Stokes hits out at Manjrekar, Rabada No.1 and more - Cricket News Today, 28th November 2018

Welcome to Sportskeeda's Cricket News Today, a section that covers a summary of the trending news topics of the day in the world of cricket.

The India-Australia Test series is only days away, and the anticipation for the mouth-watering contest is already hotting up. For fans, however, be it a match day or even a non-match day, there are loads to catch up on the cricketing front with updates from around the world.

Here are some of the headlines from the world of cricket:

Stokes hits out at Manjrekar's tweet

Stokes after the third Test

Ben Stokes has had a bumpy ride over the last one year - he's back playing for England, but the shadow of the Bristol assault case is still lurking in the background. He was recently part of England's 3-0 rout of Sri Lanka, and played contributing roles with the bat and ball.

Known to call a spade a spade, Stokes recently responded to ex-India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar tweet, where he likened the England all-rounder's contribution to 'garnishing' in a dish. Manjrekar stated that players like Moeen Ali, Ben Foakes, and Jack Leech were left with being 'poor chefs'.

Ridiculing the analogy, Stokes remarked that it is a team game and the side only cares about winning, not garnering personal credit.

ICC gets a new sponsor for global events

The ICC 2020 T20 World Cup will be held in Australia

Just a few days after rechristening the World T20 as the T20 World Cup, the ICC has made another announcement for its global tournaments. The cricket body has declared 'Bira 91' as the official sponsor of upcoming global titles, including the ICC Cricket World Cup, ICC T20 World Cup, ICC World Test Championship, ICC U19 Cricket World Cup and the ICC Women’s Championship.

The global partnership with the beer brand has been forged until 2023.

Campell Jamieson, ICC General Manager Commercial, was quoted as saying in an ICC release:

“The ICC is delighted that Bira 91 has chosen cricket as its partner to drive its global expansion and help achieve its ambition of becoming the first global consumer brand out of India. We welcome Bira 91 into the world cricketing family, and we look forward to working together for the next five years to deliver a strong partnership at ICC global events.”

Ramesh Powar admits to 'being indifferent' to Mithali

Mithali had declared bias against Powar and Diana Edulji

Former India spinner and current Women's team coach Ramesh Powar has admitted that he had a strained relationship with veteran batswoman Mithali Raj. Calling her 'aloof' and 'difficult to handle', Powar told BCCI that her poor strike-rate was the reason Mithali was dropped for India's semi-final game.

Speaking to PTI, a BCCI official said: “He (Powar) maintained that it was due to poor strike rate that she was dropped against England and also because the team management wanted to maintain a winning combination,” the official said.

Yesterday, an email from Mithali to the BCCI had alleged that Powar had been humiliating her, declaring bias from the Indian coach and CoA member Diana Edulji against her.

Rabada overtakes Anderson in Test rankings

Rabada is back to being the No.1 Test bowler

South African speedster Kagiso Rabada, who is currently representing the Jozi Stars in the Mzansi Super League, has usurped England's James Anderson in the latest ICC Test rankings.

The only change in the top-10 in the batsmen's rankings was the insertion of Australia's Usman Khawaja in the list, ahead of the upcoming series against India.

In the bowler's rankings, apart from Rabada, Pat Cummins and Ravichandran Ashwin also encountered an improvement of one place each. Pakistan spinner Yasir Shah jumped as many as nine places to break into the top-10.