We’ve heard of restaurant menus customised to include ‘World Cup’ specials, but have you ever heard of a wedding with the cricket World Cup as its theme? Yes, this is cricket fever at its peak. Forty-five couples, who tied the knot in a mass wedding in the Indian city of Udaipur, chose to pay obeisance to cricket in what was a World Cup themed wedding. The grooms, who arrived on horses, chose to carry cricket bats, instead of the customary swords. The venue too, was designed with a cricketing theme: posters of Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni adorned the walls. Couples went around the holy fire holding cricket bats and balls. Finally, after the ceremony was over with the Vedic chants, the brides were asked to bowl to their grooms. And not surprisingly, the slogan for the wedding was: let India win the World Cup.

Wayne Parnell doesn’t appear the romantic type but he has a soft spot for love stories. He was one of just two South African players who joined the management team on a visit to the Agra to see the temple of love, the Taj Mahal, on Saturday.

“I wanted to go because of the story behind it,” he told ESPNCricinfo. “It’s amazing that someone could love his wife so much that he built that.”

Embarking on the trip meant an early wake up call for Parnell, who was picked up around seven in the morning, but said that in hindsight it was worth it. “Even if it meant I would have had to wake up at 4am to go and see it, I would have done it.”

Parnell, who only finished school three years ago, also turned the excursion into a history lesson and said he “learnt a lot” about how the capital of the Mughal Kingdom was moved from Agra to Delhi in the 1600s. “It’s always good to know what’s going on around you and to see different places.”

Most of the squad opted out of the trip because of the long bus ride and chose to rest around the hotel instead. Hashim Amla was the other cricketer who went along and Parnell his team-mate seemed to enjoy the experience too.

Having lost the marquee India-England World Cup clash, and being reduced to three decidedly lower-profile games, you’d have expected gloom and doom at Eden Gardens. Perhaps, but they aren’t giving up without a fight. There’s a free health check-up with every ticket to draw spectators to the remaining matches. So, for the cost of a ticket (Rs 750-1000) you get to watch any of the remaining three games, featuring South Africa, Ireland, Netherlands, Kenya and Zimbabwe, as well as a free blood pressure check, echocardiogram and consultation with doctors. “We have decided to do something benevolent for the spectators,” CAB joint secretary Sujan Mukherjee told the Indian Express. “Our president (Jagmohan Dalmiya) is in talks with private hospitals and health centres to put the plan into practice.” The cricket may not get your heart racing, but there’s no harm getting it checked. And this incentive could have a two-fold purpose. Poor attendance at non-India games has been a problem with the ICC writing to the BCCI to express its concern over the matter. So a ‘healthy’ benefit to watching these games might just drive the people to the stadiums.

Trouble shadows Sreesanth everywhere. It didn’t leave him even during the nets session at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore. Sreesanth, who has perhaps lost his place in the playing XI after a poor show in the game against Bangladesh, steamed in during nets to impress and regain a bit of confidence. Facing him was Yuvraj Singh, who himself is on trial to regain his batting form. It happened then. Suddenly, Sreesanth erred at release and slipped a pacy beamer in. Yuvraj tried to sway out of line of fire but couldn’t. It’s not sure whether the ball hit his helmet, as he used his hand as a face shield and toppled over on his back. Yuvraj was seen showing his wrist to the physio and didn’t bat again. The injury didn’t seem serious and he shared some light banter with Sreesanth before walking away.

More drama (fun?) was to follow Sreesanth, who now began to bat. He leaned into a crisp drive but wasn’t allowed to savour the delightful shot as another man went down. Eric Simmons, the bowling coach, had strayed into the area where Sreesanth was batting to pick up a ball and was struck on the wrist by the drive. Again, luckily, it wasn’t serious.

