Before cricket tours got so stuffy

Uncensored stories from past tours, Miraz keeps BAN alive, & LSG won’t retain KL Rahul.

Botham parties in front of the press. Can you imagine the uproar if Kohli did something similar today?!

A Miraz-culous innings

Miraz keeps BAN alive, the ECB to spend £3.5M on training teachers, & LSG won’t retain KL Rahul.

• Bangladesh lead South Africa by 81 runs, but only have three wickets remaining. ESPNcricinfo’s Mohammad Isam reports on the latest Mehidy Hasan Miraz rescue act, as the lower order bat scored 87 not out yesterday.

• The ECB will invest £3.5 million to train teachers in ethnically diverse parts of Britain, but the ICEC chair - whose report last year prompted so many changes - criticised the plan for not providing a free pathway to cricket for underprivileged children.

• Gautam Gambhir has backed KL Rahul to re-find his form, but the Lucknow Super Giants seem to be ready to cut him loose.

• Jason Gillespie claims to have been removed from team selection duties for Pakistan, and will now just work on match-day management.

• The million-dollar Global Super League will kick off next month, with Guyana Amazon Warriors, Hampshire Hawks from England, Rangpur Riders of Bangladesh, Victoria in Australia, and Pakistan Super League team Lahore Qalanders taking part.

Before cricket tours got so stuffy

Uncensored stories from yesteryear, Gill’s importance to IND, & Cummins’ focus on climate change.

• The Times’ Simon Wilde looks back at the closer knit, more eventful tours of the past before Ian Botham’s stardom changed the relationship between reporters and cricketers - including an anecdote about when a still green Botham got into a fight with a reporter on the 1977 England tour of Pakistan!

• Hindustan Times’ Sanjjeev K Samyal writes about Shubman Gill’s importance to India’s Test side, while Cricket.com’s Anirudh Suresh analyses India’s top order backup options for the Australia tour.

• The Guardian’s Tanya Aldred tells the story of Pat Cummins & co.’s Cricket for Climate organisation, while Cricbuzz’s Narbavi R & Pratyush Sinha talk to New Zealand’s Will Young about his off-pitch work back home in Taranaki.

Why hasn’t Fraser McGurk kicked on?

Fraser-McGurk talks his development since the IPL.

• The Unplayable Podcast’s Louis Cameron catches up with Jake Fraser-McGurk about his Australia ambitions, his T20I setbacks after a phenomenal IPL, & his first ODI half century. [Apple Podcasts]

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