The Hundred coach appointments

names are slowly filtering in.....

The Hundred - Franchise Names - updated

• Manchester Originals based at Old Trafford, Manchester

Coach: Simon Katich

• [Leeds] Northern Superchargers based at Headingley, Leeds

Coach: Darren Lehmann

• Birmingham Phoenix based at Edgbaston, Birmingham

Coach: Andrew McDonald

• Trent Rockets based at Trent Bridge, Nottingham

Coach: Stephen Fleming

• [Welsh] Western Fire based at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff

Coach: Gary Kirsten

• London Spirit based at Lord's, London

Coach: Shane Warne

• Oval Invincibles based at The Oval, London#

Coach: Tom Moody

• Southern Brave based at Ageas Bowl, Southampton

Coach:Mahela Jayawardene

ECB trims length of player draft event for The Hundred.
Matt Hughes and Elizabeth Aammon.
The Times.
Sunday, 28 July 2019.
PTG 2871-14266.


The England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) desire for the Hundred to be a streamlined tournament extends to its plans for the player draft for the new 100-ball tournament, which will be introduced next season. A dry run of the draft, which will take place on the evening of 20 October, was found to be too long and confusing so has been amended to try to keep it to about two hours. It will be broadcast live on pay-TV channel ‘Sky' and the aim is to try to make it shorter and more interesting than the drafts in other tournaments, which can often take several hours.

Meanwhile, Surrey and Lancashire were so frustrated by the ECB’s apparent reluctance to promote this season’s Twenty20 ‘Blast' that they took the unusual step of issuing a joint press release last week to reveal their record ticket sales for the competition. The ECB’s silence regarding the success of the ‘Blast' has not gone down well at several other counties, who are convinced that the governing body does not want the Twenty20 competition to threaten the Hundred next season. 

In contrast the ECB has agreed a huge marketing budget for the Hundred, with each of the eight franchises given £UK800,000 ($A1.4m) for promotion, approximately £UK200,000 ($A358255) for each of their home matches. In addition there is a combined total of £UK6 m ($A10.7 m) available for the Hundred for event production. While the Hundred contracts and staging agreements have yet to be signed, considerable progress has been made in the production of the eight franchises’ playing kits. A photoshoot involving all eight teams is planned soon with the Southern Brave franchise based in Southampton set to wear a green and black strip.

The Hundred - New Name Trademark Applications

Matt Roller Cricinfo 30/07/19
The Hundred team based at Cardiff could be known as "Western Fire" rather than "Welsh Fire", in an appeal to Gloucestershire and Somerset's fans, ESPNcricinfo can reveal.

Sports law firm Onside Law, the ECB's primary legal advisor, has submitted a trademark application for the name, along with another for "Northern Superchargers", the likely name of the Headingley-based franchise.

The Cardiff-based franchise will be run by Glamorgan, Gloucestershire, and Somerset, and reports that it would have a Welsh identity provoked backlash from the West Country.

Vic Marks, the former Somerset and England allrounder, told BBC Sport: "With my West Country roots I've noted the possibility of Welsh Fire. I've also noted the cast-iron certainty that this will not greatly excite people in Bristol or Taunton.

"As far as the spectators are concerned, I think they do feel a bit alienated in the West Country of England. What they really enjoy is watching those guys play for Somerset at Taunton.

"Maybe it will catch fire in south Wales, I don't know, but I just have this feeling that you will not find any spectators crossing the bridge to watch Welsh Fire playing in Cardiff."

A similar response to the mooted Leeds team name was behind the switch to "Northern Superchargers", though the Evening Standard reported the team is likely to wear a yellow and blue strip, both colours associated with Leeds United Football Club.

The remaining six team names are likely to be Manchester Originals, Birmingham Phoenix, London Spirit (based at Lord's), Oval Invincibles, Southern Brave (Southampton), and Trent Rockets (Trent Bridge).

When approached for comment, an ECB spokesman said: "Team names will be announced officially in early October, before the men's player draft."

Some left wondering if the Hundred is needed at all.
Matt Hughes and Elizabeth Ammon.


The Times.


Tuesday, 16 July 2019.


PTG 2852-14189.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is facing a major revolt over their plans for The Hundred, its new city-based franchise competition, in the aftermath of England’s World Cup triumph.

