Alastair Cook

A round-up from the first day of the final round of County Championship matches

The England board has announced that 13 players have been awarded central contracts for the next 12 months

Derbyshire and Essex have progressed through to the final of the Twenty20 Floodlit competition.

Matthew Hoggard, England's mediumpacer, has said that he will follow Michael Vaughan's advice not to try to be a strike bowler and will just "concentrate on keeping control of the batsmen"

Glenn McGrath's ritual selection of his opposition targets has begun with him choosing Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss as this summer's bunnies

Alastair Cook and Ian Bell continued their fine form on the second day at Old Trafford to confirm the depth of England's top-order batting

Harmison's remarkable spell of 6 for 19 today, in the second Test against Pakistan at Old Trafford, has not only put England in command but rather suggess their summer has finally begun

Pakistan now has two players in the top five of the Test batting rankings following the drawn first Test against England at Lord's

Andrew Miller's verdict on England's first day at Lord's

On the opening day against Pakistan England benefited from a rash of missed chances as Paul Collingwood and Alastair Cook made Pakistan pay

Alastair Cook and Ian Bell, both of whom were today included in England's squad for the first Test against Pakistan, notched fifties on the final day against the touring Pakistanis at Canterbury as the game petered out into a draw. However, the day wasn't

Andrew McGlashan rates out of ten England's performances against Sri Lanka in the five-match one-day series

Wanting it is one thing, doing it another, assisted by talent, desire and luck. Christopher Lyles explores the different routes to the top

Andrew Miller gives the England and Sri Lanka players marks out of ten following the drawn series

If it looked like a commanding victory by England, it didn't feel like it

Led by a powerful new-ball bursts from Liam Plunkett and Andrew Flintoff, England crushed Sri Lanka's resistance on the fourth day at Edgbaston, completing a six-wicket win to take a 1-0 lead in the series

Marcus Trescothick returned to the England fold as if he had never been away, rattling along to his 14th Test hundred and his second at Lord's

Marcus Trescothick returned to Test cricket with 106 and Alastair Cook struck 89 as England reached a commanding 318 for 3 on the first day against Sri Lanka at Lord's

English cricket, a generation on, is unrecognisable from the short-termist, revolving door mentality that bedevilled teams through the '80s and '90s, says John Stern