This week the cricketing world woke up to the shocking news of the sudden passing of Andrew Symonds, just months after that of his former team-mate Shane Warne. Even as the world mourned, cricket went on. With playoffs looming, records tumbled in a Lucknow Super Giants vs Kolkata Knight Riders thriller, which produced the highest unbroken opening stand in IPL history. All this and more in this week's round-up.
Andrew Symonds dies in car accident aged 46
The former Australia allrounder was killed in a fatal accident in his home town in Northern Queensland. The cricketing fraternity reacted with shock and grief to the news of his passing, with friends and former team-mates remembering a generous, loyal, brilliant cricketer. Jarrod Kimber remembers Symonds as a player who was ahead of his time. If they had had T20 in 1998 and not 2008, what on earth could he have done?
Niroshan Dickwella, Dinesh Chandimal dig deep to help Sri Lanka draw opening Test
The pair added 99 off 203 balls in an unbroken stand after the visitors were reduced to 161 for 6. Mushfiqur Rahim, who made a hundred in the first innings and became the first Bangladesh batter to 5000 Test runs, celebrated his "healthy competition" with Tamim Iqbal and urged younger players to raise the bar.
Tom Harrison steps down as ECB chief executive
The last (seemingly) of England's heads has rolled with Harrison stepping down from the position he occupied for more than seven years. Andrew Miller says while he faced many challenges in his tenure, he leaves English cricket currently unfit for purpose.
Matthew Mott has been appointed England's white-ball coach
Matt Roller reckons Mott will bring the same moxie to the role that he did for seven record-breaking years with the Australia women's side. Mark Nicholas likes the look of the three good men England cricket have appointed so far in captain Ben Stokes, red-ball coach Brendon McCullum and director Rob Key, but says they now need to team them with a CEO and chair who understand the soul of the game and can unite its disparate forces. In this month's Light Roller, Alan Gardner sees the England squad becoming the team they have always aspired to be - New Zealand.
In case you forgot: Bhuvneshwar Kumar is still one of the sharpest, most skilful bowlers in T20
Jarrod Kimber says Bhuvneshwar is a master of his craft, and has the superpower of being able to swing the new ball both ways at will
India's 36 all out, and other dramatic finishes to Tests
Anantha Narayanan looks at matches that turned on their heads on the last day to produce a result.
How many people have captained, kept wicket and opened the batting in the same Test?
Also: where does Jasprit Bumrah's five-for stand among the best bowling performances in the IPL? You asked and Steven Lynch answered in this week's Ask Steven.