استمتع محمد صلاح نجم ليفربول بلعب آخر مبارياته مع الفريق، قبل التحاقه بمعسكر منتخب مصر استعدادًا للمشاركة في كأس الأمم الإفريقية.

وساهم النجم المصري في فوز فريقه بهدفين نظيفين أمام برايتون، على ملعب آنفيلد، حيث صنع الهدف الثاني للمهاجم الفرنسي هوجو إيكتيكي من ركلة ركنية.

وكان سلوت قد أشرك محمد صلاح في الدقيقة 28 من أحداث الشوط الأول بديلاً للاعبه المصاب جو جوميز الذي غادر الملعب.

اقرأ أيضاً.. هل لعب محمد صلاح مباراته الأخيرة مع ليفربول؟.. إبراهيما كوناتي يجيب

وإلى جانب الأسيست، فقد تألق محمد صلاح وكان نشيطًا وصنع العديد من الكرات الخطيرة وحاول التسجيل لكن لم يحالفه الحظ.

والتقطت الكاميرات محمد صلاح يغادر الملعب بسعادة وهو يمازح الصحفيين أثناء خروجه من الملعب، بعدما طلبوا منه التحدث، حيث قال: “أسبوعان متتاليان؟ مستحيل!”.

Mohamed Salah teases the journalists as he exits the stadium:

Two weeks in a row? No way, impossible 😂❤️pic.twitter.com/wLGua6TQEH — The Anfield Talk (@TheAnfieldTalk) December 13, 2025

ويقصد محمد صلاح بذلك تصريحاته المثيرة التي أدلى بها، مساء السبت الماضي، بعد مباراة ليدز يونايتد، حيث هاجم خلالها إدارة ليفربول والمدرب آرني سلوت، وتسبب في ضجة كبرى.

جدير بالذكر أن محمد صلاح قد غاب عن المشاركة مع ليفربول في آخر أربع مباريات بين ثلاث في الدوري الإنجليزي ولقاء إنتر ميلان في دوري أبطال أوروبا.

The late, great Bob Uecker remains the heart and soul of the Milwaukee Brewers.

Ten months after his death in January at the age of 90, the Hall of Fame broadcaster was on everybody's mind at American Family Field following the Brewers' 3-1 series-clinching win over the rival Cubs in Game 5 of the NLDS.

While the Brewers celebrated on the field, a photo of Uecker with the text "For Ueck" was displayed on the jumbotron. Those among the sellout crowd of nearly 43,000 fans who stuck around to celebrate began to chant, "Ueeeeck."

"We love it for Ueck," Murphy said to reporter Lauren Jbara on the TNT broadcast after the game. "He's meant so much to this organization—the way he affected these players, especially last year. To win this for him is really, really special."

The players honored Uecker, too. While taking the celebratory team photo on the field, Brewers players laid out a blue flag featuring Uecker's signature in gold. It was placed on the grass, right in the middle of the photo.

Uecker's legacy lives on. And the Brewers are hoping there's a bit more Uecker magic left in the tank for their upcoming best-of-seven series against the Dodgers in the NLCS.

The 2026 Mets won’t feature many of the faces of the franchise from the last five-plus seasons, with the free agency departures of Pete Alonso and Edwin Díaz to the Orioles and Dodgers, respectively, as well as the November trade of Brandon Nimmo to the Rangers for Marcus Semien. General manager David Stearns made a significant signing on Saturday morning, adding former Mariners infielder Jorge Polanco, who will reportedly be in the mix at first base with Alonso’s departure.

The 32-year-old has agreed to a two-year deal with New York worth $40 million, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports. On paper, he is a curious positional fit, as he spent most of his time in the field last season at second base (though he was primarily a designated hitter for Seattle in 2025). Passan reports that he is expected to play first base and serve as DH, with Semien set to slide in at second and Francisco Lindor anchoring the infield at shortstop.

Polanco appeared in one game at first base last season—his first appearance at the position of his career.

The 2019 All-Star had an offensive resurgence in 2025, hitting .265/.326/.495 with 26 home runs and 78 RBIs. He cut his strikeout rate from 29.2% in ‘24 to just 15.6% in ‘25, and homered at the second-highest rate of his career at 5% of at-bats. His hard-hit rate of 45.8% was the highest of his career.

