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Sorry guys, but I have been finding the Australian Open far more interesting than the blandness of the VB Series thus far. I’m really enjoying watching Marcos Baghdatis in action. He’s just won a rain-interrupted (and what a time for that to happen) semi against David Nalbandian for the right to be hammered by Roger Federer on Sunday night (or Nicolas Kiefer if he’s very, very lucky). The Guardian did an over-by-over of the tennis if you don’t know what I’m talking about.

(What, they’re starting a mixed doubles match at 11.55pm?)

Getting back to the cricket, I can’t remember getting excited about a WSC game since the night Phil Simmons went crazy with the ball in 1992. I’m probably being a little harsh here, but I’ve lived through 27 years of this triseries and it’s all looking the same to me. Of course, it’s a cash cow for Cricket Australia and the touring teams, and for the families who take their kids to the game each January, it’s a big annual day out during the school holidays.

South Africa’s nine-run victory over Sri Lanka on Tuesday night was genuinely a good finish, but for me the standout performance so far in the Veeb of ‘06 is Jayasuriya’s brilliant 114 at the SCG last Sunday. (Here’s the reports of that knock by Elmo, Roebuck and Conn.)

And as for the Australian “rotation” policy, designed as I recall to stop quicks like Merv Hughes and Craig McDermott from burning out, how on Earth does that justify Ricky Ponting getting a day off in the middle of a closely-fought tournament? Imagine, if you will, Tiger Woods missing the third day of the Ryder Cup so that he could spend Saturday with his folks…

Momentous steps forward in the merging of women’s and men’s cricket administration in India were taken on Monday, when the BCCI’s Working Committee met in New Delhi. The title of this post says it all. Today’s The Hindu reports.

Zimbabwe Cricket’s announcement last Wednesday that they were withdrawing from Test cricket for the rest of 2006 was greeted variously with sighs of relief, pats on the back, and gales of laughter. I belonged to that last category.

Consider this: Zimbabwe has withdrawn from Test cricket. They are still playing one-day cricket. They are still free to host ODI series against touring sides. They still have a team in next month’s Under-19 World Cup. Peter Chingoka is still chairman of the board, albeit an “Interim” one. Ovias Bvute is still managing director for Zimbabwe Cricket. Robert Mugabe is still president of the republic.

And Tatenda Taibu is still in Bangladesh.

There would have been sighs of relief from the West Indies Cricket Board, who won’t need to host two inevitably loss-making Test matches against Zimbabwe, but will still have the ODI leg of the tour to cash in on. Brian Lara may not be so happy, as some golden opportunities to add to his world record run tally go begging.

Zimbabwe still has the possibility of playing in this October’s ICC Champions Trophy, if they finish in the top two places of the four-team qualifying event. Nonetheless, they are, to quote Ehsan Mani, “not in a position to be competitive in Test cricket”. Ah yes, the smell of compromise and the stench of money.

Not that the average Zimbabwean sports fan cares all that much about cricket. Tonight, Zimbabwe’s footballers take on Senegal in their opening group match of the African Cup of Nations - after which they play Nigeria and Ghana. Who’s scared of being flogged in international competition again?

Let’s just recap a sequence of events involving the Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) over the past year or so:

1. BCCI bids for the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy (after attempting to snatch it from England in 2004 when the latter was in trouble over relations with Zimbabwe)
2. The BCCI is told by ICC that Indian Government must grant tournament a tax exemption if India is to host Champions Trophy
3. Indian Government grants tax exemption. ICC awards 2006 Champions Trophy to India
4. BCCI decides it doesn’t like the idea of a Champions Trophy, saying it will clash with the peak period of India’s home international season
5. BCCI says it won’t take part in future Champions Trophies after the 2006 tournament, which it is hosting
6. BCCI announces intention to bid to host the 2011 ICC World Cup, either on its own or in partnership with Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Now this all looks on the surface like rank hypocrisy but it’s not that straightforward. Between items 3 and 4 came the much-delayed BCCI elections which saw Jagmohan Dalmiya defeated for the presidency by Sharad Pawar.

Jagadish raises a number of worthwhile points in his blog, but I wonder whether the sabre-rattling of the new administration is really the best way to win friends and influence people, even if they appear to already have Cricket Australia onside. I’ll have more to say about all this later.

Just a thought to mull over as I head off to bed.

