April 2007

As Mitchell Johnson decides what to do with his one-fifteenth share of Australia's $US 2.24 million prizemoney for winning the 2007 World Cup, spare a thought for his Queensland team-mate Ashley Noffke. And wish him a happy 30th birthday today. If things had gone just a little differently over recent years it could have been Noffke, not Johnson, sitting in the dug-out watching the Australian eleven thrashing the daylights out of all comers without making a single World Cup appearance of his own.

At the precise moment Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, was saying sorry for the bizarre ending of the World Cup final the ICC hoarding behind him came unstuck from the wall, and almost hit his head.

- Andrew Miller, CricInfo, 29.4.07

For the first time since 1983, the Cricket World Cup Final is on a Saturday. I think that's fabulous, especially as the game will be played overnight Australian time (11.30pm to about 7am).

Seeing my pre-tournament prediction of South Africa fall in a screaming heap in the semi-final, I would be very doubtful of anything other than a decisive Australian victory tonight. Sri Lanka, while they'll be the popular favourite and will no doubt have all of South Asia behind them, would in reality have to pull off an upset to win this time around.

I have always been a vigorous supporter of the national interest taking precedence over states' rights in this country. The Australian Constitution, while in many ways robust and successful, was also a document of compromise, with the six states ceding specific areas of responsibility to the Commonwealth, and retaining everything else.

A man burst into a busy central London restaurant and chopped off his own penis with a knife in front of horrified diners, police and reports said on Tuesday.

The Guardian takes up the story. London-eating.co.uk has some reviews of the restaurant in question in case you fancy a nibble.

This Cricket World Cup has been too short. Blink, and you find it's almost over...

It seems like only yesterday when the World Cup was officially opened by the British West Indies' finest cricketer to date, Lebrun Constantine, in a ceremony transmitted live via morse code to a worldwide audience of hundreds.

"...if it doesn't rain in sufficient volume over the next six to eight weeks, there will be no water allocations for irrigation purposes in the [Murray-Darling] Basin."

- John Winston Howard, press conference, 19.4.07

It would be easy to see this as another example of the PM playing politics and thus response with the line Howard to Farmers: Drop Dead. But it's a problem much more genuine and more serious than that.

Vale Kurt Vonnegut 1922-2007.

"The Government will continue to support the UN goal of 0.7 per cent ODA/GNI as an aspiration and endeavour to maintain aid at the highest level, consistent with the needs of partner countries, our own capacity to assist and other priorities for Australian Government expenditure. In September 2005, the Prime Minister announced Australia’s intention to increase its overseas aid allocation to about A$4 billion a year by 2010. Such an increase will represent a doubling of Australia’s overseas aid from 2004 levels."