Kevin Pietersen has been warned by the English cricket board to not meet the suspended IPL chief Lalit Modi after the duo had met at the end of the second Test match between England and Pakistan. Modi is the suspended IPL chairman and has charges of co…

England easily beat Pakistan by nine wickets on the fourth day of the second Test match when they overhauled the Pakistani target of 118 for the win. England v Pakistan, 2nd Test at Birmingham, Scorecard The Pakistanis were ahead by 112 runs overnight,…

Zulqarnain Haider cracked a fine 88 off 200 deliveries on the third day of the second Test match between England and Pakistan to enable the visitors take a 112-run lead over the hosts. Pakistan ended the day at 291/9 and despite the English side going …

Zulqarnain Haider cracked a fine 88 off 200 deliveries on the third day of the second Test match between England and Pakistan to enable the visitors take a 112-run lead over the hosts. Pakistan ended the day at 291/9 and despite the English side going …

Zulqarnain Haider cracked a fine 88 off 200 deliveries on the third day of the second Test match between England and Pakistan to enable the visitors take a 112-run lead over the hosts. Pakistan ended the day at 291/9 and despite the English side going …

Zulqarnain Haider cracked a fine 88 off 200 deliveries on the third day of the second Test match between England and Pakistan to enable the visitors take a 112-run lead over the hosts. Pakistan ended the day at 291/9 and despite the English side going …

Pakistan won the toss and decided to bat first under seaming conditions at Edgbaston in Birmingham but were reduced to 37/6 in the first session of the Test match. Stuart Broad was the wrecker-in-chief, with three wickets to his name, while James Ander…

Kamran Akmal has been given the axe for the second Test match between Pakistan and England at Edgbaston. Pakistan had lost the first Test match by a whopping margin of 354 runs, and the chief culprit in the field was Akmal, who dropped a couple of vita…

Sachin Tendulkar got to his fifth double-century in Test match cricket when he converted his 48th century in Tests into a huge innings. It was the fourth day second Test match at the SSC in Colombo, and in partnership with Suresh Raina, Tendulkar’…

Pakistan will start off the second leg of their tour of England with the first of the four Test matches against the hosts, England, at Trent Bridge in Nottingham. Live commentary and Score of the first Test match between England and Pakistan on 29th Ju…

The 2010 edition of the Ashes series between Australia and England will be played from November this year. The first Test match will be played in November at Brisbane. Already, it has been announced that the sale of tickets for the premier Test cricket…

Ian Bell ruled out of npower Test Series against Pakistan England batsman Ian Bell has today officially been ruled out of the forthcoming npower Test Series against Pakistan due to the foot injury he suffered on Saturday during the 2nd NatWest Serie…

Ryan Harris to return to Australia due to injury Australian fast bowler Ryan Harris will return to Australia after picking up a right knee injury during the one-day series in England against England. Ryan will miss the remaining games on the VB Tour of…

England is hosting Australia vs Pakistan series 2010 that starts from the 5th of July. Pakistan will be playing four warm-ups against MCC and three other English country before they start the 1st T20 on July 5. The series in England will host two T20s…

Team full of stars with bloated egos and over rated abilities Players put club ahead of country Underperform under pressure Under rate low ranked opponents Ages since the team has won the World Cup Supporters expected them to win every World Cup they…..

With English cricket, it tends to all boil down to one series – the Ashes. Every selection, every Test match, every individual performance, all done with the Test series against Australia in mind.
This is the same for the Australian team and it shows how big a series it is. The biggest in cricket without any [...]

One has been out on vacation and hasn't really been able to keep up with the events unfolding in the sporting arena. One noticed that things hadn't really changed. Sri Lanka and NZ shared the 2 match T20 series in the US of A. Now that's exactly…(read more)

So after a brief spell as top dog Alastair Cook will return to the rank and file when he next lines up in an England shirt.

Full-time skipper Andrew Strauss will return for the home series with Bangladesh after missing the recent tour which England won comfortably.

The eventual aim is to ensure Strauss is fit, fresh and focused for the Ashes next winter so it was no surprise he talked about that series when discussing the benefits if his voluntary lay-off.

Ordinarily it would be a bad idea to pick and choose your appearances for your country, especially as captain.

But in this instance, with the international calendar ever busier, I feel they made the right call and turned the negative of an overcrowded fixture list into a positive.

England were expected to make a clean sweep in Bangladesh with or without their captain’s influence. So while he was resting and thinking of bigger challenges ahead it gave the chance for a future skipper to spread his wings.

Alastair Cook may have a bit to go before he can take the job on full-time, but there is no doubt he will benefit from this experience. Many captains are thrown in at the deep end and it is sink or swim time. The pressure to get results in an unforgiving test arena can prove too much and even if the side is winning, the distractions of the job can have a negative effect on the players batting or bowling.

Thankfully the latter did not happen to Cook who continued to bat with poise and purpose. He has been in that unique position of having a trial run with minimum pressure and time and chance to learn from his mistakes, something many previous captains never had. Anyone who had an England cricket bet  on the side to achieve a whitewash in Bangladesh would have been happy with Cook’s efforts.

Strauss will hang onto the top job for a few years yet but when he does pass the captaincy on he can be confident his successor will be ready for it.

Meanwhile, in horse racing news, pundits have been preparing their Grand National tips and many feel last year’s winner Mon Mome could make it two wins in a row.

Guest Post..

It is rare in test cricket for both the victorious and defeated sides to be satisfied with their five days work but that is certainly the case in Chittagong.England’s Test match betting odds suggested the side should win easily that aim was achieved. But the comfortable final margin of 181 hides a battling performance by [...]

Pakistan and England will play 2 T20 matches in Dubai on 19 and 20th February, 2010. Tensports has the global broadcasting rights for the series and will show it live in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Middle East and some other countries. Sky Sports will be broadcasting the matches live in UK. Here are other TV channels broadcasting the Pakistan vs England series live:

Bangladesh : Ten Sports

Hong Kong : Ten Sports

India : Ten Sports

Indonessia : TelkomVision – Channel no. 113

Nepal : Ten Sports

New Zealand : Sky Sport

Singapore : Ten Sports

Sri Lanka : Dialog TV (Ten Sports)

South Africa : Supersport

UK : Sky Sport