Month: January 2023

India batter Ajinkya Rahane is set to join Leicestershire for the English summer and will play eight County Championship matches and is available for the entirety of the Royal London One-Day competition. He joins Leicestershire’s overseas signings list for 2023, which has South Africa allrounder Wiaan Mulder, who has rejoined for all three formats, and Afghanistan quick Naveen-ul-Haq, who has signed for a third consecutive Vitality Blast campaign. The club…

Chandika Hathurusingha has joined the Bangladesh men’s national team as its head coach. Not long after Cricket New South Wales confirmed that Hathurusingha had parted ways with them, the BCB announced a two-year deal starting next month. It has, however, not been confirmed which formats Hathurusingha would be in charge of, with S Sriram also around and at the helm of the T20I side. Source: ESPN Crickinfo

Steven Smith has defended Australia’s decision to not play a tour game ahead of their upcoming four-match Test series in India, saying that during their last Test tour of the country in 2017, the tour game was played on a “greentop” that did not help them prepare for the kind of pitches they went on to face in the series. “We normally have two tour games over in England. This…

Big picture: Santner and Hardik impress India and New Zealand have travelled the length and breadth of the country for six games in 14 days and we are finally at the end, with the T20I series tied at 1-1. It’s time for one last push, and then please remember to put those tray tables in the upright and locked position. Winning a series here is hard work for a visiting…

Dane van Niekerk, South African captain, has not made the cut for South Africa’s T20 World Cup squad. Van Niekerk, who has not played international cricket since September 2021, did not meet Cricket South Africa’s fitness requirements and has been excluded on those grounds. Sune Luus will captain the squad at the tournament which starts next month. Luus has been leading the side in van Niekerk’s absence, including in the…

Brisbane Heat and Sydney Sixers have been left pondering the sizeable batting holes of their departed Test players ahead of Thursday’s clash at the SCG with a grand final spot up for grabs. The Heat trio sparked a resurgence with the team winning six of their last seven matches after being mired for much of the season near the bottom of the ladder. They each made important contributions in finals…

Though it’s not official yet, Chandika Hathurusingha looks set to return as the head coach of the Bangladesh national men’s team, with Cricket New South Wales confirming that he is leaving the position of assistant coach with them. The update follows media speculation in Bangladesh that the BCB has reached an agreement with Hathurusingha. BCB president Nazmul Hassan said on Monday that the new head coach – to replace Russell…

Though India won the game on Sunday with a ball to spare, the wicket received criticism from India captain Hardik Pandya, who called it a “shocker of a pitch”. New Zealand were restricted to 99 for 8 in 20 overs and India had a hard time chasing the small target, winning in 19.5 overs. Spinners bowled 30 of the 40 overs in a match that had zero sixes. Related ‘This…

Mickey Arthur and the PCB are close to agreeing a deal that will result in Arthur’s return to the Pakistan men’s side – but as team director and not, as previously, head coach. Talks between the two had ended three weeks ago when the PCB announced it was moving on in its search for a replacement for Saqlain Mushtaq, the outgoing Pakistan coach. The two sides had failed to reach…

Lancashire have signed New Zealand pair Daryl Mitchell and Colin de Grandhomme on contracts that will cover the the Vitality T20 Blast and the start of the LV= Insurance County Championship. In a sign of the changing landscape for overseas players in the county game, Mitchell and de Grandhomme will join the squad alongside Dane Vilas, the club’s long-serving South African batter, who stood down last week as club captain…