A lazy run, an avoidable run-out, an angry captain and a dressing-room outburst. Those are the undisputed facts surrounding Ricky Ponting’s reaction to his dismissal by Chris Mpofu on Monday, which has blown into the sort of controversy Australia can do without. Ponting, in his first full international innings since sustaining a finger injury, appeared agitated and was seen talking angrily to himself as he walked back to the dressing room. That’s the point from when reports differ. Australian team officials say once there he threw some of his gear at his bag, it bounced off and hit the back of the TV, which stopped working for a while. "The screen did not smash, the TV did not leave the table,” said team spokesman Lachy Patterson. “A small area of the screen had loss of picture. We apologised and went straight to the team manager and asked him the screen should be replaced which he immediately did. The issue is now closed."

Not according to the Gujarat Cricket Association, whose secretary, Rajesh Patel, said it would take up the matter with the BCCI and the ICC. "This not fair on the part of the Australian team," Patel was quoted by PTI as saying, adding that the television set – which he said was “smashed” - was worth over Rs 35,000 ($770).

Both sides seem to agree that there was no bat involved – so at least there’s no need for a TV replay.

We’ve all heard of teams losing wickets in a heap, but four wickets in two balls is stretching things a bit, right? Well, that’s what happened in a premier club cricket match in Napier on Saturday, when Napier Old Boys’ Marist claimed four wickets off two legal deliveries against Napier Technical Old Boys – and no run-out off no balls.

The drama began in the 48th over of the Napier Technical Old Boys innings. Offspinner Indika Senarathne had No. 7 Stevie Smidt stumped off an ‘unplayable wide’ and then re-bowled the delivery – legally this time – to knock over the leg stump of Liam Rukuwai for a golden duck. Senarathne did not disappoint with the hat-trick delivery that followed, flighting the ball to have JK Whyte caught and bowled. Things got worse for Napier Technical Old Boys; the flurry of wickets caught No. 10 batsman Craig Herrick off guard. He’d doubled up as scorer for the innings, and amid all the drama, had forgotten it was his turn to bat. Mindful of the three-minute timed-out rule, he rushed to the changing rooms from the scorer’s spot in the pavilion and wrestled with gloves, bat, helmet and various protective pads. Senarathne – credit him for his attention to technical detail – soon started appealing, with an eye on the watch. Going by the rules of the game, umpires Del Whyte and Paul Anderson had no choice but to give Herrick timed-out. Talk about troubling the scorer.

Who said the West Indians are now one of the uncared-for, fringe teams of this World Cup who are not taken seriously? The West Indians travelled through Delhi, a city that knows and stands down for all howling sirens of VIP traffic, in a convoy of seven vehicles. Their seven-vehicle cavalcade started with two police escort cars, flashing lights and sirens and all, ahead of the team bus. The bus was followed by another jeep behind it, behind which was said to be a second, empty 'decoy' bus.

Impressive but what kind of a decoy bus follows the real one a jeep-length behind? The non-decoy bus was probably added onto the travelling party in case the real bus had a breakdown in traffic. Bringing up the rear was not one but two ambulances, the last one clearly marked as an "intensive cardiac care ambulance". When manager Richie Richardson wanted to stay back at the Palam ground to finish his interview with a reporter who offfered to drive him back to the hotel, the security men would have none of it. No one from the West Indies tour party was allowed to travel with 'civilians'. The interview it was decided would be finished at the hotel, where the security men agreed to let the reporter in.

All very pucca, but one element of a high-profile cavalcade was missing: the fire engine. Or does everyone really believe, that the West Indians aren't really the kind to start any fires?

Ricky Ponting may have been struggling to keep his eyes open through Ausatralia's net session on Saturday © Getty Images

Ricky Ponting could have been forgiven for sleeping in a little on Saturday morning, but still managed to be on time for Australia’s 10am training session. It had been a late night for the Australia captain, who flew back from the opening ceremony in Dhaka on Friday, only to be told his connecting flight from Mumbai to Ahmedabad was delayed by two-and-a-half hours.

By the time he finally reached Ahmedabad after 11pm, a tired-looking Ponting was wearing an expression that put Australia's original Captain Grumpy, Allan Border, to shame. Still, he was willing to pose for some photos with fans while waiting for his luggage to arrive, although the smile wasn’t exactly convincing.

