Clive Radley proudly displays his MBE © MCC/Clare Skinner

Former England and Middlesex batsman Clive Radley, who has been the head coach at Lord’s since 1991, received his MBE today for his services to the game.”My first professional contract was in 1962 and I never imagined I’d still be involved 46 years later,” said Radley, who played eight Tests and scored 26,441 runs in first first-class career.”Clive is an invaluable part of the club set-up and, under him the MCC Young Cricketers programme has gone from strength to strength,” MCC chief executive Keith Bradshaw said.”In an age of county cricket academies, Clive has proved that the programme is still relevant and plays a vital role in developing professional cricketers and giving opportunities to unsigned talent from all over the world.”

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	Alviro Peterson’s blistering 64 allowed the Lions to level scores in the Bloemfontein thriller © Getty Images

When the platteland dust cleared in Bloemfontein on Friday night, the Lions and the Eagles had tied their Standard Bank Pro20 match. And that despite a masterful blast from opener Alviro Petersen, who faced 48 balls for his 64 and spiked his innings with seven fours and a six.Petersen’s valiant effort was enough to nudge the Lions past the Eagles, who were bowled out for 152 in 19.4 overs. In reply, the Lions mustered 152 for 7.The Eagles, who won the toss and chose to bat, soared to 130 for 2 in the 15th over before sacrificing their last eight wickets for 22.Loots Bosman and Jacques Rudolph launched the innings in style with their 66-run stand for the first wicket. Bosman blitzed his 47 off 22 balls, while Rudolph clipped his 46 off 40 balls. Morne van Wyk (23) helped Rudolph add another 53 runs for the second wicket after Heinrich le Roux bowled Bosman in the seventh over.The Lions’ fightback began when Werner Coetsee dismissed Rudolph in the 15th over. Three overs later, Garnett Kruger grabbed the wickets – Ryan McLaren (4), Boeta Dippenaar (0) and Roger Telemachus (0) – in the space of six balls. Add the run-outs of Dillon du Preez (9) and Ryan Bailey (0), and it wasn’t difficult to see why the Eagles’ beaks drooped dramatically. Kruger finished with 3 for 22.The Lions started their reply solidly, with Petersen and Jean Symes adding 47 for the first wicket. But Telemachus bowled Symes for 19 in the sixth over, and six overs later the visitors slumped to 88 for 5.That was when Petersen and Heinrich le Roux stepped in with a 53-run stand that took the Lions all the way to the 18th over, and left them to score a run a ball off the last two overs. However, Petersen’s dismissal was followed by that of Coetsee (0), and that snapped the Lions’ momentum and saw them fall that single, crucial run short.
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Charl Langeveldt was at it again as he steered the Western Cape Cobras to a five-run victory over the Eastern Cape Warriors in a Standard Bank Pro20 thriller at Buffalo Park in East London.The Warriors, chasing 146 for victory, were cruising on 110 for 4 after 16 overs when Langeveldt (3 for 13) staged a dramatic turnaround in the Cobras’ fortunes, taking three wickets in the 17th over as the home side ultimately closed on 140 for 8.There were other telling bowling performances from Tyron Henderson (2 for 28), spinner Con de Lange, who went for just 18 runs in his four overs and took the key wicket of Davey Jacobs, and Rory Kleinveldt, who finished with 2 for 32 and conceded just six runs in the final over.There were a few worried faces in the Cobras’ dugout as Jacobs and Zander de Bruyn added 58 for the fourth wicket in 7.3 overs, but Jacobs was caught and bowled by de Lange for a 24-ball 36, and de Bruyn was one of the three batsmen to fall in Langeveldt’s wonder over, for a run-a-ball 35.Offspinner Johan Botha had starred in the Cobras’ innings of 145 for 7, taking 3 for 19 and he was well-supported by 18-year-old left-armer Wayne Parnell (2 for 24). Young Richard Levi top-scored for the Cobras with 39 off 37 balls, but the visitors needed a few lusty blows in the closing overs from Vernon Philander (36 not out off 29 balls) and Rory Kleinveldt (22 off 9) for their matchwinning total.

