Cricket

Four months away from the T20 World Cup in Australia, a call over its postponement is still to be taken. The ICC will meet virtually yet again on Wednesday, as the sixteen competing nations wait for word on whether the event will go ahead or not. The improving health situation in Australia may raise hopes, but with international travel suspended, quarantine rules and extra expenditures involved, no crowds, and rusty cricketers, staging the big ticket event appears increasingly difficult. ICC’s own guidelines for

24 years ago on June 10, 1986, India registered its first Test victory against England at the iconic Lord’s Cricket Ground. The Kapil Dev-led Indian side pulled off what many Indian sides could not for 54 years. India had played its first Test match at Lord’s back in 1932 but it took them a long time to taste the success of victory. Captain Kapil Dev was the star of the show as he picked up five wickets in the match - four in

Pakistan have roped in Younis Khan and Mushtaq Ahmed as the batting and spin-bowling coaches respectively for the upcoming tour of England. Khan and Ahmed will join head coach Misbah-ul-Haq and bowling coach Waqar Younis for the tour - scheduled for August-September - comprising three Tests and as many T20Is. This is Khan's first appointment with the PCB since his retirement in 2017. The board was earlier interested in roping him in to work at the development level at the NCA but those

The International Cricket Council (ICC) have banned the usage of saliva to shine the ball as a precautionary measure for cricket to be played in the post-Covid-19 era. India legend Sachin Tendulkar and Australia bowling legend Brett Lee talked about the measures taken by the global cricket governing body and discussed how can cricket be kept more balanced and not let it tilt too much in the favour of batsmen. “It’s a tough call because it’s something which we have done during our

T20 cricket has been a hugely entertaining format of cricket for fans around the world. The format, due to this size and dynamics has helped cricket viewership reach new heights both in international and franchise cricket.. With more and more nations opting for the shortest format, the ICC T20I rankings has as many as 80 country teams. Shorter boundaries, bigger and better bats, records being broken almost at will have driven this format, which has attracted many new fans, thanks to the instant

India seems to have lapped up the 'Black Lives Matter' campaign but is Indian sport truly immune to the racism virus? Darren Sammy, two-time T20 World Cup-winning West Indies captain, revealed on Sunday that he faced racist taunts during his Indian Premier League (IPL) stint with Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2013 and 2014. "I just learnt what that 'kalu' meant when I played for Sunrisers in the IPL. They called me and (Thisara) Perera by that name. I thought it meant strong stallion. My

3 Test matches, 20 days, 2 venues and a bio-secure environment and cricket is finally set to make a comeback 4 months after cricket, and pretty much everything else, was ‘cancelled’ due to the coronavirus pandemic. England is leading the way and bringing international cricket back this July, with a 3-match Test series against the West Indies. But with nearly 3 lakh cases and almost 2000 new positive cases everyday, how is the ECB planning to pull off this series? Well, let’s start

Michael Holding, the broadcaster and former West Indies fast bowler, has said the decisions of Darren Bravo, Shimron Hetmyer and Keemo Paul to opt out of touring England were "unfortunate", if understandable because of concerns over the Covid-19 situation in the UK. Earlier this week, West Indies announced a 25-man party to travel for three rearranged Tests against England next month. CWI had previously given guarantees that players would not be forced to go on the tour if they were not comfortable with

Former India cricketer Yuvraj Singh posted a message on his Twitter account on Friday, apologizing for a comment he made on a live Instagram video chat with India opener Rohit Sharma that drew flak from critics who saw it as a casteist slur. “This is to clarify that I have never believed in any kind of disparity, be it on the basis of caste, colour, creed or gender. I have given and continue to spend my life for the welfare of people,” read his

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is discussing all the possible options to hold the 2020 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), even staging the event outside the country but as their last resort. “The board is looking at all options. If it comes to taking IPL out of India, it may happen but as the last option,” a source within BCCI told ANI. “If that’s the only option then we will consider it. We have done it in

