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News desk

News — what happened, what it means for your fantasy team

Discrete developments with source attribution, event time, fantasy consequence and what remains unknown. The news desk publishes within an hour of a verified source and labels every claim as confirmed or reported.

Source attributionFantasy consequenceCorrections logged
A broadcast press box overlooking a cricket ground with reporters at laptops.
Latest

Eight reads from the news desk this week

IPL value climbs to $20.6 billion after latest franchise sales, per Houlihan Lokey report
Team News

IPL value climbs to $20.6 billion after latest franchise sales, per Houlihan Lokey report

Houlihan Lokey's 29 July 2026 valuation puts the IPL at $20.6 billion (up 10.3 percent YoY); RCB at $312 million leads the per-franchise table, with the RCB-RR sales prints at $1.8 billion and $1.65 billion.

 RCB 2026 auction wrap: 25-player squad locked, 16.15 crore spent
Team News

RCB 2026 auction wrap: 25-player squad locked, 16.15 crore spent

The Cricbuzz tracker closes RCB's IPL 2026 squad at 25 (17 Indian, 8 overseas); Iyer 7.00 cr, Yadav 5.20 cr, Duffy 2.00 cr, Cox 75 lakh, four uncapped at 30 lakh each.

 CSK name Ruturaj Gaikwad as confirmed captain; squad rotation still open
Team News

CSK name Ruturaj Gaikwad as confirmed captain; squad rotation still open

The Chennai franchise confirmed Gaikwad will lead through the back half of the schedule, with one spot open in the XI depending on conditions.

 Jasprit Bumrah returns to nets; MI monitoring workload before next fixture
Injury Update

Jasprit Bumrah returns to nets; MI monitoring workload before next fixture

Mumbai's lead quick bowled a full net session Thursday — likely available for selection if the management clears his overs budget.

 GT vs RCB: pace-versus-turn deck could lift three allrounders into captaincy
Predictions

GT vs RCB: pace-versus-turn deck could lift three allrounders into captaincy

With a typically flat Ahmedabad surface and possible dew, the captain pool widens — three names offer better leverage than the obvious pick.

 KKR innings analysis: how the powerplay reading kept them ahead on DLS
Match Report

KKR innings analysis: how the powerplay reading kept them ahead on DLS

Rain cut the game short but Kolkata's aggressive powerplay gave them the cushion they needed on the par table.

 Sai Sudharsan's middle-overs strike rate has crossed 165 for three straight games
Player Form

Sai Sudharsan's middle-overs strike rate has crossed 165 for three straight games

Numbers tell a story the scorecard hides — a phase-by-phase read on why the GT opener is now a default captain pick on flat decks.

 How to verify a fantasy welcome offer before you share documents
Bonus Guide

How to verify a fantasy welcome offer before you share documents

Plain-language checklist: regulator listing, published terms, support responsiveness, and three red flags that mean walk away.

 Shubman Gill reflects on Gujarat Titans' IPL 2026 final loss to Royal Challengers Bengaluru
Match Report

Shubman Gill on Gujarat Titans' IPL 2026 final loss — what the five-wicket defeat tells fantasy teams

Gill's Instagram reflection after RCB's chase at the Narendra Modi Stadium on May 31, anchored on Kohli's 75*, Sundar's 50* and the auction-window read for the next cycle.

Frequently asked

Questions our readers ask

Confirmed developments (XI changes, captain announcements, injuries) appear within an hour of a verified source. Reported developments appear with a confidence tag and a 'what we don't yet know' line. Projections never appear in the news section — they live on the predictions hub.

Press conferences, franchise communications, broadcast reporters, on-the-record interviews and verified reporter networks. We name the source where we can and we name what we don't yet know when we can't.

Yes. Corrections are added to the top of the affected article with a dated note explaining what changed. We do not silently edit copy.

Reporting framework

How a story gets onto this desk and how it leaves

1

Source

Two independent sources, or an official franchise or league communication. Single-source reports appear with the source name and a reported, not yet confirmed tag. Anonymous reports do not appear on this desk.

2

Verification window

We hold any story for up to four hours from the first source before publishing, unless there is a match-day tie-in that makes speed essential. The publish window is logged in the correction note if it changes.

