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Images of the Indian players and six-month-old Fatima became the source of great happiness on social media

Annesha Ghosh07-Mar-20220:24

Maroof – ‘My mother and daughter were here, so it was very special’

India vs Pakistan is always special, but this Sunday at the 2022 Women’s ODI World Cup was more so, thanks to a six-month-old member of Pakistan’s touring party.On the field, it was a dominant 107-run win for India, with Pooja Vastrakar, Sneh Rana and Rajeshwari Gayakwad calling the shots. Off it, it was all about Fatima. Pakistan captain Bismah Maroof’s daughter became the centre of attention after the game when the Indian players – Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Harmanpreet Kaur among them – just couldn’t have enough of the toddler.In no time, visuals of the interaction were all over the internet.

So much fun with the players trying to get our little Fatima to look into the camera.

Happy that I got to share and immortalise these moments#CWC22 #BackOurGirls pic.twitter.com/ofkBOdGMn2

— Ahsan Iftikhar Nagi (@ahsannagi) March 6, 2022

Perceived need for speed led offspinner to lose his action after touring with Lions

Matt Roller06-Feb-2020Is Adam Riley the new Graeme Swann? That was the question posed by in 2014, following another impressive early-season performance by the promising Kent offspinner, fresh out of university and keeping England’s James Tredwell out of the county’s first team.Riley’s promise was evident to anyone who had seen him bowl. A classical offspinner blessed with the height to get good bounce off most surfaces, he started 2014 as a final-year geography student at Loughborough University, and finished it with 57 first-class wickets, more than any spinner in England but Saeed Ajmal and Jeetan Patel. Unsurprisingly, greater recognition quickly followed: he was invited to bowl in the Lord’s nets ahead of a Test against India, and was sent on winter trips to Sri Lanka and South Africa by the ECB before representing the MCC in the Champion County game in the spring. It seemed a matter of when, and not if he would fill the void left by Swann’s premature retirement during the 2013-14 Ashes.ARCHIVE: England mark time on RileyBut somewhere along the way, things went awry. From the start of the 2015 home summer until the end of his career, Riley would manage only 25 more first-class wickets, and quietly announced his retirement last year at the age of 27. He now works at Dulwich College, having been appointed as the school’s head of player development at the end of 2019.”Kent told me they weren’t going to renew my contract,” Riley explains. “I had a bit of a cooling-off period, where I decided I wasn’t going to play any cricket and have a think about what I wanted to do next. I took the view that I’d run my race.”The question, then, is how this happened: how, in the space of five years, did a young, hungry, talented bowler, who had taken bags of first-class wickets head from England’s spinner-in-waiting into early retirement?”You can look at the footage, and it’s all obvious. I was never the same bowler after that winter,” Riley reflects. “At the time, I remember there being a big push for spinners to bowl a bit quicker. That’s what Swann was doing, that’s what Ajmal was doing, Muralitharan did that, Warne did that.”I guess they were trying to find that ‘next Graeme Swann’. Swann was a world-class spinner – the best who’s played for England, certainly that I’ve been able to watch live – and he naturally bowled a very quick pace but still got shape on the ball. That’s what they were encouraging us to do.”I probably took that too literally, and ended up focusing on trying to bowl quicker instead of getting shape on the ball.”The parallels with a current England spinner are immediately apparent. Before the end of his first over on ODI debut on Tuesday, Matt Parkinson’s bowling speed was being criticised by TV commentators: the suggestion was that while his loopy legbreaks worked at county level, he would need to speed up to have international success.But Riley’s career serves as a cautionary tale. “The danger is that if you change one thing, and that becomes ingrained but isn’t the right thing, all of a sudden you’ve got to iron out two things that have become bad habits,” he says. “Then you can try something else technical, and actually that’s not right either.”And it starts building up to a bit of a mess, really.”Riley returned to Kent at the start of 2015 knowing that something had come wrong. After a handful of ineffective performances, he dropped out of the firing line and into the second team. He worked extensively with Min Patel behind the scenes but the pair “couldn’t seem to put our fingers on how to get me back to where I was”.Fleeting first-team appearances brought occasional success, like a seven-wicket return in a victory against Derbyshire in 2018, but by the end of May last year, Kent had decided they had invested enough time and effort into resurrecting a career that seemed to be going nowhere.”At some stages during that three or four-year period it became a mental thing as well, where I was struggling mentally. At one stage, I was being talked about as one of the best young prospects in England, and then I couldn’t do what I was doing. It was quite hard to get my head round.”I see it in so many other players. They’ll have a fantastic year, and then if it starts to go wrong, they’ll think something’s got to change technically when actually sometimes it’s just a mindset thing.”You think: what’s got you to that point? What’s got you that first-team place? What’s got you that professional contract? Sometimes you need to have a bit more faith in that.”If I could rewind back to 2014, that’s what I’d do: I’d be more stubborn, and say, ‘you know what? I just got picked for England Lions on the back of taking 60 first-class wickets. Yes, to play international cricket I might need to bowl faster, but at the moment I’m 22, I’ve played 30 first-class games, and I’d quite like to stick with what I’m doing.’ But that comes with experience, and at the time I didn’t have that. Hindsight is a beautiful thing.”Adam Riley celebrates a wicket in his final first-class appearance•Getty ImagesWhile his release last summer was “not completely mutual – you never want to be told you’re not wanted”, Riley can reflect that compared to plenty of others, he was relatively fortunate in how his career ended. His Kent deal ran until the end of the season, and he was given notice that it would not be renewed four months before; often, players are not formally told until a matter of weeks before that a fresh contract will not be forthcoming.”It gave me four months to work out what I wanted to do next – if they’d done that on August 31, then actually I’d have been in a worse head space than I am now. I’m in a good one – I’m happy that I’m back doing something I love, and I’ve fallen on my feet.”Riley is glowing about the help he has had from the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) during his transition into retirement, in the knowledge that while he has managed to find a job quickly, there are countless stories of players struggling to cope with the precarious nature of professional sport.