The Haryana Police has initiated a probe against former India cricketer Yuvraj Singh after a lawyer complained against his alleged “casteist remarks” against Dalits. Hansi-based lawyer Rajat Kalsan has lodged a complaint with local police alleging that Yuvraj had passed a casteist remark against Dalits. Hansi Superintendent of Police Lokender Singh told The Indian Express that they had received the complaint on May 2. “We are investigating the matter. But nothing has been decided so far. No FIR has been registered yet,” he

On this day, in 1993, legendary Australian spinner Shane Warne stunned the cricket world with a delivery that bamboozled and impressed England batsman Mike Gatting at the same time. Warne got the ball for the first time at Manchester, his first ever on English soil. The pitch was damp and there were a few patches as well. Bowling over the wicket, Warne bowled a massive leg spinner which pitched way outside the leg stump and went on to hit the top of off

Cricket returns to competitive action in Australia this weekend with a T20 carnival in Darwin that marks an important milestone for the game amid the COVID-19 pandemic. And not only will cricket be back on the field, fans will also be in attendance. The CDU Top End T20 is a round-robin carnival that will see 15 games played across the Queen's Birthday long-weekend on June 6-8. The tournament will feature the seven Darwin Premier Grade clubs, with the eighth team an Invitational XI

Even as most bowlers around the world have been left sweating over his panel's decision to ban the use of saliva due to medical reasons in cricket post Covid-19, Anil Kumble has dropped in a couple of key words that may offer them succour: 'helpful pitches.' He feels it's not just pacers, but even spinners who could find themselves back in the game if they get "roughed up" surfaces. The ICC cricket committee, which is chaired by the leg spin great, has been

After paying tributes to Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble, it was Rahul Dravid’s turn to be at the receiving ends of VVS Laxman’s kind words. Laxman, who has shared Indian cricket’s most memorable partnership in Tests with Dravid – a 376-run stand against Australia at the historic Eden Gardens Test in 2001 – called his former India teammate the “ultimate team man” and the “most committed student.” “The game’s most committed student, Rahul was the ultimate team man, responding to every

After waiting and waiting for a resumption of international cricket following Covid-19, there is now a very real possibility that England captain Joe Root may miss the first Test against West Indies at the Ageas Bowl next month. His wife, Carrie, is due to give birth to their second child at the start of July and the first Test in Southampton will begin, subject to government approval, on July 8. Quite understandably, Root says he will be at the birth come what may

Virat Kohli and Steve Smith are undoubtedly two of the best batsmen going around in world cricket and on numerous occasions they have been pitted against each other by fans and pundits. The debate has raged on as to who is better and while that might take some time to be settled, one thing there is no debating about is that the duo have immense respect for each other. Virat Kohli has spoken about his admiration for Steve Smith, even gesturing to fans

Back in 2007, when the ultimate Indian Premier League (IPL) was not introduced, the 1983 World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev started a league named the Indian Cricket League (ICL). The former India skipper started ICL with a motive to bring all veteran international players under one roof. However, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) refused to recognize ICL as a cricket tournament and termed it as the rebel league. The apex cricketing body saw Kapil’s association with ICL as a

Kohli, 31, replaced Dhoni as Test captain in 2014-15 and took over the limited-overs reins in early 2017, becoming India’s all-format leader as well the team’s batting mainstay. Fielding in the slips, Kohli had easy access to wicket-keeper Dhoni and he felt their chats in between deliveries earned him the trust of the former skipper. “You start talking to the captain regularly,” Kohli told team-mate Ravichandran Ashwin in a chat on YouTube. “I was always in MS’s ear, standing next to him and

The ECB has welcomed the UK Government's go-ahead for the return of professional sport behind closed doors as it presses ahead with plans to host international cricket this summer, and stage a domestic season. In a further easing of lockdown restrictions imposed because of the Covid-19 pandemic, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Oliver Dowden announced government health and safety guidance on Saturday for elite athletes and professional sportspeople to return to competition in the absence of spectators from June