3

Context

Every story names the event time, the source, the consequence for fantasy teams, and what we don't yet know. A story without context and a what we don't know line is not a published story.

4

Editorial ladder

All news copy goes through editor review. We avoid copy that implies certainty, frames a player as set to before XI is confirmed, or uses marketing-style adjectives. Our editor's note is published monthly.

5

Correction log

Corrections are added at the top of the affected article with a dated note. The note explains what changed and why. We do not silently rewrite stories.

Topic categories

Six beats the news desk covers

Team News

Squad selections, captaincy, replacements

Where the desk sits most often. Team-news stories get the longest verification window.

 Player News

Player-specific developments, milestones, retirements

Covered with a source-first approach. We do not publish player-news items without a verified source.

 Injury Updates

Workload, return-to-play, rehab

A precision beat. We name the body part, the rehab phase, and the projected availability window.

 Match Reports

Post-game analysis

Brief, audit-led. Each report links to the captain matrix delta and the role share check.

 Predictions

Pre-toss reads, post-toss updates

The predictions hub links here for confirmed signals. The news desk carries the verified updates.

 Verification

App, offer, document checklists

Where we help readers verify third-party fantasy products. We do not endorse specific apps.
Editorial corrections

Two recent corrections and how we handled them

Correction · Apr 23

Workload figure mis-attributed

Our initial note on Bumrah's workload cited a figure that, on further verification, was reported as expected overs and not actual overs. The article was updated within three hours with a dated correction note at the top. The corrected figure fed the captain matrix update for the next fixture.

What we changed: the workload table now distinguishes expected overs from actual overs, with the source named.

Correction · May 03

Venue split updated after data review

Our Eden Gardens read named a chase-favourable bias. After reviewing the last four matches' dew log, we found that the bias was stronger at the start of the window than at the end. The captain matrix on KKR's home fixtures is now updated to reflect the trend change.

What we changed: the venue split now shows the dew trend across the window rather than a single aggregate number.

Source policy

Where our news comes from and where it doesn't

Sources we use

  • Official franchise communications posted to verified handles
  • League-level bulletins and media releases
  • Broadcast reporters on assignment (named where possible)
  • On-the-record press conferences with names named
  • Verified reporter networks carried with the source named
  • Direct on-the-record interviews

Sources we don't use

  • Anonymous tipsters or unattributed quotes
  • Posts on anonymous social media accounts
  • Speculation based on a player's body language on broadcast
  • "Industry sources" without verification
  • Quoted player rumours from unverified outlets
  • Single-source unverified claims carried without context

Verification window

We hold any story for up to four hours from the first source before publishing, unless there is a match-day tie-in that makes speed essential. The publish window is logged in the correction note if the story changes. We do not publish stories we cannot verify within 24 hours of the original report.

Corrections

Corrections are added at the top of the affected article with a dated note. The note explains what changed and why. We do not silently rewrite stories. We publish the run of corrections monthly in the editor's note.

Editor note

What an editor does on this desk

The editor reads every published story

Every story that ships on this desk is read by an editor before it goes live. The editor checks the source naming, the confirmation tag, the consequence paragraph, and the what we don't know line. Stories that don't meet the desk's editorial standard are sent back for revision; they don't ship.

The editor writes the corrections

When a story needs to be corrected, the editor writes the dated correction note and publishes it on the original story. The note is not a single line — it explains what changed and why. The note is part of the story; it cannot be deleted.

The editor maintains the ledger

The editor maintains the desk's running ledger of corrections, sources, verification windows and audit patterns. The ledger is published monthly in the editor's note. Readers can see the run of corrections and the audit tags on every match.

The editor signs off on captain matrices

The captain matrices are signed off by the editor before they go live on the desk dashboard. The sign-off includes a verification of the inputs (confirmed, reported, projected, editorial lean) and the risk flags that go with the prediction.

The editor writes the monthly note

The editor publishes a monthly note at the start of each month — a short essay on the editorial work from the previous month. Corrections, source patterns, audit trends, captain matrix hits and misses — all on one page. The note is one of the ways we stay honest with you.

The editor answers questions

The editor reads every question submitted to the desk. Most questions become FAQ additions or article edits. The desk's editorial notebook — questions, comments, corrections — is published monthly in the editor's note so readers can see the same work the editor sees.

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