Remember Jason Krejza? If you don’t, he’s a tall Australian offspinner who made his Test debut a year ago in Nagpur and took 12 for 358 against India. Krejza played another Test but has since been forgotten by most people, but not all.

There’s a group in Australia lobbying for Krejza’s return to the national team and they called for the public to observe 12 minutes silence on November 10, in remembrance of the Indian batsmen Krejza felled in 2008.

"[It's] to think about and reflect upon those 12 wickets, those glorious 12 wickets in Nagpur and to think about the impact Jason Krejza can make on the national side," group spokesman Ben McKay said. There’s a Facebook group too – “Concerned Tasmanians for Jason Krejza" – with 231 members at the last time of checking.

"Some of the best specimens running around in cricket have the bodies of a Greek Adonis, but we can't get them on the park to bowl,” says Rixon, who feels bowlers are spending too much time pumping iron instead of running in at the nets. Walters agreed with Rixon that the training methods need to be reworked. Lawson, also a former Pakistan coach, rubbished suggestions of workload saying, "Brett Lee has hardly played any cricket for two years, so you wouldn't think that was from overuse. When I was coach of Pakistan we looked at every injury systematically and how our fitness people were dealing with it."

Two victories in different continents on the same night is quite an effort. A few hours before Simon Katich’s New South Wales outplayed Victoria in Delhi, an episode of Celebrity MasterChef featuring Katich aired on Australian TV. And what’s more, Katich was triumphant over his competitors, comedian Wendy Harmer and fashion designer Alex Perry.

Katich first prepared his signature dish, crispy salmon with wilted spinach and mashed potato, and then wowed the judges when he was asked to prepare a restaurant-quality ten-layer crepe cake. His crepes got him over the line and the victory was all the more impressive given that Katich has the disadvantage of having no sense of smell.

"Everyone thinks that not having a sense of smell must hold me back when I'm cooking, and especially when I'm tasting food, but I feel like my palette is no different,” he said. “When I describe a dish it's no different to anyone else. The only problem I have is I don't know when something is burning.”

Katich was taught to cook by his mother and whenever he’s at home he does most of the cooking for himself and his wife Georgie. He now finds himself in the semi-finals of the cooking show, along with Olympic swimmer Eamon Sullivan and INXS band member Kirk Pengilly.

In other television news, Shane Warne has reportedly accepted the role as the new presenter of Top Gear Australia, taking on the Jeremy Clarkson position in the Channel Nine version of the show. Perhaps his baked beans on toast weren't quite up to MasterChef standards.

Move over ice baths, deep-heat massages and resistance training - the new form of treatment could be "baggy-green therapy". Ask Australia’s opener Phil Jaques, who has turned to his Test cap to help him recover from a third operation to fix a bulging disc in his lower back. Jaques said he would would look at his baggy green in the lead-up to the operation to draw strength from it; post-op, he would look at the bottle-green fabric and national crest before heading off to the gym or pool for more conventional recuperative measures. ''I was really hungry to get back,'' Jaques told The Sydney Morning Herald. ''I'm still desperate to play for Australia again; there was no way I could have gone through everything I did if I didn't have that desire.''

	© Getty Images

No, it's not a new Australian reality TV show where contestants compete to drink the most beers and grow the most impressive facial hair while stranded on a tropical island (although that idea has some merit). Australia's federal communications minister Stephen Conroy caused the Senate to erupt into laughter by accidentally referring to Tasmania's Bruny Island as "Boony Island".

"Senator Bushby for example has complained that Telstra should not be allowed to remove pay phones from Boony island ... Bruny island, there's a typo here," Senator Conroy said. AAP reported that "it took some time for the Senate to calm down after Senator Conroy's inadvertent tribute to Boon".

The idea of renaming the island off the coast of Hobart after Boon, one of the most popular Tasmanian figures, would no doubt have plenty of fans. There's probably a Facebook campaign being launched as we speak. You can guarantee that most Australians would be more familiar with Boon than the man after which the island was named - the eighteenth-century French explorer Bruni d'Entrecasteaux.