Team	Mat	Won	Lost	Tied	N/R	Pts	Net RR	For	Against
Cape Cobras	3	3	0	0	0	13	+1.267	453/60.0	377/60.0
Eagles	4	2	1	1	0	12	+1.244	530/66.3	491/73.0
Titans	3	2	1	0	0	9	+0.571	421/56.0	389/56
Lions	3	1	1	1	0	7	+0.926	397/54.0	347/54.0
Warriors	4	1	3	0	0	4	-0.273	524/74.0	543/73.5
Dolphins	3	1	2	0	0	4	-0.941	390/59.2	402/53.3
Zimbabwe	4	1	3	0	0	4	-2.211	429/76.5	597/76.2

	Marlon Samuels’ future is in doubt after he was handed a two-year ban by the WICB © AFP

Having brought Marlon Samuels’ cricket career to a halt for two years, at least, effective from Friday, May 9, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) is now offering the player support. WICB chief executive Dr Donald Peters said: “I have written to Mr Samuels and offered him all the help needed to get his life in order.”On Monday, the WICB announced that Samuels, the 27-year-old Jamaica and West Indies middle order batsman, had been found guilty of violating the ICC Rules of Conduct 4 ix, which involves receiving money, benefit or other reward which could bring him or the game of cricket into disrepute. The charge does not refer to match-fixing, which carries a lifetime ban.The judgement by the WICB’s disciplinary committee, headed by Justice Adrian Saunders and including Dr Lloyd Barnett, Prof Aubrey Bishop and former West Indies captain Richie Richardson, came out of an incident on the West Indies tour of India in January 2007, when there were allegations Samuels had passed on match information ahead of the ODI in Nagpur on January 21 and then received payment for a hotel stay in Mumbai at the end of the tour.In handing down their judgement, the disciplinary committee stated that “given the circumstances that attended Mr. Samuels’ commission of the offence and in light of the unchallenged evidence we received as to Mr. Samuels’ character, if we had the power so to recommend, we would have recommended that Mr. Samuels be bound over to be of good behaviour for a period not exceeding two years.”Responding to those comments yesterday, Dr Peters told the Express: “The players know what the penalties are. We are part of the ICC and we gave our word to uphold the code of ethics. Our hands were basically tied.”However, asked whether he felt Samuels had been naive in his actions, Peters replied: “Yes … we in the West Indies have no experience of match-fixing. Players are not exposed to that kind of behaviour. It’s unfortunate that when they travel overseas, they are confronted with the spectre of match-fixing and one out of 15 will most likely get in trouble unless they are trained and counselled.”Peters indicated that he was going to speak last night to the players assembling in Antigua for a training camp ahead of the three-Test series against Australia starting next Thursday, “to remind them of how dangerous it is to be out there”.Commenting further on the banning of one of the region’s most talented batsmen, who was the leading player on last year’s tour of South Africa, Peters was empathetic. “I personally am very moved by it. He is a very young player. He came face to face with very bad people in the match fixing industry, so it’s unfortunate.”In a radio interview with Irie FM in Jamaica, Samuels reportedly said he would still be proceeding to the West Indies training camp. But Peters denied that would be happening. “I have no idea why he would say that,” he said.The ICC also confirmed that Samuels had been banned for two years from May 9. Acting CEO Dave Richardson said: “We are yet to see the whole judgement to put the matter of the punishment into its proper context but we note the WICB disciplinary committee found the player guilty and has imposed an immediate ban. In terms of the punishment handed down, minimum penalties were agreed by the ICC board, including all Full Members, and they reflect the seriousness of the issues at hand.”The ICC also made clear that Samuels’ ban would encompass all forms of cricket, saying it would include official Cricket (Tests, ODIs, T20Is, first-class matches and List A matches organised by or under the auspices of the ICC or its Members) and unofficial cricket (cricket within ICC members not falling into the above categories that is granted approval by either the ICC or the relevant board).The ICC will now take up the matter through an official enquiry by their Code of Conduct Commission headed by Michael Beloff QC and two other ICC Code of Conduct Commissioners. They will review the WICB disciplinary committee findings to ascertain whether the punishment is sufficient and make any recommendation necessary to the ICC board’s July meeting in Dubai.

