How to Watch The Hundred 2026

Where to watch The Hundred 2026 by country

What The Hundred is — and the 2026 dates, teams and format

The Hundred is English cricket's shortest, fastest format: each innings is exactly 100 balls, not the 120 of a standard Twenty20, which strips out overs in favour of a rolling count and keeps games to a brisk couple of hours. There are eight city-based teams in each of the men's and women's competitions, and the two run in parallel — most match days are doubleheaders pairing a women's game with a men's game at the same venue. The 2026 season runs from Tuesday 21 July to Sunday 16 August, opening with a doubleheader at the Kia Oval in south London. The group stage feeds a knockout in which the top three teams in each table progress: second plays third in an eliminator at The Oval, and the winner meets the table-topper in the final, with both the men's and women's finals staged on Finals Day at Lord's in London on Sunday 16 August. The 2026 edition arrives with a reshaped ownership map after the ECB sold equity in all eight teams in 2025, and three sides carry new names this year: Oval Invincibles become MI London under Reliance (Mumbai Indians), Northern Superchargers become Sunrisers Leeds under Sun TV Network, and Manchester Originals become Manchester Super Giants under RPSG (Lucknow Super Giants). Both defending champions carry their titles into new names: the MI London men won three straight as Oval Invincibles, and the Sunrisers Leeds women lifted the 2025 trophy as Northern Superchargers. The full 34-matchday fixture list is now published — the opening week is laid out day by day below.

Opening week fixtures: 21–26 July, day by day

The first six days visit all eight home grounds, every day a women's-then-men's double-header between the same two teams (times BST, from the official fixture list). Tuesday 21 July, Kia Oval: MI London v Sunrisers Leeds — women 2:45pm, men 6:30pm, both defending champions in action on night one, with the MI London men chasing a fourth straight title. Wednesday 22 July, Utilita Bowl: Southern Brave v Welsh Fire (3:00pm / 6:30pm). Thursday 23 July, Lord's: London Spirit v Manchester Super Giants (3:00pm / 6:30pm) — the first look at the rebranded Super Giants. Friday 24 July, Edgbaston: Birmingham Phoenix v Trent Rockets (3:00pm / 6:30pm). The first weekend doubles up: Saturday 25 July has Sunrisers Leeds v Southern Brave at Headingley (11:00am / 2:30pm) and Welsh Fire v MI London at Sophia Gardens (2:30pm / 6:00pm); Sunday 26 July has Manchester Super Giants v Birmingham Phoenix at Emirates Old Trafford (11:00am / 2:30pm) and Trent Rockets v London Spirit at Trent Bridge (2:30pm / 6:00pm). From there the group stage rolls daily through to mid-August: 34 matchdays in total, the top three in each table reaching the knockouts. The business end is fixed too — the eliminator double-header at the Kia Oval on Friday 14 August (women 2:15pm, men 6:00pm) with a reserve day on the 15th, then Finals Day at Lord's on Sunday 16 August (women's final 2:15pm, men's final 6:00pm) with a reserve day on Monday 17 August, so the trophies are decided on the pitch, rain or shine.

Free vs paid in the UK: Sky Sports and the BBC

UK viewers have two routes, and they complement each other. The comprehensive route is Sky Sports, which broadcasts every ball of every match live across the men's and women's competitions — its rights deal runs through 2028. You can watch through a Sky TV package on a set-top box or, if you would rather avoid a long contract, through a NOW Sports membership that streams the same Sky Sports channels on a rolling monthly or day pass. The free route is the BBC, and its 2026 plans are confirmed: 16 matches — eight double-headers — live on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer, opening with the MI London v Sunrisers Leeds double-header on 21 July and closing with both finals from Lord's on 16 August. Anyone in the UK with a TV Licence can watch those games for nothing. The BBC's free coverage goes deeper than TV this year: BBC Radio 5 Live, 5 Sports Extra and BBC Sounds carry live commentary on every single game of the tournament, highlights of every match land on iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app, and for the first time highlights and analysis also run on the BBC Sport YouTube channel. The trade-off is simple: the BBC gives you the marquee occasions live plus every game on the radio, while Sky gives you every ball in vision. If you only want the opener and Finals Day, the BBC alone may be enough; if you want every match your team plays on a screen, you need Sky or NOW. Both BBC iPlayer and the Sky/NOW apps are geo-restricted to the UK, which matters the moment you leave.

