In Abu Dhabi, the rules are slightly different © Getty Images

There will be no skin on show at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi, where spectators have been told to observe a strict dress code during the second Test between Pakistan and England. The message was clearly spelt out – “Dress code is very simple. Just keep your clothes on.” That means the 500-strong Barmy Army, particularly those in the grass banks, will not be able to enjoy a tan at the driest Test ground in the world.

The rules had been more flexible in Dubai, the venue for the first Test. Nevertheless, the Barmy Army wasn’t complaining. "The fans from England will follow and respect the rules," said Barmy Army Colts tour operator Mark Stears. "They will not be taking their tops off like they do elsewhere in the world because of the dress code."

Andrew Strauss recently said England needed to start winning cricket matches in all conditions, all over the world. A group of British explorers have taken that rather literally, and have beaten a Rest of the World side at the South Pole, in temperatures as low as -35 degrees Celsius.

The match was organised as a tribute to Robert Falcon Scott, a navy officer who led Britain’s first expedition to the South Pole in 1910-13, which ultimately resulted in his death and the death of the members of his team. Neil Laughton, a Special Air Service officer, who led a group of adventurers to the Pole, told the BBC he organised the match in honour of Scott because cricket was “quintessentially British and I wanted to do something that does not happen down here very often, if at all.”

In sub-zero temperatures, the players had to bat, bowl and field in the kind of gear Jonathan Trott would take a few hours to adjust. “Obviously it was very cold and difficult with all the bulky clothing to bat and bowl and slide around in the field to catch the ball but we managed it fine,” Laughton said.

The good news is that any time a cricketer complains he’s got cramps because of the humidity or that his fingers are numb because of the cold, he can be asked to stop whining and have a look at Laughton and his men. The bad news is that if ever you want to send a particular player to the South Pole, the teams are already full.

Anyone who thinks a cricketer’s life is easy and slow-paced should ask Mushtaq Ahmed. The former Pakistan leggie, currently a part of the England support staff, is now busy organising his wedding banquet – 18 years after he got married! Mushy, as he’s known, married Uzma Jabeen in December 1993 but was soon involved in a whirlwind of cricket, beginning with a home series against Zimbabwe. Four children later, it seems, they’ve finally decided, on the advice of family elders, to have the walima, an important part of Islamic wedding rituals. The kids will all be part of the ceremony, to be held in Lahore on Boxing Day, and so will a lot of team-mates who missed out on the feasting back then – including Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Moin Khan and Inzamam-ul Haq. Better late than never, says Mushy. Perhaps the missus should demand a well justified second honeymoon too!

After a winless, demoralising tour of England, India’s cricketers might need a little reminding that they lifted a World Cup only a few months ago, right? Well, their kit sponsors have it covered. Starting with the one-day series against England, which begins in Hyderabad on October 14, India will wear jerseys with three stars positioned above the BCCI logo. The stars denote India’s three landmark victories – the 1983 and 2011 50-overs World Cups and the 2007 World Twenty20.

Of course, some players have shown their appreciation for the gesture. “I feel really proud, for me the three stars on the jersey represent what the Indian team is today and how much they have achieved,” batsman Virat Kohli was quoted as saying in DNA India. “I feel really honoured to be a part of a team that has won three World Cups.”

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.

MS Dhoni & Co may not be at their best at the moment, but one couldn’t deny that the India captain has enjoyed much success on the field – and also off it – till now. So what makes him such an effective captain? That’s what one of India’s leading business schools, the Indian Institute of Management - Ranchi, wants to find out.

Dhoni has been sent an invitation by the institution, to have his brain mapped to understand ‘the making of a leader’. The project, if it happens, will be a forerunner to a neuromanagement course that the institution plans to introduce.

Most of us (well, most readers of this site) live for cricket. Retired British accountant Stanley Johnson, who died recently in New Zealand while watching his favourite sport, seems to have redefined the phrase. His will stipulates that his ashes are to be scattered at 12 cricket grounds in eight countries across the globe, beginning with The Oval in London during the final Test of the England-India series.

A report in the the Times says eight friends will receive envelopes of the ashes, and proceed on "Stanley Johnson’s Ashes Tour", scattering them at various grounds across New Zealand, Australia, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, South Africa and West Indies, apart from England. Each friend will toast Johnson with a local brew as the remains are scattered. The last envelope will be strewn over the turf at Church, a cricket club where Johnson once played.

Johnson’s family said he’d watched around 230 Tests in his lifetime, all the while building up funds to finance his posthumous “ashes” tour. A standing ovation, please, as he walks back to the pavilion.

Shoaib Malik may not be able to play international cricket for Pakistan until he is cleared by the PCB, but he can still experience the thrill of playing a sport against international-level opposition. Malik has taken to playing tennis with his wife, Indian professional tennis player Sania Mirza, and has even claimed to have beaten her, albeit on a mini-court.

“I play tennis with Sania twice a week,” Malik told the Express Tribune.” I beat her on a mini-court recently.” The Pakistan allrounder took up tennis after marrying Mirza and his new goal is to beat her on a regular court. He also claims his wife’s game has improved after she married him.

