{"id":31340,"date":"2020-02-18T11:00:11","date_gmt":"2020-02-18T11:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/?p=31340"},"modified":"2020-02-18T11:00:11","modified_gmt":"2020-02-18T11:00:11","slug":"local-world-cup-winner-moeen-ali-to-captain-birmingham-phoenix-in-the-hundred-this-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2020\/02\/18\/local-world-cup-winner-moeen-ali-to-captain-birmingham-phoenix-in-the-hundred-this-summer\/","title":{"rendered":"Local World Cup Winner Moeen Ali to captain Birmingham Phoenix in The Hundred this Summer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"line-height: 18.0pt; background: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 13.5pt 0cm;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Helvetica',sans-serif; color: #555555;\">Birmingham Phoenix have announced Moeen Ali as captain of their men\u2019s team for the first season of The Hundred.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 18.0pt; background: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 13.5pt 0cm;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Helvetica',sans-serif; color: #555555;\">The World Cup winner grew up just a short distance from Edgbaston, which will host the men\u2019s Birmingham Phoenix home matches, and remains a much-loved member of the local community.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 18.0pt; background: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 13.5pt 0cm;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Helvetica',sans-serif; color: #555555;\">Moeen will lead a star-studded team that includes World Cup-winning Birmingham local, Chris Woakes, as well as upcoming England bowler Pat Brown and New Zealand captain Kane Williamson.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 18.0pt; background: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 13.5pt 0cm;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Helvetica',sans-serif; color: #555555;\">Moeen said: \u201cEvery time that I come to Edgbaston it takes me back to some great first memories of coming here at a very young age.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 18.0pt; background: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 13.5pt 0cm;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Helvetica',sans-serif; color: #555555;\">\u201cI grew up in this area and to be the first-ever men\u2019s captain of Birmingham Phoenix in a new and inclusive competition that will reach out to communities and welcome them in is very special for me.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 18.0pt; background: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 13.5pt 0cm;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Helvetica',sans-serif; color: #555555;\">\u201cWe\u2019re a tight-knit city in Birmingham. We have so much around us that brings the people together, no matter who you are or your background. I know how much of a uniting game cricket is and as a leader of the Birmingham Phoenix that is something I definitely want to promote.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 18.0pt; background: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 13.5pt 0cm;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Helvetica',sans-serif; color: #555555;\">\u201cWe are lucky to have some of the best players in the country in our squad but also some amazing overseas players, so we know that the cricket is going to be really exciting.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 18.0pt; background: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 13.5pt 0cm;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Helvetica',sans-serif; color: #555555;\">Moeen has an excellent record as a captain having led Worcestershire Rapids to the past two Vitality Blast finals at Edgbaston, including their victory in 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 18.0pt; background: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 13.5pt 0cm;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Helvetica',sans-serif; color: #555555;\">Moeen added: \u201cWorcestershire is where I have developed as a player and as a leader and captaining them in high-profile games like at Finals Day will shape the way I will lead the Birmingham Phoenix.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 18.0pt; background: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 13.5pt 0cm;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Helvetica',sans-serif; color: #555555;\">\u201cIt will also help that I\u2019ve got my Rapids team-mate Pat Brown too because he is one of the best young white-ball bowlers in the country and when you add players like Chris Woakes, we have a strong local flavour that I\u2019m sure can bring home the title.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 18.0pt; background: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 13.5pt 0cm;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Helvetica',sans-serif; color: #555555;\">Andrew McDonald, Birmingham Phoenix head coach \u2013 men\u2019s competition, said: \u201cMoeen is a fantastic all-rounder and has the experience and temperament to lead the team.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 18.0pt; background: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 13.5pt 0cm;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Helvetica',sans-serif; color: #555555;\">\u201cHe started his cricket journey here at Edgbaston from a young age so it feels fitting that he will captain the men\u2019s Birmingham Phoenix team.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 18.0pt; background: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 13.5pt 0cm;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Helvetica',sans-serif; color: #555555;\">\u201cHe\u2019s involved in the local community in Birmingham and I know how much of a popular figure he is at Worcestershire too so I\u2019m sure his efforts on and off the field will help inspire the next generation from our region and beyond to get involved in cricket.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 18.0pt; background: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 13.5pt 0cm;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Helvetica',sans-serif; color: #555555;\">The Hundred will be one of the unmissable events of the summer with family-friendly pricing to attract a new generation of cricket fans.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 18.0pt; background: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 13.5pt 0cm;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Helvetica',sans-serif; color: #555555;\">The initial priority window is now open until February 28 so fans need to act fast to secure the early-bird offers and grab the best seats to watch the world\u2019s biggest cricket stars go head-to-head.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 18.0pt; background: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 13.5pt 0cm;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Helvetica',sans-serif; color: #555555;\">Tickets start at just \u00a326 for a family of four with tickets for under-16s priced at \u00a35 for any match. Visit thehundred.com to sign up, and snap up, the best seats in the house.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Birmingham Phoenix have announced Moeen Ali as captain of their men\u2019s team for the first season of The Hundred. The World Cup winner grew up just a short distance from Edgbaston, which will host the men\u2019s Birmingham Phoenix home matches, and remains a much-loved member of the local community. Moeen will lead a star-studded team [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,27,112],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-sport","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}