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What were my choices for the Top Ten Cricket News Stories of 2005? Enjoy the superior quality of Ogg Vorbis and download Issue Seven of The Net Sessions, the Ogg Vorbis podcast edition.

This issue of The Net Sessions is a bit different to my previous podcasts, indeed to most conventional podcasts, as it is a Podcast With An Appendix.

Also enclosed with this audio file is a playlist file which will take you - provided you are on-line at the time, of course - to a number of other audio files available for streaming on the net dealing with cricket over the last couple of weeks.

This is not, I stress, part of my podcast, nor am I attempting to pinch other people’s work. Think of it in a similar way to a web page or blog entry which gives a list of links to related items elsewhere on the web. The playlist enables you to stream, not download these audio files, and I recommend that you read the terms and conditions on the copyright owners’ websites before using them in any other manner. Of course, these links may break in the future as files are archived or removed, and I have no control over this.

If this experiment with the appendix playlists is successful, I’ll repeat it in future editions. Please email me if you have any feedback or questions.

There’s a total of 45 minutes’ listening in eight MP3 audio files. The first five consist of the daily highlights of the First Test between Australia and South Africa at the WACA, which finished in a draw on Tuesday. These highlights from ABC radio come to you from the Cricket Australia website, www.cricket.com.au. They are followed by the post-match comments of the two captains, firstly Ricky Ponting and then Graeme Smith, again from Cricket Australia. The last audio is a ten-minute feature on the first Australian cricket team to tour England, the Aboriginal team of 1868. This runs for about ten minutes and is from SBS Radio’s English-language nightly news program, Worldview. Their website is www.sbs.com.au

Attached files: The Net Sessions 6 (Ogg Vorbis) and streaming playlist file.

I’ve remixed and reloaded issue 5 of The Net Sessions to improve the clarity of the opening couple of minutes of the podcast which I published yesterday.

I’ve also boosted the encoding quality of the Ogg version by an increment. The updated versions, which are no different in content or running time to the original, can be downloaded from The Net Sessions homepage. Yesterday’s publication announcement will now download the new files for those who haven’t done so yet.

It’s late but it’s here at last. The fifth edition of my cricket podcast, The Net Sessions, is now online.

The latest edition, seventeen minutes in length, is devoted to last month’s ICC Awards ceremony in Sydney. I was in the press gallery at the Four Seasons Hotel that evening and recorded some audio from the awards dinner (which was telecast but, amazingly, not shown live anywhere in the world), as well as the press conferences with the winners. Some of the audio quality is a bit lesser than I would have liked, but I only have myself to blame for that.

The centerpiece, and highlight, of this podcast is the excerpt from Kevin Pietersen’s press conference. He’s a very self-confident lad, and I’m sure if you read a transcript his words would appear brash, but he comes across with lots of charm and humility… and a dead raccoon on his head.

You’ll hear audio of most of the night’s winners, plus the voices of ICC president Ehsan Mani, master of ceremonies Mark Nicholas, and wonderfully deadpan major award presenter Richie Benaud. You’ll also hear lots of sound effects, including one particularly obnoxious mobile phone, from the media room.

The MP3 of the Net Sessions (64kpbs, mono, 16:49, 7.69 Megs) can be downloaded here. It’s also available in Ogg Vorbis (Quality 0, mono, 16:49, 5.96 Mega) and can be downloaded here.

I’m inviting listeners to have your say in future editions of The Net Sessions via voicemail. You can drop me a voicemail on Skype to rickeyre, or as an attachment to rickeyre at gmail.com, or to my voicemail numbers at:
Telephone voicemail (UK) - (020) 7617 7542; international +4420-7617-7542
Telephone voicemail (Aus) - (02) 8569 0397; international +612-8569-0397

Opportunities exist for sponsorship announcements within each podcast and, for longer programs, a 10-15 second advertisement. If you’re interested, please leave a message on my feedback page, selecting “Advertising/Sponsorship Opportunities” on the Subject menu. Or leave me a voicemail at any of the above addresses. Or give me a call during Australian daytime hours on 0412 321617 (international, +614-123-21617).

Issue Four of the world’s first cricket podcast series, The Net Sessions, is out now. A big thank you to everyone who has been waiting patiently for the next edition to come out. And thank you for all the feedback that I have received.

Issue Four is actually the first of two that I intend to release this week. It begins with a salute to England’s victory over Australia in the Ashes. This is followed by a roundup of major results over the past four weeks, and concludes with a report on the involvement of the Indian and Pakistani cricket teams in a major United Nations program. The running time is 11 minutes 50 seconds.

Audio excerpts in this edition of the following:

• “Waltzing Matilda” - lyrics Banjo Paterson, music Christina Macpherson adapted from traditional. Performed by Roger McGuinn whose recording is available in full and for free from Project Gutenberg;
• “Jerusalem” - words William Blake, music Hubert Parry;
• Adolf Ogi press conference audio, courtesy UN Radio.

The MP3 version can be downloaded here (64kBps, mono, 11:50, 5547K). This podcast is also available, and recommended, in Ogg Vorbis format (Q2, mono, 11:50, 5501K).

