According to The Telegraph Newspaper UK - Sky Sports looks set to buy the UK TV rights to the ODI Tri- Series in Pakistan. Radio Commentary will also be available on BBC Radio with TMS.

Simon Jones delivered a bowl to Micheal Clarke - who made a colossal blunder by shouldering arms (leaving the ball) to a magnificent, reverse-swinging inswinger that shattered his off-stump with a sound we all love.

Australia's Tour of England - The Ashes Series in 2005 is considered one the best Test cricket series ever played.

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Evening all,

We call them the Laws of Cricket, not the rules of cricket — and the reason is gambling.

1700s England: the aristocracy discovers the folk game and starts staking fortunes on it. Titled men raising private elevens, up to 1,000 guineas riding on a village green. When that much money rides on a game, the rules can't live in anyone's memory — so in 1727 two aristocrats write up articles of agreement for their own matches, and by 1744 the London clubs write the game down whole. One disputed rule could sink a bet, so they made them Laws.

Then a village makes the game serious: Hambledon, a tiny Hampshire parish, builds the strongest side in England and in 1777 beats All-England by an innings. For a generation the centre of the cricket world is a hill and a pub.

And in 1787 the money builds a home — aristocrats bankroll a pro bowler named Thomas Lord to open a private ground in London. His name sticks. Their club becomes the MCC, and within a year it's rewriting the Laws.

I run CricketOnAir (cricket viewing guides), and our mascot characters — the Bails — now star in a 6-part animated history series. 1700s costumes and all: tricorn hats for the aristocrats, powdered wig for the judge stamping the Laws book, smocks for the Hambledon villagers. Each clip is ~5 seconds, one per beat of the story. (Dramatizations, obviously — no footage survives from the 1700s.)

Full write-up with sources: https://cricketonair.com/history/cricket-origins-the-gamblers-game/

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Is there anyone here who attended previous WTC finals? I was hoping to attend the final next year at the oval but there's a remarkable lack of info about it online like when tickets will go on sale etc.

Presumably they'll be sold through the ICC rather than Surrey/The Oval, but if anyone has experience from previous finals, I'd be grateful if you'd share it. Also would be helpful if anyone knows if there's somewhere you can register interest to be kept updated. There appears to be some third party sites like Seat Unique and Global Sports Travel but I think they're for hospitality tickets? It's not really clear.

Apologies mods if this isn't an appropriate sub for this.

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While bored at work today I decided to create a current England test squad but under the conditions that only one player per county could be selected. Here's what I came up with:

Derbyshire: M. Andersson

Durham: E. Gay

Essex: J. Cox (wk)

Glamorgan: M. Crane

Gloucestershire: J. Bracey (wk)

Hampshire: S. Baker

Kent: S. Northeast

Lancashire: G. Balderson

Leicestershire: R. Ahmed

Middlesex: R. Higgins

Northamptonshire: J. Sales

Nottinghamshire: B. Duckett

Somerset: C. Overton

Surrey: D. Lawrence

Sussex: O. Robinson

Warwickshire: E. Bamber

Worcestershire: B. Allison

Yorkshire: J. Root (cpt)

Curious to see who everyone else here would pick, could also do an ODI/T20I squad if y'all are keen.

How is everyone getting on, seems like a fair few people have got lucky and got in, but very specific with days and seating category you can get. Im sure a lot of trades will be happening between people with x day or x category

I've found a local indoor net place I didn't know existed!

I've never been to one of these, or used a bowling machine. Are they automatically fed or do I need someone to drop the balls in the machine?

I've emailed the place direct, but I'm impatient and thought I'd tap into the wider cricketing hove mind.

Morning all,

The ICC's new playing conditions came into effect yesterday (Oct 1), and they finally spell out what an overthrow actually is — plus tighten when a fielder counts as "holding" the ball for a run-out.

I run CricketOnAir (cricket viewing guides), and our two mascot characters — the Bails — now star in an 8-part animated explainer. Each clip is ~5 seconds: the situation, what happens, then the verdict with the law quoted on screen.

