Month: May 2018

3:56 AM ET Australia’s captain Tim Paine has denied that there is a relationship barrier to David Warner‘s return to the national team after his 12-month ban from the game expires next year. Warner was pinpointed by Cricket Australia as the instigator of the Newlands ball-tampering plot, and there were testy scenes in Cape Town in the days after the match, as CA’s integrity officer Iain Roy conducted interviews with…

4:02 AM ET Umar Farooq The ICC has charged a long-serving Sharjah Cricket Council (SCC) coach Irfan Ansari on three counts of breaching their anti-corruption code. Ansari, also a tournament organising committee member, was suspended from every position he holds in UAE cricket and has 14 days, from May 19, to respond to the charge sheet. ESPNcricinfo understands that he is the same person who had allegedly made a corrupt…

6:52 PM ET ESPNcricinfo staff The ECB believe they can tackle the disconnect between mainstream English cricket and the South Asian communities that make up more than 30% of the recreational cricketers in the country, after unveiling a detailed plan of action to broaden cricket’s reach in England and Wales The South Asian Communities Action Plan is part of the ECB’s wider efforts to place participation at the heart of…

1:24 PM ET ESPNcricinfo staff It will be a dream realised for Imam-ul-Haq, should he make his Test debut as expected this week. Growing up and hoping to emulate his uncle, former Pakistan captain and now chief selector, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Imam wanted to play Tests for his country – even if he did not expect his first to be in Ireland. Imam has already played ODI cricket, scoring a century on…

12:04 PM ET ESPNcricinfo staff Ahead of their highly anticipated Test debut against India next month, Afghanistan will also host Bangladesh for three T20 internationals in Dehradun, the capital of the state of Uttarakhand in north India. The matches are all day-night fixtures beginning at 8pm IST and will be played on June 3, 5 and 7. They will be the first international fixtures hosted by Dehradun. “From the report…

Toss Kolkata Knight Riders chose to bowl v Mumbai Indians Play 05:07 Hogg: Milne’s extra pace could be useful for Mumbai Dinesh Karthik opted to bowl at Eden Gardens, hoping to avoid conceding the season’s double over Mumbai Indians within four days. KKR have not beaten Mumbai since IPL 2015, and are looking to stop the visitors from completing an eighth straight win against them. They made two changes, adding…

10:09 AM ET Umar Farooq Pakistan’s top cricketers are set to take further financial hits after the PCB imposed caps on their participation in T20 leagues around the world. The PCB has formed a new NOC (No-Objection Certificate) policy that limits their centrally-contracted players to playing only two leagues per season, which may or may not include the Pakistan Super League (PSL). That effectively means an in-demand cricketer such as…

9:41 AM ET ESPNcricinfo staff Middlesex have signed Dwayne Bravo, the West Indies allrounder, for the first six games of the Vitality Blast, in a bid to improve on a record that has seen the club reach one T20 quarter-final in the last ten years. Last season, Middlesex brought in Daniel Vettori as a specialist T20 coach, but could only manage a seventh-place finish in the South Group. The previous…

3:00 AM ET Alagappan Muthu Big Picture The stakes could not be higher. A win on Thursday will put Sunrisers Hyderabad in the playoffs, and a loss will throw Delhi Daredevils out of the tournament, but wait, there’s more. Imagine Bhuvneshwar Kumar at the top of his mark. At the top of his game. One of the best bowlers in limited-overs cricket. And at the other end, an 18-year old,…