The Mets will be Polanco’s third MLB team. He spent 2014 to 2023 with the Twins before spending the last two seasons with the Mariners.

The New York Yankees didn't have Giancarlo Stanton in the lineup for Sunday's game against the Baltimore Orioles, but late in a tie game, the team looked to the veteran slugger for some offense.

The Orioles were prepared for that, however. After Stanton entered the game as a pinch hitter, taking the place of Ryan McMahon, Baltimore opted to intentionally walk him to eliminate the home run threat.

Well, with Stanton being an absolutely abysmal baserunner, the decision to give him first base for free resulted in the end of his night. Aaron Boone quickly moved to pinch run for Stanton, who is a liability on the base paths, bringing in Anthony Volpe to take over at first base.

As quickly as Stanton's night started, it ended.

That's one way to make a contribution. Unfortunately, the Yankees weren't able to capitalize on Stanton's intentional walk, unable to get a run on the board to break the 1–1 deadlock.

Stanton's lack of mobility at this stage in his career means he's best served being utilized at DH. But with Aaron Judge occupying the role on Sunday, Stanton was out of the lineup and on the bench.

In 70 games this year, Stanton has a .916 OPS with 21 home runs and 56 RBIs.

Mariners second baseman Jorge Polanco is on an incredible heater at the right time.

Seattle demolished the Blue Jays 10-3 in Game 2 of the American League Championship Series Monday, extending their lead to 2-0 as they move two wins away from the World Series. Polanco went 2-for-5 on the night, with a massive three-run home run in the fifth inning that broke a tie at three runs apiece.

The big homer continues a streak of clutch hitting for the 12-year veteran. In Sunday's Game 1, he had two RBI singles. The first gave the Mariners the lead in the sixth and the second added an insurance run in the eighth as Seattle held onto a 3-1 win.

He came up big in the marathon Game 5 of the AL Division Series against the Tigers, hitting the walk-off single that finally ended the game in the 15th inning and sent the M's to their first ALCS since 2001. With Polanco's clutch streak, he became the first player in MLB history to have a go-ahead hit in the fifth inning or later in three consecutive postseason games, according to OptaSTATS.

Over the regular season, Polanco slashed .265/.326/.495 with 26 homers and 78 RBIs. He now has three homers in the postseason after the first two came in Game 2 of the ALDS against Tarik Skubal, which helped lift Seattle to a 3-2 win in their first victory of the series.

The Mariners had just one day off between the wild 15-inning game against Detroit and Game 1 of the ALCS where they had to travel to Toronto. They incredibly grabbed the first two games on the road and now just need to win two of three at home for a trip to the World Series, which would be the franchise's first trip to the Fall Classic.

Polanco signed a one-year, $7.75 million deal to return to Seattle for his second season this year. That contract is paying off in a massive way.

Gelling as a unit and pulling together has put Bangladesh Under-19 one step away from a World Cup final

