"Hopefully I'll be able to use my experience as England captain to help the side be successful" - Knight © ECB

After much speculation, the eight team names have been confirmed for The Hundred, the ECB's new city-based competition set to begin next year, while the names of the England men's and women's central contract picks as well as a number of Local Icons have also been announced.

The eight venues for The Hundred have been previously confirmed but the team names had not, until now, been confirmed. The team at Edgbaston will be known as Birmingham Phoenix while the side at Old Trafford will be the Manchester Originals. London Spirit will play at Lord's, the Oval Invincibles at The Oval and the Northern Superchargers at Headingley. Hampshire's Ageas Bowl will host the Southern Brave team, Trent Rockets will play at Trent Bridge and Welsh Fire will play in Cardiff.

Although the main draft will take place on Sunday October 20th, each of the eight teams have chosen a number of players already. The men's teams announced one England central contract pick each, although it remains to be seen how many games they will play - as well as two Local Icon players. The women's teams announced two England central contract picks.

In the men's team, Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer have been selected for the Manchester Originals, Northern Superchargers and Southern Brave teams respectively while Joe Root was picked by Trent Rockets and Jonny Bairstow by Welsh Fire. Rory Burns has been snapped up by London Spirit, Sam Curran by the Invincibles and Chris Woakes by Birmingham Phoenix.

England Men's Test Captain, Joe Root commented: "I'm incredibly excited to play for the Trent Rockets in The Hundred. This year has been monumental for cricket and we have seen achievements like never before. The best players in the world are coming here to compete and we're going to get the chance to test ourselves against them once again. There has never been a more exciting time for cricket.''

For the women's teams, England captain Heather Knight will skipper London Spirit. Anya Shrubsole - Knight's vice-captain for England - will join up with Danni Wyatt at Southern Brave. Nat Sciver will join Trent Rockets, alongside Katherine Brunt, and Manchester Originals welcome Sophie Ecclestone, the ICC's Emerging Player of the Year for 2018.

"I'm really excited to be representing London Spirit in the first season of The Hundred," Knight said. "Hopefully I'll be able to use my experience as England captain to help the side be successful. I think 2020 is shaping up to be a really exciting year for the development of women's cricket, and The Hundred will be central to us getting more people watching, playing and following the game."