Alastair Cook naked

Salutations, and welcome to my blog!

The world of cricket has been alive and well this last week. Except for Chris Rogers, who effectively buried his future when he announced he was leaving WA to go 'elsewhere'.

It was confirmed that next year we will see him in the navy blue as he's going to play for Carlton, I mean, Victoria. More on that later. . .

Over the last few days I've had a bit of correspondence, which has, quite frankly, amazed me. It's nice knowing my readership goes beyond you five, even if it's not much further.

Firstly, a nice fellow sent me the link for a cricket quiz website. It's pretty good Flash I tell you (infinitely better than my attempt at a Flash assignment at uni... heh heh).

I wasn't very good at it because well, it would seem I don't know as much about the lovely game as I flatter myself, but still, you can register for free or just 'play in the nets' and get a feel for it.
You can play here.

Next up, I was alerted to the latest issue of English Cosmopolitan by these chaps. Now Cosmopolitan is not usually a mag I would read, in fact I'd probably rather... do a lot of other things that I'm not at all inclined to do, however this particular edition features a 'charity special' with of course, semi-naked cricketers.

Miss Wicket (?!!) commented that they look gorgeous. Mmm. They look more like pegs to me, but each to their own. You all know how I feel about Stuart Broad and I think Alastair Cook is definitely wearing eyeliner.

At least now I can jump on the bandwagon inspired by the title of this post. Still, yes yes it's all very worthwhile... I just think it could have been done better... using real men, for starters... who said that?

Congrats to AYALAC for being the Wisden Cricketer magazine's second favourite blog. I would just like to say here and now, that if all participants are willing (and if they're not I'll just ask my mate Gilly to step in) I intend to make a cricket blog calendar for 2009.

I will sell it to anyone who wants to buy it (I'm expecing a sell out, naturally) and then donate the profits to a very worthwhile cause. So, step up to the plate lads, and get into Wisden. In fact I know someone who deserves to be in Wisden, you can help him out here.

Finally, I have been admonished (a little) for my poor (read: lack of) mention of the test matches happening between the West Indies and Sri Lanka. As we speak I can hear the highlights of the second test on the TV elsewhere in the house. I will endeavour to rectify this... soon.

Until then... go the Windies!!