And, as if to highlight the gulf between the two sides, his opposing captain for their opening match, Zimbabwe’s Elton Chigumbura, was standing not a few metres away, but was recognised by barely a soul. No photo requests, no autograph hunters, and a smooth path out of the airport. And Chigumbura got a healthy sleep-in the next day – Zimbabwe didn’t hit the nets at Motera until 2pm.

When was the last time the name “Indi Commandos” brought to mind the image of a cricket team? Never. So the Kochi IPL franchise must have had the novelty factor in mind when they bestowed their team with that strange choice for a name. In a league where the other franchises have stuck to city or state-based names to try and appeal to some sort of regional fan loyalty, Kochi’s queer combination of a pan-India identity and a combat unit hasn’t impressed many.

"Is this an indicator of a lack of identity or is it simply that the franchise owners' loyalties lie outside the state and the city for which the team was bought in the first place?" an irate fan posted on the team’s Facebook page. "Thumbs down for this ... omg …!! After all these months ... this is what you came up with ... shocking," another post said. Fans also aired their dismay on Twitter. One slammed the side by posting "IndiComman'Doomed" while another pointed out that "going commando is the practice of not wearing underwear under one's outer clothing".

The franchise had loftier intentions when they zeroed in on the name. "Indi stands for an independent Indian cricket team that will go ahead to win a billion hearts," their statement read. "Commandos stands for an elite fighting squad, renowned for attacking with speed, stealth and deadly power."

There might be more brickbats coming the Commandos’ way. Reports saying that they may play most of their matches outside Kochi, the city for which they won the team bid, have drawn flak from fans. But with the name they have, resisting the verbal missiles shouldn’t be an issue.

There will be less buzz of the onomatopoeic kind at the World Cup. The Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) has announced deployment of spray teams to wipe out mosquitoes at the city's two stadiums, one of which will host the opening ceremony, while the other stages six World Cup matches.

"Mosquitoes have been breeding alarmingly in recent months so we have taken special measures to kill mosquitoes in the stadiums and for three kilometres around them," health chief Brigadier General Nasir Uddin told AFP. "Our special teams headed by DCC officers have been spraying extensively in every open space, drain, pond and sewer to make sure no mosquito can breed. We want to ensure a mosquito-free World Cup for spectators." Areas near hotels used by teams and supporters would also be sprayed. Malaria is usually restricted to rural areas of Bangladesh, but dengue fever is common in towns.

After the World Cup opening ceremony in Dhaka on February 17, the tournament kicks off with Bangladesh taking on India in the city two days later. The World Cup is the biggest event that Bangladesh has hosted since its independence in 1971, and Dhaka and Chittagong are in a race to get squeaky-clean before the tournament begins.

Authorities have already evicted beggars off Chittagong’s streets, ordered worn-out buses in both cities to “get fit, smarter and painted” and asked residents along Chittagong’s main roads from the airport to the city to paint their homes and shops. Now that Dhaka’s latest move is a mass termination of mosquitoes, it remains to be seen how Chittagong will strike back.

Darren Gough was offered the chance to stand as a Conservative Party candidate at the forthcoming by-election in his home town in Barnsley, according to The Guardian, but hung up on what he assumed was a prank call when the Prime Minister, David Cameron, rang him personally to make the overture.

The extraordinary offer came in the wake of the Conservatives’ poor showing at the recent by-election in Oldham East & Saddleworth. A Conservative party spokesman said: "Darren Gough is a supporter of the party and will be taking part in the campaign for Barnsley. He will not be standing as an MP, however."

Gough, who retired from professional cricket in 2008, is said to have cited his work commitments as the main reason for turning down the offer, which was eventually made to him when another Tory MP called him back to convince him that Cameron’s approach had been serious. Having won Strictly Come Dancing in 2005, he is much in demand for media appearances.

Had he chosen to take the stump, however, Gough would have been in good company, with several former cricketers choosing to go into politics after finishing their careers – including the former Sri Lanka captains Arjuna Ranatunga and Sanath Jayasuriya, and the former India captain, Mohammad Azharuddin.

A No 10 source told The Sun newspaper: "The PM's a big fan. They ... had a very good conversation.”

The New Zealand fast bowler, Tim Southee, most definitely did not get up to no good with a female passenger, en route to the World Cup, according to a team spokesman who was forced to deny rumours that one of his players had elected to join the infamous Mile High Club during the squad’s flight to Dubai.

After an internal investigation, a written statement, a team meeting, and several eye-witness accounts of nothing untoward whatsoever, the Kiwis’ team manager, Dave Currie, was able to confirm that "Tim met a female passenger on board the plane and spent some time with her, however we are confident that nothing inappropriate happened between them."

According to local media reports (and rampants rumours in Twitterverse), a fellow passenger had complained of witnessing “the worst kind of lewd behaviour” in the first-class compartment of an Emirates flight from Sydney to Dubai. "It appears pretty innocent really,” said the chief executive of NZC, Justin Vaughan, who nevertheless felt obliged to spell out on television just how innocent it had actually been.

"I think Tim met a female passenger and struck up a conversation,” said Vaughan. “They spent a bit of time and had a drink together on the plane. At some stage the female passenger came to Tim's seat and perhaps spent a maximum of 30 seconds with Tim, and there may well have been, dare I say it, a kiss on the cheek, but that was it. She went back to her seat, and Tim is adamant that nothing inappropriate, nothing untoward, occurred."

It was left to the former seamer-turned-pundit, Simon Doull, to provide the definitive verdict on the matter. “Tim Southee story blown out of proportion,” he pronounced on Twitter. “At times us media do look for the negative. Single man, single woman on plane. Any real problem?” Clearly not ...

Desmond Tutu during the 2008 Cowdrey Lecture © Matt Bright Pictures

Desmond Tutu and Andrew Flintoff haven’t often had much reason to be mentioned in the same sentence, but today the pair shared top billing in a press release from Lord’s, as both men were awarded honorary life membership of MCC.

Archbishop Tutu’s previous honours include the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, in recognition of his vigorous stance against apartheid in South Africa, and he has received more than 50 honorary degrees from academic institutions around the world. But as a renowned cricket enthusiast – who in 2008 was invited to deliver the MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture – this latest recognition will doubtless be one he treasures.

“Last year on his retirement (aged 79!) he said that he hoped now to watch more cricket,” said the MCC president, Christopher Martin-Jenkins. “He may now do so at Lord's whenever he pleases, and he will always be welcomed.”

Flintoff’s invitation, Martin-Jenkins added, was in acknowledgement of his exceptional contribution to the game. “Throughout his career he has demonstrated that you can play hard but fair – the two central tenets of the MCC Spirit of Cricket message – and we are thrilled that he has accepted the invitation. Andrew was a talisman of the game and a hugely popular figure, and I very much look forward to seeing him at Lord’s in the future.”

He joins a select group of former players, including past greats such as Sir Garfield Sobers, Sunil Gavaskar and Sir Ian Botham, alongside modern heroes Shane Warne, Sachin Tendulkar and Adam Gilchrist, who are already Life Members of the Club. He also becomes the second member of England’s 2005 Ashes-winning side to join the MCC fold, following Michael Vaughan’s award last year.

