The Sunday Telegraph - 01.09.2019

The Sunday Telegraph Sunday 1 September 2019^ *** 9

interns, effectively, would never

rival the full-time, salaried staff of

England women.

Still, it was better than hiring the

work-experience kid, as amateur

county cricket still was.

The league struggled with a dual

purpose; on whether to improve,

through exposure, its domestic

players, or to create a spectacle of

best-v-best, and let the six

internationals (three England and

three overseas) in each team take

centre stage.

It followed largely the latter, as was

inevitable to any team wanting to win,

and local players found it difficult to

make an impact.

But some young talent has been

unearthed, through the likes of the

Smiths (Linsey and Bryony), and

Kirstie Gordon, to name a few.

There are, and should be, reasons

for optimism as this 20-over

Farewell to a short-lived women’s tournament full of talent and flaws

I

n Affectionate Remembrance

of the Kia Super League, which

died at Hove on Sept 1, 2019.

Deeply lamented by a large

circle of sorrowing friends and

acquaintances. R.I.P.

NB: The body will be cremated and

the ashes taken to a location as yet

unknown.

As the book of condolences, or

Twitter, opens its pages to the flood of

tributes from players, staff and fans

alike, the mood is one of mourning.

Of the abrupt end to a tournament

which started from scratch in 2016, an

involuntary reaction to Australia’s own

immediate success of the Women’s Big

England’s players

guaranteed for draft

Continued from page 1

available for the first three games and

the final stages.

Competition organisers have agreed

to the method by which England Test

players are distributed. The team

representing each region – so the fran-

chise based at The Oval represents

both Surrey and Kent, for instance –

will be entitled to pick up one England

Test player from their catchment area.

After they have done so, all other

England Test players are put back into

a pot, with teams who did not have a

local Test player to choose from (or

opted not to select one) getting the first

right to select them.

This means that if the Leeds

franchise opted to pick Ben Stokes –

who, as a Durham player, would count

as a local player – then Jonny Bairstow

and Joe Root would go into the pot

and could be selected to play by other

teams.

Because of their limited availability,

England Test players will not count to-

wards the 15-man squads at each fran-

chise. Each team will, in practice, have

either 16 or 17 players, depending on

whether they get one or two England

Test cricketers.

Some England red-ball specialists

may choose not to enter the draft.

Beforehand, each team will also be

allowed to pick an extra two players

within their catchment area. Their

wages will depend on negotiations be-

tween the player and the team. Such

players will effectively fill a berth in the

draft – so if, say, the Lord’s franchise

chose Eoin Morgan as a local player in

one of the £125,000 slots, he would ful-

fil this position and the team would not

be able to sign someone else in this po-

sition during the draft.

The salary bands for the draft have

also been confirmed. Salaries will have

a top band of £125,000 followed

by £100,000, £75,000, £60,000,

£50,000, £40,000 or £30,000. There

will be two players in each category.

Each franchise is allowed three

overseas players – as in the women’s

Hundred – though they will be able to

replace any overseas players who have

to leave. There will be no limits on the

number of players teams can sign from

any county or country.

All teams will spend an identical

amount on players – the payments for

England Test players come from a

central pot – in the hope of creating

competitive balance.

Many county players will expect to

earn double their annual salaries, with

average county wages currently sitting

at £45,000.

The organising committee has ruled

that only players who have been with

counties for at least a year will be

eligible to be signed as local players.

This is designed to prevent counties

using the lure of a Hundred contract to

boost their own recruitment.

After the draft, each team will retain

one vacancy in their core 15-man

squad. This will be reserved for a

wild-card pick – selected approximately

two weeks before the start of the

Hundred on the basis of their form in

the T20 Blast – who will earn a salary of

£30,000.

show them the exit. Heightening this

drama, Australia have greater resources

at their disposal – especially as they

have unearthed Marnus Labuschagne

to go with the fast bowlers they can

rotate – whereas England are limited to

fewer players, but have the fastest and

most dangerous bowler in Archer, and

the player admitted last weekend to the

exclusive club of great all-rounders. So

inspired and inspiring was he, Stokes is

the Pied Piper who can lead the other

England players, and spectators, and

those following the game from afar,

towards regaining the Ashes.

