There has been tremendous security build-up in Mohali ahead of the World Cup semi-final clash between India and Pakistan with the army, the National Security Guard (NSG) and the Special Protection Group (SPG) all out in full force. Most have got the bum jobs – standing in the heat, dealing with angry fans - but two of them have landed the jackpot, working as the official food tasters for the Indian and Pakistani cricketers. Assistant sub-inspector Rakesh Rasella and sub-inspector Ramphal have been eating three meals a day - featuring Schezwan, India and international cuisine - at the Taj hotel in Chandigarh, where the teams are staying, to check for poisoning or other hygiene problems. "I have tasted more than 18 different dishes before they were consumed by cricketers and I hadn't eaten many of them ever (before)," Rasella told the Times of India. Looks like it could be more than the cricketers and fans who leave Mohali sated.

As if England don’t have enough problems: injuries, squad disruptions, playing Sri Lanka in a knockout World Cup game in hot and humid Colombo. The night before their quarter-final, the team was kept up till late by a raucous party that began at a nearby nightclub and then moved into their hotel. The noise – presumably nothing compared to expected levels at the Premadasa on Saturday – prompted the Twitterati among the England camp to complain. “If you happen to be in the nightclub of our hotel, could you possibly pull the plug from the socket,” Graeme Swann tweeted. “Or pour vodka on the decks.”

That was at 11-30pm, when he should have been tucked in and dreaming of perfectly flighted offspin. Almost an hour later, his bowling team-mate James Anderson sounded more accommodating: “The rave across the street has finished and my windows have stopped shaking but it seems they have moved the party into our hotel! If it’s still going in a couple of hours I might stick a pair of jeans on and hit the dance floor."

England’s players and fans will be hoping that the late-night distraction – even if Anderson can keep away from his jeans – will not have the same effect as the early-morning fire drill at their Leeds hotel before the first day’s play in the 2009 Ashes Test at Headingley. That day too the news was broken by Swann; England were all out for 102 and lost the Test by an innings and 80 runs.

You’d wonder how the Sri Lankans could sleep through the noise. Perhaps they are used to it, but the answer anyway is less complicated – they are staying in a hotel up the road and away from the action.

Always wanted to own a star-studded cricket team, but never had the chance (or the money) to do so? Well, about 100-odd people in Dubai got an opportunity to bid for their dream World Cup 12-man squad ahead of the quarter-finals. According the National dozens of cricket crazy fans were given the chance – and a “purse” of $100 million - to bid for their dream team at a fantasy cricket auction series organised in Dubai. And they were fully prepared – armed with laptops, statistics, player details and of course their pretend money.

For most participants, it was a chance to live out a dream – sorry, fantasy. “I feel like I’m a Vijay Mallya or an Ambani when I’m spending US$100 million. I feel like I own the players and can call them up and say, ‘Hey, play better’”, Radha Javeri, a home-maker said. Unlike other fantasy games, this one doesn’t allow for team changes but that didn’t spoil the fun. “I’ve set my alarm for 2am, when I usually receive the points, and check it by 2.30am every day,” said Deep Javeri. “At 6am I meet my brother and we confirm that our team is still leading. This is as close as we can come to owning a team. That’s the fantasy.” And no prizes for guessing which player fetched the highest bid – Sachin Tendulkar, who went for a whopping $60 million. Move over IPL.

With a large number of foreigners expected to attend the World Cup final, Mumbai police commissioner Arup Patnaik is quite particular about the image projected by the city’s police force. Only good-looking officers will be on duty during the match, after Patnaik stated at a police briefing that he wanted only “tall, well-built, slim policemen” present. Overweight and tobacco-chewing policemen are strictly prohibited.

“There is a tendency among our policemen to behave rudely at times. This is going to be an international event, and so the city police should look good and behave well,” a senior police official told DNA. “The commissioner said that our policemen should look smart, young and energetic. They should be able to communicate well with people, including foreigners.” Mumbai’s traffic police department took its cue from Patnaik, and chose “nearly 100 good-looking policemen, with good communication skills” for the job of ushering in spectators.

