Eight teams, a record £880,000 salary cap, and a brand-new auction system that has torn up six years of tradition. The Hundred Women’s Competition 2026 throws up its first ball on 21 July at the Kia Oval, and this is not the same tournament fans watched even twelve months ago. If you thought the women’s game could not get any more competitive after last year’s final, buckle up.
What Makes The Hundred Women’s Competition 2026 Different
Every previous edition of The Hundred Women’s Competition ran on a draft system, where franchises picked players in a snake order not unlike a fantasy football league. That system is gone. In its place sits an IPL-style auction, held in March, where teams bid against each other in real time for the players they actually want rather than the players left on the board.
The Auction Revolution
This is the single biggest structural change in the tournament’s short history. Sophie Devine, Beth Mooney, and Deepti Sharma were among the international stars who went into the auction pool, and the bidding wars that followed pushed valuations well beyond what the old draft ever produced. Think of it less like picking teams on a playground and more like a transfer window with a stopwatch attached.
Bigger Money, Bigger Stakes
Team salary pots have doubled to £880,000, with the top earners in The Hundred Women’s Competition now commanding around £130,000 for a five-week tournament. That is not a small change in franchise cricket, and it signals where private investment in the women’s game is heading. Three franchises even changed their names this year: Northern Superchargers became Sunrisers Leeds, Oval Invincibles became MI London, and Manchester Originals became Manchester Super Giants, all part of the ownership shake-up that has reshaped English franchise cricket from the ground up.
Meet the Eight Teams Chasing the Title
The eight city-based franchises competing in this year’s edition of The Hundred Women’s Competition are:
- Sunrisers Leeds Women (defending champions)
- Southern Brave Women
- MI London Women
- London Spirit Women
- Manchester Super Giants Women
- Birmingham Phoenix Women
- Trent Rockets Women
- Welsh Fire Women
A total of 34 matches will be played this season across seven venues: 32 group games, one Eliminator on 14 August, and the Grand Final at Lord’s on 16 August. Every team plays each rival once, plus a bonus derby against their nearest regional neighbour, before the top three sides go through to the knockout stage.
Defending Champions Sunrisers Leeds Look to Go Back-to-Back
Sunrisers Leeds enter this season as champions, though most fans will still remember them under their old name. As Northern Superchargers, they beat Southern Brave by seven wickets in front of a record women’s crowd of 22,542 at Lord’s on 31 August 2025, chasing down 116 with 12 balls to spare. That win ended Southern Brave’s unbeaten run through the entire tournament and reversed the result of the 2023 final, in which Brave had beaten the Superchargers to their first title.
Phoebe Litchfield walked away with Player of the Series after piling up 292 runs, including a 42-ball century in the semi-final that dragged her side into the final in the first place. Nicola Carey then finished the job with the bat in the decider itself. Rebrand aside, this is a squad that knows exactly how to win a knockout match, and every rival in The Hundred Women’s Competition 2026 will be building their season around stopping them from doing it again.
Key Players and Storylines to Follow
The Overseas Names Reshaping Rosters
The new auction format means star overseas players are no longer locked into the same franchise year after year. Names such as Meg Lanning, Smriti Mandhana, Ellyse Perry, Beth Mooney, Sophie Devine, and Marizanne Kapp are spread across fresh squads this season, and watching how those combinations click together early is half the fun of a rebuilt competition. A team is not just the sum of its individual talent; chemistry under pressure in a 100-ball format still has to be earned, not bought.
England’s Home-Grown Talent
Do not sleep on the domestic contingent either. Alice Capsey, Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Amy Jones, Charlie Dean, and Sophie Ecclestone remain central to their sides’ hopes, and young players like Davina Perrin, who scored a maiden century in last year’s eliminator at just a teenager, are exactly the kind of breakout stars women’s franchise cricket has been built to produce. Perrin’s innings last August, a 42-ball hundred that broke London Spirit’s resistance, is the sort of individual performance that turns a promising junior into a household name almost overnight.
Schedule, Venues, and How to Watch
The tournament opens with MI London hosting Sunrisers Leeds at the Kia Oval on 21 July. From there the fixture list moves quickly:
- 22 July: Southern Brave vs Welsh Fire, Southampton
- 23 July: London Spirit vs Manchester Super Giants, London
- 24 July: Birmingham Phoenix vs Trent Rockets, Birmingham
- 27 July: Southern Brave vs MI London, The Rose Bowl
- 28 July: Sunrisers Leeds vs Manchester Super Giants, Headingley
Matches continue through early August before the Eliminator on 14 August and the Final at Lord’s on 16 August. In the UK, coverage runs on Sky Sports Cricket, with a number of games also available free on BBC iPlayer, a setup that has done real work in growing the audience for The Hundred Women’s Competition since the tournament launched.
Fantasy Hundred: Building Your Dream Team
For anyone building a fantasy Hundred squad this season, the auction changes everything about how you should think about value. Under the old draft, star players tended to stay put, so form and role were mostly stable from year to year. Now, a player’s price tag at auction is a genuinely useful signal of where the market rates her, closer to reading transfer fees in football than picking names off a familiar roster.
A few pointers worth keeping in mind when picking a fantasy Hundred side this year:
- Prioritise players who bat or bowl in both powerplays, since the 100-ball format rewards players who influence multiple phases
- Weight recent knockout form heavily, given how often The Hundred Women’s Competition has been decided by a handful of players stepping up under pressure
- Do not ignore the cheaper domestic picks, since breakout performers like Perrin have consistently outscored their price tag
- Track team combinations early, as new-look squads assembled through auction will need a match or two to settle
Frequently Asked Questions
When does The Hundred Women’s Competition 2026 start and finish?
The tournament runs from 21 July to 16 August 2026, opening at the Kia Oval and closing with the Final at Lord’s.
How many teams are in The Hundred Women’s Competition 2026?
Eight city-based franchises compete, the same number as previous seasons, though three have new names this year following the ownership changes.
Who are the defending champions?
Sunrisers Leeds, playing under their former name of Northern Superchargers, won the 2025 title by beating Southern Brave in the final at Lord’s.
How were the 2026 squads picked?
Through a new IPL-style player auction held in March 2026, which replaced the draft system used in every previous season of the competition.
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