By Paul Jones

Welsh Fire will be undertaking a major overhaul for their 2023 The Hundred campaign, as they have only retained five players from last year’s squad.

The team had a disappointing season in 2022, finishing last in the league table after losing all eight of their matches.

In response, they have replaced head coach Gary Kirsten with Mike Hussey and will be very active on draft day, which is set to take place on March 23rd.

The team will have eight spots to fill in the draft and has retained only five players from the previous season – Jonny Bairstow, Ollie Pope, David Payne, Joe Clarke, and George Scrimshaw.

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None of their overseas players from 2022, including David Miller, Adam Zampa, Noor Ahmad, Ish Sodhi, and Dwaine Pretorius, have been re-signed.

With the first pick in the draft, Welsh Fire will need to fill vacancies in each of the first three rounds, with two £125,000 contracts and one £100,000 contract to offer.

They will be the busiest of the men’s teams on draft day, as six other teams have opted to retain the maximum of 10 players.

The women’s team will be captained by England batter Tammy Beaumont and will feature the return of West Indies’ Hayley Matthews and Australian Annabel Sutherland.

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However, the team has not used its fourth option to retain players.

The draft will be televised on Sky Sports News and will complete the initial 13-man squads.

Each team will then bring in two wildcards based on their performances in the T20 Blast, with the wildcard draft expected to take place in July during the same week as the Blast quarter-finals.