Dimi and Ripley channel London Spirit

JAMES COYNE: The Lord's-based Hundred team, London Spirit, will be doing their best to address criticism that home coaches are conspicuous for their absence

The Lord’s-based Hundred team, London Spirit, will be doing their best to address criticism that home coaches are conspicuous for their absence. 

London Spirit, administered by MCC, Middlesex, Northamptonshire and Essex, are poised to appoint Dimitri Mascarenhas (Middlesex’s T20 bowling coach) and David Ripley (head coach at Wantage Road) as specialist coaches.

Spirit head coach Shane Warne is thought likely to recruit Victoria’s Darren ‘Chuck’ Berry – who he worked with at Rajasthan Royals when they won the inaugural IPL in 2008 – as his assistant, however.

Many global franchise T20 coaching roles are dominated by Australians, South Africans and New Zealanders. Most teams in The Hundred are following with their head coaches, but will employ locals as assistant coaches, if only because there is a contractual requirement to try to share responsibility among the participating counties in each ‘franchise’. Also the fixed budget – £150,000 per team for all coaching staff – won’t stretch to expensive overseas assistants.

Each team will have a local icon player allocated before the draft. Warne’s preference for London Spirit is rumoured to be Eoin Morgan as captain. He will probably get his way. They should make a fascinating combination. Morgan himself would probably make a superb head coach in the future. He might even end up in charge of England in 2025.

Giving his final pre-match press conference as England head coach, Trevor Bayliss suggested that more rotation among the England coach and his assistants, like Paul Collingwood, Graham Thorpe and Chris Silverwood, could aid English representation in The Hundred.

He said: “Being in temporary charge of England on tour would enhance their chances of taking charge of one of those franchises in future.”

The Cricketer understands, meanwhile, that the Cardiff-based Hundred team will be known as Welsh Fire after all – not Western Fire. There is still widespread dismay that there will be no men’s Hundred matches in the West Country.

"Is it still my single biggest disappointment since I’ve been here. Yes"

Will Brown, the Gloucestershire chief executive, admitted that Bristol being passed up was his “single biggest disappointment” in his six years in the role.

“I’m on the team board for the Cardiff side, and I’m working with my counterparts at Glamorgan and Somerset to deliver the best experience we can. Let’s make it a success, let’s deal with it.

“But are we still sensitive about the fact we didn’t get it? Yes. Is it still my single biggest disappointment since I’ve been here. Yes. Do I think we should have got it? Yes. Can I provide you with a hundred reasons why we should have? Yes.

“Bristol has a huge amount going for it. The population base, a very young population, family-orientated, very strong economy, very accessible city, very diverse, the flexibility of the stadia here pretty much guarantees a full house. It ticks all the boxes we were led to believe would matter for the 100-ball tournament.”

There was even a time when it seemed the men – playing their home games exclusively at Sophia Gardens – would be called Welsh Fire and the women – with three games shared by Bristol and Taunton and one at Cardiff – would be Western Fire.

Brown says: “My view is that if you’re building a new entity, getting those new identities right at the beginning is crucial. To have had one anomaly – a Women’s Hundred team named differently from a men’s Hundred team – would have been wrong.

“We’ll do our best to support The Hundred. We hope it will support everything we’re trying to do here around the look and feel of our ground, the environmental sustainability… so much so that by 2021 or 2022, the ECB turn around and say ‘we’re looking for one or two more venues’. My job is to make sure we are at the first cab off that rank when that opportunity comes around. We are channelling that hurt.

“I think that ‘Western’ moniker would very neatly work with a 100-ball team in Bristol or Taunton down the line. I think the regional geography works to something being down in the West Country, and I’m keen to keep that one locked away for if we get the 100-ball in a few years’ time.”

Stephen Fleming, ex-Nottinghamshire captain and now coach of Chennai Super Kings, was confirmed as coach of the men’s side at Trent Rockets. Salliann Briggs, the former Loughborough and ECB women’s coach, will oversee the women’s team.

This article was published in the September edition of The Cricketer - the home of the best cricket analysis and commentary, covering the international, county, women's and amateur game