LON­DON, Eng­land – Ja­cob Bethell has been named as cap­tain of the Birm­ing­ham Phoenix for the up­com­ing Hun­dred tour­na­ment.

The 22-year-old Bar­ba­di­an, who starred for Eng­land in the re­cent­ly con­clud­ed ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, will re­place Liam Liv­ing­stone, who has joined the Lon­don Spir­it.

Bethell was a £340,000 pre-sign­ing for the Phoenix ahead of Thurs­day’s auc­tion and the fran­chise an­nounced on Mon­day that he will take over from Liv­ing­stone.

“I’m in­cred­i­bly proud to be named cap­tain of the Birm­ing­ham Phoenix,” Bethell said.

“Lead­ing this team is a huge ho­n­our, and it’s an op­por­tu­ni­ty I’m ready for, es­pe­cial­ly af­ter the ex­pe­ri­ence of cap­tain­ing Eng­land last year. That re­spon­si­bil­i­ty taught me a lot about my own lead­er­ship and how to bring the best out of a group.”

Bethell broke a 136-year record to be­come Eng­land’s youngest-ever men’s cap­tain when he led them to a 2-0 T20I se­ries win in Ire­land last Sep­tem­ber, and he al­so has ex­pe­ri­ence lead­ing Eng­land Un­der-19s.

He has since act­ed as Har­ry Brook’s de fac­to vice-cap­tain through­out Eng­land’s white-ball se­ries in New Zealand and Sri Lan­ka this win­ter, as well as at the T20 World Cup.

Bethell has en­joyed a break­through win­ter on the field, be­com­ing the youngest Eng­land play­er to score a cen­tu­ry in all three in­ter­na­tion­al for­mats.

Shane Bond, who has tak­en over from Daniel Vet­tori as men’s head coach, said: “Ja­cob is an out­stand­ing young leader who has al­ready shown ma­tu­ri­ty be­yond his years. His ex­pe­ri­ence cap­tain­ing Eng­land last year demon­strat­ed his tac­ti­cal aware­ness and com­po­sure, as well as the abil­i­ty to in­spire those around him.”

CMC