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The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is considering significant changes to the draft system of The Hundred, which could reshape the tournament’s landscape. If approved, these changes would allow franchises to offer players multi-year contracts worth up to £300,000 per season, a move aimed at attracting top talent to both the men’s and women’s competitions.
Proposed Changes to Player Contracts
The ECB started the process of selling stakes in each of the eight Hundred teams last month and has informed prospective investors that total wage bills could increase by over 80% next year. Currently, each team spends around £1.9 million per year on salaries across men’s and women’s players and coaches, which is projected to jump to more than £3.5 million per year once deals are signed off.
If the early-stage plans are approved, top salaries could climb from £125,000 to £300,000 in the men’s Hundred ahead of the 2025 season, and from £50,000 to over £100,000 in the women’s Hundred. The changes would position The Hundred’s total salary spend second only to the IPL among men’s leagues and second only to the WPL among women’s leagues.
Increasing Overseas Player Quotas
In addition to salary increases, the ECB is considering lobbying the UK’s Home Office to permit each team in The Hundred to field a fourth overseas player in their XI, an increase from the current limit of three. This proposed change would align The Hundred with global standards set by other major leagues like the IPL and WPL.
The ECB is also contemplating an updated recruitment model that would allow each franchise to make up to six direct overseas signings—three men’s and three women’s—on multi-year contracts. This approach follows successful models used in leagues such as the Big Bash League (BBL), ILT20, and SA20.
Addressing Recruitment Challenges
Vikram Banerjee, who is running the sale process at the ECB, stated recently that The Hundred has “fallen behind” a number of other short-form leagues in attracting top men’s players. He noted on the Business of Sport podcast: “We are the sixth highest-payer in the men’s game. We’re about to go seventh if we stay still at the moment – which we won’t.”
Banerjee emphasized that top salaries would grow at a much more significant rate than those at the bottom: “The 15th selection in a 15-man squad, with all due respect, you don’t need to pay huge sums for. They might be an up-and-coming player. It’s that top three or four players [per team] that you do need to pay to get their time and their effort to be there, and we have fallen behind.”
Future Outlook
The plans would also see each team able to sign one designated ‘England star’ on a multi-year deal worth around £100,000 in the women’s competition and £250,000 in the men’s. While these proposals have been circulated among prospective investors, they remain at a relatively early stage and may not come to fruition until 2026.
The ECB has declined to comment on these developments as they continue discussions. However, Richard Gould, the ECB’s chief executive, responded to criticism from Lalit Modi—who described the sale process as “a big fat Ponzi scheme”—by stating: “I don’t recognize his particular comments… It wasn’t so long ago that he [Modi] had an article in the Telegraph saying he wanted to buy the competition for £1 billion.”
Gould expressed confidence in English cricket’s strength: “We’ve got nearly 100 or so interested parties involved in [the Hundred sales process], which is a huge number… Everyone knows that the money that comes in, we want to use it to protect and then supercharge the game throughout our county network and beyond.”
The Hundred’s 2025 season will start in early August, immediately after England’s men complete a Test series against India. As discussions continue regarding these transformative changes, stakeholders are hopeful that they will enhance both player participation and fan engagement in this innovative format of cricket.
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