How the cricket diaspora watches The Hundred

The Hundred has a global following, and outside the UK the rights are split region by region according to The Hundred's official 'how to follow' page. In the Indian subcontinent the tournament streams on FanCode, typically as a paid match or tournament pass; in Australia and Southeast Asia it is listed on FOX Sports, watchable through Foxtel or the Kayo streaming service; in North America it sits with Willow TV and DAZN; in the Caribbean it is on ESPN; across the Middle East and North Africa it is on beIN SPORTS; and throughout Sub-Saharan Africa it is on SuperSport. Each of these is a subscription or pay service in its territory, and each app is geo-locked to that territory. That creates the classic diaspora problem: an England-based fan who pays for Sky cannot open the Sky Go app on holiday in Spain, and an Australian who pays for Kayo cannot stream it while visiting family in the UK. The honest, legal use of a VPN here is to reconnect you to a service you already subscribe to in your home country, so you can watch the coverage you are already paying for while you are temporarily abroad. These per-region assignments were re-checked against The Hundred's official listing in July 2026; if you are buying a pass specifically for this tournament, confirm your country on thehundred.com before paying so you buy the right service.

Time-zone planner: The Hundred in India, Australia and North America

Every match runs on British Summer Time, and the two standard slots are the afternoon game (women, usually 2:45pm–3:00pm BST on weekdays) and the evening game (men, usually 6:00pm–6:30pm BST), with weekend double-headers starting as early as 11:00am. For India (IST, four and a half hours ahead), this is genuinely prime-time viewing: the afternoon game starts around 7:15pm–7:30pm IST and the evening game around 10:30pm–11:00pm IST, finishing about 1:00am — the opening MI London men's match on 21 July starts at 11:00pm IST, and with Mumbai Indians, Sunrisers and RPSG brands now owning teams, FanCode's coverage is built for exactly this audience. Australia is the tough one: nine hours ahead on the east coast means a 6:30pm BST start is 3:30am AEST, so Australian fans on Kayo mostly catch the 11:00am BST weekend starts (8:00pm AEST — perfect) and replay the weekday games over breakfast. North America is comfortable: a 6:30pm BST men's game is 1:30pm ET / 10:30am PT, lunchtime cricket on Willow TV or DAZN, and the weekend 11:00am BST starts are early-morning ET. Finals Day converts to: women's final 6:45pm IST / 11:15pm AEST / 9:15am ET; men's final 10:30pm IST / 3:00am AEST (Monday) / 1:00pm ET. If you are travelling across zones during the tournament, remember the broadcast clock follows your subscription's home country — an Indian fan in London still watches on FanCode's schedule through a VPN connected to an Indian server, and a UK fan in New York reaches iPlayer or NOW on UK time through a UK server.

How to watch The Hundred from abroad with a VPN — step by step

A VPN routes your internet through a server in another country, so a broadcaster sees that server's location instead of your real one. If you are travelling and want your home stream back, the process takes a few minutes. 1) Choose a reputable VPN with servers in your home country — all of our picks qualify, and each has a money-back guarantee so you can test it risk-free. 2) Download and install the app on the device you will watch on; create your account and sign in. 3) Open the VPN and connect to a server in your home country — for a UK subscriber abroad, pick a UK server; for an Aussie abroad, an Australian one. 4) Wait for the app to confirm it is connected; this assigns you an IP address in that country. 5) Open your usual broadcaster — BBC iPlayer or Sky Go/NOW for UK viewers, Kayo for Australians, FanCode in India, Willow TV in the US — and sign in with the account you already hold. 6) Start the stream; it should now play as if you were at home. A few honest reminders: you still need a valid subscription or licence for paid services, a VPN does not make paid coverage free, and using a VPN to access a broadcaster outside its territory may breach that broadcaster's terms of service, so the clean use case is reaching your own home account while travelling. If a stream will not load, the troubleshooting section below walks through the fixes in order.

Best VPNs for streaming The Hundred 2026

For live cricket the two things that matter most are speed, so the picture holds up in HD through a fast passage of play, and a money-back guarantee, so you can test the service risk-free around the tournament. All of our picks offer a 30-day money-back guarantee, and CyberGhost extends that to 45 days, so you can trial a service across multiple match days and still get a refund if it does not work for you. ExpressVPN is the fastest premium option, with its Lightway protocol built for low-latency streaming and a broad server network that reliably reaches major broadcasters including UK services. NordVPN runs on its quick NordLynx protocol, holds the number-one US market share and bundles threat protection — a strong all-rounder for BBC iPlayer and Sky. Surfshark is the standout value pick because it allows unlimited simultaneous devices, useful if family members are watching on different screens at once. Proton VPN is the privacy-first, Swiss-based choice and the only pick with a genuine free tier, though the free servers are not ideal for live HD sport. CyberGhost is streaming-optimised with dedicated servers and the longest refund window. Private Internet Access and IPVanish round out the network-heavy budget end, and TotalVPN is a no-frills cheap option. We earn a commission if you sign up through our links, at no extra cost to you, and current discount ranges — often steep on longer plans — appear live in our comparison table rather than as fixed prices here, so you always see today's real number.