Sreshth Shah in Potchefstroom05-Feb-2020Before Bangladesh began their Under-19 World Cup campaign, their captain Akbar Ali had made a bold statement. He had said that not only will his team come out of their difficult group of Pakistan, Zimbabwe, and Scotland successfully, but they could win the whole tournament. Those were spunky words from the captain of a team that had never before even reached the final in the history of the competition, but as the World Cup has progressed, it is steadily turning prophetic.On the eve of their semifinal against New Zealand, Akbar – looking to become the first Bangladesh captain in history to lead his team to a World Cup final – spoke to ESPNcricinfo about how his team have come this far.”A lot of credit needs to go to the Bangladesh Cricket Board,” Akbar said. “The number of games we’ve played as a group, no other country has played that many games. This wasn’t the case in past Bangladesh teams, but things have changed now. Foreign tours, comfortable surroundings, need to give credit to the board.”As a group, the current Bangladesh team came together in September 2018, when the board organised a focused camp to hand-pick those who would represent the country at the 2020 U-19 World Cup. Entering the tournament, they played 30 youth ODIs, winning 18. They beat England thrice in their own backyard, won series in Sri Lanka and New Zealand, and before the World Cup, had the second-highest win-percentage – behind India – for teams to have played 15 or more games. The togetherness has helped the team become a ‘unit’.”We have been together as a group for 15 months now to focus on this World Cup, so whenever we were in Bangladesh we stayed together as a camp,” he says. “Travelling to England and then the Asia Cup, the bonding has been amazing. This togetherness obviously helps when we are playing, but more importantly, it makes us a second family outside the field. Everyone understands each other’s personality inside out – when to have fun, when to give a person his space.”What Akbar is referring to when he talks about ‘space’ is how the team came together to support him after he recently received some bad news from home on the eve of Bangladesh’s first World Cup game against Zimbabwe. Akbar was more than 8,000 kilometres away from home, but the team ensured his morale stayed unaffected. He is thankful for that. It has also helped him put life and sport in perspective.”I have tried to keep things simple. At the end of the day, this is just a game. One day you’ll do well, another day you won’t. Even if we succeed, it’s important not to go head over heels. If you don’t do well, remind yourself this is just a game. Cricket isn’t the end of the world. We play on the field, but outside it, there’s more to life.”

“Even we are confused sometimes, what is our strength. But what I feel is, as a group, we combine very well as a team. On days our batsmen can’t pull us through, our bowlers help us win. And vice versa.”AKBAR ALI

A wicketkeeper-batsman, Akbar has always been a team man. He started his journey as a class VII student who enrolled at Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishtan (BKSP), the country’s national sports institute. He quickly became part of the institute’s U-14 and U-16 teams. His current batting position, too, has been dictated by the team’s strengths.”Captaincy isn’t new to me,” Akbar explained. “Captaincy through the ranks has helped me. Ever since I’ve been playing U-19s, I’ve been playing at No. 6. It’s because of the combination of our XI. We have excellent top-order batsmen, so I’d rather position myself as a finisher.”Every captain’s philosophy is different, so I don’t try to copy anyone else. But as a wicketkeeper-captain, I try to see what the opposition batsman is doing. Even when I was not captain, I used to tell the captain as much as I could, so it’s been a natural progression. Teams with wicketkeeper-captains seem to have an edge these days. The best example is MS Dhoni. Being so close to a batsman, he can observe the batsman’s footwork and pass information. The advantage of leading as a wicketkeeper isn’t massive, but it cannot be ignored.”When asked what makes this Bangladesh team worthy of winning a World Cup, Akbar didn’t have an answer. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.”Even we are confused sometimes, what is our strength,” he said. “But what I feel is, as a group, we combine very well as a team. On days our batsmen can’t pull us through, our bowlers help us win. And vice versa. So difficult to say which element is better, but I like how our collective performance pulls us through.”Akbar Ali wants to position himself as a finisher•ICC via GettyBangladesh take on New Zealand in Thursday’s match to set up a final contest against rivals India. Although Bangladesh one-upped New Zealand last year, they lost their warm-up game against the same opponents before the World Cup began. Akbar, however, says there are no scars from that defeat.”If you look at history, you may think it’s an important game – semifinal and what not – but as a team, we are taking it as a normal match,” Akbar said. “We don’t want to take unwanted pressure imagining that the world will end if we don’t win this game. The way we’ve played 8-10 games before, we just want to continue those same processes.”Yes, we have lost [in the practice game], but we beat them comprehensively in the tour of New Zealand. So past results or statistics won’t make a difference on the day. Both teams will make mistakes, but the team that will make less mistakes, that team will succeed in the semifinal.”It will obviously be a game of nerves. We can say we won’t take pressure, but it will definitely come tomorrow at some point. At the end of the day, the one which will be able to express themselves fearlessly, they will succeed. If there’s any team that’s gentlemanly, it’s New Zealand. They have taught the world that at the end of the game, learn to be friends. Rivalries are well and good but within a limit.”As for what kind of legacy he wants to leave once the tournament ends, Akbar says the team’s journey will be complete once they win the final. He says that his team’s self-satisfaction “will be unmatched”, purely because they came with a goal. He is two steps away from achieving it.

