A selection of musings from around the cricket World Cup.
West Indies brought back fast bowlers Jerome Taylor and Fidel Edwards in place of Marlon Samuels and Corey Collymore.
Injury-prone South African fast bowler Dale Steyn is set to play in the Euro T20 Slam league after being signed up as one of the marquee players along with New Zealand's Martin Guptill for the tournament's first edition, beginning August 30.
'It was difficult two years for the franchise. The desire to get back to the competition was high. It was sustainable to keep winning throughout. The players were motivated (to win)'
Left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn claimed his career-best figures of 5-155 to help the West Indies secure a first-innings lead after bowling Australia out for 439 on Day 3 of the second Test in Adelaide on Sunday.
India captain Virat Kohli and pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah were the only two Indians who found a place in Wisden's T20 International team of the decade, which didn't feature ex-skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Australia's limited overs captain Aaron Finch was named captain of the team, which has two more Australian in Shane Watson and Glenn Maxwell, two England cricketers -- Jos Buttler and David Willey, two Afghanistan all-rounders -- Mohammad Nabi and Rashid Khan, and New Zealand's Colin Munro and Sri Lanka's Lasith Malinga.
Sunil Narine produced an all-round performance to guide Kolkata Knight Riders to a comfortable six-wicket win over Chennai Super Kings, in Kolkata, on Thursday.
Birthday boy Kedar Jadhav was not spared from a cake shower by his teammates.
Play in the ICC champions Trophy final between Australia and the West Indies, which was suspended because of rain in Mumbai, will resume at 2100 IST.
Australian selectors included Victorian middle-order batsman Brad Hodge on Wednesday in a 13-man squad for the three-Test series against New Zealand starting next week.
Shane Watson was the most valuable player of IPL 2008. Who will it be this time? Any of the top five ranked players has a chance, with Suresh Raina being the current favourite.
He led the Kolkata Knight Riders' successful chase with his batting heroics but Yusuf Pathan refused to agree with Sunil Gavaskar's assessment of Royal Challengers Bangalore's bowling, which he had termed as 'popatwadi attack'.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul's fine knock was in vain, as the West Indies were beaten by 78 runs in the opening match of the DLF Cup tri-series.
Andrew Symonds hit an unbeaten century and Michael Kasprowicz took five wickets to give Australia a 10-run win over Pakistan.
'Someone's got to do it and I might put my hand up. It's part of the game and what happened the other day with Shane (Watson) and Wahab (Riaz) was exceptional'
Sacked Australia coach Mickey Arthur has been left "extremely upset and disappointed" after his confidential lawsuit against Cricket Australia was leaked to the media leading to a massive controversy.
Australia survived a middle-order meltdown to beat Bangladesh by three wickets in a World Twenty20 Super 10 match on Monday to get their campaign up and running.
Kieron Pollard and Jos Buttler's late assault helped Mumbai Indians keep their hopes alive with a convincing six-wicket victory against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League, in Bengaluru, on Wednesday.
All-rounder Shane Watson swore he saw ghosts at the Lumley Castle hotel in Chester-le-Street, where Australians are staying.
CSK, led by India's 2011 World Cup-winning skipper Dhoni has found MI a hard nut to crack at their den and Fleming acknowledged the huge challenge his star-studded side faced.
Michael Hussey said big-hitting batter Shivam Dube is a unique talent
Arguably the most successful cricketing nation as far as Tests and One-Day Internationals are concerned, Australia have struggled in Twenty20 and all-rounder Shane Watson feels it is because the shortest format only has 'entertainment value'.
Rising Pune Supergiant beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by 27 runs in an IPL encounter.
In what will be a dress rehearsal of their opening game in the World Cup, an unbeaten Australia take on England in the cricket tri-series final, in Perth on Sunday.
Rajneesh Gupta previews Eliminator in IPL 2019: Delhi Capitals vs Sunrisers Hyderabad.
A well-informed source close to Shaheen said that the bowler was upset that not even once the PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi or the national selectors have spoken to him about their future plans as far as the captaincy or appointment of coaches is concerned.
Rajasthan Royals would be keen to adapt quickly to their new 'home ground' when they lock horns with last season's runner-up Kings XI Punjab in their campaign opener in the Indian Premier League in Pune.
Flamboyant Indian batsman Yuvraj Singh, who retired last year, is eyeing a stint in the Big Bash League and Cricket Australia (CA) is trying to help him find a team.
Asked what did Watson do differently to get out of the bad patch, Fleming responded, 'Nothing'.
The limelight of CSK's post-match celebrations is on the kids of cricketers MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Harbhajan Singh.
Royal Challengers Bangalore got back to winning ways after they squeezed past Delhi Daredevils by 15 runs on a batsman-friendly wicket in their Indian Premier League match at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Saturday.
Sunrisers Hyderabad would look to bounce back when they take on Chennai Super Kings in an Indian Premier League (IPL) match in Hyderabad on Sunday.
The list was picked by Star Sports' expert jury, comprising 50 members which included 20 former cricketers, 10 senior sports journalists, 10 statisticians and analysts (10), on Cricket Connected.
Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals have failed to live up to expectations in the IPL so far and are placed sixth and seventh respectively on the points table in the eight-team competition.
Suresh Raina is training hard after returning to India.
