The inaugural T20 match between West Indies and England on 12 December will be the testing ground. On that day, a new clock will be put to the test thanks to the approval of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in its effort to accelerate the pace of this sport and make it more appealing.

India have beaten hosts England by four runs to qualify for the women's T20 final here after a semi-final in which the momentum swung one way and the other to the delight of a capacity crowd at Edgbaston.

Rob Key has begun his first week as England men's cricket managing director, with the task of finding a new Test match captain set to be one of his first tasks.

England have kept their hopes of qualifying for the Women’s Cricket World Cup semi-finals alive after beating the hosts New Zealand in dramatic fashion at Eden Park in Auckland.

This weekend is one of the most celebrated in the English football calendar, with the third-round stage of the FA Cup seeing the introduction of teams from the top two divisions against hopefuls from the lower tiers of the pyramid.

I have written before on my concerns over the future of long-form sport. Yet if any event demonstrated why it is not just worth saving, but worth its weight in gold, it was last week's third Ashes cricket Test Match between England and Australia at Leeds.

On Thursday – a reassuringly traditional day, given the pace of change in cricket in recent times – the Ashes, the men’s Ashes I suppose I should say, get under way in Brisbane.

During the midst of a fairly standard Bank Holiday Weekend at insidethegames, headlined by the relative normality of several more sports announcing their withdrawal from SportAccord, our office was enlivened - or some would say dampened - by my decision to change from our normal musically-themed radio station of choice to the ball-by-ball coverage of an absorbing cricket Test Match between England and New Zealand.