Cricket

9:28 AM GMT Greg Barclay, the new ICC chairman, has declared the “unsustainable” global cricket calendar needs to be fundamentally examined and effectively rejected the suite of global events put to market by the governing body’s chief executive Manu Sawhney earlier this year. In a strong initial statement of intent, Barclay told ESPNcricinfo that the

11:13 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Colin de Grandhomme has been ruled out of the Test series against West Indies due to bone bruising to his right foot and left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel will miss the opening match as he continues to recover from a calf injury. Allrounder Daryl Mitchell, who made his Test debut against

2:40 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Cricket West Indies (CWI) board director Dr Akshai Mansingh and Paul Slowe, the board’s security manager, will visit Dhaka and Chattogram next week to inspect the BCB’s bio-security plans and health protocols in the country. The news comes following CWI president Ricky Skerritt’s statement that West Indies are keen to

8:22 AM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff It’s almost inevitable now that the build-up to a Test series involving Australia will heavily feature Steven Smith and the challenge of bowling to him. Smith has himself spoken of the possibility that India will look to bowl persistently short at him – a method that brought Neil Wagner success

Darren Bravo swivels into a pull © Getty Images Darren Bravo believes “it’s about time” he started scoring runs for West Indies again, having endured a lean patch coming into the tour of New Zealand. Bravo began the tour well, with a century in the first warm-up match against New Zealand A in Queenstown, and

2:01 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Mohammed Siraj, who opted to stay on with the India squad in Australia after his father died recently in Hyderabad, said the words of his mother and captain Virat Kohli helped him make the decision. “In this situation, the way the whole team has supported me felt very nice,” Siraj

5:35 AM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff David Warner believes Rohit Sharma‘s absence during the white-ball leg of the Australia tour is a big loss for India, but at the same time, he also thinks the visitors have got enough in-form replacements. Sharma is currently recovering from a hamstring injury he suffered during IPL 2020 and has

11:42 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Alex Carey has confirmed his future with the Adelaide Strikers after signing a four-year deal with the club. He is the Strikers’ third-highest run-scorer in the BBL, behind Travis Head and Jake Weatherald, and will be in line to captain the team for a large part of the tournament with

2:45 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff International opportunities have been few lately for Olly Stone – injuries have seen to that – so he is keen to grab the next one that comes along, hopefully for him, in next month’s ODI series against South Africa. It has been more than two years since Stone played the

7:07 AM GMT Alex Malcolm Steven Smith will have no issues if the Indian bowlers try to attack him with short-pitch bowling in both the limited-overs and Test series, according to Australia’s assistant coach Andrew McDonald. Smith himself has encouraged India to pepper him in Test cricket but McDonald thinks they may well try it

7:24 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Sam Billings has described England’s white-ball set-up as among the “hardest sports teams to get into in the world” after making an encouraging start to his South Africa tour by striking a 43-ball half-century in the opening intra-squad warm-up match in Cape Town. Billings has been an irregular starter in

2:21 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff The seniority of Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Wahab Riaz and Mohammad Amir has resulted in the PCB agreeing to offer the quartet of non-contracted players preferential treatment. It sees all of them paid Category A match fees for representing Pakistan in any format. This is in direct departure from the

6:40 AM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Opinion has been sharply divided since the Big Bash League announced its new innovations: Power Surge, X-Factor and Bash Boost. Some have called them just gimmicks, others genuinely good ideas. Marcus Stoinis thinks they are “exciting” and will make captains and coaches busier than before, simply because “there’s going to

4:46 PM GMT India fast bowler Mohammed Siraj, who is in Australia with the Indian squads for the upcoming four-Test series, lost his father Mohammed Ghouse on Friday in India. Ghouse was 53 and lost the battle to a lung ailment. It has been learnt that Siraj won’t return for the last rites in Hyderabad

1:31 PM GMT A second South Africa player has tested positive for Covid-19 ahead of the white-ball series against England. The player has been removed from the team’s biosecure base in Cape Town, taking the number of players self-isolating from the squad to four. According to CSA, none of the 24-man squad came into contact

7:20 AM GMT Andrew Fidel Fernando Canada batsman Ravinderpal Singh has tested positive for Covid-19 after arriving in Sri Lanka for the Lanka Premier League (LPL) and has been isolated for treatment. Although he traveled in the same flight and bus as several other players including Andre Russell, Ravinderpal’s positive test will not have an

7:06 PM GMT Peter Della PennaCricket Close Peter Della Penna is an American cricket journalist who also writes for ESPNcricinfo.com and DreamCricket.com. Since 2010, he has penned the USA entry in the Cricket Round the World section of the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack.Follow Peter on Twitter @PeterDellaPenna USA Cricket has announced that its commercial T20 franchise league partner,

12:43 PM GMT Daniel Brettig Close Assistant editor, ESPNcricinfo Assistant editor Daniel Brettig had been a journalist for eight years when he joined ESPNcricinfo, but his fascination with cricket dates back to the early 1990s, when his dad helped him sneak into the family lounge room to watch the end of day-night World Series matches