Day One: Australia won toss and bowled first

The Australian crawl used to be the style that powered their swimmers to the top of the world rankings, but it was never a term meant to describe their batting against the minnows of world cricket

This is the first in an occasional series of comments on the New Zealand cricket scene by Wisden CricInfo New Zealand Editor Lynn McConnell

Much as Bangladesh would prefer it otherwise, the attention of the cricket world is going to be focussed on their performance against Australia for all the wrong reasons, when the first Test begins at Darwin tomorrow

Pakistan will be represented at next week's women's tournament in the Netherlands, despite the fact that the Pakistan Cricket Board's team will not be taking part

No great surprises have occurred in the naming of players contracted to the six major associations for next summer

David Sewell's season in Dutch cricket has come to an abrupt end following problems with his registration with the VRA club which is leading the competition

Significant changes to the International Cricket Council's one-day international rankings list have occurred as the first year of results in the original calculation drop out

Tasmania will introduce a new plan this summer to ensure the continued development of its club cricket

Bangladesh face a nervous last day, needing another 97 runs to beat the Northern Territory Chief Minister's XI, with six wickets in hand

The Northern Territory Chief Minister's XI lost three wickets for five runs late on the second day to leave Bangladesh with a slim hope of reviving their fortunes after another poor batting performance

Chris Cairns's return to the bowling crease for his English county Nottinghamshire in their most recent game, against Kent at Maidstone, saw him join a select band of New Zealand cricketers

A captain's innings from Australian one-day player Michael Clarke saved the Northern Territory Chief Minister's XI from embarrassment on the first day of their four-day game against the Bangladeshis at Darwin's Marrara Oval today

A team of Australian cricket statisticians and historians have been scouring their country's archives on a project that will be an outstanding contribution to the game's already impressive database

As New Zealand look to improve their record in one-day cricket they might ponder the risk to their chances of improving their record when playing home day/night matches in future

Having some of Australia's World Cup heroes in town for the first Test to be staged in Darwin has its advantages for local schoolchildren

Tim May, the chairman of the International Players' Committee, is frustrated that the ICC is not prepared to acknowledge the level of support from players to have representation on the management committee of the world body

New Zealand's dismal summer, especially for cricket's groundsmen, has resulted in some soul-searching both at official and unofficial level

It is a subject of feverish speculation as to how the portable pitch to be used in Darwin for Bangladesh's historic international matches there will behave

Bangladesh scored a two-wicket victory over the Commonwealth Bank Academy with six minutes to spare at Allan Border Field in Brisbane today