The saga of Fawad Ahmed’s availability to play for Australia got my hackles up in advance of the winter Ashes series. My blog on the topic was the fifth most viewed post here this year.

Here is a link to this post: https://shumpty77.com/2013/05/30/sportspeople-and-citizenship-does-bowling-a-wrong-un-make-you-worthy-of-the-fast-track/

I maintain my view that it is an absolute travesty that a cricket player is entitled to special treatment under the laws of Australia whilst other immigrants with special skills (or no special skills at all for that matter) are finding it more and more difficult to get into our borders.

As the year draw to a close, I have had a moment of pause to consider how much I have enjoyed writing this blog this year. Some of my writing has been a bit rough at points and some of my posts have been more personal than I intended but the importance of this blog as an outlet for me is something that has always stuck with me during this year. It goes without saying that I am humbled that even one person would deign to read what I write so thank you to all of you who have found this blog during the course of the year.

I thought I would end the year by reposting the top 5 blogs posted here as judged by the number of times the bog has been clicked on. These blogs are not necessarily my favourites during the year (those blogs will be subject of a seperate countdown next week) but they are the ones most read.

I hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane and, as always, please feel free to comment freely!