Even when not on air commentators need to be careful about what they say. The BBC has been forced to apologise after a foul-mouthed outburst from Geoff Boycott was heard by listeners to Test Match Special during the fourth one-day international at Port Elizabeth.

Boycott was picked up shouting “f****** t****r'' at about the time England took their sixth wicket while bowling out South Africa for 119. It’s unclear whether it was a comment on the batting, bowler or nothing related to the match.

A Radio 5 Live spokesman said: “An off-air comment made by Geoffrey Boycott
In a live broadcast was heard by some listeners which we apologised for as soon
As we realised it had been audible.''

	Jesse Ryder: Pump up the volume © AFP

Ryder's in the storm, yet again. Jesse Ryder made the front page of the Dominion Post on Thursday after his neighbours in Lower Hutt complained he was hosting noisy parties where guests vomited and urinated on their property. The report also also said the neighbours were kept awake by party-goers doing burnouts on the street, and that festivities often continued from Thursday to Sunday.

While Ryder doesn't have a good-boy reputation - fined an unspecified amount last month for verbally abusing team manager Dave Currie after being dismissed in the 2009 Champions Trophy match against Sri Lanka, a highly publicised drunken incident during his debut ODI series against England in February last year, punching a pub window before abusing hospital staff after a match in Christchurch, standing down for an ODI against West Indies after sleeping through a team meeting - this latest incident would certainly be a cause for alarm for New Zealand Cricket (NZC), which has looked to keep a tight rein on him

NZC chief executive Justin Vaughan, however, chose to distance himself from the allegations. "If it was a serious criminal matter there may be some implications but I don't really want to comment on it, Jesse's had enough airplay of late," he told the New Zealand Herald. "We are keeping close tabs on his recovery and rehab and that's going really well."

Ryder's manager Aaron Klee took exception to the neighbours airing their grievances publicly. "Is it abnormal for someone to have people or parties at their house? I've been working with him for 18 months now and the last six weeks is the hardest he's ever worked. I cannot be happier with what he's been doing." With Christmas and New Year's eve still to come, the feeling is mutual.

	Ian Botham on his trip to Sri Lanka in 2005 © Getty Images

Sir Ian Botham is set to take a break from his commentary duties in South Africa to return to Sri Lanka with the Laureus Sport for Good foundation, where he will mark the fifth anniversary of the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004.

In early 2005, Botham was one of the first high-profile cricketers to travel to the worst-affected areas on the south of the island to assess the damage and raise awareness. “Nothing prepared me for what I saw there,” he writes in his Laureus blog. “What made it even more horrifying was that I had been to these places before. In 2003 when I was covering cricket for Sky TV, I stayed at a house just along the beach from Galle – it wasn’t there anymore!

“The fishermen, the market stalls along the road, the other houses on the coast, they had all gone. The cricket ground looked like the surface of the moon. I can still recall the clock on the old Test ground in Galle frozen at ‘9.25am’ on December 26.”

Botham’s visit will be a two-day affair on December 1 and 2, during which time he will visit some of the communities and projects in and around Galle that have been rebuilding their lives since that fateful day. For example, the Foundation of Goodness in Seenigama has built a cricket ground that now allows boys and girls, aged from six upwards, to take part in inter-village sports leagues with matches and training sessions.

“I hope to find that the people of Sri Lanka are rebuilding their lives and that sport is helping people, particularly the younger ones, to finally put this devastating event behind them – and have fun again. They certainly deserve it.”

Read more about Botham’s trip and follow his progress at blog.laureus.com

	Strand by me: Shane Warne © Getty Images

Shane Warne looks to be heading towards another controversy, this time over his latest campaign for a hair replacement company. Advanced Hair Studio's advertisements have, down the years, focused on Warne and Graham Gooch's strand-by-strand replacement success, but the new ad implied that laser hair treatments produced the same results.

The advertisements have been banned by an advertising watchdog over their misleading content, Eurosport reported. It featured Warne with the line: ‘I stopped worrying about my hair when I heeded the Warne-ing signs [it should have been banned for that pun alone] and saw Advanced Hair Studio’, and was found contentious by the Advertising Standards Agency. Well bald, Shane!