The England & Wales Cricket Board could be asked to help revive cricket in the Caribbean after moving ever closer to a lucrative tie-in with the Texan billionaire, Allen Stanford, following a further round of talks at Lord’s on Monday.Stanford, whose multimillion-dollar Twenty20 tournament has reinvigorated interest in cricket in the West Indies, has reportedly offered up to $100 million for a series of five 20-over matches between England and a West Indies All-star XI, the first of which could be played as early as November this year.In a press release, the ECB said that the latest meeting between Stanford and David Collier, the CEO, “further developed the constructive and positive discussions” of the previous week. “I would be happy to make a five-year commitment,” Stanford told The Times on Saturday. “I said it could be an annual event, maybe we could come to Lord’s in 2009 and then alternate. The money is real and I think we will get a game.”Also present at Lord’s were the president and chief executive of the West Indies Cricket Board, Dr Julian Hunte and Donald Peters, as proposals were discussed to help provide a legacy to the development and infrastructure of cricket in the Caribbean, in addition to a series of international matches.It was the second meeting in the space of three days between representatives of the English and West Indian boards. On Friday, Hunte, Peters and Collier all met with the chairman of the ECB, Giles Clarke, in Bangalore during the opening match of the IPL.During his trip to Lord’s, Stanford also attended the pre-season lunch of the Lord’s Taverners, which provides support for community cricket – in particular for children with disabilities. During the luncheon Stanford made a donation of £50,000 to the work of the charity which was received by the President of the Lord’s Taverners, Mr Bill Tidy.

The PCB has made a plan B of holding the Pentangular T20 Cup in case the proposed India-Pakistan series does not go ahead.Although the Pakistan government has given the nod to play India in Sri Lanka, the PCB has been fretting over the continuous delay from their Indian counterparts. While there were ideas to engage an international team, PCB believes it is not feasible to arrange an international tour in such a short notice.”We are concerned and given the short time we have to have a back-up plan,” a senior PCB board official told ESPNcricinfo. “We were expecting them [BCCI] to respond by this week, but unfortunately news coming from India is extremely discouraging. We, in the meantime, are planning a five-team T20 tournament for next month in case BCCI pulls out of their commitment.”The tournament, which is a new addition to the domestic calendar, will be a one-off and feature provisional sides – Punjab, Sindh, Baluchistan, Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa and Federal Areas. The format is in-line with the already planned Pakistan Super League, with the top 75 players distributed among the five teams. Should it materialise, it would be the third T20 tournament organised by the PCB this year.According to the Future Tours Programme, a series of two Tests, three ODI and two T20 was originally scheduled between India and Pakistan in the UAE in December 2015.With the BCCI insisting they would play Pakistan only at home, which the PCB categorically rejected, a compromise formula appeared to have been reached when Sri Lanka was proposed as an alternate venue for a short limited-overs series following meetings between Shaharyar Khan and Shashank Manohar in Dubai, with Giles Clarke, the ECB chief, playing the role of a mediator.While the Pakistan government has responded positively, there has not been much said by India yet. On their part, the BCCI confirmed earlier that they had written to their government asking for a clearance for the tour. But the delay in granting permission has put a cloud over the revival of the series.