Life has come a full circle barely few months into international cricket for Australian opener Phillip Hughes. After a sensational debut series in South Africa, he failed to live up to the hype in the Ashes and was expectedly dumped after two Tests. The determination to set things right has led him to set up an appointment with Sachin Tendulkar in Mumbai on Monday. Hughes is in India to train in Nagpur under the guidance of his coach Neil D'Costa, who’s the head coach of a local academy. Hughes stresses that he will get the most out of Tendulkar, even if it takes the whole night.

"I'll chew his ear off,” Hughes told the Australian. “I've got questions about a lot of things that I want to ask him. I like getting around and talking to the guys who have been around for a long time." Keep an eye on Twitter for updates.

Andrew Symonds is serving out his suspension from the Australian team by training with his hometown rugby side, the Broncos, who are gunning for their 18th straight final in the National Rugby League. Symonds is famously passionate about rugby - to the extent of shoulder-charging a spectator who invaded the field at the Gabba - and one of his most recent public appearances was at a Gold Coast Titans game soon after flying back from England following his ban.

Broncos coach Ivan Henjak said he was happy to have Symonds’ international experience at hand and said he was not a disruption to his players. “It’s been nothing but positive from my end, I’m very happy to have him here,” Henjak was quoted as saying in Australia’s Daily Telegraph. “… having his presence around is good for everyone. He has a wealth of experience of playing top-level sport, he has a lot to offer. He’s played cricket at highest level. That experience is invaluable, no matter what sport you play.”

Symonds, who was banned by Cricket Australia after breaking a alcohol ban just before the World Twenty20 in England, has said he considered switching sports and joining the Broncos back in 2002. But an unexpected Australian call-up to the World Cup squad in 2003 made him stay with cricket.

John Howard must be spitting out his tea in disgust at the comments of his successor as Australia’s prime minister, Kevin Rudd. Howard is the ultimate cricket tragic and his green-and-gold tracksuit will no doubt be his outfit of choice during the upcoming Ashes series.

While Rudd is also a cricket fan, he this week teetered dangerously on the edge of being labelled un-Australian – one of Howard’s favourite terms – when asked in a radio interview who was his favourite athlete. Rudd surely would say Don Bradman … surely. Or at least an Australian icon from another sport.

But this was Rudd’s response: “I can't go past Garry Sobers. There you go." Rudd cited Sobers’ unbeaten 254 for the Rest of the World at the MCG and his six sixes in an over of county cricket. “I thought, this guy has got the gift, the gift of the gods about him," Rudd said. "So there you go, he's not an Australian. Garry Sobers."

It's almost grounds for impeachment. At least Rudd knows he’ll always be welcome in Barbados.

Andrew Symonds' playing future could become clearer in the coming weeks following the arrival of his agent to England. Matt Fearon will meet with county officials to gauge their interest in signing Symonds for next year's Twenty20 Cup and P20 competitions. Symonds is already committed to Deccan Chargers for the next IPL season, and is considering offers from at least one South African Pro20 franchise. The allrounder, who will feature on Australia's 60 Minutes programme this week, could also play for Queensland, despite turning down a central contract from his home state.

A streaker once felt the brunt of Andrew Symonds’ strength when he was on the wrong end of a shoulder charge at the Gabba. Symonds was always keen to put that power into action on the rugby field, so much so that he once considered quitting cricket to try out for the Brisbane Broncos.

Now that he doesn’t hold a Cricket Australia contract, Symonds is free to pursue activities that would have been considered too risky for a professional cricketer. It didn’t take him long to indulge his passion for rugby, playing against a Men of League All-Stars team including Steve Renouf, Marcus Bai and Ben Kennedy on the weekend.

The Courier-Mail reported that Symonds played wing for the first half and was given a jeer by the crowd when he dropped the first pass that came to him but then performed well. "I couldn't sleep last night," Symonds said.

There were a few impressive moments from Symonds, including when he closed in on Bai, a former rugby league star, and laid a strong tackle. "One thing I will say about him is that he is very strong," Bai said. "I thought I would bump him off, but I couldn't."

