"The granting of the Freedom of the City of London recognises how they have added their voices to the growing global movement to stamp out racism."
India will have their task cut out against a vastly improved England
Kolkata Knight Riders will begin their title defence against a formidable Mumbai Indians side in the opening match of the eighth edition of Indian Premier League at the Eden Gardens, in Kolkata, on Wednesday.
The IPL auctions are known to spring surprises with little known players hitting a jackpot to become millionaires. Here's a look at some buys that left most people surprised. Carlos Brathwaite (Rs 4.2 cr): Inarguably the biggest surprise buys of 2016 IPL auctions. The Caribbean all-rounder has shown his hitting talent during his heroics against Sri Lanka, lower down the order. But not many would have expected Delhi to roll out a whopping 4.2 crore, which is 14 times his base price Pawan Negi (Rs 8.5 cr) : The new million dollar man! After his selection for the World T20 squad, here came another good news for Pawan Negi. It was Delhi again, that snapped the all-rounder for a monstrous Rs 8.5 crore.
South Africa coach Russell Domingo says the Proteas will rely on their pace battery to rattle India's formidable batting in the upcoming series, which kicks-off with a Twenty20 warm-up match against an India 'A' team in Delhi on Tuesday.
Playing tennis-ball cricket in his formative years has helped him bowl his yorkers with good control, revealed Mumbai Indians pacer Jasprit Bumrah.
'Rather than focussing on the strategy of other teams, we should rather focus on ourselves'
England expressed concern over the strength of the bio-secure environment after the positive result, while a South African team investigation has not yet shown how the unnamed player caught the virus.
How will young batsmen brought up on T20 learn to build an innings? What about the technique to patiently negotiate hostile seam bowling conditions or the skill to play on difficult dusty turners? What about leaving the swinging ball outside off stump?
Domestic cricket will only happen when travelling is safe: Ganguly
After taking over as captain of Kolkata Knight Riders for the upcoming 11th edition of the Indian Premier League, wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik said he would like to emulate current India skipper Virat Kohli and lead from the front.
With Yuvraj Singh's injury-forced ouster disturbing their settled line-up, India have been left with a selection dilemma to handle as they gear up to take on the flamboyant and unpredictable West Indies in what promises to be a battle of nerves in the World Twenty20 semifinal in Mumbai on Thursday. Yuvraj, who has not got big runs but was involved in crucial stands with top performer Virat Kohli during the group stage matches, has been ruled out owing to an ankle injury that he sustained in the must-win game against Australia. Manish Pandey, not in the original 15, has been penciled in to replace the all-rounder in the squad although Ajinkya Rahane is also present as a viable alternative. But it remains to be seen whether skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni chooses between the two or decides to go with rookie all-rounder Pawan Negi.
A round up of the fourth and final day's action of the Ranji Trophy matches on Sunday.
'I don't think he (Karthik) will be under pressure. First and foremost thing will be to give guidance to this group. He has got a lot of experienced players around him, particularly in overseas group, and there's the likes of Piyush Chawala, Vinay Kumar and Robin Uthappa.'
Team Director Ravi Shastri claimed the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led side can certainly arrest the slide in the ODI series against Australia if the inexperienced bowling line-up learns from its mistakes.
Right now, our mindset is very similar, to go out there and enjoy our cricket, which we have done in the past few years, says Kohli at a press conference before the defending champions' departure to England for the Champions Trophy. Rediff.com's Harish Kotian listens in as the young Indian captain speaks.
Prem Panicker, on the Rediff chat, delves on what went wrong for Team India and what to expect from Sunday's trans-Tasman World Cup final.
'If fame, money and comfort are the only factors that drive us, then we are playing cricket for entirely the wrong reasons.'