I appreciate all the responses so far but I feel the need to make some clarifications on the brief to save both your time and mine. 1. Understanding of sports (especially cricket) is essential. 2. I am not a furry. This commission is neither furry related or furry adjacent. Thanks.

The one singular advantage of cricket at the Olympics is we'll finally get to see T20 cricket played without adverts. We'll also see how much quicker and enjoyable it will be as a viewing experience as the sport becomes the focus and not the bloat that now comes with it.

Bluesky folk! I'm looking for an artist to commission a new Cricket Osprey avatar for here, Substack and elsewhere. Does anyone have any recommendations? My budget is not huge but I will pay for quality.

Incredible efforts from Glasgow Mugafians/Cosmic to grow cricket in Scotland. 10 players signed, only two play for Scotland, and only one of them plays for a Glasgow club. Two players are aged >30. Four are aged 35+. This is a league happening to Scottish cricket rather than for it's benefit.

Well, this is excellent. www.lords.org/mcc/the-club...

Only the CPL could have an entire development competition with 90 players, specifically to find young talent, and a year later be filling their rosters with debutant players aged 27+. Debutant players aged 27+ who were also not considered good enough to play in said development competition.

The Cricket Scotland 2024-26 Rain World Tour. Bringing downpours to a city near you!

Excellent news to see the Barbados Tridents are back and with their blue kit too. The whole switch to Royals in the same year Barbados became a republic was a spectacular failure to read the room. It's taken way to long to correct it but now it has.

England and the ECB continue to do their absolute upmost to avoid playing Scotland (or any European team) in a bilateral series. www.espncricinfo.com/story/ecb-we...

Cricket's relationship with other sports and new fans (especially similar ones like baseball) is combative - not welcoming. For example, the approach to marketing cricket in the USA is 'Hey! This sport is better than baseball!' rather than 'Hey! You like baseball, you'll love this sport too!'

8 days later and the Glasgow Mugafians have changed their name to Glasgow Cosmic because the original name went down like a lead balloon. Who could have predicted that?

Glasgow... Mugafians... Absolute shocker of a name there from a league that's happening to Scottish cricket rather than for the benefit of it.

The UAE have spent over 40 years investing in cricket. They have the world class facilities, grounds, coaching and access to IPL franchise money yet still haven't produced a single top international player in all that time. Let the tiefing from other countries continue!

A potential return of Canada to CWI domestic competitions for the first time since 2019 is a positive. However, given how mired in scandal both Cricket Canada and the NCL are right now, should CWI be building closer relationships with them?

Jasprit Bumrah going wicketless at 8.20 runs an over and still being the IPL's 12th most economical bowler speaks volumes about the imbalance there is between bat and ball this year.

Like the Euro Cup, cricket is slowly returning to the pre-2015 system of ICC-led regional events axed during the Big 3 takeover. This time for Africa, instead of 20 men's teams in 3 divisions plus a women's event - we only have 6 men's teams. Progress yes, but still a worse deal than pre-2015.

I've seen some hot takes on the potential return of the Euro Cricket Cup, but this the most odd. It's very much a 'go in there and make it all about you' approach.

Cricket Scotland's ability to bring rain to any part of the world needs to be studied. Scotland have had five games (20%) of their WCL campaign rained off so far. Only one of those games has been at home.

UPDATE: Last time each ICC full member played a men's bilateral game against an associate side: Afghanistan – 2026 Ireland – 2026 Bangladesh - 2025 South Africa – 2025 West Indies – 2025 Zimbabwe – 2025 Australia – 2024 New Zealand – 2023 Sri Lanka - 2022 England – 2018 Pakistan – 2018 India – 2007

Finally, some home women's fixtures for Scotland as they host a pre-World Cup T20 tri-series against Bangladesh and the Netherlands. www.cricketscotland.com/Article/56f4...

Even the IPL cannot escape cricket's global stagnation as a sport. pbs.twimg.com/media/HEtvUE...

Exactly this. However the ICC made such a hash of it, the USA parts of it lost money.

In West Indies women's most recent domestic season, 57 players got 96% of the runs and wickets. Given CWI's current financial hardship, should they stick with 90 women's domestic contracts and 6 teams when a third of the players are barely having an impact? I wrote some thoughts about it for CCN.

PSL 2026 Player Age Curve (% proportional change on 2025 in brackets) 47/164 <24 (+4.7%) 47/164 24-29 (-0.6%) 48/164 30-34 (-3.3%) 22/164 35+ (-0.8%) Counter to most franchise leagues, the PSL's expansion has been positive for younger players. Will they get the playing opportunities though?

