Cricket Ireland has named former international Ed Joyce as its new high performance batting coach, with a focus on the men's senior squad and male talent pathway. Joyce played 151 times for Ireland, scoring 5,552 runs at an average of 40.82 with 10 centuries and 29 half-centuries. He also played 19 matches for England.

Joyce was head coach of Ireland women from 2019 until stepping down last year. He said the role gave him experience working with players on technique and mindset. Joyce said despite the power game coming to the fore, sound technique and positive mindset remain crucial for batters at international level.

Joyce said he looks forward to adding insights to push Ireland's batting group forward. He noted the amount of hard work that has gone into preparing players to be competitive on the international stage. Joyce said the talent is there and the goal is now consistency.

Five WPL franchises retained 63 players, including 23 overseas, before the October 28 auction in Kochi. Royal Challengers Bengaluru kept 13 players and released Grace Harris, D Hemalatha, Gautami Naik and Linsey Smith. UP Warriorz retained the fewest at 15 players and enter the auction with the largest purse at INR 3.65 crore after letting go of nine players including Deandra Dottin and Kiran Navgire. Delhi Capitals and Mumbai Indians each retained 13 and 11 players respectively. Gujarat Giants retained 20 players. Ellyse Perry returns to RCB after missing the 2026 title-winning campaign. The auction will fill 27 vacancies, seven of them overseas.

Abishek Porel was included in Bengal’s senior men’s squad for practice matches against Assam in Guwahati days after receiving bail in a criminal case. The 23-year-old was granted bail on September 18 after spending more than a month in jail following his arrest on August 11.

A medical student from Karnataka filed a complaint alleging rape under the pretext of marriage and blackmail with intimate photographs. Porel was booked under 19 sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, with most charges non-bailable, along with sections under the Information Technology Act. He has denied the allegations, maintaining that the relationship was consensual.

The Cricket Association of Bengal included him in the 16-man squad that will play red-ball practice fixtures ahead of the 2026-27 Ranji Trophy season. Porel plays for Delhi Capitals in the IPL and has not appeared in competitive cricket since the 2026 season ended.

Surrey signed England all-rounder Freya Kemp from Hampshire on a multi-year deal that begins in the 2027 season. The 21-year-old left-arm seamer has represented England 49 times across both formats, scoring 585 runs and taking 36 wickets. Surrey did not disclose the exact length of the contract.

Kemp produced England's best bowling figures of the 2026 Women's T20 World Cup when she took 4 for 22 against Sri Lanka. She also batted at a strike rate of 157.89 and averaged 45 during the tournament. Kemp began her career at Sussex at age 14 and has played for Southern Vipers, Welsh Fire, Southern Brave and Perth Scorchers.

Surrey women's cricket director Emma Calvert said Kemp's international, franchise and domestic experience will strengthen the squad. Kemp stated that the move allows her to be closer to home after two seasons at Hampshire.

Yuzvendra Chahal has ended his three-year spell at Northamptonshire. He posted a farewell note before his last match of the 2026 County Championship, and his teammates lined up to give him a guard of honour.

Chahal first arrived in August 2024. He took 5/14 on debut against Kent in the One-Day Cup. The county kept him on for 2025 and 2026. Heading into this season he already had 44 first-class and 7 List A wickets for the club; he added 14 more in two final Championship games. In total he claimed 58 first-class wickets in three summers away from India.

Away from county cricket, Chahal has 217 white-ball wickets for India.

Somerset lost to Yorkshire at Headingley in their penultimate match and handed the County Championship title to Warwickshire. They led the table by four points with two games remaining but finished as runners-up for the sixth time since 2010. Warwickshire clinched the title on the final day.

Captain Lewis Gregory and director of cricket Andy Hurry identified two defeats in May against Yorkshire at Taunton and Glamorgan at Cardiff as decisive moments. Both games were winnable positions that Somerset failed to convert. Hurry said the bowling unit showed marked improvement and the top six contributed more runs than in previous seasons.

Gregory said the squad contains talented players who will benefit from the experience. Warwickshire won five of their final six matches to claim their ninth Championship title, with Sam Hain scoring 1048 runs and Ethan Bamber taking 69 wickets.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru retained 13 players for the Women's Premier League 2027 season and confirmed Ellyse Perry's return after she missed the 2026 campaign for personal reasons. The franchise released Grace Harris, D Hemalatha, Gautami Naik and Linsey Smith.

Head coach Malolan Rangarajan said Perry indicated her availability in August and that her presence will shape the auction strategy. RCB enter the October 28 auction in Kochi with Rs 1.15 crore and two overseas slots to fill.

Rangarajan added that the retained group must improve performance levels despite the 2026 title win. The squad includes nine Indian and four overseas players.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru released Grace Harris, D Hemalatha, Gautami Naik and Linsey Smith on Monday. Ellyse Perry confirmed she will return for the 2027 season after missing last year’s campaign.

UP Warriorz cut nine players, including Deandra Dottin and Chloe Tryon. They head to the Kochi auction with seven vacancies and the largest purse at Rs 3.65 crore. Delhi Capitals let Alana King and five others go, while Gujarat Giants moved on from Danielle Wyatt-Hodge.

Mumbai Indians released G Kamalini, Saika Ishaque and four more players but retained Harmanpreet Kaur, Hayley Matthews, Amelia Kerr and Natalie Sciver-Brunt. Twenty-seven slots, seven of them overseas, remain open across the five teams.

