Bollywood beckons for Brett Lee

Brett Lee is incredibly popular in India and has already knocked back a lead role in a Bollywood film, reports Andrew Ramsey in The Australian.

Like so many of his international cricket peers, Brett Lee is eyeing a post-playing life in front of the cameras, being beamed into the homes of countless millions around the world. But Lee's journey from cricket will not take him into the television commentary box, but instead the sprawling studio lots of the world's biggest and most lucrative movie industry. The 29-year-old self-confessed Indophile was offered a lead role in a lavish Bollywood production when he visited Mumbai on his way home from Australia's tour of Bangladesh this year.

The Ashes urn arrives in Australia tomorrow and John Huxley writes in the Sydney Morning Herald about how little is known about the trophy.

What is beyond doubt is that the tiny pot - which arrives at Sydney Airport amid high security tomorrow morning - was presented to the English cricket captain Ivo Bligh by Lady Clarke, whose husband hosted the team at his estate in Sunbury, Victoria. But when? For some time it was believed that it was handed over after England had controversially beaten Australia 2-1 in the 1882-83 series, said Beth Hise, the curator of an Ashes exhibition at the Museum of Sydney, of which the priceless urn is the centrepiece. "Recent research, though, suggests the gift - probably intended as a personal joke but destined to become a genuine icon - was presented before the series, after a social match at the Clarkes' Rupertswood estate," she said.

Cricinfo’s short history of the Ashes series is here.

In Queensland’s Sunday Mail the founder of the Barmy Army says supporters shouldn’t be ejected from Australian grounds this summer for calling England fans “Pommy bastards”. In Sydney Morris Iemma, the New South Wales premier, writes to Tony Blair in a bid to stop hooliganism from England fans.

The end of Australia’s domestic competitions will involve the naming of all-star teams, according to a report in the Daily Telegraph.