Feedback can be sent to me via email through the feedback page on this website, or you can send me voicemail to any of the following:

• Skype - username rickeyre
• Yahoo IM - username rickeyre
• Google Talk - username rickeyre
• Telephone voicemail (UK) - (020) 7617 7542; international +4420-7617-7542
• Telephone voicemail (Aus) - (02) 8569 0397; international +612-8569-0397

I’m looking for sponsorship for future episodes of The Net Sessions, anticipating an increase in frequency of these programs, as well as an increase in usage of disk space and bandwidth.

This is a great opportunity for your business to raise its profile across the cricketing world by becoming involved with a piece of cricket broadcasting history, the world’s first continuing cricket podcast series, The Net Sessions.

Opportunities exist for sponsorship announcements within each podcast and, for longer programs, a 10-15 second advertisement. If you’re interested, please leave a message on my feedback page, selecting “Advertising/Sponsorship Opportunities” on the Subject menu. Or leave me a voicemail at any of the above addresses. Or give me a call during Australian daytime hours on 0412 321617 (international, +614-123-21617).

It’s a bit late, and I apologise. More detailed grovelling in a tic, but Issue 3 of cricket’s first regular podcast, The Net Sessions, is now online.

I actually had the bulk of this completed on September 5, but then for a variety of reasons I was unable to finish the post-production straight away. I regret this taking so long, but in the interests of continuity, here it is.

This edition runs for just under nine and a half minutes, and includes excerpts from a recent speech by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (refer my related blog entry), and more excerpts from Jack Lumsdaine’s 1932 recording “So This Is Cricket”.

The Ogg Vorbis version can be downloaded here (Q0 Ogg Vorbis, mono). An MP3 version is also available.

Thanks to everyone who has given feedback about The Net Sessions, which I think I can now safely say is the first podcast series devoted exclusively to cricket. I especially thank those people who have given suggestions about tweaking the sound quality.

Download figures for the first two podcasts for the month of August are encouraging, if modest. Issue one, released on August 5, was downloaded 221 times in MP3 and 13 in Ogg. Issue two, released on August 19, was downloaded 92 times in August in MP3 and also 13 in Ogg. In the longer term I’ll probably have to make other arrangements about hosting.

The ETA of Issue number three has slipped again, but I’m aiming now for Monday September 5. In the meantime, however, I have prepared a 30-second promo for the podcast, which you can download here (MP3, 128kpbs mono. No Ogg version for now, sorry)

And don’t forget to vote for The Net Sessions on Podcast Alley

If you want to make your voice heard on The Net Sessions, you can send me voicemail on any one of Skype, Google Talk or Yahoo Messenger. I’m on all of these as rickeyre.

The Ogg Vorbis version of the second edition of my cricket podcast The Net Sessions is now available.

In this edition, we recap the events of the last fortnight in Test cricket, one-day cricket, the ICC Intercontinental Cup and women’s Test cricket. And we talk Ashes and Indian cricket with Wisden CricInfo assistant editor Anand Vasu in Mumbai.

Future editions of The Net Sessions depend on your response. Please let me know what you think, even if you consider it a complete waste of time.

I’m planning a vox-pop segment in the next Net Sessions. Have your say on the game by dropping me a voicemail. This can be done via Skype to my username rickeyre, or to my new voicemail telephone numbers in Sydney and London:
Sydney - (02) 8569 0397; international +612-8569-0397
London - (020) 7617 7542; international +4420-7617-7542
The usual local or long distance rates apply if calling either of these numbers. Please keep your comments concise, clear and clean. The best will appear in future Net Sessions.

Download the second Net Sessions now. (Ogg Vorbis, stereo, quality -1, 16:38)

The Net Sessions are also available in MP3 format in mono.

Subscribe to the Ogg Vorbis version of The Net Sessions podcast feed here.

What do John Howard, Condoleezza Rice and Rick Eyre have in common? They all can be heard on the first edition of “The Net Sessions”.

“The Net Sessions” is a new cricket podcast, written and spoken by Rick Eyre, in which he presents his unique individual perspective on the world of cricket. Episode one is a thirteen-minute pilot edition, featuring a news summary for the month of July 2005 interspersed with musical interludes and unexpected sound bites.

The frequency and duration of future editions will depend on listener reaction to episode one. As for the content… well, it could be anything and everything related however loosely to cricket that takes Rick’s fancy. But do expect interviews from time to time.

The podcast is downloadable in either one of two audio formats. Ogg Vorbis is the recommended format, and the Ogg version can be found at http://noise.rickeyre.com/2005/08/netsessions1.ogg.

For Ipod users and others unable to use the Ogg version, there is an MP3 version of the podcast available.

Subscribe to the feed of your choice: Ogg Vorbis or MP3 (32kbps).

On Tuesday June 21 I took part in a segment on BBC Radio Five Live’s weekly Pods and Blogs program talking about cricket blogs. It just happened to be days after Australia had lost to Bangladesh in the NatWest Series and was on a losing streak of four.

Download http://noise.rickeyre.com/2005/06/bbc5live.ogg