South Africans Pretorius and Burger join Rajasthan
Rajasthan Royals have signed South Africans Lhuan-dre Pretorius and Nandre Burger as replacement players for the remainder of the Indian Premier League.The pair replace the injured duo of Nitish Rana and Sandeep Sharma.Pretorius, 19, receives his first IPL contract after finishing at top run-scorer in the 2025 SA20, striking 397 runs at an average of 33.08.The uncapped top-order batter and wicketkeeper is set to play for Hampshire in this summer's T20 Blast.Seamer Burger, 29, was signed with Rajasthan in 2024, taking seven wickets in five innings at an average of 20.71.The 29-year-old has not played any senior cricket since September, after injuring his back in an ODI against Ireland.Rana has scored 217 runs in eleven matches this season, with two half-centuries, while pacer Sharma has taken nine wickets from 10 innings.Rajasthan sit ninth in the IPL standings with two games to play, and can no longer qualify for the end of season play-offs.
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Reuters
33 minutes ago
- Reuters
South Africa win toss and put Australia into bat in WTC final
LONDON, June 11 (Reuters) - South Africa captain Temba Bavuma won the toss and put Australia into bat, looking to unleash his pace attack at the start of the World Test Championship final at Lord's on Wednesday. Clouds overhead at the start of the opening day swayed his decision with Bavuma stating the conditions would be "favourable for the new ball". South Africa's strong seam attack contrasts with their inexperienced batting attack and their hopes of an upset win in the final rest on the bowling skills of Kagiso Rabada, Marco Jansen and spinner Keshav Maharaj. Australia captain Pat Cummins said they were happy to bat first. "It looks a good wicket and cloud at the start is pretty normal for England. I think it'll get dryer later in the match and offer plenty of turn," he predicted. Both teams announced their line-ups on the eve of the clash with Cameron Green and Josh Hazlewood back for Australia after injury while South Africa sprung a surprise in their batting order. Green's inclusion means that Marnus Labuschagne will open while Hazlewood takes the place of Scott Boland in the bowling attack. Green was diagnosed with a stress fracture in his lower back during the one-day international series in England last year and had surgery in October but returned playing for Gloucestershire in English county cricket in April. Hazlewood had a calf strain and missed out when Australia last played a test in Sri Lanka in February. South Africa have promoted Wiaan Mulder up the order to bat at No. 3 and included Lungi Ngidi in the bowling attack ahead of 36-year-old veteran Dane Paterson, who has been playing for Middlesex in the County Championship. Ngidi has not played in South Africa's last seven tests, all of which they won to book their place in the WTC final. Mulder has only twice before batted at No. 3, having come in mostly at seven from where he made his only test century, last in October in Bangladesh. Australia won the last WTC final against India at The Oval two years ago while New Zealand were inaugural winners in 2021. Teams: Australia: Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Cameron Green, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Beau Webster, Alex Carey (wicketkeeper), Pat Cummins (captain), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood. South Africa: Aiden Markram, Ryan Rickelton, Wiaan Mulder, Temba Bavuma (captain), Tristan Stubbs, David Bedingham, Kyle Verreynne (wicketkeeper), Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi.
