Don’t ban the Afghanistan men’s side from playing international cricket but do expect them to do more for the women and girls who don’t have the same rights they do. That’s the opinion of two formerly contracted Afghanistan women’s players living in exile in Australia. Firooza Amiri and Benafsha Hashimi fled Afghanistan after the Taliban … Read more
Abhishek Sharma has had a blistering couple of years in the IPL and his elevation to the India T20I side has been justified by his performances, which now includes a 34-ball 79 against England in Kolkata. But he has also blown hot and blown cold over this period, being dismissed for under 20 in eight … Read more
Maharashtra batter Ankit Bawne has been handed a one-match suspension for dissent. The decision was communicated to the team ahead of the side’s Ranji Trophy sixth round Group A fixture against Baroda in Nashik. Bawne’s refusal to leave the field after being given out in their fifth-round game against Services, prior to the white-ball season, … Read more
Matthew Kuhnemann says his surgically repaired right thumb is almost pain-free after bowling, batting and fielding in Brisbane on Thursday. He now awaits official clearance to fly to Sri Lanka to join Australia’s Test squad just a week after suffering a compound dislocation and fracture while playing in the BBL. The left-arm orthodox spinner is … Read more
Australia remain hopeful that Alyssa Healy will be fit to feature in the day-night Ashes Test at the MCG, and have named her in a 13-player squad, but it will be as a batter only if she does recover in time. Healy was ruled out of the first T20I at the SCG with a stress … Read more
India 133 for 3 (Abhishek 79, Archer 2-21) beat England 132 (Buttler 68, Varun 3-23, Arshdeep 2-17, Axar 2-22, Hardik 2-42) by seven wickets India brutally cast aside England in the first T20I at Eden Gardens, as Abhishek Sharma’s 79 from just 34 deliveries munched a meagre target of 133 with 43 balls to spare. … Read more
India finished top of Group A after beating Sri Lanka in a top-of-the-table clash on Thursday, while West Indies secured their spot in the Super Six stage of the Women’s Under-19 T20 World Cup 2025 by knocking out Malaysia. Playing the second game of the day in Kuala Lumpur, India completed their perfect group stage … Read more
Australia batter Marcus Harris has joined Lancashire for the 2025 season. The left-handed opener will be available for the club’s County Championship and Metro Bank One-Day Cup campaigns through to September. He is due to arrive in the UK ahead of Lancashire’s opening Championship fixture against Middlesex at Lord’s, which begins on April 4. Acquiring … Read more
Highlights from the opening day of the sixth round of matches Rohit’s big miss on Ranji return Rohit Sharma’s Ranji Trophy return after nearly 10 years wasn’t as memorable as he’d hoped it would be. His 19-ball vigil brought him 3, and he was out caught off the leading edge while attempting a half-nudge, half-pull … Read more
Cricket Australia XI 214 (Hicks 64, Brown 5-21) and 33 for 1 trail England Lions 316 (Flintoff 108, Davies 76, McCann 51, Whitney 4-72) by 69 runs Rocky Flintoff struck his first century in an England Lions shirt on the second day of the tour match against a Cricket Australia XI at Allan Border Field … Read more
Sri Lanka captain Dhananjaya de Silva has described his team’s Test schedule this year as “really disappoining”. He believes it is a “big disadvantage” for a team such as Sri Lanka to play as few Tests as they have scheduled this year. Beyond this two-match Australia series, Sri Lanka only have two home Tests against … Read more
Rangpur Riders and Fortune Barishal have opened up a lead at the top of the BPL points table but the race for the other two playoff spots are tight during the Chattogram phase of the tournament. Durbar Rajshahi and Dhaka Capitals have revived their campaigns and are closing in on No. 3, where Chittagong Kings … Read more
Heather Knight, England’s captain, has conceded the umpires made the correct call in taking the players off the field for rain with just five balls of the second T20I remaining, even though that denied her the chance to hunt down the 18 runs still needed to keep her side in with a chance of a … Read more
Australia 185 for 5 (McGrath 48*, Mooney 44, Dean 2-28) beat England 168 for 4 (Wyatt-Hodge 52, Knight 43*, Schutt 2-32) by six runs (DLS method) Australia secured Ashes outright despite a fine hand from Heather Knight when the skies in Canberra parted for long enough for the game to resume after England had been … Read more
Jay Shah, the ICC chair and ex-secretary of the BCCI, has joined a new Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) advisory board, which will replace the club’s world cricket committee. Shah was a notable absentee when MCC staged the inaugural World Cricket Connects forum last year, which saw over 100 leading voices gather at Lord’s to discuss … Read more