Mirza is also a cricket fan and they root for their respective countries when India play Pakistan.

What’s the best insurance against a medical emergency on the field? How about a playing XI made up of doctors? And it's even better if one of them happens to have a defibrillator handy. Harry Parkin, a businessman, suffered a heart attack and slumped to the ground unconscious a few overs into a game between local doctors and a football team in Budleigh Salterton, Devon, England. According to Thisisdevon.co.uk, his team-mate Dr Richard Mejzner rushed to fetch a defibrillator from his car and revived Parkin, comforting him for 15 minutes until an air ambulance arrived.

Dr Mejzner’s timely intervention earned him praise from the local cricket club secretary Kevin Curran, not least because Parkin happens to be a big contributor to the club. "He is a well-known member of the community who does an awful lot for the club and everyone was completely shocked when this happened,” Curran said of Parkin. “He was nowhere near the ball when he collapsed. It was extremely fortunate there were a number of doctors around and one had this piece of equipment in his car – he may well have saved his life."

The match was abandoned and the incident has inspired the club to invest in a defibrillator. "We have all the basic medical equipment but this incident has highlighted just how important defibrillators are," Curran said.

ECB unveils unique adverts on live crickets to celebrate this season’s 2011 Friends Life t20 competition © ECB

Twenty20 cricket has brought all sorts of wild and whacky novelties into the game, changing the way it is presented, played and marketed, but the most recent innovation by the England and Wales Cricket Board’s PR team could well stump the lot. To promote this year’s Friends Life t20 competition, the ECB has created a unique marketing concept called ‘cricketvertising’ which sees branding transferred directly onto live crickets - of the insect variety.

Miniature artist Aidan Campbell has been commissioned to paint the crickets using water-based transfers, and each of the 18 counties involved in the competition will have their colours painted on a handpicked selection of the game’s smallest six-legged ambassadors.

“I’m used to painting on canvases no bigger than a 1p piece but to brand a cricket was a whole new ball game,” said Campbell. “I had no idea how it was going to work to begin with but it’s been a lot of fun.”

“The Friends Life t20 is a smaller but more exciting game of cricket which is full of energy,” said Sally Brooks, the ECB’s t20 event manager. “We were considering how to get this message across to cricket fans and the humble cricket acts as the perfect metaphorical ambassador.”

“Obviously no crickets were harmed in the making of cricketvertising but I can confirm that they requested we stop for tea and their batting skills weren’t a patch on our boys,” she added.

Following their photoshoot, the logoed crickets were re-released back into the wild outside the stadium of their representative team. The organisers of the stunt hope children and adults will find the brightly-coloured insects – presumably before any birds or insectivorous mammals spot them - and ultimately get behind their county.

In May, Adam Parore conquered Mount Everest. Now, another cricketer is set to take on a different colossus. Michael Vaughan will trek some part of the Great Wall of China in September, with wife Nicola – who came up with the idea, according to the BBC website – and about 20 buddies for company.

The trek, which is for charity, will take seven days. The group will follow the Huangyaguan Hills, go northwest of Beijing through the mountains, and up Heaven’s Ladder – a steep climb of over 200 steps.

Right then, any guesses who our next cricketer-turned-adventurer might be?

Brett Lee is all set to have Australia dance to his tune. Literally. Lee, who returned to Australia post the IPL this weekend, plans to release a single by his band, White Shoe Theory, soon.

“We're going to launch our single shortly, so it's all happening. We're working out which one [song] we want to release first,” Lee told Australian newspaper, the Daily Telegraph.

Lee, who plays bass and does back-up vocals for the band, said apart from exercise, music was his key to feeling good. “For me, music is my outlet; the guitar is the first thing to be packed [when travelling].”

Louth CC beat Market Deeping CC by 72 runs on the back of steely century by Arran Brindle. So what’s the big deal, you wonder? Well, turns out Arran Brindle is a woman, playing in the ECB’s Lincolnshire men’s premier league. Brindle’s 128 is the first hundred by a woman in men’s premier league cricket in England, and possibly anywhere.

Brindle, who has represented England in nine women’s Tests and 58 ODIs, took a break from international cricket in 2005 to spend more time with her family. She will return to international cricket this summer, following her inclusion in England Women's 14-player squad for the 2011 NatWest Women's Quadrangular Series. In the interim, she captained the Louth first XI over three seasons.

“The timing of my innings means that my confidence is high going in to the international women's quadrangular tournament this summer,” Brindle said. “I have played for Louth men's first XI for several years now, and I captained the side in 2007, 2009 and 2010. It's a totally natural environment for me."

To the list of cricketing stoppages, from the familiar 'rain stopped play', to the more confusing 'reflecting sun stopped play', the downright bizarre ‘stuffed toy stopped play’ can be added after an academy match at the Rose Bowl was held up by a cuddly toy.

A stuffed toy animal brought a large-scale police operation in Hampshire after an alarm was first raised by a concerned member of the public who believed there was an escaped white tiger hiding in a field near Hedge End.

Officers were sent to the scene along with a helicopter and thermal imaging cameras, at about 1600 BST on Saturday. When no body heat was detected police moved in and found a toy tiger.