I’m at peace with it now – I don’t really look back and think what if?Adam Riley

“I know other people who were still scraping around every month to try and pay the bills 12 months down the line, and that’s scary. I had some rainy day money that would have got me through at least until Christmas, and it’s with stuff like that when what you hear earlier in your career from the PCA comes to the forefront.”When you’re 21 and wet round the ears you just think ‘I’m going to be playing cricket for the next 15 years’ when the reality is that the average retirement age in professional cricket in 26. Granted, now is a good time to be getting into the game as a young player, with the salary cap going up and the extra competition [the Hundred] going on, but the same principle is going to apply.Riley worked with Tom Jones, his local PCA personal development manager, who “walked me through what happens next, and gave me almost a bit of life counselling”. That included working out what sort of job he wanted, updating his CV, and simply being available at the end of the phone as he tried to work out where he stood.”I read a lot of articles about players that feel like they lose their identity [after retirement]. All they’ve known is being a professional cricketer, and all they’ve been known as by their friends is ‘Adam, the guy who players cricket’. Suddenly, you’ve got to redesign yourself as ‘Adam, who sells insurance’ or whatever it is you go into.”Riley started in his new role at Dulwich at the end of 2019, after his former Kent team-mate Geraint Jones passed his details onto Richard Coughtrie, the master in charge of cricket, and will combine his role with work with Kent U-15s. He enjoys the dressing room-style camaraderie of the PE department, and has his career in healthy perspective; he may not have been the next Graeme Swann, but that doesn’t keep him up at night.”I’m at peace with it now – I don’t really look back and think ‘what if?’. It’s not a major event in the grand scheme of all the years of work I’ll have to do between now and when I retire, it’s just a little substory. But I get to say I’m one of the 0.01% of people that get to play professional cricket – and I had a good go at it.”

Leeds United’s start to the 2025/26 Premier League season has been impressive. The Whites have begun strongly in their return to the top flight, after two seasons in the Championship.

Of course, their promotion campaign last term was one of complete dominance under Daniel Farke.

They’ve already picked up eight points this season, which, according to Understat, is actually below the number of expected points. That tally sits at 9.96xPTS, which places the West Yorkshire outfit 10th in the table for that specific metric.

After a big summer transfer window, this Leeds side has a new look, with a few of their integral player from the Championship success struggling to get into the side this term.

