The ACSU imposed the fine and TNPL ban after the player was caught with an undeclared phone inside the restricted area during a match in Dindigul.
A Tamil Nadu all-rounder who played two Ranji Trophy matches last season has been fined ₹1 lakh by the BCCI's Anti-Corruption and Security Unit and barred from the rest of the Tamil Nadu Premier League. The ACSU found the undeclared phone on him inside the Players and Match Officials Area at NPR College ground in Natham, Dindigul on August 10.
The TNCA has told his franchise not to pick him until its own inquiry finishes. No bookmaker contact was found on the device; the breach is only about the phone being in a restricted zone.
He's been withdrawn from the franchise, and the other TNPL sides have been notified. The same ₹1 lakh fine went to Rajasthan Royals team manager Ravinder Singh Bhinder earlier this year for using a phone in the dugout during an IPL match.
Pratika Rawal steps into India's Asia Cup squad after Jemimah Rodrigues suffers a hamstring injury in The Hundred.
Jemimah Rodrigues has been ruled out of the Women's Asia Cup and Asian Games after sustaining a high-grade right hamstring tear while playing in The Hundred. The Board of Control for Cricket in India confirmed the timeline for her recovery.
Pratika Rawal is expected to replace Rodrigues in the Asia Cup squad. The tournament is scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka, with the Asian Games following in Japan.
The Indian team management will finalise the replacement before both tournaments begin. Rawal has been in good form in domestic cricket this season.
India play their 600th Test against Sri Lanka in Galle on Independence Day. The team sits fifth in the World Test Championship table and needs consistent wins to reach the final.
India begin their two-match Test series against Sri Lanka in Galle on Saturday, marking the country's 600th Test match. Shubman Gill captains the side on the landmark occasion, with Gautam Gambhir as head coach.
India currently occupy fifth place on the World Test Championship points table — another sequence of dropped points would further reduce their chances of qualifying for the final. Gill said it's an honour to lead the side in the 600th Test and emphasized the team needs a strong performance to stay in contention.
India won the toss and elected to bat first on a pitch described as favourable for a full day's play. Devdutt Padikkal replaces injured Sai Sudharsan in the XI.
Gill said Bumrah’s knee injury leaves a gap but gives other bowlers the chance to make their mark in Galle.
India captain Shubman Gill told his bowlers that Jasprit Bumrah’s absence creates an opportunity for them to step up in the two-Test series against Sri Lanka that starts in Galle on Saturday. Bumrah was ruled out after failing to recover from the left knee injury he picked up during the ODI series in England last month.
Gill said the side must create wicket-taking opportunities on subcontinent pitches, especially on days one and two when the surface offers little assistance. He named Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Gurnoor Brar and uncapped Auqib Nabi among the pace options, while Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja and Manav Suthar lead the spin choices.
The two-match series counts towards the World Test Championship. India sit fifth on the points table and need several wins to reach the final. The second Test begins in Colombo on August 23.
Harbhajan argued that modern batters lack the patience to build big Test innings and that IPL incentives have accelerated the shift.
Former India spinner Harbhajan Singh thinks the T20 era has chipped away at the patience needed for long Test innings. He reckons triple centuries have dried up because players chase shots instead of settling in.
Earlier generations turned out multiple triple-centurions — Brian Lara, Chris Gayle, Virender Sehwag, Matthew Hayden among them. Australia led the way in the early 2000s, pushing scoring rates higher while the rest caught up.
Now the IPL pulls the brightest young talent toward white-ball cricket, where recognition and big contracts arrive quicker.
Porel was arrested on August 11 following a Calcutta High Court directive and remains in judicial custody.
Delhi Capitals and Bengal wicketkeeper-batter Abishek Porel was denied bail and sent to judicial custody for 14 days by the Chinsurah Court on Friday. The 23-year-old faces allegations of sexual relations under the pretext of marriage. Porel was arrested on August 11 after the Calcutta High Court directed police to take him into custody.
The case stems from a complaint filed at Mogra Police Station on June 23 by a medical student from Karnataka. The complainant alleged that she and Porel had been in a relationship for three and a half years and that he had established a physical relationship with her after promising to marry her. The complaint also levelled allegations of physical and mental abuse, threats and misuse of private photographs and videos.
Porel has denied wrongdoing. The case has been registered under multiple sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Information Technology Act. The Calcutta High Court deferred further hearing of the woman's petition until September 14 after the West Bengal government sought more time to proceed with the investigation.
Twining takes charge of Renegades while maintaining his Australia assistant coach duties.
Melbourne Renegades have named Ashley Twining as their WBBL head coach. He's been an assistant with the Australia women's team across formats, and he'll keep that role once the tournament ends.
The 2026-27 season is the target. Renegades came last last time and need to climb the table, so they're bringing Twining in early to start the rebuild.
He'll juggle both jobs through the domestic window, splitting his time between national duties and the franchise.
