Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to bat first vs England Ollie Pope lost the toss in his first Test as England captain, but got the result he was looking for anyway, as Sri Lanka chose to bat first in the opening Test at Emirates Old Trafford. With the weather set fair for this opening day at least, Dhananjaya de Silva opted to take first use of what Pope…
Toss Bangladesh chose to bowl vs Pakistan With the expectation of early moisture for his fast bowlers to exploit on a well-grassed Rawalpindi pitch, Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto chose to bowl as the first Test got off to a delayed start. Pakistan captain Shan Masood said he would have preferred to bowl first too. Bangladesh picked three quicks and two spin-bowling allrounders in Shakib Al Hasan and Mehidy Hasan…
Zaheer Khan is in talks with Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) for a mentorship role, with the franchise keen on bringing in a top former India player well-versed with T20 cricket to have a strong presence within their coaching setup following the departure of Gautam Gambhir. Two other franchises are understood to have been keen on bringing on board Zaheer, who was until recently head of global development at Mumbai Indians…
Faruque Ahmed has been elected the BCB president after Nazmul Hassan resigned from the post during a board meeting in Dhaka on Wednesday. Faruque joined the BCB directors’ meeting after the National Sports Council (NSC) nominated him and Nazmul Abedeen Fahim as their directors in the board. The NSC had replaced their incumbent directors Jalal Yunus and Ahmed Sajjadul Alam with Fahim and Faruque; Yunus resigned on Monday but Alam…
The Northern Territory has set its sights on Australia’s white-ball series against South Africa next winter as their chance to end a 16-year wait for international cricket in Darwin. Since then, two drop-in wickets have been installed at the ICC-accredited TIO Stadium and the Top End T20 series launched, as part of the all-year Cricket 365 branding in the Territory. The Top End series last week brought in four Big…
A return to Test cricket is at the forefront of Nic Maddinson‘s mind, as he looks to bring last season’s strong finish in the Sheffield Shield to New South Wales after his winter return home, while he also hopes to reignite his T20 career after completing a double switch by joining Sydney Thunder. Those performances stood out in a Shield season where runs were hard to come by and started…
England’s players will pay tribute to the late Graham Thorpe before the start of their Test series against Sri Lanka, which starts in Manchester on Wednesday. Thorpe took his own life at the age of 55 on August 4, after suffering from what his widow Amanda described as “major depression and anxiety”. He was one of England’s greatest batters, averaging 44.66 in a 100-match Test career, and was later their…
Sri Lanka 123 for 2 (Samarawickrama 48*, Athapaththu 48, Canning 1-14) beat Ireland 122 (Kelly 35, Athapaththu 3-15, Kulasuriya 3-35, Nisansala 2-35) by eight wickets Chamari Athapaththu and Harshitha Samarawickrama made it a canter for Sri Lanka in the tour-ending third and final ODI against Ireland in Belfast, but their job was made simple by a strong bowling performance led by Achini Kulasuriya. Kulasuriya took three as Ireland, who had…
Dhananjaya de Silva, Sri Lanka’s captain, has revealed that his team wanted to play more than one warm-up match before their Test series against England but were denied the chance to do so. Sri Lanka lost by seven wickets in their four-day, first-class match against an inexperienced England Lions team at New Road last week. They were bowled out for 139 on the opening day but grew into the match,…
The Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 has been moved out of Bangladesh and will now be held in the UAE. The venue was changed following the countrywide anti-government agitations in Bangladesh through July and early August, which ended when Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister, resigned and fled to India. An interim government has been put in place by the army since, but widespread incidents of vandalism and looting, as well…