ScorecardSam Harper’s rapid century and Patrick Page’s 104-ball 99 steered Australia Under-19s to a five-wicket win over New Zealand Under-19s in Dubai.Harper’s 103 came off just 84 balls, during which he slammed 12 fours and one six. Chasing 282, he shared a 183-run, third-wicket stand with Page that ensured Australia reached the target with three overs to spare. Page stroked the same number of boundaries as Harper before he was denied a century by Josh Finnie. After Harper fell in the 42nd over with the score at 246, Clint Hinchliffe steered Australia home with an unbeaten 34. Nathan Smith was the pick of New Zealand’s bowlers, picking up four of the five Australia wickets that fell.Earlier, after opting to bat, New Zealand failed to build on Daniel Stanley and Glenn Phillips’ solid start. The pair shared an opening stand of 148 before Australia’s bowlers, led by offspinner Arjun Nair and pacer Tom O’Donnell (4 for 63), cut through New Zealand’s middle and lower order. New Zealand were eventually restricted to 281 for 9 in their 50 overs, as no batsman after Stanley and Phillips managed to make more than 30 runs.

Saurashtra’s bowlers took 16 wickets on the second day in Rohtak to take control against Haryana, who need another 78 runs to make Saurashtra bat again. Shaurya Sanandia took six wickets on the day – four in the first innings and two in the second – while Kushang Patel and Jaydev Unadkat took four wickets each on the day, as Haryana were forced to follow on after being bowled out for 107. In their second innings, Haryana’s batsmen – barring Chaitanya Bishnoi (53*) – struggled once again, finishing the day on 93 for 6.Resuming from 271 for 7, Saurashtra were all out in the eighth over after adding seven runs to their overnight score. Ashish Hooda took two more wickets for Haryana to finish with figures of 6 for 61. Unadkat delivered a fiery opening spell for Saurashtra after that, dismissing the top order to reduce Haryana to 28 for 3. Sanandia then took the next three wickets as Haryana slipped further to 41 for 6. Rahul Tewatia (23) and Deepak Punia (18) then added 34 runs for the seventh, but after that partnership was broken by Sanandia, offspinner Kushang cleaned up the tail.Saurashtra asked Haryana to bat again, and the hosts’ batting faltered once more. Sanandia and Unadkat together reduced Haryana to 14 for 3 in their opening spell, before Chaitanya Joshi took control with a 97-ball 53. Joshi hung on till stumps, but three more wickets fell along the way as Haryana ended the day staring at a probable innings defeat.Mohammed Mudhasir’s five-wicket haul helped Jammu & Kashmir wrap up Rajasthan’s first innings in short time on the second day of their Group B clash at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. Robin Bist, the overnight centurion was dismissed after adding just eight runs to his tally, for 113, while his partner Tanvir-ul-Haq was sent back without scoring. Rajesh Bishnoi resisted with 43 at No. 7 before becoming Mudhasir’s fifth and final victim as Rajasthan, who resumed on 249 for 4, folded for 330. Medium-pacer Samiullah Beigh and Parvez Rasool, the J&K captain, split the rest of the wickets between them.J&K’s openers made a strong reply thereafter, putting on 109 before Shubham Khajuria was bowled by the medium pace of Tanvir-ul-Haq. Ahmed Bandy, Khajuria’s opening partner, remained unbeaten on 72 and took J&K to 150 for 1 at stumps in the company of Pranav Gupta.Jharkhand offspinner Sunny Gupta ripped through Kerala’s top order but a fifty from Mohammed Azharuddeen and Jalaj Saxena’s unbeaten 47 helped the hosts take a 48-run first-innings lead in Trivandrum.Sunny had dismissed Kerala’s top four batsmen with only 77 runs on the board but Azharuddeen and Sachin Baby led a brief recovery through a 43-run partnership. Once Azharuddeen was dismissed for 51 off 66 balls, Jalaj Saxena guided the lower order. Gupta went on to pick two more wickets to end the day with returns of 6 for 94.The day began with Jharkhand nine down for 200. It took Kerala’s bowlers just 14 deliveries to wrap up the innings for 202. Gupta was the last batsman dismissed, losing his stumps to seamer Sandeep Warrier.

