Cow Corner is giddy as an eight-year-old on Christmas Eve.
No, it's not because it has scored tickets to the Sex and the City movie, but because England start their international summer tomorrow in the first Test against New Zealand.
What it means for Cow Corner is that it can abandon its present "scan the papers frantically for something interesting to write about" set-up, and take on a dynamic live format instead.
Cowers will be strapping on its several-sizes-too-big pads, slipping a 'youth' box into its borrowed jockstrap, shunning a helmet for its Richie Richardson-style floppy hat and striding confidently out to the middle.
Every 15 minutes from 10am there will be a new update on the action at Lord's, plus plenty of reader interaction and the usual guff.
There is a good reason why tickets are still widely available for the New Zealand series - after all, why would you bother turning up in person when you can enjoy comprehensive coverage and whipcrack banter right here?
With heavy showers forecast for tomorrow, expect plenty of fevered discussion on the relative merits of Victoria sponge versus Dundee cake, and whether Cow Corner's adopted team Birdlip & Brimpsfield 2s should employ a second spinner at the weekend.
So join us bright and early tomorrow as we watch Matthew Hoggard not carrying the drinks while rain sheets down on St John's Wood.
- - -
It is a sad day when a bat is excluded from a game of cricket simply because of the colour of its varnish.
The MCC has long been known as a preserver of traditional values in cricket, but Cow Corner thinks it has gone too far with new laws brought in last week.
Rules were ostensibly revised to outlaw handles made of titanium and carbon fibre. But the MCC have sparked a race row by sneaking in a clause banning any alterations to the colour of bats.
It just so happens that black bats are the trademark of Allen Stanford, the Texan billionaire who has put up £50 million for a five-match series between England and the West Indies.
Stanford has threatened to pull out if he can't have black bats, and for once Cowers thinks a Texan billionaire has got it right.
It is clear discrimination and a bitter blow to black bats everywhere, whose hopes of being wielded by a Pietersen or a Gayle hang in the balance.
Cowers calls on the MCC to reconsider its stance and allow these innocent victims to follow their dreams.
- - -
The ECB are kicking around an idea to reduce County Championship matches from four to three days - which is still two-and-a-half too many for most people's tastes.
The proposal, from former Lancashire spinner Jack Simmons, recommends increasing the number of overs bowled each day to 120.
Judging by current over rates. Play would have to start at 6.30am, with only the slimmest chance of finishing by nightfall if both sides agree to forfeit their breaks for meals.
Can't see the likes of Rob Key and Ian Blackwell going for that, somehow.
- - -
TALKING POINT: Day two of the great Ryan Sidebottom giveaway! Well, we're not so much giving away Ryan Sidebottom as a Yahoo! biro, which is almost as good.
A first person to guess correctly how many wickets the Sideshow Bob look-alike will take in the Test series against New Zealand gets the swag.
Incidentally, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 17 and 18 have already gone. You know it's only three Tests, right?
Cow Corner goes for Pernod, craig.washington opts for Pimms - the great cricket beverage debate goes on, as this contribution from nickbroberts shows: "Now Arnie Sidebottom - there was a guy. A childhood hero of mine, despite the Man U connection. I remember nipping out of 6th Form to go down to Headingley to watch him - and for the record, it was always a pint of Tetleys in those days, never Pimms..."
Today's question - Beer? Spirits? Absinthe? What's your preferred poison for a day at the cricket?
LIVE TODAY: Mark Ramprakash is after his 100th first-class century, although it took him 18 balls to get off the mark. Find out if he gets it with our live County scorecards: