100 Auctions: Danielle Gibson, Essie Wong and Tilly Courtnin Coleman are among the big sales

Before the auction, teams were allowed to make a maximum of four direct signings, meaning high-profile international players such as England captain Nat Shaver-Brent and spinner Sophie Ecclestone, along with foreign stars Ellyse Perry and Smriti Mandhana, had already been signed.

In the women’s competition, teams have £880,000 to pool their teams, with £2.05 million available to each team in the men’s competition.

The sums spent on the likes of Gibson, Wong and Courten Coleman represent a significant increase in the salaries available to women in the first season of The Hundred in 2021, when the highest pay available was £15,000. The highest paid women in 2025 received a salary of £65,000.

The lowest base price for the women at auction is £15,000, and there has been criticism about the “disparity” from Sam Billings, the hundred-win captain with the Oval Invincibles, now MI London.

“The auction will only benefit a few players and those few players probably deserve it,” Billings wrote on X.

“However, the disparity is very large. Obviously the structure of the draft was much better from an overall player standpoint. As players, we fed into that.”

In February, BBC Sport reported that the 400 franchises associated with Indian Premier League teams would not consider buying players from Pakistan.

The England and Wales Cricket Board and the eight franchises then issued a joint statement saying “players may not be excluded on the basis of their nationality”.

There are two Pakistani players – Fatima Sana and Sadiya Iqbal – in the women’s auction. A Pakistani woman has yet to feature in The Hundred, and neither Sana nor Iqbal are expected to be bought on Wednesday.

There are 17 Pakistani players in the men’s auction, with bowlers Haris Rauf and Shaheen Afridi and spinner Usman Tariq among those who could attract attention.