After scoring the fastest Test century at the home of cricket for 20 years, Tamim Iqbal revealed he had an unlikely source of inspiration: Geoffrey Boycott. The former England opener was on television the night before saying Bangladesh should not be playing Test cricket. Well, Tamim happened to catch that segment and was none too pleased about it.

"I felt very bad and could not sleep until 1am,” he said. “It made me determined to do something to show him. They are the senior cricketers whom we respect. We expect them to respect us as well. I wanted to prove to the world that we are getting there.”

Tamim defended his team’s improvement over the last five years and went on to compare the Bangaldeshi side to a chocolate company that wants to compete with Cadbury. “If you start a chocolate company you can't compete with Cadbury in the first 10 years because they are a big company."

With his 94-ball century behind him, Tamim showed there were no hard feelings, saying he would love to be coached by Boycott. "Maybe he could coach me defence. There are lots of guys who attack and they can teach me that. Geoff was a good defender I think."

Nuwan Kulasekara "throws" © AP

It’s enough to strike fear into the heart of any Sri Lankan fan: a photo labelling one of their bowlers as a thrower. The Associated Press photo coverage of the New Zealand-Sri Lanka games in Florida featured this image with the caption “Nuwan Kulasekara throws against New Zealand”.

It seems some of the intricacies of the game are still lost on some of the Americans who saw the strange sport for the first time over the weekend. The Miami Herald reported that the matches were being played by “perennial world powers New Zealand and Sri Lanka”, which the teams in question were no doubt pleased to read.

The paper’s columnist Greg Cote, noted – though how seriously we’re not sure, that over the past week “everywhere you went, all you heard people talking about was cricket. That's right. I was in my local West Indies market (looking for some fruit bread in order to make bebele) and I actually did hear two people discussing cricket, although I wasn't sure if they were referring to the sport or an ingredient.”

Harbhajan Singh has made an unexpected contribution to Zimbabwe cricket after a chance meeting with Heath Streak and Alistair Campbell in the West Indies. Harbhajan was shocked at the state of the kit used by some of the Zimbabwean players at the recent World Twenty20 in the Caribbean, and after returning to India, used his contacts to organise new kit for the team.

“It was sad to hear Zimbabwe didn’t have sponsors to fund even the basic equipment for the sport,” he told the Mumbai Mirror. “But I was shocked to find the kind of cricket gear they were using in the West Indies. Some of their top-order batsmen carried the type of bats usually used in school cricket. I couldn’t believe it and asked how they were playing with such kit in a tournament as big as the World Cup.

“When I saw those school bats I realised how lucky we Indians were. I remembered my under-16 days in Jalandhar. All I had was a pair of Ace shoes in my bag. That was the world for me. It was only when I enrolled myself in the Punjab academy that I got a proper cricket gear.

“On return, I spoke with some of my friends,” he explained. “I was keen they have the right shoes, the right bats required at the highest level. Reebok volunteered to help and so did KG Sports. I also approached a friend of mine who works with ANM Sports. These three firms have been extremely supportive. I think the kits have already reached Zimbabwe by now.”

Alan Butcher, Zimbabwe's new coach, has also expressed concerns over the quality of equipment – particularly bats – used by the national side, and highlighted that as one area that needs to be addressed. Harbhajan's contribution will go some way towards helping the problem.

	Guess the number on Graeme Smith's back © AFP

The South African team faced an unusual problem during their win in the first Twenty20 against West Indies on Wednesday. The names and numbers of players began to peel off their jerseys during the game, prompting Cricket South Africa and kit supplier Reebok to issue an apology.

"The Proteas are our premier brand, and we will do everything to ensure we protect the team's integrity and provide you with a professional environment in which to carry out your duties," said CSA chief executive Gerald Majola in a letter to national captain Graeme Smith. Majola added that the CSA were in urgent discussions with Reebok to rectify the situation.

"On investigation, our supplier has informed us only [Thursday] morning they used a new vinyl for the names and numbers without our prior knowledge and this turned out to be a vinyl that has not bonded to the fabric," said Reebok South Africa chief executive Bruce Joubert in a letter to the cricket board.

