The crowning achievement of self-styled sports fanatic and Australian Prime Minister John Howard in 2003 came at the final of the Rugby World Cup in November. After the Wallabies lost an exhilarating game on an extra-time field goal, JH looked like he was going to burst into tears as he handed out the winners' medals to a seemingly endless line of England players and staff.
Adelaide has seen some remarkable finishes to Australia-India Test matches, but this year's was a beauty. It's not often a team can give away 556 runs in the first innings of the match and come back to win. Congratulations Saurav and the gang.
The honours finished fairly even in the Brisbane Test between Australia and India. If anything, Australia had slightly the upper hand.. but much less so than most people were predicting.
Just to be certain, Steve Waugh made sure he had the final word by setting India an impossible target with an hour to play, and unsettling them by taking two quick wickets. A last-minute sledge (sorry, mental disintegration) before Adelaide?
Dumped, not just as captain but as a player, after Pakistan's first-round exit from the World Cup. One of the world's finest fast bowlers of the last fifteen years, Waqar Younis has come to Sydney to ply his wares over the 2003-04 summer.
There is no more important international crisis in the world today than the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Forty million people are infected with the virus, including five million new cases in the past year. Three million people have died in the last twelve months.
The Sydney Test of January 1984 was a special event, as announcements came through during the match that both Greg Chappell and Dennis Lillee were to play their last Test for Australia. Although the match itself was nothing spectacular - Australia beat Pakistan by ten wickets - there was plenty of emotion as Chappell ended his career with a big century and Lillee ended his with a five-fer. Twenty years later, the Sydney Test of January 2004 will be no less special.
On the eve of the Rugby World Cup semi-final between Australia and New Zealand, it's worth looking another rivalry between the two countries that wasn't quite as intense as it should be.
Australia and New Zealand have completed their three meetings in the current, and protracted, ODI tri-series with India. Australia has swept the series-within-a-series 3-0. In the unlikely event that New Zealand can roll India in the final league match at Hyderabad on Saturday, Australia will get a fourth crack at them in the final at Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Tuesday night.
Probably the most prestigious literary awards for sports non-fiction is the William Hill Sportsbook of the Year award. One cricket book, "Bodyline Autopsy" by David Frith, appears among the six shortlisted for the 2003 Prize, with the winner to be announced on November 24.
Frith's book is up against no less than four books about soccer ("Broken Dreams" by Tom Bower, "Ajax: The Dutch, The War" by Simon Kuper, "Foul Play" by David Thomas, and "Bob Wilson: My Autobiography"), and one about golf ("In Search of Tiger" by Tom Callahan).
