If cricket purists raise their eyebrows at South African players entering England squads, they’re probably shaving them off at the thought of Jonty Rhodes, one of South Africa’s biggest post-Apartheid sporting heroes, entering the Bigg Boss house in India. Bigg Boss is India’s version of the reality show Big Brother, and places a group of celebrities in a house where they live for a certain number of days with no connection to the outside world. The guests are largely Indian but in recent times the producers have tried to include foreign celebrities with the actress Pamela Anderson spending three days in the house last season.

This season Rhodes could be joined in the house by Colombian pop star Shakira and boxer Mike Tyson – and, closer home, by former India cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu, whose end-career fielding earned him the nickname Jonty Singh. “I am sure that we two reasonable fielders will gel just fine on the show,” Rhodes joked in an interview with the Hindustan Times. He is one of the few characters left in the game of cricket, either on or off the field, so it should be an entertaining time.” Rhodes, currently in India with the Mumbai Indians for the Champions League Twenty20, said he hoped to learn Hindi during his stint in the Bigg Brother house. There’s no confirmation yet, though, on how long Rhodes will spend in the house or what tasks he will be made to perform – Pamela Anderson had to learn to dance to a Bollywood song.

How do you say 'leg before wicket' in Dutch? Is there a German word for byes? These were perhaps just some of the problems ICC Europe and the MCC would have faced while translating the Laws of Cricket into seven European languages. The 2010 edition of the Laws are now available in French, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Danish, Italian and German.

The project was undertaken to help promote cricket in Europe, but took longer than expected because there were several terms, taken for granted as part of the language by cricket-lovers, completely untranslatable in other languages. “We initially underestimated the complexity involved with translating the Laws into so many different languages as many of the cricket terms just did not exist,” Richard Holdsworth, the ICC regional development manager, Europe, said. The Laws are also being translated into Romanian and Finnish.

Glenn McGrath, the man who never gave England a chance when he was playing, has admitted that they deserve the No. 1 Test ranking and has even stopped short of predicting a 5-0 win for Australia in the next Ashes.

“As much as it kills me to say that England are the number one in the world, I think they actually deserve it,” he told TalkSport. "They’ve got a great bowling attack, it’s very consistent, and they are doing an exceptional job. And the rest of the team is working well around that.”

We’ll see if he’s still saying the same thing in a couple of years time ahead of the 2013 Ashes series.

Twenty-three of the world’s greatest living cricketers will be gathering together at Lord’s on Wednesday for a one-off lunch, organised by the Lord’s Taverners, in celebration of the art of fast bowling.

Among the attendees will be Sir Richard Hadlee, Curtly Ambrose, Alan Davidson, Glenn McGrath, Courtney Walsh, Jeff Thomson, Andy Roberts, Clive Rice, Colin Croft, Mike Procter, Devon Malcolm, Makhaya Ntini and Kapil Dev.

Several of the bowlers (McGrath, Ambrose, Walsh, Malcolm and Ntini) will also be visiting Lambeth school in the shadow of The Oval. Some of the West Indian heroes will speak with the kids, in a school where the demographic is 95% black, about their experience of access to sport in London and have a coaching session with Cricket 4 Change. The Lord’s Taverners will donate some cricket kit to the school.

Things may not be going swimmingly for India captain MS Dhoni on the winless tour of England but that hasn’t stopped the awards from rolling in. The latest comes from no less than the President of India, who has made Dhoni an honorary lieutenant-colonel of the Territorial Army, a voluntary unit of the armed forces. Last month, he was made an honorary Doctor of Letters by the De Montfort University in the United Kingdom for his sporting achievements, and earlier this week he won the ICC Spirit of Cricket Award for his decision to recall Ian Bell after his controversial run-out during the Trent Bridge Test.

The citation says Dhoni and Abhinav Bindra, a gold medallist in shooting at the Beijing Olympics, were honoured “for their outstanding contribution in the field of cricket and shooting respectively, and their commitment to the Army on various occasions.” Dhoni joins the ranks of Kapil Dev and Sachin Tendulkar as honorary military officers. Now if only he can marshal his forces into a winning unit once again.

