London Spirit use huge Hundred windfall to recruit off-field talent
The new-look London Spirit are hugely increasing salaries paid to off-field cricket staff in a bid to boost the calibre of recruits when the turbocharged Hundred launches in August.With the competition’s salary cap including only the playing squad, Spirit hope the backroom staff attracted will help the team flourish.One source described the wages offered to coaches and analysts for the first five years of the competition, when their salaries were funded by the England & Wales Cricket Board, as embarrassing.But Spirit are hoping to benefit from the combination of a massive funding boost after the sale of 49% of the team for £145m to a consortium of entrepreneurs unofficially known as the Tech Titans in last year’s team auction and the pull of life in the English capital to hire staff of sufficient calibre to transform their previously miserable fortunes.It is understood that their spending on support staff will be trebled.
While the women’s side won the tournament in 2024 and reached the eliminator last year, the men have finished last or second-last in four of its five seasons,“We’ll be resourcing our support staff in a way that far exceeds previous years,” said Mo Bobat, London Spirit’s director of cricket,“The onus is now on teams to pay their coaches and their science and medicine staff or their analysts whatever they want to pay them,We’ve had a good level of backing from the board and we’ve been able to recruit and attract really good people because of that,“Our job is to get high-quality people in.
We’ve got excellent coaches, we’ve started to build really strong support staff teams and we want to try and make sure that our systems and processes allow success to become inevitable.That doesn’t just happen overnight, but we’re trying to do that as quickly as we can.”Bobat is also director of cricket at Royal Challengers Bengaluru, who won the IPL for the first time in 2025, and has recruited several of their support staff, including their head coach, Andy Flower, as well as the team analyst, Freddie Wilde, and physio, James Pipe.The women’s team will be coached by Jon Lewis, with Heather Knight taking on the role of general manager.On Monday, Spirit announced eight directly signed players, including the South Africans Marizanne Kapp – player of the match when she won the 2022 final with Oval Invincibles – and Dewald Brevis, the Australian spinner Adam Zampa, Englishmen Jamie Overton and Liam Livingstone and the 19-year-old English seamer Mahika Gaur.
They also unveiled a new logo – an austere effort compared with some of their rivals’, composed of the letters L and S, with the L slanted in a nod to the slope at Lord’s – and an official colour palette that focuses on blue, but also reflects MCC tradition by including “bacon” (a shade previously better known as red) and “egg” (yellow).With local rivals Oval Invincibles rebranded as MI London it means the capital’s two Hundred franchises will both wear blue and have London in their names.“Ideally they might have been different colours, but it’s not something I’ve spent too much time thinking about,” Bobat said.“There’s plenty of teams that wear blue in the IPL and there’s no shortage of rivalry there.”
Australian Open 2026: Djokovic wins 100th Melbourne match, Swiatek survives scare – as it happened
Righto, that’s us done for today. Thanks all for your company, and we’ll be back tomorrow for more love and joy – join Katy Murrells for a bit of Sinner v Gaston, Osaka v Ruzic, Boulter v Bencic and Mochizuki v Tstisipas, with hopefully some Dimitrov v Machac thrown in. Peace.Muller, who turned around a fifth-set break, says it was easy as Popyrin served really well. He tried to concentrate and play his own game but the crowd were against him so it wasn’t easy
‘I don’t want to be a punching bag’ – dramatic day at Australian Open marred by retirements
“I’ve honestly got no bloody clue what happened after that point in the match,” said Francesca Jones as she fought back tears. Jones had been battling hard on court 15 at Melbourne Park, chasing her first grand slam main-draw win at the fifth attempt, when she slipped and fell. She instantly felt a tear in her glute muscle. Jones soon had no choice but to retire from her Australian Open first-round match while trailing 6-2, 3-2 to Linda Klimovicova, a 21-year-old Polish qualifier.“I’m at a career high,” Jones said
Indiana's rise to CFP final is a tale for our topsy-turvy times
We are living in upside down times. Kim Kardashian advocates for prison reform as the American government spams out cartoonish memes promoting mass deportation and detention. Dave Chappelle – flaws aside – is more trusted to interpret the news than CBS’s Tony Dokoupil. The selection committee behind college football’s playoff somehow put together a compelling tournament without inciting the usual torrent of backlash, and the team raising the trophy at the end could well wind up being Indiana. And, no, that’s not a typo
The pass of the century then brutal reality: the football gods won’t let the Bears have nice things
Caleb Williams pulled off a miracle against the Rams and Chicago looked destined for the Super Bowl. The hope wouldn’t last longA playoff game often pivots on a single moment. The Bears thought they had theirs. Down a score, driving to keep the game alive, the Bears had the ball on the Rams’ 14-yard line. Fourth down
Storm Hunter breaks new ground with winning return to Australian Open
A first round victory at the Australian Open on Monday brought joy to Storm Hunter, but she has found a deeper motivation in achieving something nobody else – she believes – has done in world tennis.The 31-year-old defeated Spain’s Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 6-4, 6-4 in 87 minutes on Kia Arena on Monday, surging back from a break down in both sets.Winning a grand slam match is one thing. Doing it with a surgically repaired achilles tendon is something else.“To come back from an achilles rupture, I don’t know anyone who has done it in tennis,” Hunter said afterwards, about an injury that has become surmountable in basketball and football but still represents a career-ending threat in tennis
Alex de Minaur eases into Australian Open second round with routine win over lucky loser
A reflective Alex de Minaur has declared he will no longer be satisfied by leaving grand slams without a trophy under his arm after his first round victory at the Australian Open, and he took to task those who call players “greedy” for seeking a greater share of tennis revenues.The No 6 seed beat American Mackenzie McDonald 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 in the first round on Rod Laver Arena on Monday afternoon, finding valuable rest for his legs after just 108 minutes of play.He has already cast his mind deep into next week, even if he hasn’t made a grand slam semi-final before. “The way I’m feeling at the moment is that I’ve gotten to a stage where I’m not just another number in this draw,” he said. “I’m playing to win it and be one of those guys in contention
Corenucopia by Clare Smyth, London SW1: ‘Posh, calories-be-damned cooking and a dad rock soundtrack’ – restaurant review
Two stars from Michelin, one for hygiene: star chef’s poor score ignites UK dining debate
The rule of thumb when using a mandolin in the kitchen | Letters
Still confused about swedes and turnips | Brief letters
Benjamina Ebuehi’s recipe for Viennese fingers | The sweet spot
Not keen on feeble nolo wine? Try these instead