Did New Zealand take too long to declare? Had the pitch broken up enough to make batting in the fourth innings as hard as it was forecast? Was this Kane Williamson’s final Test at home?Doubt filled the air as an absorbing series eased into its final day and then dissipated in the wake of a West Indies collapse. Eight wickets fell for 25 runs after the morning drinks break with Jacob Duffy (5 for 42) taking over Sir Richard Hadlee’s record for most wickets in a calendar year for the Black Caps – and bumping Trent Boult off the top spot for damage done over a single home series.West Indies went from 87 for 0 to 112 for 8 to 138 all out with Shai Hope exemplifying their state of mind – out to a full toss without playing a shot on 3 off 78.The Bay Oval is unique. It houses the only surface in New Zealand that is better to bat at the start and turns increasingly treacherous. The wear and tear was so profound that instead of a single solid block, it turned into a mess of broken plates, wobbling about under the light roller or even simple touch. It fascinated everyone, including the home team’s players. Daryl Mitchell was even moved to do that thing most people do to check and see if something is real – he pinched it and it was proven he wasn’t dreaming.Related

• 'Cross those bridges as we come' – Williamson on his international future

So the spinner they brought in specifically for this Test match was offered centre stage. Ajaz Patel, so often peripheral to the team’s needs at home, was generating 15.8 degrees of turn. That was part of why Hope thought he was safe against a ball delivered from well wide of the crease. Ordinarily it might have pitched harmlessly and spun away harmlessly but the cross wind caught hold of it – as Ajaz had intended, because all game he was looping it up at 70kph or so – and it careened into the right-hander’s front toe.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

It took an age for New Zealand to review. Only one second was left on the clock when Tom Latham was reminded that the ball hit Hope on the full, which means from the point of contact, the projection becomes a straight line. With Ajaz’s angle from around the wicket and no shot offered, there was a chance lbw was on. Ball-tracking took another age to come up but when it did it showed three reds.New Zealand had engineered that dismissal with smart field placements as well. They crowded Hope. Slip in. Two silly points in. Two short covers in. They had already seen him defend full tosses so were encouraged to bring their field up and make the batter worry that even a firmly hit defensive shot could end up going to hand. That’s why Hope chose to leave. He thought he was being sensible. He didn’t realise he’d been cornered. No idea why because New Zealand had made it explicit. “This is hallway cricket,” they chirped as the walls closed in.Brandon King made an enterprising half-century but from there West Indies’ scorecard gave way to eight straight single-digit scores, including Roston Chase’s 5 off 26. The captain ends the tour with 42 runs at an average of 7. He might not have been able to protect himself even if he had been in form because his wicket – caught fending at second slip – was the work of an accurate bowler generating vicious bounce off a length. Duffy was the perfect weapon for New Zealand. They’d wised up to him only in August and four months later here he is, with more than twice as many wickets as his nearest competitor in this series (23 vs 10).And it wasn’t just that he was bunging it into the pitch and waiting for it to misbehave. Alick Athanaze’s wicket highlighted that Duffy has the smarts to lead this attack. He began by testing the West Indian’s back foot play and bringing natural variation into play. There was plenty of up and down bounce to worry the batter. But that wasn’t how he wanted him. Just where. Duffy had pinned Athanaze to his crease and having accomplished that, he snuck in the fuller delivery and nicked him off on the move.Duffy and Ajaz bowled nearly 70% of New Zealand’s overs in the final innings. The left-arm spinner went unchanged from the moment he was introduced into the attack on the fifth day (29-18-23-3). Together they were undeniable.New Zealand took the series 2-0 and climbed to second place on the World Test Championship table. Later in the evening, they’ll part ways with Williamson who has already said without saying that he won’t be with them in January in India. “There’s a pretty large block away from the group as well, and there’ll be more conversations had,” he announced on Sunday. On Monday, he celebrated a hard-earned Test win. On Thursday, he’ll enjoy Christmas with his family. Beyond that, his future appears unknown. He might already have played his final Test match at his home ground.