NEW ARTICLE ✍️ @cricketosprey.bsky.social takes a look at the key reasons why the West Indies Women's senior side has fallen behind in the Women's game caribbeancricketnews.counterpress.media/opinion/west...

Cricket West Indies published its audited financial statements for FY 2025 yesterday. It's a bloodbath: a $28m loss with an expected $26m loss for FY 2026 before bouncing back positive in FY 2027. All the cash reserves from the T20 World Cup are gone.

Surprised there was no analysis of the WCPL. If they were ranking the CPL it wasn't all that much extra work to cover.

The debate around ODI viability is a case of 'full member problems'. For associates, the WCL and Challenge League are the only guaranteed fixtures they get every year. T20 qualifiers are alternate years and the Olympics mean little as they will only ever play in them is if they're hosting the Games.

FINALLY! WE ARE GETTING A FOURTH WCPL TEAM!

Nepal boosterism continues. Meanwhile, saying there's a 'lack of buzz' for the WC in AUS, NZ and the Caribbean is quite something. Most of their games were played during their night time, behind a paywall and two of those markets are tiny. The ICC were never going to get big numbers in those places!

Cricinfo, in the middle of this World Cup match between India and West Indies, posted a link to an article about the Indian women's soccer team in the live commentary feed.

This is the issue with pre-seeding tournaments, prioritising revenue over competition and having conditional semi-final locations because of politics - you create peverse incentives. Financially for Sri Lanka Cricket (and their government) it's better to lose this match than it is to win it.

Stafanie Taylor now the second highest WODI scorer of all time. Undoubtedly, she is one of the greatest female players of all time - though because of her injuries most folk are unware of her records/achievements in the game.

West Indies women vas Sri Lankan women match delayed due to large centipede on the pitch. That's a new one.

Great to see Zimbabwe women play more matches. It is also a shame the same opportunities have not been afforded to other women's international teams - many of which are an equal or better standard.

Forget Pakistan vs India and England vs Australia, the now annual Scotland vs West Indies match is the real biggest competitive rivalry in world cricket. The ICC think so too, that's why they have given us a second game between the two sides this year.

The best thing about watching the last two weeks of Winter Olympics coverage was the lack of gambling adverts.

Stafanie Taylor is largely overlooked by current cricket media as the upsurge in interest in women's cricket globally has coincided with her battles with injury. But make no mistake, she is one of the greatest women's players of all time. She showed a glimpse of what she can do yesterday.

West Indies vs Italy is a bizarre scheduling choice in a World Cup full of odd scheduling choices. In the Caribbean the game starts at 0030 or 0130, in Italy it starts at 0630. This is meant to be the ICC event that drives growth in the global game. How does this attract casual fans to the sport?

An essential article on the issue of illegal betting in cricket.

A solid all-round performance from the Scots against the Italians in the cricket today. Nothing much to add really.

Given the lack of preparation, it is not surprising Scotland lost to West Indies though it was a better performance than you could expect in the circumstances. West Indies have won the battle for now, but there are tougher tests ahead. They made a comfortable victory into a hard fought one.

According to Sky Sports, Scotland currently has 68.75% of the world's population living there.

It's been a while since I've been able to write/publish an article but I couldn't say no to writing one on Scotland's T20 World Cup prospects for Caribbean Cricket News.

ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 Player Age Curve (% change on 2024 in brackets) 46/300 - <24 - 15.33% (1.33%) 111/300 - 24-29 - 37.00% (+2.66%) 103/300 - 30-34 - 34.33% (-2.00%) 40/300 - 35+ - 13.33% (+0.66%) 1/

The ICC seems surprised at the group draw of India, Pakistan and the USA in their own tournament. Also good luck finding any mention of Namibia or the Netherlands here. At least put a minimal effort into the pushing all the teams at the event. Cricket is meant to be a global game - so we are told.

Someone needs to remind the local commentators for Afghanistan vs Scotland feed that this is a warm-up game featuring a team which hasn't played in five months. They are shouting down the microphone and treating it as if it is the world cup final. There's nothing at stake here folks, calm doon!

A bit too late for the Scotland men's team, but Cricket Scotland are again running a competition to design the team's world cup kit. This time for the women's squad. www.cricketscotland.com/DesignTheShirt

Listen carefully and you can hear the sound of India's 2036 Olympic bid going up in flames.