Cricket

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England's Jimmy Anderson tells Sport why it's time to leave the nice guy at home

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England’s tour of New Zealand starts this week, with three T20 games followed by three ODIs and three Tests. We asked Kiwi legend Sir Richard Hadlee for his thoughts on the New Zealand team.

TWO-TRICK PONIES
“It’s going to be competitive in the T20s and the 50-over games, but clearly in the Test matches our recent record has been very poor, and that doesn’t augur well. New Zealand are the underdogs – they’re under pressure to perform.”

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Sunday February 2
Mumbai
Sky Sports 1 3.30am

If you’re picking this up on Friday morning, England’s women are about halfway through their opening World Cup group match against Sri Lanka in Mumbai – their next game coming against hosts India in the same venue in the early hours of Sunday morning.

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Thursday January 31
Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
Sky Sports 1 9.30am

England’s women are in the subcontinent next week, as favourites to defend the world one-day title they won in Australia four years ago.

Eight teams are split into two groups for the first stage, with England in Group A alongside the hosts India – who open the tournament against the West Indies on Thursday – and Sri Lanka, who are the champions’ first opponents in Mumbai next Saturday (Sky Sports 1, 4am).

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England women’s cricket captain Charlotte Edwards will lead her team as they begin their world cup defence in India next week. she guides us through the tournament, which begins on Thursday…

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Friday 11 January
Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Rajkot
Sky Sports 1 6.30am

Ashley Giles, England’s new limited-overs coach, couldn’t have picked a tougher start to his new role. England have won just one of their past 18 one-day internationals in India – and while the Indian team performed poorly in three recent ODIs against Pakistan (scoring less than 200 twice, while losing the home series 2-1), England have a depleted bowling line-up with which to exploit any weaknesses.

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Friday December 7
Etihad Stadium, Melbourne
Sky Sports 3 8am

We might be getting excited about Test cricket again, but is there now a fan of the sport anywhere who doesn’t secretly love Twenty20 too? This weekend sees the start of the Big Bash competition in Australia, the down under version of the IPL. And the Bash starts with a bang straight away, as the first two fixtures see derby matches in both Melbourne and Sydney.