Rohit Sharma’s return to the Ranji Trophy was a short-lived one – he lasted 19 balls and scored just three in Mumbai’s Group A fixture against Jammu and Kashmir at the Sharad Pawar Academy in BKC in Mumbai. Rohit, India’s Test and ODI captain who has been going through a terrible run of form, was … Read more
Matthew Kuhnemann has been cleared to join the Australia Test squad in Sri Lanka after recovering sufficiently following surgery to repair a thumb fracture. Kuhnemann, the left-arm spinner, had broken his right thumb while playing in the BBL last week, but has been able to bowl in training this week. He will reach Sri Lanka … Read more
After retaining the Ashes in Sydney, Beth Mooney didn’t want to get drawn into talk of a whitewash before the series was won but with that box ticked team-mate Grace Harris now wants to “embarrass” England with a 16-0 scoreline. Australia prevailed in Canberra amid a flurry of DLS calculations – England were ahead when … Read more
Cricket Australia has appointed Adam Griffith, a highly experienced coach and former Tasmania fast bowler, as the new national pace bowling coach in a role that has been recreated to help develop Australia’s next generation of fast bowlers. The role was first advertised back in October as an Australia-based position to oversee the management of … Read more
Big picture: Teams in transition Gautam Gambhir and Brendon McCullum have many things in common. They were both stellar openers, they were both captain and coach of Kolkata Knight Riders at different times, they’re both known for their “aggressive” mindsets when it comes to approaching the game from the dugout, and, now, they both find … Read more
“I’m concerned about everyone’s form at the moment, including mine.” That’s how Durban’s Super Giants (DSG) coach Lance Klusener summed up the team’s fortunes in a season where they are languishing at the bottom of the points table, a year after they made the SA20 final. With just one win in seven games, they need … Read more
Among the more recent trends in countering the kind of spin often seen in Galle has been to focus on run-scoring, rather than on defence. Smith’s own 145* the last time he was at this venue was memorable for how quick he was to move around the crease to create scoring opportunities. Reverse sweeps, slogs, … Read more
The batters did it for Pakistan, though they were helped along by indiscipline on the part of the inexperienced Samoa bowlers, who conceded 21 extras, including 18 wides, after opting to field. The major contributions for Pakistan came from opener Maham Anees, who scored 28 in 42 balls, and Fatima Khan, who hit 25 in … Read more
India internationals Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shreyas Iyer are going to miss the next round of the Ranji Trophy for Mumbai in the lead up to the England ODI series that follows early next month. While the likes of Virat Kohli and KL Rahul will feature in the next round that begins on January … Read more
The Hundred and Major League Cricket (MLC) will avoid a clash for 2025, boosting both leagues’ chances of securing the world’s best male players. Neither league has publicly confirmed dates for this season but ESPNcricinfo understands that MLC will run from mid-June to mid-July, finishing around two weeks before the Hundred starts in early August. … Read more
England Lions 316 (Flintoff 108, Davies 76, Whitney 4-72) and 276 for 9 (Coles 67, Hurst 53, Elliott 3-38) drew with Cricket Australia XI 214 (Hicks 64, Brown 5-21) and 442 for 9 dec (Ward 120, Clayton 84, Hackney 70*, Radhakrishnan 58, Cook 4-47) England Lions held out for a battling draw after last pair … Read more
Sonal Dinusha, a 24-year-old left-arm spinning allrounder, has been named in Sri Lanka’s Test squad for the two-match series against Australia, which begins in Galle on January 29. Opening batter Lahiru Udara has also been been included, potentially as cover for Pathum Nissanka, who is racing to be fit for the first Test, after picking … Read more
Sydney Thunder 157 for 6 (Billings 42*, J Sangha 30, Kerr 2-35) beat Sydney Sixers 151 for 7 (Silk 43*, Andrews 2-15, Agar 2-25) by four wickets David Warner will have the chance to lead Sydney Thunder to their first BBL title in nine years, a season after they finished with the wooden spoon, after … Read more
Pakistan head coach Aaqib Javed has launched an impassioned defence for the recent spin-friendly pitches for Test matches in the country. Ahead of the second Test against West Indies in Multan, Aaqib said that if the decision to prepare such wickets been taken sooner, Pakistan may have been closer to making the World Test Championship … Read more
It is not difficult to know what’s coming this Test match. It is an easy one to analyse, a straightforward one to predict. West Indies will have prepared studiously for the challenge Pakistan will pose, and Pakistan, themselves, have made no secret they will double down on the nature of the surfaces they prepare. The … Read more