For Rutherford a spell in the Welsh leagues followed but time is now spent split between some coaching, taxi-ing two of his boys to football training and working in a showroom of a hardware store.

All a world away from the millions on the line for the internationals in Parkinson’s squad aiming for the Premier League, one that has been rebuilt season on season with £30m-plus spent last summer alone.

“But even though it’s very different, it’s also the same club,” he says, his middle son part of the club’s academy.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to go back now and then and you see some of the same faces, good people, people who gave up their time for free to keep the club afloat.

“It’s a global brand but the football club is still at the heart of it. It’s kept its soul.”

Rutherford is well-qualified to judge. Although the co-owners never reached out after his release, he was invited to sample the US adulation for his old club as part of an invitational Wrexham side in a tournament in North Carolina alongside the likes of Mark Howard, Lee Trundle and Andy Morrell.

“Honestly, it’s hard to put it into words how big it’s become unless you see it,” he says of Wrexham’s new fanbase. “It was just after the club got into League Two, and I actually said when I was out there that they would be in the Premier League in 11 years.

“I don’t know why I didn’t say 10, but I thought they would land in League One for a few years and then take five or six years to get out of the Championship.

“To think they could do it in four is just phenomenal. I don’t want to say it would be a Hollywood story, it’ll be more like something out of Football Manager.”

Either way, there is a final day to script, with Rutherford a reminder that not every ending is a happy one.

“It’s bittersweet that we couldn’t get that promotion to the league and what happened, but I can look back now and say I was one of those who played a small part in the story and be proud of that,” he says.

“It was difficult at the time but hindsight gives you that context and I hope people keep that context if it doesn’t happen this time.

“It would only be a tiny applying of the brakes on an unbelievable journey – they’re still on their way.”

Eight matches, 180 balls, 2 wickets, strike rate 90 – that’s Jasprit Bumrah‘s numbers in IPL 2026 so far. By the lofty standards that Bumrah has set for himself over the years, this season has been a big struggle. Mumbai Indians’ consistent performances have almost always aligned with Bumrah’s precision bowling. This time, however, both have had to endure difficulties. This is the first time since 2015 that Bumrah’s economy rate has gone above eight runs per over. It currently stands at 8.80. While many bowlers would happily take that number, for a bowling great like Bumrah, the slide may not be to his liking. More importantly, Bumrah’s lack of wickets is hurting MI.

Mumbai Indians batting coach Kieron Pollard admitted that Bumrah “hasn’t been up to the mark” in the post-match press conference after MI’s latest loss against SRH.

“When a cricketer is not doing well, we look at every single aspect as to why he’s not doing well. And there’s no difference when it comes to Jasprit Bumrah. He has done this for years. And as a human being, he is entitled as well to make mistakes, not have a good day, not have a good season, or not have a good couple of months. And I just feel that we need to sometimes remember the good things that he has done. Yes, we try to live in the present, and he hasn’t been up to the mark, but he’s still been a number one bowler for Mumbai Indians and India over a period of time,” Pollard said in the press conference after the loss to SRH.

Pollard was also extremely candid about his side’s inability to put together a “complete game of cricket” so far. But the MI batting coach pointed out that the dressing room is willing to put up a fight and has not yet accepted defeat, despite losing six of their eight games. With six more games to go, MI still have the opportunity to reach a maximum of 16 points if they go on a winning streak from their next game.

“It has not been as consistent as we would have hoped. The results are showing. It is something you cannot shy away from. Collectively, we have not been good enough. We just need to be collectively better as a unit. That is as much as you can ask. You can ask them to execute better in different areas of the game,” he said.

“But we need to play that complete game of cricket to win a match. It is getting difficult with the way cricket is going, but what I can safely say is that in the dressing room, the guys are wanting to fight.

“We have lost games, but we have not accepted defeat. When I said defeat, I didn’t want the headlines to suggest that Mumbai Indians have been eliminated, because mathematically and from a points perspective, we are still very much in the tournament. Yes, we have accepted losses because we lost the last couple of games, but we have not accepted defeat because we are not out of the tournament. We are still looking to go back and see what we can do and how far we can go in this tournament,” he concluded

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NEW CHANDIGARH: Shubham Dubey has spent most of his cricketing life waiting. Waiting for recognition, for opportunity, for a moment that would demand everything he has quietly built over the years. On Tuesday night, as Rajasthan Royals were drifting towards defeat against an unbeaten Punjab Kings side here, that moment finally arrived. Dubey seized it with both hands.Walking in as an ‘impact substitute’ at No. 6, ahead of established names like Ravindra Jadeja and Dasun Shanaka, the 31-year-old Dubey was handed a situation that could easily have swallowed him.Rajasthan Royals still needed 72 off 36 balls, the chase slipping and the pressure mounting. But Dubey didn’t just hold his nerve. He flipped the game on its head.Dubey finished unbeaten on 31 off just 12 balls, striking at 258.33, and added 77 in just 32 balls with Donovan Ferreira to script a six-wicket win. What had looked like a faltering chase turned into a statement win, ending Punjab’s unbeaten run.