Cricketers have made their presence felt on the silver screen often enough; films like The Final Test have featured cameos from Len Hutton, Denis Compton, Godfrey Evans and Jim Laker, while Salim Durani, Derek Pringle, Ian Botham, Kapil Dev and Ajay Jadeja among others, have all tried their hand at acting. And in the latest such alliance between the film industry and cricketers, the Bollywood film ‘Patiala House’, which is slated to release later this week, features an ensemble cast of cricketers – former Pakistan paceman Wasim Akram, former England captains Nasser Hussain and Graham Gooch, South Africa batsman Herschelle Gibbs and Australia allrounder Andrew Symonds. "The film is about a cricketer's life and therefore we have taken many cricketers as actors so that we can get a real look for the film,"Nikhil Advani, the director of the film, told AFP. The film starring Akshay Kumar, is set in the west London suburb of Southall and tracks tensions between a traditional Punjabi father and his son Gattu, played by Kumar, who aspires to play cricket for England (shades of Monty Panesar?). It is rumoured that Akram plays the role of young Gattu’s bowling coach and some scenes of the film have been reportedly shot at The Oval in London. Another Bend it Like Beckham in the making?

Since when do Reebok and MRF make cricket bats? © AFP

From sponsored blimps to commercial-filled broadcasts, advertising’s influence on modern-day cricket is inescapable. Bat-makers haven’t been spared, as they are forced to watch their carefully crafted pieces of wood gilded with stickers of anyone and everyone but the company actually responsible for making the product. "Buying players with advertising is far cheaper than investing in making bats. We are crafting bats, they are using stickers. They are ruining our brands, because we cannot afford to give that kind of money, those royalties to the players,” Rakesh Mahajan, director of BD Mahajan and Sons (BDM), one of India’s premier bat-makers, told www.supersport.com. “Sponsorship is no harm, but removing the manufacturer's branding is not fair. We are building the bats, but people are not recognising us; the sponsors are taking the credit.”

Mahajan summed up his frustration by saying he didn’t mind seeing bats with Gray Nicholls or Kookaburra logos because at least they were fellow bat-makers. But, “the problem is Nike, Reebok, Adidas, people like Britannia and Hero Honda,” he said. “They make biscuits and motorbikes, not bats!”

The veteran Canadian rock star, Bryan Adams, has been confirmed as one of the main performers at the World Cup opening ceremony in Dhaka later this month.

Adams, whose hits include “Summer of ‘69” and the Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves soundtrack “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You” is set to launch a tour of India at Pune on February 11, with further dates scheduled for Bangalore, New Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai, before finishing up in Kathmandu, Nepal.

The official World Cup song, “De Ghuma Ke”, will be sung by the Bollywood trio Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy.

The R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo has been declared a 'no hopscotch' zone © Manoj Ridimahaliyadda

With the eyes of the world hawkishly scrutinising World Cup stadiums, Sri Lanka are determined not to let their dirty linen be washed in public. Not that there is any infighting between the authorities. They just quite literally don’t want people around the R Premadasa Stadium washing, or drying their clothes in public. In a list of directives issued to residents and shop owners around the ground by the Colombo city authorities, people have been asked to “abstain from hanging out clothes for drying in public view and putting garbage on the roadsides”.

The 35,000-seater Premadasa, which will host seven matches during the World Cup, is surrounded by low-income housing schemes, and city authorities are determined to promote an efficient image of Colombo. As if instructions not to “hang things out to dry” and “take out the trash” weren’t enough to keep the idle-minded occupied in thinking up appropriate puns, the Colombo authorities also piqued curiosity with their order that people refrain from “engaging in street games such as hopscotch and cricket matches”, making one wonder just what the extent of the popularity of hopscotch is in Sri Lanka.

This is the latest in a series of subcontinent-wide attempts towards portraying a clean image during the World Cup. The authorities in Dhaka, another host city for the tournament, have already asked their residents to paint their houses and cars. Now, all that’s needed is for the people in charge of Eden Gardens to request people not to use the scaffolding on the stadium as a jungle gym.

If you’ve just received an email from the “ICC” congratulating you for having won a prize in a sweepstake, organised by them, think twice before popping the champagne – or indeed disclosing your bank details. The mail isn’t from the ICC at all. The impending World Cup has given those who send out fraudulent emails – we’ve all received them at some point of time – another reason to fleece the public. This time, in exchange for the million dollars “prize money”, they seek your bank details and, consequently, your money. The ICC, which anyway has rather a lot on its plate, has also stepped in, alerting the public to the fraud. As if incomplete stadiums weren’t enough headache.

