The Southampton franchise for ‘The Hundred’ is the latest one to announce their head coaches for the men’s and women’s teams. The jobs have been taken up by Mahela Jayawardene and Charlotte Edwards respectively.
Five other teams participating in the inaugural edition of the competition have already announced their coaches for the men’s teams. Jayawardene will be joining the likes of Andrew McDonald (Birmingham), Gary Kirsten (Cardiff), Darren Lehmann (Leeds), Shane Warne (Lord’s) and Simon Katich (Manchester) as a head coach of a ‘Hundred’ team.
None of the coaches that are appointed or are likely to be appointed are from England. Former England captain Andrew Strauss termed this as an ‘opportunity missed’ as the English coaches always miss out on coaching T20 franchises owing to ‘less experience’. He called it a chicken and egg situation.
He said, “Personally I think that [The Hundred] was a great opportunity for English coaches to be appointed. Each of those teams will have their own reasons for appointing experienced coaches, who have coached in T20 cricket elsewhere in the world. You can completely understand that, but there is a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation in that unless English coaches get an opportunity, how do they get the experience?”
Mahela Jayawardene will be having Shane Bond, Jimmy Adams and Richard Halsall with him in the support staff. He has previously worked with Bond at Mumbai Indians in the IPL. Adams is former Hampshire captain and Halsall is a former England assistant coach.
On the other hand, Charlotte Edwards will be a ‘head coach’ for the first time. She will be joining Matthew Mott (Cardiff), Danielle Hazell (Leeds) and Lisa Keightley (Lord’s) as women’s team coaches while the other teams are yet to announce their coaches.
Edwards was quite excited with the opportunity and said, “I think The Hundred is going to have a positive impact on the game at a grassroots level. I'm really looking forward to being there from the start and watching it all unfold. It's really exciting because I've been to Australia and seen the impact the Big Bash has had and you just feel like we can do exactly that and more.”
(Source: ESPNCricInfo)