When Melbourne police get called into one of the city’s pokey alleys it’s not usually for a happy reason. But on Friday there were smiles all round as police took part in a laneway cricket match with members of the Indian community as a show of harmony following the recent attacks on Indian students in Australia.

Cricket Victoria helped organise the event and Brad Hodge was the star attraction at the game, which took place in an arty graffiti-lined lane, and he took special delight in sending down a couple of quicker balls at the police. When he reverted to offspin a ball sailed back over his head and into the crowd of onlookers, so it was lucky the result was secondary to the message Hodge and the other participants were aiming to send.

“Whenever any Australian cricketers go to India, we’re welcomed with open arms,” Hodge said. “Today is about standing alongside Indians who’ve come to Australia and letting them know that we welcome them, and value highly their contribution to our country.”

Amit Menghani, the president of the Federation of Indian Students in Australia, said: "It is wonderful to see such a positive initiative from the cricket community and the Victorian Police. Recent weeks have been extremely tough so it’s most heartening to see cricket helping reinforce the need for mutual understanding and respect. There remains work to be done but even little events like these can go a long way.”

Hodge’s participation was even more appreciated given that his wife Meg is due to give birth “any time now”. In fact, a trip to the maternity ward is so close that Victoria’s coach Greg Shipperd was on standby, ready to step into Hodge’s role in the game should the batsman get an urgent phone-call.

He might not have played a game in the IPL, but Glenn McGrath will be remembered forever in his home town of Narromine. McGrath will be the subject of a life-size bronze statue that is certain to attract interest from local birds, who will be keen to drop in on the fast bowler known as ‘Pigeon’.

The Sun-Herald reports the work will cost more than A$70,000 and will be unveiled next month. McGrath grew up in the western New South Wales town before heading to Sydney and turning into one of the game’s greatest bowlers. His reputation didn’t impress Delhi, who didn’t call on him at all in South Africa.

Australia haven’t had a match-winning spinner since Shane Warne hung up his boots after the last Ashes series and the situation is serious enough to warrant calling a ‘spin summit’ next month to discuss the issue. The country’s spin bowling experts – including Terry Jenner, Warne’s mentor, and John Davison, the spin bowling coach at Cricket Australia’s Centre of Excellence (COE) - will meet at the COE in Brisbane to find a solution for the lack of quality spinners in all formats. According to AAP, the reluctance of captains to use attacking spinners is the reason for the lack of spin options. Australian selectors are expected to pick Nathan Hauritz, a containing offspinner, for the Ashes ahead of more attacking spinners like Jason Krejza and Bryce McGain. But Andrew Hilditch, the chairman of selectors, felt “attacking” was an over-rated term, saying "to assert pressure from one end is attacking cricket". That, presumably, will be up for discussion at Brisbane as well.

	The Mekong Cricket Ground? © Getty Images

If the ICC is keen to expand into the Chinese market this might be a good start. According to a report on the Herald Sun website the Melbourne Cricket Ground was to be rebranded the Mekong Cricket Ground “following an audacious naming rights bid by a Chinese construction giant”.

After Melbourne’s other major stadium, the Docklands ground, was renamed Etihad Stadium earlier this year the new MCG moniker was just a bit too much for the patriotic pride of some readers. More than 200 comments had been posted on the story by midday Melbourne time.

More than 200 people submitted feedback to the newspaper’s website. "Let's just give up this whole country to the Asians and be done with it," posted "Mister Master. "What did our diggers fight and die for in the past wars?” he continued, ignoring the minor fact that the Chinese were actually on the Allies' side.

Other readers were alert to the fact that it was April Fool’s Day. It might have helped that the paper quoted a spokeswoman going by the name April Fulton.

Don Bradman seemingly knew everything about Australian cricket during decades as a player, administrator, selector and national hero, but he had no idea about the value of his surname. The issue has been discussed in the Supreme Court, with Bradman’s son John suing a law firm for using his father’s eight-letter moniker as "a brand name, like Mickey Mouse".

