The first eighteen players confirmed to take part in The Hundred have been revealed – with Oval Invincibles announcing Sam Curran and Fran Wilson will remain with the team, while Rory Burns has been signed from rivals London Spirit.
England Men’s all-rounder Curran and England Women’s all-rounder Wilson have been retained from the Oval Invincibles’ initial men’s and women’s playing squads respectively.
Rory Burns becomes one of the first players to move The Hundred teams after Oval Invincibles claimed him as a Test Central Contracted selection following Zak Crawley’s move to Lord’s.
The trio join the eighteen-strong list of players, including the likes of England stars Ben Stokes, Amy Jones, Kate Cross and Jos Buttler, who have today been confirmed to play in the first season of cricket’s new and exciting 100-ball competition.
This news marks the start of a three-month process where, until the end of January, each of the eight teams will be able to retain players from their original men’s squads for the 2021 season. The teams are also able to retain and sign players to complete their women’s squads.
A draft will be held in early 2021 to allocate the remaining players for the men’s squads.
Curran said: “This is a massive opportunity to play in a world-class competition on home soil and to know that I will get to do that at the Kia Oval, where my career has developed, is perfect for me.
“The 100-ball format is going to test the players’ skills and we’ll probably need to come up with some new tactics to handle the different rules but that should only add to the entertainment value.”
Wilson added: “I was very happy to roll over my contract at Oval Invincibles. Before the first year of the competition was due to start, this summer, I’d been so impressed by the quality of the squad we were forming so I had no thoughts of looking elsewhere.
“We’ve seen with the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy that on good pitches domestic women’s cricket can be of a really good standard, and The Hundred promises to deliver so much excitement.”
Burns is glad to be back on familiar territory. “It is slightly strange to move teams without having played a game and I’m glad that I have ended up at Oval Invincibles and at a ground I obviously know very well with Surrey.
“I know a lot of the guys who were picked in the original Invincibles squad, so I’m hoping that over the next few months we can retain as many of them as possible and then we’ll see what happens at the draft which was a lot of fun to watch last year.”
Friday’s announcement confirmed that ten of England’s men’s Test stars will compete when the competition launches next year. The first eight women’s players have also been unveiled, including a host of England players and two of the West Indies’ star performers.
Most teams have retained the same Test players that were due to play for them this year, before the competition was postponed due to Covid-19, with only England batsmen Ollie Pope and Burns moving teams.
Pope joins Welsh Fire, after he was originally drafted by Southern Brave, and will be joined by Katie George who was retained from the team’s initial squad.
London Spirit have decided to keep hold of Zak Crawley and there’s more good news for Spirit fans with Deandra Dottin re-signing off the back of some impressive form against England in the recent
Vitality IT20 Series.
Southern Brave keep Archer and Taylor, and with Pope joining Welsh Fire they’ll now have a space to fill in the men’s draft.
The two northern teams remain unchanged with Kate Cross and Jos Buttler staying at Manchester Originals, and Lauren Winfield-Hill and Ben Stokes remaining Northern Superchargers players.
England Men’s Test captain Joe Root and England Women’s leading allrounder Nat Sciver will stay at Trent Rockets, while two local heroes in Amy Jones and Chris Woakes will remain at Birmingham Phoenix in addition to Test-contracted batsman Dominic Sibley.
Sanjay Patel, managing director for The Hundred, said: “This is a really exciting moment for The Hundred to see where the Test centrally contracted men’s players will be playing next year and to announce the first retained players for the women’s teams.
“Over the next few months we will see world-class players and massive names from around the world committing to The Hundred and we can’t wait to launch the competition in 2021.”
Confirmed players for The Hundred:
Birmingham Phoenix – Amy Jones, Chris Woakes and Dominic Sibley
London Spirit – Zak Crawley and Deandra Dottin
Manchester Originals – Jos Buttler and Kate Cross
Northern Superchargers – Ben Stokes and Lauren Winfield-Hill
Oval Invincibles – Sam Curran, Rory Burns and Fran Wilson
Southern Brave – Jofra Archer and Stafanie Taylor
Trent Rockets – Joe Root and Nat Sciver
Welsh Fire – Katie George and Ollie Pope