Andrew Symonds may have had his Cricket Australia contract handed to Shaun Tait, but he looks set to earn more than its value as a Twenty20 freelancer.

Symonds, of course, is already a key part of the Deccan Chargers squad in the IPL, and the Highveld Lions are also reportedly interested in signing him up for the South African competition. If he was to take part in four domestic competitions (the Big Bash in Australia, the South African competition, the IPL and English cricket's revamped...

With the groups stage of the World Twenty20 over in a flash, every game is crucial, and things like the Great British Weather or a missed run-out chance will ultimately make the difference between success and failure.

For England, rain on Sunday could see them eliminated from the tournament, and it would only take one shock result to see any of the other sides who were expected to make the Super Eight find themselves in a similar position.

I just hope that in a fortnight's...

The cricketing landscape has changed beyond recognition since India beat Pakistan by 5 runs to win the first World Twenty20. The ICL and IPL have brought Twenty20 a new level of glamour and money, the political situation in the subcontinent has worsened to a dramatic degree, and the world economy has taken a nosedive.

The organiser's of this year's tournament will be hoping that the global appetite for Twenty20 cricket is undiminished by all of these developments, but the disappointing ticket sales for this year's domestic Twenty20 cup in England...

Australia's Ashes squad has but a single specialist spinner in Nathan Hauritz, who many in England may not even have heard of. Whilst Michael Clarke's part-time spin may cause problems for some teams, and Simon Katich is a potential secret weapon, it's a far cry from the glory days of Shane Warne terrorising England in 2005 (even though that series worked out better for the Poms than the Aussies) or indeed in 1993, 1997 and 2001.

The first post-Warne tour of England may prove a (lack...

Javed Miandad has never been shy of controversy (or of telling people what he thinks), and he is stirring it up once again by saying that "there is a definite smell of match-fixing coming from the IPL where strange things are happening".

Leaving aside the question of what match-fixing smells of, Miandad's justification for this assertion seems to be based on the fact that occasional bowlers are taking lots of wickets, and that teams are losing matches from seemingly unassailable...