Seven Ball Over

- An excellent result in Port Elizabeth. I've said it here before, but it's well worth repeating - international cricket needs a successful West Indies side. Admittedly one swallow doesn't make a summer but there are hugely encouraging signs in this, unexpected, victory. Although they'll never win many fans for entertainment, South Africa are never a pushover - especially on their home turf.

- Has someone told Chris Gayle that they aren't playing 20/20 anymore?

- File this under 'They Shoot Horses Don't They?' - By the end of the third test, South Africa and West Indies will have played 15 days cricket in 20 days!

- For the Jaapies, sudden signs of aging. Pollock is 35 -and we may have already seen the last of him. The loathesome Hershelle Gibbs is 34, Kallis a year younger. They are going to be entering a time of transition pretty soon - and it's going to take more than Graeme Smith abusing opposing batsmen and glaring at the umpire for ten minutes if a decision doesn't go his way to paper over the cracks.

- At home, another News Years Honours List is published and somewhere in Yorkshire, Geoff Boycott just became ever so slightly more bitter...

- Congratulations to KP and his new wife Jessica Taylor. Like all celebrity hook-ups, it's bound to last for decades.

- I can only think of two England test players who have postively enhanced their reputation in the past 12 months - Cook, who is increasingly looking like a good bet to break test match run records before he's through, and Ryan Sidebottom.