This issue of The Net Sessions is a bit different to my previous podcasts, indeed to most conventional podcasts, as it is a Podcast With An Appendix.

This issue of The Net Sessions is a bit different to my previous podcasts, indeed to most conventional podcasts, as it is a Podcast With An Appendix.

Also enclosed with this audio file is a playlist file which will take you - provided you are on-line at the time, of course - to a number of other audio files available for streaming on the net dealing with cricket over the last couple of weeks.

It may be a bit extreme, but let this be a deterrent to others...

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Osaka groper dies after being caught by commuters

Brad Hodge's 203 against South Africa at the WACA continues to demonstrate the remarkable depth of batting reserves available to the Australian selectors.

Both he and Mike Hussey have given excellent service since being promoted to the Test arena during the West Indies series. Hussey has two centuries in four Tests, though his 23 and 58 in this game means his Test batting average has actually dropped to double figures (88.7 to be precise).

On this page I am collating an ever-expanding list of "top 10 stories of 2005" lists that I come across on the web. (And don't forget that I am running one myself on my cricket blog and podcast.)

It's that time of year again. All the news agencies are starting to roll out their best-ofs for 2005, and I have a chuckle this morning as U3 (Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, and Bono) are named Time Magazine's People of the Year.

As usual, the New South Wales Roads and Traffic Authority is giving plenty of advance notice of traffic alterations for streets leading to the SCG for the New Years' Test.

The ICC's appalling and arbitrary decision to designate October's "supertest" at the SCG an official Test match has led, today, to another premature "breaking" of a world record.

Proof copies are now online for today's Hansard of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council. I haven't read the whole lot, and probably won't bother, but there was a lot of political football being played in the lower house debate, despite the bill having bipartisan support.

"What we've seen in the last 72 hours are more urban terrorists terrorising the community"

- Peter Debnam, New South Wales Leader of the Opposition, 15.12.05

Pete, in the words of another passionate Australian xenophobe: Please explain?

Pollies aside, the community is getting on with the job of resolving the underlying causes of Sunday and Monday's riots. The Lebanese community - Muslim and Christian - have offered curfews this weekend as a means of helping defuse things this weekend. The Sutherland Shire Council's website has a sequence of media releases online outlining their course of action.