There's always free cheese in a mousetrap

PL on what Tom Waits, Norm MacDonald and Kazzuo Ishiguro have to do with the privatisation of the BBL

Sydney’s Zammit family, like NSW cricket, refused to sell their home to developers.

We should know within days how Cricket Australia has fared in its attempt to guide its franchises through the Straits of Hormuz and onto the open market. Queensland, which is yet to choose a side in the conflict, is indicating it will make a call on a potential sale by the end of the week.

Over on Reddit this (long) NSW weekend, somebody started a thread after reading Kazuo Ishiguro’s gently dystopian masterpiece Never Let Me Go, which was timely given the decision by most, but not all, of the Australian cash-strapped states to sell a kidney.

For those unfamiliar with the British author’s sixth novel, it is set in an elite country boarding school, Halisham House, where the students, who are clones, have been raised to donate their vital organs. They’re not fully aware of this at first, but are slowly introduced to and eventually become accepting of the inevitability of their fate.

Of the states involved with the Big Bash League’s organ sale, only NSW has voted against waking up in an ice bath with debts paid and a small stack of crisp banknotes on the bedside table. Queensland is hesitant, but the other five states have responded as desired to the stick, carrot, or a combination of both, and will opt for the radical procedure.