Australia’s media have made much of

the umpiring decision which reprieved

Stokes when England were one run

short of a tie, but Joel Wilson’s was cor-

rect: it was only because the off-break

by Nathan Lyon brushed Stokes’s front

pad first that it was deflected towards

leg stump. Otherwise it would have

gone down leg side, or only clipped.

For Old Trafford, England are

expected to reshuffle their batting

order by promoting Joe Denly to open,

even though he has not done that job

for Kent for four years. Like Rory

Burns, the existing opener, Denly is

being subjected to a higher proportion

of short balls the longer this series goes

on, as he has been generally ducking

into them. Not that Old Trafford is an

ideal venue for hooking, because the

square boundaries have been much

longer since the pitch’s realignment.

Stokes’s 135 will be forever associ-

ated with Sir Ian Botham’s 149 at Head-

ingley and 118 at Old Trafford in 1981

• and it would be fascinating to know
  what Botham’s game plan would be if

he had to bat at Old Trafford this week.

In 1981 he played himself in before tak-

ing on the bouncers rained down by

Dennis Lillee and Terry Alderman, and

hooking sixes into the stand in front of

the station: a shorter carry than Old

Trafford’s boundaries this week.

It was at Old Trafford that Joe Root

played his best Test innings, his 254

against Pakistan, when he limited him-

self to three basic shots session after

session. Were this Test anywhere else,

it would make sense for him to revert

to No 4, so that he could be protected

from the new ball and such unplayable

deliveries as the one he received from

Josh Hazlewood at Headingley.

In the three Tests so far Root has had

to bat every time when the ball has

been less than 10 overs old: and only

twice – his half-century at Edgbaston

and 77 at Headingley – has he gone on

to play the captain’s innings which

England, with their top order, invaria-

bly need. But the memory of his finest

innings will tempt Root to stay at No 3

where he staged it.

Again, had this been a three-Test se-

ries, no such psychology.

the folly of cutting short Test series

Making her mark:

Bryony Smith is one

of the exciting new

players to emerge

from the KSL

Fourth Test, Old Trafford

Wednesday-Sunday, 11am.

TV Live on Sky Sports

First Test Australia won by 251 runs

Second Test Match drawn

Third Test England won by 1 wkt

England

Australia

Game zone

Hove

Semi-final Loughborough Lightning

v Southern Vipers, 12pm

Final Western Storm v semi-final

winners, 4pm

TV Sky Sports

Kia Super League

Finals day

Game zone

Bash League. Of a tournament which

had its flaws but improbably, yet

pleasingly, pre-empted any

restructuring of men’s domestic

cricket in England.

And of a tournament which

presided over England’s triumph at

the 2017 World Cup, which created its

own identity, and a fan following

which has grown impressively in just

four seasons.

There were hints from the

beginning that the KSL, the first

franchise cricket venture (although

not strictly franchise, as the England

and Wales Cricket Board retained

budgetary control, but a template,

each host a quango of the cricketing

world) in either men’s or women’s

cricket in this country, was only an

interim solution.

To base a team at Loughborough,

for example, an impressive training

facility but no infrastructure, history,

nor intention to facilitate first-class

cricket, appeared a decision more of

expediency than forward thinking. But

the KSL evolved, with crowds

routinely in their thousands and the

foundations were set; franchise

cricket, in some form or another,

really can succeed.

On the field, reviews were mixed.

On the one hand this was the bridge

between a distended county structure

and the only true professionals, barely

20, who constituted England’s

women’s team.

The gap still grew; KSL cricketers,

the five-week, £3,000 summer

tournament fades and we are plunged

into the novel venture that is the

Hundred. After a slow – at times

sloppy – start, this new competition is

nevertheless the first professional

cricket league in the world launched

simultaneously for men and women.

The most recent coaching

announcements have been concurrent

for both genders as the ECB is starting

to grasp what a unique opportunity

this level platform provides.

Much remains unknown for next

year’s inaugural tournament,

including some venues, with

speculation that the Welsh-or-Western

(to be decided) Fire might have their

men in Cardiff and women in Taunton.

Employment uncertainty, for players,

coaches and administrative staff,

remains a concern, with KSL contracts

ending in September and the ensuing

Hundred ones not even close.

Nevertheless, like the best wakes,

we should reminisce, look back in

anger if that helps (it does), but still

celebrate.

