The New York Yankees aren't the only team on the planet that shells out mountains of cash to their superstar players.

ESPN The Magazine just published its annual "Money Issue" that includes a survey of the highest team salaries in all of sports — from soccer to basketball to cricket.

The numbers were compiled by SportsIntelligence.com, who ranked more than 200 pro teams based on the average annual salary per player.

The survey accounts for 272 teams spanning 14 leagues, 10 countries, and seven sports. (Soccer, football, baseball, basketball, cricket, ice hockey, and Aussie rules football.) It's base salaries only; bonuses, endorsements, and other sources of additional compensation are all excluded.

The 7,802 first-team athletes will earn about $15.2 billion in total wages for the year.

Teams unhindered by salary caps are predictably at the top, but despite individual player limits and a soft cap for team salary, some NBA starting lineups earn massive averages.

#10: Manchester City -- $5,863,585 (average annual salary per first-team player)

League: Premier League (England)

Highest paid player: Carlos Tevez -- $11.5 million (£7.0 million)

#9: Denver Nuggets -- $5,990,174

League: NBA

Highest paid player: Kenyon Martin -- $16.5 million

#8: Boston Red Sox -- $5,991,203

League: MLB

Highest paid player: Josh Beckett -- $17.0 million

For the latest in sports, visit Sports Page. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

See Also:

• The Guy Who Wrote "Charge" Wants To Charge You For Saying "Charge"
• HEY, NFL FANS: Stop Pretending The Schedule Announcement Is Important!
• Rift Threatens NFL Union As 70 Players Hire Their Own Lawyers To Intervene In Lockout Talks

Amateur boxers can win $500,000 prizes but woe betide trainers with professional experience

Want to know how crazy amateur boxing can get? Settle back.

In Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan on Saturday, 40 boxers representing franchises from four cities will contest the semi-finals of AIBA'S inaugural world series, the brainchild of the international body's president, Dr Ching-Kuo Wu.

When it was announced, it was seen as a significant development, widely applauded as protecting the integrity of amateur boxing, while rewarding boxers for their excellence.

The prizes for the endeavours of these officially amateur boxers are not medals, but $500,000. They wear no headgear, no vests and fight five three-minute rounds, longer fights than many down-the-bill pros get for £200 a go. They fight for the enrichment of themselves and their financial backers, not to mention the glory of Dr Wu, a forward-thinking administrator who pledged to clean up his corrupt and ailing sport when he took over in 2006.

All of the boxers, however, are eligible to compete for their countries in the 2012 Olympics in London. Nobody has voiced an objection to this minor revolution, either inside the sport or in the Olympic movement.

How could they? Very few of the 10,000 competitors gathering in London for the Olympics will get there without benefit of significant subsidies or payments. Many of them - tennis players and footballers - will be multi-millionaires. Olympic shamateurism died a long time ago.

Dr Wu certainly had no qualms about the big shift. In AIBA'S own prospectus, they list the following among benefits of owning a franchise: "Marketing and sale of tickets, catering rights, concessions rights, local sponsorship rights [of] corner posts, ringside banners, boxers' trunks/robes, round cards, entrance tunnel, interior backdrops; other commercial rights: hospitality, licensing, merchandising, franchise website." And so on. The list is long.

And watching Dr Wu's great experiment this weekend, perplexed, will be Great Britain's head coach, Robert McCracken, who admits he cut short his own glittering amateur career too soon, before going on to fight for the world middleweight title and, over the past decade, guiding the highly successful career of Carl Froch.

How he and his contemporaries would love to have boxed on as amateurs, rather than turning professional prematurely. How they could have done with their own Dr Wu.

So how is Dr Wu helping McCracken and his Great Britain squad just 15 months before the London Olympics? He is threatening McCracken with suspension if he dares to work the corner of his fighters at international tournaments, simply because he has worked in the pro game.

If McCracken wants Dr Wu's blessing, he will have to revoke his professional duties and apply again for his amateur status to be restored, a process that will take at least six months and seriously disrupt his squad's preparation for the European championshipsand the world championships this year, both qualifying tournaments for the Olympics.

Forget for a minute, Dr Wu's own professional circus. Forget, if you like, that several other countries will employ pro trainers - including the many exported Cubans who travel the world to the great benefit of developing boxing countries.

What sticks in the craw of this high-handedness is its magisterial sweep of these Lausanne-based administrators that they were unaware until now that McCracken trained Froch, a former amateur star who has boxed professional for nine years and who recently reclaimed his WBC super-middleweight title.

AIBA, clearly, are an international governing body to regard in the same breath as Fifa and the ICC.

Froch, meanwhile, is in no doubt his long-time friend and adviser will continue to be in his corner, including for his Super Six fight against Glen Johnson in Atlantic City on 4 June.

"There is no way he will do that," the champion said, referring to stories that he would have to give up training Froch, or surrender his amateur licence.

"It just means he cannot work the corner in championships and I don't think he will worry too much about that. All the hard work is done in the gym in Sheffield anyway."

That's putting a bit of a gloss on it, although McCracken does have the help of a great back-up team there in the former Olympic bronze medallist and world professional champion Richie Woodhall, as well as conditioning and dietary experts at the best amateur boxing HQ in the world, at the English Institute of Sport.

As ever, there is more to this than is immediately obvious. AIBA has been warring with the Amateur Boxing Association of England and the umbrella body the British Amateur Boxing Association for some time, most recently over Paul King's unsuccessful attempt to unseat Dr Wu.

They suspended King for trying to have the annual conference called off towards the end of last year, along with 13 other nations deemed to have violated Aiba's code of conduct.

The rights and wrongs of that campaign are complex and not immediately relevant. What is undeniable is that only in amateur boxing could such a naïve and harmful row break out. Not even football and cricket could match this for ham-fisted administration and sheer bloody-mindedness.

For years the sport in this country was run by warring factions who couldn't see beyond their next free airline ticket. McCracken's predecessor, Terry Edwards, walked after being nudged in the wake of Great Britain's most successful Olympics in more than half a century, not because he wasn't doing a good job, but because he was in conflict with powerful people in the sport.

Now we are seeing that same ugly scenario played out on the world scene. Is there a secret town in the middle of a forest where they breed serial idiots with more air miles than sense?

These brutes in suits clearly care more about their rule book than the boxers. Some of them are selfless and dedicated individuals; unfortunately, there are too many who worry more about their next subsidised trip, their dinners and their badges. They forget why they got into amateur boxing in the first place.

As it happens, then, McCracken will continue as the national coach and, against the odds, he will put together a squad even better than the one that went to Beijing.

There's still time for one more bracket contest this season and this one is for all the Tostitos. It's our definitive list of the most influential business people in the world of sports: The Sports Page 64.

In the spirit of the NCAA Tournament Final tonight, we broke our tourney down into four "regions" — Athletes, Team and League Executives, Media, and Related Business — in order to cover the whole spectrum of our wild world of sports.

With only 16 slots per region, there were some notable omissions (and some upsets!), but these are our favorite heroes and villains that shape the games we love so much.

Click here to scroll through this year's list →

Complete Coverage

The Full Bracket

The Complete List 1-64

In Alphabetical Order

Breakdown By "Region"

Disagree with our choices? Leave a comment below or on Twitter with #sp64.

George Bodenheimer

President, ESPN/ABC Sports

Love 'em or hate 'em, ESPN is the dominant force is sports today.

With seven cable networks, an online network, a Big 3 broadcast partner, a major website, and full or partial broadcast right to nearly every major sport on the planet, it is truly the gatekeeper for fans who want to watch just about game imaginable. By the end of the 2011, they could also control the NHL and the Olympics, further cementing their place as the only sports network that matters.

Meanwhile, their news arm provides unprecedented access to athletes and teams. Some call that a conflict of interest, others call it synergy.

And Bodenheimer has been there through it all, starting in the mail room shortly after the company was founded in 1980. He became president in 1998, eventually adding ABC Sports and co-chairman, Disney Media Networks to his titles.

Phil Knight

Founder and Chairman, Nike

No single company (that is not actually a team or league) has had a bigger influence on sports than the apparel giant that puts footwear on more than half the NBA, puts uniforms on hundreds of college and pro teams, and sells everything from golf balls to hockey skates to the workout gear that gets millions of Americans through their weekend warrior routines.

He also personally built the University of Oregon athletic department (his alma mater) into a national powerhouse, giving millions in donations and technical support.

In addition to clothing athletes and enriching them with million-dollar endorsement contracts, Knight and Nike have created a cultural phenomenon with ad campaigns that have turned into life mantras.

Tiger Woods

Golfer

Once the most dominant athlete in his (or any) sport, Woods has not won a single golf tournament in 16 months.

But his failures on the course only underscore his influence off it, as he continues to remain the focal point for any and all coverage about the sport of golf. One need only watch the buildup to this week's Masters to see how thoroughly he controls the conversation.

Of course, as one of the biggest beneficiaries of Nike's largess, Tiger is also believed to be the first professional athlete with over a billion dollars in lifetime earnings. 2010 was an awful year for Tiger, personally and professionally, but that hasn't dimmed his influence in the slightest.

