Thursday, 28 Mar 2024

The Hundred: Your guide to cricket’s new quickfire competition

The draft for The Hundred – a new 100-ball cricket tournament – will take place on Sunday evening.

Teams will be able to pick from a pool of some of the world’s best white-ball players – each priced according to their ability and record.

Here is your guide to the competition which is the brainchild of the England and Wales Cricket Board and will feature some of the best players in the world playing the sport in a format never seen before.

What is it?

Say goodbye to the traditional six-ball over.

Yes, the clue is in the name: The Hundred is a new quickfire 100-ball innings competition. It will involve a 10-ball ‘over’.

What are the competition rules?

A match will last two-and-a-half hours.

It’s 100 balls per innings. Whoever scores the most runs wins.

The fielding side changes ends after 10 balls.

Bowlers will deliver either five or 10 consecutive balls – the captain gets to decide. Each bowler will be able to deliver a maximum of 20 balls per game.

Each bowling side will get a strategic timeout of up to two-and-a-half minutes.

The coach will be able to walk out to the middle of the ground and discuss tactics with their players mid-game.

There will be a 25-ball powerplay for each team. Two fielders will be allowed outside of the initial 30-yard circle during the powerplay.

When will The Hundred begin?

The inaugural 100-ball competition, which is comprised of eight city-based teams, will take place next summer from 17 July to 16 August.

Which teams will compete?

There will be eight teams:

  • Birmingham Phoenix
  • London Spirit
  • Manchester Originals
  • Northern Superchargers
  • Oval Invincibles
  • Southern Brave
  • Trent Rockets
  • Welsh Fire

A men’s squad and women’s squad will be formed for each team, with the competitions running alongside each other.

Where will the matches be played?

The tournament will take place in cities across the country at the following venues:

  • Edgbaston (Birmingham)
  • Lord’s (London)
  • Emirates Old Trafford (Manchester)
  • Emerald Headingley (Leeds)
  • The Kia Oval (London)
  • The Ageas Bowl (Southampton)
  • Trent Bridge (Nottingham)
  • Sophia Gardens (Cardiff)
  • Blackfinch New Road (Worcester)
  • South Northumberland CC (Newcastle upon Tyne)
  • The 1st Central County Ground (Brighton)
  • The Bristol County Ground (Bristol)
  • The Cloudfm County Ground (Chelmsford)
  • The Cooper Associates County Ground (Taunton)
  • The County Ground, Beckenham (Greater London)
  • The County Ground, Northampton (East Midlands)
  • The Fischer County Ground (Leicester)
  • The Pattonair County Cricket Ground (Derby)
  • York CC (Clifton Park, York)

How many players are there in each squad?

Each squad will have 15 players.

Three players – England red-ball contracted players and ‘local icons’ – have already been assigned to each team.

Teams will select 12 players – including a maximum of three overseas picks – during a draft.

The Hundred men’s draft takes place tonight with 239 stars from across the world outside of the UK having put themselves forward for selection.

West Indies batsman Chris Gayle, former Australian captain Steve Smith and Australian fast-bowler Mitchell Starc are among the overseas superstars available for selection.

Afghan spinner Rashid Khan is tipped to be one of the top picks on the night, with the likes of Australia’s opening batsman David Warner, Bangladeshi all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan and the West Indies’ Andre Russell also expected to be snapped up in the opening rounds.

Which UK players have already been assigned to take part?

Birmingham Phoenix
Men’s squad: Chris Woakes (bowler); Moeen Ali (all-rounder) and Pat Brown (bowler)
Women’s squad: Amy Jones (wicket keeper) and Kirstie Gordon (bowler)

London Spirit
Men’s squad: Rory Burns (batter); Eoin Morgan (batter) and Dan Lawrence (all-rounder)
Women’s squad: Heather Knight (batter) and Freya Davies (bowler)

Manchester Originals
Men’s squad: Jos Buttler (all-rounder); Saqib Mahmood (bowler) and Matt Parkinson (bowler)
Women’s squad: Sophie Ecclestone (bowler) and Kate Cross (bowler)

Northern Superchargers
Ben Stokes (all-rounder); Adil Rashid (bowler) and David Willey (all-rounder)
Women’s squad: Lauren Winfield (batter) and Linsey Smith (bowler)

Oval Invincibles
Men’s squad: Sam Curran (bowler); Jason Roy (batter) and Tom Curran (all-rounder)
Women’s squad: Fran Wilson (batter) and Laura Marsh (bowler)

Southern Brave
Men’s squad: Jofra Archer (bowler); James Vince (batter) and Chris Jordan (bowler)
Women’s squad: Danni Wyatt (batter) and Anya Shrubsole (bowler)

Trent Rockets
Men’s squad: Joe Root (batter); Alex Hales (batter) and Harry Gurney (bowler)
Women’s squad: Katherine Brunt (bowler) and Natalie Sciver (bowler)

Welsh Fire
Men’s squad: Jonny Bairstow (all-rounder); Tom Banton (batter) and Colin Ingram (batter)
Women’s squad: Katie George (bowler) and Bryony Smith (all-rounder)

How will the draft work?

In total, 570 players have put themselves forward for selection for the tournament.

This includes 331 domestic and 239 overseas players.

The full draft is essentially an auction.

There are seven salary bands: £125,000, £100,000, £75,000, £60,000, £50,000, £40,000 and £30,000 – with captains receiving a £10,000 bonus.

Teams can pick two players from each salary band. Players will not be selected if their reserve price is not met.

The draw has already been made in terms of the running order of selection, and the Trent Rockets will pick first.

As mentioned before, teams can pick a maximum of three players, and where an ‘icon’ has already been picked, the team will skip that turn in the draft.

Among those up for grabs are Sri Lankan bowler Lasith Malinga (£125,000); New Zealand bowler Trent Boult (£100,000); South African batsman Temba Bavuma (£75,000); former Pakistani captain Shahid Afridi (£60,000); Sri Lankan bowler Dhananjaya de Silva (£50,000) and New Zealand bowler Jeetan Patel (£40,000).

The women’s final draft is expected to take place next year.

The women’s salary brackets are £15,000, £12,000, £9,000, £7,200, £6,000, £4,800 and £3,600 – with captains getting a £1,200 bonus.

The Hundred draft will be broadcast live on Sky Sports tonight from 7pm

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