Birmingham Phoenix appoints Andrew McDonald as head coach

Birmingham Phoenix on Friday appointed former Australian cricketer Andrew McDonald as the new head coach of the team.

Former New Zealand cricketer Daniel Vettori has been appointed as the assistant coach. The team is set to play The Hundred tournament which will commence on July 2020.

38-year-old McDonald had guided Melbourne Renegades to their maiden Big Bash League title this year. He had also helped the Australian first-class side Victoria to win two Sheffield Shield titles and a domestic one-day feat.

"The Hundred is a tournament that's generating interest across the globe and the opportunity to be part of it as Head Coach of the Birmingham team is something that I'm relishing," McDonald said.

"The players that have a clear schedule at that time of the year want to be nominated to be a part of it. It's an exciting new format and they get to put their footprint on it," he added.

McDonald, who was also part of IPL as the bowling coach of Royal Challengers Bangalore, was quoted by ESPNcricinfo as saying, "From behind the scenes talking to players at the Renegades and from a talk in the IPL, players around the world want to be a part of it."

England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in the last week of February this year had confirmed that the first-class counties of England and Wales agreed to a 100-ball format competition, called The Hundred.

Scheduled for 2020, The Hundred will see eight new city-based teams competing over a five-week period.

The new white-ball cricket is a 100-ball per innings. In this format, a change of end will take place after ten balls and bowlers can deliver either five or ten consecutive balls. Each bowler can deliver a maximum of 20 balls per game and each bowling side gets a strategic timeout of up to two and a half minutes.

Moreover, The Hundred will have a 25-ball powerplay start for each team and two fielders are allowed outside of the initial 30-yard circle during the powerplay. These playing conditions had been recommended by ECB's Cricket Committee.