Cut-price royalty and graveyard shifts

Not picture perfect
As is often the case in the CB Series (and all its previous incarnations) the two visiting teams, this year India and Sri Lanka, have been competing to meet Australia in the final after the hosts pulled away in the group stage. So the meeting between the two visiting sides at the Adelaide Oval was a crucial game, but clearly Channel 9 didn't see it pulling in a huge audience and ditched it from the schedule. It was left to Foxtel, a pay-TV channel, to telecast the match in Australia.

In the UK, Sky Sports has shown Australian cricket for ten years for all those fans who want to stay up through the night. Sadly, though, just as MS Dhoni was guiding India to a tight victory, the pictures suddenly disappeared and viewers were given a brief glimpse of the BT clock. The match had overrun and the satellite time had run out. By the time someone hastily filled up the meter with some spare change, the game was over and the players were shaking hands.

Last man standing
Cricket entered a new era with the IPL auction in Mumbai. Money was thrown around like confetti and players (not always the obvious ones) ended the day much richer than when they started. But spare a thought for one man: Ashwell Prince. Along with Mohammad Yousuf, he was the only player not bid on. Yousuf, though, comes with baggage as he has a legal wrangle with the Indian Cricket League hanging over his head. Prince, therefore, stands out. It's like being the last kid left for a schoolyard football match and still not being picked. Except, Prince will get paid his base rate - US$175,000 - so it's not quite as bad as it seems.

Bowling out the opposition
The political world in Australia has changed with Kevin Rudd replacing long-time prime minister and cricket tragic, John Howard, but it has taken a while to remove the traces of the Howard government's passion for the game. The office used by Howard's communications team took days to clean up, and there was plenty of evidence of office cricket. The most revealing leftover was a picture of Mark Vaile, leader of the National Party, which had been used as the stumps. "I've got the stumps in my office, which happens to be a Mark Vaile poster," said Labor senator Robert Ray. "So much for parliamentary solidarity."

Running out of fizz
There is certainly a changing of the guard in Indian cricket. Never mind that Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly have been dropped from the one-day side; they have now been dumped by one of their sponsors and replaced with two up-and-coming stars, the Sharmas, Rohit and Ishant.

"From time to time we review the list of stars and depending on the situation and who we think is right, we pick and choose. In case of cricketers, Rohit Sharma and Ishant Sharma are surely in as they have the attitude and aggression reflecting Pepsi's brand image," Sandeep Singh Arora, PepsiCo India executive vice president, Marketing (Cola), told PTI. "If you talk about Rahul and Ganguly, they are not on the list now."

At least Dravid and Ganguly's IPL pay packets will ease the pain somewhat.

Bowling at the death end
Taunton, the home of Somerset, has often been thought of as a graveyard for bowlers. Well, now part of the ground really will be a graveyard - or more accurately, a former graveyard. The club has begun work to expand the playing area, which required the removal of 50 Victorian corpses buried just outside the boundary. "We have put up notices around the church and have done all we can to notify the public. No-one has carried out anything like this on a cricket ground," chief executive Richard Gould told the Times, and he added the local church diocese did not object and no relative has yet come forward to state opposition.

Nice game, no idea how to play it
Never mind all the money in the IPL and India's growing power in the game, the one market that cricket would love to get a toehold in is the United States. Maybe the key is hidden away in Indianapolis, where the new mayor, Greg Ballard, has been getting very excited in his new position and thinking of ways he can help his city develop. In a recent interview with the Indianapolis Star Ballard revealed his idea of a North American cricket tournament. "We could create it, it would be ours," he said enthusiastically, before admitting his knowledge was limited. "I don't know the rules. I just know it's huge around the world."

Give him Lalit Modi's phone number.

Another Aussie favourite quits
It's not only well-known Australian sportsmen who are announcing their retirements. Charli Delaney, an original member of Hi-5, a favourite dance group among Aussie kids, has also hung up her boots. The link to cricket? She blames Adam Gilchrist.

"Gilchrist retired the same day as my last show in Perth, and I'm a cricket tragic," Delaney told the Herald Sun. "I woke up to his speeches and it put me in a reflective mood. I thought: 'Thanks Gilly' ... it was a typical Aussie girl thing to do." Sadly, she hasn't been given an Australia-wide farewell tour.

Quote hanger
"He actually sent me a text message this morning and said, 'I can't believe you're worth double what I am'."
David Hussey reveals that his brother Michael took a bit of time to accept the difference in their IPL values. David went for US$625,000 while Michael had to wait for the final round of bidding and only fetched his base price of US$350,000.