Smriti Mandhana and Ellyse Perry set for Hundred return, Meg Lanning and Ash Gardner skip tournament

NICK FRIEND: Mandhana, who was the biggest winner from the inaugural Women's Premier League auction on Monday, is set to spend a third year at Brave. Only five players have scored more runs in the competition's short history than the left-hander

Southern Brave and Oval Invincibles, the finalists in both editions of women's Hundred so far, have retained key overseas players for the 2023 edition.

The Cricketer understands Smriti Mandhana, who was the biggest winner from the inaugural Women's Premier League auction on Monday, is set to spend a third year at Brave. Only five players have scored more runs in the competition's short history than the left-hander.

Meanwhile, only six bowlers have taken more wickets Marizanne Kapp, who is understood to be continuing with Invincibles under head coach Jonathan Batty, who also signed her for his Delhi Capitals squad.

^{Smriti Mandhana is set for a Southern Brave return [Getty Images]}

The pair will make £31,250 each – the maximum amount available to a player in the women's competition but a fraction of what players are set to make in the WPL.

Mandhana, who was eventually snapped up by Royal Challengers Bangalore after a bidding war, will make £340,000 from that deal, while Kapp was considered a bargain at £150,000 – approximately five times her Hundred fee.

However, Ash Gardner, another big winner at auction day, and Meg Lanning are set to skip The Hundred. Neither have played in the tournament yet, with the beginning of Lanning's break from the game after last year's Commonwealth Games coinciding with her planned stint at Trent Rockets.

^{Ellyse Perry will head to Birmingham Phoenix [Getty Images]}

Rachael Haynes, who represented Welsh Fire in 2022, has since retired, but both Ellyse Perry and Alyssa Healy are believed to have been retained by Birmingham Phoenix and Northern Superchargers, respectively.

Charlotte Edwards, Southern Brave's head coach, predicted to The Cricketer last month that "the top players won't be able to play internationally and in all three of the main competitions".

That appears to have manifested itself immediately. Australia's players have a busy schedule ahead of the resumption of their own summer, with the ongoing T20 World Cup followed by the WPL's debut and a gruelling Ashes series through late June and the first half of July. The Hundred then follows, before the return of the Women's Big Bash.

Related Topics

• Hundred draft pushed back to avoid clashes with jampacked calendar