England

While MCC refused to offer freebies, Trent Bridge, Headingley and Edgbaston allowed free admissions during the second and third Tests against New Zealand and the rescheduled fifth Test against India, resulting in big crowds thronging the venues. In fact, ahead of the fifth day's proceedings against New Zealand at Trent Bridge in June, the stadium refunded the existing ticket-holders, allowing them to watch the final-day action for free.

Anderson is the highest Test wicket-taker in the world among pace bowers with 657 scalps from 172 matches. He is also the third-highest wicket-taker in Test cricket behind Sri Lanka's spinner Muttiah Muralitharan and the late Shane Warne. Anderson is gearing up to play the 173rd Test match of his career at Lord's when England host South Africa this week.

The 14-year-old defeated Malik 11-5, 11-5, 6-1, 11-7. She will face Egypt's Fayrouz Abouelkheir for a place in the semifinals. "I really didn't expect that, but surprisingly I wasn't nervous!" Anahat said after her win over Malik. Anahat, a Grade 9 student from Delhi, was also a member of India's squash contingent in the recently-concluded Commonwealth Games. She was the youngest member of the Indian contingent in Birmingham.

The Meteorological Office has issued an amber extreme heat warning which came into force on Thursday and covers the rest of this week. It covers much of the southern half of England as well as parts of eastern Wales, reports DPA. It is understood that any match in the EFL or Premier League where the temperature is forecast to hit at least 30 degrees Celsius is set to feature a cooling break midway through each half to enable players, coaches and officials to rehydrate and cool down.

Titled "Ben Stokes: Phoenix from the Ashes", the documentary has been created with Academy Award-winning director Sam Mendes (best known for World War I film 1917) who features on-screen to discuss the highs and lows of the cricket icon's record-breaking career across a series of interviews. Produced by Whisper, the documentary tells the story of Stokes' journey, examining his 2019 World Cup triumph and heroics at the Headingley crease against Australia in the Ashes, as well as the lows which came at a huge personal cost, and saw him take time away from the game as well as heal from a left finger injury in July last year.

The second biggest multi-discipline sports extravaganza after the Olympics, the Commonwealth Games of Birmingham 2022 has competitors from 72 nations and territories entered to compete, equalling the record held by the 2002 edition held at Manchester, around a one-and-half-hour drive from here. The sports will open with a gala opening ceremony on Thursday with competitions set to start early on Friday.

After taking over from Morgan, Buttler is still waiting for his first series win as England's full-time white-ball captain after rain washed out the series-deciding third ODI against South Africa at Headingley on Sunday. With less than 18 months left for their ODI World Cup title defence to happen in India, England need for their seniors to stand up till the time they find worthy successors of Stokes and Morgan in the set-up.

Recently, unable to take the pressure of all three formats of the game, England Test captain Ben Stokes announced he was quitting the 50-over game due to "unsustainable" schedule, shocking the cricketing world. In his retirement statement, Stokes had said, "I feel that my body is letting me down because of the schedule and what is expected of us."

A report in Daily Mail late on Saturday said Cricket Scotland is set to be found as "institutionally racist" while "up to 10 people are set to be implicated in an investigation into racism at Essex" on Monday. Allegations of institutional racism have been plaguing England cricket since the time former Yorkshire cricketer of Pakistan origin Azeem Rafiq came out in the open last November claiming he had been treated differently during his nearly decade-long stay at the county side.

During his historic knock, Northeast flirted with the world record score of West Indies great Brian Lara, who had scored an unbeaten 501 for Warwickshire in 1994. However, his chance of surpassing Lara's record was cut short when Glamorgan captain David Lloyd declared his side's innings at 795/5 at lunch on day four of the Division Two contest against Leicestershire.