London Spirit are a franchise 100-ball cricket side based in North

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. The team represents the historic counties of

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

and

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

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 venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and ...

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 international cricketer and former captain of the India national cricket team. Widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen of all time, Kohli plays as a right-handed Batting (cricket), batte ...

criticising the

England and Wales Cricket Board The England and Wales Cricket Board (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 and ...

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

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

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 1991 to 2007. Warne played as a right-arm leg spin bowler and a right-handed batsman for Victoria, Hampshire and Australia ...

would be the men's team's first coach, while former Australia Women coach

Lisa Keightley Lisa Maree Keightley (born 26 August 1971) is an Australian former cricketer and current cricket coach. She played primarily as a right-handed batter. She appeared in nine Test matches, 82 One Day Internationals and one Twenty20 International ...

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 plays internationally for the England Test cricket team. In domestic cricket, he captains Surrey in first-class and List A cricket. Burns made his Test debut in 2018. He le ...

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 (, or ) is an Irish name. The Scottish Gaelic equivalent is () and both are closely related to the Welsh . It is also cognate with the Irish . In the Irish language, it is the name used for all Biblical figures known as ''John'' in Engli ...

and

Dan Lawrence Daniel William Lawrence (born 12 July 1997) is an English professional cricketer who plays internationally for the England Test cricket team. In domestic cricket, he represents Essex. Lawrence made his Test debut in 2021. He plays as a right- ...

for the men's team, while

Freya Davies Freya Ruth Davies (born 27 October 1995) is an English cricketer who plays for Sussex, Southern Vipers, Welsh Fire and England as a right-arm fast-medium bowler. She made her Sussex debut in 2010 at the age of fourteen, and played her first ma ...

joins Knight in the women's side.

Honours

Lords-Cricket-Ground-Pavilion-06-08-2017

Men's honours

The Hundred *Third place:

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

Women's honours

The Hundred *4th place: 2021 (highest finish)

Ground

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

, in the St. John's Wood 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 when ...

, 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 Southend-on-Sea and Colchester. It is located north-east of London a ...

, and the home of

, the County Ground in

Northampton Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; ...

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

Players

Current squad

Men's side

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

Men's captains

Women's side

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

Seasons

Group stages

Knockout rounds

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 Sport in London Sport in Chelmsford Sport in Northampton The Hundred (cricket) teams 2019 establishments in England London Spirit