Matthew Wade says the draw for players to take part in The Hundred remains strong despite growing competition from new franchises.
The Australia international, who produced a stunning piece of fielding to deny a boundary as London Spirit lost to Oval Invincibles on Thursday, believes the advent of new competitions such as Major League Cricket in the United States can benefit the game at large as well as players and fans.
There have been several high-profile pull-outs across the men’s and women’s tournaments this year, with both Ashes series having recently completed and the men’s World Cup only two months away.
Rashid Khan will no longer be a part of Trent Rockets’ campaign and Heinrich Klaasen will withdraw from the Invincibles at the end of the group stage, whilst Ollie Pope, Olly Stone and Fred Klaassen – representing Welsh Fire, London Spirit and Manchester Originals respectively – have pulled out of the competition completely.
In the women’s tournament, Alyssa Healy and Ellyse Perry have withdrawn from Northern Superchargers and Birmingham Phoenix respectively after playing for Australia during this summer’s Ashes.
Yet Wade, who is playing in The Hundred for the second time after featuring for Phoenix in 2022, says he sees no threat to the competition from the growth of new franchises.
“From internationals’ point of view, every player I speak to wants to get over and play in The Hundred,” the 35-year-old told the PA news agency.
“It’s unfortunate that a couple of guys got pulled out due to workloads. We’re coming into a lot of cricket so that’s more about international cricket and a World Cup coming up, so boards are being a bit more protective of their players.
“I don’t think it’s a reflection on the tournament at all. Every player I speak to is jumping at the chance to come and play in it.”
The inaugural instalment of Major League Cricket culminated on Sunday with victory for MI New York, and with just six teams competing offers players a lighter playing schedule which can have a knock-on benefit over the rest of the summer.
“I wouldn’t say Major League Cricket has changed the landscape,” said Wade. “The new tournament gives greater opportunity for overseas players and I was lucky enough to play in America this year and it’s terrific to see cricket played over there.
“It’s been talked about for a long time. The facilities were a lot better than I’d expected and it’s nice to see it after a lot of talk. But I wouldn’t say it’s changed the landscape.
“There’s been a lot of tournaments over the last few years that have started up, so the franchise game over the last four or five years has certainly changed.
“Most of them run back to back, one tournament finishes and another starts. There’s plenty of international players that are going in drafts and not getting picked up.
“There’s a lot of players that don’t get opportunities to play in The Hundred that are now able to go and play in Sri Lanka or in America.
“I don’t think there’s competition, I think it’s a good thing that we have cricket pretty much 12 months of the year, whether you want to watch tournament cricket or franchise cricket. It’s a good thing for the game.”
Record-breaking Root edges England closer to Sri Lanka victory
Joe Root hit a record-breaking century as England edged closer to sealing their series victory over Sri Lanka at Lord's.
Root, who equalled Alastair Cook's record during the first innings of the second Test, made 103 from 111 balls for his 34th Test ton.
England resumed on 25-1 at the start of day three, with Root leading the way for the hosts and the crowd rose as one when a sweeping four completed his landmark century.
He helped his nation set their opponents a target of 483 after they were 251 all out.
As the light faded over Lord's, so too did Sri Lanka's momentum in their record-attempting chase, with Gus Atkinson and Olly Stone claiming Nishan Madushka and Pathum Nissanka respectively.
Play was eventually halted due to bad light, and called off to be resumed on Sunday with the tourists at 53-2 with Dimuth Karunaratne (23) and Prabath Jayasuriya (three) at the crease.
Data Debrief: Root revels on record-breaking day
Day three of the second Test belonged to Root, whose century was also his quickest in Test cricket.
Adding to his 143 in England's first innings, he registered two tons in a match for the first time, while becoming only the fourth player to achieve that feat in a Test at Lord's.
Root also joins Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar in scoring 5,000 Test runs in two different decades, while closing the gap on Cook's all-time England tally (12,472) to just 95.
If that was not enough for him, he also took the catches for both of Sri Lanka's wickets, making him the first England player to reach 200 in Test cricket.
Last Hurrah: Dwayne Bravo to call time on CPL career after this year's edition
Former West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo says this year’s edition of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) will be his last hurrah as he announced his retirement from the tournament on Saturday.
Bravo, who represents the Trinbago Knight Riders, made the revelation on his Instagram account hours ahead of the franchise’s opening contest against St Kitts and Nevis Patriots in Basseterre, scheduled for 7:00pm.
“It's been a great journey, and I'm looking forward to playing my final professional tournament in front of my Caribbean people," Bravo said in his post.
“TKR is the place where everything started for me and will end with my team,” he added.
The 40-year-old’s post all but indicates the end of a decorated professional career, as he retired from international cricket in 2021 after the T20 World Cup and also announced his retirement from the Indian Premier League (IPL) a year later after being part of four title-winning Chennai Super Kings campaigns.
Bravo, known for his flair and skillful batting and bowling, is currently the CPL’s highest wicket-taker with 128 scalps in 103 games at an average of 22.40 and economy rate of 8.69.
In fact, Bravo is the leading wicket-taker in all T20s, with 630 scalps in 578 matches. He has also scored 6,970 runs with the bat.
No doubt the electrifying Trinidad and Tobago stalwart will go down as one of T20's early legends, having played seven World Cups in the format, winning two titles, as well as over 15 franchise league titles. He is the first bowler to get to 500 T20 wickets.
CWI targets domestic T20 competition in 2025 to identify Caribbean representative(s) for 2028 Olympic Games
Cricket West Indies (CWI) president Dr. Kishore Shallow says plans are already afoot to host a domestic T20 competition next year to determine the Caribbean representative(s) for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
Shallow, once again welcoming cricket’s return to the Olympic Games, pointed out that his administration is already in dialogue with the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) hierarchy to stage the domestic competition in 2025.
Cricket, which last featured at an Olympic Games in 1900, was always set for a long-awaited return to the global multi-sport showpiece, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) last year confirmed it and four other sports—baseball/softball, flag football, lacrosse, and squash—for the LA Games.
“To add cricket to the agenda in the next Olympics is certainly going to be something tremendous, as we did in the Commonwealth Games a couple years ago when we had one of our teams representing the females. We at the time chose our original women’s tournament, and the winner at the time was Barbados, so they represented the region,” Shallow said.
“We anticipate something similar will be done unless they tell us all the teams can come and participate, which would be ideal, but it is unlikely for that to happen,” he added.
Shallow also explained that the CPL champions cannot represent the region at the Olympic Games given that the tournament is franchise-based and involves players from other parts of the world.
As such, he revealed that he has engaged CARICOM leaders regarding plans for a domestic T20 competition from which the winner or top finishers would secure the coveted Olympic Games spot(s).
“We have been in discussion with CPL for them to fund a domestic T20 tournament starting next year. I think Miles Bascombe and his team have already scheduled a window for that next year in 2025. Once we are able to have that tournament, then we can use that to determine which team or teams will participate in the Olympics on behalf of CWI,” Shallow shared.
“We can’t use the CPL as it is now because it’s franchises. But in the domestic tournament that we’re having, which will still have a commercial model to it but not to the extent of CPL, but that will more than likely be territories instead of franchises, so we will be able to identify teams,” he noted.
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