The Christopher and George show

The Champions Trophy final between Australia and West Indies is being covered "live" online (which means reasonably prompt score updates and perhaps some additional commentary) by several media organisations. As I post unseasonal rain has stopped play in Mumbai with Australia 2/45 chasing the West Indies' disappointing 138.

The London Daily Telegraph 's scorecard goes further than the others by printing the first names of all the players, even if those are not the names by which they are commonly known. Thus we have Christopher, not Chris, Gayle and, more bizarrely, George, not Brad(ley), Hogg. Printing more than the players' surnames is a good idea, but only as long as the fuller version corresponds fairly closely to what most followers recognise.

UPDATE 6 NOVEMBER

Result: Australia eventually won under the Duckworth-Lewis method. The final score, though not the complex calculations used under that method to determine the result, can be seen by clicking on the above link.

Players' names on scorecards: After I'd posted the comments above I recalled that until about 1962, when English first class cricketers were divided into Gentlemen (amateurs or pseudo-amateurs) and Players (professionals), scorecards usually included this information in an easy to crack code. "Gentlemen" were called Mr (or Sir, Lord, Rev or whatever) while "Players" were just referred to by their surnames. Australians touring England were usually treated as amateurs while non-white West Indians were treated as professionals. Had Messrs Gayle and Hogg played in those times they would have appeared in the scorecard as Gayle (perhaps with C aappended) and Mr G B Hogg. This deserves a fuller posting, which I'll do shortly.