The irrepressible Lalit Modi was at it again, this time at the Google Zeitgeist 2010 Conference in London, where he was part of a three-person panel during the Trailblazers session. The session was led by BBC Radio 4 presenter Evan Davis, who pointedly asked the suspended IPL chairman if he was guilty of the charges levelled against him. “No,” said Modi in a rare public appearance, before launching into an impassioned defence that suggested jealousy was the raison d’être for the charges.

“I guess I became the focus of so many charges because we got 149 million viewers to watch the IPL final. Everybody wondered how we got there. We grew too fast. We blew every number on the table; we blew everything that anybody said that can't be done. We surpassed every plan that we put on the table. We p****d off a lot of people."

Unfortunately, that was the only question thrown at Modi about the allegations he faces, reports India Today. The theme of the session was the rapid success of the IPL, not its troubles, and so the rest of the conversation turned to the move to South Africa in 2009 and how the rest was history.

While most of the game's eminent commentators were a part of the World Twenty20 broadcast, one familiar name chose to stay away from his home event. Michael Holding dismisses the youngest version of the game with the disdain he reserved for batsmen who faced up to him in his peak. “Not one ball. I don’t watch Twenty20. It is dumbing-down cricket. They should find another name for it,” Holding said in an interview with Patrick Kidd for Times Online.

The former West Indies great is not impressed by the notion of Twenty20 specialists who travel the world playing lucrative domestic tournaments. Kieron Pollard may be an instant star with his exploits in the Champions League and the IPL, but Holding's contention is that a cricketer earns his stripes in the longer formats of the game. “Pollard in my opinion is not a cricketer,” is his take on the young allrounder.

Holding is also critical of international players putting Twenty20 leagues ahead of the international game and blames the system for letting it happen. “I can’t say to a young man ‘don’t make a living’, but they need responsible guidance. It is your parents who guide you and in cricket the parents are the boards and the ICC. They need to show some leadership. It saddens me that the West Indies captain [Chris Gayle] is allowed to show up one day before a Test series because he is playing for the IPL.”

Jacob Oram once joked that he would consider cutting off his badly broken left ring finger to ensure he was fit for the 2007 World Cup. Three years on, and after another tournament in the Caribbean, Oram and his team-mates stopped by to visit the Florida Marlins baseball team while in town for their T20s against Sri Lanka.

“That's just crazy,” the second-baseman Dan Uggla said at the thought of playing an entire game without a glove. His shortstop colleague Hanley Ramirez had some advice: “They were telling me how they break fingers and hands all the time. I told them, ‘Maybe in the future you should think about wearing gloves’.”

The Miami Herald reported that several of the New Zealanders “shagged flies” in the outfield, which we’re assured is a baseball term and not a variant on the New Zealand-Australia “sheep-shagging” banter.

Ramirez strapped on some cricket pads and had a hit, though was confused at where to run, while Oram made the pitcher Josh Johnson lick his lips with the concept that: “Sometimes in cricket, you try to hit the batsmen to unsettle them.”

Oram has picked Johnson in a fantasy baseball team in the past; perhaps after this visit Johnson might return the favour.

For a change, Daniel Vettori will have to put a lid on his trademark arm balls and variations in flight. Jacob Oram cannot bounce the batters or crush their toes. The New Zealand pair will be asked to fire it in as quick as they can, with bent elbows, provided they keep it straight. The difference is, they will be armed with a baseball for a change. Currently in Florida for the Twenty20 series against Sri Lanka, the pair – who happen to be baseball fans - will take time off to throw the ceremonial first pitch at Florida Marlins' home game against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Miami. As long as they keep the ball off the ‘pitch’, it should be a success.

"I'm probably going to try and throw it as straight as I can. Travis Wilson, our old fielding coach (formerly with Atlanta Braves), has been in touch and all he wants is for us to get it as straight as we can or it's a bad look for his coaching," Oram said. "There's five or six guys who are big baseball fans; myself, Scott Styris, Shane Bond and Dan Vettori are in a fantasy league which doesn't please our wives that much but kills some time when we're on the road."

