Pakistan

9:27 AM ET Somerset are hoping to complete the signing of Murali Vijay for the final few weeks of the county season. Somerset are chasing the first Championship title in their history. They are currently second in the Division One table, just two points behind Essex, with the teams scheduled to meet in the final

9:30 AM ET Six months ago, Misbah ul Haq was playing for Peshawar Zalmi, a remarkable cricketing career that simply refused to end still going strong. He had backtracked in 2018 on his agreement with Islamabad United to be a mentor, instead going on to play for Peshawar Zalmi as a Gold Category player in

Imran Khan wants provincial teams to form the core of domestic cricket in Pakistan © Getty Images The government of Pakistan formally notified the new PCB constitution with certain amendments, toning down the powers of its own patron-in-chief. This is the fourth time in the last 12 years that the PCB constitution has been redrafted.

8:53 AM ET ESPNcricinfo staff Sharjeel Khan is set to return to top-flight cricket by the end of the year. The update comes after he met the PCB and both parties agreed on a roadmap for his return following, for the first time since he was banned, Sharjeel offering an “unconditional apology” for “irresponsible conduct

5:44 AM ET Test cricket might just return to Pakistan later this year. Sri Lanka could be open to playing at least one Test in the country, after a security delegation visited Lahore and Karachi, and gave SLC “very positive feedback”. If everything goes to plan, Pakistan could host its first Test match since the

10:51 AM ET ESPNcricinfo staff Misbah-ul-Haq is set to lead a 17-day training camp for 20 Pakistan cricketers starting next week. The pre-season camp, according to a PCB media release, has been organised with a view to an upcoming year in which most of Pakistan’s international commitments will be in the five-day format, with one

Mohammad Hafeez tweaks his moustache © Getty Images Mohammad Hafeez has signed for Middlesex as AB de Villiers‘ replacement for three Vitality Blast games. De Villiers’ initial stint finished with a victory against Surrey last week, but he will return to the club for the final two games of the group stage, and the knockouts

8:39 AM ET The formation of a governing board and an overhaul of the domestic structure are two of the major changes in the PCB’s freshly amended constitution. It has become a somewhat familiar sight; this is the fifth time since 1995 and the fourth in the last 12 years that the PCB constitution has

© Getty Images Much of what the PCB does, and what it took to get to that stage, is full of mystery, and guaranteed to remain that way until someone writes a tell-all book, or Younis Khan finds out and hastily summons a press conference to explain what happened and why it was a personal

3:05 AM ET ESPNcricinfo staff Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Hafeez have been dropped from the PCB’s annual central-contracts list for the 2019-2020 season. The board has trimmed the pool from 33 to 19, reducing the number of categories from five to three. The board has, however, increased the value of the retainers in each category,

5:02 AM ET Umar Farooq Danyal Rasool Mickey Arthur‘s time as Pakistan’s head coach will end next week with the PCB deciding against renewing his contract. The board’s decision means that nearly the entire coaching staff – batting coach Grant Flower, bowling coach Azhar Mahmood, and fitness trainer Grant Luden – will not have their

10:51 AM ET Uncertainty surrounds the immediate future of Sharjeel Khan, the Pakistan opener banned for five years after the 2017 PSL spot-fixing scandal. Half of Sharjeel’s five-year sentence was suspended, meaning that later this week, on August 10, a decision needs to be made on whether the suspended part of the sentence kicks in.

1:22 PM ET The PSL franchises have reaffirmed PCB’s commitment to stage the fourth edition in Pakistan. Four venues – Lahore, Karachi, Multan and Rawalpindi – have been nominated to cover the entire tournament spanning 34 games, though the UAE remains as a back-up option. The PCB chairman met all franchise owners on Monday to

10:01 AM ET ESPNcricinfo staff Mohammad Amir is expected to be named in Essex’s squad for Thursday night’s game against Hampshire, after his application for a UK sporting visa was belatedly approved. Amir had signed for the majority of the Vitality Blast group stage, but his paperwork was delayed, leaving the club “extremely frustrated” as

1:16 PM ET Danyal Rasool Pakistan head coach Mickey Arthur termed Mohammad Amir‘s decision to retire from Test cricket “unsurprising”, saying the bowler had been thinking about it for over a year. Arthur revealed the management had tried to ease Amir’s workload over the past year, and experimented with the possibility of making him an

