It's January 26 today, and to all my Indian friends I wish a happy Republic Day. It is also Australia Day here. Maybe we, too, in Australia will one day have a Republic Day to celebrate...

It is 220 years since Captain Arthur Phillip took his fleet of eleven Royal Navy ships into a harbour, set anchor and claimed the land in the name of King George III, despite the fact that there had been no attempt to consult with, or compensate, the existing owners of the land, the Cadigal people of the Eora nation.

It was during the one-day tri-series of 1981-82. Australia versus Pakistan, from memory I think it was the Adelaide Oval game. Javed Miandad, a few weeks after his legendary contretemps with Dennis Lillee, was in hot water for apparently being overhead shouting the F-word to Greg Chappell as the Australian captain was leaving the field after being dismissed.

In the days well before codes of conduct and match referees, Javed explained that he was actually greeting the successful wicket-taker, off-spinning all-rounder Ijaz Faqih.

Javed's words to Ijaz in Urdu translate into English as, "Faqih, you got him third ball!"

Brad Hogg has been charged with "making an offensive remark" to Anil Kumble and MS Dhoni during India's second innings of the Sydney Test on Sunday. The ICC announced the charge, laid by Indian manager Chetan Chauhan, on Tuesday. Match referee Mike Procter will hear the charge next Monday. Hogg has been charged with a Level 3 offence under paragraph 3.3 of the ICC Code of Conduct - the same category of offence for which Harbhajan Singh has been found guilty, and is currently appealing.

Paragtaph 3.3 reads as follows:

"3.3 Using language or gestures that offends, insults, humiliates, intimidates, threatens, disparages or vilifies another person on the basis of that person’s race, religion, gender, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin."

...the team bus sideswipes a parked car as it was leaving the hotel. It happened to the Indian team as they left Sydney for Canberra, 48 hours behind schedule, this morning.

Macquarie National News has video. You don't actually see the prang, just the sound of a bang and the crowd going "ooh" as the bus pulled out of the kerb outside the Radisson Hotel, Sydney.

Ah, it must be tough being a tabloid reporter in the silly season.

My best wishes to the Urbans on their future bundle of joy. Meanwhile, I feel a deep sorrow for Steve Bucknor. He's done nothing more heinous than have an off day (well, an off five days in fact).

There's so many strands to follow at the moment. Let's start with the central issue.

Harbhajan Singh has been found guilty by ICC match referee Mike Procter of a Level 3 breach of the Code of Conduct that relates to comments vilifying players on the basis of, among other options, race, ethnicity or colour. The full ICC press release concerning the hearing can be read here.

Harbhajan is alleged to have used the word "monkey" to Andrew Symonds - though I notice that there seems to be no finding explicitly stating that he actually called Symonds a "monkey".

There appear to have been five witnesses giving evidence at Sunday night's hearing in addition to the two protagonists. Sachin Tendulkar, who was Bhajju's batting partner at the time, and four Australian fielders: Ponting, Hayden, Gilchrist and Michael Clarke. Neither umpire witnessed the alleged remark.

Today, 8 January 2008, is the centenary of Australia's first rugby league club, Newtown RLFC.

Known for many years as the Bluebags, Newtown was given the nickname the Jets by then-coach Jack Gibson as an act of American cultural cringe. Alas, the name has stuck.

Absurdity follows absurdity in the latest contretemps that positions world cricket somewhere on the spectrum between WWE wrestling and the personal life of Britney Spears. Frankly, it has elements of both. There's the hyped-up petulance and faux conflict of the prima donnas dressed up as professional sportsmen.

A bit of preamble before I write my thoughts about the off-field events of the past 24 hours.

I have seen very little of the Sydney Test, won by Australia late yesterday afternoon. I was on holidays with my daughter for most of the week and listened to the second half of Sunday's play on the radio at home. (If I really wanted to, I could probably have made the dash across to the ground when they threw the gates open for free at 4.30pm.)

My hosting provider has upgraded my site to PHP 5, now that PHP 4 has become an unsupported product. I'm taking advantage of the occasion to upgrade Drupal on this blog to version 5.5.

Consequently, things may look a little odd (or not even work at all) for the next day or two till I have finished the rebuild.

And then, lots to say about the Over-the-top hoo-haa over the Sydney Test.