Club ‘disappointed’ and now risk losing personnel to rivals Heather Knight says cricket will be more viable career option Richard Gould, the chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board, has stressed that Yorkshire initially missing out on the revamp of the professional women’s game is not a case of the club being “punished for past sins”. From next year the current eight-team regional women’s system will switch to 15-strong full-time squads run directly by eight ­counties. ­Durham, Essex, Hampshire, ­Lancashire, Somerset, ­Nottinghamshire, Warwickshire and Surrey were those select ..read more

‘Unhealthy relationship’ with exercise and food behind decision Ex-Australia captain admits she was in denial about needing help Former Australia cricket captain Meg Lanning struggled with “an unhealthy relationship” with exercise and food leading up to her shock retirement. A self-described private person, Lanning has finally decided to share why she ended her international career last November at the age of 31. The Victorian took an extended break from cricket in 2022, returned to lead Australia to a Twenty20 World Cup title in February 2023, but suddenly pulled out of last year’s Ashes fo ..read more

Yorkshire edged out by neighbours in north-east Essex, Hants, Lancs, Notts, Somerset, Surrey, Warks also get nod Durham’s chief executive, Tim Bostock, said he was “delighted” with the ECB’s decision to award the county the right to host a professional women’s team, after they beat off strong competition from neighbouring Yorkshire. The first-class counties have spent the past two and a half months competing for the right to host one of the eight new professional “Tier 1” women’s teams, and in March presented their bids to a panel which included Kelly Simmons, former director of the women’s ..read more

‘I don’t know if I have another stop-start year in me’ T20 World Cup in June still a target for England fast bowler Jofra Archer has hinted another year of persistent injury setbacks could lead him to question his future as the fast bowler looks to stage his latest comeback for England in time for this summer’s T20 World Cup defence. A 50-over World Cup winner in 2019, not to mention a scorching new arrival in Test cricket during the Ashes series that followed, Archer has spent the bulk of the past two years on the sidelines due to recurring stress fractures in both his right elbow and his l ..read more

The Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack remains a bestseller and headline-grabber, because it acts as the conscience of cricket The commission came by post, which was unusual even in 1994. We don’t pay very well, it said, but we can offer you “a sliver of immortality”. Only the editor of Wisden could have written that. The editor was Matthew Engel, whose waspish wit had (unwittingly) lured me into sports writing. Five years earlier, when I was mulling an unexpected offer to switch from arts and features editing to being the cricket writer for the Independent on Sunday, what swung it was rereading an a ..read more

The County Championship is yet to ignite this season. Thankfully summer and the Dukes ball will be here soon By Gary Naylor for the 99.94 Cricket Blog You may think that bowlers had it tough with a ball that looked ill-suited to its job. Normal service resumes on Friday with the Dukes ball restored to grateful bowlers’ hands. You may think spectators had it tough, with just enough sunshine to tempt them into believing that summer was here and that the fourth layer might not have been necessary, before winter blew angrily through the land on Monday ..read more

Men’s team director delighted by results of batter-friendly ball ‘It’s been fantastic. You see what four-day cricket is meant to be’ The early-season trial of the Kookaburra ball in the County Championship has been hailed as a success by Rob Key, with the England men’s team director keen to make it a permanent fixture throughout the domestic first-class summer. Speaking to the Guardian after the second round of fixtures to use the Kookaburra, Key shared his view that using a less bowler-friendly ball than the traditional Dukes had brought out the requisite skills for Test cricket by increasi ..read more

The 2023 report was criticised by, among others, Ian Botham Brook and Wood among Wisden’s five cricketers of the year Wisden has given a hefty endorsement of last year’s report by the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket, with the 161st edition of the sport’s fabled annual insisting the panel’s findings and recommendations “deserved respect, not ridicule”. Commissioned by the England & Wales Cricket Board in 2021, and published during last summer’s dual Ashes series, the ICEC report found that 50% of its 4,000 respondents had experienced discrimination in the previous five years ..read more

Derek Underwood, the most prolific spin bowler in England’s Test history, has died at the age of 78. Underwood, affectionately known as “Deadly”, claimed 297 scalps in 86 Test appearances with his brisk left-arm spin, as well as another 32 in ODIs. Underwood also played over 900 times for Kent across three decades and claimed a staggering 2,523 wickets along the way. Derek Underwood, England’s greatest spin bowler, dies aged 78 ..read more

‘Deadly’ was the antithesis of the international superstar sportsman – until he set off on his run-up Derek Underwood once described himself as a “low-mentality bowler”. It was a typically self-effacing remark from England’s most prolific spinner in Test cricket (with 297 victims). Underwood was a hero from another age but you would never have guessed so when wandering into the bar after playing against Kent. He would be there with a beer in one hand and a fag in the other and that self-deprecating smile on his lips. He would happily talk cricket – and spin bowling – often seeking the opinion ..read more