#the-hundred

#the-hundred

The head coach, Dan Vettori, insisted it was strictly a cricket decision. There wasn't a discussion, it was just about who was the best option for us. We missed out on Adil Rashid, so then the priority was to get a spin bowler, and we didn't think that quality was in the local market so we had to look overseas.

Here we have a scenario whereby the ECB's great glossily packaged commercial project, sold as a force for sunlight, modernity, and openness, could end up actively reinforcing the exclusion of cricketers based on race. At which point the whole thing simply collapses. Every part of the Hundred's staging, the beamingly self-righteous tone, the schmaltzy marketing, the prim ECB talk about enshrining equality in its statutes. All of it goes up in smoke if in reality the message is: you're not coming in if you're Pakistani.

Oval Invincibles, the Hundred's most successful franchise, will be competing as MI London next year, the name favoured by their new Indian co-owners. The change of monicker brings the men's and women's teams, who between them have won Hundred titles in each of the past five years, in line with the rest of the Ambani family's Mumbai Indians holdings which, in addition to its IPL team, includes MI Cape Town in the SA20, MI Emirates in the ILT20 and MI New York in Major League Cricket.

Image source, Getty Images Ex-England head coach Andy Flower has left Trent Rockets to take charge at London Spirit. Zimbabwean Flower, 57, has signed a multi-year contract and replaces Australian Justin Langer at Spirit, who finished second-bottom of the eight-team table last summer. It is the second high-profile appointment at the Lord's-based franchise since a 49% stake was sold to the Tech Titans for about 295m. Earlier this summer, they named former England performance director Mo Bobat as their new director of cricket.