The domestic T20 league of England, The Hundred is doing another exceptional thing for its women cricketers.
From the next season, all eight franchises will have the option of selecting players from a draft process.
In the draft, 32 players will sign up with the eight franchises for the 2023 season.
Now, there are three ways in which the franchises can select their women players. The first of these is the retention window process that will start next month and run through to January 2023.
In this process, all eight franchises have to select a maximum of three marquee players and four players overall.
This can be a combination of either overseas stars or those players holding an England central contract.
On the other hand, players can choose not to accept the retention offer.
In the women’s Hundred, the most common process is the roster method.
ECB has also decided to keep the women’s Hundred in the month of August next year.
And finally, the draft pick order has been determined by the standings of the teams in the 2022 season of the Women’s Hundred.
So, Welsh Fire Women will have the first right to pick their players as they were table proppers last season.
All eight franchises will have a right to pick a minimum of four players and all teams will also have a ‘right to match’ card option available.
Through this card, they can get back their preferred player whom the other franchise has picked for themselves.
In the 2023 season, no wildcard slots have been opened for overseas players and each team will have only three overseas players available to them.
Head of the women’s Hundred, Beth Barrett-Wild has described the draft as a ‘landmark event for women’s cricket’.
The impact of The Hundred on the women’s game after just two editions of the competition has been enormous, generating unprecedented levels of visibility, making household names of our brilliant female players, and driving performance standards.
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