A number of counties are still refusing to sign contracts due to grievances over governance, as well as concern about the downgrading of domestic 50-over cricket that will follow the introduction of the competition next year (PTG 2825-14070, 22 June 2019). It has been learnt that several counties are opposing the ECB’s proposal to take legal ownership of the new competition, others are unhappy about the new teams’ perceived lack of independence from existing counties and there is also infighting between some of the partners in the new franchises (PTG 2839-14136, 6 July 2019).

In an indication of the difficulties the ECB is facing to get The Hundred signed off before the inaugural player auction on 20 October. It can be revealed that one club have made a formal complaint to the governing body about one of the counties that they are to partner in the new competition. The existing 18 first-class counties have been grouped together to form franchises to compete in the event that will launch next northern summer, with the exception of Lancashire, who have effectively been permitted to compete as a standalone entity, the Manchester Originals. “The ECB has received a complaint and is looking into this to ascertain if there are grounds for further action”, an ECB spokesman confirmed.

The 18 county chief executives were due to meet at Trent Bridge on Tuesday to discuss The Hundred, with many expected to call on the ECB to hold a formal review into its governance. The playing conditions of The Hundred were formally agreed by the counties in February by a vote of 17 to one (PTG 2727-13628, 15 February 2019), with Surrey voting against, but five months later neither the staging agreements with the eight host venues nor the framework agreement which includes governance regulations have been signed, leading to fears that the competition could unravel. No contracts have been signed and no new companies have been set up.

While the eight venues and team names have been agreed, there are major issues to address in terms of governance. The most fundamental problem is a disagreement over who will own the competition, with a number of counties vehemently opposed to the ECB’s plan to take control. It is understood that during the initial discussions over creating a new tournament in 2017, the counties were told they would share the ownership, with all of them having a 1/18th stake, but the ECB have since emerged as the sole owners.

In addition to losing control, this set-up also has potential financial implications for the counties, many of whom will become solely dependent on the £UK1.3 million ($A2.3m) ECB handout they will receive for taking part in The Hundred. Beyond that annual payment the ECB’s only financial commitment to the counties is to share 1/19th of the profits generated by the new competition, but, given the size of the marketing budget that will be used to promote it, The Hundred is not expected to be profitable for several years.

The Category C counties, who do not host international matches, have long harboured concerns about The Hundred leading to a breakaway by the eight Test match grounds, whose financial strength will increase considerably through their receipt of staging fees and increased hospitality and commercial revenue. The ECB is acutely aware of this problem and anxious to stamp out anything that may lead to further accusations of them devaluing the 18-county system.

While 13 of each team’s 15-man squad will be allocated by the player draft, the franchises have some scope for independent recruitment because they are all permitted to reserve two so-called Icon Players who are already on the books of the constituent clubs. The issue of Icon Players is another significant bone of contention, with disagreement over whether players need to have come through the academy of one of the counties making up the franchise that is recruiting them, or whether they must simply be on the staff.

There are fears that if the latter interpretation is adopted the system could be open to abuse, leading to some counties using the lure of an Icon Player contract worth up to £UK125,000 ($A221,440) for five weeks of cricket to tempt big-name players to sign for them.

There are also widespread concerns about the impact The Hundred will have on 50-over cricket, which have increased after England’s World Cup success in Sunday’s win over New Zealand at Lord’s. The ECB has already announced that the domestic 50-over competition, the One-Day Cup, will be downgraded to a “development competition” to take place at the same time as The Hundred from next year, meaning that England’s best one-day players will no longer be playing the format in which they are world champions.



In addition to fears about a lack of 50-over cricket hindering England’s prospects of defending the World Cup in India in four years’ time, the success of the recent tournament in engaging new fans, particularly in south Asian communities, has led some to question whether The Hundred is needed.

Some counties are also expected to use the anticipated financial boon that will follow England’s World Cup win to demand a bigger handout from the ECB. As revealed last month, the counties have asked for an extra £UK27 million over the first five years of the competition in return for signing the contracts, which has proved a further sticking point, and the World Cup success is likely to embolden them further (PTG 2824-14063, 20 June 2019)

ECB apply for trademarks for six Hundred teams

Will MacPherson Evening Standard 29/05/19

The ECB have applied for trademarks for the names of six of their teams for their new competition, The Hundred, which begins next summer.

One of them is for London Spirit, which, as was exclusively revealed by Standard Sport yesterday, will be the team based at Lord’s. The others are Welsh Fire (Cardiff), Southern Brave (Southampton), Birmingham Phoenix, Leeds Superchargers and Trent Rockets (Nottingham).

There will be two more teams in the competition, based at Old Trafford and the Kia Oval, although it is understood the names for those teams have not been decided.

The teams, based at the eight Test grounds, will be managed by the host county, in partnership with neighbouring counties.

For instance, London Spirit will be run by a combination of the MCC, the owners of Lord’s, Middlesex, Essex and Northamptonshire, while Trent Rockets will be looked after by Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire. Surrey and Kent are likely to be unhappy that the latter will have Trent in their name. It is understood that they wanted to have Oval in their name but, like crosstown rivals London Spirit, are set to have London as their locator.

It is also likely that fans of Somerset and Gloucestershire, who are in partnership with Glamorgan, will not be overly-enamoured that the Cardiff-based team will be called Welsh Fire.

The trademark applications were all placed through Stobbs (IP) Ltd in Cambridge on April 25. Mark Green, a trademark expert at UDL Intellectual Property, contacted Standard Sport having seen the news of London Spirit having seen the trademark registrations on the UKIPO website.

The ECB do not plan to unveil the team names and brands until after the Ashes in September, while none of the eight planned venues have yet signed hosting agreements.

The first player draft, will be live on Sky Sports on October 20. Sky will show the competition with the BBC, which has not broadcast cricket in the UK since 2005.



HUSSEY OR FLEM IN THE FRAME FOR ROCKET COACH

Matt Davies NP 29/05/19 

David Hussey could be set for a return to Trent Bridge as head coach of the new team based there in The Hundred.

The former Nottinghamshire and Australia batsman has just been named as the new head coach of the Melbourne Stars in the Big Bash League.

Hussey is understood to be on a shortlist of up to seven people for the role, along with another former Notts player in Stephen Fleming, the man Hussey succeeded at the Stars.

Both men have built a strong reputation in the game and the people currently behind the East Midlands based team are keen for the head coach to have connections to the area when the tournament starts next summer....

Matt's article goes on at https://www.nottinghampost.com/sport/other-sport/david-hussey-stephen-fleming-frame-2921127 but doesn't address the position of Peter Moores. What if he becomes, as rumoured , the coach of the Old Trafford franchise - yet to be named. With a draft in October is there a conflict of interests for Moores building and nurturing a T20 squad already at Trent Bridge for the Outlaws?
’The Hundred' is launched to social media mockery.
Josh Burrows.

The Times.

Wednesday, 15 May 2019.

PTG 2795-13937.

When the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB’s) new 100-ball competition was first announced, the governing body said the aim was to appeal to “mums and kids”. Therefore there was therefore widespread mockery on Wednesday morning in the UK when the first promotional images for the new tournament were published, featuring a stock photo taken at a gig by an American rapper in 2017. Behind the words “The Hundred is coming” the picture chosen by the ECB appeared to feature an almost entirely male audience.

Suspicions about the origins of the photo were increased when it emerged that the picture, by the Miami-based hip-hop photographer Nick Greene, is among the most prominent results returned by a Google search using the term “male audience”. The image was apparently available for use because it had been uploaded by the photographer in to a free photo-sharing website.

When it was first published on the internet, the photographer captioned the image by writing: “I took this shot to catch the reaction of fans of Logic: Everybody’s Tour expressing how they feel about his lyrical music. This photo means a lot to me because Logic is one of my favorite rappers and catching this reaction from the fan reflects on how I was feeling during the concert!”

After jokes about the image began to circulate on social media, the ECB removed the original image from the website for The Hundredand replaced it with an image of a man and a young girl cheering. The replacement image is also a stock photo — taken at a football match. The blurb on the new website features almost no mention of the word “cricket”. Instead, the introductory paragraph says “an action-packed, unmissable new 100-ball competition is coming next summer. One that puts you on the edge of your seat. Featuring some of the best players from around the world, competing in eight brand new city-based teams”.

Potential spectators for The Hundred are being invited to register their interest to buy tickets for the new tournament, which will start in 2020 northern summer 2020.

NOTE FOR YOUR DIARY: 
THE HUNDRED DRAFT 20 OCT 2019

BBC Sport 15/05/19

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."

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, with tickets to go on sale in October.

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."