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Birmingham Flexes Its Muscle
Previously we were informed that the Hundred wouldn't be a city based franchise and so teams would "represent" a region as to not be so parochial and not to alienate the non-ground owner counties' support-base.
Snowball added: “Paul’s been chatting to the England players about what they think. Woakes and Moeen – one Warwickshire, one Worcester – but both Birmingham boys, they’re both well up for it and have given some really good insight into the IPL and Big Bash – what works, what doesn’t work. There’s a lot we can learn from the guys who’ve been playing these big franchise tournaments.
“From our point of view, we want an element of local heroes, so if we have Moeen and Chris leading [our team], a [Ian] Bell and a [Sam] Hain, then look at Worcester, a Pat Brown and other current winners of the T20 Blast.
“Through the draft [this coming October] there will be an opportunity to do that. If we wanted to we could go quite heavily on those West Midlands players, with a smattering of those from elsewhere, and then we you have your three overseas.
“The guys who are organising The Hundred [the competition board] did a dummy draft in December where they played out how it might work. When you looked at the eight teams I challenge anyone in cricket not to get excited about the teams playing each other, if you mix all the players up – that element of local heroes, others brought in and overseas stars.”
The endless politics of English cricket means that the eight teams will probably be badged with a combination of identities – some reflecting cities, and others regions or grounds. In the case of the West Midlands team, the profile of Birmingham and Warwickshire’s heft at Edgbaston seems to have won out.
Snowball said: “There’s been some debate about whether the teams should be branded by region, city or ground. In fairness there has been a lot of market research done. And in the West Midlands, Birmingham is the dominant city in the area. And having success with the Birmingham Bears it’s a natural thing for us to do that. The Worcestershire guys are happy with that. It’ll be some kind of ‘Birmingham’ team.”
Northamptonshire, whose chairman Gavin Warren is on The Hundred board, have dropped out of the Birmingham team and thrown in their lot with the Lord’s side. Many Northants fans go to watch their cricket at Lord's, and that county are strengthening ties to the east and south.
Snowball said: “Northants were originally part of our group, but they’ve decided to go align with the Lord’s team, as their members don’t really see themselves as really being part of the West Midlands, which is fair enough. There’s more of an alignment there.”
The West Midlands team plan to strengthen the regional identity by promoting their team heavily in the neighbouring counties of Staffordshire, Shropshire and Herefordshire. Warwickshire and Worcestershire already have a formal strategic relationship with the first two.
The branding of a Birmingham Hundred team does present some challenges to Warwickshire, since they rebadged their T20 Blast side as Birmingham Bears back in 2014, and have spent five years establishing that brand identity. It was done so partly to raise awareness of the club in the city, especially among the South Asian population; but also to ally with Birmingham City Council, to whom the club are repaying millions from loans for redevelopment.
Warwickshire and Worcestershire are busy mapping out their playing and coaching strategy for the Edgbaston-based side in The Hundred – and the team will have Birmingham in the title.
Yet, just last month, Worcestershire player Daryl Mitchell, in his role as chairman of the Professional Cricketers’ Association, expressed his concern that transferring local host county coaches and directors of cricket to run the home teams in The Hundred would compromise the new competition’s integrity.
The counties appear to have rejected a more neutral model to allow some crossover, as reported in The Cricketer magazine’s March edition.
A report in the Evening Standard this week revealed that the West Midlands team are lining up Trevor Bayliss as head coach after he leaves the England team in September. That would mean some sort of reunion with Paul Farbrace, who was unveiled yesterday as the new Warwickshire sport director after being released as England’s assistant coach.
Neil Snowball and Matt Rawnsley, the Warwickshire and Worcestershire chief executives, will make up the Birmingham team board which makes most of the personnel decisions about their team for the new tournament, which starts in July 2020.
Snowball told The Cricketer: “It’s largely down to the team boards to work out [playing staffs] – and it’s completely at their discretion who they appoint as head coach. Matt and I have had some really constructive discussions about the structure of the team, the head coaches we might bring in. I think some of the teams will go for the high-profile coach that’s doing the T20 franchise cricket circuit. We haven’t made our decision yet.
