England’s Hundred will ditch the draft and shift to an IPL-style auction from the 2026 season, with the inaugural sale scheduled for March 2026. The move is part of a sweeping restructure aimed at attracting more global stars and raising competitive quality.
In tandem, both men’s and women’s salary pools are being significantly expanded, alongside new contract flexibility and bigger overseas quotas. These are changes that the organisers say will sharpen the tournament’s entertainment edge.
What’s changing from 2026
The men’s overall salary spend rises 45% to £2.05 million per team, while the women’s pot doubles to £880,000, reflecting the competition’s intent to deepen talent on both rosters. A salary cap and a collar will govern team outlay, and the minimum women’s salary climbs 50% to £15,000. Multi-year contracts are being introduced, giving teams retention security and players longer-term certainty.
Squads will expand to 16-18 players, and the overseas slots increase from three to four per side, an explicit lever to pull in more international marquee names without diluting the domestic opportunities.
There is also a new pre-auction signing window; teams can make up to four signings between mid-November and the end of January. Of those, a maximum of three may be direct signings, restricted to overseas players or England centrally-contracted players, according to the ECB framework. The period is expected to be a mini arms race for elite names before the hammer drops.
Why this matters
The Hundred launched in 2021 as a compact, entertainment-first format and has steadily gained traction. Moving to an auction aligns its talent marketplace with what has worked for the IPL: price discovery in real time, clearer valuation signals for roles, and tactical squad building that rewards sharp analytics. With bigger purses and multi-year deals on the table, franchises can now plan cores across cycles rather than patch year-to-year, which should raise on-field quality.
The ECB’s commercial rationale is clear: a larger women’s pot and higher minimums sharpen the competition’s equity credentials and improve retention of top women’s talent, while the extra overseas slot widens the gateway for star power. Those levers, plus a live auction moment, are built to spike fan interest and broadcast value.
The timeline matters for planning, with the first auction in March 2026; the mid-Nov-Jan pre-auction window effectively becomes phase one of team construction. Expect early direct signings to set price anchors for the full auction, and shape bidding wars, especially around multi-year commitments and scarce roles.
