12:15 AM IST Quinton de Kock and Laura Wolvaardt were named South Africa’s Men’s and Women’s Cricketer of the Year respectively at CSA’s annual awards ceremony, held virtually on Saturday night. Both players also scooped up two other awards, with de Kock winning Test cricketer of the year and men’s players’ player of the year and Wolvaardt winning ODI cricketer of the year and women’s player’s player of the year….
10:31 PM IST The omission of Jonny Bairstow and Moeen Ali from England’s 21-man Test party to take on West Indies was in part a reflection of their importance in white-ball cricket, rather than a statement on the current pecking order, according to Ed Smith, the ECB’s national selector. Smith confirmed that both players would move over to the “white-ball bubble” in the coming days, suggesting it made sense to…
8:36 PM IST Shamarh Brooks has backed the preparations of West Indies’ batsmen as being good enough to “bring success” in the series against England, despite assistant coach Roddy Estwick admitting to concern about the form of the top order going into the Tests. A likely top five of Kraigg Brathwaite, John Campbell, Brooks, Shai Hope and Roston Chase managed just 29 runs between them in West Indies’ second intra-squad…
3:29 PM IST England have opted for continuity ahead of the first Test against West Indies, with every member of their 13-man squad having featured on the tour of South Africa earlier this year. That means Joe Denly is set to retain his place in the batting line-up, while the main decisions will revolve around the make-up of the pace attack. Jofra Archer and Mark Wood, both of whom impressed…
7:16 AM IST An ugly pay dispute between Cricket Australia and the players’ union appears to have been averted, after the two parties agreed to defer revenue calculations until there is a clearer picture of the Covid-19 toll on the forthcoming season. CA had previously sought a significant reduction in the amount of money to be distributed into the player payment pool negotiated with the Australian Cricketers Association (ACA) as…
Chuck it to the sweatiest man! – Pope on saliva-less swing (0:59) Ollie Pope jokes about how England will get the ball swinging when they face the West Indies (0:59) 12:42 AM IST Matt Roller Close Matt Roller is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets at @mroller98 Ollie Pope has insisted that England are ready for the challenge of facing a fiery West Indian pace attack next week, despite…
Jul 1, 2020 Team Stokes 233 and 157 for 4 (Bairstow 39, Sibley 38) drew with Team Buttler 287 for 5 dec and 200 for 6 dec (Pope 55 not out) England’s final preparations for the long-awaited return of Test cricket were boosted on and off the field on Friday, with Sam Curran testing negative for Covid-19 and a handful of key batsmen spending important time at the crease. Curran’s…
10:37 PM IST ESPNcricinfo staff Worcestershire have announced that Hamish Rutherford will fly to England to play for them in the T20 Blast this year, but have cancelled Ashton Turner‘s contract to play in the competition. Rutherford had initially signed to play all formats this summer, but will only play in the Blast after the postponement of so much of the county season. The ECB will announce which formats will…
A batsman plays a shot in the shadow of Glastonbury Tor © Andrew Miller Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister, says he is committed to getting recreational cricket cleared for a resumption in time for “next weekend”, after backtracking from his latest comments doubting the safety of the sport in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. Addressing the nation in the government’s daily briefing, Mr Johnson claimed that “the third…
8:16 PM IST Matt Roller Close Matt Roller is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets at @mroller98 The ECB have confirmed that two overseas players will be permitted per side in all county competitions next season. Previously, only one overseas player had been permitted in the County Championship and the Royal London Cup. The change has been anticipated for some time, after the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) confirmed in…