Daryl Mitchell ponders life, or is scratching his beard. It’s hard to say 2:37 AM GMT Trent Boult and Colin de Grandhomme have been ruled out of New Zealand’s squad for the second Test with injury. Northern Districts all-rounder Daryl Mitchell has been called into the squad as a replacement for de Grandhomme and will probably play while Lockie Ferguson and Matt Henry, already part of the squad, are vying…
9:29 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff England’s head coach, Chris Silverwood, will fly home early from the Test tour of New Zealand after suffering a family bereavement. Silverwood is set to return to England on November 30, after the close of the second day’s play of the second Test in Hamilton. The team’s assistant coaches, Graham Thorpe and Paul Collingwood, will assume responsibility of team affairs alongside Joe Root, the Test…
6:09 PM GMT Joe Denly has become the latest member of the England squad to call for better batting pitches in the County Championship. Denly, the Kent batsman, was one of the few England players to emerge with any credit after a poor display in the second innings of the first Test in Mount Maunganui. After making 74 in the first innings – his fourth half-century in six Test innings…
6:00 PM GMT England have to be careful with the workload and expectations of Jofra Archer, according to Ashley Giles. Archer bowled 42 overs in the first innings of the first Test; easily the most of England’s seamers and more than Stuart Broad has ever bowled in a single Test innings. But while Joe Root said afterwards he couldn’t fault Archer’s effort, he did hint that some spells were more…
Chris Gayle sets off for a quick single © CPL T20 via Getty Images Chris Gayle is not contemplating his future. He is planning it instead. Part of that plan is taking a “break” from cricket for the rest of 2019. Gayle will miss the ODIs against India in December after the selectors checked on his availability for the three-match series. Gayle will instead utilise the time to “recharge” and…
Rashid Khan sets off on a celebratory run, with Afsar Zazai in pursuit, after the last wicket 3:43 PM GMT “Six months back I could have told you about Afghanistan. Now I am with West Indies.” – Phil Simmons. Whatever insights West Indies’ coach had about the team he had coached from December 2017 till the end of the 2019 World Cup was clearly not meant for publication. If you…
Newlands has hosted the New Year’s Test 21 times since South Africa’s readmission 2:40 PM GMT Cricket South Africa has lost their arbitration case against the Western Province Cricket Association (WPCA), with costs. That means the WPCA board, which was suspended by CSA in September over concerns relating to their governance and financial affairs, will need to be reinstated. CSA is understood to be challenging the decision. On September 22,…
2:23 PM GMT Valkerie Baynes Maxine Blythin, the transgender cricketer who was recently named as Kent Women’s Player of the Year, has revealed she was shocked by the negative reaction towards her. Blythin, who was born with a condition that meant she failed to go through male puberty as an adolescent because her testosterone levels were too low, won the award in late September without major fanfare. But when controversial…
Ravi Shastri and MS Dhoni chat during a training session © Associated Press IPL 2020 is starting to look pretty important for Indian cricket with the head coach Ravi Shastri saying it could help finalise the squad for the T20 World Cup later that year – and whether MS Dhoni would be part of it. Speculation around Dhoni’s future has been endless ever since the 50-over World Cup ended in…
Former South Africa international Monde Zondeki is in contention to be convenor of selectors 12:14 PM GMT Patrick Moroney, the current convenor of selectors of the Jozi Stars in the MSL and a long-time administrator at the Gauteng Cricket Board (GCB), has emerged as the frontrunner to be appointed South Africa’s new convenor of selectors. Moroney was interviewed alongside former international Monde Zondeki and former convenor of selectors Linda Zondi,…