England Cricket

Steve Harmison, the pace ace who once coached his home town Ashington in the lower tiers of English football, reaches for a familiar frame of reference as he discusses Brendon McCullum.

Lloyd and Paul Allott, both ex-England stars who played for Lancashire and held coaching positions, say they have been seeking discussions on the direction in which their club is heading.

RICHARD GIBSON: Bairstow, 36, was the godfather of Bazball with his swashbuckling batting performances in 2022, scoring four hundreds and averaging in excess of 75.

English cricket's decision to stick with the status quo in the wake of the Ashes debacle had been long expected - but it is more of a gamble than the ECB hierarchy seem to think.

LAWRENCE BOOTH: Those in search of an emblem of England's Ashes reached a grim consensus: the dismissal of Jamie Smith by Marnus Labuschagne at Sydney.

'If only I'd known this was going to happen, I'd have had a word with Donald Trump,' says the owner of the company that makes Dukes balls. 'Please don't attack anybody before the cricket season starts!'

LAWRENCE BOOTH: Tribe, 21, stood out during the Lions' tour Down Under over the winter, and is now expected to provide competition for both Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett this summer.

The anger of the jilted sportsman is a tale as old as the English batting collapse. And as Liam Livingstone's latest outburst confirms, anger isn't always accompanied by clarity.

Over coffee this week, Coles told his Sussex coach Paul Farbrace he had heard there would be interest in his signature at the Hundred auction in central London. There was rather more than that.

LAWRENCE BOOTH: If Brendon McCullum may not enjoy spending the Test summer on probation, then he should console himself with the thought that he's lucky still to be in the role.

RICHARD GIBSON IN MUMBAI: Elimination to India at the semi-final stage for the second tournament in a row hinged on a howler by Brook that reprieved India's Sanju Samson.

Harry Brook's team are yet to put in a complete performance at the T20 World Cup but here Daily Mail Sport examines the blueprint for success against India in the semi-final.

England are in the T20 World Cup semi-finals after 16 wins out of 18 since Harry Brook became captain. Ahead of the meeting with India, Daily Mail Sport looks at the key factors behind their form.

Drizzly Hove in February does not immediately feel like ground zero for one of English cricket's most vexed debates. But the financial misadventures of Sussex have dictated otherwise.

RICHARD GIBSON: During his international career, Will Jacks has been a frontline batsman and first-choice spinner yet it is only since mastering the art of being neither that he has truly excelled

Jonny Bairstow has appealed for help from Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer after becoming stuck in the Middle East while on holiday during the ongoing attack in the region.

RICHARD GIBSON: This astonishing late heist against New Zealand kept up their 100 per cent record in the Super Eight stage, meaning they will likely be heading for the second semi-final.

Earlier this week at the Twenty20 World Cup, Harry Brook sauntered into a press conference, clocked the facial expressions of those present and suggested a smile wouldn't go amiss.

Brook has spent several weeks vowing to take responsibility for his off-field actions that to within a whisker of being stripped of the white-ball captaincy. Now, here he was taking it on the field.

At 6ft 4in tall with a hachimaki pushing back his mop of hair, Usman Tariq could be mistaken for a martial artist. However, far from being power and speed, the blows he lands are painfully slow.

Ireland might not be the side they were 12 months ago. But they have a plan outstripping anything at England's London 'HQ,' where the public forked out £200 to see their side eviscerated on Saturday.

On another day, Jos Buttler's innings of seven off 14 balls might have been costly. Thanks to Phil Salt and England's bowlers, it ultimately didn't matter.

RICHARD GIBSON IN PALLEKELE: Had it not been for Jacks' late-innings runs against Nepal and Italy, England might not have returned to one of their favoured hunting grounds.

England shook off an early wobble to start their World T20 Super 8s campaign in the perfect fashion as they beat Sri Lanka by 51 runs.

ECB CEO Richard Gould insisted that he wanted 'players from all nations to be selected for all teams' in The Hundred. This is a test of quite how much power and will the ECB has to do the right thing.

Jamie Overton is England's putty, having spent a dozen years filling gaps vacated by others. Now, his versatility is serving him well at this Twenty20 World Cup.