Following India’s disastrous performance in the ICC World Twenty20 criticism and advice have been coming from all quarters, from former players to filmstars. And from Sehwag’s mum, who has picked on India’s new Public Enemy No 1, the post-match IPL parties. Something of an urban legend since a series of ads that played on her son’s homespun image, Krishna Sehwag has some typically straightforward advice. “"[The players should] Stay away from girls, partying and fights," she told the Indian TV channel Headlines Today. "They have their families' image to protect”. The solution: don’t organise such parties. ”The players go to such parties because they are organised." Not that she’s worried about her son - "Sehwag stays away from women and is happy with his family".

While Sehwag may welcome mum’s endorsement of his family values, he may not be so happy to hear her speak on the national team captaincy. Amid speculation that Dhoni might be removed as India captain in the shorter formats, she has a replacement in mind: "I will be very happy if Virender becomes captain.” While reports suggest that Sehwag is not really interested in the captaincy – national, IPL or otherwise, his mother sings a different tune. “He [Sehwag] does not want to be vice-captain, “she says. “He wants to be the captain of all teams, not just Ranji or IPL."

The village Sunday league at Grassington in the Yorkshire Dales witnessed an innings of rare belligerence when 18-year old Oliver Hardaker smashed his way to the small matter of 329 runs in a 40-overs a side contest. Hardaker struck 27 fours and 28 sixes in his run-marathon that lasted 144 balls. Upper Wharfedale was the bowling unit that suffered the brunt of his fury. Though his innings featured in an amateur game, Hardaker outdid the efforts of Alistair Brown who scored 268 at the first class level in 2002, and Sachin Tendulkar who recently made 200 in an ODI against South Africa.

Hardaker’s achievement came after a late night out the previous day, celebrating a friend’s birthday that nearly made him miss the game. He looted 34 runs in one of the overs, hitting five sixes and a four. “I just kept playing my shots and didn't think about my score. It was a bit weird when I got to 100 with 27 overs left and I thought I could get something big here,” he said later.

“It was quite a cold day which really helped because I wasn't sweating and getting too flustered so I could just stay calm and concentrate. It felt like I was playing a video game or something.” Indeed.

India’s most secretive celebrity has finally joined the Twitter brigade. Sachin Tendulkar, who guards his privacy as zealously as he guards his wicket, debuted on the microblogging network on Tuesday night and, within hours, had more than 30,000 followers. His tweets are unlikely to be as gregarious as Shane Warne’s or laconic as Chris Gayle’s, or even as revelatory as Phil Hughes’ have been, but they will be rare unprompted thoughts from a man whose every public utterance so far has been tightly controlled. His first tweet could set the tone – "Finally the original SRT is on twitter", it said, in a gentle swipe at all the imposters, before wishing the Indian team the best for the current World Twenty20.

There has been a bit of news – the stitches on his hand have been removed – and the revelation, via a twitpic, that he sleeps in an Adidas vest. Or that he sleeps, period, and has dinner with friends like the rest of us. It’s manna for his followers, who refer to him as God. Cue jokes – his Twitter handle should have had an “overscore” instead of an underscore – and the expectation that he would soon be Trendulkar. And a word of advice for Steve Jobs – he can start work on his next product, the iFollow.

Cricket has never been able to totally rid itself of matchfixing allegations – and now perhaps we know why. These deals are not being hatched only in shady bars or on the phone - the latest method, according to the Daily Mail involves the use of ‘honey traps’. The report, quoting sources close to the ICC, indicates that prostitutes are being used to lure cricketers into matchfixing. “They [the prostitutes] are used for making contact with players, whether through sexual favours or whatever, and once these guys are hooked, they make their move,” the report quoted a source as saying. “It's a honey trap.”

According to the report, the targets are usually young cricketers, who “may not even realise what is happening, but once they are in it they can't get out because they have done one wrong deed for which they can be blackmailed.” Once the players are educated about it, members of the ICC’s anti-corruption unit are deployed at the team hotels to keep an eye on things. “The players do realise they are being watched.”