The Marylebone Cricket Club, the one and only MCC to those not living in Melbourne or working for Microsoft, has come a long way in the past couple of decades. One of the higher profile innovations by the MCC in recent years was the establishment in 2006 of its "World Cricket Committee", an independent think tank of past and present players and umpires.
We know that wrestling, modern pentathlon, canoeing, taekwondo and hockey were the five sports shortlisted for the ballot to be excluded from the "core" sports. Once the field of five was announced, each sport should have been given time (14, 30, 60 days?) to prepare a submission to the IOC to argue why they should be retained as a core Olympic sport. Of course, no such right was given to them.
I have established a "rickeyrecricket" Google+ page as a companion to my @rickeyrecricket Twitter account.
The International Olympic Committee voted yesterday to effectively axe wrestling from the 2020 Olympics. Hardly anyone seems to think that this was a good idea.
Cricket Australia decided that the way to capitalise on the old Big Bash Trophy's progress was to shift to a model that copied elements of both the Indian Premier League and soccer's A-League when neither was necessary.
In cricket's modern world of incremental exits, a legend can announce his retirement, celebrate a long emotional farewell, and then turn up playing another format for another team. But just as Warnie seems to be gone, he re-emerges. Like the monster in a slasher movie, or as I prefer to think of him, an escapee from the House of Wax.
December 10: Human Rights Day. The anniversary of the date in 1948 when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted.
Shortly after midday on a Perth Monday afternoon, Ricky Ponting's Test career of 16 years and 362 days came to an end with this delivery from Robin Peterson:
There can never be a totally perfect time to retire. It didn't quite happen for Ricky Ponting, yet he can still be happy with the circumstances of his exit. Today, as he steps out on the WACA for the Welcome to Country, the anthems, and the Third Test against South Africa, he will be making his 168th official Test match appearance for Australia. It will be last, having announced his retirement yesterday.
One afternoon late last month, October 23 I think, I decided "yeah I'll do it". And with that, I've signed up for my first