Less than six months after hitting its peak, Jos Buttler's limited-overs international career is irrefutably in decline. The question, however, is whether it is irreversible.

RICHARD GIBSON: Victory against Italy back at Eden Gardens on Monday will rubber-stamp the passage to the Super Eight phase of the competition, but Scotland proved a might nuisance.

RICHARD GIBSON IN MUMBAI: England's eight-game winning run came crashing to a halt in a repeat of the 2016 Twenty20 World Cup final.

Despite Ben Stokes' plea to halt the Aussie influx to the County Championship ahead of next year's ashes, a number of players are closing in on deals with English sides for this season.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW BY RICHARD GIBSON: As Yuvraj Singh plonked him all over Durban on one of cricket's most iconic nights, Broad would have welcomed a 10-4 cutting the flow of six sixes.

Such is their strength in depth that India could pool their resources over two squads and still have a chance of lifting the trophy. And I reckon there is only one team that can stop them: England.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW BY JAMES SHARPE: Moeen Ali has been in both dressing rooms. The ones where everything clicks and all goes well. And where everything goes wrong.

EXCLUSIVE: Lord's could host a Test match on a drop-in pitch as early as 2029 as part of a radical response to the problem of tired and lifeless surfaces at the home of cricket.

LAWRENCE BOOTH: The Sri Lankans were cruising in pursuit of a modest total of 128 for nine, but the Pallekele pitch - used for the third time in five days - was turning lavishly.

Former England cricketer and Sussex seam bowler Tony Pigott has died at the age of 67 after he suffered a heart attack last week.

RICHARD GIBSON: Forced to admit he'd not been alone on a night of Halloween shame, Harry Brook made his first outing since all about him to help England to another series win.

OLIVER HOLT: It is probably too late to sack Harry Brook as England one-day skipper before the Men's T20 World Cup starts in Sri Lanka next weekend.

Brook, 26, admitted his cover-up was designed to protect team-mates after it emerged that he was facing a further probe into what happened along with fellow stars Jacob Bethell and Josh Tongue.

Rashid's three wickets not only altered the momentum of the first match of the series versus Sri Lanka on Friday, it also took him to within two of becoming the first England bowlerto 150 in the format.

RICHARD GIBSON: Brook took off his gloves on reaching three figures and appeared to imitate wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin's ring entrance of slamming two imaginary beer cans together.

After two months of Ashes woe, England might have viewed a change of scene as a blessing, but they have simply swapped one unconquered frontier for another.

Harry Brook has admitted he feared being sacked as England white-ball captain following an altercation with a nightclub bouncer on their tour of New Zealand in October.

With just three weeks to go until the Twenty20 World Cup, uncertainty lingers about who will be playing and even where some matches will take place - a preposterous situation for a global tournament.

Deteriorating relations between India and Pakistan have led to multiple similar situations involving England players in recent times.

Ashes outcast Shoaib Bashir has flown to Zimbabwe for a week of specialist coaching with former Pakistan wrist-spinner Mushtaq Ahmed.

Wood, who turned 36 on Sunday, hobbled out of the 4-1 defeat to Australia after sending down just 11 overs having spent seven months of rehabilitation to line up for the first Test in Perth.

Despite turning 39 in June, Moeen's arrival is a coup, not least because Yorkshire have lost experienced campaigners Dawid Malan and Jordan Thompson from their squad for next season.

SIR JAMES ANDERSON: The first thing I would insist upon is players going back into county cricket to prove they are good enough to face New Zealand at Lord's in June.

Let's face it, cricket and alcohol have history. In fact, they are intrinsically linked, dating back to Victorian times when village green contests were followed by post-match pints in the local.

Speaking after his side had surrendered the Ashes 4-1, but before news broke of the Brook incident in Wellington, McCullum insisted: 'Half our guys don't have a drink, to be honest.'

There was a time, on a very flat track in Rawalpindi not so many winters back, when Harry Brook telegraphed the very distinct sense that he would become a tornado in Test cricket.

LAWRENCE BOOTH IN SYDNEY: Brendon McCullum has insisted he wants to carry on as England head coach after his side's chastening 4-1 Ashes defeat but has sent a warning.

