"Darren Gough asked the selectors not to consider him for the one-day squad's tour to Pakistan this winter. Darren would like to make clear that he has not decided to retire from one-day international cricket and the selectors fully understand his reasons for making himself unavailable to tour."

Woah! I would have thought that county cricket in late September would have favoured the bowlers, but in the eight matches of the final week of the 2005 championship, two teams passed 700, one declared not far short, another passed 500 and four more topped 400. What gives?

I've only just stumbled onto this, but today's one-day game between Australia A and Pakistan A at the Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore is being scored live by The Cricket Site. Apparently they covered Friday's game as well, which was won convincingly by the Australians.

Congratulations to the Brooklyn Dodgers of Aussie Rules, the South Melbourne Swans, on their first flag since 1933. They beat the Weagles in a four-point thriller today.

I'm a little surprised, but the official Swannies website hasn't caught up with events, 25 minutes after the final siren. They'll catch up.

Breathless excitement as the ICC announced on Friday that the Johnnie Walker Super Series telecasts will be seen live on 3G mobile phones.

Broadway has "Spamalot". Kolkata has the Annual General Meeting of the BCCI. Except that anyone wishing to see Indian cricket's comedy farce in action is likely to be the subject of a High Court injunction themselves.

If my local city council functioned like the BCCI, I'd expect the government to step in, sack them and appoint an administrator until fresh elections can be held.

It's a bit late, and I apologise. More detailed grovelling in a tic, but Issue 3 of cricket's first regular podcast, The Net Sessions, is now online.

I actually had the bulk of this completed on September 5, but then for a variety of reasons I was unable to finish the post-production straight away. I regret this taking so long, but in the interests of continuity, here it is.

It's a bit late, and I apologise. More detailed grovelling in a tic, but Issue 3 of cricket's first regular podcast, The Net Sessions, is now online.

I actually had the bulk of this completed on September 5, but then for a variety of reasons I was unable to finish the post-production straight away. Faced with the dilemma of re-doing the whole thing from scratch or drawing the line and publishing out of date, I chose the latter. I regret this taking so long, but in the interests of continuity, here it is.

The fall of the mighty! Surrey were county champions in 2000 and 2002. Over the next four days they play Middlesex in a grim struggle to avoid relegation.

Maybe if they're lucky they can push Middlesex under instead...

Typing error gives police a bad name - National - smh.com.au