This is another juicy bit of trivia for fans of Sachin Tendulkar who keep track of the various tributes coming his way. An Indian farmer has named a new hybrid variety of mango after the star batsman, in honour of his cricketing achievements. "There is no player like Sachin Tendulkar in the whole world and that's why I have named this mango Sachin," said Kalimullah Khan, the elderly farmer from the state of Uttar Pradesh, who is responsible for the new variety and its innovative name.

Mangoes are very popular in India, which is the largest producer of the fruit in the world. Sachin is a combination of two of the finest Indian varieties of the creamy sweet-tasting fruit. However, it will not be up for sale. "Our Sachin is a world hero and he is priceless and not a saleable commodity," said Khan, who plans to donate a tree of Sachin mangoes to the cricketer "so he can enjoy them with his friends."

Khan has produced nearly 300 new mango varieties and won India's top civilian award for his work on mango grafting and cultivation. He is currently working on a new hybrid to be named after the legendary Bollywood singer Lata Mangeshkar.

Tendulkar who turned 37 earlier this month, continues to go strong at an age when most cricketers call it quits. He recently scored the first double hundred in ODI history, and followed that up with a stellar performance in the IPL, where he emerged the top run-getter, in a format expected to favour youngsters. The mango tribute is unlikely to be the last of his fruitful career.

Aimee Watkins: top totty © Getty Images

The New Zealand women’s captain, Aimee Watkins, has been given an unexpected ego boost ahead of her country’s World Twenty20 campaign, after being nominated by the website Yahoo!Xtra as one of the world's sexiest sportswomen.

Watkins, 27, has been rated in the top 64 among female athletes, alongside the American skier Lindsay Vonn, Australian swimmer Stephanie Rice and Czech tennis player Nicole Vaidisova.

"I didn't know anything about it," Watkins told The Dominion Post. "I've seen it now. Mum gave me a call and she was pretty excited and told me to go on and have a look. Since then I've had a bit of stick but, oh well. It's all a bit foreign to me."

Most of Watkins’ thoughts, however, are focussed on the forthcoming event in the Caribbean, in which New Zealand hope to go one better than they achieved in England last summer, when they finished as runners-up to the hosts in a one-sided final at Lord’s.

Graeme Swann has “wished a freak accident with a blunt instrument” on the thieves who broke into his Nottingham house and, according to a report in The Sun, stole the keys to his Jaguar while he was away in Barbados preparing for the forthcoming ICC World Twenty20.

The incident, which occurred when Swann’s wife Sarah left their house in West Bridgford, continued a run of motoring mishaps for Swann. Earlier this month he was arrested on suspicion of drink-driving – an incident he said was caused when his cat, Max, got trapped underneath the floorboards at 3 o’clock in the morning.

Of the Jaguar theft, Swann wrote online: “I hope the chaps who broke into my house while I am away are involved in a freak accident with a blunt instrument very soon.” Nothing else was taken in the incident.

Popular British band Coldplay are sharing their love and money with a village cricket club in Gloucestershire. The 60-member Slaughters Utd are suddenly the envy of the region, after the band offered to sponsor their new kit. Bass player Guy Berryman had previously sponsored a new training kit for Stow Rugby Club’s Under-15s as he knew their manager Dave Oughton. Oughton then suggested to Slaughters that it may not be a bad idea to approach Coldplay. Good idea, as it turned out. The band are not unfamiliar with cricket – the lead singer Chris Martin once played for neighbouring club Great Rissington. If all goes well, the band could be performing in village greens for a change, if time permits. “We’ve asked Chris and Guy to come and play and hopefully bring their guitars with them,” Slaughters honorary secretary Paul Heming told thisisGloucestershire.co.uk. “They said they were flattered, but very busy – but we’ll keep on asking. It’s a bit bizarre, but exciting to be sponsored by one of the world’s biggest bands – but our youngsters think it’s cool.”

Nasser Hussain is used to being in front of the camera during his day job with Sky Sports but now the former England captain is branching out into the movie world.

He will star in a Bollywood film alongside Indian actor Akshay Kumar in a movie called Patiala House about a second-generation Sikh living in London who helps save his father's reputation

"Yes Nasser Hussain is indeed playing my hero Gattu's [Akshay] coach in the film. Nasser has a fairly large acting stint in Patiala House as Gattu's mentor and guru," casting director Nikhil Advani told Real Bollywood.

However, Advani revealed that it had been hard to pin down Hussain. "It wasn't easy getting near him, let alone getting him to agree to play Akshay's coach. Believe me, it's far easier to sign the biggest of superstars from Bollywood and Hollywood then to get star cricketers on board."

Expect plenty of banter in the commentary box this season.

