Umar Akmal and Adrian Barath. Cricket's players of the week. Both scored centuries on their Test debut. Both in losing causes. And significantly, both at the age of 19.

One would have to wonder about the tactics of both captains in the half-hour or so before tea. Ponting gave a rather surprising declaration with the total at 480 as soon as Nathan Hauritz brought up his fifty. Such an odd total at which to declare...

Amid the dog's breakfast that is the international cricket schedule these days, I still get a thrill at the arrival of the Australian Test cricket season, heralded every year since 1974 by the opening day of the Test match at Woolloongabba, Queensland. It's an even greater thrill to see Australia facing the West Indies - or at least it used to be.

"Australia does not have a national sports policy or vision. We have no agreed definition of success and what it is we want to achieve. We lack a national policy framework within which objectives for government funding can be set and evaluated."

- from "The Future of Sport In Australia" (AKA the Crawford Report), Chapter 1.1

The complete text of Kevin Rudd's apology, delivered in Canberra yesterday morning, follows (on the "read more" link). It can also be found on the Prime Ministerial website. Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull's speech of apology is also noteworthy and can be read in full at malcolmturnbull.com

Debate on the motion carried in the House of Representatives, led by Jenny Macklin and Tony Abbott, can be read at openaustralia.org, with further debate later that day in the House of Reps and the Senate.

You can just imagine the joy in the hearts of the average (non Mets-following) New Yorker at their beloved Yankees' victory in the World Series for only the twenty-seventh time in their history. But when it came time for the street parade, there was a dilemma for your average GFC-disabled reveller. In the era of live stock prices online and on live television, what to do for ticker tape?

No problem. Just throw paper out the window. Shredded? Nah, waste of time. Just throw paper. Any paper. Waste paper, personal documents, sensitive commercial papers, anything.

It's been a long time coming, but finally "Today In Cricket" is a book. That's right, the book of the website is out. To give its full title, Today In Cricket: Events on this day in cricket history

"Dear @KevinRuddPM, we elected you to fight #climatechange. You're not doing enough. No compromise in Canberra or Copenhagen pls. Thank you."

- my contribution to TweetHour, 9:15 AM Oct 24th

Now is not the time to put things in proper perspective. New South Wales are the champions of the world!!!

"What I have seen in India is Bollywood, whereas we are more Under Milk Wood. If you compare the match we played against the Deccan Chargers the spectator experience was like an Elvis Presley concert. I think back to Twenty20 finals day at Edgbaston and it was like watching Des O'Connor."