The Hundred 2026 Draft: Richa Ghosh Joins Smriti Mandhana In Manchester; Leeds Bag Deepti Sharma On Bargain

Indian wicket-keeper batsman Richa Ghosh fresh off winning the Women's Premier League last month, secured a GBP 50,000 (around INR 61 lakh) deal and her teammate Deepti Sharma also landed a contract during the women’s player draft for England Cricket Board's The Hundred.

While star players like Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues are already signed with Southern Brave and Manchester Super Giants, India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur is the biggest absentee from this season's draft.

In what is going to be the first season played with privately owned 8 franchises, a total of 178 players went under the hammer in the draft with 28 already been either retained or signed directly by franchises ahead of the event.

Manchester Super Giants, Sunrisers Leeds and MI London are fully owned by Indian Premier League entities whereas GMR Group, co-owners of the Delhi Capitals, have a 49% stake in the Souther Brave team that also directly signed Jemimah Rodrigues before the draft.

The 6th edition of the Hundred will start on July 21 and conclude on August 16.

Richa Ghosh, Deepti Sharma Find Luck; Sree Charani, Yastika Bhatia Missout

Richa Ghosh was bought for GBP 50,000 by Manchester Super Giants in what was a solitary bid, enough to secure the services of the Indian World Cup winner.

The Super Giants have already directly signed Smriti Mandhana along with former Australia captain Meg Lanning and England's Sophie Ecclestone. They entered the draft with a purse of 570,000 GBP.

The MVP from last year's Women's ODI World Cup, Deepti Sharma was named by the SunRisers Leeds at a bargain price of GBP 27,500 (approx 34 lakh).

Leeds opened the bidding and faced no further competition to land the experienced Indian all-rounder. This will be Deepti's second franchise in the Hundred.

In contrast, wicket-keeper Yastika Bhatia and left-arm off-spinner Sree Charani, who broke out for India in the World Cup itself, found no suitors and went unsold in the draft.

Each women’s franchise had a purse of GBP 880,000 to assemble their squads. Following direct signings and retentions, Birmingham Phoenix, London Spirit, Southern Brave and Trent Rockets were left with GBP 520,000 each ahead of the draft.

Manchester Super Giants, MI London, SunRisers Leeds and Welsh Fire had slightly larger budgets, with GBP 570,000 remaining in their purse before bidding began.

The Men's draft will take place on 12th March, Thursday.