Tony Snow's impending appointment as Presidential press secretary is a big leap forward in formalising the Fox News Channel's role as official public relations agent for White House Halliburton. However, I'll miss the direct, straight-talking, uncomplicated approach of current press secretary Scott McLellan.

My fellow Americans: Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.
- George W Bush, on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln off San Diego, 1.5.03

How much accomplishment does a mission need before it is accomplished?

It has been eleven months since I posted my last report - in actual fact, a nil return - of John Winston Howard's public references to Darfur.

Nothing has changed in that regard. Disappointingly, I can only find one reference to "Darfur" in Federal Parliament since the start of this year, a speech in the adjournment debate of the House of Reps on February 28 by Liberal MP Louise Markus, whose electorate in the Blacktown area is home to a large number of Sudanese refugees. Ms Markus took to task an opinion piece in the Daily Telegraph.

The tune commonly known as "The Star Spangled Banner" has been around since the 1760s with quite a few sets of lyrics. The most recent, timed for release on May Day 2006, is "Nuestro Himno" - an anthem for the USA's second largest ethnic group. It hasn't pleased El Presidente Jorge W Bush, but you can't make everyone happy, especially an Anglophile neo-con.

Take it away guys:

Dedicated to all the men and women who have fought in armed combat, and in particular:

That nice old lady in the big house at Windsor turns 80 today. Happy birthday, Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor.

Despite the fact that I believe it is highly inappropriate for her to be the sovereign head of state of Australia, she is by far the nicest member of her family and I wish her good health and many happy returns.

...they let Jason Gillespie score a double century.

"...the most useful source of inspiration comes from established blogs such as Rick Eyre's"
- Alistair McLellan, "How to be a Cricket Blogger", Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 2006

My copy of the 143rd Wisden arrived by Australia Post courier this morning, having pre-ordered it from Amazon.co.uk when it was on 55% discount. First port of call was the "Cricket on the Internet" feature.

This year, Alistair McLellan did a piece on blogs relating to cricket. I did a phone interview with Alistair last year during one of the Ashes Tests when he was researching his article, and I know that he contacted a few other regular cricket bloggers, including some of you reading this.

The article appears on pages 1569 and 1570 of the hardcover edition. I won't dissect the piece now, but at the end he does give the URLs of eight blogs which he recommends as showing "signs of both permanence and quality". One of these has gone off-line since the time of writing!

The 2006 Wisden is a mere 1600 pages in length and I'll review it over the next few days, probably in instalments. (My one previous review of Wisden, of the 2003 Tim de Lisle edition, can be found here.)

Dizzy!

Jason Gillespie, 102 not out in a Test innings for Australia. Yes, it's against Bangladesh, you've got a problem with that?

He's done what Dennis Lillee, Merv Hughes, Geoff Lawson, Paul Reiffel, Damien Fleming, Brett Lee and other fast bowlers before him have failed to do since Ray Lindwall in 1955... break the 80 barrier and score a Test match ton.

An extraordinary situation in Chittagong on Sunday when police used excessive force to stop a press photographer from entering a cricket arena, followed with a sit-down protest by his colleagues on the pitch, delaying the start of the match between Bangladesh and Australia. This, followed by further clashes between the police and the journalists, putting one reporter in hospital in a coma.

I'm covering this story extensively in my cricket blog. If you're interested in this rather unlikely attack on the working media, I'll see you there.