	Missing: The Friends Provident Trophy © Getty Images

A group of financial advisors were given an unexpected surprise at a seminar in Leeds on Tuesday, when the centrepiece of a presentation by the cricket-sponsoring insurance company, Friends Provident, was accidentally switched in transit.

Delegates at the Tenet Group Annual Conference at the Queens Hotel in the city centre had been expecting to view the FP Trophy itself, which was won by Hampshire in last season’s final at Lord’s. Instead they were offered ... a strimmer.

“Apparently they were supposed to have the cricket trophy there, but the courier company brought the wrong box,” said Darren Harvey, one of the delegates at the event. “That means someone has the Friends Provident Trophy, and is probably trying to do his hedge with it!”

“That’s the first I’ve heard of that one,” a spokesman for FP told Cricinfo.

Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, and Sourav Ganguly will arrive late. His aversion for punctuality made news when he kept Steve Waugh waiting at the toss during Australia’s 2001 tour and, in Bengal’s ongoing Ranji Trophy match against Saurashtra, Ganguly kept his team-mates waiting at Eden Gardens for over an hour.

This time, however, it was not to irk anybody for Ganguly was receiving treatment for a back spasm he suffered in the morning. The umpires did not allow a substitute and Bengal fielded with ten men for an hour and were even reduced to nine at one point when bowler Ashok Dinda went off the field for an over.

Twenty20 cricket has been accused of all sorts of crimes against civilised behaviour in its short but eventful existence, but now - in a bizarre development - a police chief in England has held the format up as the perfect role-model in the fight against anti-social behaviour.

“Twenty20 games are exciting and stimulating and that's what we want for our staff," said Julia Hodson, Nottinghamshire’s chief constable, at the launch of the force’s Policing for You with 20/20 Vision project.

Quite what all this has to do with fours, sixes and Powerplays remains to be explained. According to the Nottingham Evening Post, the project involves 70 Notts policemen being recruited to tackle serious volume crime and anti-social behaviour across the county.

The officers normally deal with such issues as firearms offences, public order, crowd control, suspect and illegal property searches and Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology. They will now work alongside colleagues dealing with day-to-day violence, burglary, robbery and Duckworth/Lewis calculations.

Kevin Pietersen is set to become a father for the first time next summer, after it was confirmed on Monday night that his pop-star wife, Jessica Taylor, is three months’ pregnant.

Pietersen, who has just returned to international action after a four-month lay-off for Achilles surgery, said to be “ecstatic and thrilled” at the news. He and Taylor, a former singer with Liberty X, have been known as the “Posh and Becks of cricket” since their wedding in December 2007.

“They are both very excited about the news and have told families and friends that they don’t want to know the baby’s sex in advance,” a friend told The Daily Mail. “All is well, and they are looking forward to next summer.”

The timing of the arrival could prove problematic for England, however. The birth is due to coincide with England’s home Test series against Bangladesh in late May.

Maybe Shivnarine Chanderpaul reads the paper, maybe he doesn’t. But a couple of hours after comments from Ricky Ponting and Peter Siddle that Chanderpaul might not cope with the short ball on the bouncier Australian pitches, the left-hander was in the nets at Allan Border Field being peppered by bouncers.

There was no danger – it was tennis balls flying from the bowling machine - but tiny Chanderpaul was increasing his reaction time by standing a couple of metres outside the crease. His footwork was sharp and he was generally untroubled, mostly ducking but also playing the occasional pull. He looked ready.

After 121 Tests Chanderpaul knows what he is doing and has proved himself a man for any surface. The Australians are desperate to find a weakness because he batted for more than 18 hours the last time the sides met in a three-Test series.

Cricketers have stated some unusual excuses for missing games. Pakistan’s Abdul Razzaq had one of his own when he didn’t show up at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium in Mirpur for Abahani’s Premier Division Cricket League match against Gazi Tank. The allrounder apparently failed to get on the flight to Dhaka for the match thanks to a false tip-off from an anonymous caller that the match was cancelled due to Eid holidays.