"He said that he really had no idea that his name would have the commercial value, which it apparently has, and agreed that a fair benefit should flow to the family," the Australian reported John Bradman writing to the firm in 1998. "He also said that while he can contain the use of his name during his lifetime, after his death he would like the family to have a fair say in its use."

When the wives and girlfriends joined the touring squad in Cape Town over the weekend, most of the Australian players indulged in a bit of romantic sightseeing or some retail therapy. If the men were holding bags they were likely Prada or Louis Vuitton. Not so for Mitchell Johnson.

His girlfriend Jessica Bratich enjoys a bit of fashion, as she revealed at the Allan Border Medal, but she also happens to be a karate champion. While he was enjoying a break from Test cricket this week, Johnson found himself holding a punching bag for Bratich and things got a little dangerous for Australia’s key bowler.

“She actually did punch me in the gut yesterday,” Johnson said on Monday. “She was doing 30 punches really quickly and as she was getting a bit slower she hit me in the gut. I might have said something, I don’t know.

“She’s looking to go to the world titles next year in Serbia. She’s got a few tournaments this year. I think there’s one in India as well. It’s a funny thing, she’s wanted to come to India with me on a few occasions but hasn’t had the chance so I think she’d enjoy it.”

At least Johnson could laugh about his hit to the stomach. There wasn’t a smile on Michael Clarke’s face on Monday when he took a ball to the, ah, midriff during Australia’s net session at Newlands and went down like a sack of particularly tender potatoes.

Perhaps Johnson and Clarke can have a debate about whether it’s more embarrassing to be felled by your girlfriend or by a bowling machine. Feeding the balls into the machine was none other than Steve Bernard, the former first-class fast bowler who is now Australia’s team manager. It seems that “Brute” Bernard is still living up to his nickname.

	Peter Siddle used to do the yelling from the crowd, now he's being heckled himself © Getty Images

Peter Siddle is learning that what goes around comes around. Ten years ago he used to sit at the MCG and join in the nasty chants about opposition players. Now he’s on the receiving end. “Siddle’s a wanker” has become something of a series catchphrase in South Africa. The fans would never admit it but it’s a perverse mark of respect.

Richard Hadlee was the target of similar jeers in Australia during the 1980s and Siddle recalls handing out the same treatment to Courtney Walsh. There was a fitting symmetry when Siddle ran in to the rhythm of the chants in South Africa; Walsh was watching on from the commentary box.

“It is a bit weird. I was always watching the Test matches where they were getting into Warney or Merv Hughes,” Siddle said. “I remember actually going to the Boxing Day Test and even joining in when they were getting into whatever player. It might be Courtney Walsh or anyone down on the boundary there in bay 13, getting into them.

“It is sort of weird actually being out on the field and there's chanting and they are getting into you. I was thinking, ten years ago I was doing the same thing. It has been fun and interesting and it's just something I've got to deal with I guess.”

Siddle has become something of a cult figure in South Africa, where one particular newspaper is obsessed with his so-called “man boobs”. Man boobs, muscle, what’s the difference. It’s splitting hairs. As long as he realises the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.

	Australia's Sarah Andrews backs up during the game on the Gold Coast © Cricket Australia

Beach cricket in summer is as Australian as winning World Cups.

Matthew Hayden ensured the men’s team made it three in a row in 2007 and the women’s side will attempt back-to-back successes when the 2009 global tournament begins in New South Wales on Saturday.

Hayden donned the board shorts and joined the Australian stars Ellyse Perry, Alex Blackwell, Delissa Kimmince and Sarah Andrews in a beach game at Snapper Rocks on the Gold Coast, where the Roxy Pro surfing event is about to be held.

The opposition was some of the world’s best on the waves, including Layne Beachley, the seven-times world champion, Steph Gilmore, Jessi Miley-Dyer, Sally Fitzgibbons and Sam Cornish.

Over the next week things will get more serious for the cricketers. Their first match of the World Cup is on Sunday against New Zealand.

