The cricket world has rarely been in such flux - but, even as franchise cricket and T20 surges, the ODI World Cup remains the trophy that players worldwide covet above all else
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Tim Wigmore
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Look forward to seeing more cricket between evenly-matched sides when India meet Scotland and Namibia later in the Super 12s
AB de Villiers survived 220 balls for 33 to save the Adelaide Test in 2012 - and then thumped 169 off 184 to help win the Perth Test a week later.
The batter who could do everything; a player of incredible range, skill and versatility.
Cricket for the sake of broadcasting obligations and this is what you get
Varun Chakravarthy's journey - from making his debut in the Tamil Nadu Premier League, aged 25, to being in India's World Cup squad 4 years later - is remarkable.
It shows how the IPL, and the state T20 leagues beneath it, are democratising Indian cricket.
Tim David is going to be very in demand in the IPL auction - essentially, in the Kieron Pollard role. And hard to think he won’t be in Australia’s team come this year’s T20 World Cup
The lengths that India will go to just to make sure R Ashwin doesn't play a Test this series
Jasprit Bumrah - an absolute artist. And, with all the talk about how T20 can hinder players in Test cricket, illustrates how the very best players bring in T20 skills to enhance their Test game
With Jonny Bairstow, Liam Livingstone & Odean Smith, Punjab Kings have a very clear identity with the bat: prioritising six-hitting, the same method Birmingham Phoenix used with the same analyst - Dan Weston - in the Hundred
England are 24-4. And they say Test and T20 cricket are different sports
Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad and Chris Woakes in the 1st innings at Adelaide in 2017: 88-20-230-4
Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad and Chris Woakes in the 1st innings at Adelaide in 2021: 78.4-22-234-4
Four years of Ashes planning to get... nowhere at all.
Two new IPL teams going for $950 ml and $710m is a reminder of the IPL's clout and why owners love it: with no relegation and a bumper media deal, you can make a profit without even winning - just like US sports league, which the IPL was modelled on
Before this year no one had ever got 53 off the last 3 overs to win an IPL game. Thanks to Andre Russell, KKR have done that twice already - both *easily* in the end. Russell is redefining what is attainable - and considered normal - in T20.
England all out for under 200 for the 13th time in Test cricket in 2021, in 28 innings
West Indies have come to a country with one of the highest COVID-19 death rates in the world, and helped save English cricket £280 million this summer.
Time for England to show their thanks for supporting West Indies's pleas for away teams to get 20% of broadcasting rights
In the last decade, playing India away is up there with the greatest challenges ever in Test cricket.
Since 2013 India won 35 out of 43 home Tests, losing just two - and 15 of those wins have been by an innings.
Afghanistan, the most compelling team in world cricket, tie with India. 10 years ago Afghanistan were playing with Japan and Botswana.
England's misuse of Jofra Archer has been incredible. Flogged for 82 overs in back-to-back Tests in New Zealand in 2019 - a series not even part of the World Test Championship. Archer - and England - are still suffering from it
How a 17-year-old from Bangalore became a performance analyst for Dundee United. He works from his bedroom in India and has never been to Scotland
's unlikely story and the changing face of football scouting
Gujarat Titans qualifying for the IPL final with 2 Afghans and one Irish player in their XI shows the best of the IPL, and franchise cricket: how it has democratised the game and provided opportunities that the international game rarely has
As disappointing as they've been, Afghanistan should have beaten Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan - which, considering they had played *0* ODIs in England before the World Cup, gives some indication of the talent they possess and what they could achieve with better governance.
The £2.1 million bonus awarded to the ECB's top officials this summer looks more incredible by the day
South Africa going out on net run rate with 4 wins from 5 games is very rough.
A simple tweak to stop this happening would be the top team getting to the semi-finals, and second and third teams playing off in quarter-finals to join them. Would be two extra knockout games too
Sikandar Raza's World Cup so far: 5 matches, 145 runs at a strike rate of 149, 8 wickets at 12, 3 player of the match awards
England have now lost a combined 13-0 across the last 3 Ashes series in Australia.
