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Batsman will play no part in Warwickshire’s County Championship campaign for the first time since 2000

ESPNcricinfo staff31-Jul-2019Ian Bell will play no part in Warwickshire’s County Championship campaign for the first time since 2000, after being ruled out for the remainder of the 2019 season due to a tendon issue in his left knee.Bell, who had been on the comeback from a foot injury sustained during the Pakistan Super League in February, reported the knee concern following Warwickshire’s Second XI Championship game with Lancashire.”It’s extremely frustrating for us, and for Ian, that another injury has happened when he was extremely close to a First Team return,” said Paul Farbrace, Sport Director at Warwickshire CCC.”Over the last couple of weeks our medical team have been regularly assessing the condition of his left knee, and we have also been supported by sports injury specialists in London. However, the outcome of this has confirmed that Ian will need to have several injections, which rules him out of action for six to eight weeks and effectively ends his season.”He will now have a three-week period of minimal activity before working closely with our medical and strength and conditioning teams to prepare him for the pre-season programme in 2020.”The injury means that Bell, 37, will be absent from Warwickshire’s first-class statistics for the 2019 season, the first time in nearly 20 years that he has failed to play at least one first-class game. He made his debut for the club as a 17-year-old in 1999.”Whilst we are naturally disappointed to lose a player of Ian’s immense talent, one of the positives of 2019 has been the way in which our young, homegrown players have fought in recent weeks,” added Farbrace.”They will continue to be given the opportunity to develop and thrive as we continue our Vitality Blast campaign and fight to retain our place in Division One of the Specsavers County Championship.”

USMNT star Gio Reyna shared the news of his engagement on social media with a heartwarming post.

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Reyna shared a life update on social mediaGot engaged to partner Chloe OrtolanoSpent the last six months on loan at ForestWHAT HAPPENED?

The Borussia Dortmund winger took to Instagram to let the world know he got engaged to long-time partner Chloe Ortolano. The heartwarming social media post contained a couple of photographs of the couple who posed on a beachside while Ortolano was showing off her engagement ring.

AdvertisementWHAT GIO REYNA SAID

In the caption, the 21-year-old wrote, "Forever" and added three emojis, infinity, a ring and a heart.

Getty ImagesTHE GOSSIP

Reyna moved to Nottingham Forest on loan from Dortmund during the January transfer window, however, he did not get enough game time in England as he appeared in just 10 matches across all competitions and clocked only 230 minutes on the pitch where he scored once.

GettyWHAT NEXT FOR GIO REYNA?

Despite appearing in the Champions League for only 20 minutes for the German side this season, the American player could get a winners' medal if Edin Terzic's side manages to beat Real Madrid in the final at Wembley on Saturday.

This was the antithesis of Festival cricket. It was Division One cricket, it mattered and everybody knew it

