The Buzz: Players say their long goodbyes

Sep 10

See-you-laters have never been harder for cricketers than in pandemic times. With the IPL and the World Cup lined up, it's a long time away from home and family for most players. Tim Southee is counting down the days.

David Warner's feeling it too, but is also a bit relieved he can hand over homeschooling duties.

Yusuf Pathan takes his dad for a ride

Yusuf Pathan's dad looks like every father who's not entirely sure how to feel about the gift his kids have got him.

Sep 9

The quote that kept R Ashwin believing in himself even when he was dropped

R Ashwin hasn't played limited-overs cricket for India in four years, so getting selected to the T20 World Cup squad must have felt particularly satisfying.

Sep 8

Taskin Ahmed's swim team

Taskin Ahmed, Soumya Sarkar, Nurul Hasan, Shakib Al Hasan and Mosaddek Hossain used their downtime between the T20s against New Zealand to do a spot of synchronised swimming. Next stop, the Olympics?

ABD-Steyn's Twitter bantz

One of the best things to come out of the fourth England-India Test is the top bantz between Virat Kohli's BFF AB de Villiers and the bowlers' bowler Dale Steyn.

With friends like these...

Sep 7

Alec Stewart, Surrey's director of cricket, found himself doing a bit of umpiring at the Northants vs Surrey County Championship fixture after umpire Russell Warren felt unwell and had to leave the field.

Then Northants head coach David Ripley took over square-leg duties later for a bit till Martin Saggers could officially take over umpiring duties for Warren. The things you have to be prepared to do these days.

Sep 6

Shreyas Iyer is so over his mates

Shreyas Iyer's fitness work seems to be improving in leaps and bounds...

Royal Challengers Bangalore kicked off their training with a spot of football.

Fatherhood joys

Jos Buttler and his wife Louise had their second child last week.

The birthday insults

Rishabh Pant is a cheeky fella, wishing senior team-mate Mohammed Shami on his 31st birthday with digs about ageing. Shami responded with a dig about how ageing is irreversible but weight gain isn't. Ouch. Cake facials might be less painful.

Meanwhile former India Women's coach WV Raman speaks some untruths.

The wicket celebration inspo

Ah now we get the source of Brett Lee's chainsaw celebrations. Now if only someone can tell us what's behind all the high-jump celebrations we see today.