...the team bus sideswipes a parked car as it was leaving the hotel. It happened to the Indian team as they left Sydney for Canberra, 48 hours behind schedule, this morning.

Macquarie National News has video. You don't actually see the prang, just the sound of a bang and the crowd going "ooh" as the bus pulled out of the kerb outside the Radisson Hotel, Sydney.

Ah, it must be tough being a tabloid reporter in the silly season.

My best wishes to the Urbans on their future bundle of joy. Meanwhile, I feel a deep sorrow for Steve Bucknor. He's done nothing more heinous than have an off day (well, an off five days in fact).

There's so many strands to follow at the moment. Let's start with the central issue.

Harbhajan Singh has been found guilty by ICC match referee Mike Procter of a Level 3 breach of the Code of Conduct that relates to comments vilifying players on the basis of, among other options, race, ethnicity or colour. The full ICC press release concerning the hearing can be read here.

Harbhajan is alleged to have used the word "monkey" to Andrew Symonds - though I notice that there seems to be no finding explicitly stating that he actually called Symonds a "monkey".

There appear to have been five witnesses giving evidence at Sunday night's hearing in addition to the two protagonists. Sachin Tendulkar, who was Bhajju's batting partner at the time, and four Australian fielders: Ponting, Hayden, Gilchrist and Michael Clarke. Neither umpire witnessed the alleged remark.

Today, 8 January 2008, is the centenary of Australia's first rugby league club, Newtown RLFC.

Known for many years as the Bluebags, Newtown was given the nickname the Jets by then-coach Jack Gibson as an act of American cultural cringe. Alas, the name has stuck.

Absurdity follows absurdity in the latest contretemps that positions world cricket somewhere on the spectrum between WWE wrestling and the personal life of Britney Spears. Frankly, it has elements of both. There's the hyped-up petulance and faux conflict of the prima donnas dressed up as professional sportsmen.

A bit of preamble before I write my thoughts about the off-field events of the past 24 hours.

I have seen very little of the Sydney Test, won by Australia late yesterday afternoon. I was on holidays with my daughter for most of the week and listened to the second half of Sunday's play on the radio at home. (If I really wanted to, I could probably have made the dash across to the ground when they threw the gates open for free at 4.30pm.)

My hosting provider has upgraded my site to PHP 5, now that PHP 4 has become an unsupported product. I'm taking advantage of the occasion to upgrade Drupal on this blog to version 5.5.

Consequently, things may look a little odd (or not even work at all) for the next day or two till I have finished the rebuild.

And then, lots to say about the Over-the-top hoo-haa over the Sydney Test.

I'd like to get in early and wish everyone a Happy New Year for 2008, the International Year of the Potato.

I intend to do my year in review of cricket for 2007 on about January 5.

If you wish to leave any comments (or any thoughts about the Top 10 Cricket Stories of 2007) please do so in the box below. The Captcha facility is not working too well, so I have disabled it and made all comments subject to approval. It might take a couple of days to get around to approving.

I've been a bit blogged out since the Ruddster was handed the controls of the nation, but my brain is slowly returning to gear now.

Billy Hughes was the Honourable Member for Bradfield from 1949 to 1952.

Brendan Nelson has been the Honourable Member for Bradfield since 1996.

Billy Hughes was a member of the Australian Labor Party before switching to the conservatives.

Brendan Nelson was a member of the Australian Labor Party before switching to the conservatives.

Billy Hughes was leader of the Australian Party until it was wound up, and leader of the United Australia Party shortly before it was wound up.

Brendan Nelson is leader of the Liberal Party... for now.