"The truth is, the people of New South Wales who entrusted us with government for 16 years did not leave us, we left them."

- Kristina Keneally, from her election night concession speech, 26.3.11 (video)

It was inevitable that the Labor Party would be hammered in yesterday New South Wales election, and as it turned out the polls were fairly accurate in predicting the magnitude of the annihilation.

My storified tweetage of 26 March 2011, a day when the Labor Party was decisively hurled out government in New South Wales and replaced by a Liberal-National Party coalition with a sweeping majority.

Click on Read More to, er, read more.

Almost by definition, election campaigns have their bizarre moments - although Sarah Palin and Christine O'Donnell seem to have re-written the manual over the past couple of years.

But I doubt that I'll see anything more bizarre from the current NSW state election than the jam session on Kristina Keneally's campaign bus last Friday.

One of the most common jokes circulating during the slow-motion train wreck known as the 2011 NSW election concerns the size of the Labor Party team that will occupy the opposition benches in the Legislative Assembly after March 26.

Or, rather, the nature of the team.

Will they be an AFL team of 18 members? Or will there be barely enough to make up a cricket XI? (And remember, there's 50 of them currently in government.)

It feels like it has been such a long time coming, but we're now one week away from the end of a four-year fixed term marking the general election for the New South Wales parliament. The obvious, the necessary, will happen - the Australian Labor Party will be hurled out of office, and for the most part obliterated. This is good. By virtue of this, the Liberal and National Parties will be elevated to government with many fresh faces and a whacking big majority. This is not necessarily so good.

It's always a mug's game trying to predict winners in an event such as the ICC Cricket World Cup. One prediction I feel reasonably confident about is that Australia will not win its fourth consecutive title.

I'm neither Robinson Crusoe nor Robertson-Glasgow when I rate India as the favourites, with most of their matches played on home soil. Their opponents in the final will be South Africa - that's if, of course, the Proteas can make it that far for the first time.

The tenth World Cup of men's cricket is officially open, and the first game, between Bangladesh and India at Mirpur, happens later today. Though it won't (slightly) be the longest Cricket World Cup of all, it's the first one to span three calendar months. The final will be staged on April 2 at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai - subject, as I write this, to the venue's fire safety clearance.

The Ashes for 2010-11 have been won comprehensively by England. The one-sidedness of the contest is reflected in the final leaderboard for the Midwinter-Midwinter.

It's the fourth time that I have made this award, and for the first time, it's a tie. The joint winners of the 2010-11 Midwinter-Midwinter are Alastair Cook and Jimmy Anderson.

(This article is incomplete, but the likelihood that I won't finish off the details, I've decided to post it as is. - Rick, 16.2.11)