Return of the ball, and the need for speed

Sing along to "Murali"
Muttiah Muralitharan became the world's leading Test wicket-taker when he bowled Paul Collingwood in the first innings in Kandy to get wicket No. 709. Celebrations began in Sri Lanka, first with the issuing of a book of commemorative stamps, then with a tea party hosted by the prime minister, Mahinda Rajapakse, and several editorials and advertisements praising the feat. The latest in this series of congratulatory messages is an official tribute song. Composed and sung by Sri Lankan-born Australian singer Alson Koch, the catchy tropical tune is titled "Murali". The CD, which contains radio, karaoke and dance versions of the song, was released on the first day of the second Test and is expected to raise funds for Murali's charity organisation aiding tsunami victims.

Backyard ball
Murali is part of yet another record - bowling the ball that Adam Gilchrist hit to get his hundredth six in Tests. The ball has been returned to Gilchrist more than two weeks after he hit it out of the stadium in Hobart. John, a Melbourne midwife, gave in to public pressure and the appeal sent out by Gilchrist and Cricket Australia to return the ball, and gave it back after keeping it buried in a neighbour's backyard for a week. "I thought it would be a bit rough - more than rough, a tragedy - for the ball to be on someone's mantelpiece," John, told the Herald Sun, a Melbourne daily. "That's when I realised the ball was bigger than one person, bigger than Gilchrist. It was the public's ball." CA will put the ball, along with a note on its travels, on display in cricket museums.

Failing the Tebbit test
Norman Tebbit's infamous test has not found support in today's Labour government in Britain. At a debate on Christianophobia in London, Parmjit Dhanda, the communities and local government minister in Gordon Brown's government, who grew up in west London, but whose parents had come from Punjab in north India, said: "I'm unashamedly a supporter of Liverpool Football Club and I fail Norman Tebbit's cricket test by supporting India against England at cricket." Tebbit, a Conservative minister in Margaret Thatcher's government, had suggested in 1990 that ethnic minorities in Britain should show their loyalty to their adopted country by supporting the England cricket team against teams from their country of origin.

Do you feel the need?
It will be raining sixes, fours and men at the Telstra Stadium on January 10. During the Twenty20 match between New South Wales and Western Australia, a bar inside the stadium will host a speed-dating party, one that is being pegged as the first ever Twenty20 singles party. The main objective of the event is to find a solution for the "huge man drought" that is plaguing New South Wales' women this cricket season.

"We've had a vast number of female members on our database calling up and asking where are all the decent men hiding," Rebecca Attenborough, spokeswoman for the speed-dating company Fast Impressions, told the Sydney Morning Herald. "Twenty20 cricket has taken the world by storm ... so we decided to get on board and host an event where we knew it would be popular with a lot of young guys. It does help to have a little bit of interest in the sport, but for the ladies out there, if they want to come along and meet some nice young gentlemen, then this is the ideal opportunity for them to do so." So head to the Telstra next month if you feel the need ... the need for speed.

Musical mess
It seems Lancashire haven't learnt a lesson from the turf disaster that followed the Arctic Monkeys concert in July this year: they have scheduled a Radiohead concert at Old Trafford next June. Though the team have no home fixtures for 18 days after the concert, it is possible that they may have to host a Friends Provident Trophy semi-final on July 4, four days after the concert.

The Arctic Monkeys concert left huge patches of bare turf on the outfield, and with rains following the event, the ground had become a boggy mess which forced the first day of the Championship match against Hampshire on August 21 to be called off. But Jim Cumbes, the club's chief executive, said that without commercial activities there would be no cricket.

"We have just decided to have our outfield and drainage re-laid next summer and you could argue that the last four concerts will pay for it," Cumbes told the Manchester Evening News "We will also look to protect the area around the stage, where the keener fans go and dance for five or six hours. We will obviously keep a close eye on the weather, and if we need to protect more of the ground then we will have no hesitation in doing so."

Caller ID
Duleep Mendis, the former Sri Lankan captain, has asked for police assistance in catching culprits who have sent him death threats over the phone. The acting Chief Colombo Magistrate ordered two telecommunications companies to provide the police with the numbers and names of those who own the telephone connections from where calls were made to Mendis.

Play green
It was an environmentally friendly day at cricket as Greenpeace activists were seen in the Chinnaswamy Stadium stands on day one of the third Test between India and Pakistan, enjoying the game and spreading the message of the dangers of global warming. Every boundary was celebrated by raised posters that read: "Climate change has no boundaries".

Quote-hanger
"I was waiting for him to break my record [227] but the power went off when he was on 225. I missed the moment."
Former Indian batsman Vinod Kambli didn't get to see Sourav Ganguly create a new record for the highest score by an Indian left-hander