London Spirit are a franchise

100-ball cricket 100-ball cricket is a short form of cricket designed to attract new audiences to the game with simplified rules, which was originally created by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) for its new city-based competition The Hundred. The 1 ...

side based in North

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. The team represents the historic counties of

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

and

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

in The Hundred, which took place for the first time during the 2021 English and Welsh cricket season. Both the men's and women's sides play their home games at

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket List of Test cricket grounds, venue in St John's Wood, Westminster. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex C ...

History

The announcement of the new eight-team men's and women's tournament series in 2019 was not without controversy, with the likes of

Virat Kohli Virat Kohli (born 5 November 1988) is an Indian Cricket, international cricketer who plays One Day International, ODI cricket for the India national cricket team, national team and is a former Captain (cricket), captain in all formats. He is a ...

criticising the

England and Wales Cricket Board The England and Wales Cricket Board, aka ECB, is the Sports governing body, national governing body of cricket in England and Wales. It was formed on 1 January 1997 as a single governing body to combine the roles formerly fulfilled by the Test ...

for pursuing a shift away from Test cricket, while others argued the format should have followed the established and successful

Twenty20 Twenty20 (abbreviated T20) is a shortened format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two t ...

format. The ECB however decided it needed a more unique format to draw crowds. In August 2019 the side announced that former Australian spinner

Shane Warne Shane Keith Warne (13 September 1969 – 4 March 2022) was an Australian international cricketer whose career ran from 1992 to 2007. Warne played as a right-arm leg spin bowler and a lower-order right-handed batter for Victoria, Hampshire ...

would be the men's team's first coach, while former Australia Women coach Lisa Keightley was appointed coach of the Women's team. The inaugural Hundred draft took place in October 2019 and saw the Spirit claim

Rory Burns Rory Joseph Burns (born 26 August 1990) is an English cricketer who has played internationally for the England cricket team, England Test cricket team. In domestic cricket, he captains Surrey County Cricket Club, Surrey in first-class cricket, ...

as their headline men's draftee, and Heather Knight as the women's headliner. They are joined by England One-Day captain

Eoin Morgan Eoin Joseph Gerard Morgan (born 10 September 1986) is an Irish-born English former cricketer and current commentator. He captained the England cricket team in limited overs cricket from 2015 until his international retirement in June 2022. He ...

and

's Dan Lawrence for the men's team, while Freya Davies joins Knight in the women's side.

Honours

Men's honours

The Hundred *Third place:

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

Women's honours

The Hundred *Winners:

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

Ground

Both the London Spirit men's and women's sides play at the home of Cricket,

, in the

St. John's Wood St John's Wood is a district in the London Boroughs of Camden and the City of Westminster, London, England, about 2.5 miles (4 km) northwest of Charing Cross. Historically the northern part of the ancient parish and Metropolitan Borough ...

area of London. The women's side had been due to play at the home of

Essex County Cricket Club Essex County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Essex. Founded in 1876, the club had minor county status until 1894 w ...

, the County Ground in

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Colchester and Southend-on-Sea. It is located north-east of London ...

, and the home of

, the County Ground in

Northampton Northampton ( ) is a town and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is the county town of Northamptonshire and the administrative centre of the Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority of West Northamptonshire. The town is sit ...

but both teams were brought together at the same ground as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Current squads

* Bold denotes players with international caps. * denotes a player who is unavailable for rest of the season.

Women's side

Men's side

Seasons

Women's team

Men's team

Notes

References

External links

Official web page
{{Cricket in England Middlesex County Cricket Club Essex County Cricket Club Northamptonshire County Cricket Club Cricket in Middlesex Cricket in Essex Cricket in Northamptonshire Cricket teams in London Sport in Chelmsford Sport in Northampton The Hundred (cricket) teams 2019 establishments in England