David Hopps at Scarborough02-Jul-2019Yorkshire 327 (Fraine 106, Clark 5-77) and 303 for 9 (Lyth 68) lead Surrey 362 (Stoneman 100) by 268 runsSurrey are back at Scarborough for the second successive season and those Yorkshire spectators who like their Championship cricket hard-bitten might be in the mood to book them in for the next decade. This was the antithesis of the Festival cricket that was once the soul of the town. It was Division One cricket, it mattered and everybody knew it. And a compelling finale could be in prospect as Yorkshire resume with a lead of 268 with the last pair at the crease.This match has felt too close to call from the outset, but at no time was the contest keener than in a wary fifth-wicket stand of 57 in 26 overs between Tom Kohler-Cadmore and Johnny Tattersall on either side of tea. Yorkshire’s lead when they came together was 133, Rikki Clarke having removed Adam Lyth, driving at one angled across him on 68, and Jack Leaning in successive overs.Spectators dwelt upon Leaning’s pair in the match – lbw this time to Clarke as he got too far across to one that swung back a shade – and wondered with good reason if his middle-order place might be vulnerable to Harry Brook. But while they chatted they watched intently, as they always watch. A Scarborough spectator on the popular banking can surreptitiously check their change at the bar and criticise a bowling change at the same moment.It while attention was at its height that Gareth Batty added his own personal brand of spice; he should come in a little jar with refills available. Batty is Bradford born, educated at Bingley Grammar, but that is no protection from occasional barracking and every time the crowd did so they sharpened him. They would have been better yawning with a faked lack of interest.Batty is so stingy at giving away the slightest advantage that if he managed one of the amusement arcades on North Bay you would be best advised to visit the one next door where you would lose your money more slowly. His return of 1 for 75 in 30 overs suggest that Yorkshire dealt with him competently enough, but it was a close-run thing.He possessed two warm-up acts in medium-pacers Ryan Patel and Rikki Clarke. Patel appealed for a catch at the wicket when there was daylight between the ball and Tattersall’s outside edge; the crowd’s derision was sparked. Clarke followed up with a series of oohs and aahs against the same batsman as he defended determinedly, the slips taking their cue and hamming it up in turn; the derision level went up a further notch.When the cricket is consequential, Batty comes alive. His face creases with exasperation, making use of every one of his 41 years, he puffs out his cheeks meaningfully in disbelief at a rejected appeal and he considers the minutiae of every delivery as if the world might suddenly end if he moved square leg in the wrong direction. The unsupportive umpire, Ian Blackwell, the same age as Batty, also a former spinner, but a considerably bigger figure than when he retired seven years ago, moved slowly to square leg at the end of the over as if in search of a bit of peace.”Tek ‘im off,” came the cry as the new ball loomed. But Batty wasn’t takken off. He negotiated two more overs and got his wicket, switching around the wicket to have Kohler-Cadmore stumped for 42 as his back foot strayed momentarily, a rapid reaction from Surrey’s stand-in captain and keeper Ben Foakes.The new ball came after 83 overs, at 242 for 5, and Tattersall fell three overs later, his 38 spanning 103 deliveries, as he fenced at Sam Curran and was caught at first slip. Yorkshire looked vulnerable, their lead 216, four wickets standing, but a foray from David Willey – 43 from 35 balls with eight fours against the new ball – swung the match again.Throughout it all, a low murmur could be heard around North Marine Road. The cricket is never incidental at Scarborough, but it is an excuse for conversation, including for some who are not by nature conversational. That conversation would extend into the evening in a town that mixes natural grandeur with the downbeat consequences of human failure, and which often appears to survive hand to mouth, but which for all that with the simple addition of a dual carraigeway the length of the A64 and a faster train route remains a place of huge potential, the prince of England’s seaside towns.

With first-match nerves out of the way, fast bowler is ready to help his side overcome loss to Pakistan

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Jun-2019With first-match nerves out of the way, Mark Wood is ready to play his part in England’s World Cup bounce-back effort starting with Saturday’s match against Bangladesh.Wood does not expect to necessarily keep his place in the team, despite taking two important wickets during England’s 14-run defeat at the hands of Pakistan on Monday. Nor does he think the hosts and tournament favourites will attempt to re-invent the wheel in response to their loss.Wood claimed 2 for 53 – including the wickets of Pakistan’s top scorer, Mohammad Hafeez, for and dangerous batsman Asif Ali for just 14 – in a less-familiar middle-overs role, bowling in tandem with Moeen Ali after Chris Woakes and Jofra Archer had led the pace attack. Woakes shone with three wickets and a staggering four catches, Moeen also claimed three wickets while Archer conceded 79 runs in his wicket-less 10-over spell. That’s not to say Wood escaped any tournament debut jitters, quite the contrary.”I cannot say for the others, but I was nervous,” Wood said. “First World Cup match. I was playing a slightly different role. I wanted to do well.”Liam Plunkett has taken a million wickets in the middle overs and I was thinking the first thing I have to do is get a wicket. And I didn’t get a wicket until the [43rd], and I was thinking, ‘he’s still the main man!’ Yes, I was nervous, but good nerves.”It was nice to have a couple of extra fielders out for a change. I’m used to bowling up top but this was a slightly different role. I felt Mo andmyself did really well as a partnership. He was keeping it tight as well which meant I could attack a little more … so a nice time to come on and show my value in a different role.”Wahab Riaz and Mark Wood pat each other after the game•Getty ImagesEngland will manage their fast bowlers’ workloads carefully, particularly for Wood and Woakes, who have had long-term injury issues, which means none of them are guaranteed a place against Bangladesh.”We’ll pick whichever team best suits the conditions,” Wood said. “I’m pleased personally that it has gone well. But for the next game, Cardiff is aplace with big square boundaries and Liam Plunkett has bowled well there in the past so he would probably come back in. It’s just who foror which bowler might be left out.”Avoiding the cliché of turning a loss into a positive, Wood gave the impression England were following Joe Root’s advice and not hitting the panic button based on one defeat, which ultimately came down to poor fielding.”It’s never nice to lose so, yes, there are lessons learned but we’ve been learning lessons for four years. This isn’t like a thing like we say we need to change the wheel,” Wood said. “We weren’t good enough in one area – the field – and that will be addressed before the next game. But I still think we’re in a pretty good place.”Maybe we will put it down as one of those days when we were beaten by a better team and we need to improve one aspect of our game … we needed 11 Chris Woakeses in every position and we would have been all right. Now we train really hard and do a lot on our fielding.”Whether it was the occasion, there were a lot of Pakistan fans, whether we got wound up by their batters, them smacking it, whether we just got tooheated in the moment, I don’t know. But it was unlike us, normally we are a really good fielding side.”And Wood backed his team to come back stronger against a Bangladesh team buoyed by their opening win against South Africa.”We have a huge target on our back because we are the favourites for the tournament, the home side, everyone wants to beat us,” he said. “Whatwe have done well over the years is bounce back well and I think we need that going into the next match regardless of what it was – Bangladesh, Australia, New Zealand, whoever. We need to bounce back with a bit of authority and say that we’re here to win it and put on a real show.”

