Duckett Shocked by Lower Attendance at The Hundred 2026

Despite leading his team to a decisive victory in Cardiff, Trent Rockets starter Ben Duckett admitted he was surprised by the low attendance at the start of this season’s Hundred.

Attendance has declined by a few thousand during the same period last year. Notable declines have also been observed at Headingley and The Rose Bowl, where IPL owners have changed the team colours.

Duckett believes the modest audiences do not fairly reflect the type of cricket being played. He described the Trent Rockets’ first home crowd at Trent Bridge, when they defeated the London Spirit in an intense match, as “pretty awesome.”

He remarked, however, that he couldn’t understand the general drop in attendance, especially because he believes the competition’s quality has improved this season as a result of the addition of a fourth foreign player to each starting lineup.

“Just looking around the grounds, there must be a reason for it, so I’m not blaming the fans.” I mean, this is a Wednesday at 3 p.m.; it’s probably never going to be a packed house.

 Duckett, as stated by Cricinfo, admitted that he struggled with the new ball due to the presence of players such as Marco Jansen, Chris Woakes, and Lockie Ferguson.

Sam Cook didn’t even bowl on the power play. “There aren’t many weaknesses anywhere,” he added. But, yes, the calibre of cricket this year has been excellent.

Despite having trouble finding his stride, the left-handed hitter drew on his two seasons with the Welsh Fire at Sophia Gardens. With two half-centuries and a score of 49, he is currently the competition’s leading run scorer this season.

“I’m overjoyed we won. We came here with one purpose: to win the game. I just laboured out there; it was terrible. Duckett stated, “I’ve been a bit ill in bed for the last couple of days, so I’d probably take it at the start of the day, but it wasn’t as fluent as I’d like… I was a lot more fluent at Trent Bridge.”