It's probably the dream match-up. India have qualified for their first-ever Women's Cricket World Cup Final, and they'll be playing Australia on Sunday. A chance for revenge for the men's World Cup Final of 2003 perhaps? I'll be busy following the final on Cricketwoman this Sunday, please drop in and join us there.
It always irks me to hear talk of the December 26 calamity as the "Asian Tsunami". Somalia was affected badly too. This report from IRIN (originally at http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46502):
SOMALIA: War and tsunami force Somalis into slums
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
New South Wales' mighty victory in the 2005 Pura Cup final represents one of the great comebacks of shield cricket.
They were gone for all money against Tasmania a few weeks ago before Stuey MacGill ripped through the Tigers' batting. That kept them alive in the finals race. Last week they knocked off Victoria and Queensland beat WA, boosting NSW from third place to second.
On Sunday, the Queensland hoodoo continued. They have never beaten New South Wales in a shield final. This time, the Blues won at the Gabba by one wicket with two days to spare.
I'm a bit quiet on this blog at the moment. You knew that. I'll be pre-occupied with coverage of the 2005 Women's Cricket World Cup on Cricketwoman for a while.
This is a great challenge, as the media coverage is shaping up yet again as being appalling. This is a case of Stop complaining about the media. Be the media.
Sad news of the passing of Dave Allen in England on Thursday at the age of 68. For many years through the 1970s, Friday nights at our place was defined by watching either The Two Ronnies or Dave Allen At Large on the ABC.
Dave Allen was a wonderful, laconic, Irish stand-up comic, except that he did all his TV shows sitting on a stool, and generally drawing on a fag at the same time (that's in the toxicity sense, not the Public School sense). For more than one reason, his show would never cut it in prime-time TV these days.
After the outstanding success at staging the first ICC v ACC tsunami relief match at very short notice in Melbourne in January, I was disappointed to read of the cancellation of the return game, originally planned for February 13, then pushed out to April. However the reason given by [insert the cap he's wearing today] Jagmohan Dalmiya on Sunday is totally pitiful.
With no announcement yet on the websites of either the ICC or the ACC, this is the Press Trust of India's report on Sunday's proclamation by JD:
Yes it's that time of year again, the Why-it-looks-like-my-uncle-O***r (Not TM) Awards are being handed out in Los Angeles. And, for the first time in four years, not a hobbit in sight.
Having seen barely any 2004 releases yet, here are my predictions for the major WILLMUOs:
Best Film: Million Dollar Baby
Best Actor: Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles
Best Actress: Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake)
Best Supporting Actor: Morgan Freeman (Million Dollar Baby)
I was pleased to see that the majority of Australia's national league netballers have affiliated with the Australian Workers Union. The AWU website has more news of the alliance with the ANPA.
Firefox 1.0.1, the latest version of my browser of choice, has been released. The 4.7 meg setup file for Windows can be downloaded from Mozilla.org. See the Mozillazine announcement.
If you are using Firefox 1.0 or an earlier version, upgrade now. If you are still using that internet "explorer" from the House of Gates (ie, IE), then there is no better time to convert than today!