Month: January 2025

Former Australia wicketkeeper, vice-captain and long-time cricket administrator Christina Matthews has been inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame, receiving her award prior to the opening day of the historic women’s Ashes Test at the MCG. Matthews has played the most Test matches for Australia, 20, and is equal sixth all-time globally and has effected the most dismissals in women’s Test history with 58 in a career that spanned…

Australia won the toss and chose to bowl against England Alyssa Healy is fit to play the historic women’s Ashes Test at the MCG and Georgia Voll makes her Test debut as Australia chose to bowl first on a green pitch after winning the toss. England have opted to play three seamers and one spinner with Charlie Dean missing out while Sophia Dunkley returns at No.5 to bolster the batting…

There was a 57 at the MCG, and a 41 in the New Year Test, but otherwise it had been a dry few months for Usman Khawaja. He’d not only averaged just 20.44 across 10 innings in the Border Gavaskar Trophy, he’d only crossed fifty twice in Tests in 2024. But he’d had a message from coach Andrew McDonald: ‘Get on the Sri Lanka tour’. Now, Khawaja has struck 147…

England U19s 299 (Farhan 90, Home 63, Mokoena 5-61, Daniels 4-49) and 336 for 9 dec (Rew 71, Home 60*, Vaughan 44, Fonseka 43, Mason 5-111) drew with South Africa U19s 319 (Rowles 90, Bulbulia 88, Farhan 4-78) and 295 for 9 (Bulbulia 114, Farhan 5-103) Farhan Ahmed was the star again with a five-wicket haul but it was not enough as England Men U19s fell one wicket short of…

The fixtures for the fifth season of the Hundred have been announced by the ECB, with the tournament set to open with a double-header between London rivals London Spirit and Oval Invincibles at Lord’s on August 5. Invincibles, the defending men’s champions, and Spirit, the defending women’s champions, are also expected to be the most sought-after franchises in the Hundred equity sale, which gets underway on Thursday, when Invincibles and…

Kuldeep Yadav has been named in Uttar Pradesh’s (UP) squad for their Ranji Trophy match against Madhya Pradesh (MP) at the Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore, starting on Thursday. Kuldeep is making a return after a hernia surgery and hasn’t played competitive cricket since October 2024. His last outing for India was the first Test against New Zealand in Bengaluru. While both UP and MP are out of the knockouts…

Cricket’s global player union has called for the introduction of “basic global protections” to ensure franchise leagues pay players on time. The World Cricketers’ Association (WCA) say that long-standing issues around late payments are “not getting better” but fear that cricket is incapable of “solving transnational issues” under its current structure. Late payments have become a familiar feature of the franchise circuit, particularly outside of the top handful of leagues…

England legspinner Adil Rashid has reclaimed the top spot in the ICC rankings for T20I bowlers, after his consistent performances in the first three games against India helped the visitors keep the series alive. Rashid starred with frugal figures of 1 for 15 from overs in the third game in Rajkot to register a 26-run win for his side. Prior to that, he had finished with 1 for 14 and…

Global cricket needs to move away from “random and inconsistent,” outbursts of support for Afghanistan’s exiled women’s cricketers and towards a “systematic global approach.” That’s the view of the global player body, the World Cricketers Association (WCA) whose CEO Tom Moffat has called the exclusion of women’s players in any country “unacceptable.” In the same week that an Afghan Women’s XI will come together for the first time to play…

For Afghanistan’s women cricketers, their first competitive match since escaping oppression in their home country represents a significant step in their sporting journey – although the path ahead may not be the one they envisaged before. Thursday’s T20 against Cricket Without Borders at Junction Oval falls on the same day as the start of the day-night Women’s Ashes Test at the nearby MCG and is a platform for them to…