The Galle pitch is expected to offer gradual turn rather than sharp spin from day one, prompting India to consider three spinners.
Two days before the first Test, word from both camps suggests the Galle pitch is not the usual dry turner and may not offer sharp spin from the opening day. Recent history indicates that for the first couple of days, Galle is a batting paradise, with gradual turn offered as the game progresses. India bowling coach Morne Morkel said something will start to happen as the match goes on. This leaves India with a choice between three spinners or three fast bowlers. As things stand, the former is the more reliable option because it adds batting depth. If the spin attack remains as expected, it could be a rare instance where the visitors field all left-arm spinners. The last Test at this venue saw two 450-plus totals, four hundreds and four half-centuries.
Morne Morkel says India will rely on KL Rahul's experience from the 2017 Sri Lanka tour to navigate conditions in Galle.
India's bowling coach Morne Morkel has identified KL Rahul as a key resource for the team in Sri Lanka, citing his experience from the 2017 tour and his consistent form as an opener in recent years. Rahul is the only member of the current squad who played Tests on the island in the last decade. Morkel expects Rahul to share his knowledge of local conditions during net sessions and team meetings. The 33-year-old has averaged 42 as an opener over the past five years and scored multiple centuries on difficult overseas pitches. His presence offers both batting stability and tactical insight that younger players lack. India arrived in Galle ten days before the first Test specifically to allow players time to adapt to the conditions.
Hasan Mahmud's 6-55 dismantles Australia for 198 on day one in Darwin, while Bangladesh reach 96-1 and trail by just 102.
Hasan Mahmud claimed career-best figures of 6-55 to bowl Australia out for 198 on the opening day of the first Test in Darwin. Steve Smith top-scored with 71 after a reprieve early on, but Bangladesh's pace attack suffocated the hosts on a tricky surface.
Mahmud became the first Bangladesh bowler to take six wickets against Australia in Test cricket. While he was getting among the runs, Taskin Ahmed notched 300 international wickets during the innings — a milestone that underscores how long Bangladesh's attack has been grinding away.
Bangladesh reached 96-1 at stumps, trailing by 102 runs. They've seized control of day one and hold all the momentum heading into day two.
CA chief executive says pay talks with players and privatisation discussions with states remain unresolved.
Cricket Australia chief executive Todd Greenberg says talks with the Australian Cricketers' Association over a new pay deal have not concluded. Privatisation discussions with New South Wales and Queensland are due to move forward in September. Both sides still differ on how revenue gets split and what players will be asked to do.
Greenberg said governance talks remain live but no final agreements are on the table. Multiple stakeholders need to sign off before either the pay structure or the ownership changes can be finalised. The BBL contracting process requires alignment between CA and the ACA before the next season can be fully planned.
The pay negotiations and privatisation talks are running on separate tracks but both require resolution before the league's operating model can be confirmed. Greenberg indicated that September remains the target for progress on the ownership discussions.
Farokh Engineer says he has never received the Padma Shri announced for him in 1973 and is still seeking official confirmation 53 years later.
Farokh Engineer, 88 and now settled in England, still hasn't received the Padma Shri announced for him in 1973. He read about it in the newspapers while playing county cricket. Since then he's written to Arun Jaitley and, more recently, to Jay Shah, who promised to help. The official awards site lists him among the recipients, but no letter ever came.
He'd like the certificate framed and to attend the Rashtrapati Bhavan ceremony with his wife. A BCCI source says the board intends to raise the matter with the government in the coming weeks. Engineer played 46 Tests between 1961 and 1975, and was the first-choice keeper for the Rest of the World side in the early 1970s.
Dhananjaya de Silva believes Sri Lanka's experience on turning pitches at Galle gives them an advantage over India.
Sri Lanka captain Dhananjaya de Silva says his side have the upper hand against India in the first Test in Galle because they know how to bat on turning pitches once the surface starts to grip. De Silva expects the pitch to help batters in the first two or three days before turning, with spinners becoming the primary line of attack.
De Silva believes the hardest part of batting in these conditions is knowing what to do when the surface begins to change. He said several batters become clueless when it turns and do not know how to approach an innings. Sri Lanka will look to drag India deep into the Test and let the spinners dictate the game. Left-arm spinner Prabath Jayasuriya has played more matches at Galle than any other player in either squad.
Chaminda Vaas has backed Shubman Gill to be India's most important batter in the first Test at Galle.
Veteran pacer Chaminda Vaas believes Shubman Gill will be the key player for India in the opening Test against Sri Lanka in Galle. The conditions are expected to test the Indian batters, particularly with the pitch likely to offer assistance to spinners as the match progresses. Gill will have the added responsibility of leading the team from the front and setting the tone.
