The Hundred: Morgan, Smith and Gayle to feature in star-studded draft pool

Cricket World Cup-winning captain Eoin Morgan, Ashes hero Steve Smith and West Indies superstar Chris Gayle have all made themselves available for The Hundred player draft later this month.

The new 100-ball competition begins next year, with the eight teams set to pick the England centrally contracted Test players they want to select on October 3.

A draft will follow 17 days later, with England's victorious skipper Morgan entering that alongside a host of premier international players.

Smith, who plundered 774 runs in the Ashes at an average of 110.57, will have a strong case for being selected early as an extremely accomplished batsman in all three major formats.

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Gayle is another considerably talented player set to feature in the inaugural competition, as is the world's best ODI all-rounder, Bangladesh's Shakib Al Hasan, who was the third-highest run scorer at the Cricket World Cup behind Rohit Sharma and David Warner.

Teams will also be able to bid for the services of Warner, along with the likes of Babar Azam, the world's best T20 batsman, Rashid Khan, Quinton de Kock and Moeen Ali.

Players have the opportunity to select a minimum salary at which they will agree to play for a team. Each side is able to pick up two players in each of the seven salary bands, the highest being £125,000.

The Hundred starts on July 17, 2019 and runs until August 16.