The longlist of players registered for the 23 March 2023 selection of the Hundred includes noteworthy names including Mitchell Starc, Harmanpreet Kaur, Robin Uthappa, and Jemimah Rodrigues.
Before the drought began earlier this month, the eight teams revealed whose players they had kept. Their rosters for the 100-ball competition, which takes place this summer from August 1-27, will be finalized at the draw, which will be broadcast live on Sky Sports for the first time since 2019.
Each team could only keep four players in the women’s competition, although they were allowed to utilize one Right-To-Match (RTM) card during the draught to hold onto an additional player: All three players are likely to rejoin their 2022 squads: Danni Wyatt (Southern Brave), Kate Cross (Manchester Originals), and Sophie Devine (Birmingham Phoenix).
This year, a number of prominent Australian women’s players will skip the Hundred to take a rest after the Ashes. Megan Schutt, Amanda-Jade Wellington, and Grace Harris are among the 43 Australian women who have signed up for the draught; however, Meg Lanning, Tahlia McGrath, Ash Gardner, and Beth Mooney have opted out.
Six Indian ladies have signed up, and Harmanpreet and Rodrigues have set a top reserve price of £31,250 for themselves (INR 31 lakh approx). Without setting a reserve price, Shikha Pandey, Deepti Sharma, Disha Kasat, and Kiran Navgire joined the drought.
Dane van Nierkerk, Lizelle Lee, Laura Wolvaardt, Diana Baig, and Diana Baig have also entered. For the 15 available seats, 148 international competitors are vying for the opportunity, including athletes from Brazil, Papua New Guinea, Sweden, Afghanistan, Kuwait, France, Bhutan, and Vanuatu.
Except for Welsh Fire, who will sign five players after choosing to keep just three, each women’s team will select four players at the draft. Three of each team’s eight highest-paid slots will be filled by players from outside the country after the drought, and then there will be an open window for teams to fill out their rosters.
The majority of Australia’s multi-format players have opted out of the men’s Hundred; the shortlist does not include the names of Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, or David Warner. The fifth day of the fifth men’s Ashes Test is set to begin the day following The Hundred.
But, Starc has chosen to enter, and if chosen for one of the five open £125,000 berths available for an international player, he might make his competitive debut. The dates of Australia’s white-ball tour to South Africa, which is scheduled to begin in the last week of August, may affect his availability.
This year, Superchargers are unable to sign him since they do not have a $125,000 slot open. His most likely destinations are Trevor Bayliss’ London Spirit and Mike Hussey’s Welsh Fire, both of which drafted him in 2019 until Hussey decided to withdraw.
Additionally, Adam Zampa and Marcus Stoinis have £125,000 saved aside. Mitchell Marsh, Jhye Richardson (both worth £100,000), Aaron Finch, and Usman Khawaja (both worth £60,000) are a few other famous Australian signings.
Ashton Turner (no reserve), who is anticipated to compete for the Northern Superchargers captaincy, is expected to join Tim David (£75,000), who is expected to return to the Southern Brave.
Leading Pakistani athletes like Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, and Shaheen Shah Afridi have registered for the drought. But, their availability will depend on the dates for a three-match ODI series against Afghanistan, which the Future Tours Programme predicts would be played in the third week of August.
A two-Test series that Pakistan is scheduled to play in Sri Lanka around the end of July may extend into August and further restrict availability. The only Pakistani participant who was kept was Shadab Khan (Birmingham Phoenix).
Welsh Fire has named Tom Abell as a prospective captain, and he shares a £40,000 reserve with England seamers Ollie Robinson and Olly Stone, Chris Dent, and Graeme van Buuren.
The four players who are anticipated to be among the most expensive England-qualified signings—Ben Duckett, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Reece Topley, and Tom Banton—have all entered the competition without setting a reserve price.
The website of the Hundred has a complete list of the players who have registered for the drafting.