Jonathan Batty is set to be announced as Southern Brave‘s new women’s coach in the Hundred, replacing the Australian Luke Williams.
Batty, the former Surrey and Gloucestershire wicketkeeper, had coached Oval Invincibles women since inception, leading them to back-to-back titles in 2021 and 2022. But he was replaced at The Oval by Lisa Keightley, who will take charge of the newly-rebranded MI London this summer.
Batty has worked with Hampshire and Southern Brave’s new owners, the GMR Group, in his capacity as Delhi Capitals coach at the WPL in India, and ESPNcricinfo has learned that he will extend that relationship as Brave coach from this summer. Capitals have reached the WPL final four years in a row under Batty, though have never won the trophy.
Charlotte Edwards coached Brave in the first four seasons of the Women’s Hundred but stepped down when she became England coach early last year. She was replaced by Williams, who led Brave through the group stage unbeaten but could not overcome Northern Superchargers in the final at Lord’s.
Brave have pre-signed four women’s players ahead of next month’s auction: Lauren Bell (£140,000), Maia Bouchier (£85,000), Laura Wolvaardt (£75,000) and Jemimah Rodrigues (£60,000). Wolvaardt and Rodrigues have both played under Batty’s coaching in the WPL.
Meanwhile, Hemang Badani will take over from Adi Birrell as Brave head coach in the Men’s Hundred, as ESPNcricinfo previously revealed. Like Batty, Badani is head coach at Delhi Capitals (in his case, in the men’s IPL) and has also been involved with other GMR-owned teams in Major League Cricket and the ILT20.
Brave’s four pre-signings in the men’s Hundred are: Jofra Archer (£400,000), Jamie Smith (£300,000), Marcus Stoinis (£150,000) and Tristan Stubbs (£100,000). The Hundred auctions take place next month on March 11 (women’s) and 12 (men’s).
