London, 14 August 2026:
In a historic season, the Trent Rockets became the first Hundred franchise to see both its men’s and women’s sides top the group, automatically qualifying for the final on Sunday, 16 August.
Our correspondent Ed Mace talked with the Rockets’ Director of Cricket Mick Newell ahead of the tournament’s conclusion to ask about the roots of their success and their plans for the future.
“[The success] comes down to good players playing well but we had a specific drive to make this team a part of Nottingham and the main way we did that was by building a coaching staff of people who work at Trent Bridge or have played for Notts in the past.
“The Hundred has been a key part of Trent Bridge for six years now and even with private investment we’re running it in a pretty similar way.”
Many of the franchises in The Hundred have failed to cultivate a feeling of belonging in their location, drawing criticism from fans in the UK who feel it neglects many of the county sides, but the Rockets stand out as one of the best examples of how The Hundred can be integrated into the cricketing calendar and give the fans something fresh to root for.
Newell has been delighted with his sides’ showing in this campaign and feels holding onto it as much as possible would be key to prolonging this success.
“I haven’t had confirmation but 16 [retained players] has been thrown around a lot.”
This would equate to nearly half of the entirety of the Rockets roster. For context, last year’s champions Oval Invincibles (now MI London) retained just four players for 2026.
Asked if the format was too volatile to preserve the squad while staying successful, Newell said: “I do worry about that, I know that what’s happened to other teams could happen to the Rockets next year.
“If you look at the T20 blast, no one has retained the trophy.”
The future is an unpredictable one for any short-format franchise, but the Kingsmen franchise, originating in the Pakistan Super League and expanding into other leagues has given a template that has the franchise world on notice.
On if the Rockets could follow a similar trajectory, Newell said: “I think it’s a really interesting concept, I’m not ruling it out.
“It might come down to whether our investors have any appetite to expand the Rockets around the world.”
A crucial part for franchises to get right is talent identification. This is particularly true for the women’s game which sees less attention and has a franchise circuit dominated by English and Australian players.
Captain of the Pakistan side Fatima Sana made history for being the first Pakistan woman to play in the Hundred, six years into its existence, highlighting the lack of spotlight that goes towards certain parts of the world in the women’s game.
Newell described how a tool that was helping to solve that problem was their ongoing relationship with Jamestown Analytics, a data analysis provider mainly used by professional football clubs.
“Their knowledge of the domestic game is incredible. A clear example is Sam Bates who has never played for Australia and she was identified by the company as a player we should take a keen interest in and once we did we could see exactly what they were talking about.”