The Leeds promotion stars who can’t get into team

It might be strange to see a couple of players from Farke’s dominant side last season, now struggling to get any sort of regular gametime this term. One of those is midfielder Ao Tanaka, who was a key cog in the middle of the park in 2024/25.

Yet, the Japanese international simply can’t get a look in, with Farke’s midfield signings of Sean Longstaff and Anton Stach preferred.

Last season, he played 43 times in the Championship, chipping in with seven goal involvements. So far this term, he’s only played 181 minutes of top-flight football.

Midfielder Tanaka is not the only player who falls into this category. Centre-forward Joel Piroe was a key player for Farke last season, scoring 19 times in 43 games, backing up his 13 goals from the season before.

He even bagged four goals in a single game against Stoke City.

After signing Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Lukas Nmecha, however, Piroe simply can’t get a look in. He’s played fewer minutes in the top flight than Tanaka, racking up 147 across just three appearances this season.

He hasn’t scored yet, either.

There is one Leeds player who has played even fewer minutes this season, despite an important role in the 2024/25 campaign.

Why Leeds need to sell the "best in the league"

The start to the new season has shown that Farke is not afraid to make some big calls and replace the players who were so integral last season. You could call it a lack of loyalty, although it is a decision that is proving to be correct so far.

Another player who falls into the same category is goalkeeper Illan Meslier. Once described by Farke as “the best goalkeeper in the league,” he’s now fallen down the pecking order and can’t get into the Whites’ starting lineup.

Last term, the 25-year-old was, for much of the season, Leeds’ first-choice shot-stopper. He played the first 39 games of the season, but for the last seven, he was dropped from the side, following a string of mistakes.

That included his remarkable error against Sunderland.

It was not just that moment against the Black Cats, but “numerous monumental errors,” that cost him his place, according to Jonathan Buchan, BBC Radio Leeds Sports Editor.

As a result, Meslier has not played a single minute this season.

There are stats that back up this poor form on display from the goalkeeper, who was born in Lorient. For example, last season he averaged minus 3.11 goals prevented, meaning he conceded three extra goals than he should have.

Meslier – 24/25 Championship
Stat	Per 90 mins	Season total
Goals conceded	0.7	27
Saves made	1.7	65
Long balls completed	98	2.5
Goals prevented	-0.08	-3.11
Stats from Sofascore

Perhaps it is time for Leeds to move on from the Frenchman. He is the second choice behind Karl Darlow at the moment, and when summer signing Lucas Perri returns, it is surely safe to assume he will become Farke’s third choice.

It is a sad fall from grace for a goalkeeper once so highly rated by Farke. Yet, with the number of mistakes made by Meslier over the last 12 months in particular, it is understandable why he has been dropped, especially in the pressure cooker of the Premier League.

Their answer to Saka: Leeds now have "one of England's best prospects"

Leeds United have a teen star in their academy who could emerge as their own Bukayo Saka-type player.

By
Dan Emery

Oct 15, 2025

ECB announce fixtures for men’s and women’s competitions in 2026, in new two-month window

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Nov-2025Warwickshire have retired their Birmingham Bears moniker for T20 Blast matches, and will instead revert to being called Warwickshire Bears when the rebooted men’s and women’s competition gets underway in 2026.The club won their sole T20 title as Birmingham Bears in 2014, but have reverted to their county name after more than a decade, following feedback from members and in recognition of the women’s county competition that got underway this season.”Warwickshire has and always will be at the heart of who we are,” Stuart Cain, the county’s chief executive, said. “It’s our identity and has been for well over a century.”Over a decade ago, the club decided to be bold with a city-based name for our T20 team and it saw attendances grow to record levels and attract new fans to the Bears. But with our long-term future in mind, and following feedback from members through the members committee, now is the right time for change.”We represent the county and that’s what returning to Warwickshire Bears is about.”The announcement came ahead of the ECB’s unveiling of next year’s Blast fixtures – which, for the 14th consecutive year, will be hosted at Warwickshire’s home ground of Edgbaston (or EdgBLASTon, as per the club’s “bold and electrifying move” to rebrand the stadium for the duration of the tournament).The Blast schedule has been compromised in recent years, following the introduction of the Hundred in a mid-summer block in July and August. This year’s event featured a final on September 13, almost two months after the conclusion of the group stage in July, meaning that each of the four teams were missing key players – a situation described by Lancashire’s captain, Keaton Jennings, as “ludicrous”.The new-look tournament will take place in a tightened two-month window. The group stage for men and women will run from May 22 to July 12, with the men’s quarter-finals taking place three days later on July 15 and Men’s Finals Day on July 18. Women’s Finals Day will take place 24 hours earlier, on a Friday, at the Kia Oval.Related