Vaas believes Gill's temperament and ability to build long innings could make him India's biggest weapon in Galle. The former Sri Lanka pacer has closely watched the Indian captain's batting and feels his consistency and composure make him particularly difficult to dismiss once he settles in. Gill has made a strong start as India's Test captain, scoring 1,076 runs in nine matches and 15 innings at an average of 82.76 with six centuries.
Centuries from Zadran and Atal powered Afghanistan to their highest ODI total and an unassailable 3-0 lead over Ireland.
Afghanistan posted their record one-day international score of 343 for 9 as they thrashed Ireland by 42 runs in Belfast on Wednesday to clinch a five-match series with a game to spare. Ibrahim Zadran and Sediqullah Atal both struck centuries in Afghanistan's second-wicket partnership of 231. After the opening match of the series was washed out last week, Afghanistan won the second and third matches by 92 runs and three wickets respectively.
Ireland opener Andrew Balbirnie managed a century of his own in response for the hosts before becoming the 11th of leg-spinner Rashid Khan's 12 wickets so far this series. Curtis Campher's aggressive 84 from 46 balls maintained Ireland's slim hopes of victory but they were never truly in the hunt and they were eventually bowled out for 301. The series concludes at Stormont on Saturday.
KL Rahul aims to extend his Test centuries beyond 100 as his conversion rate trails other top openers.
KL Rahul returns to Sri Lanka aiming to turn his Test centuries into bigger scores after his current average of 128.45 lags behind contemporary openers. Six of his 12 hundreds have finished between 100 and 110, and only two have gone past 150. Rahul is the only batter in the current squad who played in India's previous Test tour of Sri Lanka in 2017, where he scored half-centuries in both matches.
Former opener Wasim Jaffer said Rahul needs both mental strength and physical fitness to stay out there for long hours. Mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton noted that modern players arrive at Test level already low on mental reserves because of packed schedules. Rahul's one domestic score above 200 is a triple century in a Ranji Trophy final against Uttar Pradesh.
Amit Mishra says Gautam Gambhir deserves more time as India Test coach amid recent struggles.
Former India spinner Amit Mishra has urged patience with head coach Gautam Gambhir after India's poor recent Test results. Mishra said one coach for all formats has been the norm for years and that any coach needs time to establish themselves. He pointed out that Rahul Dravid also required 1-1.5 years before performance improved under his tenure.
Under Gambhir, India have won eight, lost 10 and drawn one of their 19 Tests, with series defeats against New Zealand, South Africa and Australia. Mishra stressed that players must take more responsibility and adapt to conditions rather than blame the coach. Gambhir's position is understood to be safe until the end of the 2025-27 World Test Championship cycle.
Sony and Fancode secured the rights deal for the three-match series, with the ACB set to receive around $2 million per match in combined revenue.
Sony and Fancode have acquired the television and digital rights for the three-match India-Afghanistan T20I series scheduled in Delhi from September 13 to 17. ITW Universe, the Afghanistan Cricket Board's global consulting partner, sold the TV rights to Sony on Thursday, with Fancode taking the digital rights.
The combined rights value across both platforms will bring the ACB approximately $2 million per match. This figure exceeds the revenue Afghanistan typically earns from other bilateral series but remains below the per-match value of ₹68 crore paid by JioStar for a previous Afghanistan series in India under the 2023-28 BCCI rights cycle.
JioStar opted not to bid for the short series. Organisers have sold nearly 90 percent of on-ground sponsorship inventory for matches at prime time in the capital, despite the late announcement of the series dates.
Ibrahim Zadran and Sediqullah Atal centuries powered Afghanistan to their highest ODI score and an unassailable 3-0 series lead over Ireland.
Afghanistan posted their highest ODI total of 343 for 9 to beat Ireland by 42 runs in Belfast and seal the five-match series with one game remaining. Ibrahim Zadran and Sediqullah Atal both scored centuries in a second-wicket partnership of 231. Ireland opener Andrew Balbirnie replied with a century before becoming Rashid Khan's 11th wicket of the series.
Curtis Campher scored an aggressive 84 from 46 balls but Ireland were eventually bowled out for 301. Afghanistan won the second and third ODIs by 92 runs and three wickets respectively after the opening match was washed out. The series concludes at Stormont on Saturday.
Hasan Mahmud took a career-best 6 for 55 to lead Bangladesh's attack in Darwin.
Australia collapsed to 198 on day one in Darwin — their lowest Test score ever against Bangladesh. Hasan Mahmud finished with 6 for 55, his best in international cricket.
Mitchell Starc claimed his 434th Test wicket during the innings, overtaking Rangana Herath as the most successful left-arm bowler in Test history. He also equalled Kapil Dev's tally, though in fewer matches.
Bangladesh reached 96 for 1 by stumps, cutting the first-innings deficit to just 102 runs. Before the match, captain Najmul Hossain Shanto had pointedly asked whether the Test would last three or five days — a question that looks sharper now. A sight-screen delay also saw Steve Smith targeted by remarks from an Australian spectator.