Paul Collingwood’s poor form in recent times has seen his support-base dwindle, but surely he at least deserves the support of his family. His three daughters, though, turned their back on him for England’s must-win match against West Indies in Chennai. “We hope you lose tomorrow, daddy,” they told him via Skype the day before the match. It wasn’t that they had fallen for the laidback charm of Chris Gayle and his team-mates. They just wanted their daddy to “come back home.” Collingwood, along with the rest of England’s cricketers, has found himself entangled in a ceaseless schedule that saw him spend less than ten days at home between returning from Australia and travelling to the subcontinent for the World Cup.

"That was quite tough and I had to think quickly," Collingwood told the Daily Mail website. “I told them, 'Yes, but if we win, daddy will get a few more pennies to buy you more Barbie dolls'. That seemed to do the trick. 'OK, I hope you win now', said Shannon.” The only worry is Collingwood may have used up his excuse for abandoning home once again to come play the IPL, which starts six days after the World Cup.

The concerns over the World Cup stadia never seem to fully blow over. The Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, which will host the World Cup final on April 2, had a power failure in one of its light towers during Friday’s New Zealand-Sri Lanka tie. On the upside, the incident was barely noticed by the players, as the malfunctioning tower was made redundant by the other artificial light sources available.

The tower’s generator had failed, according to Mumbai Cricket Association secretary Lalchand Rajput. “But the lights were back in seven minutes or so, after switching to an alternative power source,” he said. “We have an arrangement such that there is enough illumination to continue the game even if such an accident occurs.” Well done.

South Africa are not tangled up in the tension of Group B as the league stage nears it’s end, but that doesn’t mean that they want to - or can - stay away from all the stress. While the decisive match between the West Indies and England was playing out, South Africa were in the gym and in a team meeting but they couldn’t help stopping to see the score.

As they were making their way back up to their rooms, Robin Peterson, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Wayne Parnell and assistant coach Vincent Barnes stopped at their Dhaka hotel’s coffee shop to check on the score. Chris Gayle was unleashing his thunderbolt 43 and the foursome were in awe. A few muttered about how happy Bangladesh would be if the West Indies pulled through (because a West Indies win would guarantee Bangladesh a place in the quarters).

Minutes later, Morne van Wyk and Colin Ingram strolled through, also with an eye for the latest on the match. The procession continued, oohs and aahs were made and they disappeared into the lift. They were on their way somewhere quite special. The team’s social committee of Morne Morkel, JP Duminy and fitness coach Rob Walter had organised a supper from Nandos for the boys. The fast-food chicken chain is a favourite back in South Africa, the first signs that the team may be missing home.

Brett Lee and Dev Alimchandani © ESPNcricinfo Ltd

It would be easy enough for players at the World Cup to get bogged down in planning for their next game, without looking at life outside the tournament. Not Brett Lee. This week in Bangalore the Australians had two matches within four days, but in between the games Lee found time to spend an hour chatting about cricket with Dev Alimchandani.

Dev is completing the first level of the Cricket Education Program, a schools-based cricket coaching course that guides children aged up to 14 through six levels of cricket skills work. Lee is the ambassador for the program, which was developed by Cricket Australia, and he says there’s more to it than just sport.

“With the CEP, to me it’s all about giving kids an opportunity,” Lee says. “You just see the way these young kids can actually benefit from the program, but it’s not just about cricket, it’s about education as well, and about life skills.

“It’s about helping the young guys come through. I’ve got a young boy [four-year-old son Preston] at home. Whether he chooses one day to play cricket or go into something else, it doesn’t really matter. Just as long as they’re being active.”

Dev was the lucky student flown in from Mumbai to meet Lee after impressing the Cricket India Academy, which runs the program, with his efforts in a double-wicket tournament and skills events. The program runs at nine locations across Mumbai and Pune and is set to expand into Jaipur in the coming months.

More than half a million dollars was raised for those affected by last month’s earthquake in New Zealand, as movie stars, cricketers and the New Zealand Prime Minister took the field in the Fill the Basin Twenty20 appeal match in Wellington on Sunday.