The Guardian
38 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Chipboard and carpet: refugee cricket tournament brings a moment of happiness
Next week in Caen, at a baseball practice ground, on a pitch made out of two pieces of chipboard with some carpet stapled on top, a cricket tournament will unroll. Nine teams of refugees, mostly based in Normandy, will fight it out over two days in a series of round-robin T5 tape-ballgames. The battles will be fierce, the bowling often fast, with added jeopardy if the ball hits the not-very-well-disguised join between the two bits of chipboard. Chris Drew, a Guardian reader who lives locally, will umpire. 'You watch county cricket, and there is time,' he says via video call from France. 'Time is one thing that you don't have here. It is hit, it is whack, it is run, it is bowl – it is quite something. When they whack the ball, it stays whacked. There are no defensive shots. 'It's all about having a good time. People being together who want to be together because we love the game. They leave everything else at the door. I never ask anyone where they come from or what their status is – it's just about bringing a moment of happiness.' In 2023, the tournament's first year, it was sponsored by a kebab shop with free kebabs all round. This year Drew will make Welsh cakes and bara brith and his wife cucumber sandwiches. 'Somebody will bring a salad and somebody will bring a chicken – it's a communal thing.' The community spirit extends further. Teams do not yet know whether they will qualify for the knockout matches on the second day so players will bring tents, and many will camp in local gardens. 'It's all about mucking in,' says Drew. But there are limits. The bowlers will only run in from one end of the ground, so the houses lining one side of the boundary do not get peppered with unfamiliar flying objects. That the players have equipment at all is largely down to another group of volunteers. Project Front Foot (PFF) are a registered charity that collects spare kits from clubs and redistributes it to refugee groups. For the first 10 years of its inception, PFF mostly worked in the Dharavi slum in Mumbai, providing equipment for the children living there. They changed tack shortly before Covid to provide for those closer to home – to Germany, where cricket clubs sprung up overnight with the arrival of 1.5m refugees, to France, to Portugal, to Lebanon and to London. It is a labour of love for the project leader Vic Mills and his team. In September they collect from clubs who have something to donate (often because of a change of sponsor), take three or four days going through it all, number it for customs – who post-Brexit need everything individually labelled – and store it in volunteer Tim Gill's double garage until March. Then they unpack it all again, refill the spread sheet, stock the van with the right equipment for the right clubs, and get on the road in time for the beginning of the northern hemisphere cricket season. This year there were 48 bags and 13 boxes of clothing and equipment, plus a dozen bin liners of sportswear – over 2000 items. They included: 48 bats, 30 wicket sets, 86 pairs of pads, 123 pairs of batting gloves, 15 pairs of wicket keeping gloves, 35 helmets and 74 caps and sun hats. 'We've moved up to the largest Transit that the boys feel confident enough driving,' says Mills. 'Many of the county clubs have been extremely generous – with particular thanks to Steve Archer and the Yorkshire Cricket Board, and the Lancashire Foundation. 'These guys we're delivering to have nothing, they haven't got much money or practise kit, we're finding a home for equipment that would otherwise go to the charity shop or to landfill. With a lot of projects, very rarely does all the money allocated get to where it is needed; we can reassure people that we can find a home for pretty much everything.' On 4 April, the PFF van arrived in Caen and some of the bags were unloaded into another friendly garage, this time belonging to Drew, before a celebratory barbecue for players and volunteers at the house of Caen CC's president, Julia. '[PFF] provide us with bats, with pants, with helmets, with jock straps, with everything you could want,' says Drew. 'They, like Julia, who is absolutely fantastic, are heroes for providing something for the mental health of these lads.' Have they had any feedback about the tournament three years in? 'The teams want to come back, which I take as a positive sign. There's a demand, there's an enjoyment and we're growing. I'm not saying everything's perfect. It's like every cricket club. Not everybody loves everybody all the time. 'But if you come along to the events, you respect everyone else there. The fair play, the spirit of cricket, and that goes outside the bounds of the cricket pitch as well.' In the current wild and fragmented landscape, there is something comforting in the cricket's ability to still bring hope and community, as well as grasping around for yet more dollar bills. If you would like to donate to, or are a club with refugee cricketers who would like a kit donation from Project Front Foot please contact them on projectfrontfoot@ 'Our lives have been upended over this issue; we've lost our spot in the team, our contracts have been torn up, and we have been forced to leave the country' – Kashyap Prajapati telling Cricinfo that neither he, nor any of the other Oman players, have been paid their prize money for last year's men's T20 World Cup. The announcement of the shiny new Anderson-Tendulkar trophy to mark the Test series between England and India's men's teams has brought a mix of reactions. No one seemed too upset about the retirement of India's Anthony de Mello Trophy, named after