The Competition That Never Shall Be Named: Merry-go-round

09/10

Northern Dischargers

Andrew Flintoff and Northern Superchargers at odds over ‘lowball offer’

Departing head coach says he did not feel valued by Hundred franchise who are poised to change their name to Sunrisers Leeds

Will Macpherson

Andrew Flintoff has entered a war of words with the Northern Superchargers’ new Indian owners after accusing them of lowballing him as he left his role as head coach.

England legend Flintoff, who is coach of the Lions, had led the Headingley-based Hundred team for two seasons, guiding them to fourth-place and third-place finishes in the men’s competition.

It is understood that Flintoff is in strong contention to join Trent Rockets as head coach, as the Hundred enters a coaching merry-go-round following the sale of the eight teams to private investors.

It is also understood that his departure will not be the only change implemented by Northern Superchargers’ new owners. They are poised to rebrand the team as Sunrisers Leeds.

Flintoff accused the new owners of offering him below the odds but the Superchargers hit back in a statement explaining they felt his expectations were too high. 

“I’ll be honest with you, franchise coaching was never in my plans,” Flintoff told the Beard Before Wicket podcast, confirming his departure from the role.

“We’ve seen the Hundred change now. We’ve got new owners, and I spoke to them when they phoned up. They said they wanted us to do it, so I said: ‘Yeah, fine. Make us an offer.’

“I genuinely don’t do it for the money, right, although it’s nice … but I think I’m worth more than just over a quarter of the [salary of] other head coaches. I wasn’t encouraged they wanted me anyway, but then also you want to feel valued. So I said that it’s not going to work for me, and they weren’t going to move on it.

“So, unfortunately, I’m not going to do it, which is sad. The past two years, I felt we were building somewhere really nice, and I’d have loved to have seen it through.”

When contacted by Telegraph Sport, a Sunrisers spokesperson said: “We had discussions with Freddie and extended an offer which was an increase over his current salary at Northern Superchargers. While we would have loved to have him on board, we respect his decision.”

As part of the Hundred’s sale process, Superchargers have been bought by the Sun Group, an Indian media conglomerate who own the Indian Premier League (IPL) team Sunrisers Hyderabad. They also own a team in South Africa’s SA20, Sunrisers Eastern Cape.

The Sun Group are the sole owners of the team, having bought the England and Wales Cricket Board’s 49 per cent share and Yorkshire’s 51 per cent share for around £100m.

They were always likely to align the branding with their IPL team, and are understood to have plumped for Leeds in their name, rather than Northern or even Yorkshire.

They are one of three Hundred teams who will change their names to align with IPL franchises. Oval Invincibles are almost certain to become MI London, and Manchester Originals will become Manchester Supergiants. The other five teams are likely to stay the same.

In a period of substantial change for the Hundred, Flintoff will be replaced by Daniel Vettori, the former New Zealand all-rounder who coaches Sunrisers Hyderabad in a further affiliation with the IPL team. Vettori was also coach of Birmingham Phoenix, who join Trent Rockets (who lost Andy Flower to London Spirit) in seeking a new head coach. It is unclear whether Vettori will be a direct replacement for Flintoff as head coach, or if he will fill a slightly different role

02/09

Apparently the whole competition is a whirlwind...

Harry Brook

01/09

On the evidence of the below collective statistics, you could say that Franchise Notts lost by 21 runs to The Rest, [on average] which would be about right after our disappointing Blast '25 campaign, which begs the question why were so many Notts players drafted to franchises? Is it more about player/host county politics than players' current form?

31/08

So far during this year's H*ndred Competition, the TEN (as of 16/08) Nottinghamshire players signed to the variety of franchises have achieved:

BATTING

Balls face: 380      Runs scored: 451        Rate: 119

BOWLING

Balls bowled: 225   Runs conceded: 316    Wickets: 20   Rate: 140

PLAYERS USED: 8 Ahmed, Clarke, Duckett, Tongue, Stone, Harrison, Moores, Patterson-White, Pennington

Freddie McCann and Liam Patterson-White given a pass to play for Notts Outlaws from Birmingham 13/08

Dillon Pennington given a pass to Notts Outlaws from the Trent Bridge franchise 17/08

Freddie McCann another pass for 20/08

Dillon Pennington has a pass for 22/08

07/08

ECB ditches controversial Hundred-branded balls

The balls used for this year's men's and women's competitions are from the same batch used in the T20 Blast

The ECB has ditched a controversial batch of white Kookaburra balls that was blamed for low scores in the Hundred last year after consistent negative feedback from players.

Scoring rates in the men's Hundred dipped to 1.37 runs per ball last season, significantly lower than other short-form leagues like the IPL, Major League Cricket and SA20 despite the shorter format in theory lending itself to more attacking batting. Specialist new-ball bowlers like Daniel Worrall and Tim Southee thrived, and players anecdotally blamed the batch of balls used.