Tabraiz Shamsi maps his journey from seam bowler to front-line spinner for South Africa in the limited-overs formats

Firdose Moonda17-Apr-2020While the 2019-20 summer was forgettable for South Africa as a whole, it was also the season Tabraiz Shamsi came into his own. It was a time of both personal and professional change: he played in all South Africa’s white-ball matches – six ODIs, and eight T20Is – to firmly establish himself as Imran Tahir’s successor in the limited-overs formats, and welcomed his first child into the world, days before a countrywide lockdown in response to the coronavirus pandemic. From his home, Shamsi spoke about his early days as a seam bowler and his hopes for the rest of his career. Were you bowling wristspin when you were selected for the provincial age-group teams?
At that stage, yes. But when I started out playing cricket in high school, I was a fast bowler, or at least I thought I was. I bowled seam up. And when I was doing trials for the under-14 team, the coaches told me I wasn’t quick enough to be a fast bowler. I was quite heartbroken because I was watching guys like Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock. The truth was that I was running up and bowling cutters and the coaches suggested I become a spinner. The A team coach told me to become an offspinner and the B team coach a legspinner, so I asked each of them why I should become that kind of bowler. The A team coach said being an offspinner is easier and that annoyed me. Why should I take the easier option? So I decided to become a wristspinner.ALSO READ: ‘I didn’t know fatherhood was this hard – it’s non-stop’ Who was your mentor when you decided to change your bowling style?
No one, really. I watched a lot on TV and I did whatever came naturally to me. When I was bowling seam up, I only had a slightly longer run-up, which is why even now, my run-up is quite long and I am not too technical about things. At the time I was watching guys like Brad Hogg, because he was the only other left-arm wristspinner around, and also Saeed Ajmal and how he spun the ball in to the right-hander. And then of course, Shane Warne.Is there a lot of planning that goes into your bowling now?
Yes, I do a lot of work with our analyst, Prasanna Agoram, who adds a lot of value to our set-up. He gets all the footage and I study it, especially to see how the batsmen bat and where to pitch the ball. That’s why I say technically I am not fussed, because if I am worried about how high my arm goes, then I won’t land the ball where I want it. Mostly I watch the batsmen to see where they hit the ball, to see how I should bowl to them, and then I like to do those things in practice.”Quinton de Kock doesn’t speak much, but I know what he wants and he is very clear in his instructions”•Getty Images This summer you had the opportunity to put your observations into practice at international level more than in any other season. What was that like?
Since joining the national side, I have been on the backburner, played here and there, and I understood why I didn’t play a lot because of the job Imran Tahir was doing. Now, it’s nice to be able to play consistently and learn all the time and even to make mistakes. Like I said before, I look forward to going out there and trying things and getting a few things wrong because I have an opportunity in the next game to go out there and fix it. And then when things work, it provides a bit of reassurance that I’m on the right track, so it has been good to see that.That said, do you consider yourself to be South Africa’s front-line spinner in white-ball cricket?
I don’t ever think that a spot is mine but I want to make the most of the opportunity. I had to wait for three years on the sidelines and that wasn’t nice, so now that I have the chance, I want to take it. We’ve spoken a lot about role definition and I know that I don’t have to bowl variations every ball, for example. I have to be able to do both roles – attacking and containing. And I saw it during the Australia ODI series. Even when I didn’t take wickets, I saw that I was able to win games by keeping things tight.The Australia ODI series was the first trophy South Africa won in a difficult summer. What was the mood like in the change room this season?
What happens in the administration is not our domain. What we found is that even though guys had not played a lot of international cricket, we all knew each other really well. We had been playing provincial and franchise cricket together and most of us started around the same time, so we had known each other for about ten years and we knew each other’s games well. It’s almost like it worked to our benefit that the opposition didn’t know that much about us. It was disappointing not to win more, but the guys really gelled well.And we are not scared of playing big teams. This season we played India, England and Australia, and even though we didn’t do as well as we would have liked, we learnt a lot. I am really excited for the T20 World Cup under Quinton de Kock – I think it’s going to be a big one for us.ALSO READ: ‘This feels like the beginning’ – Tabraiz ShamsiWhat is it like being captained by de Kock?
I’ve known him a long time, because we played provincial cricket when he was 15 and I was about 16 or 17 and then we lost touch. He doesn’t speak much, but I know what he wants and he is very clear in his instructions.How do you see the next few years of your career going – are you focused on South Africa or will you still look to play in various leagues?
The way I started was because of the leagues. I got the opportunity to play in the CPL and the IPL before I played for South Africa. I think it’s good to play in leagues because you learn a lot. It’s always good to go and pick up a few things from other players and learn how they get players out. If I get the opportunity, I will still go, provided it doesn’t interfere with South Africa commitments. How did it happen that you brought magic tricks into your celebrations?
Magic has been a hobby of mine since I was young, and when I was in high school, around the ages of 14 and 16, I wanted to become a magician. Then I was selected for the provincial under-17 and under-19 sides, so I had to put magic on the backburner, but it’s always been something that’s intrigued me – like how to make things appear and disappear – and so I’ve kept working on it a little.South Africa are not due to play again until a tour to Sri Lanka in May, but that is doubtful with the current pandemic. With so much uncertainty around, what role do you think sport can play at a time like this?
As sportspeople, I think we can spread a positive message. Many people listen to sportsmen and so it’s up to us to encourage them to do the right thing. We can also play a role in supporting our healthcare workers. I really feel sorry for them. Everyone is scared but they are the ones that have to go out there and help others.