See Also:

• PICTURES: Watch People Around The World Go Cricket Crazy
• FOUL BALLS: Ranking The Worst Food Safety Violations At Major League Baseball Stadiums
• The Sports Page 64: Bracket Breakdown

I’m the sort of person who generally likes to be on time for things, although since having kids I find it harder to do that. When I only had to get myself ready it was much easier. Regardless, it would seem that I’m a bit late to the start of the 2011 Ultimate Blog Party. (I can’t blame the kids for my tardiness this time, I was simply under the weather.)

One of my friends participated this year and last and enjoyed it so I thought I’d go ahead and hop in as well. I’m supposed to do an introduction post. Those of you who have been reading for awhile will already know most of this stuff by now, but at the same time I’m now realizing how horribly out of date my “About me” page is so this will help bring things up to speed a little bit. I guess the best place to start with is with me.

Photo by Paul Mason

My name is Sherry Osborne and I’m 36-year-old mom of two, wife of one. I currently live in Montreal, Quebec Canada but I’m thrilled to be able to say that as of today (April 4th) I have only 84 days left before we pack up and move to Halifax, Nova Scotia. That’s been a dream that is a long time coming and although I will be sad to leave many people that I care about I can not wait to start this next chapter. I mean, really. Who wouldn’t want to live there?

I’m a bit of an addict when it comes to two things (three if you count my obsession with the show Criminal Minds): Yoga and photography. I’ve been slowly learning and improving with photography since I got my first digital camera years (and years) ago and am completely in love with my Canon T1i DSLR. I have apparently morphed into a control freak who is unable to shoot in anything other than manual and I prefer RAW so that I can adjust everything to my liking. I try to remember to post photos regularly over on my Flickr account.

As for yoga, I started practicing in late January of 2010 for the sake of trying to ease the ache in my legs that I felt on a regular basis (stretching out those hamstrings has helped tremendously) and primarily to fight back against the panic attacks that I also dealt with almost daily. I often half-joke that yoga saved my life but it’s not that much of an exaggeration really. Lately I’ve been mildly obsessed with getting my body to do crazy things that shouldn’t even be possible.

George and I have been together for over 12 years and have managed to not get sick of each other yet so that’s a great sign. We met at work where I was the only female employee at the time, and our boss (a good friend) warned George and the other men in the office not to “go after” me lest it cause awkwardness of epic proportions. So much for that. The rest, as they say, is history.

We have two daughters, Hayley (8) and Breanna (5). They fight and bicker relentlessly but then they settle into playing together so well that I have hope for the future that they’ll actually be good friends when those three years of age difference stop mattering so much.

Other than that, we have two non-human members of the family. I’ve had a cat named Cricket for almost 12 years. She is neurotic, terrified of everyone but me, hides behind our washing machine and rarely leaves the bathroom because that’s her safe place. Moving her two provinces over with a 14+ hour drive to get there should be… interesting.

In early October 2010 we also added to our family by adopting a black lab/border collie mix that Breanna named Winnie. Winnie answers to “Winnie”, “Winston”, “Winklestein”, and “You big &%$#ing dummy” equally well. Last nickname aside, she is a great dog and I adore her.

I guess that’s about all that you need to know to get started, though feel free to ask if I’ve left anything out. By visiting my blog you’ll see that I most frequently write about family life, packing progress for Halifax (and I sure wish we were there already since my sister‘s due date for her very first baby is today and she could have my first niece any day now!), and yoga as well as the occasional curse-laden rant. I hope you’ll stop by again!

You can also find me on Twitter (where my nickname of Sherina apparently makes many people in Indonesia think that I’m some famous teen pop star of the same name, sigh), Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, and I write professionally over at this celebrity blog. I have a pro site over here but I haven’t figured out what to do with it yet. And of course you can always email me by hitting the contact link up top! Thanks for dropping by!

Steve Waugh's successor initially gloried with his legacy but the seeds of Australia's decline were sown before he took over

Not in the 27 years since Kim Hughes flagged away the national captaincy in a veil of tears and handed over to the teak-tough adopted Queenslander Allan Border has Australian cricket found itself in such a state of flux as it does at present. Border dragged the team up kicking and screaming to become World Cup winners; Mark Taylor refined it; Steve Waugh polished it and finally Ricky Ponting, over the course of seven years, gloried in it.

Perhaps, though, Ponting did a deal with the devil like Robert Johnson at the Crossroads: a chance to lead and triumph in one of the greatest sides the game has seen as one of its greatest players; an opportunity to achieve as leader things unprecedented, so much so that in desperation for competition that might stretch them they promoted the idea of playing a world XI. An intergalactic side would not have been able to challenge. But there would be a price to pay, a quid pro quo. For his side first would begin to fray, then crumble around the edges and finally disintegrate. There would be an inexorable slide towards not just normality but mediocrity at times and it would be Ponting who must preside over this downfall of a dynasty. His final series as captain of the Test side was to endure three home defeats by an innings, unheard of in Australian history, to ensure a third Ashes loss in four series. His last act as captain of the one-day side was to score a most masterly century in adversity but then shake hands with Mahendra Singh Dhoni as vanquished leader. The Australian trophy cabinet, once bulging with all the goodies the game can offer, now contains little of value beyond the lead on the roof.

It is a trade that anyone would have made though, even given those consequences . Steve Waugh played his valedictory matches knowing precisely the legacy that was there but also what the future would hold. It was a diamond-encrusted hospital pass. Timing is everything, including the exit. As has been pointed out elsewhere, Waugh, during 57 Tests in his five years as captain, introduced just six debutants to the side, and one of those was the greatest wicketkeeper-batsman who ever lived. Ponting has been in charge for 78 matches and in that time 32 players have made their debut, most of them in an attempt to replace the irreplaceable. In the last year or so, Ponting has been the one truly stellar performer in the firmament.

It is unfortunate for him that it is the manner of his going and the causes that remain to the forefront rather than what he has achieved for Australia. Under him, the side won 16 Test matches in succession. Under him, they swore revenge for the 2005 Ashes defeat and humiliated England by five matches to nil. Under his leadership, Australia did not lose a World Cup match until Pakistan beat them in Premadasa a couple of weeks ago, winning the trophy twice. Yet as he knew only too well, he is the man who lost those three Ashes series and now the fellow who surrendered the World Cup. As the most successful captain of all time he deserves to command a little more respect than that.

His successor, probably Michael Clarke, at least for now, does not have the luxury of taking over a side in the way that Ponting did. Only Ponting remains of those who lived through and tasted the real glory years. If it is Clarke he will know that things may well get a whole lot worse before they start to get better, for Australian cricket has developed a soft centre, its once formidable Sheffield Shield competition an imitation of the forge that it once was and by general consent of those intimate with both, not a patch on its county counterpart in England. Clarke may well have the presence and experience of Ponting on which to fall back, although it would be against the accepted protocol that deposed Australian captains never play on under someone else's leadership.

But even this may have its difficulties. Ponting, selflessly (for prominent among his many qualities is the absolute certainty that the team comes first) has continued to try and lead the side from batting's most challenging position at No3, his permanent home, when in his latter years, as the runs began to decline, it might have been less demanding to slip down the order. He has never shirked responsibility, never faltered, and, away from the heat on the field, has unfailingly conducted himself with patience and dignity as the same brickbats have been thrown at him.

If he has a role to play now, it must surely be as a battling but essentially paternal figure down the order. Clarke would be foolish not to want to use him as a crutch but Ponting would surely be equally wise in recognising that he can't give away the captaincy and then exert an influence. Besides which, although it would not be in his nature to offer less than 100% support should it be Clarke, and he is offered the chance to continue, it is well established that the pair are neither's cup of tea. "You wanted it that badly," he could be forgiven for thinking, "now you can get on with it. And the best of luck."

Another year is in the books, but before we shut the door on 2010 and sign off for the holidays, we wrap up some of the latest cell phone news and reviews. Plus, we give you a preview of what to expect from CES 2011. From LTE handsets to dual-core Android phones, it's shaping up to be a very busy show, and we'll be there to report on all the action, so be sure to tune in on Friday, January 7 at 2 p.m., PT for special broadcast of Dialed In live from Las Vegas. Finally, we want to wish you all a wonderful holiday season and happy new year! As always, thanks for listening, and we'll see you in 2011.

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ITU blesses U.S. data networks as 4G
Microsoft: Over 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices sold
Selling Windows Phone 7: What Microsoft could have done
Dell provides update on Venue Pro delays
Sprint releases two Moto iDEN phones
Samsung Intercept with Froyo issues
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Verizon finally updates Mobile Email to 4.0
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Originally posted at Dialed In

Only a week after a British newspaper published photographs of a married Liz Hurley in a passionate embrace with another man, the actress/model has dumped the pro cricket player...for cheating on her! That's the latest claim by London's News of the World who published video of Hurley and Shane Warne together in their original story.

PHOTOS:  Celebrity Cheaters

Now according to the Daily Mirror Warne was sexting another woman, also married, while simultaneously pursuing Hurley.

