Cricket to Make British Sporting History with First-Ever Player Draft

Fans will be able to watch cricketing history unfold live, as eight brand new men’s teams are chosen from some of the world’s best players. The Draft will ensure an even spread of players across each team, including England’s Test cricketers and ICC Men’s World Cup winners, the best First-Class Cricketers and international stars, as well as some of the best players from around the world. The result will be eight brand new teams, who’ll go head-to-head in the new competition in July 2020.

The men’s player Draft for The Hundred will be completed in two stages, culminating with the main event on Sunday 20 October. The first stage of The Draft will take place at the start of October where teams will select up to three players in their squads. Each team will pick at least one England red ball contracted player and teams with one or more England Test player in their catchment area will be able to pick their preferred player.

The final red ball contracted players will be selected by teams without a player in their catchment area until every side has one England Test player. Remaining players will then be allocated to their local team. Teams also have the option to negotiate with and select two local ‘icon’ players from within their catchment.

In advance of the main event on 20 October, a draw will determine the order in which each team will pick their players. Teams will pick in the order they were drawn. The team that is drawn to pick first will select first in the opening round, last in the second round and so on through the 14 rounds of The Draft. Each team will have a maximum of 100 seconds for each player selection.

Where a local icon player has been pre-selected, the team will skip that turn in The Draft, having already secured their player in that round. Teams will be able to select a maximum of three overseas players while there is no limit to the number of players from any county or country.

The main Draft will be broadcast live on Sky Sports and covered extensively by the BBC. Both broadcasters will offer fans in-depth build-up and previews in the days before, as well as post-draft reaction.

Following The Draft each team will have the opportunity for a final ‘Wildcard’ pick, to be chosen during next year’s Vitality Blast. As a result, eight high-performing Blast players will also have the opportunity to join one of the teams.

Sanjay Patel, Managing Director of The Hundred commented: “The men’s player Draft will be a historic moment for the game, with fans able to find out which world-class players will be representing their team in The Hundred. We are set to have eight brilliant, evenly matched new cricket teams that will inspire existing and new fans.”

The Women's Competition will have a bespoke player selection process with players selected across a two-stage, open-market system. In the first, each team will sign two players from the current England Women’s central contract list. Stage two will see each team sign the remaining 13 players from across three different pools: the remaining England Women’s centrally contracted players (x1), overseas players (x3) and domestic players.

The Hundred is a new and exciting 100-ball format that is set to launch in July next year with the men’s and women’s tournaments to run concurrently over a five-week period.

The tournament is set to attract some of the world’s best players and will be broadcast live on Sky Sports and on the BBC with eight city-based teams, based in Manchester, Leeds, Nottingham, Birmingham, Cardiff, Southampton and two in London (Lord’s and the Oval).

To register interest in tickets and for further information about The Draft mechanic please visit www.thehundred.com.