England National Cricket – Worldwide Sports News

April 13, 2021

England handed pace boost as Broad, Stone and Archer cleared to return

Broad back in action ahead of schedule for Notts
Archer to bowl at full intensity from next week

England’s pace attack is starting to move through the gears with Stuart Broad and Olly Stone returning to county action this week and Jofra Archer given the all-clear to resume training after his recent surgery.

Broad was originally down to miss the opening two rounds of the County Championship while managing his workload before the Test summer starts but after sending down just 52 overs in Sri Lanka and India this year and otherwise restricted to the nets he has asked to bring forward his first outing for Nottinghamshire this season.

April 11, 2021

‘Something drastic’: Stuart Broad would back social media boycott over abuse

Broad says England squad could ‘make a stand’ against abuse
‘It is worth a conversation – it’s a really strong message’

Stuart Broad has suggested England’s cricket team would be willing to join football’s boycotting of social media in order to “make a stand” against online abuse.

The Championship clubs Swansea and Birmingham and the recently crowned Scottish champions Rangers are in the midst of a week-long social media blackout in protest against racist abuse of individuals. The former Arsenal and France forward Thierry Henry has also quit all platforms for the same reason while the Liverpool captain, Jordan Henderson, has made his feelings on the issue clear by handing control of his accounts to an anti-cyberbullying charity.

April 9, 2021

England’s cricketers provide voice of reason after racist abuse of Moeen Ali | Barney Ronay

In a heartening collision of the cultural spheres Moeen’s England teammates were quick to jump in when he was abused by dissident free-thinker Taslima Nasreen

The first little buds and whispers are here. Rabbits are rustling in the tree line. Photos of grimacing people in white jumpers shadowed by vast anvil clouds are bubbling up on the timeline. At Northants Gareth Berg, aged 40, has been bowling to Darren Stevens, aged 44 – a weirdly primal collision, like some ancient dance of defiance by the last men on Earth before the nuclear winter hits. And yes, the English cricketing summer is here.

What are the roots that clutch? What branches grow out of this stony rubble? Will the usual angst at the usual flux give way to the usual throbbing late-season life? How will the pre-seeded group stage of the remodelled County Championship interact with the carried-over points tallies in the second-phase divisional matches? And are there iced fingers still for tea?

April 2, 2021

Simon Jones: the hero of 2005 helping protect cricket’s new generation | Ali Martin

Former bowler’s injuries highlight how athletes can see their lives change in an instant, something which is driving his second career

Anyone who watched the 2005 Ashes should be able to close their eyes right now and not only picture the sight of Simon Jones detonating Michael Clarke’s off‑stump at Old Trafford, but also conjure up the noise it made on impact.

Clarke may disagree, but there is a case to say that corky wooden clonk is one of the sweetest sounds heard on a cricket field. For Jones it was certainly a highlight in an all‑too-brief England career of 18 Test caps that was blighted by injury. A crucial five for 44 in the first innings of the victory at Trent Bridge was his last time on the international stage, as first ankle bone spurs and then persistent knee problems cut short this fire-breathing Welsh dragon and purveyor of 90mph reverse swing.

March 31, 2021

Jofra Archer’s IPL hopes remain in balance after successful surgery

Bowler could return to training after two-week rehab
Rajasthan Royals place still hinges on elbow issue

Jofra Archer could return to training in a fortnight’s time after a piece of glass from a broken fish tank was surgically removed from the middle finger on his bowling hand.

England have announced that Monday’s operation was a success and Archer will now undergo a two-week rehabilitation programme before the consultant reviews the injury and decides if he can return to the nets at Sussex. However, the question of whether the 25-year-old can feature in the second half of the upcoming Indian Premier League for Rajasthan Royals will still hinge on the elbow issue that recently required a second cortisone injection.