PHOTOS:  Celebs Who Have Good Taste In Bikinis & Bad Taste In Men

The other woman (Not including Warne's wife) is Adele Angeleri, the wife of millionaire Australian lawyer and businessman Denis Angeleri.  He went public with the more than 100 messages his wife received from the "horny" cricket superstar, including one he sent on the same day he was texting Hurley.

PHOTOS:  Hot Celeb Moms

As RadarOnline.com reported, after her affair with Warne was exposed, Hurley confessed to her marital woes.  "Not a great day," she Tweeted on December 12.  "For the record, my husband Arun and I separated a few months ago.  Our close family & friends are aware of this."

Hurley and super-rich Arun Nayar were married in 2007.  But if she thought her romantic future was with Warne, she'll have to think again.

PHOTOS:  Celebs Who Broke Up In 2010

"My advice to Liz would be to steer well clear of him," Denis Angeleri said.

Hurley's longest romance was with Hugh Grant.  It ended after 13 years when he was arrested while having oral sex with a hooker.

RELATED STORIES:

Liz Hurley & Husband Split Amid Cheating Scandal

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David Beckham Accused Of Cheating With Friend Of Wife Victoria

Observer Sport's guide to gadgets, gear and good ideas

Much as there has never been more sport on TV, this is also a golden era for radio. The combination of excellent digital coverage and the hardware becoming smaller makes it the perfect time to give sports fans high-quality sound and scrolling text score updates on something that slots neatly into an inside pocket. The best two models on the market make for perfect gifts and are well suited to, and work in, packed stadiums. These are terrace trannies for the space age.

A marvel of ergonomic design the Roberts Sports DAB (robertsradio.co.uk, 01709 571722, £79.99) is slightly smaller but deeper than an iPod and, despite being tiny by digital radio standards, has a small built-in speaker on the facia. It has rechargeable batteries and uses either the headphones or a delicate built-in antenna for reception. This is a nice feature – headphone cables occasionally prove to be temperamental in picking up the magic zeroes and ones of digital signals – and extended it sits perfectly in a top pocket poking out just above the shoulder. The sound quality is crisp, and with ten digital station presets, FM and a nice-sized backlit blue screen for scrolling news, it's a great package.

It's matched by the Pure PocketDAB 1500 (pure.com, 0845 148 9001, £89.99). Again iPod-sized but a little shallower than its rival, it is also ever so slightly lighter. It too has a rechargeable battery, but one accessible through a rear access plate – making replacement, when it fully wears out, simple. Again this is a nice touch as digital radios generally enjoy good life spans, while both are sturdy and will withstand a good old jostle at a game.

The 1500 doesn't include a built-in antenna or speaker but does come with some good‑quality Sennheiser in-ear headphones and its scrolling text on a slightly wider orange backlit screen can be paused and controlled – perfect for when the goals are coming thick and fast. The sound is spot-on with 10 digital presets and FM finishing off a fine piece of kit.

Ultimately, either will go down well – their size means they can be easily transferred between speakers anywhere in the home, too, and apart from anything else DAB is the only way to receive Radio 5 Live Sports Xtra.

If that's still not enough, there's an easy step up. Tech advances and price drops are now bringing internet radio into the realistic grasp of a wider market. So if domestic output still isn't enough, the Orbitsound T4 Radiopod (orbitsound.com, 08456 521 219, £149.99) – will make for a fantastic present. This small stand-alone unit functions as an iPod dock, FM and digital radio and, utilising British company Orbitsound's "spatial stereo", offers excellent sound quality regardless of the listener's position. But most importantly with wi-fi it gives access to internet radio stations across the world – tens of thousands at the touch of a button. Hear how the Aussies are reporting the Ashes, or baseball, hockey and basketball from the States – basically anything being played anywhere, any time, as long as it's being broadcast – making the world a richer, smaller place for the lucky recipient on Christmas Day.

Finally, how best to listen to it all? Well, specifically designed for active sports such as skiing and cycling, the Philips/O'Neil Stretch Headphones (hmv.com, £99.99) have a head band designed to be more durable under stress, a fabric-covered lead that stops tangles and, most important, an extra attachment between 'phones and device that detaches under tension – preventing breakage in a tumble.

Games

There's satisfying wood-on-willow in International Cricket 2010 (Xbox 360, PS3), while fans of racing will be equally happy with the huge scope – 1,000 cars, locations, Le Mans day/night in the rain – and accurate modelling of Gran Turismo 5 (PS3). Or the flawed but still brilliant simulation of F1 2010 (Xbox 360, PS3, PC) – playable as arcade fun or a driving-assists-off challenge that really shows how tricky these cars are to drive. Bikers, meanwhile, will enjoy MotoGP 09/10 (Xbox 360, PS3).

Golf fans should look no further than reliving Europe's triumph in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii), which is as marvellous as previous iterations but also features a full Ryder Cup mode.

Scary fighting under chicken wire is well-represented by UFC Undisputed 2010 (Xbox 360, PS3) and fighting on ice in NHL 11 (Xbox 360, PS3). And there's pick-up-and-play gridiron fun in Backbreaker (Xbox 360, PS3), with high-end simulation by the excellent Madden NFL 11 (Xbox 360, PS3).

Gear

Similarly handy for holidays, the park or just moving the noise and distraction further away from the drinks table, is the Kickster Pro 2000 Portable Goal . Quickly and easily assembled, it's also light but sturdy and will stand up to some of the most powerful shots (Amazon, £44.99).

Also worth a look, the ultra-light Nike Mercurial Vapor VI football boots. Sibling of the Vapor Superfly, as worn by Cristiano Ronaldo, Vapor VI are excellent quality but much, much cheaper, with the kids' version at £20 off from sportsdirect.com (£44.99).

Annuals

There's also more facts than you can shake a bat at in World Cricket Records 2011. All the info from all the formats but, sadly, unlikely to include the unutterably satisfying records recently broken in Adelaide (Amazon, £9.62).

And, of course, no festive season would be complete without our very own You Are The Ref (Amazon, £8.05). All of Paul Trevillion's most recent, brilliant Observer strips collected in one volume.

Frivolous and fun

Or if cycling is the passion, a fine reissue appeared this year – the DVD of British film-maker Peter Yates's Breaking Away (Amazon, £9.93). Yates, who found fame with Bullitt, went on to make this masterpiece of bikes and coming of age. Funny and moving, it beats any number of hours of Tour de France highlights.

For those who prefer to be on the bike, take the phone along in comfort with the Adidas miCoach armband (Amazon, £9.99). It has a touch-through clear front allowing operation without removing the phone and for joggers works in conjunction with the miCoach mobile app.

There's wrist-waggling fun to be had with the Table Top Football Table (Argos, £39.99) . Smaller and cheaper than the full-size varieties, it sits on top of an existing table and can be put away afterwards. A great distraction for high-energy youngsters tuck indoors. But remember: no spinning.

Slightly less exciting but bound to appeal to grown-ups who like spoiling a good walk are Personalised Brass Golf Ball Markers (Amazon, £3.95). There are two in a set and they take black on white text or a photograph. Ostensibly also for grown-ups, but handy for any multi-deviced family, is the stylish Desk Drive Vintage Racer (gearboxgifts.com, £13.99). It's a four-port USB hub shaped like a silver classic car, whose ports cleverly sit beneath the bonnet.

Finally, horticulture and only-slightly-unhealthy obsession meet in the Grow your own Pitch range (virginexperiencedays.co.uk, £19.99). Featuring a packet of the seed as used at specific grounds, soil, peat and instructions. Various Premier League clubs are included and Wembley, too.

Fashion

The Nike snoods as modelled by Carlos Tevez and Samir Nasri aren't actually available to mere mortals just yet, but there's perfectly serviceable woollen warmers at intobikes.co.uk for just £5.75. And before there's any poo-pooing, I can think of at least one child who would have had absolutely no qualms wearing one on freezing Wednesday afternoons in the mid 1970s ...

Sticking with keeping warm over the winter, you can give a spot of luxury in the form of a pure cashmere club scarf. Savile-rogue.com selects its cashmere from Mongolian goats, and have spun beautiful logo-free, old-school scarves (from £38.95) covering all English clubs down to League Two and some Scottish, European and national sides.

You can't fail with retro these days, so how about the range at kitbag.com, celebrating the pre-over-sponsored vulgarity of replica shirts. Enjoy the clean lines of Man United's Sharp, Spurs and Holsten, Arsenal's JVC, Leeds and Burton and Manchester City and Saab. Simpler times.

Today, Apple has released its annual "iTunes Rewind" feature, a listing of the most popular content in music, movies, TV shows and mobile applications in its iTunes marketplace. This year, Apple has placed a large focus on mobile apps, providing lists like the top free and top paid iPhone and iPad apps as well as lists of the top grossing apps on both platforms.

But the mobile world is bigger than Apple these days, so a year-end app list can't focus solely on iPhone and iPad. To get a handle on other application popularity trends, we reached out to a number of other companies, like GetJar, the world's second-largest mobile app store, plus other app recommendation and search services like Chomp, AppStoreHQ and Appolicious.

