THE retirement of Muttiah Muralitharan from Test cricket marks the departure of one of the giants of the game, a player who made a difference. He is a man with a generous spirit and a love for cricket. And he is not a chucker.

THE former Hampshire captain Mark Nicholas, now better known as a television commentator, believes it would be *no shame" if some counties lost their first class status. He is a man who cares deeply about the game, but his words have been penned for the Magic Wand School of Thinking, an institution that serves no real purpose

REVOLVER cricket, a soft ball training game started in Queensland this year, has been received well in England so far since its introduction in May. It delivers what the inventors claim -- that all players are involved all the time, which does not happen in orthodox formats.

THAT superb retired West Indies left-hander Brian Lara is due to return to big cricket when he plays for the MCC against Pakistan in a Twenty20 warm-up game at Lord's on June 27.

OXFAM stands to gain thousands of pounds from the proceeds of the first four editions of Wisden almanacks on offer at Bonhams book sale in Oxford on June 29.

A GAP year student-teacher from New Zealand had his first cricket season in sleepy Shropshire interrupted by an umpiring incident that led to police involvement and the abandonment of a match, making news around the world.

THE question that Shane Warne has raised after England's impressive success in the final of the ICC World Twenty20 in Barbados focuses on The Ashes next winter. The Australians might have to play very well to win that Test series, and one might add 'especially while Andy Flower is in charge'.

THE stone-throwing Nepal public, not the cricketers, helped their team to promotion from Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division Five in February, and the ICC have concluded they is nothing they can do until they amend the rules.

UMPIRE John Whittaker is recovering in hospital "significantly better", the ECB have said in a news bulletin, after a throw-in fractured his skull during a club league match in Yorkshire.

THE decision by the organisers of the Npower National Village Cup to refuse entries using professional coaches or players within the club seems to have encouraged more teams to enter, though Troon -- a leading name in Cornwall -- have returned.

THE batsman tipped as a big name of the future announced himself with a triple-hundred in a partnership of 480 at Centurion today, a South African record for any wicket. Rilee Rossouw means little to most people, but that seems likely to change.

A NEW one-day format is to be tried out in county cricket this summer, with each side splitting a 40-over allocation into two chunks of 20, the ECB confirmed today in announcing the draw for the 2nd XI knockout competition.

THE SALE of two further franchises at Pune and Kochi for a combined price of $703 million for an eight-year term has underlined the fact that the Indian Premier League is here to stay. This is fine while the Board of Control for Cricket in India does remain in 'control', but the landscape will change soon.

ENGLAND'S cricket authorities have told the Government they believe that reserving the Ashes series for terrestrial television would cause a "devastating collapse in the entire fabric of cricket in England and Wales from the playground to the Test match arena". Anyone might wonder after reading those words how cricket survived before Sky Television took the monopoly in 2006.

MOTHS are back in the cricket news as a bigger threat than David Gower after the disclosure that chemicals will have to be used at Ahmedabad to rid Indian Premier League night matches of an annoying pest.

APART from a possible court appearance as witnesses over the theft of an Aston Martin, Michael Clarke has managed to disengage with the Lara Bingle media circus and return to cricket to represent Australia against New Zealand in the first Test at Wellington, starting on Friday.

THE loan of "several hundred thousand pounds" by Kent chairman George Kennedy to his county club after their horrendous loss in 2009 underlined that the gap between 'haves' and 'have nots' was widening in the recession.

THE official song for the ICC World Twenty20 in the West Indies, Bring It by a duet of Mr Vegas and Fay Ann Lyons, has been released and has already been given air time on Caribbean radio stations and dance halls. To many pop music lovers the sound might be disappointingly hip-hop until the song warms up about halfway through.

KENT have disclosed that they lost £190,000 in staging two pop concerts at their St Lawrence Ground in Canterbury during the 2009 summer, shocking news for a county already under financial stress.

A CANTERBURY batsman who gave the touring England Lions a miserable time in North Island has been drafted into New Zealand's provisional squad for the ICC World Twenty20, but the mystery of Graham Napier, well respected on North Island, continues.