Aaron Ramsdale was in attendance at Wembley wearing a hilarious Hagrid costume as he watched Leeds and Southampton in the Championship play-off final.

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Southampton beat Leeds in final Ramsdale in crowd at Wembley Arsenal keeper donned hilarious disguise WHAT HAPPENED?

The Arsenal goalkeeper appeared at Wembley in the funny 'Hagrid costume' as Southampton edged out Leeds United 1-0 to gain promotion to the Premier League, just a season after being relegated to the second tier of English football.

The Gunners star sported the iconic thick beard and the fuzzy wig of the legendary character from Harry Potter as he sat among the fans to watch the game.

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The England international has been linked with a move away from the Emirates Stadium in the summer amid interest from Newcastle United. Since the arrival of David Raya at the club last season, Ramsdale saw his game time drastically reduced, prompting him to leave the club ahead of the 2024/25 campaign.

GettyWHAT NEXT FOR RAMSDALE?

The 26-year-old has been named in Gareth Southgate's preliminary 33-man Three Lions squad for the Euro 2024. He will hope to make the final 26-man team and travel to Germany for the flagship continental competition next month.

All the action and analyses from the England v Bangladesh game

Liam Brickhill08-Jun-2019

Ex-Manchester United striker Louis Saha has slammed Jamie Carragher for suggesting Casemiro should retire or leave the Premier League.

Casemiro faced criticism for form in 2023-24Carragher made scathing remarks about the BrazilianLouis Saha has backed CasemiroWHAT HAPPENED?

The Brazil international has faced a particularly tough time recently, being forced to play out of position as a centre-back instead of his usual holding midfield position due to United's injury problems. Naturally, the 32-year-old has found it challenging to adapt and put in dismal showing during United’s 4-0 thrashing by Crystal Palace. He was partly responsible for three of Palace’s goals and further embarrassed himself by losing possession to Daniel Munoz, leading to Michael Olise's fourth goal.

AdvertisementGettyTHE BIGGER PICTURE

Carragher delivered a scathing assessment of Casemiro on Sky Sports, suggesting the midfielder no longer has the legs to compete in England's top flight and should settle for a less competitive league in the USA or Saudi Arabia – or hang up his boots.

"I think Casemiro should know himself tonight as an experienced player that he should only have three games left at a top level and then say I'm gonna go to the MLS or Saudi," Carragher said. "His agent or the team around him need to tell him. We're watching one of the greats of the modern time…but I always remember something when I retired, a saying I'll always remember: 'Leave the football before the football leaves you'. The football's left him at this top level. He needs to call it a day at this level of football and move."

WHAT LOUIS SAHA SAID

Saha, however, found these remarks to be unfair and expressed his dismay at the severe criticism aimed at Casemiro, highlighting the Real Madrid legend's illustrious career and contributions to the game.