Device setup: phone, laptop, smart TV and streaming sticks

The cleanest experience depends on your device. On a phone or tablet, install the VPN app from the App Store or Google Play, connect to your home-country server, then open BBC iPlayer, Sky Go, NOW, Kayo, FanCode or Willow as normal — mobile is the most reliable route because the apps are well maintained and the VPN sits right on the device. On a Windows or Mac laptop, install the desktop app, connect, and watch in a browser or the broadcaster's desktop app; if a site is stubborn, watching in a private/incognito window helps. Smart TVs and streaming sticks are where people get stuck, because many TV platforms do not run VPN apps natively. There are three workarounds: 1) Install the VPN on a supported device such as an Amazon Fire TV Stick or an Android TV box, where most of our picks offer a native app, then sign in to your broadcaster there. 2) Set the VPN up on your home router so every device on the network — including the TV — inherits the home-country connection; ExpressVPN, NordVPN and others publish router guides. 3) Cast or screen-mirror from a phone or laptop that is already on the VPN to the TV. Whichever route you choose, connect the VPN before opening the streaming app, keep both apps updated, and use a 5GHz Wi-Fi band or Ethernet for the steadiest HD picture during a busy doubleheader.

Troubleshooting: blocked, buffering or wrong region

If a broadcaster shows a proxy/VPN-detected error, or the stream simply will not load, work through these fixes in order. 1) Switch servers: broadcasters block individual VPN IP addresses, so disconnect and reconnect to a different server in the same country — a fresh IP often clears the block instantly. 2) Clear cookies and cache: streaming sites store location data, so clear your browser cookies or the app's cache, or open the stream in a private/incognito window, then reconnect. 3) Connect the VPN first: always connect to the VPN before opening the broadcaster app, never after, so the app never records your real location. 4) Check for location leaks: enable the VPN's leak protection and make sure device-level location services or GPS are not overriding your VPN IP, a common cause of blocks on mobile. 5) For buffering, connect to a server geographically closer to where your account is based, switch to a faster protocol such as Lightway (ExpressVPN) or NordLynx (NordVPN), and use 5GHz Wi-Fi or Ethernet. 6) Update both the VPN app and the broadcaster app, since an out-of-date version can fail silently. If several servers still fail, contact your VPN's live chat — the reputable providers maintain streaming-server lists and can point you to one that currently works. Because every recommended VPN offers a money-back guarantee, you have a safety net if a service simply cannot reach your broadcaster, so test it well before Finals Day on 16 August.

Why use a VPN for The Hundred at all?

There are three honest reasons a VPN earns its place during The Hundred. The first and most common is travel: if you pay for Sky or NOW in the UK, or Kayo in Australia, or Willow in the US, those apps geo-block you the moment you leave the country, and connecting to a home-country server restores the stream you already pay for so a work trip or holiday does not cost you a match. The second is privacy: a VPN encrypts your connection, which is genuinely worthwhile on hotel, airport or café Wi-Fi where your traffic would otherwise be exposed to whoever runs the network. The third is comparison shopping: subscription and pass prices for international cricket services can vary by region, and a VPN lets you see how pricing is presented in different markets before you commit. What a VPN does not do is conjure free access to paid coverage — you still need a valid subscription or, for the BBC, a TV Licence — and it is not a tool for dodging the rules of a service you have no account with. Accessing a broadcaster outside its territory can breach that broadcaster's terms of service, so the clean, defensible use is reaching your own legitimate home account while abroad. Used that way, a VPN is simply the bridge between the subscription you already hold and the country you happen to be sitting in.

Schedule context: opener at the Kia Oval, knockouts and Finals Day at Lord's

Planning your viewing around the calendar helps you decide whether the free BBC package is enough or whether you want full Sky coverage. The tournament opens on Tuesday 21 July 2026 with the MI London v Sunrisers Leeds double-header at the Kia Oval — women at 2:45pm, men at 6:30pm BST — and that opening day is confirmed as live, free BBC coverage, so the very first ball of the season costs nothing to watch in the UK. The group stage then rolls daily through late July and into August across 34 matchdays, with most days built around double-headers pairing a women's fixture with a men's fixture at the same ground, and the weekend slate splitting across two venues with 11:00am and 2:30pm starts. The business end is locked in: the top three teams in each table reach the knockouts; the eliminator between second and third is a double-header at the Kia Oval on Friday 14 August (women 2:15pm, men 6:00pm), with a reserve day on Saturday 15 August; and both finals are staged on Finals Day at Lord's on Sunday 16 August — women's final 2:15pm, men's final 6:00pm — with a reserve day on Monday 17 August, a new safeguard so the champions are decided on the pitch rather than by rain. The BBC shows both finals live, so if you only care about the showpiece the free route covers you; if you want to follow MI London, Sunrisers Leeds, Manchester Super Giants or any single team through every game, Sky or NOW is the route that guarantees no gaps.

The Hundred 2026 — FAQ