u/AntimimeticA

With the competition ending today, and over already for teams who didn't make the final, thoughts will turn to next year's competition.

I haven't been able to find clear information about how the teams will build their squads for 2027. This year ahead of the auction there was a huge reset with lots of teams only holding on to 3 players. There won't be that much turnover ahead of next year, but where can we find information about how the process for retaining players, letting players go, and bringing new players in for 2027 will work? I know there are some players currently on multi-year contracts but haven't been able to find a single central hub for that information.

What happens if a team wants to retain someone but to increase their salary? How many players could a team let go in a single year if they choose to? Will there be another, smaller auction again next year, and could players choose to opt out of re-signing with current team if the team wants them but they want to test their market value?

Any info welcome, and then feel free to speculate about how your team could best go about rebuilding for next season, given the rules...

Second game of this year's Hundred.

As a Welsh Fire fan I'm expecting them to lose this fairly solidly. The Brave have a lot of players at their peak (just Lee on the downslide) whereas the Fire seem like a squad aimed at the future - Sophie Devine eating up a huge chunk of the budget is surely just there to help the team reset with real leadership and professionalism after last year's disaster, and to give them flexibility to make a big bid in a couple of seasons' time when she finally retires.

Surprised that Sarah Bryce hasn't made the line-up today as she's been in good batting form this summer so far and I thought she might get a promotion up the order after being just a specialist keeper for most of her career with the Fire so far.

As for the Brave, they look a really good squad, maybe even more quality than their classic team that has been first or second so often in the Hundred's history. But as they've lost their captain and wicket keeper from that era (and Charlotte Edwards as coach), maybe they'll lack a bit of the nous and team spirit that defined their successful era.

Still, expecting a fairly comfortable win for the Brave here unless the Voll/Kemp/Wareham hard-hitters in the Fire batting line-up All hit it off together.