It seemed so spur of the moment. Adam Voges’ brilliant juggling catch on the long-on boundary to remove Brendon McCullum in the second-last over was the difference between victory and defeat for Australia. Had he stumbled over the boundary with the ball in hand, a six would have been called and New Zealand would almost certainly have won.

Instead, Voges lobbed the ball high back into play as he fell backwards, then tripped over the boundary as he crawled back onto the field to complete the take. He was part juggler, part tightrope walker and was cool enough to pull off the act in front of tens of thousands of spectators.

But circus-goers don’t see the hours of practice and neither had most of the Sydney fans seen Voges try a similar trick a fortnight ago in a state one-day game. On that occasion Queensland’s Nathan Reardon slammed the ball towards long-off and Voges took it cleanly while backing back, but again was going to fall over the boundary.

His Western Australia colleague Theo Doropoulos had also made good ground and was near the ball, so Voges lobbed it towards him and Doropoulos was credited with the catch. But like any good showman, Voges wasn’t about to be upstaged and turned the duet into a solo act at the SCG.

	Michael Slater can’t remember the last time he picked up a bat © Getty Images

Sydney physiotherapists are in for a hectic evening. Mark Taylor and Michael Slater are among a long list of Australian sporting celebrities old and new to volunteer their services for a charity Twenty20 match at the SCG on February 22 to raise money for the victims of the Victorian bushfires.

Speaking at the launch of the event, Slater conceded he could not remember the last time he picked up a bat, while Taylor estimated he had played a solitary match in five years. But the former opening duo believes aching muscles are a small price to pay for the bushfire relief appeal, which has already raised millions for the injured and displaced.

"I'm not sure what kind of nick I'm in," Taylor admitted. "I haven't tried for a while." Taylor and Steve Waugh will captain sides that will be easily recognisable to Australian audiences.

Glenn McGrath, Moises Henriques, David Warner and Nathan Bracken will fine tune their Indian Premier League preparations in a match that will feature Australian rugby union internationals Lote Tuqiri and Phil Waugh, rugby league players Braith Anasta and Anthony Minichiello, surfers Mick Fanning and Joel Parkinson and boxer Anthony Mundine. The match will be staged by the SCG Trust and Cricket NSW and will begin at 5pm.

It sounds like a line from a Seinfeld episode. There’s been slippage. Those were the words of the delightfully named Rodney Cavalier, the chairman of the SCG Trust, in describing the recent conduct and appearance of that famous group of rascals, the SCG members.

The trust was so concerned that it sent its members a letter in the lead-up to Sunday’s ODI warning them that they risked fines, court appearances and suspension of their membership if they acted up. "At the most recent one-day match a fight broke out in the members' area,” Cavalier said in the Sydney Morning Herald.

"The trust takes the view that members should be setting a higher standard than the public. That's why they're entrusted with full-strength beer. They're also expected to set a higher standard of clothing and footwear. There's been slippage.”

His words were backed up by an 85-year-old member unhappy with the modern dress standards and lack of decorum from his younger colleagues. "In the old days you wouldn't get in without a jacket," he said.

Back then, the fights took place on the Hill, not in the Members. "My father said on the Hill you could see a wrestling match, a fight and some theatre,” he said. “Then some cricket would erupt.”

Ah, the good old days. Damn that slippage.

Phillip Hughes’ hometown of Macksville cannot wait for him to make his Test debut in South Africa. The anticipation of him donning the baggy green will result in the town’s local pub being packed to capacity on February 26, the first day of the Johannesburg Test. “It will be chock-a-block,” the pub manager Ben Padtridge told the Sydney Morning Herald. “There is talk around town of having a Phillip Hughes Day, everyone is loving it.”

News of Hughes’ selection was announced on the staffroom loudspeaker at his school Macksville High. His mentor Neil D’Costa singled out Hughes’ discipline as his greatest strength. “When he needs to rest, he will rest. When he needs to stay away from people, he will,” D’Costa said. “He is the type of guy that likes to go for a walk by himself and likes to go and fish.”

