Welsh Fire sign up Kieron Pollard among seven new recruits

Australian seamer Jhye Richardson is their other new overseas recruit, coming a week after he was picked up for £1.3m in the Indian Premier League auction by Punjab Kings

Welsh Fire have completed their squad for the inaugural edition of The Hundred, with West Indies white-ball captain Kieron Pollard leading a raft of high-profile signings.

Following the decision to release top-band purchases Mitchell Starc and Steve Smith after the postponement of the 2020 tournament, Jonny Bairstow slotted into the highest price bracket, where Pollard will join him.

Australian seamer Jhye Richardson is their other new overseas recruit, coming a week after he was picked up for £1.3m in the Indian Premier League auction by Punjab Kings. Richardson was the leading wicket-taker in the Big Bash.

Jake Ball, whose Sydney Sixers side beat Richardson’s Perth Scorchers in the final, has also earned a deal on the back of last season’s T20 Blast, in which he finished as the leading wicket-taker.

Ball, who last played international cricket in the summer of 2018, admitted to The Cricketer that failing to attract a deal in the initial Hundred draft had been the nadir in a personal struggle after being dropped by England.

“I had quite a dark half an hour afterwards,” he said. “It was probably the lowest moment.”

Ball is joined by Gloucestershire batsman Ian Cockbain, who described missing out in 2019 as “a tough pill to swallow”.

However, after coming to understand that his scoring rate had worked against him in the first draft – despite being a consistent run-scorer, he emerged as a different proposition in helping Gloucestershire reach T20 Blast Finals Day last summer: Cockbain finished as the tournament's fourth-highest run-scorer and the joint-highest six-hitter.

Northamptonshire T20 captain Josh Cobb was another who was seen as unfortunate to miss out on selection initially, but he has also earned a place in Welsh Fire’s squad, along with Derbyshire leg-spinner Matt Critchley and Glamorgan batsman David Lloyd.

The Hundred - men fixtures 2021

The Hundred  - women fixtures 2021

The Hundred squads 2021

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