International Cricket

ICC Fixtures Clash Row: The Hundred vs CPL 2026 Overlap Decoded

Karthik Menon 19 May 2026 Updated 19 May 2026 ~5 min read ~881 words

The Hundred and CPL logos on a split-screen broadcast graphic

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When the 2026 schedules went to print in October 2025, both ECB and CWI claimed there were no window conflicts. Eight months later, the implementation calendars show three direct overlap nights between The Hundred (August 8 to September 1) and the CPL (August 14 to September 14). Three broadcasters with rights in both events have written to the ICC asking for an arbitration. ECB and CWI have spent two weeks in a polite letter exchange about whose calendar moved last. Here is what actually happened.

The three overlap nights

The first overlap is August 22, 2026: Hundred Eliminator at Trent Bridge versus CPL final-eight game in Trinidad. Both start in the European 4-6 pm window. The second is August 27: Hundred semi-final at the Oval versus CPL semi-final 1 in Guyana. The third is August 30: Hundred final at Lord's versus CPL semi-final 2 in Barbados. The Hundred final and CPL final do not directly overlap; the CPL final lands September 14, after the Hundred has finished.

Two broadcasters with rights in both events (one in the US, one in the UAE) have asked for the Hundred final to move forward 24 hours to August 29, removing the overlap with CPL semi-final 2. ECB has said no. The Lord's booking is fixed and the women's Hundred final is the August 29 slot. Moving the men's final would cascade through 12 days of women's knockouts.

Whose calendar moved last

The ECB's position is that The Hundred 2026 window was published on January 15, 2025, before any CPL window. The CWI's position is that the CPL 2026 window was confirmed by the franchise owners at the November 2024 annual meeting and that ECB knew this when their January publication landed. ICC scheduling rules give precedence to the earlier-published window, which favours ECB. But CWI argues the franchise owner confirmation in November is the operative date for CPL.

A board insider on the CWI side said the November 2024 confirmation was minuted and shared with ECB through the broadcaster Disney Star, whose rights span both. ECB denies receiving any formal note. The arbitration request from broadcasters asks the ICC to issue a process clarification on what counts as a "published window" for the purposes of conflict resolution.

What the broadcasters are losing

The three broadcasters have estimated combined audience-share loss across the three overlap nights at 18% to 24%. That converts to roughly USD 6.4 million in pro-rated advertising and licensing costs across the three nights, per a working calculation circulated to ECB and CWI on May 12. The number is contested. Both ECB and CWI counter that the broadcasters benefit from carrying both events in the same window because they sell premium "cricket month" packages.

The third broadcaster, an Indian OTT platform with rights to both, has been quieter. Their preference is for The Hundred to shift one day earlier on the three problem nights, accepting some loss of UK weekday inventory in exchange for clean weekend windows.

The ICC's likely response

The ICC has scheduling jurisdiction over "international cricket." Both The Hundred and CPL are domestic T20s with international player participation. The ICC does not have direct authority to compel either board to move a fixture. What the ICC can do is publish a window-precedence guideline and use its windows protocol working group to encourage future-cycle alignment.

A draft guideline from that working group, due to land at the Dubai Cricket Committee in June, would set January 1 of the year-before as the deadline for any board to publish a domestic-T20 window without precedence challenge. For 2027, that means October-November 2025 confirmations need re-publication by January 1, 2026. The CWI is unhappy with this calendar deadline. Their domestic season is too dependent on franchise-owner negotiations that often run into December.

What it means

The three overlap nights stay. CPL semi-final 2 on August 30 and the Hundred final on the same day will share the global cricket-fan window. Expect a sharper window-precedence guideline from the ICC by July. The 2027 schedules will be the first cycle to use it. For now, broadcasters will lean on packaging and dual-feed graphics. Fans get a long August.