	Haroon Lorgat and David Morgan check out the mace that has lived in Melbourne for the best part of eight years © Getty Images

The Australian public is losing confidence in their Test team and it seems that the ICC doesn’t have much faith either. The president David Morgan and the chief executive Haroon Lorgat were in Melbourne on Wednesday to confiscate the Test Championship mace.

But hang on. Aren’t Australia still the No. 1 team in the world? Only a series victory to South Africa in South Africa next month would give them the top spot.

When asked if it was a little presumptuous to remove the mace so early, Morgan said it needed to be in South Africa just in case. “I think it has to be at the destination where it could possibly change hands,” Morgan said.

The silver and gold-plated mace was designed to resemble a cricket stump topped by a big orb. The stump end has potential as a poking device and the globe could be an effective clubbing weapon as well, and as the men inspected the mace, Lorgat decided maybe he could use it at the ICC’s headquarters in Dubai.

“It could be a tool to get some things done around the office,” Lorgat said. There are probably some cricket fans around the world who would be happy with that ...

	Allan Border was seeing double at his awards night © Getty Images

People with unusual names know how frustrating it is to have them mispronounced. There’s no excuse when you mangle it yourself and in any case, “Allan” should be pretty straightforward.

But when Allan Border was on stage to present the medal that bears his name, he stumbled embarrassingly on the part of the announcement that should have come naturally. Somehow his own name came out sounding like “Addle” or “Annal”.

When the ripple of polite laughter died down he corrected himself and announced that there was a tie between Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke. The following day, Border explained the cause of his confusion.

“I looked down at the card and I saw the two names there,” Border said. “It caught me by surprise.”

	Simon and Georgie Katich at the Allan Border Medal © Getty Images

The pre-count favourite Mitchell Johnson missed out on the Allan Border Medal in Melbourne on Monday and he even failed to win a title that should have been his in a canter.

Channel Nine polled the women at the awards night to find the sexiest player featured in the Men of Cricket charity calendar.

The winner was, rather surprisingly, Simon Katich. Unlike Johnson and Shane Watson, who show off their waxed and oiled chests, Katich goes for the natural look, with a hairy chest. Even his wife Georgie couldn’t believe that her man had won the vote.

“I’m shocked to be honest,” she said. “I didn’t know there was a lot of love for the fur.”

On the night, Katich also had a decent supply of facial stubble, as he often does on the field. Then he offered up a little too much information.

“As the boys in the dressing room know, it’s not just limited to my chest or my face.”

	Shane Warne at the 2009 Australian Open in Melbourne © Getty Images

Two years after his retirement from Test cricket and Shane Warne's celebrity shows no signs of abating. In fact, he still rivals A-list celebrities the world over. The former Australian legspinner, amid growing speculation of another reunion with ex-wife Simone, has asked the police to get rid of that famous celebrity parasite: the paparazzi photographer.

The Herald Sun reported that Warne has lodged a complaint against Jamie Fawcett, a famous celeb snapper who's been involved in a harassment row with Nicole Kidman previously. Warne was apparently angered by photos taken of his three children - Brooke, Jackson and Summer - during a recent family day out on the beach. The photos subsequently appeared in a women's magazine.

Warne confronted the photographer recently as well. "He did say to me at one stage that he'd rung the police and knew all about me," Fawcett said. "But I'm very careful about how I follow celebrities these days. Whilst I and my colleagues do a lot of work in relation to Shane Warne, we keep it all very low-key. In fact, I could almost say that on 95% of occasions he actually wouldn't know we were there.

"I don't badger celebs." Of course not. Warne is just an ordinary leggie.

Tasmanian No 11 Tim Macdonald isn’t going to be on his team-mate Brett Geeves’ Christmas list this year. For the second time in this season’s Sheffield Shield, Macdonald has managed to leave Geeves stranded on 99, tantalizingly short of his maiden first-class century.

The first offence was against Victoria in November last year and Geeves vented on his blog on the Tasmanian Cricket Association’s website. “Can I start this blog by apologising for Tim MacDonald’s woeful display of playing short pitch bowling?” Geeves wrote. “Yes I’m angry. 99 no and the number eleven gloves a short ball from a guy who is into his 50th over of the match. Clinton McKay won't mind me saying he wasn't bowling his quickest. Sore groins, ankles barking at him saying, "Why don't we ever get any tucan pie?" Duck the ball Tim!!”