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The men’s groups have been rejigged, with three groups of six teams replacing the long-standing North and South Groups, albeit with a retention of many of the more traditional rivalries – including Yorkshire versus Lancashire in Lancashire in Group A, Gloucestershire versus Somerset in Group B, and Surrey versus Middlesex in Group C.Each team will now play 12 group-stage matches instead of 14, which has allowed the schedulers to place 80% of these fixtures in fan-friendly slots on a Friday, Sunday or a Bank Holiday. Following feedback from the PCA, which warned of the dangers of player fatigue in a recent survey, the total number of back-to-back matches in the men’s competition has been reduced to six – which is down from more than 50 two years ago – while there is just one in the women’s competition.”The changes to the men’s and women’s Vitality Blast competitions for 2026 have been made in order to benefit fans and players alike,” Neil Snowball, ECB managing director, competitions and major events, said. “Every county will host a men’s and women’s double header, with 61 double-headers in total, while the significant reduction in back-to-back games gives players more opportunity to perform at their very best throughout the competition.Surrey’s Grace Harris poses with the Women’s T20 Blast trophy•ECB via Getty Images”The narrative of both competitions will also be easier to follow with the knockout stages following on immediately after the group stages, culminating in a true celebration of T20 cricket with the women’s and men’s Vitality Blast Finals Days being hosted at the Kia Oval and Edgbaston on consecutive days.”PCA Chief Executive, Daryl Mitchell, said: “Throughout the past 12 months, the PCA has worked tirelessly alongside the professional game to improve standards for players across all formats. The Vitality Blast competitions for 2026 highlight considerable improvements with a real energy injected into them.”Players want to be at their optimum levels to perform at their best in county cricket’s flagship T20 competition and a significant reduction of back-to-back fixtures across the men’s and women’s Blast, alongside more men’s and women’s double headers and reduced travel in the men’s game will allow this.”The tournaments will begin with 16 men’s and women’s double-headers across the May Bank Holiday Weekend. Somerset, the men’s defending champions, will face Hampshire Hawks in a rematch of last year’s final at Taunton, while Surrey – the women’s winners – will face Lancashire.Yorkshire’s women, who will be embarking on their maiden Tier 1 season, will take part in their first Roses double-header at Old Trafford on 10 July.Vitality Blast Men’s CompetitionGroup A: Derbyshire Falcons, Durham, Lancashire Lightning, Leicestershire Foxes, Notts Outlaws, Yorkshire
Group B: Glamorgan, Gloucestershire, Northamptonshire Steelbacks, Somerset, Warwickshire Bears, Worcestershire Rapids
Group C: Essex, Kent Spitfires, Hampshire Hawks, Middlesex, Surrey, Sussex Sharks

Spinner revealed last week that England had released him from his deal after Ashes omission

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Nov-2025Jack Leach has signed a contract extension with Somerset after revealing that he has been released from his England central contract.Leach has played 39 Tests for England, most recently on their tour to Pakistan a year ago, and was the only spinner to take 50 County Championship wickets this season. But he has slipped down the pecking order to the extent that England have opted to take the allrounder Will Jacks to Australia as their back-up spin option ahead of him.He has been centrally contracted since the start of the 2021-22 winter but will fall back onto his county deal with Somerset next year. Leach was already under contract with his hometown club until the end of next season, but the county announced on Monday that he has now signed a two-year extension until the end of 2028.Related

