Several English Women cricketers have decided to move on from their current franchise in The Hundred, while a few top stars, such as Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues and Ellyse Perry, have also been retained by their teams for the next edition of the novel tournament, which made its inaugural appearance in 2021.
New information came to light, which revealed that there could be a possibility that Australian players would be involved in The Hundred this year after the top Aussie stars missed out last time around.
However, the England and Wales Cricket Board also confirmed in an announcement that the Aussie duo of Ellyse Perry (Birmingham Phoenix) and Alyssa Healy (Northern Superchargers) have both been retained by their franchises despite opting out of the tournament due to quarantine regulations.
The Southern Brave have decided to retain swashbuckling batter Mandhana, while Rodrigues has extended her stay at the Superchargers, as they were the only two Indian players to feature on the retained list.
The Brave have also retained Amanda-Jade Wellington, who was their leading wicket-taker in their stellar campaign. Meanwhile, defending champions Oval Invincibles have decided to retain South African trio Marizanne Kapp, Shabnim Ismail, and Dane van Niekerk.
With the inaugural edition of the Women’s Commonwealth Games T20 scheduled for July 29-August 7 at Edgbaston, all overseas players will remain in the country, with The Hundred scheduled to begin on August 11. All those players who have not been retained or have not agreed to the terms of retention with their previous franchises are free to negotiate with other clubs in order to choose their next franchise.
The Hundred has opted to avoid the concept of an auction and has left it upto the players and the franchises to negotiate deals. The players will be offered contracts as part of an open-market system, and the players have complete autonomy regarding their future franchises.
The ECB will also release the list of players that each team has signed on March 30, which is also the date for the men’s draft.
