England fans have been asked to stop jeering and respect Australia captain Ricky Ponting in the fourth Ashes Test that starts at Headingley on Friday.
Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi on Friday said that a side strain might stop him from playing even the second Test against Australia at Headingley, after which he desires to retire from the five-day version of the game.
England declared on 373 for nine wickets in their second innings on the third day of the fifth Ashes Test against Australia at the Oval on Saturday.
Australia will target England's vulnerable middle order in an effort to force the victory which will give them a 2-1 Ashes series victory in the fifth Test starting at the Oval on Thursday.
England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff expressed full confidence Tuesday that he would be fit for the final Test of his career in the deciding Ashes match against Australia at the Oval this week.
England fast bowler James Anderson claimed his 400th Test wicket when he had New Zealand's Martin Guptill caught at slip by Ian Bell for nought in the second Test at Headlingley, Leeds.
An untidy shot prevented captain Alastair Cook from grabbing a place in cricketing history on Friday when he was caught at slip for 15 as England reached 83-2 at lunch on the first day of the second Test against Sri Lanka.
Australian pacer Mitchell Johnson feared being axed and struggled to cope with the pressure of playing at the Ashes before vice-captain Michael Clarke's advice and a bit of sledging turned things around for him.
England's faltering Ashes campaign recieved a fillip after talismanic all-rounder Andrew Flintoff was declared fit for his Test farewell in the series-deciding fifth and final match against Australia starting August 20 at The Oval.
England received a welcome boost on Monday with the news that talismanic all-rounder Andrew Flintoff is expected to be fit to face Australia in the deciding Ashes Test at the Oval next week. Flintoff, 31, was forced to miss England's emphatic fourth Test innings and 80-run defeat at Headingley last week, which left the series tied at 1-1, because of an injured right knee.
Australia captain Ricky Ponting is looking forward to a new career highlight after his team set up an Ashes decider by humbling England in the fourth Test on Sunday.
Australia, replying to England's first innings of 102, ended Day 1 in the fourth Ashes Test on 196 for 4, a lead of 94 runs.
Brett Lee has declared himself "100 percent" fit for the fourth Ashes Test but his Australian teammate Shane Watson is not sure if the pacer is ready for a comeback.
England captain Alastair Cook believes winning this summer's Ashes series would be his "best achievement".
England captain Alastair Cook is all set to break India's legendary batsman Sachin's Tendulkar's record by becoming the youngest batsman in the history of the game to score 10,000 Test runs. Cook is just 36 runs shy of reaching the milestone and once he gets there, he will also become the first English batsman to reach the feat. Cook will be targeting the mark in England's first Test against Sri Lanka at Headingley on Thursday. Tendulkar's 10,000th Test run came against Pakistan in Kolkata in March 2005, a little more than a month before his 32nd birthday. Cook meanwhile, turned 31 on Christmas Day last year, meaning if he scores the 36 runs required in the opening Test against the visiting Sri Lankans, he would have reached the 10,000 barrier five months younger than India's batting legend.
England captain Alastair Cook will be eyeing a place in history when his side's three-Test series with Sri Lanka begins in Leeds on May 19. Cook boasts 9,964 runs and is just 36 runs short of completing 10,000 runs in Test cricket. More notably, the 31-year old can eclipse master blaster Sachin Tendulkar's record of being the youngest to reach the 10,000-run feat. Tendulkar's 10,000th Test run came against Pakistan in Kolkata in March 2005, a little more than a month before his 32nd birthday. Cook meanwhile, turned 31 on Christmas Day last year, meaning if he scores the 36 runs required in the opening Test against the visiting Sri Lankans at Headingley, he would have reached the 10,000 barrier five months younger than India's batting legend. While Cook looks likely to become the youngest man to 10,000 Test runs, he won't be the fastest to reach the milestone in terms of innings played.
Statistical highlights of the fifth and final one-dayer between India and England in Leeds on Friday.
Fast bowler Steve Harmison was recalled to the England squad on Saturday for the third Test against South Africa which starts at Edgbaston on Wednesday. Harmison, 29, who made the last of his 57 Test appearances in March, is included in the 13-man squad along with Paul Collingwood and a fit-again Ryan Sidebottom.
'The cynic in me wonders whether the Speaker's defiance wasn't assisted by the knowledge that he cannot possibly be re-elected from Bolpur.'
AB de Villiers' sixth Test century put South Africa on the verge of winning the second Test at Headingley after England ended the third day 269 runs behind the visitors on Sunday.
Rajneesh Gupta presents glimpses of India-England Test history.
Australia fast bowler Brett Lee has a good chance of being fit for the fourth Ashes Test, captain Ricky Ponting said on Monday.
Jasprit Bumrah, the fastest Indian pacer to 50 wickets, is now seventh in the bowlers' list after a leap of nine places owing to his five-wicket haul against the West Indies.
When Match Referee and former India wicket-keeper Farokh Engineer hands down his judgment on Monday on the Harbhajan Singh/S Sreesanth IPL fracas which unfolded in Mohali on Friday, he can go back 33 years to draw on personal experience.
Kevin Pietersen scored 90 not out and then claimed two wickets to inspire his England team to a 20-run victory over South Africa in their opening one-day international at Headingley on Friday. The tourists, replying to England's 275 for four, could only manage 255 to give Pietersen another win after he was appointed captain this month.
Some strong performances with the bat will help Joe Root to surge to the top and then potentially strengthen his position in the four-Test series against Pakistan, which begins on 14 July.
Graeme Smith plundered a fighting 154 not out to lead his South Africa team to a five-wicket victory over England that clinched the Test series at Edgbaston on Saturday.
Ashwell Prince's second century in consecutive Tests took South Africa past England's modest total as they closed day two of the second Test on 322 for four at Headingley on Saturday. The tourists, replying to England's 203 all out, led by 119 runs and were beginning to take control of the match when bad light halted play. Prince, on nine overnight, was 134 not out from 249 balls.
Pace bowlers Morne Morkel and Dale Steyn claimed four wickets apiece to help dismiss England for 203 on the first day of the second Test at Headingley on Friday. Morkel took four for 52 and Steyn four for 76 before the home team hit back in the final session to reduce the Proteas to 101 for three at the close.
Andrew Flintoff, set to play his first Test in 18 months on Friday when England face South Africa in the second Test at Headingley, is relishing a new beginning and believes his best years are still ahead of him. Flintoff, 30, last played a Test in January 2007 when he was captain of England as they lost the Ashes 5-0.
Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly believe India can win the last two ODIs to fashion a series victory.
India's 38-run victory keeps their hopes alive in the seven-match ODI series against England.
Two 70+ knocks have ensured that he's over 100 points ahead of Sachin Tendulkar.
The Indian captain said his team has the resilience to come back from 1-3 series deficit.
What does Tendulkar miss the most about not being an active player? "I miss the laughter, the seriousness, the celebrations."
As the curtains fall on another year, Rediff.com brings you all the action from the sports field that defined 2019.
Danish Kaneria called Kevin Pietersen a chicken and then got him out with a perfect googly
Former England captain Andrew Strauss has said the skewed distribution of power among the India-led big three in ICC can lead to a situation in future when the "rich will only get richer and the poor poorer".
Mahendra Singh Dhoni went through a rigorous net session at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru, far from public gaze, ahead of the upcoming England tour.
