Mouthwash or tobacco? That’s the big question facing Cricket Australia, and they’ve decided to play it safe: the Australian board has pulled Hindi advertisements displayed at the grounds during the series against India, after being alerted that they could be promoting tobacco. Tobacco ads would reportedly fetch CA fines to the tune of Aus $66,000, since they breach the local tobacco advertising ban that was implemented in 1992.

"We asked [the Indian government's] advice because we are not familiar with the Hindi language," a CA spokesman said. "They came back and said it's an Indian mouthwash – or at least they said it's not a tobacco product. We don't have one million per cent certainty about all of the detail. It appears that there is a tobacco company with the same or similar brand name to the product that is being advertised. We have just become uneasy about it and said, let's withdraw this."

So you might see blank boards along the boundary starting with the India-Sri Lanka one-dayer in Perth on Wednesday. But CA is not in the clear just yet, with Australia’s health minister Tanya Plibersek saying the government has taken up the matter with the board.

"The Gillard government has received a number of complaints alleging that advertisements for tobacco products have been displayed at cricket grounds," Plibersek told News Limited newspapers. "The government is taking the allegations very seriously and has written to Cricket Australia seeking detailed information about the advertising."

Sorry, but when did I walk out to bat? © AFP

Australia opener Ed Cowan is everything but your typical cricketer. He can write, he can tweet, he can do fancy finance stuff. He’s even fielded in a Test match before he made his first-class debut, against Pakistan in 2005. But he cannot remember walking out to bat in the second innings of his debut Test at the MCG last month. Cowan had been so enthusiastic in doing warm-ups on the second morning of the Boxing Day Test that he got a sore back, which required a generous dose of painkillers. “Having hurt my back, I now know what it is like to bat high, because I had so much codeine in my system I cannot remember walking out to bat,” Cowan told TripleM Sydney radio.

Cowan then went on to reveal that he was also down a few beers down when he was called out of the SCG Members Bar as a substitute Test fielder in 2005. “I had had a few earlier that morning, but that was later that afternoon,” Cowan said. “I was sober - I would have been able to drive home. They did ask me if I had been drinking, I said no. It was only six balls and I did not touch one so there is no need to get too carried away.

“So I have done both. I have fielded with a few beers under the belt, and batted with a few too many Panadeine Fortes in the system.” Now that is an achievement that will take some downing.

As India’s batsmen continue to struggle in Australia, most would agree they could do with a lesson in patience - in ‘playing the waiting game’. Well, the whole team was subjected to one prior to Monday’s pre-match function at the Kirribilli House (the official residence of the Australian Prime Minister in Sydney).

The Indians arrived early for the meet-and-greet with Prime Minister Julia Gillard, the Sydney Morning Herald reported, and were made to wait outside the gates. They turned up at 1.45pm, the newspaper reported, 15 minutes before the function was due to begin. However, it had been pushed to a 2.10pm start, and the receiving room and Gillard were not quite ready. So a short wait in the afternoon sun followed, before the players were cleared by security.