He almost single-handedly finished Royals’ chase of 126, with an unbeaten 48-ball 70

Deivarayan Muthu20-Oct-20201:55

Steven Smith: Buttler can bat like de Villiers or Pollard at back end

It was a strange Abu Dhabi pitch. It offered slow turn and grip in the evening, but later in the night there wasn’t as much purchase for the spinners. Balls from different lengths, though, kept stopping at the batsmen.However, there was no stopping Jos Buttler on Monday night. On a surface where his captain Steven Smith – and all the Chennai Super Kings batsmen – struggled, Buttler almost single-handedly finished Rajasthan Royals’ chase of 126, with an unbeaten 70 off 48 balls, and gave their playoffs chances a leg-up.Buttler entered in the fifth over after Deepak Chahar and Josh Hazlewood had knocked over the Royals’ top order with swing and Test-match lengths. Hazlewood then thought he had trapped Smith for a duck after nipping one into the pads, but replays detected an inside edge as the Super Kings’ review went in vain. Smith kept shuffling across the stumps, but the bowlers kept denying him the access to the leg side. His first runs on his favourite leg side came off his 22nd ball and his first boundary off his 24th.Buttler, however, needed just eight balls to find the boundary. When Ravindra Jadeja slid one on the middle stump, Buttler stretched out, got his hands low, and reverse-swept him fiercely over point for four. Then, in the next over off Hazlewood, he took half a stride across off stump, and chipped him over mid-on. Buttler was showing what the Super Kings were desperately missing: power, intent, innovation and clarity.The Royals’ bowlers, particularly the legspin duo of Shreyas Gopal and Rahul Tewatia, had strangled the Super Kings, and MS Dhoni’s men just couldn’t find a way through to unsettle them. Jadeja was promoted ahead of Kedar Jadhav to counter Gopal and Tewatia, but he managed only 10 off 14 balls from them. Buttler, though, smartly took on the relatively weaker links in the Super Kings attack by going after Shardul Thakur and Piyush Chawla. He struck 48 off 27 balls from them, and gave Smith the breathing space he needed.Jos Buttler receives a special gift after finishing the chase for the Rajasthan Royals•BCCI”I think he came on with a really positive mindset and took the game on by playing his cricket shots,” Smith said of Buttler at the virtual press conference after the match. “He hit the ball nice and hard and his mindset was really positive. He made things easier for me at the other end and I was able to get myself into my innings.”Sure, Buttler reminded everyone that he’s a gun middle-order batsman, but, perhaps, there’s still a case for the Royals to move him back to the top and give themselves a better chance at qualifying for the playoffs. In the middle order in T20 cricket, Buttler has struck at 140.75 and averages 26.83 in 171 innings. His strike rate and average as an opener shoots up to 151.75 and 40.12 in 62 innings.A few low scores at the top for Buttler this IPL and Robin Uthappa regaining some form as an opener have tempted the team management to use Buttler as a middle-order finisher – a role he has made his own in 50-over cricket. The Royals’ coach Andrew McDonald is also big on match-ups and maintaining a left-right combination. So, they have paired up Ben Stokes with Uthappa at the top and are looking up to Buttler for the big finishing kick. Smith even likened Buttler’s middle-order impact to the likes of Kieron Pollard and AB de Villiers.”Jos is obviously an unbelievable player at the top, but I also believe he’s got the capabilities to do the things that AB de Villiers, Pollards and Hardik Pandyas….guys like that can do at the back end,” Smith said.”Those kinds of players at the back end win you games, so it’s a difficult one. I heard Jos loves batting at the top as well, so that conversation is a difficult one, but it provides such great stability in the middle and the power and innovation that he’s got is second to none. So, obviously we’re lucky to have a player like Jos and the ability that he’s got and the versatility he has in his batting as well.”The original finisher Dhoni was probably impressed by Buttler’s innings, too, handing over his yellow jersey from his 200th IPL game.