For all the hype, the Ashes down under has been consistently abject as a spectacle. It's hard to call it elite sport - or argue it justifies 5 matches - when one side are consistently so poor
An understrength Bangladesh beating New Zealand - world Test champions, unbeaten in 17 Tests at home, winning 8 of those by an innings - in New Zealand will be one of the great Test match upsets
Weird dynamic but if India win too quickly it might actually damage their chances of progression.
If Afghanistan need to beat NZ by say 30-40 runs just to get ahead on NRR, may play in such a risky way that there's less chance of them winning than if they only need a 1 run win
No deciding third Test is such a shame: making all Test series in the World Test Championship 3 matches would be a great way to help Test cricket.
Very few players have had more impact on T20 than Chris Gayle, the Bradman of T20.
Has scored 22 centuries; the next best is 8.
Has hit 1043 sixes; the next best is 760.
A phenomenon
It shouldn't be impossible for England, with their financial resources and playing pool, to be v competitive in both Tests and limited-overs cricket.
New Zealand have far less $ and only 5 million people, but are World Test champions and reached the last 2 World Cup finals
First Nepal player in the IPL; first day of Test cricket for Ireland. What a day for world cricket
From 150-2, with two set batters on a good batting wicket and no Pat Cummins or Josh Hazlewood, you can make a very strong case that England losing their last 8 wickets for 86 was their single most disappointing passage of play of this Ashes series yet
Their annual revenue is less than Surrey County Cricket Club. They have the smallest population of any of the 12 Test nations.
The New Zealand model: how New Zealand reached consecutive World Cup finals, and number 2 in the Test rankings
Since 2018, Babar Azam averages more than anyone else in Test cricket. He also averages over 50 in ODIs and T20Is
A piece on why Azam is special
New Zealand-South Africa ending in a 1-1 draw feels like a good illustration of why it would be better if all series in the World Test Championship were 3 matches
Emma Raducanu winning 10 straight matches without losing a set to win the US Open - 3 qualifiers and 7 matches in the main draw - in her second ever Grand Slam is one of the great sports stories
Rachin Ravindra batting 91 balls undefeated in the fourth innings to save a Test in India on debut is a serious effort
Rishabh Pant batting, so must be time for everyone to take apart the method of a guy with a Test average of 44
Marco Jansen: 21, 6ft 8in, a left-armer, good pace and already being picked as no 7 in Test cricket.
Has the making of an immense cricketer for South Africa
Missing 8 players - who are playing county cricket instead - Netherlands match West Indies's 374 and then thump them in the Super Over of the World Cup qualifiers. Absolutely extraordinary win
Croatia, with 4 million people, the smallest country to reach the World Cup final since Uruguay in 1950
Since Jimmy Anderson turned 35, he has taken 24 wickets at 23.83 in Australia. Phenomenal.
Another brilliant 5th day Indian win in London.
On the two grounds that have offered the least seam and swing, India have beaten England by over 150 runs.
India are a better team in all-conditions; England need extreme home conditions to close the gap
Think Pakistan may ultimately rue the World Cup the most.
Outstanding in their group and in control until the final 4 overs against Australia.
Their batting line-up doesn’t seem that suited to Australia next year, when teams will need 180+.
Incredible moment for Namibia - country with five cricket pitches who have now won their first game in the Super 12s.
Have such a clear gameplan and role clarity.
Channel 4 will be using Mambo Number 5 in the credits for the India-England Test series
The rest of this Test will go a long way to determining the legacy of this Indian Test side. If they can win in South Africa, following the twin victories in Aus (and 2-1 in Eng) furthers their claims to being among the best Test teams ever, just below 80-95 WI and 95-07 Aussies
Would be a lot of complaining about the pitch/conditions if England were 78 all out on the first morning in India, to judge by reactions to England being 112 all out at Ahmedabad in February
One short is one of cricket's really odd rules - if you're one short on a 2 you haven't actually completed either run properly
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Russell now has 207 runs from 77 balls at an average of 103.50 this IPL season.
