Groups within the Hundred will likely be allowed to hold a fifth abroad participant of their squads subsequent season to offer cowl within the occasion of accidents, worldwide call-ups or lack of kind.
Franchises have been permitted 4 abroad gamers in each their squad and their enjoying XI in 2026, a rise from three in earlier seasons, a transfer which the ECB consider raised the standard of cricket considerably, notably within the males’s Hundred.
However a number of sides went into matches with solely three abroad gamers attributable to availability points or poor efficiency, and Cricinfo has discovered that the ECB will alter rules for 2027 to permit every group to select a fifth abroad participant of their squad.
Gamers have been signed on a ‘1+1+1’ contract mannequin – just like the one used within the IPL – which suggests groups can have the choice to retain a most of 16 gamers from their 2026 squads for the subsequent two seasons on the identical wage. Any participant who was signed on the public sale will likely be eligible for retention, as will any alternative participant who performed two or extra matches.
Vikram Banerjee, the Hundred’s managing director, informed the Enterprise of Sport podcast that he believed the standard of cricket “went up an enormous degree” in 2026 after new funding. “In my humble opinion, I believe we’ve now set ourselves other than the chasing pack, with the IPL being on the market [in front] and the WPL on the ladies’s aspect,” Banerjee mentioned.
Squad wage caps of £2.05 million (males’s) and £880,000 (ladies’s) are anticipated to stay at the same degree for 2027, although might improve barely.
The 2027 version of the Hundred is because of run from August 3-29, instantly after the tip of the fifth males’s Ashes Check at The Oval. The ECB are hopeful that ticket gross sales will profit from the proximity to that collection, which is scheduled to complete on August 2.
The supply of abroad gamers is not going to turn into absolutely clear till the subsequent Future Excursions Programme is finalised later this yr, although Code Sports activities has reported that the ultimate week of the match is prone to conflict with an ODI collection between Australia and New Zealand within the Northern Territory.
Richard Thompson, the ECB’s chair, informed Sky Sports activities final week that new house owners have been “very joyful” with the Hundred’s 2026 season and advised that its affect on the English schedule was “a value value paying” given the monetary windfall it has offered to counties, enabling many golf equipment to wipe out or considerably scale back their money owed.
