For the first time since 2000 we have new additions to the list of ICC test playing nations! Congratulations Ireland and Afghanistan!
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Australia lost the rain-delayed semi final to India by 36 runs. India will face England in Sundayās final at Lordās.
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Australian funds management firm Magellan Financial Group has signed a new three year sponsorship deal with Cricket Australia, starting with the Ashes series this November. Magellan replaces Commonwealth Bank as naming rights sponsor of test series.
Weird sponsor. Never heard of them. CA must be suffering as a result of protracted negotiations with ACA.
They were always going to be sponsoring them after CBA left earlier in the year.
Since CA (and ACB before it) accepted commercial sponsorship, many well known brands have put their names on test series, including Benson & Hedges, Ansett, 3 Mobile, Vodafone and Commonwealth Bank. I have never heard of Magellan either.
Hence the sponsorship 
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Cricket Australia announced the 2017-18 domestic competition fixture today. Insurance broker Jardine Lloyd Thompson, which became sponsor of AFL pre-season competition earlier this year, has picked up naming rights of the one-day cup and Sheffield Shield as well. The domestic one-day tournament will remain in a discrete window at the start of the season and will again feature the youth-oriented Cricket Australia XI as a seventh side. Brisbane, Sydney and Perth will host one-day games before Hobart hosts the elimination final and the decider. It will start on September 27 (three days before the AFL Grand Final) and finish on October 21.
Sheffield Shield cricket will make its debut in Cairns and will also return to the Junction Oval in Melbourne for the first time in nine years when Victoria hosts NSW from March 3. Three rounds will be played before the first Ashes test in late November.
Both JLT one-day cup and Sheffield Shield will be streamed live on CA website and app.
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Itās fantasy land, I know, but it would be nice to see some Sheffield Shield action on broadcast TV. It wonāt happen while all domestic cricket rights are bundled with the (much more lucrative) BBL; these rights will be stitched up by the commercial networks and Foxtel. The ABC, on the other hand, is a more appropriate vessel to broadcast the rather more niche Shield content, perhaps sacrificing a bit of toddler television on ABC2.
I canāt watch the Shield online due to a poor ADSL connection and data constraints with my (much better) mobile broadband service. The CA online portal, moreover, is pretty horrible and does not give one the option to watch in lower quality. Some coverage is better than none, of course.
Congratulations to Bangladesh on their first test win against the Aussies after 5 attempts!
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Disgraceful. How did Australia managed to lose to a team like Bangladesh. Is something that I canāt get my head wrapped around about.
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The Bangas arenāt as bad as you think. They almost won 2-0 against England last year and have only lost 3 games in the past few years at home. I can see them playing a lot more tests in the future.
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Bangladesh also drew a recent away series in Sri Lanka. Theyāre turning the corner in much the same way that Sri Lanka did in the mid- 90s. The timeline for both sides is about the same: just over 15 years from admission to test cricket. Itās pleasing to see them do well for the sake of the cricket-mad public.
A scapegoat will have to be found for this loss I feel. Usman Khawaja did himself no favours through two farcical dismissals; I feel he is very much outside of Smithās āinner circleā as well. It wouldnāt be, well, cricket to drop him immediately after his comeback, though. The batting cancer against quality spin continues to metastasise and thereās no easy solution in this āinstant gratificationā , T20 dominated cricket universeā¦
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England and Wales Cricket Board announced its 2018 international schedule tonight (Australian time). Australia will tour England in consecutive years: five one-dayers and one Twenty20 match next year before the Ashes series in 2019. Here are the dates and times from the ECB website (British summer time - AEST minus 9 hours)
13 June ā 1st ODI, Kia Oval, London (1pm)
16 June ā 2nd ODI, The SSE SWALEC (Sophia Gardens), Cardiff (11am)
19 June ā 3rd ODI, Trent Bridge, Nottingham (2pm)
21 June ā 4th ODI, Emirates Riverside, Chester-le-Street (2pm)
24 June ā 5th ODI, Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester (11am)
27 June ā IT20, Edgbaston, Birmingham (6.30pm)
These matches are not covered by the current anti-siphoning list so they may only be shown on pay TV in Australia.
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Nine has the rights.
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Iām not a fan of these standalone limited overs tours because they lack context: far better to play these matches as a lead-in to the 2019 Ashes series which would provide the requisite context. Iām sure there will be another 5 ODIs/2T20s immediately after the tests in 2019, though.
Getting back to the match at hand, I hope Australia can consolidate their advantage today. They will need a lead of 150-200 to avoid a troubling fourth innings chase. Letās hope that the break in the monsoon holds as well.
No I think England have split the ODIs and Tests to different seasons to accomodate their 2019 World Cup. A lot of cricket tours around the world are split like this (ie India v Australia Tests earlier this year and upcoming ODIs/T20I series).