The second occasion was during the ongoing contest against New South Wales: Macdonald left Geeves left high and dry on 99 off only 113 balls. He hadn’t updated his blog yet when last checked …

Signatures on Indian Cricket League contracts continue to have lasting effects in Australia. First Jason Gillespie was banned from coaching at the Australian Centre of Excellence and the same thing has happened to Stuart Law.

Law, a former Queensland captain, has not played first-class cricket in Australia since 2004, but was told he could accept a position as batting coach at the Academy only if he stopped playing in the ICL. "I can't see what the problem is,” Law said in the Courier-Mail. “If the ICL was pinching young players like Alister McDermott to play then I could understand Cricket Australia getting upset about it.

“But guys who haven't played Shield cricket for a number of years ... what's the problem? The ICC are trying to sort this out and the ICL is happy to talk, but the IPL are making us lepers in the community."

	The heatwave hits Melbourne as a family enjoy beach cricket © Getty Images

Club cricketers the world over – especially those in England – are used to playing in the cold and the wet, but the current heatwave blasting parts of Australia has proved too much for even the hardy locals.

A day after the organisers defending men’s champion Novak Djokovic had to pull out of the Australian Open in Melbourne with heat cramps, South Australia took the decision to scrap most of the state’s men’s and women’s grade cricket because of the abnormal conditions.
With temperatures well into the 40s – so hot that insects were dropping dead in their thousands at the Melbourne tennis – the news might be seen as a sign that Australians are going as soft as their national team’s bowling attack.

But Cricket Victoria showed that the old hard approach remains. A senior CV official, sitting in his air conditioned office no doubt, dismissively brushed aside a request from South Australia that the start time of the Sheffield Shield game at the MCG be brought forward to 9am to try to avoid the worst of the day’s heat. More drinks, less whinging was the gist of his reply as he took another ice-cold can from his desk-side fridge.

Shane Warne has helped revive the art of leg spin, sell millions of copies of News of the World and make ‘blond and overweight’ a combination irresistible to women. Now he is luring men – the beer-drinking, sports-loving kind – to Melbourne theatres through the smash hit musical based on his life.

Eddie Perfect, the actor playing Warne in ‘Shane Warne – The Musical’, says Warne is someone who has fascinated Australia, and come to typify the best and worst of the country. "We're getting guys dragging their girlfriends to the theatre, which is the opposite of how it usually works," Perfect told AFP. "You see young blokes making their way to their seats carrying armfuls of beers for their mates, just like they do at the cricket.”

Perfect said the new faces in the audience had upset some in the traditional group but it was for the best. “It's like Reformation theatre when people were buying oranges to throw at the actors - why shouldn't they have fun?"

There have been suggestions of taking the production to London and even India and Perfect is keen to go international. He said not much would have to be changed in the current musical to suit the English audience since Warne was as popular in England as he was in Australia. But the chance to play in India excited him. "It'd be a blast. We could turn every number into a huge Bollywood production."

Two hat-tricks are taken by team-mates in the same game and the match ends in a tie. Sounds like a quirky cricket tale but that was exactly the scenario when South Launceston's Under-16 side played the North-East Bushrangers at Scottsdale recently. Shaun Field, 15, and Ben Jackson, 16, opened the bowling for their club, and each took their first-ever hat-tricks in the game, as well as their maiden five-fors.

While both boys were elated by their hat-tricks, South Launceston U-16 coach Peter Linger, who has played cricket for 35, said he had never seen anything like it. South Launceston were set a target of 169, and the match went down to the wire with two runs required off the last ball. However, they could only manage a single. The stuff of dreams. Well sort of.

	Greg Matthews, who is now 49, still has his tricks © Getty Images

Greg Matthews, the former Test offspinner, talks a great game – and still bowls one. In the lead-up to Phil Jaques’ return from back surgery, Matthews, 49, let the Test opener know he would be in for a tough time during Sutherland’s first grade match against Sydney University.