Does a minimum number of overs have to be bowled before Sunny Gavaskar does his daily podcast in this series? Podcasts for days two and four of the Lahore Test are now out, following from his debut on Day One, but it seems the fifteen overs of play produced on Monday was insufficient.

I suppose it was pointless having high hopes for this latest platform for Gavaskar’s bland platitudes. Not a word of criticism for the Pakistani bowlers, even the pitch is called a “beauty” after Sunny invites the curator to fix up all the potholes on Indian roads, so immaculate is the roadway he has constructed at the Gaddafi Stadium.

But Gav the Gab really should learn the meaning of some of the cliches he makes use of. He says that the final day’s play will not merely be of academic interest - there’s the record for the opening partnership to be broken, Sehwag going for his triple century and maybe Lara’s world record, there’s the question of how far Dravid can go, how many India can score before stumps… Sorry mate, but that all fits neatly under the banner of “academic interest” in a match which, as a contest, will die the moment India notches up 480.

Ravi Shastri is also doing voice reports on this Test, which can be called up by mobile phone users in India. Save your dough and listen to them on CricInfo (when it’s not overloaded) like the rest of us. The Ravicasts are, however, not technically podcasts as they can only be streamed, and not downloaded for future reference.

Not that the Ravicasts are rivetting listening either, and his voice gets drowned out by that bloody background muzak. At least he acknowledged the existence of the Pakistani bowlers. A legendary ex-cricketer does not necessarily an interesting commentator make. Where’s Navjot Sidhu when you need him?

These have been happening for a couple of months now, and I feel remiss for not mentioning it earlier, but the ABC’s digital TV channel ABC2 has been reviving old cricket footage in their late evening timeslot.

“Late Night Legends”, which begins around 10.45pm each night, features footage of old, allegedly classic, sporting telecasts from the ABC archives, which date back to 1957. In addition to cricket they have shown rugby union and motor racing (though the nostalgic value in watching again a touring car championship race from Oran Park in the late 1970s is beyond me).

Tonight, ABC2 is showing highlights from the first three “tests” in the 1971-72 series between Australia and the World XI. This will include Dennis Lillee’s 8/29 at the WACA and Garry Sobers’ 254 not out at the MCG. Tomorrow night (Wednesday) they will have highlights from the fourth and fifth matches in that series. These programs will be repeated on Saturday and Sunday nights January 21 and 22 respectively.

On Friday January 20 they are showing highlights of the first two Tests from the 1965-66 Ashes (this was first screened last night, I missed it too).

More program details on the ABC website’s Late Night Legends page.

ABC2 is available on free-to-air digital throughout Australia on channel 21 (which is how I watch it), and also through most of the pay-TV carriers in this country (Foxtel, Austar, Optus, Neighrbourhood Cable, TransACT).

Australia 228 all out, South Africa 231 for 5. Channel 9 will be happy.

Gilchrist golden quacker. Roebuck wants him dropped. Maybe he should get Bing to beam him. Kallis golden quacker. Everyone too bored to care and hey, it was a great runout by Roy.

Mike Hussey career ODI average 142.19. Tubby says Hussey is the new Bevan. But I think there is a more important question beckoning:

Is Brett Lee the new Shane Lee?

Farcical scenes in the ING Cup game at the Adelaide Oval on Saturday. South Australia scored 5/160 in 35 overs in a rain-interrupted innings. Tasmania were told they needed 201 to win under Duckworth-Lewis. Five overs into the Tasmanian innings, a mistake was discovered, and Tasmania’s target was announced as 172. They finished with 8/171 and the game was a tie. For more info see Run chase furore leads to inquiry (Malcolm Conn and AAP, The Australian, 16.1.06)

According to South Australian wicketkeeper Graham Manou:

Apparently there was some sort of glitch in the system, you know what computers are like these days.

Yes I do know what computers are like these days. They have become more sophisticated and reliable over the years. The people operating them haven’t. Garbage in, garbage out.

If five overs of the Tasmanian innings were played under the premise of a wildly incorrect target, then the match should be declared null and void and replayed. Both teams are still in the hunt for the final.

The first edition of Sunil Gavaskar’s podcast “My Own Pitch” is up on Yahoo! India. It’s a fairly dry summary of the first day’s play of the Lahore Test. The podcast’s web page is here if you want to download or subscribe. (If you’re a Juice or Ipodder user, then this link should handle the subscription for you.)

The first edition runs for 2 minutes 43 seconds, but beware, it contains a loud background hum and seems to end abruptly.