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

Cricket fans will be able to watch cricketing history unfold live next month, as eight brand new men’s teams are chosen from some of the world’s best players in the first ever player Draft for The Hundred.

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 with teams to 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.

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.

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

To find out more about The Hundred, head to www.thehundred.com.