The Bug has cancelled its exclusive family fun game, TUBBLOTTO!, following the shock retirement of the world's greatest ever cricket Test skipper and possible the greatest sportsman of all time, Mark "Tubby" Taylor.
Your favourite on-line entertainment and sports tabloid developed the family fun game as our way of saying 'thank you, Mark' when he declared he wanted to bat on in the current Windies tour.
Then came Taylor's shock announcement to the Australian Cricket Board that although he was seeing them as well as ever and he had no doubt he could hold his own in the Caribbean, he was quitting the limelight to spend more time with his family.
After the enormous amount of time and money The Bug outlayed in bringing TUBBLOTTO! to fruition, we could be excused for taking an almightly swipe at the Big Blue One for taking him at his word, but we won't. It's not in our nature.
Instead, we congratulate Mark on his decision to put his family first. Already Australian of the Year, his unselfish act must surely put him in the running for Father of the Year as well.
To throw away the fame and fortune of Australian Test cricket captain to an uncertain financial future to spend more time with a young family brought tears to some crusty and cynical hack journos when the word of his retirement first came through to The Bug's newsroom.
"He might be able to get a little bit of work with Channel 9's wide world of profits down the track but nowhere near what Test captaincy would bring," said a visibly moved Basher Brown.
"All I can say is thank God Channel 9 didn't have the broadcast rights for the current Windies tour. Seeing his former team-mates hop on the big white bird would have been heart-breaking enough for Taylor, but could you imagine how he would have felt at home doing the ironing and hearing the voices of all his new-found friends at Channel 9 on the tele.
"I think it's really going to hit home when the World Cup is on in England in a few months. At least he'll have his wife and kids at home to help him over what I imagine is going to be a really bad patch."
In the meantime, The Bug joins with all other cricket lovers in declaring that we'll miss his guiding hand against the Windies.
Our hearts will be heavy with the knowledge that in the four-Test series due to commence next week, we're not going to have the privilege - nay, honour - of seeing the sort of typical, gritty innings that Taylor pulled out of the hat in leading NSW against Victoria in last weekend's Mercantile Mutual Cup final at the MCG.