Run properly, losing head of late (8)
I believe the answer is:
recently
'of late' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'run properly losing head' is the wordplay.
'run' becomes 'r' (cricket abbreviation).
'properly' becomes 'decently'.
'losing head' means to remove the first letter.
'decently' with its first letter taken off is 'ecently'.
'r'+'ecently'='RECENTLY'
(Other definitions for recently that I've seen before include "In the near past" , "Lately" , "Not so long since" , "Of late" , "Adverb meaning not long ago" .)