“It’s very easy to say the BCCI should compensate players, but how,” asks Ratnakar Shetty

Shashank Kishore10-Sep-2020Jaydev Shah
Financially, it will be a massive loss for the cricketers, yes. But we’re talking about lives here. If you aren’t around, how does it matter how much money you lose? Looking at the bigger picture, if there is no cricket for one season, we should accept it. What happens if a player is injured for six to eight months? It’s a similar situation.IPL in UAE is far different to a Ranji Trophy in India. The money involved there feeds the cricket economy in India. And hence they’re going out all guns to get testing measures in place and all sorts of health and safety protocols have been put in place. Despite that, if we are seeing a few cases like we have, what is the guarantee a bubble in India won’t have any cases?Nooshin Al Khadeer

The lack of domestic cricket can be a hindrance to someone aged 18 or 22, because they lose out on a year of Under-19 or Under-23 cricket. But if a player is good enough, she will definitely play the next higher grade of cricket. Yes, a gap year isn’t ideal but we have to be resilient and get through the tough time. We have to play the waiting game. Big corporations across the world have been affected, India continues to record the highest number of Covid cases. It’s not just sportsmen who are affected, so many people have lost their jobs and livelihood, so many people had their businesses shut for many months and are slowly bouncing back, so cricket too will bounce back. For now, we can’t just think about the smaller picture.ALSO READ: ‘Really hard to imagine’ bio-bubbles in the Indian domestic circuitRobin Bist

Someone playing one Test match earns INR 15 lakh. Someone toiling away in the domestic circuit from July to March also earns INR 15 lakh. It’s difficult to plan finances as a domestic cricketer, because you’re almost always having to factor in for money that has been promised but hasn’t come in. Our payments from the central revenue is almost always late. Our match fees for the Ranji Trophy was hiked to INR 35,000 per day two seasons ago. There was talk of this amount being hiked, even doubled, last year, but we haven’t heard anything yet.Domestic cricketers too need a contract system that puts the onus on merit. Not all domestic cricketers have sports quota or private sector jobs. Some of them have a hand-to-mouth existence, because beyond cricket, you have to take care of your health, dietary requirements. Many have family commitments, home loans, car loans. When we don’t receive monthly payments, how do we plan?
We need better communication from the board as well as timely settlement of money.

Look at international cricketers, they are taken care of by their contracts, but even they are not earning match fees. Those who don’t play IPL don’t earn anything. And even in the IPL, except for 15-16 players who are crore-plus earners, most of them earn in lakhsRatnakar Shetty

