Grace Ballinger column: How will a revamped Hundred play out?

Three days on from winning the T20 Blast title with The Blaze, Grace Ballinger, now of the Manchester Super Giants, takes a closer look at The Hundred which starts on Tuesday.

New team names, new kits, new owners - the 2026 edition of The Hundred is here!

Slightly earlier than last year, this edition of The Hundred kicks off in London on Tuesday, where two of the teams bought by IPL franchises, MI London and Sunrisers Leeds, will face each other at The Oval.

The Hundred looks different to how it has for the past few years, and nobody, players included, really knows how it will play out.

This is the first year of privatisation within the tournament. Whilst it was previously centrally owned by the ECB, the eight teams are now all owned independently, after the host counties had the option to sell either the entirety, or part, of their side to independent buyers.

This privatisation manifests itself in many ways, but the essence of the tournament has remained the same.

The eight host grounds have stayed, and some teams have kept their original names.

Many of the brands that have been built over the past few years, on the other hand, have been totally transformed.

When the privatisation was announced, I wasn't really sure how it would affect me as a player.

The one inarguable benefit for the players, especially in the female game, is the jump in salaries.

For instance, my salary last year was £16,000, and this summer it has increased to £42,500 for the tournament.

The only other thing that has been apparent so far, is instead of everything being centrally managed by the ECB, management is now under the control of the independent franchises.

For example, last year every kit was New Balance, whereas this year, there are a range of kit brands.

In many instances, the brands and squads that were built up over a period of years, disappeared, or rebranded, very quickly.

Sunrisers Leeds are an excellent example of this.

Formerly Northern Superchargers, the Headingley-based outfit rebranded to align to IPL side Sunrisers Hyderabad, following a £100m takeover by The Sun Group.

The kit, once purple, is now a bright orange.

Not only have they entirely revamped the image, but the players too.

Northern Superchargers was the side I played for during the last three editions of The Hundred. During this three years, the side barely changed, there were zero debutants in the opening game of last season.

Our women's side was successful, reaching the final in 2023 and winning the title in 2025.

However, not a single player from that winning side was bought by Sunrisers Leeds in the 2026 auction.

They retained three players in the original retention window, but instead chose to build an entirely different squad around them.

Sunrisers Leeds aren't alone in this though. The nature of an auction meant players were inevitably going to be moved around the country.

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• The Blaze thump Durham by 10 wickets to win T20 Blast

My move is a simple crossing of the Pennines, after being picked up by Manchester Super Giants (formerly Manchester Originals) in the auction.

I am really excited to make the move to the Old Trafford side, and have enjoyed playing there across the years as a visiting player.

I feel they had a successful auction and appeared to have a good strategy, creating a well-balanced squad.

Personally, I also look forward to working under two experienced Australians - head coach Matthew Mott, and captain, Meg Lanning.

Mott has formerly led the extremely successful Australian women's side, and was also the England men's white-ball head coach when they lifted the 2022 T20 World Cup trophy.

Meanwhile Lanning formerly captained the Australian national side, and herself has won seven world-cup titles.

In my opinion, one of the greatest things about franchise cricket is being able to work with, and learn from, different coaches and team-mates, and I'm sure working under Mott and Lanning alike will not only beneficial, but hopefully really enjoyable.

It is only myself and Kathryn Bryce from The Blaze heading up to the Super Giants, meaning the squad is mostly composed of players I haven't been in a side with before.

This in itself is an opportunity I look forward to, I think its is good as a player to expose yourself to different team dynamics.

Team dynamics will be an interesting thing for all sides to work out. As I earlier alluded to, most of the squads are very different to how they looked last summer.

There is a very quick turnaround between the T20 Blast and the Hundred - a mere two days between the men's T20 Blast Finals Day and The Hundred's opening games.

There is therefore little time for warm-up games, which many Hundred teams have chosen to do in the past.

The first time you take the field with your team may well be in your opening game.

It is the same for all sides though, all teams are in the same position.

It may be that the sides that gel the quickest are at a slight advantage early in the tournament.

The Hundred, for all the controversy it has caused, has been an amazing part of my career so far.

Being part of a winning side last summer, and lifting a trophy in front of 22,000 people at Lords, is an incredibly special memory for myself and my family, and it is certainly something I will be looking to repeat this summer, albeit for a different team.

I have also bowled against some of the best players in the world for the past four years, which is something I just would not have been able to do at the age of 21 had it not been for this competition.

The tournament has put women's cricket on the map in England, and the strength of the domestic game has only grown year by year.

I hope this year's edition of the Hundred is something people will buy into, and bring their kids too.

The main thing I hope for, of course, is a Super Giants double!