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OK so the telecast is on an hour’s delay, and the name of the winner will probably be plastered all over the news feed before the finish on channel 9, but I’ll be blogging tonight’s Allan Border Medal presentation. Or at least, doing a running review of the television coverage.

Follow the comments below (and join in if you like). I’m tipping the Huzz for the Gold Pugsley.

“The England boys richly deserve their MBEs and OBEs and I was delighted when I heard on the TV I was going to get my own Sun gong!”

- attributed to Gary Pratt, The Sun, 30.12.05

Rupert Murdoch’s well-known daily comic book, The Sun, was right on the ball last week when England’s specialist twelfth man Gary Pratt missed out on an MBE.

I think it’s fabulous how the Blair Government has opened up the honours lists to people who would never have been contemplated in stuffier times. Congratulations indeed to Sir Tom Jones (though I’d still like to know if David Furnish is now to be called Lord John, or even Lady John, following the recent betrothal). But I think they’re going a bit overboard in rewarding national sporting victories.

A dangerous precedent was set when England won the 2003 Rugby World Cup, and now we have the 2005 Ashes squad all getting gongs. There’s an OBE for Michael Vaughan, and MBEs for the other eleven who played in the Tests against Australia (Bell, Collingwood, Flintoff, Giles, Harmison, Hoggard, G Jones, S Jones, Pietersen, Strauss, Trescothick). Also getting OBEs are coach Duncan Fletcher, chairman of selectors David Graveney, and team manager Phil Neale.

Let’s just look into this a bit further:
Ian Bell has an MBE for scoring 171 runs in ten innings at an average of 17.10;
Paul Collingwood has an MBE for playing one Test, scoring 17 runs and bowling seven overs;
and Wheelie bin Giles has an MBE for scoring 155 runs at 19.37 and taking 10 wickets at 57.80!

And who missed out?
There were the players selected in the twelve or thirteen-man squads who were not required in any of the final elevens: Chris Tremlett and James Anderson.
There were the substitute fielders: James Hildreth, who caught Ricky Ponting in the First Test, and Gary Pratt, who infamously ran Ponting out in the Fourth, and the others whose names I do not have at hand but were most definitely part of England’s Ashes campaign.
There was the remainder of the England management team: Troy Cooley among others…

And really, was Andrew Flintoff’s contribution worth a mere MBE? And while Clare Connor has been elevated to an OBE for leading the women’s team to victory in their Ashes, what of her team-mates?

And let’s face it: is winning the Ashes really on the same level as winning a Rugby or Football World Cup? Let’s be realistic here.

And then there’s all the players in all those Ashes-winning sides of years past who never got a gong: let’s rustle up some examples - Arnold Sidebottom (1985), Ken Shuttleworth (1970-71), Don Kenyon (1953), Tommy Mitchell (1932-33, the Bodyline series)… I could go on.

The ICC announced tonight that their second annual awards presentation will be held in Sydney on October 11. This takes place between the Johnnie Walker one-dayers and the Johnnie Walker six-dayer, which begins at the SCG on the 14th.

The media release from the ICC says that the evening will be held at “one of Australia’s most prestigious hotels”. Sounds to me like they haven’t booked one yet, have they?

Perhaps any fellow Sydneysiders reading this can help in suggesting an appropriate pub for the ICC’s prize night. I’ll nominate the Annandale. Live bands, a Thai bistro out the back, tasteful souvenirs, and it’s only a couple of minutes walk from my place…

At least four members of the cricketing community have been awarded medals in the 2005 Australia Day Honours List.

Keith Miller has posthumously been awarded an AM (Member of the Order of Australia) “For service to sport, particularly to cricket as a player, journalist and commentator.” He had previously been named an MBE before British awards ceased to be given to Australians in the 1970s.

Mark Waugh has also been named an AM “For service to cricket as a player and to the community.”

Rita Artis, who is a long-standing scorer for the SACA at the Adelaide Oval, is awarded an OAM (Medal of the Order of Australia) “For service to sport, particularly cricket administration as an official scorer, and to the community.”

Gordon Schwartz, who wrote about a range of sports for the Adelaide daily “The Advertiser”, including cricket, receives an OAM “For service to journalism and sport in South Australia.”

There are four main categories to the Order of Australia, the highest, the AC (Companion) is roughly the equivalent of a knighthood, and has only been awarded to one cricketer - Donald George Bradman.

Congratulations to all the 2005 Australia Day honourees. The official website for the Honours list has the rather corny title of itsanhonour.gov.au

I watched the Allan Border Medal telecast on Channel Nine on Tuesday night. All two-and-a-half hours of it. That’s a lot of cringing on my part.

Congratulations to Adam Gilchrist on winning the AB Medal, and to the other winners - Ricky Ponting, Martin Love, Nathan Hauritz and Karen Rolton. (And it was good to see this year that at least they mentioned the women’s award in the telecast, even if the presentation had to be pre-recorded. Was it too hard to set up a live cross to Christchurch, where the Australian team is currently playing?)

But it was still a painful television program to watch. Eddie McGuire as MC was bad enough (as he always is). The music was bland, but thankfully better than Rusty Crowe’s effort the other year. Arthur Morris wasn’t up on stage this year, and Michael Slater didn’t make a fool of himself. What we did have was a dreadful “ocker” voiceover for all the highlights footage of each Test and one-day international. It’s not even remotely funny to continually refer to Adam Gilchrist as “that bloke from the mobile phone ad”, nor to call smashing cover drives “a bloody good shot” in a pseudo-Chips Rafferty drawl that no one speaks with in 21st century Australia.

Hideous stuff. At least it would probably be an improvement on the Dally M’s. Perhaps Jamie Sutherland should do a Wayne Jackson and put everyone to sleep by doing the vote count.

My highlight of the evening (not including Eddie McGuire saying “goodnight” and the credits starting to roll) was Ian Chappell’s induction to the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame, along with Lindsay Hassett. Chappelli appeared to me to be rather tired and emotional as he made his way to the stage, but his acceptance speech was anything but… especially as he put forward the thought-provoking argument that the members of the 1868 Aboriginal tour of England should be accorded full international status.

At least we didn’t have a “Cricketer of the Century”.