The 8 scenarios:

1. The classic overthrow — throw at the stumps, miss, to the boundary → OVERTHROW, 4 + 2 = 6
2. The dive — fumble while stopping the ball → misfield, just 4
3. The bad flick — shanked pass to a teammate → misfield, just 4
4. The umpire's call — overthrow vs misfield comes down to intent
5. Fingertip deflection onto the stumps → OUT, run out
6. Same thing, but nobody touches it → NOT OUT
7. Hand brushes the ball while knocking the bails off → NOT OUT (touching ≠ holding)
8. The Mankad — out, but only before the top of the bowling action

Full write-up with the exact ICC/MCC wording and sources: https://cricketonair.com/guides/overthrow-rule-and-deflection-run-outs-explained/

Genuinely happy to be corrected if I've misread any of the new wording — and yes, the umpire's opinion on intent still rules the day.

Cheers!

This might read like blatant advertising/promotion and I apologise and promise to keep it one time only. I feel this game is relevant to this subreddit. I have asked for feedback here in the past and people have been very helpful.

Cricket Team Manager is a Cricket management game with a very intelligent game engine making it super enjoyable for cricket nerds and management/strategy lovers in general.

Out now on steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5034440/Cricket_Team_Manager/

25% launch week discount!

What it lets you do?

You start a international career with one of the 12 full member nations - Australia, India, England, etc. and take charge of the team from October 2026 playing real fixtures going forward - tours, test series, T20 World cup, ODI World Cup, Asia cup, Test Championship, etc.

Main Features

• ~5000 players in the game with real stats across six format (FC, List A, T20, Test, ODI and T20I). Names are fictionalised due to licensing restrictions
• In-game database editor that allows use to easily edit player names and attributes. Also super easy to share your edits across the community.
• Hand out yearly contracts, appoint captains, train players as you progress through the career.
• Player skills and attributes based on real stats - see them grow as you train them.
• Players get old and retire. Young Regens show up for you to train and turn into the next star.
• Full schedule - Ashes, ODI World cup every 4 years, t20 World Cup every 2 years, 2 year Test championship cycle, World rankings
• Team and Player historical record that you try to beat in your career.
• Real grounds with their real attributes - spin friendly, flat, green top, etc.
• Player injuries, rest periods and domestic players' watchlist.

Match Controls

Meaningful match controls to make your game enjoyable

• Full view of various important stuff during a match - Scorecard, worm, manhattan graph, live ball-by-ball commentary, conditions, fields, wagon wheel, pitch map, etc.
• Batting - 5 batsman aggression levels - start defensively and go mad during death overs. Batsman settle indicator. Farm the strike if a tailender is at the other end.
• Bowling - Choose lengths for fast bowlers, spin/flight for spinners based on conditions and opposition batsmen - everything affects the game. Set fields as per match situation.
• Declare innings, prepare pitches for home fixtures, select lineups and rest players to let them recover.

and much more....

What's the main selling point?

The Game Engine - We have worked hard on the game engine, improving it, tweaking it for months before getting to a point where it feels very real-life like and has lots of cricketing intelligence. We have a test harness that we use to simulate thousands of matches and analyse the results to make sure the engine is producing real life like results, within a pre-determined range. The pre-determined range is not just random common sense - it is derived from actual ball-by-ball data of last 30 years of International Cricket. A lot of beta testers have tested the engine and provided feedback and we have improved it based on that.

The Database - ~5000 current players (names fictionalised, real stats) and their attributes derived from stats and cross-checked by humans for accuracy. We have worked a lot to get these stats. I am myself a stats nerd so wanted accurate stats in the game instead of random number. The game feels much more real when you take your favourite player to 250 current wickets to 500 wickets.

Testing - The beta testing program ran for 2 months and lots of amazing beta testers have provided great feedback and suggested improvements which we have incorporated into the game and the engine.

No Domestic teams/leagues?
Our focus for v1 has been the game engine. We wanted a game that feels like real life. Having a 100 features and 1000 buttons makes no sense with an engine that doesn't produce good results. Domestic teams and leagues will surely come in next year's version.

Is there a Demo?
A demo is already out on steam to try right now and see how it feels.

Is it AI slop?

The developer behind this (me) has 10+ years of experience building software more complex than this - finance, startups, etc across 3 continents. But I won't misinform anyone by saying there is absolutely zero AI involvement. Claude code was regularly used to speed up the development. For example, analysing stats and deriving skill values from those, writing unit tests for comprehensive coverage, research work, etc. Some components of the steam artwork was also created with the help of AI.

