Rick Eyre's blog

A storification of my Olympic-related tweets and retweets in the five days prior to the opening ceremony of the London Olympics. Most of my #london2012 tweets from the past few months can be found under my automated Daily Twitter collection, which unfortunately hasn't been functioning properly all the time.

The Games have begun. That traditional opening to the Olympics, unknown up till now as Women's Soccer Wednesday. The twelve teams of this Matildaless tournament got the Games of the XXX Olympiad under way, but one team received preferential treatment from the organisers. On the day it was announced that Kim Jong Un was no longer the world's most eligible bachelor, LOCOG chose the ideal present from their wedding gift register.

There is a List A and List B of words that are prohibited in certain combinations. List A comprises Games, Two Thousand and Twelve, 2012 and Twenty-Twelve. List B includes London, Medals, Sponsor, Gold, Silver, Bronze. You can't use two List A terms together or one List A with one or more List B. Sounds like the opposite of opening a bank account, doesn't it?

It has been 112 years - two years longer than an Allen Stanford prison sentence - since two club sides from Great Britain and France played what, to date, has been the one and only game of cricket at the Olympic Games. We may not have to wait so long again for the sport to return to the modern Games, but there will be many hurdles to overcome first.

My latest dissertation on the prospect of cricket as an Olympic (and/or Commonwealth) Games sport is the subject of my new column for iSportconnect. The full column can be read at www.isportconnect.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13074&catid=74&Itemid=193.

Fifteen days till the opening of the Games of the XXX Olympiad and time for me to get serious about yet another Olympic Games blog. It's not actually the start of my blog posts tagged "London 2012" as you'd be able to see but let this entry be a means of introduction.

It's an unusual name but a great concept. RebelMouse launched recently and I have a cricket-specific page at rebelmouse.com/rickeyrecricket.

RebelMouse can, and has, been described as a visual mix along the lines of Storify, Pinterest and Paper.li all thrown together. Still in beta, but looks very exciting at this stage, so please check out my contribution as, and if, it develops.

That address again: rebelmouse.com/rickeyrecricket.

One of the biggest tasks for David Richardson when he takes over in July as chief executive of the ICC will be to secure the best possible rights deal for 2015-2023. The future of the ICC’s development programs will be financially secured, but could the evolution of the sport be locked away for eight years?

My latest column for iSportconnect is here: http://www.isportconnect.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11913&catid=74&Itemid=193

The 2011-12 season saw the transformation of Australia's state-based "Big Bash" competition into the franchise-based Big Bash League. Here are a few points which I think can be taken away following the inaugural Big Bash League:

My second column for iSportConnect can be read in full at http://www.isportconnect.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11342&catid=74&Itemid=193

Over and above all the usual tiresome attempts at April Foolery, this two-minute video from the England and Wales Cricket Board is one of my favourites this year (along with 8-bit Google Maps). An "innovation" almost plausible enough that it wouldn't surprise me if the IPL tried to adapt it for real.

Here's the ECB's accompanying statement on the balldogs innovation, post-edited to partly wimp out of the April Fool's joke.

It's not quite as ground-breaking as my creation of aus.sport.rugby-league seventeen years ago, but I've set up a discussion group for LinkedIn members interested in the NRL and Pertinent League Matters in the Australasia/South Pacific basin.

I launched "Rugby League in Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific", to give its descriptive title, because I believe it fills a niche that hasn't been catered for on LinkedIn to date.