a founding father of the BCCI, but the disappearance of the Pataudi Trophy caused some dismay. The Pataudi family, in particular the former Indian captains Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi and his son Mansur Ali Khan 'Tiger' Pataudi, have long links with both countries. Iftikhar Ali Khan was the only man to play cricket for England and India; Tiger was India's youngest captain, a wolfish fielder, and someone able to persuade his charges to put aside regional rivalries. As Sambit Bal wrote: 'he led Indian cricket out of its morass of defeatism and instilled in his fellow cricketers a belief that winning was possible.' Sign up to The Spin Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers' thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week's action after newsletter promotion So if you felt a pang of nostalgia while looking at a black and white photo of Tiger, I am with you. But the Pataudi family do not lack trinkets. They were the rulers of the Pataudi state until 1949 – and collected a privy purse for a while longer. Tiger was coached by Frank Woolley at a Hertfordshire prep school, packed off to Winchester, read Arabic and French at Balliol college, Oxford. Both Sachin Tendulkar and Jimmy Anderson came from more ordinary backgrounds. Anderson is England's greatest bowler; Tendulkar was a little genius – an Indian obsession who, for a few years, was the best batsman in the world. Already, though, both are fading into the distance. Anderson turns his arm over for Lancashire in the Blast; Tendulkar is long retired, even his heir Virat Kohli has stepped away from Test cricket. The Anderson-Tendulkar trophy keeps their names alive for the next generation – but only until they, like the Pataudis, become irrelevant and the trophy is renamed again. Either way, it would be nice to see the boards come up for a name for the upcoming contest between the women's teams too – and even better to have, as for the multi-format Ashes, a Test match nailed into the schedule. West Indies playing England presently takes the memory back to happier times for the tourists who, in 1984, played three one-day internationals and five Tests here. England were beaten 2–1 in the ODI series, and whitewashed 5–0 in the Test series with one of the most memorable moments coming at Old Trafford in the first ODI when Viv Richards scored 189 runs. By the end of the fifth Test the West Indies had won eight Tests in a row and would go on to set the then-record of 11 consecutive wins. Pat Cummins in riveting conversation with Donald McRae, taking in leading Australia against South Africa and not getting too big for his boots – but he plays a dead bat regarding that Jonny Bairstow dismissal. And here's Mr McRae chatting to South Africa's Temba Bavuma, on his path from a township childhood to the World Test Championship final. Martin Pegan on where that final will be won and lost. And Daniel Gallan on South Africa hoping to shake off their tag of 'chokers'. Amy Jones and Tammy Beaumont smashed England to ODI series victory over West Indies … … while Tom Banton sealed men's T20 glory for Harry Brook's side. Barney Ronay on modern man Jacob Bethell and old-school Shoaib Bashir. And Northants and Somerset are still in winning form in the T20 Blast – this and more in Gary Naylor's 99.94 cricket blog. … by writing to Tanya. To subscribe to The Spin, just visit this page and follow the instructions.
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
South Africa v Australia: World Test Championship final cricket, day one
Update: Date: 2025-06-11T08:30:15.000Z Title: Preamble Content: Hello and welcome to live coverage of the first day of the World Test Championship final between Australia and South Africa. The ICC's red-ball showcase might still be some distance short of becoming the pinnacle of the format but the hype will be real once Australia and South Africa step onto Lord's to renew their one-time fierce rivalry. Australia are out to become the first side to retain the title (which, admittedly, will only be awarded for the third time), while South Africa have more than just silverware – in this case, the WTC mace – on the line after three decades of pain and suffering at the pointy end of global cricket tournaments. South Africa secured their place in the decider – somewhat surprisingly – as the No 1 side across the two-year WTC cycle. The Proteas arguably made the most of a friendly fixture as they avoided crossing paths with the defending champions, as well as England, and only faced two-time runners-up India in a tied home series. But they could now respond to the critics of their path to the final in the most satisfying way. South Africa have in fact only met their old foes Australia in a single Test series – for three matches away in 2022-23 – in the past seven years, in one of all too many signs of the ever-widening divide that now exists between cricket's 'Big Three' and the remainder of the Test-playing nations. But the winner-takes-all WTC final at Lord's feels like neither the time nor the place to be laying out all that has gone wrong with the purists' preferred format, especially with play due to start in an hour. First ball will be at 10.30am local time or 7.30pm AEST / 11.30am SAST. The toss will take place 30 minutes before that. I'll be seeing us through to drinks in the second session, when the tone will inevitably shift as self-confessed South Africa tragic, Dan Gallan, takes the reins. Get in touch with any comments, questions, thoughts and predictions – shoot me an email or find me @martinpegan on Bluesky or X. Let's get into it! The #WTC25 Final is here, and you can watch every ball and match-winning moment as South Africa face Australia 📺Where to watch:
