The Hundred franchises are in dispute over new rules for signing players next season amid moves from some of the new investors to break up the Oval Invincibles all-conquering men’s squad, who won the competition for the third successive year on Sunday.
As revealed by the Guardian last week, the eight teams have decided to abandon the established draft system in favour of an Indian Premier League-style open auction, but have yet to reach agreement on how many players each team will retain from their existing squads, if any.
The player retention issue is understood to have been the main area of discussion on Monday at the first meeting of the newly established Hundred board, which broke up without consensus being reached.
Under the existing rules, each franchise can retain automatically up to 10 players from their 15-strong squads as well as make one direct overseas signing, with the rest of the squad made up of players recruited in the draft at the start of the season.
Oval Invincibles chose to use all 10 of their retention slots this season and have kept a largely settled squad built around a core of Surrey players, with seven of the players who lifted the trophy at Lord’s having been with the franchise since the competition launched in 2021. Welsh Fire, in contrast, retained only six players in their men’s squad.
A number of models were discussed on Monday at the board meeting, varying from keeping the existing retention rules to abandoning them altogether and holding a free-for-all auction next year.
Oval Invincibles, who will be rebranded as MI London next year following the imminent £60m investment from Reliance Industries, want to keep the existing rules in place as far as possible, but could find themselves outvoted despite the huge influence of their new part‑owners, the Ambani family.
A compromise would involve the number of player retentions being reduced to enable some continuity, while also presenting the Hundred next year as a major relaunch with more movement between the teams. In the IPL player retentions are capped at six, of whom only five can be capped internationals, a number that has increased in recent years. Given that four of the new Hundred investors own IPL franchises, and two others are from India, a similar model for the Hundred could end up being adopted.
Another issue discussed on Monday was whether to hold a so-called mega-auction every few years in line with the television broadcast cycle, with fewer retention slots and more player movement, starting next season.
The salary cap will also be increased, although in a significant change franchises will have more freedom to spend their budget as they see fit.
In the new system, teams will be invited to bid for players who have registered to play in the competition in an open market. Under the draft rules, franchises took turns to sign players at set salary bands, which were capped at £65,000 for women and £200,000 for men this year, in a predetermined order.
