While the Test side and their counties miss them, the players are making the most of their Indian Premier League experience“I don’t think it will ever be straightforward. It’s down to you as a player to be very honest with yourself and if you want to b…
The England all-rounder recalls his emotional England return after missing the series defeat in Australia, and explains why playing in the IPL is not about the moneyIt’s 6pm at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. A drowsy sun has already slunk below …
• England all-rounder joins Chennai Super Kings as injury replacement• Yorkshire call for cut-off point on such signingsYorkshire have bemoaned “an impossible situation” and demanded the introduction of a cut-off point for Indian Premier League deals a…
‘It’s amazing how quickly things can change in cricket,’ says Sunrisers Hyderabad’s late pick-up for the 2018 IPLWhen Cameron Bancroft took sandpaper to the ball on the third day in Cape Town, it was not just the spark for a funeral pyre that a seeming…
• Yorkshireman urges ‘making it easier to play all three formats’• England likely to be unchanged for fourth ODI against New ZealandJoe Root has spoken for the first time about his disappointment after going unsold in the Indian Premier League auction …
Cricket was set on its lucrative path to the IPL by sport’s first super-agent and an all-star Sunday afternoon competition that forced the MCC into desperate actionIt was exactly 50 years ago this week that the MCC’s Advisory County Cricket Committee t…
• One-day captain and opener remain unsold at second day• Mark Wood and Sam Billings both signed by Chennai Super KingsJoe Root and Eoin Morgan will miss the 2018 Indian Premier League after both were unsold during the tournament’s auction.A total of 2…
• England captain Joe Root goes unsold, along with Chris Gayle• Jos Buttler also signs for Rajasthan, while Woakes fetches £820,000Ben Stokes’ pending court case did little to affect his market value at the Indian Premier League auction in Bengaluru as…
Fresh from success in New Zealand, the 29-year-old is one of many England cricketers among the 578 players up for auctionWith the salary cap up by 20%, 578 players up for grabs and no team having retained more than three members of their last squads, t…
The England all-rounder has no issue with being recalled and missing the tournament’s final and remains focused on the ODI series against South Africa
There are 5,000 miles between England and India and for Ben Stokes, just back from the IPL, Leeds seems a world away from Pune. He is here to prepare for England’s ODI against South Africa on Wednesday and, though Yorkshire is one of the few places on earth aside from India where cricket could fairly be described, to borrow Stokes’ phrase, as “a religion”, they are a little more solemn in their observance of it round Headingley way. “It’s completely different to England,” he says. “They go mad for it. They’ll queue up for five hours just to see Dhoni walk out on to the pitch.” It’s a relief, he says, to be able to “walk across the road and get a coffee” without having everyone pester you for “selfie, selfie, selfie”.
Related: Ben Stokes leads England charge of the IPL brigade against South Africa
• England all-rounder says Kolkata campaign has sharpened his game
• Chris Woakes confident T20 skills can help him in Champions Trophy
Chris Woakes returns to England duty emboldened by his time in the Indian Premier League, having relished the pressured environment of the world’s most high-profile Twenty20 league and the expectations that come with being an overseas cricketer.
Woakes has joined his international team-mates for their pre-Champions Trophy training camp in Spain this week after an encouraging IPL debut in which he took 17 group stage wickets for Kolkata Knight Riders, the franchise who paid £500,000 for his services.
• England all-rounder smashes 103 off 63 balls after coming in at 10 for three
• Stokes fights cramp to live up to his £1.7m price tag against Gujarat Lions
Ben Stokes hit his maiden Twenty20 century despite battling cramp in his calf to lead Rising Pune Supergiant to victory against Gujarat Lions in the Indian Premier League.
The IPL’s most expensive foreign player was back after missing two games with a shoulder injury, and he lived up to his £1.7m price tag by smashing a brilliant unbeaten 103 off 63 balls as RPS chased down 161 to win by five wickets.
The commentary is awful and the fielding is terrible but T20 franchise cricket positively writhes with energy – the counties cannot ignore the heat and light
Ben Stokes held his nerve pretty well for the first half of the opening over of his Indian Premier League career in Pune on Thursday afternoon. Gliding up to the wicket in aubergine pyjamas, pumped and sweating, endorsing at least seven high-end products and services simultaneously, the most expensive overseas import in the history of domestic cricket fizzed down a couple of tight, straight dot balls and a single to the Mumbai Indians openers Jos Buttler and Parthiv Patel.
His fourth ball was pitched up. Buttler stood still and clubbed it hard and flat over long-off for six. The next was short, and Buttler produced something ludicrous, pirouetting outside his off stump and persuading the ball away for a six looped straight back over his left shoulder. Cue bedlam, squeals, flashes, thunder, Kevin Pietersen on comms cooing about “wonderful, wonderful cricket shots” and what looked close to a small riot in the stands.