In an interview with Saha said: "Yes I do believe he’s been disrespected. When it comes to Manchester United, you could criticise many of the players and believe from last year, Casemiro has been dragged into a bit of a trap. He scored a lot of goals last season and people probably expected him to do the same this season, but that’s never been his game.

“The criticism has been severe and harsh and then you hear Jamie Carragher almost inviting Casemiro to move to Saudi Arabia or the MLS. That’s crazy. I think it was disrespectful because nobody should advise someone in that way. I know it’s his job, but I don’t believe Jamie should have said that because Casemiro wants to do good and because of everything he’s achieved in the game, he faces more scrutiny than others and people try and bring him down as quick as they possibly can. That’s not fair. Everybody’s going to make mistakes and have bad games, but that doesn’t mean that every little thing needs to be scrutinised. I think the criticism has been very harsh.”

Getty ImagesWHAT NEXT?

Casemiro will be eager to silence his critics by putting his best foot forward against Manchester City in the FA Cup final on May 25. The Red Devils should be geared up for the encounter as a victory in the would ensure Europa League football for them next season.

Manchester United had to delete a recent Mother's Day social media post aimed at Portuguese language fans featuring Bruno Fernandes.

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Man Utd left red facedMother's Day social media post deletedComical mistake spottedWHAT HAPPENED?

With many countries around the world celebrating Mother's Day on Sunday, May 12, United created a special image to share with Portuguese-speaking fans in Brazil. It had also been celebrated a week earlier in Portugal. Casemiro and Antony featured with their mums, while Bruno Fernandes appeared with a woman that was to be his mum. Except that it wasn't.

Advertisement@cristiano InstagramTHE BIGGER PICTURE

The woman in question was actually Dolores Aveiro, otherwise known as the mother of former United star Cristiano Ronaldo. The post with the erroneous image didn't last long before being removed.

DID YOU KNOW?

Dolores Aveiro has become famous in her own right thanks to her son's football career, fronting a number of advertising campaigns in Portugal in recent years. She might actually be the most widely known mum of a footballer there has even been.

GettyWHAT NEXT FOR ?

Spearheaded by Fernandes, United will be hoping to finish 2023-24 on a high after yet more criticism was piled on the team in the wake of last weekend's sorry defeat to Arsenal. Games against Newcastle and Brighton remain in the Premier League, with European qualification still to play for, before facing Manchester City in the FA Cup at Wembley on May 25.

Five delays for rain and bad light cost Leicestershire the chance of a rare Lord’s win

ECB Reporters Network17-May-2019Leicestershire’s hopes of a first County Championship win at Lord’s for 39 years were thwarted by rain as their see-saw clash with Middlesex ended in a draw.The pendulum had appeared to swing back in the visitors’ favour, with Colin Ackermann unbeaten on 70 from 88 balls, and five wickets standing as they chased a victory target of 305. But the overcast conditions, which led to five separate stoppages during the final day, eventually triumphed as the match was abandoned with the Foxes on 226 for 5 – still 79 short.Middlesex, who have yet to record a Championship win this season, dropped three catches, but were still scenting an opportunity after removing the visitors’ top four, all to lbw decisions, with 154 on the board.Leicestershire began the fourth day on 38 without loss, needing another 267, but they had shaved only three more off that target when the darkening St John’s Wood sky brought about the first of the weather delays.With the Lord’s floodlights switched on and the players back on the field, Leicestershire extended their opening stand to 51 before James Harris made the breakthrough, trapping Ateeq Javid in front of his stumps.One other wicket fell during the morning session, with the consistent Ethan Bamber removing Paul Horton – but Middlesex should have claimed at least a third before lunch. Hasan Azad, who made a slow start to his innings, was the fortunate recipient of two reprieves with just seven runs to his name.First, Sam Robson spilled an edge at first slip off the bowling of Harris and, in the next over, when Azad drove Ollie Rayner, Nick Gubbins was unable to pocket the chance at short cover.That double escape appeared to help Azad lift the shackles and he and Mark Cosgrove, with a breezy 22 from 42 balls, guided the Leicestershire total past 100.Rayner removed Cosgrove in the third over after lunch, but Ackermann immediately displayed an attacking intent, using his feet to the off-spinner and climbing into Harris as he struck successive boundaries. The South African dominated a fourth-wicket partnership of exactly 50 with Azad, contributing 34 before Harris registered his second lbw of the innings to dismiss the latter.Harry Dearden, who had shared a century partnership with Ackermann on the second day, survived an early scare when he miscued Rayner to mid-off, but the chance eluded the diving Bamber.Despite a further half-hour’s delay due to rain, the fifth-wicket pair added another 52 before Tom Helm uprooted the off stump of Dearden. Ackermann did his best to maintain the Leicestershire charge in tandem with Lewis Hill, but a further downpour finally put paid to the visitors’ hopes of forcing a victory.