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England have not yet announced their central contracts for 2025-26, but Leach told the BBC last week that he had been informed by managing director Rob Key that his deal would not be renewed. “My contract was up, so he obviously told me that and at the same time, said about the Ashes squad and that I wasn’t going to be in it,” Leach said.”I was gutted about that. That was really my aim for the summer, and it wasn’t to be, so [now] it’s time to reflect and try to keep getting better and get myself back in there… I don’t know from their point of view whether they have completely moved past me, but I believe I’m still getting better and I need to keep showing that in county cricket.”Shoaib Bashir, who has leapfrogged Leach to become England’s first-choice spinner, is widely expected to leave Somerset after he did not feature for them in any format this season. He is likely to retain his central contract for 2025-26, meaning that the ECB – rather than whichever county he joins – will pay his salary.Elsewhere, Sussex have announced the signing of batting allrounder Jack Leaning from Kent on a three-year contract, while legspinning allrounder Calvin Harrison has signed a permanent deal with Northamptonshire after impressing on loan from Nottinghamshire earlier this year.

West Ham chiefs have now been told exactly what they need to complete a deal for AC Milan striker Santiago Gimenez in January, with Nuno Espírito Santo’s side in the market for another centre-forward as Niclas Füllkrug packs his bags.

The Hammers are stepping up their pursuit of a number nine ahead of the winter transfer window, with Fullkrug set to depart as the injury-ridden German international seeks a new chapter (Fabrizio Romano).

Fullkrug, according to multiple reliable media sources, is exploring options to leave, with talks already happening, after having struggled with injuries and a lack of overall form since his move from Borussia Dortmund last year. His impending departure has intensified the need for attacking reinforcements, with Nuno apparently keen to bolster his forward options following a difficult start to the campaign.

The East London club have “already” begun scouring the market for potential targets (Fabrizio Romano), and West Ham are reportedly keeping an eye on Man United striker Joshua Zirkzee as a potential reinforcement, among others.

Sunderland 3-0 West Ham

West Ham 1-5 Chelsea

Nottingham Forest 0-3 West Ham

West Ham 0-3 Tottenham

West Ham 1-2 Crystal Palace

Everton 1-1 West Ham

Arsenal 2-0 West Ham

West Ham 0-2 Brentford

Leeds 2-1 West Ham

West Ham 3-1 Newcastle

West Ham 3-2 Burnley

West Ham have been linked with Palmeiras striker Vitor Roque and explored a loan move for Real Madrid’s Endrick, before Lyon swooped in to take command in the race for his signature as the Ligue 1 giants press ahead with a deal.

Additionally, Gimenez has emerged as a target for West Ham too.

The Mexico international, who scored for fun in the Eredivisie and even once commanded an £88 million price tag, hasn’t managed to carry on that form at the San Siro since making his eventual £28 million move to Milan earlier this year.

Gimenez has managed just seven goals in 30 total appearances for the Rossoneri, and Milan chiefs may now green-light a mid-season departure for the 24-year-old, who had previously starred under Arne Slot at Feyenoord.

The North American racked up 26 goals in 41 appearances in Slot’s final season at Feyenoord, and finished the previous campaign as their top scorer whilst firing them to the title that year.

Interestingly, Milan are believed to be interested in Fullkrug as a replacement for Gimenez, with the prospect of a swap deal even touted in the press very recently.

West Ham told Santiago Gimenez deal conditions as Fullkrug swap deal mooted

While the possibility of a swap deal or even part-exchange is apparently there, a report by Calciomercato has detailed exactly what David Sullivan needs to do to make a deal happen.

According to their information, West Ham’s hopes of securing Gimenez in January hinge on meeting strict conditions set by the Italian giants.

Milan will only consider selling for a permanent transfer fee of at least £22 million, and crucially, the deal must come from a club that Gimenez himself approves. The Italian outlet emphasizes that without these two conditions being met, any discussions remain purely hypothetical.

The situation presents both an opportunity and a challenge for Nuno’s side. However, that being said, there is reason to believe that Gimenez would be a major upgrade on Fullkrug.

The eight-year age difference between the two strikers means that West Ham would certainly benefit from a swap for the long-term, and unlike Fullkrug, Gimenez enjoyed 20-plus goal seasons in the build up to his Milan move.

Gimenez’s “sensational” form at Feyenoord attracted interest from elite Premier League sides, including Arsenal, and West Ham could now have a chance to help him rediscover his goalscoring touch in England.

Milan’s willingness to sell means a deal is there to be done, so Gimenez could genuinely be one of Nuno’s better options.