Cardiff Hundred team will be Welsh Fire after all

JAMES COYNE: Bristol aiming to be a ninth host county in future years if The Hundred succeeds but anger continues to dominate the execution of the competition

Barely a month out from the draft and the glitzy launch, it appears there is still confusion about some of the team identities for The Hundred.

The Cricketer understands that the Cardiff-based Hundred team will be known as Welsh Fire after all – not Western Fire, as was briefly mooted in midsummer – reflecting the reality that all four of their home men’s matches will be played at Sophia Gardens.

Gloucestershire and Somerset, the two other counties represented on the board of the Welsh Fire entity, will have to make do with sharing three of the four women’s matches.

There remains widespread dismay in cricket circles that no men’s Hundred matches will be played in the West Country, given the groundswell of love for cricket in the south-west, and two existing international ‘category B’ stadiums in Bristol and Taunton. Along with Lord’s – who occasionally host England women – they are the only grounds to stage both England men and women’s internationals.

Will Brown, the Gloucestershire chief executive, told The Cricketer that Bristol being passed up as one of the main host venues 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.

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“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… and 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.”

The moment back in February when Surrey voted against the 100-ball format, and the ECB briefly threatened to pull the plug on The Oval team and replace them with a West Country side, subsided quickly. It was always a non-starter anyway, with Surrey the financial powerhouse of English cricket.

It seems there was also a brief period when the men’s team – who are to be coached by Gary Kirsten – would be called Welsh Fire and the women – coached by Matthew Mott, with three games shared by Bristol and Taunton and one at Cardiff – could have been known as Western Fire.

^{The introduction of The Hundred means the end of the Kia Super League, this year won by Western Storm}

That might have accurately reflected the development of women’s cricket in the south-west compared to South Wales, as shown by the success of Western Storm in the Kia Super League. But two different identities would have been confusing, and against ECB wishes to have a unified brand identity across the genders as the Big Bash has.

Even so, Vic Marks, the Devon-born former Somerset off-spinner, now of The Guardian, The Observer and Test Match Special, remained sceptical about the appeal of a Welsh identity to cricket fans in the West Country.

“With my West Country roots I've noted the possibility of Welsh Fire,” Marks, 63, told BBC Sport. “I've also noted the cast-iron certainty that this will not greatly excite people in Bristol or Taunton.”

Now that the identity for both men’s and women’s teams seems to have settled on Welsh Fire, it leaves open the possibility of a ‘Western’ identity being saved up for another day. Durham, who are currently in with the Northern Superchargers team, have also previously expressed their desire to be a ninth Hundred host.

Brown says: “We [Bristol] will definitely host one match in the Women’s Hundred; I would hope for two.

“The final for next year’s Women’s Hundred has yet to be located, and I’m sure we, like many other counties, would be very interested in hosting that.

“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, and everything really… so much so that by 2021 or 2022, the ECB turn around and say ‘we’re looking for one or two more venues’.

^{Gloucestershire chief executive Will Brown is frustrated by Bristol's omission from The Hundred}

“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.”

However, the overhaul in the women’s game does mean the end of the KSL and therefore Western Storm, who dominated the 2019 tournament and reached finals day in all four seasons of the T20 competition.

Gloucestershire, Somerset and the University of Exeter were the three consortium partners who ran Western Storm, and Brown hopes the progress made with establishing the brand and operation is not lost entirely when the new regional hubs for women’s cricket come in from 2020.

“I think it would be a real shame if we lost that core that we built up with Western Storm over the last four years. [To watch it at the end] was sad and exciting at the same time.

“Whatever happens with women’s and girls’ cricket outside of the Women’s Hundred, we will still be working closely with our colleagues in Devon and Cornwall, Wiltshire and all over the region. That passion which has been the success behind Western Storm will still be involved, I hope, though it might be more developmental than professional at first.

“With Western Storm doing so well, we’ve come a long way as a county and a venue in a very short period of time. I believe [Bristol] has a very positive reputation now.”

“Look at some of our crowds for the World Cup, Western Storm and the last T20I in the Women’s Ashes. Dead rubber though it was, we still had over 4,000 here on a Wednesday night. We’re very proud to be in the position – alongside Taunton and Lord’s – of hosting both England men and women.”

For the full interview with Will Brown see this month’s issue of The Cricketer, which features Gloucestershire in the County Set…