Hammer Time: Why The Hundred’s First-Ever Auction Is a Watershed Moment for Global Cricket

Cricket’s most glamorous franchise tournament is about to get a whole lot more interesting — and not just on the pitch. On March 11 and 12, the bright lights of Piccadilly Lights in central London will host something entirely new for The Hundred: its first-ever player auction, and the sport is watching closely.

With nearly 1,000 players initially registering from 18 countries, the field has been trimmed to a longlist of around 247 men’s and 178 women’s players, who will go under the gavel across a structured three-phase bidding process. Eight franchise teams, each now backed by major private investors — including IPL owners, Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs, and American private equity — will build their squads from scratch in full public view.

The marquee names make for a dazzling list. In the women’s auction on March 11, Beth Mooney, Nadine de Klerk, Sophie Devine, and Deepti Sharma headline the proceedings. The men’s auction follows on March 12, with Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Adil Rashid, Sunil Narine, and Trent Boult among the top draws. Overseas marquee players like Haris Rauf, Aiden Markram, and David Miller are set to attract fierce bidding in Phase 1, where the top 50 names go under the hammer first.

The stakes are significant. The overall salary pot is set at £2.05 million per men’s team and £880,000 per women’s team — a notable increase from previous editions, underlining the tournament’s growing financial muscle. Each franchise has already made up to four pre-auction signings, with the auction filling out rosters of 16–18 players for the men’s and 15 for the women’s sides.

One of the more compelling sub-plots involves 14 Pakistani cricketers in the mix — including Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah, Shadab Khan, and Haris Rauf — at a time when Pakistani cricket’s reputation is under a cloud after the T20 World Cup fallout. Reports had earlier suggested that four Indian-owned franchises were reluctant to sign Pakistani players, though the ECB quickly reasserted that The Hundred remains an open, inclusive competition.

Bangladesh, meanwhile, has its own moment of history riding on the auction. Mustafizur Rahman and Rishad Hossain are the only two Bangladeshi players in the final shortlist — out of 23 who registered — with Mustafizur carrying a base price of £100,000. No Bangladeshi cricketer has ever appeared in The Hundred since its launch in 2021. That could change next week.

The auction, which will be streamed live on thehundred.com, Sky Sports, and the BBC, is more than just a player market. It is a statement of intent about what The Hundred is becoming: a fully globalised franchise competition that sits alongside the IPL, BBL, and SA20 as a destination tournament for the world’s best cricket talent. With the 2026 season running from July 21 to August 16, the hammer falls soon — and with it, the shape of the competition.