Sponsor

First up, Apple's data. It's notable that Apple has named the magazine-style "social news reader" Flipboard the iPad App of the Year, although it isn't represented on any of Apple's lists.  Instead, Flipboard joins other editorially selected award winners like Hipstamatic, a photo-filtering iPhone application which Apple chose over media darling Instagram for iPhone App of the Year, Plants vs. Zombies, which won iPhone Game of the Year and not the uber-popular Angry Birds, and finally, Osmos for iPad, the iPad Game of the Year, which to be honest, hadn't really registered on our radar at all (although we don't tend to focus on iPad gaming here.)

The rest of the top app lists from Apple are as follows:

Overall Top 10 PAID iPhone Apps

1. Angry Birds
2. Doodle Jump - BE WARNED: Insanely Addictive!
3. Skee-Ball
4. Bejeweled 2 + Blitz
5. Fruit Ninja
6. Cut the Rope
7. ALL-IN-1 GAMEBOX
8. The Moron Test
9. Plants vs. Zombies
10. Pocket God

Overall Top 10 FREE iPhone Apps

1. Facebook
2. Angry Birds Lite
3. Words With Friends Free
4. Skype
5. Tap Tap Revenge 3
6. The Weather Channel®
7. Paper Toss
8. Bing
9. ROCK BAND FREE
10. Talking Tom Cat

Overall Top 10 GROSSING iPhone Apps

1. MLB.com At Bat 2010
2. Angry Birds
3. Call of Duty: Zombies
4. Bejeweled 2 + Blitz
5. FriendCaller 3 Pro
6. Zombie Farm
7. TomTom U.S.A.
8. TETRIS®
9. Plants vs. Zombies
10. Doodle Jump - BE WARNED: Insanely Addictive!

Overall Top 10 PAID iPad Apps

1. Pages
2. GoodReader for iPad
3. Numbers
4. Angry Birds HD
5. Keynote
6. Glee Karaoke
7. WolframAlpha
8. Pinball HD
9. Friendly for Facebook
10. Star Walk for iPad

Overall Top 10 FREE iPad Apps

1. iBooks
2. Pandora Radio
3. Netflix
4. Google Mobile App
5. Solitaire
6. Movies by Flixster - with Rotten Tomatoes
7. IMDb Movies & TV
8. Kindle
9. Google Earth
10. Virtuoso Piano Free 2 HD

Overall Top 10 GROSSING iPad Apps

1. Pages
2. Numbers
3. Keynote
4. LogMeIn Ignition
5. SCRABBLE for iPad
6. Documents To Go® Premium - Office Suite
7. Angry Birds HD
8. Real Racing HD
9. Plants vs. Zombies HD
10. Proloquo2Go

Next Page: GetJar's data

GetJar, an independent app store, is the second largest in the world in terms of downloads. Due to its size, the trends it sees are worth watching, too.

GetJar provided us with two year-end lists. One is a standard top 10 list based on downloads. But because that list includes the obvious players like Facebook and Google, we also asked for a top 10 "newcomers" list too. For this one, GetJar provided the top 10 downloaded apps that were also uploaded to its site in 2010.

These lists are below:

Top 10 Downloaded Apps in 2010

1. Facebook Mobile
2. eBuddy Messenger
3. Nimbuzz
4. mig33
5. Opera Mini Web Browser
6. Google
7. Yahoo! Mobile
8. GetJar Apps
9. Bitstream BOLT
10. Google Maps for mobile featuring Latitude

Note: GetJar Apps is a launcher to the m.getjar.com site.

Top 10 Downloaded Apps in 2010 That Were Uploaded in 2010 - a.k.a. "Newcomers"

1. Yahoo! Mail
2. UC Browser 7 4 English
3. UC Browser
4. Warships - Sea on Fire
5. FBChat
6. Forticlient Antivirus
7. Yahoo! News
8. Zlango Icon Messaging SMS
9. NetQin Mobile Guard
10. Yahoo! Cricket

Next Page: AppStore HQ's Data

Next we have AppStore HQ's Data, a site which focuses on iPhone and Android applications, as well as apps for the mobile Web.

On iOS (both iPad and iPhone), AppStore HQ says the "hottest" apps for 2010 are as follows.

Hottest iOS Apps for 2010

1. Netflix
2. Plants vs. Zombies
3. STREET FIGHTER IV
4. iBooks
5. iMovie
6. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
7. NYT Editors Choice
8. MobileMe Gallery
9. Fruit Ninja
10. WIRED Magazine

Hottest Android Apps for 2010

1. Twitter
2. Kindle for Android
3. Angry Birds
4. Dropbox
5. Vlingo: Words to Actions
6. Rhapsody (Beta)
7. Google Shopper
8. Mint.com Personal Finance
9. Angry Birds Lite Beta
10. Skype

Next Page: Chomp's Data

Now for the data from Chomp, the search engine and mobile app that helps you find the best iOS apps. Did its data match up with Apple's?

Chomp says its most searched apps for 2010 (excluding Facebook and Twitter) were:

Most Searched Apps in 2010:

1. Adobe Photoshop Express
2. Pandora Radio
3. Google Earth
4. Shazam
5. Remote
6. TapDefense
7. Movies by Flixster
8. Moodagent FREE
9. JellyCar
10. Tap Tap Revenge
11. Lose It!
12. Topple
13. Paper Toss
14. Google Mobile App
15. Cube Runner
16. Dragon Dictation
17. NYTimes
18. IMDb Movies

Chomp notes that some of these apps were not searched for directly by name, but discovered based upon a filtered search (applying category or price).

Next Page: Appolocious Data

Appolicous has been tracking what's popular on both iPhone and Android. It provided us with the "most listed" apps (those that appear in Appolicious users' app lists) and the "most owned" apps.

Most Listed iPhone Apps (in user app lists)

1. Facebook
2. Evernote
3. Twitter
4. Yelp
5. Pandora Radio
6. foursquare
7. Angry Birds
8. Dropbox
9. Skype
10. Google Earth

(NOTE:  Google Mobile App was tied for 10th place)

Most Listed Android Apps (in user app lists)

1. Angry Birds
2. Evernote
3. Google Maps
4. Foursquare
5. Google Shopper
6. Pandora Radio
7. Remember The Milk
8. Springpad
9. TWIDROID PRO for Twitter
10. Dropbox

Most Owned iPhone Apps (in user app lists)

1. Facebook
2. Google Mobile App
3. Pandora Radio
4. Shazam
5. Google Earth
6. Skype
7. Evernote
8. Kindle
9. Twitter
10. Remote

Most Owned Android Apps (in user app lists)

1. Google Maps
2. Facebook for Android
3. Barcode Scanner
4. Amazon MP3
5. YouTube
6. Google Goggles
7. Advanced Task Killer
8. Google Sky Map
9. Pandora Radio
10. Kindle for Android

Most Downloaded iOS Apps (Free)

1. Appolicious for iPad
2. Appolicious
3. Flipboard
4. Dragon Dictation
5. Netflix
6. Tap Tap Revenge 3
7. ABC Player
8. Evernote
9. Pandora Radio
10. Lose It!
11. Space Miner Blast
12. Siri Assistant
13. W.TV
14. Unblock Me FREE
15. 3D Brick Breaker Revolution FREE
16. Crush the Castle Free
17. GodFinger for iPad
18. Google Earth
19. Dexter
20. NinJump

Most Downloaded iOS Apps (Paid)

1. Modern Combat 2: Black Pegasus
2. Spider-Man: Total Mayhem
3. Real Soccer 2011
4. Angry Birds
5. Zombie Wonderland
6. The Word Chase
7. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars HD
8. Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck's Revenge
9. Bruce Lee Dragon Warrior
10. The Last Airbender
11. Word Warp
12. NBA Elite 11 by EA Sports
13. WordZinga!
14. Angry Birds Seasons
15. Splinter Cell Conviction
16. Skate It by EA
17. Doodle Jump
18. WordSnake...Words Without Borders
19. PREDATORS
20. Fruit Ninja

Most Downloaded Android Apps (Free)

1. Angry Birds
2. Skyfire Web Browser 3.0
3. Barcode Scanner
4. Angry Birds Lite Beta
5. Flash download
6. Skype Mobile on Verizon
7. Appolicious AndroidApps.com
8. Facebook for Android
9. Kindle for Android
10. Lookout Mobile Security
11. Skype
12. Talking Tom Cat
13. Porn Videos
14. Flash Player 10.1
15. MSN Talk
16. AndroMoviX
17. ShopSavvy Barcode Scanner
18. Paper Toss
19. Pandora Radio
20. Porn Videos private FREE

Most Downloaded Android Apps (Paid):

1. Jewellust
2. FIFA 10 by EA Sports
3. Robo Defense
4. Asphalt HD
5. Angry Birds
6. Talking Carl
7. Advanced Task Manager
8. Abduction! 2
9. Beautiful Widgets
10. Doodle Jump
11. Root Explorer (File Manager)
12. Car Locator
13. Deer Hunter 3D
14. Fruit Ninja
15. Skies of Glory
16. The Sims 3 for Android
17. Tanks!
18. Speedx 3D
19. Pocket God
20. Real HDMI

Blackcaps vs Pakistan
The only international cricket tour for a very, very long time.