There's no place for old, worn-out and clunky vehicles in Bangladesh © AFP

Bangladesh is on a cleaning spree ahead of the World Cup. First the residents and shop owners along the main roads from the airport to the city center in Chittagong were asked to spruce up their homes and shops with a new coat of paint. Chittagong mayor Manzur Alam then announced that hundreds of beggars would be kept off the city’s streets during the tournament.

And in the latest cleaning-up endeavour, Abu Naser, spokesman of the transport ministry, told AFP that old and worn-out cars and buses in Dhaka and the Chittagong will have to get "get fit, smarter and painted". Failing that, they would face censure from mobile courts, manned by magistrates, which will be on the road, ready to punish people who have failed to comply. “There is no way old, worn-out and clunky vehicles will be allowed to move,” Naser said. State-owned buses will also be painted with images of the Bangladesh cricketers, its monuments and tourism spots.

Andy Flower to play for England? Laughable © Getty Images

The England & Wales Cricket Board has played down the prospect of Andy Flower making an emergency debut for his adopted nation against Canada in a fortnight’s time, as an injury-racked team weighs up its options ahead of their World Cup campaign.

“The prospect of a member of the England management staff playing in a World Cup warm-up match is so remote as to be up there with Martians landing at Lord’s,” an ECB spokesman told ESPNcricinfo, after speculation that Flower could be pressed into action given the current absence of five members of England’s 15-man squad.

Tim Bresnan (calf), Graeme Swann (knee), Ajmal Shahzad (hamstring) and Paul Collingwood (back) are continuing their recoveries back in the UK, while Stuart Broad is not yet fit to resume bowling after tearing a stomach muscle back in December.

Of those players, Swann and Collingwood are not expected to be available to play against Canada even if they are passed fit, because they have been granted paternity leave by the ECB for the early stages of the tournament, which means that England could be reduced to 10 available players for the warm-ups against Canada and Pakistan in Dhaka on February 16 and 18.

The ICC’s World Cup Technical Committee has ruled that teams may not call up reserves from outside their designated parties, although in the case of an emergency, members of a team’s management may be permitted to take part in the warm-ups.

England’s back-room staff includes several first-class cricketers, among them the former Victoria seamer David Saker and the fielding coach Richard Halsall, who was once an allrounder for Mashonaland.

But the main man is Flower, a veteran of 63 Tests and 213 ODIs for Zimbabwe, including four World Cup campaigns from 1992 to 2003. These days he is a British citizen, and as the possessor of one of the finest sweep shots in history, he would doubtless be an asset to the team, even at the ripe old age of 42 ...

“Should the need arise, we will reserve the right to appeal to the Technical Committee,” added the ECB spokesman. “But I must stress, we are a long way from having to cross that bridge.”

Jesse Ryder, not new to controversy, finds himself in hot water again. No, this time it is not any alcohol-related indiscretion; rather, it's his tweet on social networking site Twitter where he had a dig at fellow Wellington batsman Stephen Murdoch. Ryder, who was opening for Wellington against Northern Districts in Sunday’s game in the NZC One Day Competition, was run out for 4 after a mix-up with his partner Murdoch. Ryder, no doubt frustrated with his dismissal, tweeted: "I just got run out by my other batter. What a waste of time this day is ... I love getting left high an [sic] dry by my other batter."

However, this has not gone down to well with New Zealand Cricket – NZC chief executive Justin Vaughan said, “You get the good with the mediocre. We let the players know there are limits, but it's the way society is, it's a fact of life and I don't think we can preclude it." But Vaughan did add that Ryder venting his frustration through tweeting was “better than throwing a bat against a wall." Ryder found support from team-mate Scott Styris, who tweeted: “Don't let the idiots get to you bud! The media are the problem, not you". New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori, though, is not a big fan of tweeting. “I'm not as much of a narcissist as Scotty so I can't get on it,” Vettori said.”They can do what they want, they're all grown men."