Last updated on .From the section Counties

100-ball cricket was trialled behind closed doors at Trent Bridge last September

The men's player draft for The Hundred, the England and Wales Cricket Board's new competition which begins in 2020, will take place on 20 October.

Cricket will become the first major British sport to hold such a draft.

Eight new city-based sides, with men's and women's teams, will be formed with squads chosen from England stars, as well as overseas and domestic players.

The competition will take place over a five-week period from July 2020, with some matches televised live on the BBC.

The new format was trialled in September 2018 and will feature 100 balls per innings, with a change of ends after 10 balls, and matches completed in less than two-and-a-half hours.

ECB chief executive Tom Harrison said: "The Hundred is an exciting new competition that we hope will grow our wonderful sport even further. I'm sure there will be huge anticipation ahead of the first men's players draft in October."

Stoke Newington Cricket Club was chosen to confirm the competition logo for The Hundred on Wednesday

Further details relating to the women's competition will be announced in due course.

Squads are selected for the Indian Premier League, the world's most lucrative limited-overs competition, via a player auction.

The ECB is consulting with the Professional Cricketers' Association (PCA) and counties on draft mechanics and specifics, but fans can now register their interest in The Hundred, external-link with tickets to go on sale in October.

'It's an image on a website'

The ECB hopes the new format will appeal to a family audience, attracting more women and children to cricket.

When the competition's website launched on Wednesday, the principal promotional photograph featured a male-dominated crowd.

In fact, the image is of the audience at a concert by US rapper Logic in Miami in 2017 and is the top result Google returns for a search for 'male audience'.

It has since been removed from The Hundred website.

The competition's managing director Sanjay Patel, said: "It's an image on a website - that's all it is."