Heavy rain left the Edgbaston outfield covered in pools of water on Wednesday, just one day before the start of the third Ashes Test between England and Australia.
Australia batted throughout a rain-interrupted third day of the first Ashes Test against England to take a 44-run first innings lead over the hosts on Friday.
England pace bowler James Anderson took two wickets in 14 deliveries to reduce Australia to 348 for 4 at lunch on Day 3 of the first Test against England.
Australian fast bowler Mitchell Johnson has opted out of the Indian Premier League and a possible US $1.5 million income as he fears playing in the Twenty20 event may lead to injury and burn-out, his manager said. The names of Johnson and Australia captain Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke were not among the 416 released for next month's player auction in Bangalore.
Senior Indian batsman Rahul Dravid on Sunday became only the third player in history to score 12,000 Test runs when he reach 43 during the first match against South Africa in Centurion on Sunday.
'But it's not a good spectacle when pretty obviously wrong decisions are made'
Australia's Ricky Ponting and England's Andrew Strauss talk of the importance of the first hour and the first delivery of the Ashes.
Australia ended the third day of the third test on 102 for two, still trailing South Africa by 340 runs with eight wickets remaining in Cape Town on Saturday.
Shane Watson is not embarrassed by his on-field antics but Australian skipper Ricky Ponting is and will talk to his players about their on-field behaviour. The third Test between Australia and the West Indies was marred by a few ugly incidents, involving players from both the sides.
Ricky Ponting's 17-year Test career came to an end just before lunch on the fourth day of the third Test against South Africa at the WACA on Monday after he had made eight runs.
Michael Hussey did a redemption act after a woeful Test series as he struck an unbeaten half century (53) to lead Australia to a six-wicket victory in the second Twenty20 International against South Africa in Brisbane on Tuesday.
England lost three quick wickets in the last hour to slump to 53 for three in reply to Australia's 602-9 declared on the second day of the first Ashes Test on Friday.
Gujarat Lions skipper Suresh Raina, Mumbai Indians spinner Harbhajan Singh and Sunrisers Hyderabad pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar have got a place in former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting's Best XI of Indian Premier League 2017.
'What hurt me was when I met his daughter and I was talking to her with a lot of love and she said, "I don't want to talk to you. You hit my father".'
Aussie left-hander Mike Hussey edged out India's Mahendra Singh Dhoni to clinch the Debutant of the Year award.
Australian all-rounder Shane Watson is being considered for the test side in the Ashes series against England starting in November, selector Allan Border said on Thursday.
The world champions will don high-tech green collarless shirts in one-day international matches.
'...Shreyas is a young leader and if you look at him, he goes to each and every player, not only the squad player, he goes to even the net bowler, talks to them.'
Speedster Brett Lee returned home as the richest Australian cricketer, taking home a whopping $80,000 per scalp for his four wickets from as many games in the cash-rich Indian Premier League. The paceman was bought for $900,000 at the IPL auction and earned more than $320,000 for his brief stint with Punjab Kings XI.
'He has got to do a bit of work on his 'keeping and he will also become a better batsman.'
Ricky Ponting, in almost certainly his final innings in the Caribbean, made a crucial half-century as Australia built an imposing lead of 310 runs at the close of the third day of the final Test against West Indies on Wednesday.
'He is 33 years of age now and he will want to continue playing for a few more years I am sure and have a crack at breaking some records that he is not far off breaking. Maybe if he does that as a batter and without the extra responsibility of captaincy, it might make it a bit easier for him'
India made two changes to their side with opener Virender Sehwag recalled for Praveen Kumar and S Sreesanth replacing Munaf Patel.
Having recovered completely from an injury following a car accident, Mumbai's Musheer Khan is determined to make an impact in his maiden IPL season.
India were unchanged from the side that played the abandoned match in Brisbane last Tuesday.
Chris Rogers will replace the injured Matthew Hayden, while Shaun Tait replaces spinner Brad Hogg for the third Test against India.
Not only at Sydney but Harbhajan Singh had also allegedly called Andrew Symonds a "monkey" in Mumbai during Australia's recent tour to India, a media report claimed on Wednesday.
Both sides made one change from Wednesday's first match, won convincingly by Australia by 93 runs.
Joe Root produced a batting masterclass on way to a milestone 38th hundred as England exploited a jaded Indian bowling attack to stamp their dominance on the fourth Test in Manchester.
Pitch conditions and the ability of Australia's pace trio to exploit reverse swing should make India's job of scoring another 493 runs to win the first Test a tough one, batsman Michael Clarke said on Friday
England avoided the indignity of becoming the first international side to lose a one-day series 7-0 by recording a four-wicket victory over Australia at the Riverside on Sunday.
Australia's batting great Ricky Ponting on Friday said he was 'surprised' by the Indian camp's wording around Rohit Sharma's absence from the Sydney Test.
Delhi promoted all-rounder Lalit Yadav and Pant said the team management is trying to groom him.
Virender Sehwag replaced Yousuf Pathan in the Indian side for the one-off Twenty20 international, while Murali Kartik came in for all-rounder Joginder Sharma.
The top seven most valuable players in the recently-concluded India-Australia seven-match one-day international series were all Australians.
The world champions, having already sealed the series 4-1, fielded an unchanged side after opener Matthew Hayden failed to recover fully from his hip injury.
England are assured of qualification for the next stage unless they lose to Australia by more than 50 runs and Kevin Pietersen is relishing the challenge ahead.
Australia pace bowler Brett Lee has been ruled out of the second Ashes Test after failing to recover from the rib injury that forced him to miss the first, captain Ricky Ponting said on Wednesday.
Australia battled hard against some accurate England bowling on Thursday to reach 142 for one at tea in their first innings on the second day of the first Ashes Test.