Glenn Maxwell is proud of his team for finding ways in foreign conditions to make it 4-0 against Pakistan, but he wants just a little more from them

Daniel Brettig30-Mar-2019Glenn Maxwell and Australia are targeting a 5-0 sweep of Pakistan to finish their dual tour of India and the UAE, which has delivered the tourists as a group and Maxwell himself an enormous amount of growth.Clearly benefiting from added responsibility as an advisor to the captain Aaron Finch, Maxwell has played a pair of his finest limited-overs innings since the 2015 World Cup to help the Australians seal the Pakistan series and get within one game of 5-0. His role in the team, a subject of considerable debate this summer, appears to have crystallised as a middle-order specialist with the occasional promotion, and peaked with an innings of 98 on Friday night that ensured the team had just enough runs to squeak past Pakistan.”It’s very exciting for us, and that’s all the motivation you need, to have a clean sweep in a foreign country after we haven’t had a lot of success over the last 12 months,” Maxwell said. “It’d be great for this group to win 5-0, I feel like we’ve played some extremely good cricket over here, we’ve adapted brilliantly to different conditions and everyone’s chipped in at different times as well. It’s been a really good team effort the whole time. One more big effort for us over here, then blokes can take their holidays.”Much was made of the fact that Maxwell gave up the chance to score a century by chasing a dicey second run in the final over of the innings, leading to his dismissal for 98, but he had no qualms about giving up a personal milestone for the team. “It would have been nice to get a hundred but I was really happy with the way I played today,” Maxwell said.”To put that partnership on with [Alex] Carey, to get us to a total we thought we could defend – I was really proud of the way I went about it. The hundred doesn’t really matter too much to me. I’m not going to look back on my career when I’m done and think about all the hundreds I’ve missed. I’m going to think about the wins we had.”Finding a way to better contribute to wins has been a theme of Maxwell’s recent months in the team, as he, Finch and coach Justin Langer have worked towards the current formula. Maxwell was happy to admit he had made plenty of errors along the way, but showed in a vital stand with the wicketkeeper Carey that there is growing maturity to his expansive game.”The last two games I’ve come in a bit earlier when we’ve lost a few wickets back to back and there’s been a little bit of pressure on when I’ve gone out. It’s actually been nice to get through that, be able to get myself into my innings and not just go out and play a cameo knock in the last 10 overs.”I was able to get myself in and really assess the conditions. That’s playing to the conditions and playing how you should as a middle-order batter and those sorts of opportunities come up when conditions are tough and the top order’s found it difficult. That’s why they get out and that’s why you go in at those times. For me it’s about getting through those tough times and giving myself that chance to go at the back end.”I’ve made a lot of mistakes as a middle-order batter and not quite made it to the time where I can go. It was nice to be there for the back end and delay the bigger hitting until a little bit later when we felt like we could comfortably get to a total we could defend.”More broadly, the team found a way to outlast Pakistan despite the chasers getting themselves in a position where, needing 49 from seven overs with seven wickets in hand, they really should have won. “It’s one of those games where because we’ve got a bit of winning momentum behind, you find a way to win these. If you look back six to seven months ago, probably even less, we were probably on the other side of it,” Maxwell said.”We were finding ways to lose when we were in winning positions [a few months ago]. It’s a funny thing winning momentum. When you’re winning games, you just find a way to win. That’s the great thing about this group at the moment. We’re finding ways to win in different conditions, different ways.”With that ball getting really wet it was hard for us to control that partnership through the middle and they were batting really well, the wicket was skidding on nicely and we just had to hang in there for a little bit longer. That’s where I’m really proud of this group, we just hung in there and kept the run rate at bay.”