"What we learnt is that someone from Dhaka, in the name of an Abahani official, gave him a call and told that the league matches will resume after the Eid vacation and that's why he cancelled his ticket,” Jalal Yunus, vice-chairman of Abahani's cricket committee, told the Daily Star. “He took the decision from the airport but surprisingly he didn't even check with the agent.”

Yunus added that the identity of that caller is still a mystery, and that attempts to get Razzaq in the next available flight had failed. Timed out.

Jack Hyams, the world’s most prolific club cricketer, will celebrate his impending 90th birthday with a pair of fixtures at the Clive Woodbridge Oval in Valencia, Spain, this weekend.

Hyams, who is Life President of the Barmy Army, enters his tenth decade on December 18, having amassed over 123,000 runs in all cricket, including 171 centuries. He has played ten matches so far this year for Billericay CC Veterans, while three years ago, he took part in five consecutive fixtures for Nomads CC on a tour of Spain, when the club was left short of players.

As a youth, Hyams was offered professional cricket and football terms but his father forbade him from taking that career path. Instead he waited until after the Second World War, when he played football for Bradford Park Avenue and took part in a memorable defeat of Arsenal in the FA Cup.

	Lily Allen is thrilled to secure Glen Chapple's autograph © Getty Images

After a 2.6 million-selling debut album, her own talk show and nominations for Grammy, BRIT and MTV awards, Lily Allen has finally received the recognition she wants as Lancashire made her an honorary member of the club.

Allen was granted membership in recognition of her national and international promotion of cricket and was also presented with a Lancashire team shirt and bat signed by stars such as Freddie Flintoff and Sajid Mahmood.

The musician catapulted into the cricketing mainstream during the 2009 Ashes when her twitter updates about the series earned her a call-up to the TMS box. She delighted traditionalists around the world by declaring her preference for Test cricket over the shorter formats at a time when Test cricket needed all the support it could muster.

From such heady heights it will be important for Allen not to get carried away with her success in a messy excess of ECB 40 League fixtures next summer.

	Flab-ulous: Shoaib Akhtar © Associated Press

Just as his chances of making the national team were getting slimmer, Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar has undergone liposuction to remove excess fat from his body. The 34-year-old has not played a Test in more than two years, and the latest move is part of his efforts to end the fitness troubles and injury woes that have severely hampered his career.

"After the liposuction to trim down his weight, Shoaib will require at least three to four months to make a complete recovery and be available to play competitive cricket once again," Dr Waqar Ahmed, a sports medicine specialist, told Pakistan daily Dawn.

After the surgery Shoaib is going to be lighter in the pocket as well, since the PCB refused to foot his burgeoning medical bills. "He is a centrally contracted player and he is supposed to consult our medical panel and inform us before undergoing any medical treatment but he didn't do this before opting for the liposuction," a PCB official said.

Just days after an Auckland woman cricketer broke a world record for catching 33 tennis balls within a minute, the Guinness Book of Records had another cricket entry when Neville Wadia became the oldest player to hit a century in minor cricket. Wadia, at 63 years and 305 days, scored 105 for Waghodiya Road against Vrajdham Vadli Pariwar team at Siabaug Ground in Vadodara on March 28 this year. Eight months later, his feat was recognised in the coveted book. He isn’t stopping there. Wadia wishes to continue playing and also offer free coaching to youngsters. No country for old men? Not for Neville Wadia.

Move over Jonty. Auckland's Katie Perkins has entered the Guinness Book of Records for catching an astonishing 33 tennis balls within a minute, fired at 100 kmph. For good measure, the record she broke by ten balls was held by an Aussie, Anthony Kelly. Appearing on the television show NZ Smashes Guinness World Records, Perkins said, “Everyone wasn’t expecting me to break it and I did it for a bit of a laugh. But as soon as I did it, I was in the zone.” And now she's in the NZ emerging players' team - with a side career as a 'catching coach' in the offing?