Advertising Agency: DDB, New Zealand
Executive Creative Director: Toby Talbot
Art Director: James Tucker
Copywriter: Simon Vicars
Retoucher: Carl Baker
Photographer: Mat Baker
Designer: Cliff Li
Via: bestadsontv

Learn how to do great ads like this on Creative Pro.

Blackcaps vs Pakistan
The only international cricket tour for a very, very long time.

Advertising Agency: DDB, New Zealand
Executive Creative Director: Toby Talbot
Art Director: James Tucker
Copywriter: Simon Vicars
Retoucher: Carl Baker
Photographer: Mat Baker
Designer: Cliff Li
Via: bestadsontv

Learn how to do great ads like this on Creative Pro.

Blackcaps vs Pakistan
The only international cricket tour for a very, very long time.

Advertising Agency: DDB, New Zealand
Executive Creative Director: Toby Talbot
Art Director: James Tucker
Copywriter: Simon Vicars
Retoucher: Carl Baker
Photographer: Mat Baker
Designer: Cliff Li
Via: bestadsontv

Learn how to do great ads like this on Creative Pro.

PS3/Xbox 360/Wii; £39.99; cert 3+; O-Games

Those in despair at Fifa's apparent contempt and antipathy towards the country that (arguably) invented the sport it administrates can at least take solace in other sports this Christmas. England's cricket team may be looking good in Australia, but there is surely no Christmas sporting staple bigger than the PDC World Championship, darts's equivalent of the World Cup. Darts is a sport that the Brits still own and, in the form of Phil "The Power" Taylor, it has a superstar who dominates his sport in a much more colossus-like fashion than, say, Tiger Woods, Lionel Messi or Michael Jordan. Not bad for a chubby chap from Stoke.

Any mere mortal who has struggled to locate the treble-20 with regularity will know just how astonishing Taylor and his growing band of challengers are – but that's where video games can help. PDC World Championship: Pro Tour performs a classic function of video games: allowing us to gloss over our innate lack of talent and compete in virtual versions of the finest sporting competitions.

The latest version of O-Games' licensed darts offering completely nails the ambience of the PDC World Championship, with decent likenesses of the main protagonists, Sid Waddell's overexcited tones straddling the line between genius and nutcase, and even Russ Bray, the man who sounds like he gargles razor blades, calling the scores. Many of the season's other big events, including the Grand Slam, World Matchplay and UK Open, are also included, and the Las Vegas Desert Classic is already available as downloadable content.

Gameplay-wise, PDC World Championship: Pro Tour sensibly aims to recreate the darts-playing experience as closely as possible. This year, support for Sony's Move has been added, and it operates much like the Wii Remote in previous versions of the game: point to select your aim-point, then move the controller as if you were throwing a dart, keeping a button pressed and elongating your throw according to the dictates of a power-meter. You can choose between maximum and minimum assistance, although the former makes proceedings a bit too easy – you soon find yourself emulating The Power's feat earlier this year of hitting two nine-darters in a single match. Which is thrilling, but soon fails to satisfy.

Using a conventional joypad, the game is still thoroughly playable. Darts fanatics will love it, as it really does give them the chance to emulate their heroes in meticulously recreated, and deliciously unglamorous, locations such as the Reebok Stadium.

Basically, it's just like playing real darts, but with things such as your dodgy aim and inability to throw with the correct weight factored out of the equation. Which does somewhat beg the question why you would want to play virtual darts when you could just go out and buy a dartboard. If the idea of playing darts on a console does appeal, though, this is as good as it gets.

Rating: 3/5

All of life is present in the work of two expert cricket writers, says Huw Richards

Cricket is notoriously never what it was, but for all that it shows impressive resilience. It has captured some of the nation's attention with the start of the Ashes series in Australia, and as these books show, it continues to attract a disproportionate share of the best writers and writing devoted to sport.

David Foot and Duncan Hamilton are separated by a generation but have much in common. Both are journalists, but neither is conventionally a "big name". Foot, in more than 60 years, has only once reported a Test match. Hamilton has worked on local dailies. Each is rooted deeply in a city and region – Foot in Bristol and its rural hinterland, Hamilton in Nottingham and the industrial East Midlands. They are provincial, but anything but parochial.

Foot is wont to describe himself – and one suspects Hamilton would not disdain the label – as a "jobbing journalist". This is true in the same sense that Roger Federer is sufficiently described as a "tennis pro". Foot's journalism, freelance since 1962, for a range of publications, notably this one, and across a variety of fields – theatre and general features as well as sport – epitomises our sometimes justly maligned trade at its very best.

He never forgets that, inside the shirts and costumes of performers, there are human beings. His interest has always been in them and their hopes, fears and frailties, examined with rare sympathy, insight and perception. These qualities reflect his personality. Guardian colleagues arriving to report cricket in the west or the Midlands often found warm welcomes qualified by the disappointed inquiry: "Does this mean David Foot won't be here?"

They are also evident in this slight but beautifully observed memoir of his childhood and subsequent life in journalism. His memories of the Somerset village of East Coker – where his father was the sexton who showed the Four Quartets-planning TS Eliot the church – are affectionate but clear-eyed, warm without ever being sentimental. His instinct for a story, based on curiosity about and sympathy with people rather than cold-eyed ambition, leads to his first night in Bristol producing a news item after the prostitutes who were the main custom of the café into which he had wandered come to blows with the local police. He is a lovely man but, as the formidable West Indian cricketer Vivian Richards discovers during a writing collaboration, no pushover. The anecdotes of sport, theatre and journalism are superbly told. This is his 25th book, a list with no potboilers and several that should be read as long as anyone is interested in cricket. Should it be his last he leaves us, as a good freelance should, still wanting more. It is a pity that the William Hill sports book prize was invented too late for his most memorable book, Harold Gimblett.

Hamilton, by contrast, threatens to make the William Hill his own, winning twice in the last three years and shortlisted again in 2010 for A Last English Summer. Recounting a summer spent watching cricket at levels from village green to Ashes Test, it was doubtless enabled by those successes with biographies of Brian Clough and Harold Larwood. Like them it is beautifully written and informed by a breadth of reference epitomised by the consecutive index entries " Wilde, Oscar; Wilder, Thornton; Willey, Peter". Hamilton is sharply and thoughtfully observant, giving a wealth of perceptive vignettes, including an acute dissection of exactly why Andrew Flintoff has more appeal than Kevin Pietersen and a superb portrait of the veteran spin bowler Robert Croft.

This is a book of a middle-aged man who fears becoming reactionary, an anxiety brilliantly caught when he purchases some cricket magazines from the late 1960s, reads the harrumphing of that era's purists about the one-day game that he grew up with and likes, and draws the parallel with his own reaction to Twenty20 cricket. What he really dislikes about Twenty20 is not the rapid-fire cricket itself, but the associated cacophony, marketing bombast and – in the Indian Premier League in particular – witless television commentaries. Similarly his other dislikes, such as the baffling incoherence of the county fixture list, the tedious, tuneless and self-regarding Barmy Army and the drinking culture at Test matches, are of things that afflict cricket, not the game itself. They are not the preserve of a specific demographic, but are shared by many far from reactionary cricket followers. Like Foot, he conveys a profound affection for the game, and pleasure at the good fortune of being paid to watch it. The real luck, though, is cricket's, in still having such watchers.

• Huw Richards is cricket and rugby correspondent of the International Herald Tribune

Take a walk on the weird side with this week's compilation of chat from the Gamesblog Chatterbox forum...

Although Call of Duty and PES figure heavily this week as usual, little else is 'usual' about today's Best Of instalment, heroically edited into 'shape' by Crispy Crumb. Fans of '60s American prose poetry are going to feel right at home. The rest of us may have to read it a few more times, scratch our heads and think, 'did all this happen on Chatterbox, or was it but a fevered dream?'

It was both, I think. It was both.

Come in.

Monday

All across the land people are rolling up their shirtsleeves, putting pens in their mouths, demanding "heads up". It's a new week. The most potent of these go-getters bust open Internet Explorer and log on to the Guardian Gamesblog Chatterbox.

"Mornin' ..."

Conversation bucks and wheels. Some make observations on Pro Evolution Soccer; others quack on about Call of Duty: Black Ops. Mid-morning sees some wise, and compellingly deep advice about Demon's Souls from "hardcore gamer" Lazybones. Crispycrumb, BigWorv and Davefalse all concede that, yes: he is the best. [No, they really don't – CrispyCrumb]

Pump up the weekend: The Gamesblog has got physical. SerenVikity meets Bloatboy at a Tooting boozer. Bloatboy "cops a feel". And headbutts her too. Why not?

And finally Gamesblog Chatterbox "Blogger of the year 2009", BeardOfBees, returns, announcing he has had a child. He has kidnapped a child. No wait, he is actually a father...

The Chatterbox boomingly slaps him on the back.

