Sydney Day Two: Warne’s 1000th vegetable

You have  to hand it to the Murdoch comic books. One week they are celebrating – in advance – the Lord Of The RingsText Alert’s 700th wicket, the next week they are celebrating his 1000th wicket. With that rarest or rarities, the full page colour liftout commemorative poster.

So what are we celebrating again? Shane Warne’s 1000th international wicket. As in all “full internationals”. Let me explain, by introducing the rickeyre.com vegetable index (More about the fruit index later) Continue reading “Sydney Day Two: Warne’s 1000th vegetable”

Remember what they said about McGwire and Bonds

The ever-diligent Rajneesh Gupta notes that Australia has now had more sixes struck against them in the current Test series than in any previous series. And that with two matches to play.

England has clobbered 26 sixes over the ropes thus far in the 2005 Ashes, beating the 23 struck by the South Africans of 1966-67 at higher altitudes.

There’s some undocumented stats that could probably help explain this phenomenon better: (i) the dimensions of the playing area for each Test; (ii) the weight of the bats used in hitting those sixes.

It’s official. Pi equals 3.2

The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians will be recording January 10’s ICC World XI v ACC XI match in Melbourne, and the yet-to-be-rescheduled rematch, as official one-day internationals in accordance with the ICC’s wishes. The ACS committee discussed the matter at their latest meeting on Saturday, and their ruling was emailed to association members (including myself) yesterday. Continue reading “It’s official. Pi equals 3.2”

Tsunami appeal games, official ODIs or not?

Everyone involved in the organisation of January 10’s game at the MCG between an ICC World XI and an Asian Cricket Council XI should be commended for their efforts in putting the event together at short notice following the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami of December 26. More than 14 million dollars Australian was raised for the World Vision Tsunami Appeal that day in front of a packed house and many millions of television viewers. Continue reading “Tsunami appeal games, official ODIs or not?”

And a warm welcome to the Netherlands Antilles

Cricket’s global community expanded just a little further on Friday February 6 when the Netherlands Antilles hosted its first first-class cricket match. The Leeward Islands played host to the Windwards in their Carib Beer Series match at the Carib Lumber Ground, Philipsburg, Sint Maarten. The Netherlands Antilles is now the 35th country to host first-class cricket. Continue reading “And a warm welcome to the Netherlands Antilles”