The house that Jacques built

I met a South African on Saturday night who told me about his reasons to come and live in the UK. Lack of work opportunities were the main reason before we touched on quotas in rugby and then tequila.

It seems Jacques Rudolph is doing the same. The talented 26-year-old has just signed a Beckham-esque contract with Yorkshire (last week mind, but there were no blogs). He wants to represent England, look for a house next year and probably run the Dales with Hoggie at some point. Rudolph's quotes upon signing must also rate as the longest:

“I have thoroughly enjoyed my first season with Yorkshire , both on and off the pitch. Everything about the Club is professional, supportive and focussed on getting results. The infrastructure and administration is first-rate and it has allowed me to concentrate all of my efforts on playing and enjoying my cricket, which has been very important to me. The quality of coaches, players and facilities is superb and there are exciting times ahead. I’m really pleased to have signed the new contract and look forward to seeing the Yorkshire lads again in March next year for pre-season training. We can then concentrate on winning some matches and trophies for Yorkshire . In the mean-time I am focussed on playing for Eagles in South Africa where we are looking to build on a winning start to the domestic season over here.”

Trophy tales; prison humour

Australia duly won their first ICC Champions Trophy in five attempts, but there was a small price to pay after they had trounced the West Indies.

Clearly agitated at the longevity of the trophy presentation, Australian players reportedly pushed Indian cricket chief Sharad Pawar off the presentation stage so they could pose with the trophy and get out of the ground. (If it had really got out of hand, Ricky Ponting could have ended up like the photo above.)

Not to be outdone, the Indian media went to town on the incident and it also prompted a quote from chief cricket selector Dilip Vengsarkar, who said: "You expect such behaviour from uneducated people. If they wanted to pose for photographs, they could have politely requested him.

Still on the ICC Trophy, click here for a highly entertaining Graeme Smith diary according to iafrica's Dan Nicholl. The entry for 19 October is the highlight:

"Ahmedabad is not my favourite place on earth, and we're here for a week. There's nothing to do, the food is awful, and Charl reckons that the hotel reminds him of when he was a prison warder. Everyone laughed at breakfast when he said that, except for Herschelle, who went very pale, and got up and left
without saying a word. He's been a bit quiet since he saw the police. Hope he's okay."