“Trevor would be a great candidate and it would be a lovely opportunity for him to team up with Paul again. From what I understand he’s interested in getting involved with The Hundred and would like to team up with Paul. But that’s mere speculation at this stage. We have made no formal contact.”
Warwickshire and Worcestershire will consider retaining a number of their county players for the Birmingham team. Farbrace said that, after landing the Warwickshire job, he sat down in the Caribbean with Moeen Ali and Chris Woakes – two Birmingham-born players in the England squad – and picked their brains over the best coaches to consider for Birmingham Hundred team.
“I said ‘have a think about who are the best people to get involved’. In the short space of time you have to put a team together, it’s important you get the best people together to do that.”
"There’s been some debate about whether the teams should be branded by region, city or ground. In fairness there has been a lot of market research done. And in the West Midlands, Birmingham is the dominant city in the area"
Snowball added: “Paul’s been chatting to the England players about what they think. Woakes and Moeen – one Warwickshire, one Worcester – but both Birmingham boys, they’re both well up for it and have given some really good insight into the IPL and Big Bash – what works, what doesn’t work. There’s a lot we can learn from the guys who’ve been playing these big franchise tournaments.
“From our point of view, we want an element of local heroes, so if we have Moeen and Chris leading [our team], a [Ian] Bell and a [Sam] Hain, then look at Worcester, a Pat Brown and other current winners of the T20 Blast.
“Through the draft [this coming October] there will be an opportunity to do that. If we wanted to we could go quite heavily on those West Midlands players, with a smattering of those from elsewhere, and then we you have your three overseas.
“The guys who are organising The Hundred [the competition board] did a dummy draft in December where they played out how it might work. When you looked at the eight teams I challenge anyone in cricket not to get excited about the teams playing each other, if you mix all the players up – that element of local heroes, others brought in and overseas stars.”
The endless politics of English cricket means that the eight teams will probably be badged with a combination of identities – some reflecting cities, and others regions or grounds. In the case of the West Midlands team, the profile of Birmingham and Warwickshire’s heft at Edgbaston seems to have won out.
Snowball said: “There’s been some debate about whether the teams should be branded by region, city or ground. In fairness there has been a lot of market research done. And in the West Midlands, Birmingham is the dominant city in the area. And having success with the Birmingham Bears it’s a natural thing for us to do that. The Worcestershire guys are happy with that. It’ll be some kind of ‘Birmingham’ team.”
Northamptonshire, whose chairman Gavin Warren is on The Hundred board, have dropped out of the Birmingham team and thrown in their lot with the Lord’s side. Many Northants fans go to watch their cricket at Lord's, and that county are strengthening ties to the east and south.
Snowball said: “Northants were originally part of our group, but they’ve decided to go align with the Lord’s team, as their members don’t really see themselves as really being part of the West Midlands, which is fair enough. There’s more of an alignment there.”
The West Midlands team plan to strengthen the regional identity by promoting their team heavily in the neighbouring counties of Staffordshire, Shropshire and Herefordshire. Warwickshire and Worcestershire already have a formal strategic relationship with the first two.
The branding of a Birmingham Hundred team does present some challenges to Warwickshire, since they rebadged their T20 Blast side as Birmingham Bears back in 2014, and have spent five years establishing that brand identity. It was done so partly to raise awareness of the club in the city, especially among the South Asian population; but also to ally with Birmingham City Council, to whom the club are repaying millions from loans for redevelopment.
How about calling the East Midlands Team 'NotLeiderbyshire' - No! seems to promote Detbyshire - or 'DerLeiNottshire' - better?? - or, Oh forget it - the whole thing is impossible!!!
ReplyDeleteWe have to include Lincolnshire too
DeleteSadly not, the Minor Counties don't figure - so that says a great deal as well. Lincolnshire will be in the Wilderness, along with Rutland of 'our' near neighbours.
ReplyDelete