News

Ben Stokes to Leeds, Joe Root to Nottingham in Hundred Test players draft

Team names, colours and logos announced, along with first picks from Test and local player lists

Matt Roller
Matt Roller
03-Oct-2019
Manchester Original, Southern Brave and Northern Supercharger: Jos Buttler, Jofra Archer and Ben Stokes have been assigned their Hundred teams  •  Getty Images

Manchester Original, Southern Brave and Northern Supercharger: Jos Buttler, Jofra Archer and Ben Stokes have been assigned their Hundred teams  •  Getty Images

After months of speculation, the first clear details of The Hundred, the ECB's new 100-ball competition, have been revealed, with each team's name, logo, and kit launched alongside the announcement of the first five players recruited for each squad.
There were no surprises in terms of team names or the destination of England's Test players, though a handful of the selections in the 'local icon' draft were unexpected.
That means that the Leeds team, Northern Superchargers, picked Ben Stokes over Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root, with those two headed to Cardiff (Welsh Fire) and Nottingham (Trent Rockets) respectively.
The local icon draft saw most of England's white-ball contracted men selected by their respective teams, as well as a handful of young county players. Perhaps the most eye-catching was Tom Banton's £100,000 deal to play for Welsh Fire alongside Glamorgan's T20 captain Colin Ingram, as revealed by ESPNcricinfo.
Dan Lawrence (London Spirit, £60,000) was selected ahead of Ravi Bopara and Dawid Malan, while Pat Brown (Birmingham Phoenix, £60,000) was picked as confirmation that his stock has risen exponentially over the past two seasons.
Saqib Mahmood and Matt Parkinson (Manchester Originals, both £75,000) were selected ahead of Liam Livingstone by head coach Simon Katich, to continue a good end to the season which also saw them picked to tour New Zealand as part of England's Test and T20 squads.
Oval Invincibles plumped for Tom Curran (£75,000) and Jason Roy (£125,000), meaning that Sam Billings, Joe Denly, and Ollie Pope will all be available in the main draft. Southern Brave opted for James Vince (£100,000) and Chris Jordan (£75,000), leaving Phil Salt, Luke Wright and Liam Dawson among the player pool for the full draft on October 20.
James Anderson and Stuart Broad were confirmed in non-playing roles at Manchester and Trent respectively, where they are expected to be involved in mentoring and promotional activities.
In the women's draft, England captain Heather Knight was picked up by London Spirit alongside Western Storm team-mate Freya Davies, while Manchester Originals and Trent Rockets look to have done best out of the picks, selecting Sophie Ecclestone and Kate Cross, and Katherine Brunt and Nat Sciver respectively.
As part of the ECB's tie-in with KP Nuts, each team will wear the logo of a brand of crisps on their shirt - so Welsh Fire's all-red strip features a yellow Hula Hoops ring on the front, while London Spirit's navy blue number is emblazoned with Tyrrell's.
Having registered a trademark application for "Western Fire" in a bid to win over Somerset and Gloucestershire fans, the ECB's U-turn on the Cardiff-based team was revealed in full: Welsh Fire will wear red, while their badge features the words "Tân Cymreig", the Welsh translation of the team's name.
Northern Superchargers (Headingley) - Ben Stokes, Adil Rashid, David Willey, Lauren Winfield, Linsey Smith
Manchester Originals (Old Trafford) - Jos Buttler, Saqib Mahmood, Matt Parkinson, Sophie Ecclestone, Kate Cross
Trent Rockets (Trent Bridge) - Joe Root, Alex Hales, Harry Gurney, Katherine Brunt, Nat Sciver
Birmingham Phoenix (Edgbaston) - Chris Woakes, Moeen Ali, Pat Brown, Kirstie Gordon, Amy Jones
Welsh Fire (Cardiff) - Jonny Bairstow, Tom Banton, Colin Ingram, Bryony Smith, Katie George
London Spirit (Lord's) - Rory Burns, Eoin Morgan, Dan Lawrence, Heather Knight, Freya Davies
Oval Invincibles (The Oval) - Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Jason Roy, Fran Wilson, Laura Marsh
Southern Brave (Ageas Bowl) - Jofra Archer, James Vince, Chris Jordan, Anya Shrubsole, Danni Wyatt

Matt Roller is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets at @mroller98