested back into cricket, with last year's revenues helping to fund free places on the organisation's All Stars and Dynamos courses.
Over 100,000 children are expected to have taken part in All Stars and Dynamos programmes by the end of the year, with at least 27,000 being girls.