5:44 AM ET ESPNcricinfo staff Pakistan allrounder Mohammad Hafeez has signed with St Kitts and Nevis Patriots for the upcoming Caribbean Premier League. Hafeez will replace South Africa batsman Rassie van der Dussen, who will be unavailable due to international commitments, with South Africa set to tour India in September-October. This will be Hafeez’s second

6:36 AM ET ESPNcricinfo staff Mohammad Amir has announced his retirement from Test cricket. The left-arm quick, 27, has however said he will continue playing white-ball cricket for Pakistan. “It has been an honour to represent Pakistan in the pinnacle and traditional format of the game,” Amir said in a statement. “I, however, have decided

6:11 AM ET Ten years of planning to get an ICC-accredited biomechanics facility built in Pakistan has finally translated into tangible results, with the facility set up at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) securing ICC accreditation. That makes it the sixth lab in the world to be ICC-accredited, joining those in Brisbane, Chennai,

8:49 AM ET The ICC has appointed Ehsan Mani, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman, as the head of one of its most powerful committees – Finance & Commercial Affairs. Mani’s appointment brings to an end a 10-year stranglehold that the Indian, English and Australian cricket boards had over the F&CA, which is responsible for

9:39 AM ET The Pakistan Cricket Board has invited Sri Lanka to play the upcoming two-match Test series in Pakistan. Pakistan are due to host Sri Lanka for two Tests later this year, and by default, the matches were scheduled in the UAE, where Pakistan have played almost all “home” Test matches since the terror

7:00 AM ET Danyal Rasool In what may yet be the first of several departures in the PCB’s coaching and management set-up, Inzamam-ul-Haq is set to leave his post of chief selector once his contract ends at the end of this month. Addressing the media at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, Inzamam said he would

8:59 AM ET For all that Inzamam-ul-Haq may have achieved during his stint as chief selector, there is one decision most persistently brought up. In the autumn of 2017, with Pakistan wrapping up a routine clean sweep over Sri Lanka in the UAE, 21-year old Imam-ul-Haq was brought into the side. He opened the batting,

2:49 PM ET So the domestic structure is being revamped again? Imagine my surprise! Well, yes, but this one might be different? Historically, the PCB has been revamping its domestic circuit every other year. The format of the first-class tournament has been tweaked with regions and departments playing separately one season and together another, like

12:26 PM ET It’s a big point of interest in cricketing circles in Pakistan – Inzamam-ul-Haq‘s tenure as chief selector is over following Pakistan’s 2019 World Cup campaign. The PCB is currently reviewing the national team’s performance since 2016, and there is uncertainty over whether Inzamam will get an extension. What, then, does Imam-ul-Haq‘s future

10:38 AM ET Danyal Rasool The ball is now firmly in the PCB’s court after Sarfaraz Ahmed declared he wished to continue as captain of Pakistan in all three formats. Speaking shortly after landing in Karachi following Pakistan’s exit from the 2019 World Cup, Sarfaraz said the job had been given to him by the

5:31 PM ET Sarfaraz Ahmed‘s comments from the eve of the match, about putting up “600, 500 or 400”, had become social media fodder. But as is wont to happen depressingly often these days, the rest of his answer got lost in the jokes and memes. Sarfaraz wasn’t just saying that he hoped Pakistan scored

10:16 AM ET Mohammad Isam at Lord’s Dead rubber? What dead rubber? That’s the question Bangladesh coach Steve Rhodes and Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed seem to be asking on the eve of their final World Cup group game at Lord’s Net run-rate keeps Pakistan interested but if Bangladesh decide to bat first, their exit from

9:10 PM ET Wahab Riaz should be on a vacation. He wasn’t picked in Pakistan’s original 30. He wasn’t in the World Cup training camp. He wasn’t even in the XV originally named for this World Cup. Somebody in the camp told him to not book his holiday because you never know with Pakistan cricket.

3:00 AM ET Varun Shetty Pakistan 230 for 7 (Imad 49*, Babar 45, Nabi 2-23, Mujeeb 2-34) beat Afghanistan 227 for 9 (Asghar 42, Najibullah 42, Afridi 4-47, Wahab 2-29) by three wickets As it happened Imad Wasim reaped the rewards for managing to scrape through a tough period of batting, hanging on till the

7:34 AM ET Sidharth Monga in Leeds At least two fans have been evicted from the match at Headingley after clashes broke out between the Pakistan and Afghanistan fans in the stands. Actual physical clashes to this degree are unheard of in the stands in modern ICC events. There had been clashes between the fans