Stephen Fleming may not be interested in coaching his nation's cricket team, but he hasn't been lost to New Zealand sport entirely. The former New Zealand batsman turned football motivator this week on the eve of the All Whites must-win World Cup qualifier against Bahrain. "[Fleming] just gave us wee things to make us try and relax, and told us to just try and think of it as another game, get on with the job," said Michael McGlinchey, the New Zealand mid-fielder. "Ryan Nelsen and the more experienced guys pitched in with their thoughts as well and it was nice to hear what sorts of things they have to say." Victory over Bahrain in Wellington on Saturday would propel New Zealand to the World Cup finals for the first time in 27 years.

Remember Jason Krejza? If you don’t, he’s a tall Australian offspinner who made his Test debut a year ago in Nagpur and took 12 for 358 against India. Krejza played another Test but has since been forgotten by most people, but not all.

There’s a group in Australia lobbying for Krejza’s return to the national team and they called for the public to observe 12 minutes silence on November 10, in remembrance of the Indian batsmen Krejza felled in 2008.

"[It's] to think about and reflect upon those 12 wickets, those glorious 12 wickets in Nagpur and to think about the impact Jason Krejza can make on the national side," group spokesman Ben McKay said. There’s a Facebook group too – “Concerned Tasmanians for Jason Krejza" – with 231 members at the last time of checking.

Kevin Pietersen and MCC have teamed to help this year’s BBC appeal for Children in Need. KP was recently unveiled as the new ‘Brylcreem boy’, in a deal worth nearly £2 million, and it seems he wants to extend his name to an even more worthy pursuit.

Pietersen is auctioning “a money can’t buy prize” that includes coaching in the MCC indoor school at Lord’s, a private tour of the ground and dressing rooms, lunch in the players’ dining room and signed memorabilia.

Let’s just hope Pietersen’s Achilles holds-up well enough to make prize day.

The ‘Pietersen prize’ goes under the hammer on Monday 16th on the ‘Things Money Can't Buy' auction on Terry Wogan's BBC Radio Two show.

	Ian Botham will don his trekking boots again next April © Getty Images

At 53, and with an appetite for the good life, a 900-mile trek should be beyond Ian Botham. But instead he’s unveiled plans for a 13th charity walk to begin April next year.

'Beefy's Great Forget Me Not Walk' will mark the 25th anniversary of his first trek in aid of leukaemia research as he walks length of Britain from Scotland's John O'Groats to England's Land's End.

"My walk in 2010 will be extra special for me," Botham said. “I never forget why I put myself through the pain and blisters. I won't stop until we beat childhood leukaemia.” When Botham set out for his first walk in 1985 only 20 percent of children with leukaemia survived. “We're up to about 90 percent survival now and that's remarkable."

Botham heads to South Africa on Wednesday for his commentary duties and has cemented a reputation for uncompromising barrages. This same unrelenting attitude has helped him raise some £10 million pounds for leukaemia research and he has no intention of stopping there.

	Duncan Fletcher: back in the box © Getty Images

Listeners to the BBC's Test Match Special are in for a rare treat this winter, in the form of a gruff, monotone Zimbabwean, whose guarded utterances required the travelling press corps to develop forensic journalistic skills during his seven-year stint at the helm of the England cricket team.

That's right, Duncan Fletcher has put aside his ingrained loathing of the media and been persuaded out of his bubble, and will provide expert analysis during England's fixtures in his home town of Cape Town this winter. Having performed a consultancy role during South Africa's successful tour of Australia last year, he is ideally placed to provide insight from both camps.

Aside from a regular column in The Guardian, Fletcher has kept a low media profile since his no-holds-barred autobiography was released in 2007, although in the TMS box he will have a chance to team up with his former sidekick, Michael Vaughan, who was England's victorious captain when they last toured South Africa in 2004-05.

For his fans and former foes alike, there will be great nostalgic value in hearing Fletcher utter his favourite lines for one last time - not least "aww look ..." and "this is not the right forum ..." especially if Graeme Swann starts spinning England to victory.

