Dani Gibson needed a “a cold shower” after becoming the Hundred’s highest paid English woman, landing a £190,000 payday from Sunrisers Leeds as investors splashed the cash at the inaugural player auction.
Gibson’s deal dwarfed the contracts handed to England captain Nat Sciver-Brunt and star seamer Lauren Bell, who were among a raft of pre-auction ‘direct signings’ and signed for £140,000 each.
The hard-hitting all-rounder picked up the top domestic offer on a landmark day for the women’s game, which saw Australia’s Beth Mooney and New Zealand’s Sophie Devine pick up record salaries of £210,000 and another five English players clear the six-figure mark as money poured down from the franchises’ new private investors.
The level of spending at the United Kingdom’s first player auction in a major professional sport represents a huge uplift in the women’s game, where the top salary band in the previous system started at £15,000 in 2021 and was still capped at £65,000 last summer.
Uncapped spinner Tilly Corteen-Coleman, 18, attracted an eye-catching offer of £105,000 from Southern Brave, while there were sizeable deals for Paige Scholfield (£115,000, Manchester Super Giants), Em Arlott (£110,000, Welsh Fire), Issy Wong (£105,000, Southern Brave) and Linsey Smith (£100,000, Birmingham Phoenix).
Rising star Davina Perrin, who became the first woman to hit a century in the Hundred last year, was a relative bargain at £50,000 for Birmingham Phoenix as she was the first name to go under auctioneer Richard Madley’s hammer.
Gibson has struggled with injuries over the last couple of years, last playing for her country in October 2022, but watched Sunrisers and Welsh Fire battle for her signature from South Africa, where England have just landed for a 30-player training camp and intra-squad series.
She was taken aback as the moment unfolded, admitting: “I’m still in shock. I just had to have a cold shower to try and calm down but it didn’t really help.
“Waiting for my name to come out I was shaking, I was getting more and more anxious, then the bidding war is happening and it was, ‘This is crazy’. My family were like, ‘What has just happened?’ It will take a bit of time to get over.”
Corteen-Coleman, on her first senior trip with England, was also out in Pretoria to see the money roll in. She became the Hundred’s youngest player when she first appeared as a 16-year-old in 2024 and is a highly-rated prospect, who specialises in the powerplay overs.
“I’m on cloud nine, it’s crazy, amazing,” she said.
“Once it got to around £50,000, Dav (Perrin) started filming…we were jumping up and down on the bed.”
Women’s squads had a total of £880,000 available to fill their rosters, with men’s sides allowed a budget of £2.05m when their auction takes place on Thursday.
Former England spinner Alex Hartley, who was part of the presenting team, told Sky Sports it was a deserved step forward for women’s cricket.
“This is just the start, this is the very start of what’s to come,” she said.
“There have been record-breaking deals done today and a lot of these girls are probably a little bit starstruck and mind-blown by the money they’ve gone for. But these are quality players, they deserve the money they’re getting.”
PA