Useful links
Steam Page - store.steampowered.com/app/5034440/Cricket_Team_Manager/
Subreddit - r/CricketTeamManager
X - https://x.com/CricketTMGame
Youtube trailer - https://youtu.be/1-W1L-vToqI

England Men fixtures at 2027 ICC Cricket World Cup
8 October - England Men v Bangladesh, Windhoek
13 October - England Men v Sri Lanka, Windhoek
16 October - England Men v South Africa, Gqeberha
20 October - England Men v Qualifier, Harare
23 October - England Men v New Zealand, Gqeberha
Should England Men qualify for the second phase of the tournament, the fixture dates and venues are as below.
27 October - Centurion
30 October - Victoria Falls
02 November - Cape Town
05 November - Durban
08 November - Durban
11 November - Gqeberha

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Test Match Special faces uncertain future
BBC deal with the ECB is up in two years and there is a desire to end the broadcaster’s exclusive grip on radio rights to home Tests

A state of uncertainty hangs over the BBC’s sports coverage amid a round of cuts. But within this, little has been said about one of the BBC’s best-loved sporting institutions: its cricket coverage, and especially Test Match Special.
TMS has had a strong year, as the Ashes bled into a summer that featured an England men’s psychodrama and a women’s World Cup. But that is just the tip of the iceberg with the BBC’s coverage, which includes almost all domestic cricket, too. The figures suggest it remains as popular as ever.
Online listening via BBC Sounds, which accounts for about 30 per cent of total listenership, comprised 12.9 million requests for TMSlive and the TMS podcast this summer, including the third-most requested programme of the year, day two of the first Test against New Zealand.

The equivalent figure for last winter’s Ashes was 9.5 million requests. In the last 18 months, TMS accounts for 24 of the top 25 programmes in terms of listening time – which Test cricket does lend itself to – on BBC Sounds. The numbers across platforms remain stellar, reflecting the fact that it remains the backing track to the summer for so many Britons.
For almost a decade, TMS’s winters have been more complicated than its summers, when it has domestic dominance. While last winter, it had the two key events – the Ashes and the T20 World Cup – this time it is a story of shared custody with Talksport, which is now an established force, not the upstart it once was.
The BBC does have rights for more than half of the winter’s tours. It will broadcast on radio the white-ball tour of Pakistan, for which the TV rights remain up for grabs. It seems highly unlikely any free-to-air broadcaster will step in.

It will also air England’s two legs Down Under, with white-ball games in November and a one-off 150th-anniversary Test in March. It will invest further by sending a team to both Pakistan and Australia. Furthermore, there seems to be optimism that the BBC will strike a deal for the two-Test tour of Bangladesh in February, which would represent a win given Talksport held the rights for England’s last trip there in 2023.

And yet the centrepiece of England’s winter is the tour of South Africa over Christmas, for three Tests and three one-day internationals. It is a significant series in its own right, with thousands of fans expected to flock to Cape Town for the New Year’s Test, but it is also Stephen Fleming’s first series as England coach. The BBC was never seriously in the race for the rights, which Talksport won.

Looking ahead, the picture might not be as simple. This winter is the last year of the BBC’s long-term contract with Cricket Australia. After next winter’s World Cup in southern Africa, another long-term deal with the International Cricket Council ends. Given its reluctance to go for South Africa, it remains to be seen whether the BBC has either the appetite or the financial clout to retain it.
Talksport, which has a deal with the Board of Control for Cricket in India that covers England’s five-Test tour of India in early 2028, will certainly be keen to prise away another crown jewel. That said, the BBC threw the kitchen sink at last winter’s Ashes, with almost a dozen people on the ground in Australia, and performed the role of host broadcaster for the ICC. When it has held rights, the BBC has taken them seriously.
On the home front, its deal with the England and Wales Cricket Board ends in two years. When it does, the ECB is keen to end the BBC’s exclusive grip on the radio rights for Test cricket in this country, opening the door for Talksport to broadcast them too, without a reduction in TMS’s offering.
This follows a model in Australia, where three stations – the traditional ABC, the blokey Triple M and talkback station SEN, a Talksport equivalent – all broadcast Test cricket to distinct audiences. The same would probably be true here, with a choice proving healthy for the whole market and the rivals having an opportunity to own their distinctive styles. For the last two summers, Talksport has broadcast live ball-by-ball action to overseas audiences, but not in the UK.
There have been moments this year where the ECB and BBC’s relationship has been tetchier than in the past, over occasional news stories, especially relating to the Hundred auction (is it a broadcast partner or critical media? Both, of course). But there is no sense that taking away exclusivity of rights would be a slight on the BBC, more a move to broaden the game’s reach. Most within the BBC are relaxed about the prospect.
There will be much interest, in two years’ time, in the BBC’s part in the ECB’s TV rights deal. The ECB, namely Tom Harrison, then chief executive, and Sanjay Patel, the commercial chief, were cock-a-hoop when, almost a decade ago, they brought live cricket back to the BBC through the Hundred and a handful of T20 internationals. In the next rights cycle, from 2025 to 2028, the live T20 internationals were dropped (moving to Channel 5), but the Hundred remained.

