Mitchell Starc withdraws from Men's Hundred on eve of draft
Mitchell Starc will be a high-profile absentee from this year's Men's Hundred, after withdrawing his name from the long-list for the tournament draft, which is due to take place on Thursday.
Starc is currently in India with Australia's ODI squad, where his five-wicket haul in Sunday's second match helped to secure a 2-1 series victory. He had been one of the few multi-format Australians to put his name forward for this year's competition, which is due to get underway one day after the scheduled end of the fifth Ashes Test.
After entering the draft last month, Starc would have been a tempting option for one of the five vacant £125,000 slots available for overseas players - although Northern Superchargers, where his wife Alyssa Healy plays, did not have availability in that price bracket.
Starc had been lined up as a top draft pick by Superchargers for the 2022 draft as well, but withdrew shortly before the registration deadline.
A number of other prominent overseas players have also withdrawn from both the men's and women's drafts, including Australia's Jhye Richardson, and the South Africa trio of Anrich Nortje, Aiden Markram and Tristan Stubbs. Nortje was this week unveiled as a marquee pick for Washington (DC) Freedom in the inaugural Major League Cricket season in the USA, which is set to run from July 13 to 30, with the Hundred starting two days later on August 1.
Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland and Tayla Vlaeminck are also notable absentees, joining an exodus of Australia's women's players including Meg Lanning, Ashleigh Gardner and Tahlia McGrath, all of whom recently secured lucrative deals in the inaugural Women's Premier League in India. Sutherland had previously been a retained player for Welsh Fire.
As revealed by Cricday, Laurie Evans - Player of the Match in the 2022 Big Bash Final - has been included in the draft after his provisional ban following a positive test for a banned substance was lifted.
Other notable additions to the draft include the England Test wicketkeeper Ben Foakes, and Bangladesh's Tamim Iqbal.