NIC ENDS SEVEN-YEAR HITCH
Homegrown youngsters vanquish veteran stars CYCLING: EUROPEAN TRACK CYCLING CHAMPIONSHIP
YOUNG English talent was the big winner in the first ever Hundred draft as Liam Livingstone burst into the top bracket to earn the same as Steve Smith and David Warner.
The 26-year-old Lancashire all-rounder (right) will head down the M6 to Birmingham as the only non-World Cup winning English player to be selected in the first eight picks for £125,000, in a category along with the world’s best Test batsman.
Big-name veterans Chris Gayle and Lasith Malinga were left on the scrapheap, the new tournament took a big step into the unknown with selections that put a twist on established T20 thinking.
But batsmen Phil Salt, 23, Tom Abell, 25, and all-rounder Lewis Gregory, 27, were picked up one bracket down for £100,000 a piece, with head coaches and analysts putting their faith in the next generation of homegrown talent, and can retain up to 10 of them for the following year.
“It’s really exciting to see the young English players being selected,” said World Cup winner Jos Buttler.
“It means the teams are planning for the future and they are looking at guys they can build their franchises around. It’s fantastic to see because teams are not just thinking about the here and now.
“These tournaments put great pressure on you as a young player and the homegrown players can make a name for themselves.
“If a young lad smashes Mitchell Starc or Rashid Khan around the ground and wins a game then their name can be thrown up in lights and we will know he can handle the pressure of international cricket.”
World-class spinners were the key TRENT ROCKETS SOUTHERN BRAVE FORMER Ryder Cup star Nicolas Colsaerts ended a seven-year winless run on the European Tour with a dramatic one-shot victory at the Amundi Open de France.
The Belgian had last triumphed at the 2012 Volvo World Match Play Championship, four months before he was part of the European team that famously came back from 10-4 down to lift the Ryder Cup in the Miracle at Medinah. His stock had piece for most team’s puzzles, with Afghanistan and Sussex star Rashid Khan kicking off the process by being the first pick for the Trent Rockets.
Sunil Narine, Imran Tahir and Sandeep Lamichhane were picked up for six-figure sums, bringing the very best mystery spinners to the tournament, joining English leggies OVAL INVINCIBLES MANCHESTER ORIGINALS fallen so far in the intervening years that he arrived at Le Golf National battling to keep his place on tour for 2020 after just one top-10 finish on the 2019 Race to Dubai.
He carded a closing one-over-par 72 on day four in Paris but that was enough to move him to 12 under and hold off the challenge of Dane Joachim B Hansen. He said: “I missed out a bunch of times and so to do it here is super special.” Adil Rashid, Mason Crane and Matt Parkinson.
There was a heavy local flavour to the Rockets and Southern Brave squads, as teams targeted players familiar with the conditions at their home grounds for the competition that starts in July next year.
But Welsh Fire chose another route, recruiting from well beyond BIRMINGHAM PHOENIX SUPER CHARGERS Wales and the South West, including signing former Australia captain Smith, who was picked two spots ahead of Warner.
“It was a big surprise not to see David Warner picked up in the first round,” added Buttler. “His record in the IPL is second to none, but maybe the Welsh see Steve Smith as a potential captain.” LONDON SPIRIT LAURA KENNY and Katie Archibald combined to claim silver in the women’s Madison on the final day of the European Track Cycling Championships.
Kenny (right) and Archibald took maximum points on each of the first two sprints, but ultimately finished just two points behind defending champions Denmark, WELSH FIRE THE RULES HOW IT WORKS while Ollie Wood and Matt Walls finished eighth in the equivalent men’s race. “I’m exhausted,” said Archibald. “We’ve got ways we can improve as a team, so while I wish we had scored two more points for gold, I still feel optimistic about future races.” Great Britain ended the event in Holland with nine medals – two gold, four silver and three bronze.