LAWRENCE BOOTH IN SYDNEY: This was not England's worst Ashes tour among their many failures in Australia down the years. But it was arguably their most disappointing.

Daily Mail Sport's LAWRENCE BOOTH was at all five Tests as England succumbed to another battering Down Under - here are his Ashes series player ratings.

LAWRENCE BOOTH IN SYDNEY: Australia completed an action-packed five-wicket win on the final afternoon at the SCG to wrap up a well-deserved 4-1 series triumph.

Until the bitter end, we have been confronted with the cool indifference of Brendon McCullum, a man more absorbed with his own image than the catastrophe he has visited upon English cricket.

Tomorrow, thank God, the Ashes will come to an end, bringing the curtain down on a series of unforgivable crimes against cricket.

LAWRENCE BOOTH IN SYDNEY: Cause for celebration, then, at the end of a long, humiliating tour, but also cause for regret. This ought to have been Bethell's 14th Test, not his sixth.

As the ball hung in the air, you almost knew what was coming. Travis Head had been the key wicket all series, and England desperately needed to see the back of him. So Will Jacks dropped it.

LAWRENCE BOOTH IN SYDNEY - ASHES BREAKFAST: Centuries from Travis Head, his third of a dominant series, and Steve Smith, his first, combined to grind England into the SCG dirt.

It takes a lot for a painting-by-numbers 46 to overshadow a masterpiece 160, but Jamie Smith gave it a go on a wildly oscillating second day at the SCG

LAWRENCE BOOTH IN SYDNEY: A superlative 160 from Joe Root laid the foundation for England's first-innings 384 - only for some of the gloss to be removed when he left the field clutching his back.

LAWRENCE BOOTH IN SYDNEY: A superb 160 from Joe Root lifted England to 384 on the second day of the fifth and final Ashes Test - their highest total in Australia since making 491 in 2017.

LAWRENCE BOOTH IN SYDNEY: As the ball hung in the air, and three Australian fielders converged from various points, Harry Brook may already have been penning his apology.

LAWRENCE BOOTH IN SYDNEY: After joining forces at a perilous 57 for three, Root and Brook set about compiling England's largest stand of the series - and only their third above 100.

LAWRENCE BOOTH IN SYDNEY: England reached a position of strength on 211 for three on the first day of the fifth Test at Sydney before bad light and rain cut short their progress

Readers got the chance to ask Daily Mail Sport columnist Sir Jimmy Anderson what he made of an Ashes series that began with hope but ends amid scrutiny over the future of those involved.

As ECB bosses rake over these Ashes the make-up of the dressing-room will figure high on the agenda

Ahead of the final Test in Sydney and before a review of what went wrong takes shape, these are the players that can help win back the urn in 18 months' time.

LAWRENCE BOOTH IN SYDNEY: McCullum, who became England's all-format coach a year ago, has an expensive ECB contract running until the end of 2027.

Jamie Smith being left out of England's new year white-ball plans completes a difficult few weeks for a player who is struggling to keep his head above water 18 months after making waves

EXCLUSIVE BY LAWRENCE BOOTH: The ECB went into damage-limitation mode after a video emerged of Ben Duckett slurring his words in a late-night interaction with a fan.

This is my sixth Ashes tour, and the previous five had encouraged a hypothesis: even if Australians aren't always gracious winners, they can be magnanimous in defeat.

LAWRENCE BOOTH IN MELBOURNE: Joe Root has urged English cricket to stick to its guns once the Ashes are over.

LAWRENCE BOOTH IN MELBOURNE: Daily Mail Sport  looks at the 14 who have taken part in their latest series defeat down under - plus one who hasn't.

It's been another wonderful year for British sport. But how much of the past 12 months of highs, lows and everything in between do you really remember?

England's cricketers began their Christmas Day yesterday at the MCG practising for the penultimate match of an increasingly sobering tour of Australia.

DAILYMAIL+ 2025: The athlete is discussing his hope to paddle a canoe for Team GB at the Olympics. But he's also talking about how else he spends his time - which left him wealthy and suspended.