Salt’s chuffed to be handed Originals pick

THERE will be a feeling of coming home for Phil Salt when he plays for Manchester Originals in The Hundred next summer.

The 23-year-old Sussex batsman was head coach Simon Katich’s third pick in Sunday’s draft, netting him a cool £100,000.

And if his dad had a few quid on his son being snapped up by the Originals, he could have made a bit of a killing himself.

“My dad told me before the draft that he had a feeling I was going to go to Manchester,” Salt told M.E.N. Sport. “He is from Blackley – my family is from Manchester so it was the team I wanted to get picked by. I’m chuffed.

“I was born in North Wales and used to get across to Manchester all the time to watch City – back in the days of the lower leagues, pretty dire days! But I am a big City fan.

“I love the city, it is a great place to be. But on the pitch, the chance to play at Emirates Old Trafford is unbelievable, it is one of the best grounds in the world.

“The coaching staff was a big pull too – Simon Katich and Glen Chapple. Working with them is something I am really looking forward to. So I was absolutely chuffed when the Manchester Originals picked me.”

Some have questioned the amount of money Manchester have paid for Salt, who has a reputation as being an attack-minded top-order batsman.

But that is not something that worries him.

“I was hoping to be one of the earlier picks, but when my name came up I was chuffed to bits,” he said.

“But it’s not really about the money for me, it’s more the recognition that people think that highly of me that I got picked for that amount of money. That is what is really important for me.

“I tried to stay away from the draft – at the end of the day you can’t control it.

“I went round to (Sussex teammate) Chris Jordan’s to drop some bats off and the first round was on TV. He told me to stay because he had a feeling I was going to get picked early, and sure enough my name came up.”

Salt may have played just 50 T20 games, but he already has experience of Franchise cricket having played in the Caribbean Premier League for the Barbados Tridents and the Pakistan Super League for Islamabad United.

This winter he will also make his Big Bash bow for Adelaide Strikers and return for a second season in the T10 in the UAE.

But despite the negativity from some quarters about the ECB’s new competition, Salt can’t wait to get involved. “There is plenty of negativity around it, and I am not too sure why,” he said. “It is going to grow the game, it is new, it’s exciting, it will be top drawer.

“Everyone knows it is going to be a good thing, but you have a group of people who are dead against it, no matter what logic says.

“You have your naysayers, but by and large we know what a great competition it is going to be.

“It will also give lads who haven’t had an opportunity, especially in the 50-over competition. It is a chance for counties to blood their younger players.

“Opportunities like this to play against the best in the world are few and far between. The T20 Blast is good, but you don’t get the names we have just had in this draft.”

There have also been plenty questioning the strength of the Originals squad – but not Salt.

“It is at the younger end, but it shows they aren’t just thinking about the now, they are thinking about the future too, which is pretty exciting,” he said.

“Matthew Parkinson is a quality bowler, Saqib Mahmood is playing with England, Dane Vilas is coming off a hell of a season for Lancashire, Tom Abell got a hundred this year in the Blast – I could go all the way down and say what good players they are. I think it is a really good squad.”

Phil Salt