australia

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.

My reflections on the popularity and impact of the second season of the Big Bash League are the subject of my latest column for iSportconnect. The complete article can be read at http://www.isportconnect.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17287&catid=74&Itemid=193.

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:

For a third of a century, Australia’s Channel Nine has been, to use its long-running advertising slogan, Still The One for telecasting international cricket. This maybe soon to come to an end. Next March, following the end of the 2012-13 domestic Australian season, the current contract to televise Cricket Australia’s home fixtures in Australia will expire. The Nine Network, holders of those rights continuously since 1979, are currently in a battle to avoid entering administration.

My latest column for iSportconnect is here: http://www.isportconnect.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14913&catid=74&Itemid=193

For all the arguments for and against the use of the DRS in the 2011-12 Commonwealth Bank Series, the fact is that it wasn't part of the playing conditions of the tournament, period. So whatever you may think of the lbw decisions that contributed to Dan Christian's hat-trick at the MCG on 2 March 2012, the fact remains that they were legitimate umpire's decisions, such as which we have played the game of cricket under for well over a hundred years.

Christian's hat-trick for Australia in the one-dayer against Sri Lanka, including Perera, Senanayake and Kulasekara is the first by an indigenous cricketer in international play for this country.