Among the big silver screen names present were actor – and cousin of former New Zealand captains Martin and Jeff Crowe – Russell Crowe and Ian McKellen, who shares a close association with New Zealand as part of the Lord of the Rings cast. As for the cricketers, Richard Hadlee, Stephen Fleming, Bruce Edgar, Andrew Jones, Nathan Astle, Mark Greatbatch, Geoff Allott, Rod Latham and Ewen Chatfield were all there.

The main attraction of the day though remained an over bowled between innings by Shane Warne to Prime Minister John Key. Key, who had supposedly had a ‘secret nets session’ on Saturday, whipped a low full toss for a boundary, for which $100,000 were donated to the cause. Well played Prime Minister!

The healing power of sport is well-documented – charity games following a natural disaster are as much about raising smiles as about raising money. And so it proved for a group of Indians living in Yokohama. Terrified by the earthquake and traumatised by the news of the tsunami’s devastation in Sendai, a dozen men and women came together at a Yokohama stadium on Saturday to play a Twenty20 game as thanksgiving.

“On Saturday morning, we were relieved to hear that the tsunami warning was off. We were yet to recover from Friday’s nightmare. So, we decided to organise a cricket match,” Sriram Balasubramanyam, a techie from Bangalore, told Bangalore Mirror. “As the batsmen started hitting fours and sixes, we began to forget what happened just a few hours ago.” A sliver of good news in tragic times.

Cricket's 'flagship' event, especially when it's got the Associates enjoying the spotlights, throws up a mix of nationalities, cultures, religions, languages and accents in a wondrous we-are-the-world kind of way.

So when the Dutch turned up, it was time for cricket to feel slightly European and think not just of the Oranje but all that they represent - Vincent van Gogh, Ajax Amsterdam and, in some part of his sport's insular world, Ryan ten Doeschate,

In massive demand wherever he goes at this Cup, ten Doeschate, the only Associate who will turn up at the IPL next month (which corporate klutz missed out putting Kevin O'Brien in that auction?!), was paraded out along with his captain Peter Borren for the 25-TV camera-strong media scrum at the Ferozshah Kotla on the eve of the game against India.

ten Doeschate was quick to say he had said not exchanged notes with Gautam Gambhir, him of India and Kolkata Knight Riders, before the cultural question arrived. Could he speak in Dutch, he was asked by a TV reporter? "Yes", ten Doeschate responded instantly. Yippee. So for our viewers, could you just tell us what your ambitions and inspirations are when you play in this World Cup? In an even shorter instant, ten Doeschate replied, "No".

It may have sounded rude or offensive, especially as it had followed ten Doeschate's confident assertion of being a Dutch speaker. The truth is that Netherlands' star bat is the son of Dutch parents, who spent most of his young life in South Africa and now lives in England. As one of only three professionals in the Dutch team, he has spent by his own calculation no more than five days in the Netherlands over the last five years.
When he must speak to the men with whom he shares a team, the language he uses is English.

There's a good chance that ten Doeschate's Dutch is restricted to greetings, customer care call centres and directions to a rest room.

When Ireland turned out for the national anthems before the start of the match, what played over the Chinnaswamy speakers was not actually a ‘national anthem' and what represented them was not the flag of a nation. It couldn't. Ireland's cricket extends beyond the political boundaries of 'country'. It includes a larger, deeper Irish cultural identity, the team including cricketers both from the Republic of Ireland, as well as Northern Ireland, which belongs to the United Kingdom. Players within the team called Ireland share two flags and two anthems. The Republic of Ireland's tricolour of green, white and orange and the Union Jack. Their anthems are Amhrán na bhFiann (Soldiers’ Song) and Northern Ireland's God Save The Queen. Naturally the team could hardly choose.

