Cricket

1:27 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Surrey have cancelled Australian seamer Michael Neser‘s contract, making him the first player to miss out on his overseas deal due to the coronavirus pandemic. Neser had been due to play the first half of Surrey’s County Championship campaign, but with the English season suspended at least until May 28

11:02 AM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Did Australia go “a lot softer” on India during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2018-19 at home? Michael Clarke believes so, and feels the IPL, where players from around the world earn big bucks, made Tim Paine’s men “too scared” to sledge Virat Kohli and Co in the series the visitors

5:52 AM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Robin Uthappa, who last played for India in July 2015 on a tour of Zimbabwe, believes he “still has a World Cup” left in him, and is targeting a comeback to the Indian team in the T20 format. Uthappa, 34, has played 46 ODIs and 13 T20Is, and was part

4:01 PM GMT Big picture It has become a bit of a trend to have one of the showpieces matches of the World Cup around one month into the tournament. From a logistics and broadcasting point of view it makes sense: either India v Pakistan injects new life into a tournament that might be flagging

2:44 PM GMT Dane Paterson, the seamer who made his Test debut for South Africa in the 2019-20 summer, has ended his career in his home country and intends to play professionally in England from this season. Paterson could be left in limbo, however, after an interview to confirm his Kolpak deal with Nottinghamshire, scheduled

7:35 AM GMT After announcing his retirement from first-class cricket, Steve O’Keefe has implored for spinners in the Australian domestic game to be given more of a chance to shine as a “matter of urgency” if the national team is serious about becoming a force in the subcontinent. O’Keefe, the New South Wales left-arm spinner

1:09 PM GMT India 287 for 8 (Sidhu 93, Jadeja 45, Mushtaq 2-56) beat Pakistan 248 for 9 (Sohail 55, Prasad 3-45, Kumble 3-48) by 39 runs Pakistan’s reign as World Champions has come to an end at the hands of their bitterest rivals, after the most richly anticipated clash of the 1996 World Cup

3:21 AM GMT Steve O’Keefe, statistically the best fingerspinner in Australian domestic cricket since Ashley Mallett, has ended his Sheffield Shield career following New South Wales’ decision not to offer him a contract for next summer. Not since Mallett’s 344 wickets at 23.75 for South Australia and Western Australia in the 1960s, 70s and early

Apr 4, 2020 With the English domestic season in great danger of being completely lost, the impact will be felt well beyond the UK’s borders. Several Pakistani cricketers rely on the English season for their livelihood, playing league cricket there and coaching for various clubs in England. A cancellation will hurt them financially. More than

10:50 AM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff With the COVID-19 pandemic locking the world down, cricket around the globe has been indefinitely stalled. Among the high-profile ones to be affected is the 13th season of the IPL. Though the chances of the tournament taking place this year is increasingly looking bleak, Kevin Pietersen is hoping for it

6:26 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff England’s centrally-contracted men’s players have donated £500,000 to the ECB and selected good causes, while the England women’s squad has volunteered salary reductions for the months of April, May and June, in response to the COVID-19 outbreak and the implications for the finances of English cricket. The move had been

3:17 PM GMT Wasim Akram and Darren Gough are among the latest cricketing personalities attempting to combat the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The pair have both promised items of memorabilia to be auctioned on behalf of the Centre for Disaster Philanthropy who have set up a COVID-19 Response Fund. Akram, Pakistan’s highest wicket-taker

3:26 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff West Indies Under-19s’ tour of the UK, slated to run from August 16 to September 3, has been postponed due to “scheduling clashes”. The initial schedule had included one T20, three List A games and two youth Tests. “The situation is an unfortunate one as we had planned for the

1:56 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Wasim Khan has said that the PCB’s “first point of call” is to ensure that the knockout stages of the 2020 PSL can be played at some point, following speculation that Multan Sultans might be awarded the trophy after topping the group stage. Speaking to ESPNcricinfo’s Stump Mic podcast, Wasim,

6:43 AM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff The COVID-19 pandemic has forced New Zealand Cricket (NZC) to cancel the women’s tour of Sri Lanka later this month, while the men’s tour of the Caribbean in June-July looks “most unlikely.” There is also a shadow over their tours to Netherlands, Scotland and Ireland this summer. “Clearly, this situation

9:45 PM GMT Warwickshire have donated their Edgbaston stadium for the use of the NHS in a bid to help in the battle against COVID-19. The ground – more specifically, the car park – will be used as a drive-through testing centre for NHS staff. Those requiring tests will drive in through the Edgbaston Road

1:46 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Construction work on the new Compton and Edrich stands at Lord’s is to continue, despite the UK’s ongoing lockdown in response to the COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) outbreak. The MCC has extended its closure of the ground until the end of May, as well as cancelling a planned AGM. Chief executive,

10:54 PM GMT Tony Lewis, the former university lecturer whose name will forever be synonymous with cricket’s convoluted Duckworth-Lewis rain rules, has died at the age of 78. An unlikely star of world cricket, Lewis was propelled to fame in 1999 when his complex formula, devised in conjunction with his fellow mathematician Frank Duckworth, was