Gary Ballance has prepared for the season in impressive style © Getty Images Gary Ballance has confessed that losing his England place last summer hit him harder than he expected and he needed to consciously shut out critics he felt were “jumping on the bandwagon” in questioning his technique. Ballance was dropped after the first two Tests of the 2015 Ashes series following a run of faltering form in which…

Luke Fletcher is looking for bowling time at Derbyshire © PA Photos Luke Fletcher‘s impatience with his lack of opportunity at Nottinghamshire, increasingly evident last season, has resulted in him joining Derbyshire on a month’s loan. Fletcher, whose prowess in white-ball cricket has not translated recently into regular opportunities in Championship cricket, will be available for Derbyshire’s first five Specsavers Championship fixtures, starting with Sunday’s Division Two encopunter with Gloucestershire…

Adam Griffith took 169 first-class wickets © Getty Images Justin Langer will take his Western Australia assistant Adam Griffith to the Caribbean as Australia’s interim bowling coach while the search for a new full-time pace mentor intensifies. The triangular series in the West Indies, which will also feature South Africa, had been slated as Langer’s chance to step in as national coach while Darren Lehmann takes some time out at…

Tom Cooper and Mark Cosgrove have lost their South Australia contracts © Getty Images Experienced batsmen Mark Cosgrove and Tom Cooper have lost their contracts with South Australia after a summer in which neither man had a significant impact on the Sheffield Shield campaign. The 2015-16 season was one of regeneration for the Redbacks, who were runners-up in both the Shield final and the Matador Cup final, and were pleased…

Eighteen of the best international women’s cricketers from across the world will play in the Kia Super League this summer, after the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) today announced which overseas players will appear in the inaugural edition of the competition. Each of the six Kia Super League teams will field three overseas players in the round-robin T20 event in July and August, with the top performers from the recent ICC Women’s World…

Gujarat Lions 164 for 3 (Finch 50, McCullum 49, M Ashwin 2-31) beat Rising Pune Supergiants 163 for 5 (Du Plessis 69, Pietersen 37) by seven wicketsScorecard and ball-by-ball details Aaron Finch hit his second consecutive half-century of the season to help Gujarat to an easy win © BCCI Another one-sided encounter. Another win for the chasing team. This season’s IPL, it seems, is on repeat mode as Gujarat Lions…

Rahul Dravid on the drought situation: “If not having IPL will solve the problem, then we should stop playing cricket.” © Delhi Daredevils Reacting to the Bombay High Court’s order to shift 13 IPL matches out of drought-hit Maharashtra, former India captains Sunil Gavaskar and Rahul Dravid have said that cricket should not be mixed with such a serious issue. The High Court, on Wednesday, ordered that all IPL matches…