If you were to enlist the numerous challenges of being India captain, you certainly wouldn't have included having to deal with a mobile phone (also being used as a voice recorder) going off in front of you during a press conference. That's exactly what happened during MS Dhoni's pre-match conference in Mohali when a phone went off with a Bollywood song as the ring tone. Dhoni, known for his unique way of dealing with situations, answered the call, suggesting – for a second – that it could have been his own phone that was ringing. “Sir, thodi der baad phone kariyega [Please call in a bit].” Little would the caller have known that the India captain would be answering the call. Also, here's hoping the reporter whose phone it actually was, will put the offline mode to use next time.

Ethan Peel before standing in his first game © AP

Ethan Peel, a 15-year old schoolboy from Oxfordshire, has entered the record books by becoming Britain’s youngest qualified umpire. Peel was studying for an intermediate certificate in umpiring at Oxford Brooks University, part of an initiative by the International Institute of Cricket Umpiring and Scoring (IICUS) to recruit youngsters. He had already completed modules on the laws of the game and field management, man management and duty of care. On Saturday, he completed the final phase of qualification when he independently umpired a friendly match between Tiddington and the London-based Nomads, in Oxfordshire.

"It's a good job that I've got parents who get me to games and a supportive coach who has really helped,” Peel said later. “I hope that what I've achieved will lead on to other young lads getting involved in umpiring. It would be nice to progress on to umpiring professional cricket but I'm taking it all one step at a time."

Lancashire wicketkeeper Gareth Cross may have held 18 catches for his county this season but he had an embarrassing case of butterfingers at the county’s end-of-season prize-giving ceremony when he dropped the Champagne Moment award and it smashed into pieces. Cross had been awarded the prize for his role in Lancashire’s Twenty20 win against Warwickshire at Old Trafford in June, in which he struck the penultimate ball for six to seal a dramatic five-wicket win, but his joy turned to embarrassment after he was given the trophy and it slipped from his hands and shattered.

It’s party time in Guyana. West Indies captain Chris Gayle turned 31 on September 21 and he plans to celebrate it, in style poolside at the Tower Hotel in Guyana over the weekend. It promises to be the ultimate Caribbean party – or, as the organisers call it, “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” (Featuring Peter Ram & Black Rhyno). “I always wanted to do something different for my special day, plus my son is in Guyana and he always wanted me to come spend sometime with his family,” Gayle told the website GuyanaLive.com. The organisers say several West Indian cricketers are likely to attend the bash and Gayle is likely to be in entertainer mode - singing as well as deejaying. The cost of attending? A cool 5000 Guyanese dollars (US$24.31).

It is a glimmer of hope amid the shadow cast by the spot-fixing allegations and controversy. Most youngsters in England still have faith in cricket despite the damage done to the game’s reputation by the ongoing saga around corruption and illegal betting, a survey of secondary school children has suggested.

In a poll of 510 children aged 11 to 18, nearly two-thirds (63%) say they don’t think all matches are fixed while six in 10 children who watch cricket on TV or go to see games live say they will continue to do so, despite the controversy. Nearly half of children (45%) think ‘cricket is a fair game and trust the people who play it’ compared to a fifth (19%) who disagree.

The negative media reports have been damaging, though, say two thirds of children (51% think ‘quite damaging’, 14% ‘very damaging’) and over half of kids (57%) believe this kind of alleged betting in cricket matches ‘takes place all over the world’, including England (9%). A fifth of children think cricket is now ‘a corrupt game’.

The majority of respondents (61%) think educating children on the values of the Spirit of Cricket - playing hard, playing fair and not cheating – is key. Asked if they would, as an international cricketer, agree to fix a match or an element of a match, in return for money, 68% of children said ‘no’, 12% said ‘yes’, while 20% were unsure.

Cricket lost Usain Bolt, whose bowling Courtney Walsh described as “Test-match fast”, to athletics, but his brother, Sadeeki Bolt, could have some sort of a career in the game. Sadeeki has played for Jamaica's youth XI and, on a recent trip to Australia, he impressed New South Wales players Nathan Bracken and Burt Cockley during a net session at the SCG. Bracken said he would recommend that his Sydney club, Eastern Suburbs, bring Sadeeki on board as its grade-cricket import.

“He's played for Jamaica, so he obviously has a good skills set, but he also bowled about 120kmh, and I was very impressed by his batting technique,'' Bracken told the Sydney Morning Herald. ''He's an allrounder, and I'm going to talk to Easts [Eastern Suburbs club].''

''Scary, man,'' said 400-metres Commonwealth Games champion, John Steffensen, who faced a few deliveries. ''Sadeeki is fast and scary.''

It’s been raining accolades for New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori. Earlier this month he won three of New Zealand Cricket's major awards for the 2009-10 season. And on Thursday night he was presented with an honorary Master of Science (Sport and Exercise Science) by Wintec in Hamilton.

Incidentally Vettori, the teenager, had planned to do a first-year course at Waikato University in health science, working towards a pharmacy degree. That was of course, before cricket took a complete hold over his life. "It's been a while since I've had to sit an exam so I'm very glad I haven't had to work too hard to get this,” he said.

Vettori joins Wintec's elite group of honoraries, which includes Sir Edmund Hillary, Dame Te Atairangikaahu, Colin Meads and the Topp Twins.

England's preparation for the upcoming Ashes series in Australia is on in full swing. And we're not just talking about John Buchanan switching sides to help England - nor even listening to headbangers AC/DC to focus while batting. It's the (now-traditional) pre-Ashes bonding trip, which will be held at a secret location later this month, according to The Sun. The players have reportedly been told to keep their schedules clear from September 24-28. The English team had gone to Belgium and visited the World War One battlefields at Flanders just before last year's 2-1 Ashes series victory in England. Last year's trip was cloaked in secrecy and this year it seems to be no different, with only captain Andrew Strauss, coach Andy Flower and a couple of the senior management staff said to be in the know. The focus of the trip is likely to be part-educational, part bonding and will not be cricket-centric. Enough time for that later on!

