Back on May 21, 1997, I was logged into that great 20th century social medium, IRC, when Saeed Anwar smashed 194 against India to break Viv Richards' thirteen year-old record for the highest score in a One-Day International. The big question that was being asked by the Indian fans, who made up the vast majority of IRC participants following the game that night: How soon until Sachin Tendulkar claimed the world record and became the first to break the 200 barrier?

There is much I dislike about IPL Commissioner Lalit Kumar Modi, but one cannot doubt his eagerness to connect with his public via his chosen medium of Twitter. I personally appreciate the fact that he took the time to engage in conversation with me on Twitter last October over an op-ed piece of his that was published in the Times of India.

It's Winter Olympics time again. The Vancouver games are with us. And I care for no reason other than to follow the curling. And, by extension, to take part in that rarest of my indulgences - namely, to cheer for a British national team.

For an explanation of the sport of curling, look no further than this video from Current TV, shot on location at that Home of Winter Sports, San Jose, California:

Afghanistan defeated Ireland at the Dubai International Sports Centre on Saturday night to win the final of the 2010 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifying Series. Both have earned a place in the ICC World Twenty20 in the West Indies in a couple of months time, but it's the Afghan rise to the big time that has gathered all the attention.

"QUESTION: ... This is about sports. Afghanistan cricket team defeated American U.S. cricket team in Dubai in the Twenty/20 match. Cricket is not very popular here, but it is very popular in Afghanistan. Any comments on that? People are very happy in Afghanistan about this, defeating a U.S. team in cricket.

MR. CROWLEY: Well, I am not familiar with the result. But certainly we always are good sports, and congratulate the victors."

(This article also appears at The Roar)

One-day cricket has been with us ever since the sun began setting in the evening and players couldn't be bothered coming back the next day to finish the game off.

Chris Monckton is to environmental science what Andre Rieu is to classical music. Both play to packed houses of elderly fans around Australia, both give the genre a bad name. Actually, the comparison is a little unkind to Monsieur Rieu. While Belford Parrott is besotted with both, Viscount Monckton goes well beyond bad into the realm of crackpot.

For a variety of reasons I didn't do a normal cricket blog after Boxing Day 2009. I continued to pass comment on Twitter over the past month, however, and over the past few days I have been summarising, with annotations, my cricket-related tweets between December 27 and the present. Some tweets have been omitted for reasons of clarity or sanity, none have been internally edited.

January 15, 2010:

Pakistani #cricket is going nowhere until the pollies butt out. RT @Cricket365 Pakistan parliament want Alam fired http://bit.ly/81gjw8 10:51 AM Jan 15th

#cricket Congrats to the Northern Territory who won their first Australian Country title yesterday http://tinyurl.com/ybfnfrq 11:04 AM Jan 15th

Part Three of a Twitter-enabled summary of my observations of the cricketing world since Boxing Day 2009. (See also Part One and Part Two.)

January 10, 2010:

Never thought I'd say this, but I miss the #cricket one-day tri-series. 2:56 PM Jan 10th

Dangerous thoughts on a bored Sunday afternoon between Tests with the only televised cricket reserved to an evening hit-and-giggle on pay TV.