#OnTheUp: Big sixes, bad leaves, and sports that aren't cricket

Two of the most highly anticipated domestic competitions in world cricket returned this week: the Indian Premier League and the County Championship. And, typically, the cricketers are talking about golf and football.

After a professional career spanning more than 20 years, England legend Kevin Pietersen has finally retired from cricket. And while he has plenty of things on his plate to keep him busy – stints as a commentator and his work for Save Our Rhino Africa/India chief among them – he is still finding lots of room for seemingly every cricketer’s favourite past-time: golf. He even managed to tempt two-time World Rugby Player of the Year award winner Beauden Barret into challenging him to a round. There’s been no word yet on when the two will face off, but KP’s response indicates he thinks he’s up to the challenge!

Just as the battle for the Indian Premier League begins to heat up, the tussle for the English (football) Premier League comes to a close, with Manchester City confirmed as champions over the weekend. Former England cricketer Ravi Bopara offered a succinct summary of the performance of City’s rivals 1-0 loss at home against last-placed Burnley which confirmed who would take top spot.

Alex Hales was quick with the reply…

Although to be fair to Bopara, with Essex’s opening game of their County Championship title defence against Yorkshire washed out, there wasn’t much else to do.

Spare a thought for Indian Test cricketer Cheteshwar Pujara, Yorkshire’s overseas player, who seemed so excited about the season getting underway.

One who may have wished his game was washed out is Middlesex’s Robbie White. Making his Championship debut, he opted to leave his very first ball, and was clean bowled by Northamptonshire’s Ben Sanderson. To make matters worse, photographer Kyle Andrews captured the embarrassing moment perfectly.

‘The leave’ is a shot which has almost departed from the competition taking place on the other side of the world, with the IPL having kicked off in its trademark exciting fashion. Notable performances with the bat have come from Sanju Samson, Andre Russell, Jason Roy and MS Dhoni, who almost completed a remarkable comeback for Chennai Super Kings against Kings XI Punjab. Who better to sum it up than the voice of T20 cricket himself, Danny Morrison, with emojis and enthusiasm galore?

Danni Wyatt is one of many cricketers watching the IPL from afar. Her love of Virat Kohli is long established, with the India and Royal Challengers Bangalore captain having given Wyatt a bat when the two met recently.

South Africa and RCB keeper Quinton de Kock’s wife Sasha says she might be able to help, but with a caveat!

And finally, many past and present cricketers have been debating a novel rule change – whether the biggest sixes should be worth more runs! Unsurprisingly, batsmen like Dean Jones have been on one side of the debate, while bowlers have been on the other!