‘We are a passionately multiracial team’: Zimbabwe return to England transformed

Visitors have endured political chaos and miserable results over 22 years but cricket is finally a national game

Twenty-two years is a long time, even in a sport that measures its games in days and its history in centuries. The last time England played a Test match against Zimbabwe, in 2003, Rob Key was in the middle order instead of the managing director’s job, Jimmy Anderson was a 20-year-old tearaway playing in his very first series, and the England and Wales Cricket Board was just about to launch the world’s very first professional Twenty20 tournament. Zimbabwean cricket has changed, too. Back then the team was in the earliest stages of a transformation that was meant to turn cricket from a minority game, played by the small white population, into a sport that better represented the whole country.

They have been hard years, riven by player strikes, political interference, maladministration and a miserable drop-off in results. The team temporarily withdrew from Test cricket, suspended their domestic competition and were repeatedly censured by the International Cricket Council. They lost so many players through emigration to England, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, that even now you could build a hell of a good Zimbabwean squad out of people who are making a living overseas. And yet, at the end of it all, the process was, by one important measure, a success. The squad that came on tour in 2003 was majority white, the team that has come this year is majority black.

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Ben Stokes quits alcohol to help hamstring injury rehabilitation

  • England Test captain to return against Zimbabwe
  • ‘It’s just getting harder to do everything’

Ben Stokes has stopped drinking alcohol during his latest injury rehabilitation in an effort to be firing on all cylinders for England this summer. The Test captain is set to make his comeback on Thursday in the one-off Test against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge, having been sidelined since December after tearing his left hamstring in New Zealand.

He rushed back from a similar injury last year but his recovery this time after an operation has been painstakingly managed and Stokes has left no stone unturned to fulfil his vow to return in peak physical condition. Speaking to the Untapped podcast, the 33-year-old said: “After my first major injury, I remember the shock of it, after the initial adrenaline had stopped, thinking: ‘How has this happened? We did have a bit of a drink four or five nights ago, could that have played a part? It wouldn’t have helped.’

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Jamie Smith: ‘To win an away Ashes would be every England cricketer’s dream’

England’s wicketkeeper-batter on the innings that changed his career, the influence of Kevin Pietersen and a huge year of Test cricket ahead

“When the pressure’s on,” Jamie Smith says intently on an otherwise languid morning at the Oval, “it definitely gives you more of a focus. You can’t get away from the fact that, when the game is on the line, you want to be the one that takes it on and wins it. Look at some of the best players that have played the game – and the impact they’ve had in situations where they’ve been needed the most.

“Look at Stokesy [Ben Stokes, his England captain] and some of the innings he’s played where he’s rescued the side from defeat or led them to victory. They’re the things that get remembered. So it would be nice to be the sort of player that can do similar.”

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England expect most players will choose country over IPL for West Indies ODIs

  • League playoffs clash with international assignment
  • Buttler, Bethell, Jacks could have allegiances tested

England expect most of the five IPL players picked for their one-day international series against West Indies to report for international duty rather than complete the rescheduled tournament.

The IPL’s league phase will now conclude on 27 May, two days before England play their opening game against West Indies at Edgbaston, meaning that Jofra Archer and Jamie Overton, whose teams have already been eliminated from playoff contention, will certainly be free to play for their country.

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India captain Rohit Sharma retires from Test cricket before England series

  • Decision comes after three poor red-ball series
  • First of five Tests start in June at Headingley

Rohit Sharma has retired from Test cricket, his announcement coming hours after reports emerged that he was to lose India’s red-ball captaincy. The 38-year-old, who quit T20 international cricket after leading India to victory at last year’s World Cup, will continue to represent his country in one-day internationals.

“Hello everyone, I would just like to share that I am retiring from Test cricket,” Sharma posted on Instagram. “It’s been an absolute honour to represent my country in whites. Thank you for all the love and support over the years. I will continue to represent India in the ODI format.”

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Sam Cook selected for England Test squad as injured Chris Woakes misses out

  • Essex bowler, 27, gets first call-up for Trent Bridge Test
  • Four-day game against Zimbabwe starts on 22 May

Sam Cook has been selected for England’s one-off Test against Zimbabwe later this month – reward not only for his excellence in the County Championship but also a commendable, unwavering desire to play the longest format.

Aged 27 and having taken a truckload of wickets for Essex at just 18 runs apiece, Cook could have been forgiven for wondering if the call would ever come. During the most recent winter, with six-figure offers from three different franchise tournaments, he could also have been forgiven for putting his bank balance first.

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Stick or twist? England’s selectors weigh up options for Zimbabwe Test

If Zak Crawley’s form is a worry the middle-order is not, but Ben Stokes’s role as an all-rounder remains unknown

It may be viewed as an amuse-bouche before the main course of India in June, but England’s one-off Test against Zimbabwe is fast approaching. Selection is imminent – for the four-day match Trent Bridge that gets under way on 22 May and a training camp in Loughborough that precedes it – and after four rounds of the County Championship, the contenders are beginning to take shape.

