Jordan Cox lands £300,000 Welsh Fire deal at men’s Hundred auction

Jordan Cox landed a £300,000 deal in the first round of bidding at the men’s Hundred auction, as Welsh Fire spent over half their budget on him and England Test star Joe Root.

All eight franchises entered the bidding hall with just over £1million at their disposal to build their squads, with each already locking in four players apiece as direct signings and the Cardiff-based outfit spent big in the opening minutes.

They picked up Root – the country’s record Test run-scorer – for £240,000 and gambled even bigger on last year’s leading scorer, Cox.

After finishing bottom last year, the Fire’s new investors fronted by Washington Freedom owner Sanjay Govil, splashed the cash in a bid to attract big name talent but left themselves just £487,000 to spend on their remaining eight places.

England’s leading white-ball bowler, leg-spinner Adil Rashid, collected £250,000 from Southern Brave, James Vince switched to MI London for £190,000 and Jonny Bairstow fetched £160,000 as London Spirit’s first new arrival.

Sunrisers Leeds, the rebranded successors to Northern Superchargers, were among those not to get a deal over the line in the first set of marquee players – surprisingly allowing all three hometown favourites Root, Rashid and Bairstow to go elsewhere.

All eyes are on the fate of the Pakistan contingent in the auction room, with reports of an effective ‘shadow ban’ from the four teams with Indian Premier League ownership links and strenuous denials issued by the England and Wales Cricket Board, co-signed by all eight teams.

Pace bowler Haris Rauf was the first Pakistan player to go under the hammer and attracted no bids at his reserve price of £100,000.