The commentary is awful and the fielding is terrible but T20 franchise cricket positively writhes with energy – the counties cannot ignore the heat and light
Ben Stokes held his nerve pretty well for the first half of the opening over of his Indian Premier League career in Pune on Thursday afternoon. Gliding up to the wicket in aubergine pyjamas, pumped and sweating, endorsing at least seven high-end products and services simultaneously, the most expensive overseas import in the history of domestic cricket fizzed down a couple of tight, straight dot balls and a single to the Mumbai Indians openers Jos Buttler and Parthiv Patel.
His fourth ball was pitched up. Buttler stood still and clubbed it hard and flat over long-off for six. The next was short, and Buttler produced something ludicrous, pirouetting outside his off stump and persuading the ball away for a six looped straight back over his left shoulder. Cue bedlam, squeals, flashes, thunder, Kevin Pietersen on comms cooing about “wonderful, wonderful cricket shots” and what looked close to a small riot in the stands.
An inspired spell of death bowling on England’s recent tour of India helped earn the bashful boy from Birmingham a chance with Kolkata Knight Riders, and Woakes is relishing the opportunity
Chris Woakes admits he squirms when driving into Edgbaston these days given his face has now replaced that of Ian Bell on the side of the famous old ground as Warwickshire’s most marketable cricketer.
Any awkwardness stems solely from the all-rounder’s self-effacing nature, however, and not the fact that while his county team-mates will be pondering tea in their season opener in front of a few hundred spectators against Surrey at the Oval on Friday, he will be likely stepping out to make his debut for Kolkata Knight Riders in the Bollywood-infused glitz and glamour of the Indian Premier League.
• England one-day captain says Big Bash rival long overdue
• ‘Intention to have games free to air is vital,’ says Morgan
Eoin Morgan has no concerns about an eight-team Twenty20 tournament being potentially damaging to county cricket. The England limited‑overs captain insists that the project does not represent a gamble and is long overdue.
Morgan was roped in to speak at Monday’s charm offensive when the England and Wales Cricket Board briefed representatives of the domestic game about the plan and relayed his experiences of playing in the Indian Premier League and Australia’s Big Bash – the two competitions it is hoped will be rivalled from 2020.
• England one-day captain says Big Bash rival long overdue
• ‘Intention to have games free to air is vital,’ says Morgan
Eoin Morgan has no concerns about an eight-team Twenty20 tournament being potentially damaging to county cricket. The England limited‑overs captain insists that the project does not represent a gamble and is long overdue.
Morgan was roped in to speak at Monday’s charm offensive when the England and Wales Cricket Board briefed representatives of the domestic game about the plan and relayed his experiences of playing in the Indian Premier League and Australia’s Big Bash – the two competitions it is hoped will be rivalled from 2020.
• Selectors keen to see Surrey’s 18-year-old all-rounder close up
• Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes will stay with franchises and miss May series
Sam Curran could be a surprise beneficiary of the recent English success in the Indian Premier League auction, with Surrey’s teenage all-rounder now in line for an England call-up to face Ireland in two ODIs in May in the absence of Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes.
Related: Thangarasu Natarajan’s Punjab deal the latest product of IPL’s dream factory | The Spin
A bowler who honed his craft with a tennis ball and has played only four T20 games for his state side offers the latest example of the IPL’s capacity for fairytales
The village of Chinnappampatti, 20 miles from Salem, 200 miles from Chennai, is so small that is does not even seem to show up on most maps. It has five bus stops, three temples, two schools, and, as of this week, one hero. His name is Thangarasu Natarajan, though most who know him call him “Nattu”. He is 25, a left-arm fast bowler who has taken exactly four wickets in Twenty20 matches for his state side, Tamil Nadu. And on Monday morning he was bought for $445,000 by Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League player auction. Natarajan never even held a cricket ball until he was 20. When he was young his mother worked in a snack stall, and his father wherever there was work to be had: as a railway porter, or in one of the many textile factories around about. They had five children, and many more important things to spend their money on than Dukes and Readers.
After Tymal Mills went for £1.4m in the latest Indian Premier League auction, what price would Ian Botham or Denis Compton in their pomp have reached?
On Tuesday night every cricketer who has played for England has been invited to a dinner at Lord’s by the bountiful Andrew Strauss. It is an excellent idea, eagerly anticipated, and hopefully there will not be too many long speeches because when old cricketers get together there is much to discuss around the table. Firstly, of course, the past, or some legendary version of it, must be revisited and then the vagaries of the present have to be set to rights.
Related: Ben Stokes and Tymal Mills attract millions at IPL auction – as it happened
