The cricket world cheered as one when Mark Taylor did a Peshawar and declared he'd bat on and on and on in the upcoming four-Test West Indies tour.
To celebrate this wonderful news from the big Blue one, The Bug launches its exclusive family fun game, TUBBLOTTO!, our tribute to the greatest skipper of all time.
And it's so simple, everyone in the family can play!
And the prize for the lucky overall winner is almost too good to be true: a bat personally signed by all The Bug's sports writers, including the famous Basher Brown. All are former or never Australian Test players.
So here's all you have to do. Simply jot down on a piece of paper the eight scores you believe Tubby will muster in the four Windies Tests - Port-of -Spain, Trinidad (March 5 to 9); Sabina Park, Jamaica (March 13 to 17); Bridgetown, Barbados (March 26 to 30); and St John's, Antigua (April 3 to 7) . Then e-mail or post them (P.O. Box 696, Fortitude Valley, Q, 4006) to arrive at Bug HQ before the first ball is bowled at Port-of-Spain.
To show you how TUBBLOTTO works, here's the eight scores that The Bug's resident team of sports writers have come up for Tubby's Test tour: 3, 4, 0, 11, 0, 3, 9, 2 - a total of 32 hard-fought runs.
Now let's say, for example, that Tubby does much better than expected against the West Indies fast men and actually scores 3, 8, 0, 13, 1, 4, 7 and 0 - 36 big un's.
On the basis that a point is added to your score for each run your prediction is out by reality, the Bug panel would have scored thus: zero for the first Test (a perfect result), 4 for the second, zero for the third, two for the fourth, one for the fifth, one for the sixth, two for the seventh and two for the eighth - giving the panel a final score of 12.
So, children, you see how important it is to get each score as close as possible. Because even though The Bug's panel's score was only four runs out of the overall total; their score blew out because some of their guesses were way of the mark.
So how did the panel work out their TUBBLOTTO entry.
Basher Brown explains: "First of all we looked at his excellent record in the just completed Ashes series. Tubby compiled a mammoth 228 runs from 10 completed innings. That 22.8 average was against a pathetically weak Pommy side, of course, so we reckon he'd be hard pressed to match that excellent result against the Windies attack on home soil.
"The next thing we had to figure out was whether Tubby was due for one of those big hundreds he pulls out of the hat whenever his Test career is on the line. You know, like that gritty 129 in the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston a few years ago that set Australia well and truly up for a first-up loss.
"Our panel came to the conclusion that, in the wake of his recent 334 not out in Pakistan, such a repeat innings is unnecessary. His stocks are so high at the moment he could walk out to bat buck naked at Port-of-Spain and drop a grogan mid-pitch and the cricket world would still stand and applaud. We also factored in the fact that this is probably also his last tour so he doesn't give a toss really."

Experts called in

To be on the safe side, The Bug's panel also talked to some of Australia's most famous former captains to gauge how they felt Tubby would go in the Caribbean.
The Bug reprints some of their comments to help you on your winning TUBBLOTTO way. So get out those cricket record books, pour over the Windies attack and make your MARK! Good luck!

Bill "The Corpse with Pads" Lawry: Taylor is probably the best captain Australia has had since I retired. Never underestimate Taylor. Even when his stocks were at rockbottom in the lead-up matches to that first Ashes Test at Edgbaston, he always displayed those two magnificent fighting qualities that ensured he got that final chance to redeem himself and revive his international career: he was captain and he was from New South Wales. I like just about everything about Taylor: he opens, bats left handed and scores his runs slowly but surely. His nose could be a bit bigger though.

Ian Chappell: Taylor is probably the best captain Australia has had since I retired. His brilliant leadership is based on two fundamental tenets: always be prepared to try something new to keep or retain the initiative; and never, ever, let Kasprowicz bowl against the tail because he might get that four or five wicket haul that would keep him in the Test side.

Richie Benaud: Taylor is probably the best captain Australia has had since I retired. You can just sense the other 10 players lift when he's on the field. It's like they realise that by having Taylor in the side they're really a man short so they lift their game accordingly. His leadership in that way is inspirational - it wins him Test after Test.

The Bug also spoke to former England captain Tony Greig. We showed Greig two full colour shots from the recent fifth Ashes Test in Sydney, each showing Taylor edging almost identically to slips early in each innings for a scratchy couple of runs, and asked him to evaluate what those images could mean for the Windies tour.
"I think marketing them separately would be a mistake. But side by side I don't think we'll have much trouble at all flogging all 1500 for $150 plus postage and handling. $175 if they're personally signed."