Jason Roy goes unselected as powerful West Indies batsmen dominate hundred-man draft | Top Vip News

Jason Roy will not feature in the Hundred this summer after going unselected in Wednesday night’s draft at London’s Shard, leaving him without a team for the 2024 season following his release by defending men’s champions Oval Invincibles.

Roy played every game for the Invincibles last summer but failed to make an impact, with more ducks (three) than half-centuries (one) and was released by his coach Tom Moody last month. He entered the draft with a reserve price of £100,000, but the men’s eight teams prioritized foreign players in the early rounds.

Mark Wood, who also entered with a reserve price of £100,000, was also not selected, but his non-selection was less notable given that he had withdrawn from the Hundred’s first three seasons through injury or to manage his workload. England’s red-ball players will miss the start of the competition, which begins on July 23 this year, due to a clash with the third Test against the West Indies.

Roy would have been unavailable during the early days of the Hundred due to his commitments to the LA Knight Riders in Major League Cricket, which is expected to last until July 28, and will also miss some of Surrey’s T20 Blast group games for Same reason. He could still feature in the Hundred this summer as a replacement, but his snub highlights a rapid decline in Roy’s standing in the four-and-a-half years since England’s 2019 World Cup victory.

Five of the seven players signed to £125,000 contracts in the men’s draft were West Indies power batsmen, with new Northern Superchargers coach Andrew Flintoff choosing Nicholas Pooran as the first signing of the draft. Andre Russell and Shimron Hetmyer will play for London Spirit, Kieron Pollard has joined Southern Brave and Rovman Powell was a top choice at Trent Rockets.

While some West Indians may miss a game or two due to their MLC involvement, they are expected to be available for most of the season and may skip a T20I series against South Africa. The ECB held talks with the organizers of the Caribbean Premier League earlier this year to avoid a clash with the Hundred, which appears to have been justified.

Tom Kohler-Cadmore will once again be a top earner, joining Welsh Fire in a £125,000 deal. He will play alongside Shaheen Shah Afridi, who returned after his success last summer, while Shaheen’s Pakistan teammate Naseem Shah was selected in the first group by Birmingham Phoenix.

Laurie Evans moved to Southern Brave after two seasons at Manchester Originals, while Dawid Malan, the Rockets’ leading run-scorer in the 2022 title, was a £50,000 signing from the Invincibles. Ollie Pope and Richard Gleeson joined London Spirit, while the Originals brought in Sikandar Raza and Fazalhaq Farooqi.

The ECB’s decision to increase the top salaries in the Women’s Hundred was justified by the number of notable Australian players entering the draft, with Beth Mooney (Manchester Originals), Meg Lanning (London Spirit), Ash Gardner (Trent Rockets) and Annabel Sutherland. (Northern Superchargers), all getting £50,000 contracts.

Amy Jones was a surprise first pick of the draft, returning to Birmingham Phoenix after failing to agree a retainer last month, while Sri Lanka’s Chamari Athapaththu was the Invincibles’ first pick. Smriti Mandhana (Southern Brave) and Richa Ghosh (Birmingham Phoenix) were the two India internationals chosen.