The flag the Irish team used ahead of the game contained Cricket Ireland's official logo and the song that played in Bangalore was Ireland's Call. It is now the official sporting anthem of a united Ireland, which was first commissioned in 1995 by the Irish Rugby Football Union and now plays across all sports in which the 'clan' fields a single team. There is only one major team sport in which the Irish are still divided into two - football. But at this World Cup, Ireland aren't the only team without political flag and anthem. The West Indies are made up of multiple nations and their cricket song, which was first played for them in the 2003 World Cup, is Rally 'Round the West Indies, written by David Rudder, a Trinidadian calypso musician.

Matthew Hayden, who held the record for the fastest World Cup hundred before Kevin O’Brien decided it was open season on England’s bowlers, was possibly the last man to hear about it. Hayden was working with a remote and isolated community in the Tropical Top End called Tiwi Island, and had no idea he had been relegated to second-best in the history books until five minutes before the start of the Tiwi Island Land Council meeting. That’s when, Hayden writes in DNA, the chairman of the council, Cyril Rioli, stood up and said, “Hey Matty, did you hear about the Irish fella who broke your record overnight?”

“No, I didn’t, tell me more.”

“This bloke almost single-handedly beat the English, scoring 113 in the game and getting them out of trouble. Pity about your record too. He smashed your record, beating it by 10 balls or something.”

At first, Hayden couldn’t process the news. England had buried Australia in the Ashes and here was this guy telling him that some Irish bloke had not only smashed his record, but smashed England as well. It just didn’t seem possible. But once he accepted that it had, in fact, happened, Hayden said he was “delighted for Kevin and that I wish I could get a note out to him, reflecting my thoughts to that effect at first convenient opportunity.”

Ireland’s reputation for being giant killers has claimed another victim - that gentle giant Munaf Patel. Taking advantage of India’s week-long break between games, Munaf and his wife went to the cinema, to watch the Bollywood thriller Saat Khoon Maaf (literally, “Seven Murders Forgiven”, about a woman who murders seven husbands). It was the evening England were playing Ireland and the murders on screen coincided with the mauling in the stadium. Just after the second murder, Munaf got an emergency call from the team camp – get back to the hotel and get your eyes on the game.

“I was called back to the hotel to watch Ireland (as they beat England). I saw only two murders in the theatre, but ended up watching many more during the Ireland-England game,” Munaf told The Indian Express, referring to Kevin O’Brien’s innings. Given that India take on Ireland on Sunday, Munaf would have been forewarned of the damage O’Brien can do – and maybe claim a few on-field victims of his own.

Kevin O'Brien was the centre of attraction after his record-breaking century © ESPNcricinfo

Irish eyes are not smiling. That would be too sedate for a country whose cricket team is not shy of wearing pink and purple hair. They are grinning, they are beaming and for a day, they cannot be stopped. This includes all those involved in, witness to and following at a distance the greatest moment in Ireland's cricketing history at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Wednesday night.

Radio and television stations and other diversions kept the team and management awake after the victory over England at the World Cup. Kevin O'Brien went to bed at about 4am on Thursday, but there were reports that many were up until dawn - no doubt doing interviews. Messages poured in as quickly and copiously as the Guinness may have a thousand miles away, with the country's president, the heads of the Northern Ireland government in Belfast and the Irish Rugby Football Union among others, in sending on a chorus of "sláinte" (cheers). The IRFU even put up Kevin O'Brien's photograph on their home page.

Many of the greats of Irish sport got through to William Porterfield's team, including legendary rugby captain Brian O'Driscoll and footballer Ronnie Whelan. Niall O'Brien, the only one among the team sporting dark glasses this morning said they had been saluted by many rugby players whom he described as, "they are like the Dhonis and Sachin out there for Ireland."

What about the most famous Irishman in the whole world? Rockstar, international philanthropist, debt-buster Bono? Maybe it was too early, only 7am in Dublin was one reason offered when the query was first made around noon. Kevin O'Brien lining up to do his nth radio interview said he didn't know if Bono was that much of a cricket fan. John Mooney, beamed, "I'll be waiting for that message." About Irish cricket at least, it can't be said that Bono still hasn't found what he was looking for. Paul, laddie, your move.