Threatening to put together a season that changes T20 forever.
Shakib is a remarkable cricketer: the only player in the World Cup who could claim to be both his team's best batsman and best bowler. An absolute titan
Afghanistan sacking Afghan, their captain for 4 years, and replacing him with Gulbadin on the brink of the World Cup, was remarkable. That's the sadness of Afghanistan's World Cup campaign: politics has dragged the team down, and they're performing under themselves.
So much talk about no Ashes Tests in August but, with no Premier League football for 6 weeks and relatively low British prospects in Wimbledon, an incredible opportunity for cricket to dominate the sports landscape over the next 6 weeks.
The summer when England lost the Ashes without really losing, and New Zealand lost the World Cup final without really losing
Cricket World Cup final leads to an ICC rule change: from now on, Super Over repeated until one team scores more runs. Had those rules been in place for 2019 final, would have been another Super Over
From averaging 14 for Yorkshire and being dropped by India to three centuries in a Test series in Australia. Remarkable turnaround in five months for Che Pujara
Another sensational Ashes Test.
England’s two returning players make all the difference.
Chris Woakes with 6-141 in the match, Mark Wood with 7-100 - and they’re together at the end scoring the winning runs. Hard to leave out either at Old Trafford
Japan's record in the Rugby World Cup until 2015: played 24, won one. Now an amazing asset for their sport.
This is exactly the sort of drama cricket's 10 team World Cup misses
James Anderson is the first fast bowler aged 37 or over to get a 5-fer for England since 1951
The Big Three have had the temerity to say there's no gap in the calendar for an extra 2-week ODI tournament every 4 years. Now plan an extra 2-week ODI tournament among themselves every year
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The proposed 'Super Series' between 
and a fourth team could become an annual affair
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and a fourth team could become an annual affair
es.pn/2PS8H0FShane Watson - the only man to twice be IPL man of the tournament, and now a centurion in an IPL final - is one of the greatest T20 cricketers of all time
Don't think Associate cricket has ever had a better advert than this week.
All teams have brought a lot - and won at least one game; no side has been undefeated; cricket has been cutthroat and of good quality.
It has been a great advert for the 20-team World Cup coming in 2024
Jimmy Anderson averages 23 in the Ashes and 22 since the start of 2020. He’s been dropped when there are no real signs that he’s a diminished force.
Yes, he’s 39 but this feels a textbook case of dropping bowlers for batting failings
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Exclusive: James Anderson left out of England squad for West Indies tour, reports @NHoultCricket telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2022/0
Scotland beat Afghanistan, tie with Zimbabwe and only lose to West Indies because of no DRS.
They played 4 ODIs v Test teams in 4 years and get 1/8th the ICC funding Zimbabwe get.
And ICC say World Cup cut because there aren't enough competitive teams
If New Zealand lose, selection of Ajaz Patel - who has only been trusted to bowl two overs - over Neil Wagner could be said to have cost them the game
Ridiculous achievement from Netherlands, overcoming absence of 8 players - mostly not released by counties - to qualify ahead of 3 Test nations for the ODI World Cup in India
Yes his approach is high risk and his dismissals can look terrible. But, aged 24, Rishabh Pant has already scored centuries in Australia, England and South Africa.
He's an incredible talent. What you get in return for those infuriating dismissals is well worth it
Rashid Khan in the BBL this season: 2-22, 2-22, 2-19, 2-18 and 2-21. This is why he's so good
Chasing 240, against a fine attack on a very tricky wicket to win by 7 wickets - that's an outstanding victory by South Africa. At 1-1 with a decider to come, all set up to be a classic series
One Test of South Africa-India has already offered more on field drama - real, not manufactured - than five Ashes Tests
Adam Milne only conceding 7 from the last 10 balls. New Zealand picking Tim Southee over Milne for the T20 World Cup looking ever-more bizarre
Six games into the T20 World Cup, Mark Watt has still not conceded a-run-a-ball all tournament - even though he often bowls an over at the death.