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Jofra Archer’s form and swagger is back. Can he bloom for England again? | Jonathan Liew

Fast bowler was unfairly demonised by beige fans but has just turned 30 and is honing his skills for a tough summer

This season, in an attempt to distract everyone from the fact that its main sponsors are one of the world’s largest steel companies and the literal state of Saudi Arabia, the Tata Indian Premier League has been planting trees for every dot ball bowled during the tournament. At the post‑match presentation, the bowler who delivered the most dot balls in the game is awarded a ceremonial sapling. Which means that on four occasions this season – the most of any player – Jofra Archer has been contractually obliged to receive a small tree on live television.

The first time Archer gets his sapling, he eyes it with the kind of narrow-eyed suspicion any of us might exhibit. By the time he gets his fourth sapling – 10 dot balls against Delhi Capitals, 180 trees planted – he’s basically a pro at this. Shake hands. Look straight into the camera. Gaze at the sapling tenderly, as if he’s going to plant it himself, in his own garden, sheltered and watered, and definitely not throwing it straight into the first bin he finds.

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England’s Josh Hull fired up by Lions beasting and ‘gold dust’ of Anderson

Leicestershire left-armer reflects on ‘surreal’ Test debut last year, fitness work and Anderson’s advice in the nets

Josh Hull returns for Leicestershire this week, his first outing since that fast-tracked Test debut against Sri Lanka last summer. A winter “beasting” by the England Lions fitness coaches has the giant left-armer feeling stronger, with a more robust base from which to attack a potentially huge year of cricket.

Through no fault of his own, Hull was seen as the embodiment of Bazball braggadocio at the end of last season when thrown into Test cricket after just 10 first-class games as England blew their shot at a perfect summer. It was no disgrace – first-innings figures of three for 53 – but ended with a quad strain that underlined the physicality required.

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Andrew Flintoff feels cricket coaching chance ‘saved me’ after Top Gear crash

  • Former cricketer opens up on dark times during recovery
  • ‘I thought my face had come off. I was frightened to death’

Andrew Flintoff has described his return to cricket as a coach over the past 18 months as “the one thing that saved me” as he struggled to come to terms with the mental and physical scars caused in a car accident during filming for the BBC’s Top Gear in December 2022.

Flintoff talks for the first time about the accident and its aftermath in a Disney+ documentary to be released on Friday. “After the accident I didn’t think I had it in me to get through,” he says.

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Andrew Flintoff reveals anxiety after Top Gear accident: ‘I couldn’t get out of the room’

  • Former England captain was injured on set in 2022 crash
  • Rob Key helped encourage return to the England fold

Andrew Flintoff has spoken about his mental health following his life-changing car crash on the set of Top Gear in 2022.

In one of his first interviews since sustaining severe facial injuries in the accident, Flintoff told former the England captain and the Times’ cricket correspondent Mike Atherton of his initial reluctance to return to public life.

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England’s record-wicket taker Jimmy Anderson awarded a knighthood

  • 42-year-old retired from England duty last July
  • Anderson knighted in Rishi Sunak’s resignation honours

Jimmy Anderson is to be awarded a knighthood for “services to cricket” a year on from the final Test of his record-breaking England career.

Anderson was widely tipped to have his previous OBE upgraded after retiring from international cricket last summer and on Friday was the only sportsperson to feature in the resignation honours list of former prime minister – and cricket fan – Rishi Sunak.

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Harry Brook named England men’s white-ball captain for T20s and ODIs

  • Yorkshire batter takes over from Jos Buttler
  • Key says chance has come ‘slightly earlier than expected’

Harry Brook has been named as England’s new white-ball captain, with Rob Key, the director of men’s cricket, praising the Yorkshireman’s “excellent cricketing brain” but also admitting the opportunity has come “slightly earlier than expected”.

Brook, 26, will take charge of both the T20 and ODI teams despite Key admitting last month he was considering offering the latter to Ben Stokes. Instead, Stokes will remain focused on leading the Test side and next winter’s Ashes moonshot, as well as his own return to fitness after hamstring surgery at the start of the year.

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Peter Lever obituary

Lancashire and England opening bowler who played in the victorious England Ashes side of 1971

Peter Lever, who has died aged 84, was a fast-medium bowler for Lancashire for 17 years and for England in 17 Test matches. In many ways he was the epitome of the staunch English professional cricketer, dedicated, modest and devoted to the game he loved. And yet throughout his career he experienced moments way beyond the norm, one of which was harrowing in the extreme.

He toured Australia twice, under the captaincy of Ray Illingworth in 1970-71 when England regained the Ashes with Lever playing in five of the six Tests, and then on the less successful expedition under Mike Denness four years later, during which an unsuspecting England team was confronted by the combination of Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson for the first time. It was just after that series when a battered England side had moved on to New Zealand that Lever had the most traumatic experience of his life.

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Duckett says England losses in ODI and Champions Trophy ‘hurt me so much’

  • Opener insists results matter despite comments in India
  • Duckett clarifies social media posts on Jasprit Bumrah

Ben Duckett has said England’s humbling experiences in India and at the Champions Trophy in Pakistan “hurt me so much” and that he hopes they can make amends this summer.

England have lost 10 out of 11 white-ball matches since the turn of the year, including all three at the Champions Trophy to finish bottom of their group, triggering the resignation of Jos Buttler as captain.

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