The balls used in the first four seasons of the Hundred had the tournament's logo - a large 'H' - imprinted on them, which players felt required additional lacquer and gave them a 'plasticky' feel. "The seam seems to be massive," Moeen Ali told the Cricketer. "Every game, it seems the ball is nipping. Most teams are 30 for 5 in most games."

Kookaburra insisted that they were made to identical specifications as the white balls used in other domestic and international cricket, beyond the logo, while the ECB commissioned an extensive study over the winter which found minimal evidence that the balls behaved differently to those used in other white-ball cricket in England and Wales.

Ball-tracking data did suggest a spike in seam movement and swing at the start of Hundred games in 2023 (compared to 2022), which continued last season. This was attributed primarily to pitches, weather, and the Hundred's unique format - which allows bowlers to bowl 15 of the first 20 balls - rather than any change to the condition of the balls.

But the ECB has opted to ditch the Hundred-branded balls regardless, reverting to the same batch used in the T20 Blast for the 2025 season. Their hope is that the switch will satisfy players after consistent negative feedback and that the perception of less assistance for bowlers will lead to higher scoring rates.

The change made no apparent difference in Tuesday night's curtain-raiser, with London Spirit's men bowled out for 80 by Oval Invincibles on a slow, low surface. "It was a tough wicket to bat on," Rashid Khan said, after taking 3 for 11 on debut for the two-time defending champions.

ECB admits no evidence Hundred has attracted new fans to other forms of cricket

 

• Richard Gould: ‘That’s work we need to do’
• ECB long boasted tournament attracts different audience

 

Simon Burnton, The Guardian

 

Thu 31 Jul 2025 13.34 BST

 

Richard Gould, the England and Wales Cricket Board’s chief executive, has admitted his organisation has no evidence that new fans attracted by the Hundred have gone on to attend other forms of the game. The ECB has long boasted that the tournament has attracted a different audience to existing formats.

 

“The Hundred is all about throwing cricket’s doors open – and it’s already delivering,” the ECB’s then chief executive, Tom Harrison, said after the first tournament in 2021. “We need to grow cricket, reach more people, and that’s exactly what the Hundred does.”

 

A report published last October found that 31% of tickets for the Hundred have been bought by women, 23% were bought for juniors and 41% of buyers attended in family groups. But on the day counties received their first down payment on the windfall generated by external investment into the eight Hundred franchises Gould said no work had been done into finding out if any of those new fans remain involved in the sport when the tournament is out of action.

 

“That’s probably a bit of work we need to do,” he said. “Just to check that when people do come in, where do they go? Because you might get some coming in to Test cricket [who] then go to the Hundred and Hundred into Test cricket. We haven’t done that work in any great detail.” That lack of work is surprising given cross-pollination between formats is one of the ECB’s primary goals.

 

“Fandom is really important for us, whether it’s England, Leicestershire or London Spirit,” Gould said. “That’s the key. We’ve got a really dedicated core audience, which is relatively small compared to other sports. Then we’ve got lots of people that are very interested in cricket, but perhaps don’t come to it as often as we want.

 

“We know the interest is there, we just need to get people to come more often for all formats, rather than just that ‘I’ve been to the Test once a year’ type of thing.”

 

This year’s Hundred, which starts at Lord’s on Tuesday, is likely to be the last before new owners start to push through significant changes, from team names and kits to the length of the format itself. “That’s the kind of conversation we’re starting to get into now,” said Vikram Banerjee, the tournament’s managing director. “It would be slightly odd to bring all these great people in and then just leave it as it is.”

 

Deals for the sale of part or full stakes in six of the eight Hundred franchises were finalised this week, with the final two expected imminently. The total investment has been put at £520m, of which an initial sum of “just north of £400,000” has been released to every county. Host counties can expect to receive a minimum of £18m and non-hosts around £25m.

 

The possibility of adding a ninth team has already been discussed, but non-hosts have been warned against spending their windfalls on unnecessary stadium upgrades. “When giving guidance as to what a future expansion team needs to look like in terms of facilities, we’re not going to be setting huge capacities,” Gould said.

 

“What we don’t want is a load of empty plastic seats around the place. We’re not looking to see investment going into creating white elephants.”

16/07

The Haves and the Have Nots

15/07

Wild card day for those eight franchises.

"Wild", Notts fans can be entitled to be livid as another player from our regular One Day Cup squad is signed-up by the Birmingham franchise.

The biggest name in the H*ndred mens* will be Liam Patterson-White, eighteen characters plus the hyphen.

As for those Notts cricket supporters that can stomach the August competition and still feel that they support the real Nottinghamshire club with integrity with no conflict, then perhaps rather than watch the Trent R*ckets they should splash out on tickets at Edgbaston as their franchise has the most Outlaws representing them: Duckett, Clarke, Freddie and now Liam, whereas the Trent Bridge franchise only has Calvin and Dillon in its squad. Not even Silver Fox could get his inform son drafted, now that he too has a snout in the R*ckets' feeding trough.

*One more character than Barrel, "Tilly Corteen-Coleman" in the women's

 The H*ndred sale saved up to six counties