London, Oct 23 (IANS): Moeen Ali and Sophie Devine will captain the men's and women's teams of the Birmingham Phoenix in the inaugural edition of The Hundred to be played next year.

Ali, a World Cup winner, grew up a short distance from Edgbaston, where the team is based. "Birmingham is my city and captaining my home team in The Hundred is right up there in terms of my career I was born, raised and my life is still based in Birmingham, so to be the first-ever men's captain of Birmingham Phoenix is very special for me," Ali said in a statement.

"I had a chat with head coach Andrew McDonald a couple of days ago about what we're trying to do moving forward and how we start to put some plans in place. There's a lot of work to do before the season starts and we keep in touch regularly," he added.

Devine, on the other hand, has plenty of experience with the city too having played domestic cricket for Warwickshire, and is the current New Zealand captain.

"We are putting together an exciting line-up and the international players we are looking to bring in are of the highest quality. I'm really looking forward to playing alongside them and I'm really excited to be leading this side," said Devine.

"Exposing more players to the highest quality cricket is only going to benefit the women's game globally and The Hundred is going to be a huge moment in women's sport," she added.

The Hundred is a new 100-balls-per-side format to be played by eight teams in separate men's and women's tournaments.