Gujarat Giants have finalised a 14-player retained squad for the WPL 2027 mini-auction scheduled for October 28 in Kochi. The franchise retained Ashleigh Gardner as captain along with Beth Mooney, Sophie Devine, Renuka Singh Thakur, Bharti Fulmali, Kashvee Gautam, Kanika Ahuja, Tanuja Kanwer, Georgia Wareham, Anushka Sharma, Happy Kumari, Kim Garth, Yastika Bhatia and Rajeshwari Gayakwad.

The team released four players from its 2026 squad, including Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Ayushi Soni, Titas Sadhu and Shivani Singh. Gujarat Giants enters the auction with three slots to fill and one overseas slot available, having spent 13.75 crore rupees on its retained players and retaining 1.25 crore rupees in salary cap.

The WPL 2027 season is scheduled to run from January 14 to February 7. The mini-auction will allow franchises to complete squads of up to 18 players for the fifth edition of the tournament.

Five WPL teams retained 63 players including 23 overseas recruits ahead of the October 28 mini-auction in Kochi. Royal Challengers Bengaluru released Grace Harris, Linsey Smith, D Hemalatha and Gautami Naik while keeping Ellyse Perry. Mumbai Indians let go of G Kamalini, Saika Ishaque and Milly Illingworth. Delhi Capitals released Alana King, Sneh Rana and Lizelle Lee. UP Warriorz released nine players including Deandra Dottin and Amy Jones.

RCB retained 13 players including Smriti Mandhana, Ellyse Perry, Richa Ghosh and Shreyanka Patil. Mumbai Indians kept Harmanpreet Kaur, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Hayley Matthews and Amelia Kerr among 11 players. Delhi Capitals retained Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma and Marizanne Kapp. UP Warriorz kept Meg Lanning, Deepti Sharma and Sophie Ecclestone. Gujarat Giants retained the largest group with 15 players.

UP Warriorz enter the auction with the largest remaining purse of 3.65 crore rupees and two overseas slots. RCB and UP Warriorz have two overseas slots to fill, while Mumbai and UP Warriorz have seven total slots available. The fifth WPL season runs from January 14 to February 7, 2027.

Joe Root has retained the ODI Men's Player of the Summer award for 2026. The Professional Cricketers' Association confirmed the honour on September 27, the same day Root played his final ODI of the campaign against Sri Lanka at The Oval.

Root finished the summer with 326 ODI runs at an average of 54.33. The PCA cited three unbeaten half-centuries against India as central to England's successful white-ball campaign. England won four of their six ODI matches during the summer, defeating Sri Lanka and India in consecutive series while dropping only two games overall.

Root reflected on the collective effort after the award announcement. He said the group has lost only two white-ball games all summer and is moving in the right direction with the World Cup around the corner. The squad showed depth beyond Root's individual output despite injuries affecting selection at various points.

Tom Westley has stepped down as Essex captain after seven seasons in charge. Essex finished eighth in Division One of the County Championship, one spot above the relegation places pending Leicestershire's appeal against a 27-point deduction. Westley, Essex's longest-serving player, said his biggest value is scoring runs and contributing to victories, something he felt he had not achieved in 2026.

Westley succeeded Ryan ten Doeschate as captain in January 2020 when Essex were reigning champions. Under his leadership, Essex won the Bob Willis Trophy in 2020 and posted three consecutive top-four finishes from 2022 to 2024. No successor has been named and Essex will begin the process of identifying their next captain.

Essex's top-flight status rests on the outcome of Leicestershire's appeal. If the appeal succeeds and Leicestershire regain their 27 points, they would leapfrog Essex in the table and send them down to Division Two.

Ryan Campbell will step down as Durham's men's head coach at the end of the season to become the county's director of cricket and high-performance coaching. The 54-year-old Australian replaces Marcus North, who departed in May 2026 to become England men's national selector. Campbell joined Durham in 2023 and led the side to promotion in his first season before winning Division Two in 2026.

Under Campbell's tenure, Durham reached the Vitality Blast quarter-finals for the first time since 2018 and the Metro Bank One Day Cup semi-finals this season. Several young players progressed to professional debuts under his guidance, including Ben McKinney, Haydon Mustard and James Minto. Campbell's first task will be to appoint his successor as men's head coach alongside chief executive Tim Bostock.

Campbell said the move allows him to continue shaping the club's direction. He added that seeing players from Durham represent England has been one of the most rewarding aspects of his role. The club will begin the process of identifying the next men's head coach immediately.

Anrich Nortje has been named in South Africa's preliminary 18-player squad for the first Test against Australia, marking his return to red-ball cricket after 18 months away. The fast bowler last played Test cricket in February 2023 and has since focused exclusively on T20 cricket.

Nortje took 70 wickets in 19 Tests during his career before stepping away from the longer format. His inclusion alongside Kagiso Rabada gives South Africa two proven Test pacemen despite ongoing injury concerns affecting Lungi Ngidi and others.

Coach Shukri Conrad said the two-day intra-squad match will help assess player combinations and match readiness. The squad will be reduced to 15 players before the series opener at Kingsmead on October 9.

Prasidh Krishna has credited clarity within the team and communication with teammates for his consistent ODI performances. The fast bowler has taken 15 wickets in eight ODIs in 2026, making him India's leading wicket-taker in the format this year. Prasidh said every session is focused on improvement and every game presents different challenges. He highlighted his rapport with Gurnoor Brar, developed over two years at Gujarat Titans in the IPL. Prasidh welcomed the competition for fast bowling spots ahead of the 2027 World Cup. He said the depth of fast bowling options is good for Indian cricket.