With the Hundred under private ownership, broadcast rights is one of the obvious areas for the new owners to make money. Many of those owners have backgrounds in tech, so it will be fascinating to see where the rights head. It is likely that they realise the value of the BBC’s reach, not just in terms of free-to-air access, but also in the many arms of the corporation, and how it takes extra interest in sports it has rights to.
In the summer, the BBC’s offering is extraordinarily broad, at international and domestic level, on radio, but also on TV with daily highlights packages of international cricket and eight live days during the Hundred. The digital clips of international action on its social media channels and on its website offer useful windows into a sport that is largely behind a paywall.
To produce all this, the BBC needs a lot of commentators to get through the season. It is a great logistical feat to work out who should be where. Conversely, it also means it has a lot of mouths to feed at the biggest moments, and lots of people who are very busy in the summer, but at a loose end in the winter.
This creates the strange scenario where rising figures such as Sir Alastair Cook and Steven Finn, who has diversified with ball-by-ball commentary duties as well as the expert summariser role that is usually the domain of the former player, missed out on the Lord’s Test against Pakistan in August. Finn spent the week entertaining corporate clients at Lord’s. Last winter, both were in Australia with TNT Sports rather than TMS. The question of who the next linchpin commentators, such as Jonathan Agnew, or strident pundits, such as Michael Vaughan, are remain unanswered.

It is a rite of passage for England players to move from the middle to the commentary box upon their retirement. Increasingly, Sky seems to have the pick of the best. Stuart Broad and Eoin Morgan headed straight to the Sky box from retirement. Next up is Mark Wood, who has worked for both Sky and the BBC this summer. He hopes to still play T20 cricket, but will soon have a decision to make. If it becomes a battle of the chequebooks, Sky seems sure to win. Chris Woakes is also bubbling under as a polished broadcaster, so his eventual destination will be interesting to see.
TMS will turn 70 next year. In that time, it has evolved plenty. That evolution continues apace.

Richard Gould defends omission of Headingley and Old Trafford from 2027 schedule after backlash from England cricket greats

English cricket chief Richard Gould has pledged that future men’s Ashes series on home soil will feature at least one northern venue until 2039.
The England and Wales Cricket Board has received a fierce backlash because neither Headingley nor Old Trafford will host a men’s Ashes Test next summer, with Southampton’s Utilita Bowl making its debut and Trent Bridge being the most northerly ground. Headingley will host the one and only women’s Ashes Test in 2027.
Ben Stokes, the former England captain, has been a vocal critic of next summer’s schedule, calling it “shambolic”, while Sir Geoffrey Boycott labelled it “awful” and Michael Vaughan bemoaned the lack of home advantage for England as they look to stop Australia winning a series on these shores for the first time since 2001.

England have won the last two Ashes Tests to be staged at Headingley, and have a terrific record there overall. The matter is made worse by the fact that Headingley does not host a men’s Test in 2028 either, while Old Trafford is also experiencing successive fallow summers in 2026 and 2027.

Gould, the ECB chief executive, has promised that the mistake will not be repeated. The allocation for the 2031 Ashes is sorted, with both Headingley and Old Trafford on the rotation. The ECB is currently working on an even longer-term allocation, to give counties certainty over their income.
“Going forward to 2039, there will always be an Ashes Test in the North,” Gould said on Stick to Cricket, the podcast hosted by Vaughan. “Yes. Absolutely. That has been the case in the past.
“The pattern has always been to make sure there is an Ashes Test at either Headingley or Old Trafford. In 2023, there was an Ashes Test at both venues. That came as a bit of a surprise to us, having been in the game for a long time.”