Ever wondered what a fielder sees when he settles under a skier, or when the ball comes rocketing at him from a powerful shot? During the Champions League Twenty20, you might be able to share his vision.

The television broadcaster, ESPNstar, is planning to implant high-definition pinhole cameras in players’ sunglasses during the tournament, according to a report in the Times of India.

“The sunglasses will be handed to a player assigned by the team management just before the start of each innings with the recording mode on and the player will have to wear them for a period of three overs,” an official said.

How long until we get cameras in helmets? And will they withstand the impact of a Dale Steyn bouncer?

It’s not just the Indian cricket team who have been battered and bruised in their ongoing tour of England. Even the punters have been left reeling in the wake of one of India’s most disastrous tours in recent memory, where India have failed to win a game against England so far. The only ones rejoicing? According to a report in the Times of India, it’s the bookmakers, whose earnings have shot through the roof. And the No. 1 reason for their windfall? Sachin Tendulkar’s failure to reach his 100th hundred. Tendulkar made 34, 12, 16, 56, 1, 40, 23 and 91 in the four Tests, after which an injury ended his tour.

According to the report, bets were placed in three categories on Tendulkar's prospective 100th ton: If Tendulkar scored a century in any of the four Tests, punters would have gained Rs 1.40 for every rupee. Match-wise, the odds for that were Rs. 2.50 for every rupee. The stakes were the highest for specific innings-wise bets, which would have fetched punters Rs 4.50 for every rupee.

"This is the first time we enjoyed huge returns without losing a single rupee on Sachin,” a bookie told the newspaper. “This has been by far our biggest gain on the Little Master in the last two-three seasons.”

How long before Nasser has his own personally-branded ass, a la Damien Martyn in 2006? © AFP

Nasser Hussain has caused a media storm in India after comparing some of the country’s cricketers to “donkeys” after their poor performance in the field during the Twenty20 against England at Old Trafford.

Commentating on the match for Sky, Hussain watched India’s Parthiv Patel drop a catch off Kevin Pietersen at third man, and said: “I would say the difference between the two sides is the fielding. England are all-round a good fielding side. I do believe that India have few... three or four very good fielders and one or two donkeys in the field still.”

Although the word is commonly used in England to describe a lack of athleticism on the sports field, its use in this instance has attracted the ire of the BCCI, with the vice-president Rajiv Shukla telling reporters in Delhi that it was “totally uncalled for”.

“One should adopt restraint while making observations about players,” said Shukla. “Commentators should not make such comments. We will definitely look into it. Every player has to be respected irrespective of his performance. I don't think this comment was appropriate.”

Hussain's choice of word has also sparked off arguments on social networking site Twitter. Notably, Amitabh Bachchan, one of India's most-famous actors, tweeted his displeasure with Hussain's comment. Hussain found support in former team-mate Michael Vaughan, who tweeted: "Just seen that Nasser said the Indians have a couple of Donkeys in the field... How wrong can he be!!!! I have seen at least 4...."

The former England coach and Lancashire legend, David Lloyd, suffered the indignity of being evicted from the members’ bar at Old Trafford prior to the start of England’s Twenty20 against India on Wednesday, because he was mistakenly believed to be carrying the wrong accreditation.

Lloyd, who played for Lancashire for 19 seasons and is a life member of the club, had been browsing old team photos when he was reportedly manhandled by two stewards who told him he had “two minutes” to leave the room.

'I'm absolutely flipping livid,' Lloyd told The Daily Mail. 'I'm a life member and ex-captain of the club. I pointed out I was just looking at a few photos, and mentioned that I was in most of them. They asked me whether I was refusing to leave, and when I said I was going nowhere, two of them grabbed me by the arms. I said, "We're in a stalemate here, because I'm not moving".”

Lancashire's venue events manager Richard Mulcaster said: “We unreservedly apologise. The stewards involved were not following the correct procedure and have been informed as much.”

The incident follows a similar case of poor identification at The Oval during the fourth Test against India, when Surrey’s former captain Alec Stewart, who even has a gate named after him at the venue, was refused access to a hospitality box.