Quote of the day

"Mrs Bee's not taking well to the jokes - I got the sprog to calm down after a crying fit last night and brought her back to the bedroom. Mrs B complimented me on soothing her and I mentioned it was easy, I'd just given her a good firm shake and she'd settled right down ... this stuff does not apparently go down too well."
BeardOfBees – the blog's own Gina Ford

Tuesday

"I have some homemade Tom Yum for breakfast today." This soupcon of hot and spicy information from WeeCooper led us into Blops-related chat. Call of Duty: Black Ops as it is officially known. Comparisons were drawn with the previous edition. There was talk of patches, some helpful tips and the usual bragging about who shot who.

There seems to be something rotten in the state of Konami. Loyal PES sentry and chatterbox Marcellus BigWorv and a few other previously staunch defenders of the PES crown simply aren't enjoying the new edition. Things have changed and perhaps not for the better. FIFA next year?

The inner curmudgeon of most bloggers came to the fore when discussing the merits of the dingy boozer over trendy bars populated by bright young things. Suffice it to say, it's more of a Real Ale kind of crowd on the 'box.

The balance between videogames and relationships was last up. Most wives and girlfriends seem wearily resigned to their fate, widows to the lure of the HD screen. The general technique used to deal with this problem is avoidance. Sending wives, children and girlfriends early to bed; allowing 'boxers to spend some quality time with the console. Some odd balls are even getting out of bed early to game. A step too far I think we can agree.

Quote of the Day

"How are you feeling today? You're usually ill this time of year (Sep - May)."
Mendoza pulls Fantomex's leg... Not too hard though, he'd get injured.

Wednesday

Wednesday dawns with Amipal beaten in the race to open the commenting ("You chaps must have been sitting, waiting, like silent hunters"), and HereComesTreble giving his employers maximum value: "I got into work after seven this morning, but with no one else here I just had a coffee and a mess about on the computer. They better be paying me for this. They probably aren't… Apologies for the wall of text. It was this or something called a 'spread-sheet', and I've always been more of a big-picture guy myself. Also I have no idea what a 'spread-sheet' is."

If you'd like to know what the wall of text was, and read a heartrending tale of government conspiracy, montages and visceral imagery, read Wednesday's Chatterbox.

Talk revolved around that evening's Chatterbox night out in London (at The George, but which George?), and the England friendly. UnbelievableJeff was unable to attend the former, and seemed nonplussed about the latter: "I have no interest in watching England any more. Lost my support at the WC, going to take more than a few token debuts to get me back onside. If you're reading Fabio, you can start by never, ever picking Gareth Barry again. More pedestrian than the pedestrianisation of Norwich city centre".

Our leader BeardofBees was rash enough to change his avatar. A welter of comments followed.

Davefalse: "What have you done to your profile picture? I miss the friendly old one you had. This looks a bit angry."

HenryPootle: "You've changed man, you've changed"

OneDave: "I liked the old avatar, though I appreciate you mixing things up. The new man though, he doesn't seem at ease with the bees like the old one did. He looks as if he is being overwhelmed."

A lot of un-publishable discussion followed about the moral implications of a 30 year old man dating an 18 year old girl, and also a healthy debate about workplace bullying.

Thursday

Happiness or pleasure, the same or different? What does our gaming mean? What does it matter when English football tastes this lean? Not in a fit way, before a fight, but when starved and something seen, am talking French like, soaked and sautéed, where royalty meets guillotine. The Lambs of God!

My ''Spidey sense'' jumps! Spidergirl gets a red underline while Spiderman doesn't?!

From the background a hum of evil bees is trebled: a redundant black widow Bittorrent client sets guidelines and rules that protocols struggle to grasp. The screen displays numbers, birthdays, one of 44. Many torrent files in the past, leaving a mother's womb. Never forget our days and hours, their presence will be made soon.

"Phillippe Auclair, an absolute legend, he's a gooner and most probably a loon. My season ticket mate is friends with him and I have heard he is as dry as a prune. Had a pint with him after watching the cricket and what he knows of football is astonishing. But I mostly like him because he has an amazing life and yet still sees Tiote as promising. "

"They've got a person locator on their website where you can filter your liver remotely."

[Ooookay, whose idea was it to let the ghost of Jim Morrison edit Thursday? – Keef]

Friday

November 19th - Lincoln's Gettysburg address. The end of the Cold War. The first ever National Lottery Draw. The historical significance of this day was not lost on what is a well educated, well-versed Gamesblog readership, with a reflective mood and almost reverent tone carried throughout the day. Gaming took a definite back-seat here. I think Shadowmind summed up this feeling best when he said, quite simply, "Thanks for the games, you bastards." Sort of puts it all into perspective.

With its collective finger on the pulse, the Chatterbox soon reverted to type - moaning about stuff. Today's hot-topic was the banking sector. The majority of readers demonstrated a distinct lack of understanding of real-world economics, but Sheep2's novel plan to attract the top banking talent back to The City, came as a welcome dash of sense and insight: "Personally, I'd hang a few of the worst offenders and put the rest on minimum wage until ALL the money is repaid."

The state of the economy is a topic never far from the thoughts of the Chatterbox, and in these difficult times it's comforting to know that a couple of hundred like-minded geeks will be there to offer support and advice, even if generally that advice is grotesquely wrong and irresponsible. TonIttou was the latest member of the family to feel the cold, hard pinch of the recession. "I'm sitting at work in a suit and tie this morning, my whole office is under notice of redundancy." My advice? Well I'm no expert, but posting on a computer games blog when you're supposed to be working doesn't exactly scream 'indispensable'. Not to me. I'd say knuckle down. And do let us know how you get on.

Most of the rest of Friday's chat went way over my head. This may have been because the chat was fizzing with wit and energy. This may have been because I had been drinking quite heavily. Either way, it was difficult to keep pace. A few topics that stood out included chilli sauces, internet dating (bit odd), and alcohol – the old demon drink. The relative immaturity of the Chatterbox always shines through when talk turns to drinking, and today was no different, bloggers outdoing each other with increasingly unbelievable tales of drunken debauchery. Unbelievable Jeff's "5 litres of homebrew Cabernet Sauvignon" confession soured the jovial mood somewhat, it has to be said. No one likes to see someone hit rock bottom like that, not so publicly.

CunningStunt, as is often the case, made a play for the last word on the matter, putting himself forward as our self-styled in-house beer expert, dropping some of that profound wisdom on us: "Some French beer is good. Others not so much." Cunning will be giving another of his renowned beer lectures next Friday, this one entitled 'Beer: It's been around longer than you think'.

Gaming talk was mostly centred on that new Call of Duty game, whatever it's called (they're all the same). I won't bore you with the details. Seriously, I wont, this isn't the forum for it. SirGiggidyMMVIII (one of our more cerebral contributors) was quick to realise as much, and was moved to conclude, "I disgust myself."

And then everyone just sort of left.

Quotes of the Day

"From hairy trumpet you chime the weekend, while father time you do castrate, No wrinkly pendulums swing the hour, no ticking clocks, no sands of fate."
StilTed having one of his weekly 'episodes'. You can set your watch by him.

"You mean no boob gropes for the boys? For shame!"
SerenVikity struggles with the Guardian's new Online Code of Conduct.

TV
The Trip
The Walking Dead
An Idiot Abroad
Oz
The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret

Movies
Due Date
The Hurt Locker

End game

Join the official Gamesblog spotify list and share your own favourite tunes. Last addition – Sideways by Dinosaur Jr [I cheated and added it myself! - Keef]

Check the Gamesblog wiki for everyone's game tags and more!

This week's 'Best of' was written by Lazybones, RustyJames, Limni, Mollocate, HereComesTreble. It was edited by Crispycrumb.

"Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible, and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature."
Tom Robbins

Back in August (http://crackberry.com/blackberry-app-roundup-august-6th-2010-win-1-10-co...) the weekly roundup told you about a free game called Hangman by Spice. This app brings the classic word guessing game to life with vivid graphics and an easy to use interface. Players can choose from an assortment of categories/themes (Kids, Places, Movies, Mix, etc.), add new ones and can select the level of difficulty (Relaxed, Thinker, Maestro, Ultra) which should keep you occupied for quite awhile.

This app is a great way to kill excess bouts of boredom especially if you're like me with a long commute to/from work. It's no wonder that it's one of the top free apps in App World. Spice has systematically been updating this app from 2.1.1 to 3.2 for additional features as well as support for the Torch. New Updates Include:

Ver 3.2

• 6 New themes - Soccer, Tennis, Politics, European Places, Basketball and Cricket.
  
• Exciting new 'Ultra Mode' - think you are a Hangman Pro, try out this mode and let us know.

Ver 3.1

• A fresh new theme - 'Music'.
  
• Two themes (Kids & Places) now come with special sub-themes.
  
• Hangman now learns as you play and adjusts the difficulty level of words automatically.

Ver 3.0

• Special Daily Mode
  
• Get to play a set of new words each day, compare your score against other players and get yourself ranked
  
• 2 new themes - Hollywood & Business - and more words across existing themes

Hangman is available for free through BlackBerry App World from the link below.