The English squad for the World Twenty20 may travel by train to France or Spain, in search of a functional airport from which to take off for the West Indies. The Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull has thrown a spanner in the travel arrangements for the World Twenty20, and the ECB has provisionally booked Eurostar passes for the team to overcome potential disruption to the original flight plan from London. Meanwhile the ICC is considering the option of flying all the teams non-stop from Dubai to the West Indies, bypassing European air-space in the process. "We will do everything possible to ensure the players get to the Caribbean. We'll look at all possibilities to ensure the attendance of players from the UK, even if it means getting them to Dubai on helicopters and low-level flights," ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat had said. His offer to help could come as a welcome relief for the ECB, which seems to have taken the concept of pre-tournament training a little too literally.

Game over for cricket? The European Unions’ decision to “outlaw before export” the chemical methyl bromide, because it is believed to damage the ozone layer, means that cricket could soon be facing a major shortage of bats. Each year around 100,000 raw blades made of willow, known as clefts are exported from England to India and Pakistan where they are turned into finished products. The clefts are treated with methyl bromide, which is an insecticide, before they are exported. Here lies the problem: the wood cannot leave England without a fumigation certificate and India and Pakistan do not accept any alternative treatment for the wood apart from methyl bromide.

This spells potential disaster for the 10-million-pounds-a-year industry. “Unless something is done we are going to run out of cricket bats,” Geoff Watling of Anglian Willow Services told the Daily Express. “The worldwide supply of Test standard and Twenty20 bats for the national and county sides could dry up within two years.”

Sussex County Cricket Club has come in for criticism from animal rights activists after a marksman was called in to shoot a fox that had been making a nuisance of itself at the county ground.

According to Dave Brooks, the county chief executive, the killing of the fox came as a last resort after months of “odd behaviour”, but the incident caused alarm among the residents of Eaton Road in Hove, with the police being called after three shots were fired shortly after midnight on Sunday morning.

Nigel Furness, 60, was at the nearby Sussex Cricketer pub when he heard the shots, and told The Argus: “I thought, ‘there’s something wrong here, what on earth is going on?’ It’s a big open space so it can be quite creepy at night. Then about five minutes later a police car came up. I asked the officers what was going on and they said there’s nothing to worry about, the cricket club is just shooting foxes and it is all legitimate.

“But there really is no need to shoot foxes. They are completely harmless and destroy a great many pests like slugs and snails and we are absolutely appalled. It is also extremely alarming that we were never told what was going on.”

Green Party animal rights spokesman Sue Baumgardt said: “To have people going in with rifles is appalling. At this time of year vixens are nursing cubs underground. A spokesman for the RSPCA said that killing wild pests should always be a last resort.”

A memorial service is planned for Thursday afternoon. Send flowers and gifts c/o Sussex County Cricket Club, Hove. Rumours that the fox was exterminated on the orders of the club's new sponsor, Old Speckled Hen, have been strongly denied.

He may not be the hero for Kings XI Punjab so far in the IPL, given his lacklustre performance with the bat, but off the field, Yuvraj Singh is all set to become a superhero. Yuvraj will be the voice of ‘Captain India’, the (super)hero in an animated film by the same name. His screen name may be a cruel twist on reality but the plot makes up for that: It revolves round a young cricketer who cannot afford a cricket bat, who then comes across a magic bat that changes his life. The film’s producers say the story will incorporate incidents from Yuvraj’s personal and professional life, including his famous six sixes in the inaugural edition of the Twenty20 World Cup. “I burst into laughter on hearing the idea,” Yuvraj told the Hindustan Times. “But I’m humbled to voice an animated character.” The film is slated to release during the 2011 World Cup.

Sri Lanka’s parliamentary elections were held on Thursday but one rookie candidate was allowed to cast his vote a day early. Sanath Jayasuriya – a candidate of President Mahinda Rajapakse’s United People’s Freedom Alliance - cast his vote on Wednesday, to allow him to rejoin the Mumbai Indians for their game on Friday against Kings XI Punjab. They will welcome him back after the shock loss to Chennai on Tuesday and it’s a good opportunity for Jayasuriya, if he plays, to get among the runs. Which leaves one question: Was Jayasuriya’s early-bird vote due to his being in the ruling party or is it another example of the IPL’s all-powerful reach?

Before you go also read Andrew Fernado's piece on what it would be like if cricketers became politicians.

It was a dream come true for 87-year old Saraswathi Vaidyanathan. Just a few days ago The Hindu carried a story about her passion for cricket and admiration for Sachin Tendulkar – from referring to him as a chota baccha (small boy) to painstakingly updating all his statistics, written down on scraps of paper. She’d never met him, though, and on Monday that wish was fulfilled in Chennai.

It was an emotional few moments at the team hotel - Tendulkar touched Vaidyanathan's feet and sought her blessings as she called him her “fourth grandson” and handed him a small idol of the Hindu god Ganesh. In return, he signed a bat with several other famous names on it. “I am lucky to meet you,” she said, but Tendulkar corrected her: “No, I am lucky to meet you.” Vaidyanthan then expressed her wish – to see him score 100 international centuries. Tendulkar, seven short of the landmark, smiled in agreement. Her parting words: “You are short in stature but very big in deeds.”