Cricket's most radical equality experiment just got a powerful upgrade. This summer, The Hundred will introduce a new combined trophy that rewards men's and women's teams for their joint performance—a bold move that makes explicit what the tournament has been quietly building since it began in 2021.
The innovation matters because sports still largely measure success in separate columns. By creating a shared prize that counts results from group stage through eliminator and final for both competitions, The Hundred is asking franchises to think of themselves as unified clubs rather than parallel operations. The current men's and women's individual trophies will continue, but now teams will also compete for something that only exists when both sides excel together.
England all-rounder Will Jacks, who has won three men's titles with Oval Invincibles, sees the move as a natural evolution. "If we look back over the past five years, the Invincibles would have had good success with that," he told BBC Sport. "With the double headers and teams playing on the same day, to then have both of those results counting towards the same trophy is very exciting." The double-header format—matches staged at the same venue on the same day—has been central to The Hundred's promise of genuine equality since the tournament's inception. Now the structure finally extends to how victory itself is defined.
The impact of this change became clear looking back at last year: a combined trophy would have been won by Northern Superchargers, despite their men's team losing in the eliminator. Their women's side's title would have lifted them over the line. It's a reminder that excellence in cricket is distributed unevenly by gender in current competitions, but shared franchises create the chance to balance those scales within a single season.
Batter Tammy Beaumont, preparing for her first summer with Birmingham Phoenix after time at Welsh Fire, described the move as a deepening of something already underway. "We've always tried to create the 'one club, two teams' vibe and this will bring that even closer together," she explained. "The fact the men and women play on the same day, in the same colours, the same teams is one of the unique selling points of The Hundred, trying to push that equality dial even closer. It's one of the ways the women's game in England has gone from strength to strength and really taken off since the Hundred came in."
The trophy itself remains nameless for now—the public can submit suggestions through The Hundred website, a democratic touch that invites fans to help author the tournament's evolving story. It's a fitting approach for a competition undergoing broader transformation. Around £500 million in external investment is being poured into the eight franchises for a major 2026 revamp, including new ownership structures linked to the Indian Premier League. Teams are already revealing rebranded kits: Oval Invincibles have become MI London and switched from aqua to blue and gold, while Northern Superchargers are now Sunrisers Leeds in orange, mirroring their international counterparts. These changes signal a tournament confident enough to remake itself while staying true to its founding principle: that when men and women compete alongside each other, the game itself becomes something worth watching differently.