For the last five years Eric Tindill, a double international for New Zealand at Test level in cricket and rugby, has been cricket’s oldest living Test player. And two days ago, Tindill went past England’s Frank MacKinnon, who lived 98 years and 324 days, to become the oldest Test cricketer ever.

A left-hand opening batsman and wicketkeeper, Tindill toured England with Curly Page's team in 1937. On the way home he had the distinction of catching Don Bradman off Jack Cowie's bowling – the only time Bradman played against a New Zealand side. The match, between New Zealand and South Australia, was played in Adelaide to help cover debts incurred in England. Cowie and Tindill were delighted with their prized wicket, but others reckoned they cost New Zealand Cricket a fortune. Bradman was dismissed for 11 in the opening over on a Saturday morning and thousands of spectators, queuing for entry, simply turned around and left. Tindill also umpired in Tests and was a Wellington and New Zealand selector.

Tindill was also an international rugby referee and is currently the oldest living All Black.

Andrew Strauss’s men aren’t the only England cricketers touring Africa this winter. Cricket Without Boundaries (CWB), a UK charity that aims to increase awareness about HIV/AIDS through teaching cricket, is sending two teams of volunteers out to Rwanda and Kenya.

CWB started in 2005 and works in partnership with the Cricket Associations in each country, the relevant British High Commissions and the ICC to ensure sustained development of cricket. They return having established successful projects in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Botswana over the last three years.

They just completed a two-week project in Botswana, where volunteers overcame the challenges of lost baggage; rain on the ‘mini-world cup’ tournament they organised; and the odd blown generator to teach a staggering 1311 kids the basics of cricket and train 57 coaches who receive ICC certificates.

With four of England’s top-six Test batsmen this winter likely to be African born, CWB are nurturing a crucial pool of talent for years to come.

"Get off the gym and bowl" – that’s the message former Australian players have for the country’s fast bowlers, who’ve probably given the team physio sleepless nights in India. Steve Rixon, Geoff Lawson and Doug Walters told the Courier Mail that it’s time for Australia to stop hiding behind the excuse of excessive cricket, which many like to believe is the reason behind four fast bowlers getting early return tickets home.

"Some of the best specimens running around in cricket have the bodies of a Greek Adonis, but we can't get them on the park to bowl,” says Rixon, who feels bowlers are spending too much time pumping iron instead of running in at the nets. Walters agreed with Rixon that the training methods need to be reworked. Lawson, also a former Pakistan coach, rubbished suggestions of workload saying, "Brett Lee has hardly played any cricket for two years, so you wouldn't think that was from overuse. When I was coach of Pakistan we looked at every injury systematically and how our fitness people were dealing with it."

	Members of the Chinese women's team in Mohali © AFP

Among the packed crowd watching India play Australia at the PCA Stadium in Mohali on Monday was a group of highly excited young women getting their first taste of cricket in India. They were members of the Chinese national women’s cricket team, currently in India, training for the 2010 Asian Games where the sport will make its debut. Cricket is rarely shown on TV back in China but whatever they’d seen couldn’t have matched up to the noise and spectacle of a packed house. “We are used to watching rugby, badminton or gymnastics at home, but nothing is as big as cricket is here,” Zhou Haijie, an offpsinner, told The Indian Express. “Watching the game was very insightful,” Zhang Jing Jing said, “the Mexican waves in the stands were the most fun.” What hit them the most? The noise in the stadium after an Indian boundary. “It's so loud,” said offspinner Zhou Haijie. “I didn't know 35,000 people could make noise for a billion.”

Move over Bollywood, the IPL might soon be coming to a multiplex near you. The Twenty20 league had invited tenders for its theatrical telecast rights for matches beginning next season until 2019. The reserve price for the bid has been set at US$ 2 million per year. Going to a theatre to watch a Twenty20 game is all very well but hearing the commentators yell “That’s a DLF maximum” and “Citi moment of success” in Dolby Digital sound could get trying very quickly.