Andrew Flintoff plumps for West Indies’ big-hitter Nicholas Pooran in Hundred draft

Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff’s return to cricket continued as he selected his Northern Superchargers squad at a Hundred draft that saw both David Warner and Jason Roy overlooked.

England legend Flintoff has been appointed head coach of Superchargers for the fourth season of the Hundred. They finished last in 2023, which meant they had the opening draft pick, which Flintoff used on the West Indies’ big hitter Nicholas Pooran, who joins Ben Stokes, Harry Brook and Adil Rashid in their squad.

Flintoff has been working his way back into public life through cricket since last summer, following a motoring crash while filming Top Gear in December 2022, which left him with serious injuries. He helped the England white-ball team last summer, and has now been entrusted with his first head coach role. He has also been in India this week filming the second season of his cricket documentary series Field Of Dreams.

A selection of big names were overlooked in the draft. Among overseas players, the pugnacious Australia opener Warner and New Zealand’s Kane Williamson went unsold, as did England World Cup winners Roy and Mark Wood.

Roy, whose international career appears to be over after he was left out of last year’s World Cup squad, was released by Oval Invincibles following two poor seasons for the team. He had a high reserve price in the draft of £100,000 and would have been unavailable for the first few days of the tournament anyway, because he will be in the USA playing Major League Cricket. Invincibles opted to replace him with Dawid Malan, another England international.

Wood going unselected was less surprising, given he pulled out of the first three seasons to manage his workload for international cricket. A similar decision was likely this year. England spinner Shoaib Bashir, who had a breakout tour of India, also went unsold despite being part of the Somerset team that won last year’s Vitality Blast.

All those overlooked are left requiring a late call-up due to a withdrawal. Alternatively, those with lower base prices can be picked up in the wildcard draft, which sees players selected based on performances in the Blast.

Pooran’s selection highlighted a theme, with West Indies stars dominating the top brackets of selection. Andre Russell and Shimron Hetmyer went to London Spirit, Rovman Powell to Trent Rockets and Kieron Pollard to Southern Brave. There were also deals for Pakistan quicks Naseem Shah (Birmingham Phoenix) and and Shaheen Shah Afridi, who returned to Welsh Fire.

Among English players, Ollie Pope was signed by Spirit, while Tom Kohler-Cadmore was Fire’s first pick and Laurie Evans moved to Southern Brave. The exciting, tall left-arm quick Josh Hull, who was part of the Leicestershire side that won last year’s MetroBank One-Day Cup, was picked up by Manchester Originals.

In the women’s draft, England wicketkeeper-bat Amy Jones was the first player picked, as she returned to Birmingham Phoenix. Spirit picked up the legendary former Australia captain Meg Lanning, while there were also deals for her compatriots Ash Gardner (Rockets), Beth Mooney (Originals) and Annabel Sutherland (Superchargers). Invincibles picked up the Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu.