BBC unveils punditry and presenter line-up for revamped Hundred

The BBC has revealed its plans for cricket tournament The Hundred, which returns this month with “a transformed competition” featuring new ownership and team names.

For the BBC’s coverage this year, World Cup winner and one of the world’s fastest bowlers, Mark Wood, joins the broadcaster’s punditry line-up alongside former India Test captain Ajinkya Rahane, ex-New Zealand international Katey Martin and current England Test opener Emilio Gay.

World Cup winners Isa Guha and Alex Hartley will present The Hundred on BBC TV, accompanied by broadcaster Amber Sandhu.

Michael Vaughan, Phil Tufnell and Sir Alastair Cook, alongside World Cup winners Tymal Mills, Ebony Rainford-Brent, Dawid Malan, Amanda-Jade Wellington and Carlos Brathwaite will provide their expertise and analysis.   

Alison Mitchell, Steven Finn, Aatif Nawaz, Henry Moeran, Phoebe Graham, Scott Read, Ffion Wynne, Nikesh Rughani and Melissa Story will be among those in the commentary box for the entirety of the 68 fixtures.   

Viewers will be able to ask questions directly to players via the Ask the Player feature, and some children attending the matches will be giv en the opportunity to carry out pre-match interviews with players.

Coverage will also follow a family who have never been to a Hundred game before and watch them experience the tournament fresh, while offering them access to the BBC commentary team to help bring the game to life. 

The BBC will welcome back Ravi, the partially sighted young cricket fan who will present “Ravi meets”. 

At the close of play each night, the BBC will show a mini panel show where the commentators are asked five random questions, contained within five cricket balls that open up to reveal their question.

16 matches – eight double headers – will be available live on BBC iPlayer and BBC2, meanwhile BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra and BBC Sounds will have live commentary for every game.   

Highlights from every match will also be available on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app, and, for the first time, highlights and analysis will be available on the BBC Sport YouTube channel. 

The BBC Sport website and app will also bring live scores, clips of the best of the action, selected live text commentary, breaking news, reports and interactive content. The BBC Sport social media accounts will also provide clips from each day’s play.  

The Hundred starts on 21 July.

Alex Kay-Jelski, director of BBC Sport, said: “This summer has been action-packed already and The Hundred is another unmissable event for sports fans to settle in for. We have extensive TV and radio coverage, more interactive content placing our viewers and match goers at the heart of the game than ever before and a world class line-up – it doesn’t get much better than that.”