1-13 against New Zealand is an outstanding return.
Watt will surely now get a county deal for next season, and perhaps other gigs
Mitchell Marsh has an Ashes 5-fer before Pat Cummins has ever got one. There is no justice
ICC considering 2 major steps to manage T20 leagues:
🔵Limit of 4 overseas players from Test nations in each 11
🔵All T20 leagues required to give national boards 10% of the fee they will pay each player
Big implications for leagues, especially ILT20
Nepal get one-day international status. Thats a hell of a story for world cricket. Done it while their board is suspended from the ICC too
Exclusive: Channel 4 sign Ebony Rainford-Brent as a pundit for the second India-England Test and will use two in-studio pundits for the last 3 Tests
The Super League represents the Americanisation of football: a world in which, however much you lose on the field, you are guaranteed to win off it.
Businesses loathe the meritocracy, jeopardy and randomness of sport. So the Super League removes these
England have beaten the West Indies in one series away for 54 years. Winning this time has just become a lot harder
For India, their Test team feels near the end of a cycle.
Has been a brilliant era - impregnable at home, with those amazing moments in Australia.
But with 2 World Test Championship final defeats, 2 narrow defeats in SA and the 2-2 in Eng, also sense of missed opportunities
New Zealand the only side to reach the semi-finals of the last T20 World Cup, ODI World Cup and the final of the World Test Championship (which they won).
With the smallest population of the 12 Test nations, remain a model for how to run the game in a country
Shakib Al Hasan has now reached 40 in 7 innings out of 7 this World Cup. 516 runs at 103.20 so far, plus 11 wickets. Phenomenal tournament from Bangladesh's greatest ever cricketer
Hat-trick to end an outstanding World Cup for Josh Little: 7-59 from 11 overs against England, Australia and New Zealand.
Aged 23, with left-arm angle, height, swing and ability to bowl over and around - and in all 3 phases - will get plenty of chances in T20 leagues
Dwayne Bravo, who thumped 23 off 8 balls for CSK today, will probably be batting at 9 for the West Indies in the T20 World Cup.
Absurd - perhaps even unprecedented - batting depth in the WI line-up.
Each Test he plays in Jimmy Anderson runs 40km. He has bowled 32,359 balls in Test cricket, 2,000 more than any other quick. He is about to play his 150th Test; no other quick has played more than 134.
The art and science of Anderson's longevity
telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2019/1
India losing 4-1 in England in 2018 was a huge missed opportunity. To be defeated this time - after 2 months in England before the first Test, and then going 1-0 up - would be an even bigger one
Scotland now played 2, won 2 v Bangladesh in T20s. The two games were 9 years apart which sums up the lack of opportunities historically for Associates.
But with T20 World Cup moving to every 2 years and expanding to 20 teams, and ODI WC moving to 14 teams, landscape is changing
India missed chances in South Africa and - especially - England but a first Test series win in Australia is the one they wanted most of all.
This is a flawed era of Test cricket, but India indisputably the standout side
No Test team has won their first Test since 1877, and none have come closer than Ireland.
Scotland want to join the T20 Blast from 2024.
In the year between T20 World Cups Scotland played only 2 T20s - joining the Blast would be an excellent way to play more competitive cricket
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England's victory in India in 2012 was a remarkable achievement at the time; India's dominance at home since suggests that it is up there with England's greatest series victories ever
Moeen Ali at 3, five weeks after his unretirement, in a must-win Ashes Test and it basically making sense sums up the wild journey England have already been on this summer
Special innings from Cheteshwar Pujara: 132* in a match in which no one else in the top seven on either side made a 50 in the first innings
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Not taking away from England, who were absolutely outstanding. But Ahmedabad v Headingley Tests this year do show the odd double standards in how we view spinning v seaming pitches
England 178-1 in 25 overs between lunch and tea: one of the most extraordinary sessions in their history
A crowd silenced by a crushing defeat for the home-town favourites in the World Cup semi-final: shades of Brazil 1-7 Germany in England's 10-wicket win over India in Adelaide