Bravo to Matthew Hayden for a brilliant innings and a new world Test record of 380. And for grabbing some of the media spotlight away from the Rugby World Cup on its opening night.

There's been a lot of friction in Zimbabwean cricketing circles over "black quotas" in team selection. I believe that an "affirmative action" policy is important for the long-term development of the game in Zimbabwe. It's a pity that the ZCU is not being open and transparent about its motives.

It is clear that there has been a lot of dissatisfaction among some of the country's leading white players in recent years. Murray Goodwin stated it in a rather unsubtle fashion the other day when he said that black players were getting a "free ride" into the team without having to "perform as well as the European guys to get a game". (It looks like he's in trouble with the WACA over those comments, and I wouldn't be surprised if the Sussex CCC, his northern hemisphere employer, has words to him as well.)

Some thoughts about the controversy over the ABC's post-midnight delayed telecast of the netball National League final on Friday (September 12).

It amused me on Thursday night to see Fox Sports News making a point of discussing the ABC coverage for the game. What, precisely, has Fox Sports done in the way of televising local netball in the 2003 season? Zilch. The national netball competition has not been shown on Pay-TV since C7 was alive.

It looks like Shane Warne will be barred from training with the Victorian, Australian (or even St Kilda) teams if his twelve-month ban for drug transgressions is carried out to its fullest. We'll hear more about this. JH was asked for comment by Neil Mitchell on Melbourne's radio 3AW this morning (August 22). Transcript (Source):

We come to expect the ABC sports department to mangle, ignore, or totally re-invent sporting ground titles when there are naming rights sponsorships involved.

But what is behind Channel Nine's renaming of "Bundaberg Rum Stadium", the venue of the Second Test between the Australian cricket team and Bangladesh, to "Bundaberg Stadium"? Especially when "Bundaberg Stadium" is actually in Cairns, 1400 kilometres up the Queensland coast from Bundaberg.

Many cricket followers who are grimacing at the thought of the huge mismatch between Australia and Bangladesh about to get under way in Darwin on Friday morning.

Their promotion to full Test status by the ICC in 2000 looks as dubious as ever, as the visitors have lost eighteen and drawn one out of their first nineteen Test starts, with thirteen of those losses by an innings and plenty. Since arriving in Australia to prepare for the Test and one-day series, they have had two narrow wins and a loss against opposition roughly equivalent to interstate second eleven level.

John Howard made a bad choice when he picked Archbishop Peter Hollingworth in 2001 as Governor-General. His second attempt, Major-General (retired) Michael Jeffrey, is not so much the wrong choice as culturally the wrong direction.

Imagine purchasing a nice new copy of the Bible, and flicking through in search of the Ten Commandments only to find that they had been removed "for space reasons". Such is the problem with the 2003 edition of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.

Known widely as "the bible of cricket", the annual - now into its 140th consecutive year of publication - is regarded as the most comprehensive reference work on the game. Yet the 2003 edition, a record 1760 pages in size, has no room for one its most fundamental and valuable resources.

The streak is over. Australia's run of twenty-one successive one-day wins has been cut down by the West Indies in Trinidad this morning. Which is a good moment to spare a thought for the New Zealand cricket team.

The Kiwis defeated Pakistan in the Sri Lankan town of Dambulla on Friday to win the Bank Alfalah Cup. This would be a totally forgettable event if it were not for the fact that this was the second time New Zealand had won a one-day cricket tournament. That's the second time ever. In three decades of trying. Onya Kiwis.

Sitting on my desk at this minute is the 1970-71 edition of the New South Wales Cricket Association yearbook. The cover design features a bright orange background with the text "Cricket Year Book. 34th Edition. NSW Cricket Association. $1.40" on it, and a black-and-white action photo of Kerry O'Keeffe bowling a leg-break. By today's standards it looks drab and tacky.