The KSL was a life short lived,

but there remains the prospect that

maybe, just maybe, there will be a

twist in the tale of women’s domestic

cricket in England yet. Whether we

can expect a reincarnation of

Ashes-like proportions is a decision

still pending. Here’s hoping.

The Kia Super League

has set a future template

despite its early demise,

writes Isabelle Westbury

By Scyld Berry at Derby

The Australians (338-5 dec) beat

Derbyshire (172 & 112) by an innings

and 54 runs

It was a satisfactory result for the

Australians as they defeated Derby-

shire by an innings and 54 runs

before driving up to Manchester

for the fourth Test beginning on

Wednesday – and a satisfactory

game for England, too, because

Derbyshire capitulated so easily that

Steve Smith had only one innings.

Smith, concussed by Jofra Archer at

Lord’s and ruled out of the third Test at

Headingley, was limited to the one

innings, of 23 runs, during which he

did not face a pace bowler. Smith has

therefore not yet been able to get back

on his bicycle: the after-effects will not

be known until England’s pace bowlers

bounce him at Old Trafford on what is

predicted will be the fastest pitch of

this series.

The Australians wrapped up Derby-

shire so quickly – the county had lost

three wickets overnight – that even a

morning shower could not stop the

tourists mopping up before lunch on

day three. And their chief mopper-up

was Mitchell Starc, who took four

cheap wickets in the county’s second

innings to give him seven for 85 in the

match, and to present an irresistible

case for his inclusion at Old Trafford on

Wednesday.

Starc, astonishingly, has been

excluded so far. He was the leading

wicket-taker in the past two World

Cups, and would take the new red ball

for any other Test country. In Austral-

ia’s last series in England, Starc was

their only bowler to take five wickets

in an innings, and he did it twice.

But in the Ashes series of 2015 Starc

also leaked runs, especially bounda-

ries, and conceded almost four runs

per over – powerless to contain

England when their lower-

order batsmen, like Moeen

Ali and Stuart Broad, climbed

into anything short and wide in

match-shaping partnerships.

This time round Australia’s bowl-

ing game-plan has been attritional – to

bash out a “heavy length” just outside

off stump – with all the merits, and

defects, thereof.

Most of the time this attrition has

worked in very English conditions: Pat

Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and James

Pattinson or Peter Siddle have done

their job, at least until the first three of

them flagged at the climax of the third

Test at Headingley. When exhausted,

they had nothing left to offer their cap-

tain Tim Paine by way of inspiration;

and as a fast left-hander, the rarest of

breeds, Starc can supply that all right.

Starc can swing the new ball into

right-handed batsmen in an opening

spell which sets up the game, or later

go around the wicket and reverse-

swing away from right-handers. He

topped and tailed Derbyshire’s second

innings, with two top-order wickets on

the second evening then, as rain threat-

ened and lunch beckoned, had one tail-

ender caught at first slip before his

party trick, accomplished at the

expense of Dustin Melton, a tall Zimba-

bwean: round the wicket, angled in,

yorker, leg stump out of the ground

first ball, goodnight. No wonder Tony

Palladino preferred to keep his injured

ankle out of that firing line.

Michael Neser actually took the first

wicket of day three, but English cricket

produces dozens like him, at bustling

medium-fast: Lewis Gregory of Somer-

set, who made the England squad for

the Ireland Test, is a close resemblance.

Siddle was, as always, there and therea-

bouts in taking two wickets, and could

spare Cummins the Oval Test if Aus-

tralia have won the Old Trafford Test

and retained the Ashes.

But Starc is the game-changing

bowler. Too wayward perhaps to fit

into methodical game-plans, but swing

bowlers have to pitch a fuller length

and risk being driven. One of Starc’s

yorkers at Headingley could even have

cleaned up Stokes.

Starc states case

to be called up

for Old Trafford

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By Scyld Berry

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Stats: Telegraph Sport own research

/ Thomas Fletcher, Leeds Beckett University

0

of the 41 members

of the ECB board are

African-Caribbean

0

black coaches

ever in women’s

county cricket

3

black coaches

ever in men’s

county cricket

2

black coaches

in the 118

coaches and

support staff

On a roll: Mitchell

Starc took seven

wickets in the match

to press his claims for

a Test place

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