• More information/download of Hangman for BlackBerry >>

CrackBerry.com's feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. Hangman for BlackBerry updated to v3.2

More than a century ago, two of Charles Dickens's sons went to New South Wales to seek their fortune. The award-winning Australian author Thomas Keneally retraces their steps in a harsh but beautiful land

This month rain is falling widely on the earth 1,000km or more northwest of Sydney. It did the same in the late 19th century, which broke the hearts of Charles Dickens's sons. Anthony Trollope's son Frederick lived there too, in Wilcannia, the same town as Edward (Plorn) Dickens, attending the same picnics, race meetings, cricket matches and rowing regattas.

In a bad season the Dickens's country (as I think of it) can seem no better than desert. When he was elected as member for Wilcannia to the New South Wales parliament, Dickens's youngest son Plorn (born 1852) gave his fellow legislators a rundown on the erratic rains in the towns of the region he represented. In 1884, a half-good year. In Milparinka 2.18in had fallen, in Bourke 6.83in, in Wilcannia 3.23in, in Pack Saddle 2.11. Things have not got much better there in this century, and may even have grown a little worse.

But after full-throated rains like this year's, up towards 9in, the country is exuberantly alive. Beyond the tarred roads, many of the red-soil tracks have been officially closed because in the rain they turn to clag. But I was recently lucky, travelling between rains. Yellow, blue and white wildflowers grow now in broad reaches among the grey-blue cottonbush and saltbush. The squat mulga trees, an equation for dried-up hope in bad seasons, are green above their black trunks, and the clumps of applewood are blue. Ducks, teal, brolgas, pelicans, ibis, parrots, cockatoos, eagles and finches dart and glide and feed and circle, and on the roads sits every few yards a handsome lizard of the type known as water-dragons, looking like an owner absorbing the glory of real estate which has just increased in price. Every group of emus traversing the road is accompanied by two or three new chicks. Kangaroos are legion. Colliding with them is a continuous peril out on the tracks down which Charles Dickens once sent his two sons.

The Darling River, up which Plorn Dickens first came by paddle steamer, is these days depleted by too much irrigation. The dream of governments ever was to make this semi-desert country bend to Eurocentric expectations, and render it bountiful and populous. The essential reality of the isohyets, the rainfall contours, has always bitten back. The population of the port of Wilcannia, its great sandstone warehouses unused now, its Athenaeum a run-down museum, is less than 750 town dwellers, drastically less in 2010 than it was in the days when civic-minded Plorn Dickens and Frederick Trollope served on the committees of the local cricket and jockey clubs. Of the present-day Wilcannia citizens, a little over half are Barkindji Aboriginals. A meal can be had at the Wilcannia Golf Club where the Barkindji and Aboriginals from other neighbouring groups share the bar with white locals and visitors. Photographs of the Wilcannia of Edward Dickens's days occupy the walls – rowers on the river, crinoline and stiff-collar picnics under the river gums, the brimming wharfs and warehouses, the paddle steamers, and the Afghans and their camel teams who provided the surest form of transport. But the Barkindji, whose forebears were once permitted in town only as servants and nursemaids, or who worked as stockmen in the outer regions, now own the public spaces.

And despite all misuse, the Darling is running nobly among huge red-river gums. If it were always like it is now, Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens (born 1852) and Alfred Tennyson Dickens (born 1845), Charles's own antipodean Pips, would not have died disappointed men.

Their being in this region was based on common British convictions about Australia – the belief that Australia was a great destination for unsatisfactory folk. Obviously, convicts, but also the less talented or more embarrassing sons of the nobility and bourgeoisie, the bluff English lads good at cricket but to whom Greek grammar was opaque. The belief in Australia as a suitable venue for the failed and unsatisfactory is there in Dickens's own work, for – with affection – he consigned some of his characters to the place for their own good. It was the hopeful home to which he sent Mr Micawber, the hapless debtor in David Copperfield. In Great Expectations, Magwitch, a transported convict who returns to England illicitly but as a wealthy man, was indicative of popular British belief in Australia's offering a surefire success for flawed gents.

Young Frederick Trollope, son of Anthony, emigrating to Australia in 1863, wrote reports of living on a station in New South Wales that might well have reached Dickens through his friendship with his fellow novelist. And after Alfred's arrival in Australia in 1865, managing a far-off sheep station, he declared that he was "as happy as a king". So in 1867 Dickens withdrew young Plorn from school, telling his headmaster he intended for him "an active life" in Australia.

The immigrant Plorn's first post in the Wilcannia region, which he reached five days short of his 16th birthday, was the 600,000-hectare Momba station 80km northwest of Wilcannia on the Darling, in country marked by stony hills and waterholes and prodigious vistas and along a road which is to this day a dirt strip. On the day before his death in 1870, Charles Dickens addressed a letter to Alfred, and the subject was in large part Plorn. "I am doubtful whether Plorn is taking to Australia."

But Plorn endured among the stockmen of Momba. His love of horseflesh helped him settle. And in December 1872, four months before his inheritance would be released to him, Plorn and two partners took a lease on Yanda, a relatively modest station of 120,000 hectares along the banks of the Darling on the road from Bourke to Wilcannia. From Yanda's homestead, abandoned and spacious and wide-verandahed, a particularly beautiful bend in the deep-banked Darling is visible, and a long shearing shed, a wool cathedral in ruins, runs away to the north. Here Plorn must have felt that he had validated his late father's expectation. Then in July 1880, he married Constance Desailly, whose father owned Netallie station.

Recently a drover from Bourke on the Darling said to me of the rain, "This is a great time for re-stocking. If the farmers can afford to buy stock." Out here, running a station has always eaten money, and Plorn's beloved Yanda was struggling. In 1882, he and Connie had to sell it. The Dickens country had defeated a Dickens, even though he left this challenging town with the assertion of the chairman of the Jockey Club that Mr Dickens had always "conducted himself as a true sportsman". Plorn joined his brother in Melbourne.

Alfred Dickens's career had been a similar struggle. Despite his inheritance from his father, he failed on a property named Wangagong near Forbes in New South Wales. He had enough left over to move to Victoria, buy a house in the country town of Hamilton and a pony carriage in which his wife Jessie went driving. He founded there a stock and station agency, that is, a brokerage for buying and selling stations in Western Victoria and the Dickens country. In 1878, Jessie was killed while riding through Hamilton in her pony cart. Alfred decided to centre his business on Melbourne. Plorn came to Melbourne and the brothers ran the company as partners.

But within a year, in 1883, like a man enchanted, Plorn returned to Wilcannia to begin a branch of the company there. He took an interest in politics, specifically in land legislation made in Sydney for this region that most politicians had never seen. In 1888, a new electorate of Wilcannia, 550,000 sq km in extent, had been established to elect a member of the Legislative Assembly of New South Wales in Sydney, and Plorn was asked to stand as candidate. After policemen had ridden out to all the remotest stations and mining camps delivering ballots, Dickens won by a two-to-one majority.

At the end of summer, Plorn was introduced to parliament. In his maiden speech, he impressed on the legislators the futility of making a single land law for all of New South Wales. He also announced that in some cases, the capacity to carry livestock had been reduced by one half through rabbit plagues. Plorn was so persistent he heard members cry, "Hang the rabbits, we are sick of rabbits!"

His brother Henry in England believed the story that his little brother had routed the Member for Bourke, WN Willis, with the sally, "Mr Speaker, my late honoured father once wrote, 'Barkis is willing'. If he had been here tonight, he would have said, 'Willis is barking.'" But this wonderful gibe does not appear in Hansard. The truth is that when he apologised to the speaker for an indiscretion, and explained that "sons of great men are not usually as great as their fathers", there were unkindly calls of "Hear! Hear!"

His marriage to Connie was not going well. And the regional equation was changing. To the west of Wilcannia, near a ragged desert tor, an asthmatic German stockman had identified a silver and iron outcrop which initiated the massive present day mining company BHP Billiton. The Broken Hill was by 1994 a desert mining town, an exotic and uniquely atmospheric place still. Beneath its great slag heaps it combines ornate public buildings with rows of miners' houses and, however remote, has always been a centre of miner militancy. (Later it became the home of an art movement, the Brushmen of the Bush, part bush-naïf, part abstract, begun by the miner Pro Hart who died in 2006.)

The miners of Broken Hill were led by the handsome, demonic, 23-year-old Richard Sleath. Son of a Fifeshire ploughman, he was another kind of Briton to Plorn Dickens. The first Labour government in the world was in the offing, Sleath was part of the movement which would reap the discontent of miners and bush workers.

In 1894 Sleath was selected to oppose the relatively easy target, gentle Plorn Dickens. Sleath won with a majority of more than 60%. Bereft of income, Plorn sought appointments from old parliamentary friends. It would be June 1900 before Plorn got another job – as an inspector in the Moree Land District, around the Gwydir River. Connie had left him, and he lived at the Criterion Hotel in Moree, a town of broad sun-struck streets out of which such hotels as the Criterion rose like galleons. On 23 January 1902, he died at the Criterion during a severe summer in which temperatures were 40C and more. For many years the location of the grave was not known. But money was collected by the Dickens Fellowship in Sydney, and more than 60 years after his death a memorial tablet was placed in the Church of England in Moree.