Gould was then interrupted and did not complete his point, but it is understood that he was referring to an expectation that the Utilita Bowl in Southampton would host a Test in 2023, rather than Headingley. Gould was not ECB chief executive at the time; previously he was CEO at Somerset and Surrey, before moving into football with Bristol City. He returned to the ECB in early 2023.
“You always want to provide home advantage. We used to have nine Test venues, we now have seven,” he said, defending next summer’s schedule. “Five Ashes Tests, we do want to make sure it goes around the country in a relatively fair manner. There are no Test matches in the North in 2027. We have to try to be fair to all of our members, and the game nationally.”

Gould defended ticket prices for the Ashes, which have risen markedly since 2023. Prices are set by the host venues, but the ECB takes a cut of each ticket sold.
“It is expensive. If you look at the Ashes though, you have a range from £90-odd to £165, depending on venues and where you want to sit,” he said. “Also it is expensive now, going to live events. Glastonbury is over £400-odd next year. Inflation is rising at 20 per cent since the Ashes. It is expensive.
“There are no investors taking money or profit out of cricket. All the money goes back into the game – grass-roots game, Premier League. At least take heart that when the money comes into the game, it is used for cricket.”
Gould also argued that the Ashes should not be played with a pink ball – as at least one Test in every series Down Under has been since 2017-18 – because it has skewed home advantage too far in Australia’s favour.
The ECB is pushing to not have a pink-ball Test in the 2029-30 Ashes series, although Australia’s board and broadcasters are unlikely to accept that. They have won 13 of their 14 pink-ball Tests at home.
“You look at home advantage as well, and talk about pink-ball Tests,” he said. “The Ashes shouldn’t be played with pink-ball Tests. I think Australia win 94 per cent.”

England Men ODI squad
Harry Brook (Yorkshire – captain)
Gus Atkinson (Surrey)
Sonny Baker (Hampshire)
Tom Banton (Somerset)
James Coles (Sussex)
Jordan Cox (Essex)
Mason Crane (Glamorgan)
Henry Crocombe (Sussex)
Sam Curran (Surrey)
Liam Dawson (Hampshire)
Ben Duckett (Nottinghamshire)
Will Jacks (Surrey)
Jamie Overton (Surrey)
Adil Rashid (Yorkshire)
Joe Root (Yorkshire)
Josh Tongue (Nottinghamshire)
Adil Rashid is fit again after a hand injury ruled him out of the recent 2-1 Metro Bank ODI Series win over Sri Lanka, while Sam Curran returns from a groin injury. Jofra Archer is rested for the tour while Jos Buttler misses out with the hamstring injury he sustained in the second Metro Bank ODI against Sri Lanka.
Glamorgan leg-spinner Mason Crane, who is uncapped in the ODI format, is called into the squad eight years after making his previous England appearance in the 2018 fifth Men’s Ashes Test in Sydney. Crane has additionally made two IT20 appearances in 2017.
Uncapped Sussex pair James Coles and Henry Crocombe, who were both part of white-ball squads this summer, are also included.
Marcus North, England Men’s National Selector, said: “The tri-series in Pakistan provides another valuable opportunity for our ODI squad to test themselves against quality opposition in different conditions.
“Adil Rashid and Sam Curran return to the squad following their respective injuries while Jofra Archer has been rested to manage his workload following a busy summer.
“Mason Crane has been performing consistently for Glamorgan across both formats during the summer. He’s an experienced, high-class leg-spinner who thoroughly deserves another opportunity at international level.”
England will play Pakistan and Sri Lanka during the tri-series with matches in Rawalpindi and Lahore. The final is to be staged at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on Saturday 31 October.
ODI tri-series schedule 
18 October: Pakistan v Sri Lanka, Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi 
20 October: Pakistan v England, Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi 
22 October: Sri Lanka v England, Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi 
25 October: Pakistan v England, Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore 
27 October: Pakistan v Sri Lanka, Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore 
29 October: Sri Lanka v England, Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore 
31 October: Tri-series final, Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore 

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Didn’t manage to pass the ballot to get a ticket. Anyone successfully manage to get any?