Hundred auction: Danielle Gibson, Issy Wong & Tilly Corteen-Coleman among big sales

All-rounder Danielle Gibson, pace bowler Issy Wong and 18-year-old spinner Tilly Corteen-Coleman received deals in excess of £100,000 in the inaugural Hundred auction.

In the first auction of its kind in a major British sport, the English youngsters were among the biggest buys at Piccadilly Lights in London.

As a result of the investment made in the Hundred by sales of stakes in the eight teams, women's salaries have increased immensely, with many deals outstripping the maximum £65,000 on offer 12 months ago.

The biggest bids in Wednesday's auction, along with fees agreed in pre-signings before the auction, make the players involved among the highest-paid sportswomen in the UK.

Overseas players also commanded huge fees in the auction, with Australia wicketkeeper Beth Mooney and former New Zealand captain Sophie Devine bought for £210,000 by Trent Rockets and Welsh Fire respectively.

Gibson, 24, went for £190,000 to Sunrisers Leeds despite suffering with a back injury in recent times, while 23-year-old Wong was bought for £130,000 by Southern Brave.

But it was the £105,000 deal for Corteen-Coleman that caught the eye, providing a huge jump in her £12,500 wage in last year's competition.

The left-armer has had two seasons with Southern Brave and was part of the team beaten in last year's final by Northern Superchargers.

Brave had to compete with London Spirit and MI London to take the England Under-19 international back to Southampton.

Spinner Linsey Smith, all-rounder Em Arlott and batter Paige Scholfield were among the other players to attract fees of more than £100,000.

This is the first time squads in the Hundred have been assembled by means of an auction. Previously, players have been selected in a draft system.

It is the latest in the changing face of the Hundred after stakes in all eight franchises were sold last year, raising more than £500m to be distributed across the game in England and Wales.

The women's auction on Wednesday is followed by the men's on Thursday.

Before the auction, teams were allowed to make a maximum of four direct signings, meaning established internationals such as England captain Nat Sciver-Brunt and spinner Sophie Ecclestone, along with overseas stars Ellyse Perry and Smriti Mandhana, had already been snapped up.

Sciver-Brunt and pace bowler Lauren Bell were the most lucrative pre-signings, bought for £140,000 by Trent Rockets and Southern Brave respectively.

In the women's Hundred, teams have £880,000 to assemble their squads. It is the second most lucrative women's cricket league in the world, behind India's Women's Premier League (WPL) with its pot of about £1.3m.

India batter Mandhana, a Hundred pre-signing for Manchester Super Giants for £90,000, is the highest-paid player in the WPL, on about £370,000.

The sums spent on some of the players for the latest edition of the women's Hundred are a huge increase on a salaries available to women in the first season of the competition in 2021, when the highest wage available was £15,000.

The lowest base price for women in the auction is £15,000, and there was criticism from Sam Billings, a Hundred-winning captain with Oval Invincibles, now MI London.

"Auction will always only benefit a few and probably deserved for those few players," Billings wrote on X.

"However, the disparity is too much. The draft structure was clearly far better from an overall player standpoint. As players we did feed this back."

In total, the eight franchises are investing up to £7.2m in salaries for the women's Hundred alone in 2026. As a commercial return, some are expecting to break even within two years.

In February BBC Sport reported that the four Hundred franchises linked to teams in the Indian Premier League would not consider buying players from Pakistan.

The England and Wales Cricket Board and the eight franchises then released a joint statement saying "players must not be excluded on the grounds of their nationality".

There are two Pakistan players - Fatima Sana and Sadia Iqbal - in the women's auction. A Pakistani woman is yet to feature in the Hundred and neither Sana nor Iqbal is expected to be bought on Wednesday.

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

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