And despite a slowdown, media planners say advertisers are pouring in over Rs 600 crore (nearly half the ad budget for cricket in 2009). This represents a more than 10 per cent increase over last year's spends on television, co-branding of teams and marketing, among others.
Top England stars, including Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff, will be available for the lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL) both this year and the next season after the Indian Cricket Board and their English counterparts reached an agreement on Tuesday.
'Let's support our champions when they need it the most.'
Alastair Cook marked his first Test as England captain with an unbeaten century to lift his team to a commanding 374 for three on the opening day of the series against Bangladesh on Friday.
England's selectors will meet on Friday to discuss the squad and captain for their one-day and Twenty20 games against West Indies after confirming that Andrew Strauss would captain the Test team. Coach Peter Moores was sacked on Thursday and England have yet to decide on his replacement for the West Indies tour or the return home series against them and the subsequent Ashes clash with Australia.
Restricting India to 453 is a job well done and Kevin Pietersen and his men are now very much back into the final Test, asserts England off-spinner Graeme Swann.
Tactically, Kevin Pietersen didn't do anything wrong and it was India's superior skill which tilted the Chennai Test in their favour, according to England coach Peter Moores.
Kevin Pietersen and his teammates are set to return to India by Friday to play the two-Test series, the first of which would be shifted from Ahmedabad to Kolkata, according to media reports in London.
The ease with which Yuvraj Singh dismantled the English attack mesmerised not just Indian fans but also the British media, which declared that Friday's humiliating loss spelt the end of Kevin Pietersen's honeymoon period as skipper. "India batter England into submission," read a headline in the 'Daily Mail' after England lost the first ODI of the seven-match series by a massive 158 runs.
Suresh Raina figures among the 10 players, who will "define" cricket in the next decade.
Uncapped off-spinner Graeme Swann, batsman Owais Shah were named in England's 15-man squad to play two Tests in India.
English Royal Mail unveiled designs for a range of stamps celebrating England's Ashes series victory
The English cricketers will be the first living people outside the Royal Family to have their likenesses clearly identifiable on British stamps.
Former captain Michael Vaughan, who stood down during this year's series defeat by South Africa, is among 12 players given central contracts, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said on Tuesday.
AB de Villiers scored 97 on Sunday to give South Africa an outside chance of winning the fourth and final Test against England at the Oval. South Africa, who have already clinched the series 2-0, were dismissed for 316 in their second innings, leaving England 197 to win their first Test with Kevin Pietersen in charge.
Steve Harmison and Stuart Broad have been recalled to the England team for the final Test against South Africa starting on Thursday at The Oval.
Spinner Graeme Swann reckons that the current England team would not be able to make it to the top honours of the upcoming Champions Trophy, and the maximum that they hope to achieve is to reach the semi-finals.
KL Rahul is the second highest run-getter so far this season, just behind Rajasthan Royals' Jos Buttler.
England struggled to impose themselves on the Australian bowlers during the third day of the second Ashes Test at Lord's on Saturday after opting to bat again rather than enforce the follow-on. At tea England were 130 for two, an overall lead of 340, following a slow post-lunch period during which both Ravi Bopara (19 not out) and Kevin Pietersen (28 not out) were restricted by thoughtful pace bowling.
"This is totally unacceptable and I'll talk to my colleague in Australia about the incident," said Britain's Minister for Sport Richard Caborn.
England's ODI captain Paul Collingwood wants the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to relax its stance and let the country's top players turn out in the multi-million dollar Indian Premier League. Collingwood came out in support of views expressed by Test captain Michael Vaughan and star batsman Kevin Pietersen who argued there is no reason for England stars to miss out on the Twenty20 extravaganza.
England fought their way into the ascendancy on the opening day of the first Ashes Test on Wednesday before two late wickets put Australia firmly back in the match.
'We had a long chat here on the boundary talking about it and he's worried: he can't get his family out of Afghanistan and there's a lot of things happening for him.'
Riding on Jonathan Trott's double hundred (203) and Ian Bell's 98 (not out), England reached 491 for five in reply to Sri Lanka's 400 all out at stumps on Day 4 of the first Test on Sunday.
The Worcestershire batsman has been called for the fourth international against Sri Lanka at Old Trafford on Wednesday.
England captain Michael Vaughan criticised umpire Darryl Harper's decision not to use technology on a crucial slip catch of Kevin Pietersen on the first day of the second test against Sri Lanka on Sunday. He said common sense should have prompted Harper to use technology to examine whether Chamara Silva at second slip had scooped up the ball before it touched the ground.
England captain Andrew Strauss and his team did all they could do pull off a series-saving victory over West Indies on Tuesday but had to watch as the Wisden Trophy was handed to their rivals for the first time in 11 years. The 1-0 defeat in the series came down to a batting collapse for 51 that resulted in an innings and 23 run defeat in the first Test in Jamaica.
Western Australia coach Tom Moody said on Thursday he had rejected an offer to apply for the job of England head coach.
The players' auction for the Indian Premier League's second season got underway in Goa on Friday. A look the price list.
England included Kevin Pietersen, Mathew Hoggard and Gareth Batty in place of Owais Shah, Lian Plunkett and Sajid Mohammed for the fourth ODI.
Former England skipper Michael Vaughan, the man in the centre of a storm that apparently cost two persons their job, says he wants to train for quite a few month with his county side before staking a claim to the national side.
Tipped to be the next England cricket coach, Graham Ford will have no problem leaving his current employers county side Kent, which has promised not to come in the way if its director of cricket gets the high-profile job. The South African is the bookies' favourite to replace current England coach Peter Moores, who has fallen out with skipper Kevin Pietersen.
With a new-found aura of invincibility around them, a domineering India will seek to plot a second whitewash of England when the two teams clash in the second and final Test in Mohali on Friday. Apart from hearts -- by defying terror and continuing with the tour -- the team under Kevin Pietersen has not won anything in India. An Indian win in Mohali would be a double blow for the Englishmen who were blanked 5-0 in the ODI series on the other side of the Mumbai attacks.
Former captain Michael Vaughan backed England to bounce back from the bitter loss in Chennai, saying that Kevin Pietersen and his men have the "bulldog spirit" to square the Test series against India in Mohali. Vaughan admitted that the six-wicket loss in Chennai was a bitter pill to swallow, considering the way England dominated most part of the match.
Yuvraj Singh returned to the Indian side for the first Test after an eight-month hiatus.
Former England batsman Mike Atherton felt Kevin Pietersen and his team was in all probability being benefitted more than affected by the Mumbai terror attack as it save them from lot of criticism and gave them a chance to visit home in the middle of a series.
With no match practice at all and the the fact that none in the England squad has played first-class cricket in last four months, former England batsman Mark Butcher warned Kevin Pietersen's team to be prepared for tricky readjustments to a Test mind-set. The England team, who were not released to play for their counties at the end of the summer, have played only limited-overs matches since the final Test against South Africa, four months ago.
England's decision to tour India within a fortnight of the Mumbai mayhem was not driven by their urge to stand by a terror-stricken country but by a business deal, according to media reports in London. Apparently, it took lot of deliberation and persuasion on England and Wales Cricket Board's part to convince Kevin Pietersen and his men to tour India for the two-Test series.
Kevin Pietersen and his men should call off their tour of India because the situation there is far from safe, former England and Wales Cricket Board chairman Lord MacLaurin said on Tuesday. MacLaurin said it would be sad if the ECB, which is awaiting a report from its security adviser Reg Dickason, eventually gives its go-ahead for the two-match Test series.
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