South Africa opener Reeza Hendricks fetched the highest bid of Rand 4.3 million at the SA20 auction ahead of the 2025 season. MI Cape Town won a fierce bidding war against Pretoria Capitals to scoop up the batter. Hendricks had a wretched T20 World Cup earlier this year and was released by Joburg Super Kings ahead of the auction, but his recent form – he had scored back-to-back half-centuries against…
Consistency, power-hitting, and confidence. Shafali Verma wants to combine the three things she has learnt at different stages of her career to take India to glory at the T20 World Cup next month. “I will draw inspiration from the Under-19 World Cup last year,” Shafali told ESPNcricinfo at a QUA brand shoot in Delhi recently. “Of course, it was a massive thing for women’s cricket in India that we won…
Liam Dawson has become the first domestic cricketer since 2018 to land the coveted PCA Men’s Player of the Year award, after a stellar allround season for Hampshire in which he claimed 71 wickets across all formats and scored 1,280 runs, to top the Overall MVP table by a considerable distance. Dawson succeeds last year’s winner, Harry Brook, with Jonny Bairstow (2022), Joe Root (2021), Chris Woakes (2020) and Ben…
Babar Azam has quit as Pakistan captain for the second time in less than a year, citing a desire to lessen his workload and focus on his batting. In a lengthy post on X, Babar said he had notified the PCB of his decision to quit the white-ball captaincy last month in an interest to “prioritise my performance, enjoy my batting, and spend quality time with my family”. “I have…
Tim Southee has stepped down as New Zealand’s Test captain following the series defeat in Sri Lanka, and will be replaced by Tom Latham for the tour of India, saying he believes it is in the best interests of the side. Southee led the team in 14 Tests with a record of six wins, sixes losses and two draws since taking over from Kane Williamson in 2022. New Zealand lost…
Pakistan captain Shan Masood stated that he has seen no signs of a lack of unity from his side during his tenure as captain, saying Pakistan needed to avoid the temptation of chopping and changing regularly. In a press conference ahead of the start of Pakistan’s three-match Test series against England at home, Masood also backed Babar Azam to come good, calling him “among the world’s best batters”. “Every captain…
In the aftermath of a match that forced India to play an extreme kind of Test cricket – scoring their first-innings runs at almost nine an over and declaring after 34.4 – to secure the result they wanted because of days lost to rain and poor drainage in Kanpur, there has been a heightened focus on whether Test match cricket in India needs to be held at only the major…
Hundred franchises could make players direct offers of multi-year contracts worth up to £300,000 per season, if an overhaul to the tournament’s draft system being considered by the ECB is approved. The board is also considering lobbying the UK’s Home Office to permit each team in the Hundred to field a fourth overseas player in the XI, an increase from the current limit of three. The ECB started the process…
Mumbai 237 for 4 (Rahane 86*, Sarfaraz 54*, Shreyas 57, Mukesh 3-60) vs Rest of India Three early wickets from Mukesh Kumar had Mumbai rattling at 37 for 3, but Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer and Sarfaraz Khan all stroked composed half-centuries, ensuring they ended day one of the Irani Trophy on the ascendancy. At stumps – after just 68 overs due to bad light – Mumbai were 237 for 4…
Rohit Sharma has said that India were willing to risk getting bowled out for a low score in the first innings in a bid to get a result from a pitch that “didn’t have much for the bowlers”. The second and the third days of the Kanpur Test did not see any action because of drizzle and wet outfield respectively. But thanks to clear weather on the last two days…