As for Alfred Tennyson Dickens, broken in the depression of the 1890s, a firm of theatrical producers of Melbourne would ultimately organise tours of Britain and America where he read from his father's work and expatiated on his father's life. On his second tour, he died at the Astor Hotel, New York, in December 1911. His body was buried at Trinity Church in lower New York, finding there the valuable earth he had never found in Australia.

For some reason, these days, the Darling and the region beyond is captivating country to me, in a different sense than the enchantment that possessed Plorn. Even the harshness in drought is exciting – the land seems occupied by pre-European presences and its absolute colours of sky and red soil and saltbush take on endless subtleties according to the light. But then I can just relish it and travel by. Unlike the Dickens boys, I have not been required to invest my blood in it.

Thomas Keneally's latest book, Australians: Origins to Eureka, is published by Allen & Unwin

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It's just not cricket

We at Pocket-lint are a fair bunch. And so, when it comes to deciding which apps to feature in App of The Day, we like to make sure that we're giving everyone a shot.

And, seeing as how we gave EA Sport's FIFA 11 iPhone version the once over, we thought it was only fair that we gave some credence to Konami's iPhone football sim, PES 2011 as well.

PES 2011 - Pro Evolution Soccer

Format

iPhone

Price

?4.99

Where

iTunes

Let's not beat around the bush - when it came to this year's big console battle between PES and FIFA, Konami's effort took quite a spanking. FIFA's sales are streets ahead and the reviews all seem to award the contest in EA's favour.

But can the story be different when it comes to the iOS match up? Can Konami regain some pride?

Unfortunately not, as PES 2011 on the iPhone is a clunky, slow and poor affair that has taken the series backwards since last year's effort.

Let's start with the worse aspect of the game - the crazy AI. The computer controlled players really are bonkers, and whilst this is funny to begin with, it soon gets very annoying. Defenders will run away from the ball, players will boot the ball into the stand when under no pressure and goalkeepers will even run straight past the ball without picking it up or kicking it.

The standard two button control is on board (which you'll also find on FIFA 11 as well as Gameloft's Real Football 11), but there's also a tilt and touch control. However, these feel a bit like novelty additions - they don't really seem to do much and you'll have to rely on mastering the double-tap and the flick-tap if you're going to pull of any skills or special moves.

There are some good points to the game. Visually, it looks very nice - definitely much nicer than FIFA 11 - and Konami has added some new features including a multiplayer mode so you can play with your friends over local Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. There's also UEFA Club competitions such as the Champions League and the Europa League.

But, these are just icing on what is essentially a crap-flavoured cake.

So, not a great success for PES 2011, and your possibly wondering why we included it within App of The Day when there are so many good apps out there.

But, there are a lot of Pro Evo fans that read the site, that would have been waiting for our thoughts on the iOS effort. And now they know not to bother splashing out ?4.99.

So, not so much App of The Day today, more like App to Avoid of The Day.

Tags: phone apps Konami pes 2011 Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 FIFA 11 iphone games App of the day Gaming Apps iPhone apps

APP OF THE DAY: PES 2011 - Pro Evolution Soccer (iPhone) originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 18 Oct 2010 18:00:00 +0100

Bradford City football captain Zesh Rehman tells Chris Arnot of his plans to encourage more British-born Asian youths into the game

A poster on the wall at Zesh Rehman's apartment in Bradford city centre frames a quote from New York business guru Peter A Cohen. Under the heading persistence, it reads: "There is no giant step that does it. It's a lot of little steps." Rehman, 26, had to climb a number of little steps to become a professional footballer – the only Asian man to play in all four divisions of the English game, including the Premier League. There were times, indeed, when it must have felt more like edging up a rock face.

Sheer determination enabled him to chip away at every obstacle to achieve a debut for Fulham against Liverpool at Anfield in 2004. Now he's offering a helping hand to youngsters from similar backgrounds who might want to follow in his footholds.

The Zesh Rehman Foundation has two aims. One is to address the noticeable under-representation of British-born players with south Asian heritage in the professional game. The other is to promote football as a "pathway to community cohesion" between young people from all cultures. At a time when lurid tabloid headlines have been dwelling on the sleazy off-field activities of a few highly paid international players, Rehman is keen to stress the benefits to youth of what is required to "make it" as a pro in the first place: determination, discipline and diet.

"When I was on the books at Fulham as a teenager, my mum was sent a diet sheet from the club," he recalls. "Out went the curries and in came pasta, fish and chicken for me and my older brother, Rizwan," he recalls. "We have four sisters and they went without any luxuries to help finance our football equipment and the cost of ferrying us around the country, chasing a dream."

Rizwan's dream came to an end when he broke his leg shortly before he was set to make his first-team debut at Brentford. He's now helping his younger brother with the day-to-day running of the foundation. Zesh is now club captain at Bradford City.

Good habits

Last month saw the foundation launch a pilot project that will see around 20 children, aged nine to 11, from Hill Top primary school in Bradford will take part in workshops after school once a week for 10 weeks. Pupils come from a range of socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds. "They'll be learning about nutrition, exercise and diet – trying to get them to adopt good habits that will stand them in good stead whether they make it in football or not," Rehman stresses.

"The course will include a visit to Valley Parade [Bradford's ground] to see what goes on behind the scenes in the football industry, and the job opportunities there for girls as well as boys. And on week three they'll go to a match for free."

Who's paying for all this? "Well, I paid to register the charity and for the tickets for the kids," he says. "You have to believe in your own project. But we're also looking for sponsorship. West Yorkshire police want to get involved. They've agreed to fund a venue and we're currently trying to find a floodlit pitch. As far as the police are concerned, it's far better to have youngsters playing football after dark than hanging around street corners while wannabe gangsters cruise around offering them drugs."

The plan is to roll out the scheme to secondary school pupils as well as other primary schools in Bradford and beyond. "I'm hoping," says Rehman, "that the pilot scheme will become a template that could be taken into places such as Blackburn, Burnley, Luton or the East End of London." All are areas that, like Bradford, have substantial Asian populations. "I'm inundated with letters from teachers and parents asking me to come and talk to the kids," he says.

Because you're a role model?

"Exactly." And sporting Asian role models are more plentiful on the cricket pitch than the football pitch. When I bring up the subject of the alleged betting scandal besmirching Pakistani cricket, he shakes his head and says: "It's very disappointing if those allegations are proven to be true. But my focus is football. Always has been. We played it summer as well as winter in inner-city Birmingham where I grew up. That's where I first became aware of the power of the game to bring all races together."

His father, now a driving instructor, was a passionate Aston Villa supporter in the 1970s and 80s. "The National Front was quite active at some clubs in those days," Rehman says. "But Dad always said he felt safer on the Holte End at Villa Park than anywhere else." Nonetheless, he was prepared to move the entire family south when London-based scouts began to take an interest in his boys. By that time, both had been toughened by exposure to the racism prevalent in Sunday league football – not just on the field but also from the touchline. Zesh Rehman remembers one coach shouting from the touchline during a youth tournament: "Your lot won't make it."

But he did. "You have to use comments like that as motivational fuel," he insists. "That's what I tell any lad who tells me that he's been racially abused and that he'll never get picked because he's Asian. You have to toughen up mentally and realise that racism stems from ignorance."

The same ignorant stereotyping once blighted black players' careers, he points out. "History repeats itself. I look at players like Viv Anderson, Cyrille Regis and Brendon Batson and draw inspiration. They took torrid abuse back in the 70s. But fast forward nearly 40 years and there are black players at every club and any number have played for England since Viv made the breakthrough."

Rehman has played for England himself, but only up to under-20 level. Frustrated by the lack of opportunity to progress further, he accepted an invitation to lead the Pakistani team. "To captain the country of my parents' birth is a great honour," he says. "But I was as gutted as anyone when England went out of the World Cup, as I have been at every major tournament since Euro '96."

Optimistic

Rehman concedes that it may be some time before a player of Asian heritage pulls on an England shirt at Wembley stadium. At the last count, Rehman was one of just seven on the books of professional clubs and only one of them is on the fringes of Premier League (Danny Batth at Wolverhampton Wanderers). But he remains optimistic. "I think the real breakthrough, though, will come with the fourth generation – the ones born to parents who were born here," he says.

Curriculum vitae

Age 26.

Status Single.

Education Cheam high school, Surrey; Nescot College, Surrey. Currently doing a part-time course in leadership and management at Bradford College and a level 1 online psychology course.

Career 2008-present: central defender, Bradford City, became club captain last season; 2005-present: captain of Pakistan national side; 2006-08: player at Queens Park Rangers; 2004-06: player at Fulham, whose academy he joined in 1996; loan spells at Brighton and Hove Albion, Norwich City, and Blackpool.

Public life Founder, Zesh Rehman Foundation; ambassador, Kick It Out, Show Racism the Red Card; ambassador, Asian Football Network; ambassador, Professional Footballers' Association; named PFA's Player of the Community at the 2010 Football League Awards.

Interests Cinema, snooker and music.

zeshrehmanfoundation.org Kick it Out begins its One Game, One Community week of action tomorrow. Details at kickitout.org