In signing two uncapped players for a joint-record INR 14.2 crore each at the IPL 2026 player auction, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) have marked an unambiguous breakaway from the “experience-first” philosophy that had defined them through the first 18 seasons of the tournament. Reflecting on these signings, head coach Stephen Fleming has conceded that CSK may have been “a little bit slow” to keep up with the evolution of the T20 format.The shift in thinking, he said, began during IPL 2025, when Dewald Brevis and the uncapped pair of Ayush Mhatre and Urvil Patel, all signed midway through the season, brought a belated sense of adventure to a top order that had struggled to keep pace with other IPL teams. CSK finished the season in last place but with lessons they took into Tuesday’s auction in Abu Dhabi, signing Prashant Veer, 20, and Kartik Sharma, 19, for a combined INR 28.4 crore.Related

• Fleming: Mhatre has 'everything that we like about a modern-day T20 player'

• Uncapped Prashant Veer and Kartik Sharma smash IPL auction records

“As the game has evolved, we might have been a little bit slow to evolve with it,” Fleming said. “Only halfway through the [2025] tournament we had a big shift and you saw with the players we got in as reserves, there was a shift in what we needed to do.”Sometimes you can hang on to theories and philosophies because of past success but we identified that we needed to shift and partly the work that we did last season halfway through has enabled us to continue that work done.”Mhatre, Urvil, Veer and Kartik represent a new generation of players who have grown up training to meet T20’s demands, and are as likely to catch IPL scouts’ eyes in local T20 leagues as they are to come through the traditional route of age-group and domestic cricket. Fleming said these “T20 babies” played in a way that was all about expressing their skills, where earlier generations may have second-guessed themselves looking to assess the match situation.”I just wonder if we’re now seeing the product of T20 coming to the fore,” Fleming said. “We witnessed at the start of last year, and certainly the year before that my view used to be that experience was going to win, but now you have this fearless athlete that’s been brought up on T20 cricket and has a skillset that’s mouthwatering, and they just have no fear about what environment they need to exhibit these skills.2:42

Fleming on Samson’s trade and CSK’s succession planning

“So that is one thing to acknowledge, that T20 babies are now coming through. And it’s just that mental aspect. Sometimes an experienced player can get caught up in himself, trying to work out where the game’s going and what’s going on. But these young players these days, they’re just very free and they only know one way.”So there’s real appeal, especially when the game is being played faster and faster. I think it’s a byproduct of T20 being around for some time now and we’re all learning, being involved with it, and the faster it gets, these young players seem to play better.”

‘Succession planning’ behind Samson-Jadeja trade

CSK departed from the past in another way before the auction, when they traded franchise legend Ravindra Jadeja, who had played 200 games in the team’s yellow, to Rajasthan Royals to secure the services of India keeper-batter Sanju Samson. Fleming suggested that Samson’s acquisition was made with one eye on shoring up CSK’s top order, and another on the fact that the talismanic MS Dhoni is now 44 and nearing the end of his career.”The opportunity was there,” Fleming said. “We felt we were still a little bit light in our opening batting. And we were also looking at [the fact that] at some point MS will move on.”Sanju is an international-quality player and he fills that role very well, so succession planning. And just opportunity really, just again looking at refreshing and seeing what Chennai will look like in six years’ time, not two years’ time. And just making sure that there’s a succession [plan] around the players we are introducing.”

Atletico Madrid's former Manchester United striker Diego Forlan would welcome a return to England after resurrecting his career in La Liga.

The 31-year-old, who is currently in South Africa with the rest of the Uruguay World Cup squad, scored 17 times in 97 appearances for the Red Devils, before heading to Spain in the summer of 2004.

He has since emerged as one of the league top goalscorers with first Villarreal and more recently Atletico.

However, Forlan would like another crack in the Premier League, saying:"If there is an offer and it's good for Atletico and good for me, I would be really happy to go back to England.

"If a big chance to return to England came up, I would have to look at it. I loved my time in English football – the people, the fans, the football, everything.

"I wasn't sad the way it ended at United to be honest. I was really happy during my time there and thank the people at United for how they treated me.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

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"During my period there I learnt a lot of things and had a good relationship with everyone. The reason I left was because I didn't have the chance to play as regularly as I wanted.

"Now I have the chance to play regularly the way I wanted and I am really happy I'm doing that."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email