“Phil is a great batsman," Matthews said. "I'll give him an hour to get a feel for things, but that's it. If Stuart Clark or Mitch Cook don't roll him, hopefully the old man can come on and get lucky."

Matthews didn’t give Jaques a chance to get his eye in. After one over from Clark late in the day, Matthews arrived and had Jaques lbw with his first ball, which he said was a skidder.

Did Matthews, who now has a grey beard and round figure, feel sorry for Jaques? "Not for one millisecond do I feel anything other than elation,'' Matthews said in the Sunday Telegraph. "Phil is going to play 50 more Tests. He's got it all in front of him.”

So sometimes it’s a bit hard to make sense of Andrew Symonds, but his radio interview with Australian comedians Roy and HG on Triple M on Friday was particularly hard to work out. He was talking about New South Wales’ decision to hire Brendon McCullum for their Twenty20 final and Cricket Australia will decipher the recording to determine whether Symonds should be punished.

“They're trying to use him [McCullum] as the out because he's a Kiwi,” Symonds said. "Yep, we love to hate them, but he's the lump of s..., sorry, lump of cow dirt, that people are thinking of. Now to get away from that, the actual topic is about playing cricket and getting into a final.

"To get yourself to that position and if you haven't brought anybody in, personally I wouldn't be changing a winning team. It doesn't matter about McCullum, mate, he could have been Irish, he still would have got it.” Are you keeping up?

“It's not his fault, he's doing his job and trying to earn a wage. But what happened here is an injustice. I said Daniel Smith, his opposite number, was going to miss out. But they said this morning that Daniel Smith is going to play, but at the end of day somebody is still going to miss out.'' Something is definitely missing.

It’s not quite the equivalent of convincing Merv Hughes to shave off his moustache but it’s close. For five years dreadlocks have been a key part of Andrew Symonds’ image but now he is gearing up to them chopped off for charity.

As part of the World’s Greatest Shave, which raises money for the Leukaemia Foundation, Symonds will get rid of the locks on live TV on February 14.

It remains to be seen whether it will be akin to Samson losing his hair, although the publicity shy Symonds sees at least one benefit. "I am looking forward to it,” he said. “I will be able to sneak around a little bit more.”

Australia are currently clinging on to the No. 1 ranking in Tests and will be dethroned only if they lose the upcoming three-Test series in South Africa. The ICC, however, have taken the Test Championship trophy away from Australia to their headquarters in Dubai in anticipation that it could change hands.

Australia have held the trophy ever since it was introduced in 2001 apart from a few months in 2003 when South Africa were briefly No 1. "We have held it ever since the ICC Test rankings were introduced in May 2001, so apart from the four months in 2003 it's been with us," CA spokesman Peter Young was quoted as saying by Sydney Morning Herald. "Our building [Cricket Australia’s office in Melbourne] was designed around the trophy. We are most certainly planning to bring it back with us from South Africa. If that does not eventuate we may have to get some Polyfilla and fill the space in our foyer."

The ICC will present the trophy to the No 1 Test team at the end of Australia’s Test tour to South Africa.

Matthew Hayden and Harbhajan Singh have had a few spats and Hayden revealed after his retirement when it all began.

“I loved playing the people who geed me up, tell me I can't do something - that's what he [Harbhajan] told me the first time we met,” Hayden told the Sun-Herald. Australia was playing a practice match and he said, 'I hope you get picked for Australia.' He didn't know, but in that game I was trying to rotate the strike really defensively so I didn't show him any of my key strategies before the Test. I was batting rubbish and he had every right to say what he did. My comeback to him was saying, 'We'll see.' That's all I said.

“First ball he bowled in the Test, I ran down and hit him over the top of mid-off. I said, 'OK, there's my answer.' Because there's a language barrier, I think it may have sounded to him more offensive than it really was. There was always a real tension between us, but I respect what he's done in his career. And in his life, he has looked after his entire family. I respect that.”