Cricketers urged to sign up for regional Midlands Madness charity draft night

A new 100-ball competition will be taking place this summer designed to give players a chance to sample the shortest format of the game and to raise money for charity.

The Midlands Madness is the brainchild of The Whistle Foundation.

The charity, which was started by four local league referees, has raised thousands of pounds over the last few years for various causes, including St Johns Ambulance, Smile4Joel, Beacon Centre for the Blind, Edwards Trust, Good Shepherd and Tiny Tim's Children's Centre, and staged a number of one-off cricket matches last summer.

And now The Whistle Foundation is hosting its first tournament and such has been the interest, just a handful of draft places are still up for grabs.

"The tournament is open to players of all abilities," said Whistle Foundation co-founder Jamie Lunn. "One of the ideas behind the draft was to get players from third, fourth and fifth teams involved.

"They may not have played any pink ball cricket or played in coloured clothing before.

"The same goes for people who may not play for a club or haven't played for a few years. We want to get as many involved as possible and get people playing some cricket.

"We have a number of clubs who are interested in staging the matches and Gray Nicholls will be providing the various match kits.

"Hopefully everyone can enjoy some cricket and we can raise some money for a good cause."

The format will feature six sides – Jets, Raiders, Titans, Mavericks, Vikings and Bears – who will play each other once with the top four then progressing to finals day.

The captains have been selected for the teams with Himley's Ben Robinson leading the Jets' challenge, Wombourne's Nathan Howell in charge of the Raiders, Matt Bowen of Himley will lead the Titans, Silverdale's Alex McChristie skippers the Mavericks, Beacon's Jake Cartwright is the head man for the Vikings and Bromsgrove's Connor Smith will be looking to lead from the front for the Bears.

The skippers will be formulating their squads on draft night which takes place at Himley Cricket Club on will take place on March 24. Each player snapped up in the draft will be guaranteed at least two games. The competition will run from March to September.

Players wishing to join the draft can do so by visiting https//linktr.eeTheWhistleFoundation. The cost is £30 which includes a playing shirt.