Ratnakar Shetty

It’s very easy to say the BCCI should compensate players and everyone else, but how?The BCCI is also facing problems because there has been no bilateral series. The only good thing is that the IPL is happening, and we hope everything goes well. But how will the state units compensate the players? No team has been picked, so which players will you compensate? There is no association where even a practice match or a camp has taken place since March. There are no contracts.I fully sympathise, not just with the players but all the stakeholders, for everyone it is a source of livelihood. But nothing has happened since March. The clubs that own the grounds don’t have any income. It has affected everybody, from the BCCI down to the groundspersons.Look at international cricketers, they are taken care of by their contracts, but even they are not earning match fees. Those who don’t play IPL don’t earn anything. And even in the IPL, except for 15-16 players who are crore-plus earners, most of them earn in lakhs.Lonzang Tenzing

We don’t have a head coach yet because without any money coming in from the board, we can’t afford to hire a coaching set-up, so we will have to make do with local coaches for the time being. Even our professional players will just earn the match fees paid by the BCCI. We were paid INR 10 crore during the 2019-20 domestic season by the board, and we’ve had to make do with that money. We are a small association, and we have only one ground, so the cost is lower than an association with many grounds. Financially, it will be a massive challenge, but we’ll get to that when we hear something concrete (from the BCCI about the calendar).There have been a few Covid-19 cases in the Chennai Super Kings camp despite all the precautions•Twitter/Chennai Super KingsRaktim Sadhu

It is a bit of a crisis for many of us. We get paid, in a full season, around INR 3 lakh (INR 10,000 per game). If we get even half of that amount, it will be something, because otherwise people will starve. The second rung of scorers in Bengal, and umpires, depend entirely on the club-cricket circuit, and there has been nothing there so far this year. Some centres, like Mumbai and Bangalore, have a lot of club matches, but scorers in other places, say Odisha or Assam, won’t earn much because they don’t have such leagues.Two of our Bengal scorers – Suryakanta Panda and Tanay Panti – have been selected to score at the IPL (in a team of 13). So they will be fine, because everything is free for them there, and they will get paid well. But for the rest of us, it’s getting worse.Vanitha VR

With the current situation, even if we could get some cricket rather than no cricket, it will do some good for us. Otherwise, it will be absolutely devastating.

Before 2001, Australia had a 28-11 lead, but since then India have won 17 and lost only 15 Tests against Australia

S Rajesh25-Dec-2020The Australia-India Test matches have been among the most intense match-ups in the last few years, and on Boxing Day, the rivalry will achieve a significant milestone: it will be the 100th Test between the two teams, and the 50th in Australia.This will be the seventh rivalry to hit the century mark; Australia and England have obviously played each other the most often – in fact, they have played more than twice as many matches as any other pair of teams. Australia have also played 100-plus Tests against West Indies, while for India it is their second entry into this club: they have also played 100-plus Tests against England.ESPNcricinfo LtdAustralia have a significant overall advantage, 43 wins to 28 defeats. Among the three teams against whom they have played 100-plus Tests, their win-loss ratio against India (1.54) sits in the middle – it is better than their ratio of 1.33 against England, but not quite as good as their record of 1.81 against West Indies. Among these seven rivalries with 100-plus Tests, the most lopsided is the one between England and New Zealand – England have won 48 out of 105, and lost only 11.As you would expect, both Australia and India have been dominant at home, but Australia have been exceptionally strong on home turf against India, winning 30 Tests and losing just seven. India have won 21 and lost 13 at home.ESPNcricinfo LtdThe Australia-India Test journey started 73 years ago, on November 28, 1947, when Brisbane hosted the first game of a five-Test series. Australia trounced the visitors by an innings and 226 – India’s match tally of 156 over two innings fell 29 short of Don Bradman’s 185 – but India improved as the series went along, though they lost 4-0. Vijay Hazare and Vinoo Mankad struck a couple of hundreds each, while Dattu Phadkar struck one and averaged 52.33. India’s first win came in 1959 in Kanpur, in the tenth Test between the two teams. That was thanks largely to Jasu Patel’s incredible match haul of 14 for 124.ESPNcricinfo LtdAustralia were utterly dominant in the first 20 Tests, winning 13 and losing just two. Since then, Australia have only stretched that advantage of 11 to 15. In fact, since 2001, India have had the edge, with a 17-15 record. Both have been equally dominant at home over the last 20 years: Australia have an 11-4 record in 21 Tests in Australia, while India have won 13 and lost four in 21.ESPNcricinfo Ltd