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.
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.
The Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI), which governs the men's game in the world's most populous cricketing nation, has rejected an application from the women's governing body for an amalgamation.
A brief announcement of the rejection of the request by the Women's Cricket Association of India (WCAI) was made at the conclusion of the BCCI's AGM, which was conducted at Eden Gardens, Calcutta on September 27-29.
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).
Adam Gilchrist was playing populist for the media on Saturday when he aired his thoughts of having a one-day game between Australia and India held every January 26 for the "Waugh-Tendulkar Trophy".
With January 26 being both Australia Day and India's Republic Day, Gilly has claimed the bright idea of staging a game on that day to determine the limited-over supremacy between the two countries.
A bit more about the sudden name change for Australia's first-class cricket competition from Sheffield Shield to Pura Milk Cup in November 1999.
(For a bit of background, see the article I wrote at the time for CricInfo.)
Agence France-Presse have dropped an incredible clanger in a item which has appeared in many news services around the world in the past 24 hours, incorrectly attributing Steve Waugh with comments made by Murray Goodwin last week.
As I've previously discussed on the forum, former Zimbabwean Test batsman Goodwin made some fairly outspoken comments about that country's selection policies when talking to reporters in Perth on October 6, comments which have since seen him charged with an alleged breach of Cricket Australia's code of player conduct.
The ups and downs of Kenyan cricket continue. After their amazing - if somewhat lucky - appearance in the semi-finals of the ICC World Cup earlier this year, Kenya has failed to qualify for the Under-19 world championships to be held in Bangladesh next February.
The only one of the eleven full One-Day International countries needing to go through the qualifying rounds for the Youth World Cup (by virtue of not having Test status), Kenya had merely to finish in the top two of the combined Africa-East Asia Pacific tournament which concluded in Windhoek, Namibia, last week.
It's going to be a struggle to take an interest in the two Test "3 Test Series" between Australia and Zimbabwe. Coming so soon after the Bangladesh series, it is hard to see this being anything other than a 2-0 cakewalk for the Australians.