March 29, 2021March 29, 2021

England set to make call on Archer’s IPL chances after fish-tank finger injury

Bowler had fragment of glass removed by surgery on Monday
Chris Silverwood says rotation policy ‘is best way to go’

A number of England’s cricketers have now linked up with their Indian Premier League teams but it remains to be seen if Jofra Archer will join them after surgery on a finger injury he suffered when accidentally smashing a fish tank in January.

Archer, 25, underwent a procedure on Monday to remove a fragment of glass from a tendon inside his right middle finger, having reported some minor irritation in the digit after playing two Tests and all five Twenty20s during England’s time in India.

March 27, 2021

Chris Lewis: ‘You smile and try to brush it off, but those things eat away at you inside’

Negative comments about Jofra Archer’s hunger for Test cricket resound with the West Indian-born former England all-rounder

In the course of an hour-long chat Chris Lewis laughs often, and with an impressively wide range and depth. There are regular gurgling chuckles and the odd outright guffaw. When talk turns to the chatter around Jofra Archer – most recently comments from the former England captain Michael Vaughan about Archer’s suitability for Test cricket – the laugh is more of a knowing sigh.

Lewis was the eighth British cricketer born in the West Indies to play for England (ninth if you count that renowned Trinidadian Lord Harris). He took 159 international wickets over eight years, in 1993 scored a Test hundred in Madras (now Chennai) and opened the bowling in the last England team to reach a World Cup final, before Archer’s lot did the same two years ago.

March 27, 2021

England’s Jofra Archer to have hand surgery on cut suffered cleaning house

Pace bowler could be forced to miss trip to the IPL
Return from injury may be pushed back to summer

Jofra Archer will have surgery on a hand injury suffered “while cleaning at his home in January” and, coupled with a recent second injection for his longstanding elbow issue, may now be ruled out of the entire Indian Premier League.

Archer was already due to miss the start of next month’s IPL to rest the elbow problem which hampered his India tour but news of complications to a past cut on his bowling hand – due to be operated on this Monday – may well push his return into the summer.

March 26, 2021March 26, 2021

Bairstow and Stokes fireworks set up ODI series decider and earn Kohli praise

India 336-6; England 337-4 (43.3 overs)
Swashbuckling Stokes out one short of his hundred

England’s two-month tour of India will end with a series decider in Pune on Sunday after Jonny Bairstow’s imperious 124 and a jaw-dropping 99 from Ben Stokes set up a dominant six-wicket victory in the second one-day international.

Eoin Morgan may have been missing with a hand injury but the captain’s orders to maintain their aggressive mentality after Tuesday’s galling 66-run defeat were acted upon in style as a target of 337 – set up by KL Rahul’s glossy 108 – was vaporised with 39 balls to spare.

March 25, 2021

Eoin Morgan misses rest of one-day series in India with freak injury

Captain failed fitness test after injuring hand in first ODI
Billings ruled out of Friday’s game with sprained collar bone

England captain Eoin Morgan will miss the final two matches of the one-day internationals series against India due to injury, with Sam Billings also ruled out of Friday’s game.

Morgan split the webbing between the thumb and index finger of his right hand in the first ODI in Pune and declared himself unfit after taking part in a fielding drill on Thursday. Billings sprained his collar bone joint in the same match but has been given a chance of playing in Sunday’s concluding fixture.

March 24, 2021

Chris Woakes: ‘I felt like it was my shirt. Six months on, I haven’t played a game’ | Ali Martin

England’s man of last summer didn’t get a game all winter. Now he heads for the IPL with the Ashes on his mind

It’s the morning after the night before and 5,000 miles away from Pune, the scene of England’s collapse under lights in the first one-day international, one of their World Cup winners is decked out in Warwickshire training gear en route to Edgbaston for a net before the Indian Premier League next month.

Chris Woakes was the Professional Cricketers’ Association player of the year last summer – as voted by his peers for his England performances – but despite 20 Test wickets at 21, his steely 84 not out in a tense run chase against Pakistan at Old Trafford and no fitness problems since, the all-rounder has somehow not played a game all winter.