the 100 draft ~ T20 shortens more !!

Birmingham Phoenix; London Spirit; Manchester Originals; Northern Superchargers; Oval Invincibles; Southern Brave; Trent Rockets  & Welsh Fire (Tân Cymreig) : - do you know what brackets together these 8 ! ~ pretty simple and straightforward !!

Glenn Maxwell will link up with coach Shane Warne at the London Spirit after the all-rounder became one of ten Australians picked in the inaugural Hundred draft. Aaron Finch, Mitchell Starc, Steve Smith, David Warner, D’Arcy Short, Chris Lynn, Adam Zampa, Dan Christian and Nathan Coulter-Nile will also feature in the first season of the new 100-ball cricket tournament to be played in England and Wales next year. Among the Australians to be snubbed at the draft were Mitch Marsh, Marcus Stoinis, Shane Watson, Usman Khawaja and Travis Head. The Trent Rockets made Rashid Khan the first overall pick, while West Indies all-rounder Andre Russell went next to the Southern Brave as the first-round picks came thick and fast. Finch went third to the Leeds-based Northern Superchargers, coached by Australian Darren Lehmann, followed by his international teammate Starc to the Welsh Fire. Spinners Sunil Narine and Imran Tahir were the next two off the board. They are off to the Oval Invincibles and the Manchester Originals, coached by Australians Tom Moody and Simon Katich, respectively. Maxwell was next before Liam Livingstone was picked by the Birmingham Phoenix, who are coached by Australian Andrew McDonald.

If you are wondering still – these are of course 8 teams / franchisee in the newly promoted ‘Hundred’ – a la IPL – in England.  In what is blamed as ‘soccerisation’ of Cricket – it would be 100 balls a team – does not appear a great innovative thought.  In T20 you have 120 balls per team – here it is going to 1oo or rather a 16.4 over a side and not 20 overs !! – what is revolutionary ? -  The game has evolved – from the accidental birth of a Limited Overs match in 1971 when a Test had to be abandoned – game has changed.  Remember that the inaugural WC in 1975 was ’60 overs match’ that spilled to more than a day.  Later when India toured England the limited overs match was 55 overs aside – eventually chrystallising into 50 over ODI.  Then came T20I and IPL and more … .. and rest is history.

Now in 100s, each of the eight teams had two picks in the first round except for the Phoenix, Spirit and Invincibles, who had allocated the second spots in the STG125,000 ($A235,000) price band to pre-selected “local icon” players. The teams picked in reverse order for the second half of the round and Manchester selected Dane Vilas, who has had success as a T20 Blast overseas player for Lancashire. Smith headed to the Fire, where he will link up with Starc, while the Superchargers took spinner Mujeeb ur Rahman, Warner went to the Brave and D’Arcy Short was given the nod by the Rockets.

The Hundred is the title of a professional 100-ball cricket tournament in England and Wales run by the ECB commencing in July 2020. The league will consist of eight city-based franchise teams, each of which will field both a men's and women's team. 100-ball cricket was first proposed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in September 2016, following discussions between the 18 first-class counties, the Professional Cricketers' Association (PCA) and the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), with a vote of 16-3 in favour of the format.

Originally envisioned as a Twenty20 tournament, concerns over the relevance of the current competition structure and the opportunity to attract new fans prompted the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to propose a shortened format. On 19 April 2018, the ECB announced the creation of 100-ball cricket, in which there would be 15 traditional six-ball overs and a final ten-ball over. Other mooted changes include removing the LBW law. The plan drew significant opposition but was supported by England captain Joe Root.  There will be 100 balls per innings; a change of ends after 10 balls ! – each bowler can bowl max of 20 balls per game (from 24)

In total, 570 players were put up  for the men's draft of The Hundred – 239 overseas stars, from every major international nation except India, and 331 domestic cricketers. However, with a maximum of three overseas players per team, only 24 – just one in 10 – will be assigned to a team after throwing their names into the hat. The players were organised by reserve price, across different salary bands: £125,000, £100,000, £75,000, £60,000, £50,000 and £40,000. If this minimum figure isn't met, the player cannot be selected in the main draft. With three spots on each team taken by English players – one centrally-contracted England Test star, and two "local icons" – all six of the £125,000 slots are taken by overseas internationals.

Half of these are Australians, including the oft-booed Australian sandpapergate Ashes stars Steve Smith and David Warner. Former Australia all-rounder Andrew McDonald has been named as Head Coach of the men’s Birmingham-based team in The Hundred. McDonald will be assisted at Edgbaston by New Zealand legend Daniel Vettori, who has enjoyed spells as Head Coach of IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore, Brisbane Heat of the Big Bash, and Vitality Blast stints with Middlesex and Derbyshire Falcons. Warwickshire First Team Coach Jim Troughton and Worcestershire First Team Coach Alex Gidman complete the Birmingham men’s team coaching staff, while sports analyst Dan Weston will also be part of the backroom staff as the Data Insights Manager.

That sounds strange ~ ‘data insights manager’ – what ? Frequently, T20 teams make knee-jerk decisions, often dropping a player after one or two ‘poor’ performances.  In IPL we have often wondered what role a player like Kieron Pollard has – should he be in or out – and what can he perform when consistently sent in 16^th or 17^th over. In addition, the phenomenon of form is often over-rated .. .. performance in an individual match will almost always be judged on a small sample of data, which is extremely prone to being affected by statistical variance and fine margins.  So this man Dan Weston’s profile says, providing player recruitment data & strategy services to cricket teams.

Interesting !

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

21^st Oct 2019.