Cricket

Hilton Cartwright has revealed he had fears of being left paralysed while laying prone on the Optus Stadium turf in the BBL season opener. Cartwright sent a scare through Australian cricket last week, after falling awkwardly in the field in Melbourne Stars’ season-opening loss to Perth Scorchers. He was taken from the field in a

Toss South Africa elected to bowl vs Pakistan South Africa have won the toss and elected to bowl first in Centurion. Under sunny skies, but with grey clouds hovering on the margins, Temba Bavuma opted to put Pakistan in. When Pakistan batted first here on their last tour, they were bowled out for 181 on

Toss Zimbabwe chose to bat vs Afghanistan A total of six debut caps were handed out across the Zimbabwe and Afghanistan XIs after the hosts opted to bat in the Boxing Day Test of Bulawayo. Zimbabwe captain Craig Ervine announced maiden Test caps for left-hand batter Ben Curran, brother of Sam and Tom Curran, and

Big Picture: Zimbabwe gets a home Boxing Day Test in 28 years The final week of the year is like a roman feast for the Test cricket fan, and Boxing Day this year promises mouth-watering contests in Melbourne and Centurion, but look this way too, will you? Bulawayo is set to host Zimbabwe’s first Boxing

Pakistan will go into the Boxing Day Test against South Africa at Centurion without a specialist spinner, with seam-bowling allrounder Aamer Jamal accompanied by Naseem Shah, Mohammad Abbas and Khurram Shahzad in the bowling attack. Abdullah Shafique, meanwhile, has paid the price for his all-format loss of form that culminated in three successive ducks during

Australia captain Pat Cummins has encouraged Sam Konstas to embrace the naivety of youth during his Test debut against India on Boxing Day in front of what could be more than 90,000 spectators on a sweltering Melbourne day. Cummins was speaking from first-hand experience having made his debut as an 18-year-old against South Africa in

Big Picture: Border-Gavaskar Trophy on the line This is big. If India win at the MCG, they retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. If Australia win, they remain on track for a first series win over India in a decade. A defeat for the home side would trigger significant questions while if India lose, their World Test

Toss India chose to bat vs West Indies India won the toss and elected to set a target again as they look to seal the three-match ODI series against West Indies in Vadodara at the first opportunity. They went in with the same XI that posted a record 211-run win two nights ago. This means

Their captain Rohit Sharma, speaking ahead of the Boxing Day Test, backed both players to succeed using their own methods. “When you have a guy like [Jaiswal] in your squad, in your team, you don’t want to tamper too much with his mindset,” Rohit said. “Let him be as free as possible and not overburdened

Ben Stokes, England’s Test captain, has vowed he has “blood, sweat and tears” left to give to the team, after being ruled out of all cricket for three months following a recurrence of his torn left hamstring during the third Test against New Zealand last month. Stokes, 33, was forced to leave the field during