It has rained in England - something that hasn’t happened in fifty days. The drought was bad news for many, but not bad for some, including The Hundred, whose sixth edition basked in warm sunshine as the men’s version was won by the Manchester Super Giants (coached by Justin Langer)….
…and the women’s by Trent Rockets (captained by Ash Gardner).
I had three days immersed in The Hundred’s final stages: I photographed two Eliminator matches at The Oval last Friday, shot the captains the following day before the Final, and then covered the two Finals on Sunday at Lord’s. The Aussie quotient involved might improve morale down under a little, after the battering it took in Darwin (many congratulations to Bangladesh, by the way, for whose first success at Australia’s expense I was present at Cardiff in 2005). There were players, coaches and broadcasters from down under galore. Each time I turned around there was a familiar face. Not just JL and Ash, but Phoebe Litchfield, Tom Moody, Sophie Molineux, Beth Mooney, Jess Jonassen, Tim David, Annabel Sutherland, Nathan Ellis, Mitchell Marsh and Aaron Finch …. you get the idea, and that was with only seeing six teams out of sixteen total teams.
By Sunday evening these players and coaches could be classified as either winners or losers - the biggest of the former being the aforementioned Ash and JL, plus Beth Mooney and Tom Moody. Most that I did get to speak to were pretty keen to get back to the southern hemisphere, heading for Heathrow pretty much straight away. Maybe they have missed the rain….