The 2011-12 season saw the transformation of Australia's state-based "Big Bash" competition into the franchise-based Big Bash League. Here are a few points which I think can be taken away following the inaugural Big Bash League:

My second column for iSportConnect can be read in full at http://www.isportconnect.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11342&catid=74&Itemid=193 ...more

Over and above all the usual tiresome attempts at April Foolery, this two-minute video from the England and Wales Cricket Board is one of my favourites this year (along with 8-bit Google Maps). An "innovation" almost plausible enough that it wouldn't surprise me if the IPL tried to adapt it for real. Here's the ECB's accompanying statement on the balldogs innovation, post-edited to partly wimp out of the April Fool's joke. ...more

Sachin Tendulkar is surely cricket's greatest batsman of the past twenty years, and maybe (in competition with Vivian Richards) the best of my lifetime. His genius, longevity and durability have given him records that may prove impossible to break. But the farcical pursuit of his "100th international hundred", which climaxed at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium, Mirpur yesterday, is a blight that his illustrious legacy can do without. ...more

Rahul Dravid is to Sachin Tendulkar what Bill Ponsford was to Don Bradman and Rohan Kanhai was to Garfield Sobers. Dravid, who announced his retirement from international cricket on Friday, was that exceptionally talented and prolific batsman who just happened to be playing for India at the same time as one of the sport's very best. ...more

(The following is a press release issued by the England and Wales Cricket Board on 8 March 2012. It is reproduced here, in its entirety and uncut, except that I have inserted line breaks so that it may be read as blank verse. As surely it was intended to be. The original can be read here). ...more

England allrounder Luke Wright struck a half-century as the Sussex defeated the Northamptonshire by 12 runs in a low-scoring encounter....(More)

Glenn Querl starred with ball and bat as the Unicorns pulled off their first win of the Clydesdale Bank 40 season, beating Kent by four wickets....(More)

South African Dale Steyn took three wickets for eight runs and led Deccan Chargers to a nine-run victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League.....(More)

Terming the Indian Premier League as "shameful", Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that his government would not allow IPL matches in the state.....(More)

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