The Blog That Never Sleeps revives an ancient tradition from an ancient game. The factually unreliable and irregular Play Abandoned column ran as an unsolicited email from sometime in the nineties until January 2002 - it returns once more.
As I write this highly civilised people have made the most popular six stories on the Sydney Morning Herald news feed all about cricket.
These stories are part of the tens of thousands of words swirling around the carnage that remains from the Second Test in Sydney in the current Australia v India series.
That this remarkable match has descended into a farce, possibly taking the tour along with it, is a sort of minor tragedy - with character failings littered like McDonalds' wrappers along the M4 - that appears to be engulfing more than just the game of cricket.
In a world beset by soaring energy costs, post election Kenyan violence, Iraq and Pakistan on the brink of civil war and a climate gone feral it's rather quaint that such a distraction can occupy so many minds.
While some point to the poor umpiring as the root of the problem, and others the behaviour of essentially spoilt brats, the seeds of this current conflict go back at least to Australia's last visit to India and the ugly taunting of Andrew Symons by the Indian crowd.
I say 'current' because there is a fairly steady connection between Australian cricket and sledging, often defended by some in the game, including current test captain Ricky Ponting.
What do we do about Ponting? This is the guy who got into a fight with a Big Brown Bear at the Bourbon and Beafsteak Bar over Carlotta. As TISM said, he comes across as such a boring Yobbo cunt. The sort of bloke who'd be working as an insurance assessor if he couldn't hit a ball remarkably well.
When Chris Cairns sister died in a train accident New Zealand the Black Caps were playing Australia. After Cairns had taken guard the bowler was running in when one of the Aussies started a chant of "choo, choo, choo".
Current conflict in the Sydney test came to a head when Symonds asked Indian Spinner Harbijan Singh on day three "did you call me a monkey?"
Harbajan denies it. The umpires didn't hear anything. Essentially it has descended into a "he said/she said" playground spat. On what basis Harbajan can be rubbed out AND receive natural justice is a mystery.
Ponting's (and Symonds) petulant reaction to what Harbajan may or may not have said really does reinforce the attitude that the Australian cricket team can dish it out but they can't take it. In short, they are bullies.
And no one likes a bully.
We now all know that Symonds was out long before he rattled up 160-odd, helping Australia to 400 plus, and there are a fair number of other decisions that have taken a shine off a game that included a wonderful batting performance by India, highlighted by Sachin Tendulkar's century. This has now led to the series being in doubt and incredibly strained relations between the two teams.
If this series is to not become a fiasco both sides need to pull their heads in. Ponting needs to be reined in - he appears to have lost completely any sense of proportion or even the consequences of his side living by the sword for so many years.
It would be really nice to be able to like the Australian side but, sadly, they aren't very likeable in their current guise.
As someone who plays lower grade cricket I see how this sort of behaviour filters down to the lower levels of cricket - taking the fun out of the game for many. Comments directed at opponents just shouldn't be on, but sadly they are now part and parcel of playing cricket. It also legitimises a lot of the unfunny comments that can be heard at any international match or suburban pub that, while they might be overtly racist, aren't that far from a Cronulla beachside barbecue.
The Australian cricket team might be celebrating, but it's ringing pretty hollow for many.
While Ponting and Coy's behaviour is pretty obviously undermining the standing of a great game in the eyes of casual observers and the international community - it's also a reflection on how seriously public standards have collapsed in this country during the Howard decade. After all, Punters attitude is seen as reasonable by quite a few 'ordinary' Australians, who shrug and say it's 'a part of the game'.
No doubt Howard - if he was still in power - would back Ponting to the hilt. Ponting, surrounded as he is by the white-bread world of Australian cricket probably doesn't even realise what a wally he is making of himself.
What should have been a great series will now be remembered for controversy and bitterness.
Cricket is now smaller and poorer for the behaviour of all concerned in creating this fiasco - the umpires, Harbajan, Symonds, Clarke and Ponting; the commentators and coaches and predecessors who created this bully-boy culture; a country too gutless to confront it's own insecurity - and a rampant win-at-all-costs sporting ethos that equates sportsmanship with being a loser. There is no glory here, no victory.
Everyone has lost.
Methuselah – playing uppishly over mid wicket.
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