Every cloud does have a silver lining. Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif, Wahab Riaz and Mohammad Amir may currently be the bad boys of international Cricket but PETA, the US-based animal rights group, wants the cricketers - of "no-ball" infamy - to be part of a positive "fixing attempt". The group said it had written to Butt, Riaz, Asif and Aamir, asking them to feature in a TV and print campaign, aimed at showing that "no-balls", off-the field, can be a lifesaver and not a crime. "No-balls may be a bad thing in cricket, but for dogs and cats, no-balls are a lifesaver," said PETA, in a letter, a copy of which was sent to AFP. The letter goes on to say that "because of unchecked breeding and a lack of good homes, millions of dogs and cats all over the world languish in animal shelters or are euthanised every year and 'fixing' dogs and cats by having them spayed or neutered is the key to ending this suffering."

He is one of the finest fast bowlers the world has seen and arguably the greatest cricketer to emerge from New Zealand. His spell of 9 for 52 that decimated Australia in Brisbane 25 years ago is a part of cricketing legend. Yet none of them seems enough for New Zealand Cricket; according to a report in One News, not only is Hadlee’s Brisbane performance not being honoured at NZC’s annual cricket awards ceremony, he hasn’t even been invited to the event.

When asked about this glaring omission, Justin Vaughan, chief executive of NZC said, “I’m not sure whether he got invited or not. We can’t invite every great player.” Wasn't it an oversight given Hadlee is the only cricketer from New Zealand in the ICC Hall of Fame? Vaughan replied, “No I don’t think so. We do this every year. Sir Richard gets invited to the Chappell-Hadlee games every time which is just fitting considering it is named after the Hadlees.” Ironically, the trophy for ODI batting, named after Walter Hadlee, Richard’s father, will be presented at the ceremony by Ricki Herbert, coach of the All Whites.

According to a Forbes survey, MS Dhoni, the India captain, took home $8 million in endorsements last year. It should come as little surprise then, that Dhoni has topped the chart for celebrity endorsements on TV during the first six months of 2010.

Not only has Dhoni - who recently signed a three-year endorsement deal worth approximately Rs 2.1 billion ($42 million), which is now the richest deal in Indian cricket history - left behind the likes of Shahrukh Khan and Sachin Tendulkar in his wake, he is also ahead of many Bollywood actresses, like Kareena Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor, Kajol and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. According to the Adex survey of TAM Media Research, Dhoni endorsed brands for 24 companies on TV between January and June this year, while Khan and Tendulkar were seen promoting the products of 16 and 15 firms.

A rare day when rain stayed away from Mumbai’s monsoon tournament, the Kanga league, was livened up by some outrageous umpiring according to a Times of India report.

The first incident was when the ball was ‘lost’ in the grass following a shot from a Koli Combined XI batsman. With the fielding side Amar CC searching for the ball, the batsmen completed four runs and were attempting the fifth when the ball was ‘found’, and a run out effected. Amar CC’s joy was cut short by umpires Vishwasrao RM and Anil Pawar who recalled the batsman, judging the fielders had deliberately delayed the throw after finding the ball. They also awarded Koli XI four runs. Amar CC protested, demanding a dead ball as a neutral verdict.

After twenty minutes of commotion, the game resumed. Three overs later, so did the chaos. Devidas Koli defended a delivery and then used his bat to stop the ball from rolling onto the stumps. A loud appeal followed and Pawar raised his finger. A livid Koli refused to budge, and Pawar cancelled his decision. After some time, Pawar declared Koli out and cancelled his decision once again. Koli was at the receiving end for one last time, as Pawar adjudged him caught behind off a turner that Koli didn’t edge. An exasperated Koli walked up to Pawar and touched his feet. “There was enough space for a football to pass between the bat and ball. Thank you,’’ Koli said. For the record, Amar CC progressed after taking the first innings lead.

Aiming for the sky: Sachin Tendulkar © AFP

There aren’t many recognitions that have eluded India’s favourite sporting hero during the course of his high-flying career, and now he has made another addition to that list. Sachin Tendulkar has become the first sportsman to be conferred with the honorary rank of Group Captain by the Indian Air Force (IAF).

“I'm extremely proud to be a part of IAF,” said Tendulkar, who lauded the Air Force’s commitment, concentration and dedication, during his induction ceremony. “All that I can do to come as close as looking like an air warrior, is wear my Aviator sunglasses.”

Tendulkar recalled his previous experience on a fighter plane - a ride on the Italian-made Aermacchi MB-326 'Impalla' military jet in South Africa - and hoped to relive that memory by flying in a combat jet. Indications are that he will not have to wait for long – Air Chief Marshal P V Naik, who welcomed Tendulkar into the force, said he was scheduling a training flight on a Sukhoi jet for Tendulkar to ‘earn his wings’.

It's not just Mohammad Asif's cricket career that has suffered because of the spot-fixing scandal surrounding the Lord's Test, his potential movie career has taken a hit too. Asif was offered a role in an Indian film, Mazhavillilinattamvare (Till the edge of the rainbow), but has been dropped after the News of the World sting.

"He is a friendly and nice guy. I was shocked to hear about the allegations, so I dropped him from the film," the director Kaithapram Damodaran Namboodiri told BBC. "He was to play a Pakistani cricketer who comes down to India to hold a coaching camp for Indian players.”

Namboodiri said he had initially contacted Wasim Akram for the role but was refused. He's now looking for a replacement for Asif.