Photo Credit: England & Wales Cricket Board
The opening match of The Hundred has become the most watched women’s cricket match (across both international and domestic) in the UK on record.
Across BBC Two, Sky Sports Cricket, Main Event and Mix the match drew a peak audience of 1.95m as the exciting clash between Oval Invincibles and Manchester Originals reached its final stages at The Kia Oval last night. The coverage across all channels reached more than 3.8m people (watching at least three minutes), with nearly 35% of viewers being female.
These figures beat the previous most watched women’s cricket match in this country – the 3rd IT20 against India last week, which attracted a peak audience of 1.24m.
The match was also streamed live over 180,000 times across BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport online, with even more viewers on Sky Sports YouTube.
The strong broadcast figures follow a record crowd in The Kia Oval for a standalone professional domestic women’s match.
The launch of the new 100-ball competition also coincided with the busiest day of ticket sales since they were put on general sale. More than 11,000 tickets were bought for remaining matches across the competition.
Sanjay Patel, Managing Director, The Hundred, said: “We couldn’t have asked for a better start to The Hundred – a thrilling match which went down to the wire, a brilliant atmosphere inside the crowd with lots of families and children, and record figures watching at home.
“The Hundred is all about throwing cricket’s doors open for everyone, and the response to last night’s game has been remarkable. We know this is only the first game and there is a still a lot of hard work ahead. We’re grateful to Sky for their long-term support for English cricket and especially The Hundred and are excited by the partnership with them and the BBC helping us to reach a broader audience.”
Overall across Sky Sports and BBC
| Date | Match | Men/Women | Channel(s) | Avg. Audience (000) | Peak (000) | 3 min + Reach (000) |
| 21/07/2021 | 1. Oval Invincibles v Manchester Originals | Women | BBC Two, Sky Sports Cricket, Main Event and Mix | 1,082 | 1,955 (21:04) | 3,880 |
Split by channel
| Channel | Avg. Audience (000) | Peak (000) | 3 min+ Reach (000) |
| BBC 2 | 898 | 1,612 | 3,300 |
| Sky Sports channels | 184 | 348 | 777 |
Name of Author: ECB
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is the national governing body for cricket in England and Wales, formed on January 1, 1997. It combines roles from the Test and County Cricket Board, National Cricket Association, and Cricket Council, and integrated the Women’s Cricket Association in 1998. Based at Lord’s Cricket Ground, the ECB oversees all levels of cricket, including national teams for men, women, and various disability categories.