The match between South Wiltshire and Hampshire Academy was stopped for 20 minutes before they were given the all-clear to continue. A police spokeswoman said: "After a brief stalk through the Hedge End savannah, the officer realised the tiger was not moving and the air support using their cameras realised there was a lack of heat source. The tiger then rolled over in the down draft and it was at that point it became obvious it was a stuffed life-size toy.

"This incident will definitely be the highlight of our day. The CCTV footage convinced us all we were dealing with a real tiger. It's not often an incident leaves our staff with a smile on their face and it.”

The National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, has an unusual new exhibit lined-up. Swinging Away: How Cricket and Baseball Connect, an exhibit that unveiled on Sunday, is all about the relationship between the two sports – think their origins, history and cultural impact, as well as equipment used in iconic matches.

The exhibit, created in conjunction with the Marylebone Cricket Club, will be visited by Haverford College’s cricket team, the only university team in the US. While they’re at it, the team will play a few overs, giving those in attendance this weekend a first-hand taste of the gentleman’s game.

So just what could one expect to find on show? The collection includes uniforms and equipment belonging to the likes of New York Yankees’ Derek Jeter, Texas Ranger’s Bengie Molina, women’s baseball stars Robin Wallace and Charlotte Edwards, and Adam Gilchrist, Kumar Sangakkara, Shahid Afridi, Andrew Flintoff and Paul Collingwood. Not to mention some of the oldest cricket bats alongside the recent experimental Mongoose bat, the MCC’s experimental coloured cricket balls and photos of John ‘Bart’ King, an iconic American cricketer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. And yes, the exhibit is on display till February 2012, so all you diehard cricket buffs have a chance to stop by on your next visit to the US.

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.

Members of The Homies and The Popz at a training session before their Australian tour © Getty Images

While almost A$6million had been raised for Australia’s flood relief appeal by the end of the 5th one-day international at the Gabba, further cricket-based help will soon be forthcoming from an unexpected source: Compton, Los Angeles. The Homies and the Popz are Compton Cricket Club’s team and have embarked on their first tour of Australia, with one of their main aims being to raise awareness and financial support for the Queensland flood victims.

Comprised of African American and Latino youth and former gang members, the cricket team was formed to provide an alternative to the gang activities that ruled their neighbourhoods. They’ve been playing cricket for 15 years and credit the sport with their salvation. In the coming weeks, they’ve planned to play a series of high profile exhibition cricket matches during the height of the Australian cricketing calendar in three cities: Melbourne, Alice Springs and Sydney.

Through touring to Australia the team also hopes to continue developing into a world class competitive and exhibition cricket team and sporting club, utilising its high profile to publicise other charitable Australian organisations that deal with similar issues in their own communities, and raise awareness of the Club with key stakeholders during their tour so that cricket opportunities between the USA and Australia can grow.

The teams they will play represent the broadest possible cross-section of cricketing groups Australia has to offer, and will include University, inner city, charity, homeless and youth cricket sides. Some of these teams include, in Melbourne, sides made up of Cricket Victoria and Cricket Australia staff and the Australian Cricket Society and, in Sydney, the Redfern All Blacks, Sydney University and Police and community Youth Centres.

Find out more about The Homies and The Popz at www.comptoncricketclub.org

Breaking news: Neil Johnson is a yogi ... or is he? ©

In this internet age, there can often be a viral element to newsgathering. This means, of course, that news travels fast, but also that it is much easier for less factually accurate stories to pop up on reputable sites.

Such was the case when a bizarre story that former Zimbabwe allrounder Neil Johnson had been appointed yoga instructor to the touring Indian cricket team mysteriously appeared online. Within hours, it had been picked up by several cricket news sites and even found its way onto the official ICC homepage.

The original story suggested that coach Gary Kirsten had hired Johnson “to get his players supple and as fit as they can be for their grueling [sic] South African sojourn”, and claimed Johnson "was seen doing a few yoga asanas along with the players after India lost the first Test at Centurion". It even went so far as to declare "the Indian team's manager Ranjib Biswal confirmed the appointment of Johnson but refused to let him talk to the media”

While Biswal hastily distanced himself from the erroneous story, the ICC spiked it from their page as soon as the mistake was realised. Intriguingly, the Indian cricket team does in fact already have a yoga instructor on tour: Jim Harrington, an Australian married to a South African and resident in Hout Bay, South Africa, for the past eight years.

“I don’t even do yoga,” a bemused Johnson told ESPNcricinfo, before dissolving into fits of laughter. “If it was the 1st of April, I’d understand this,” added his wife Genie.

This website was not taken in.

He was never known for twinkle-toed elegance on the field, but Dominic Cork is following in the footsteps of other former England cricketers Darren Gough, Mark Ramprakash and Phil Tufnell in signing up for a dancing-themed reality TV show. Cork, 39, who still plays for Hampshire, has been confirmed as a participant in the new season of ‘Dancing on Ice’ on ITV1. The only sportsman in a diverse line-up, Cork will be joined by the likes of former EastEnders actor Sam Attwater, Loose Women host Denise Welch and 90s pop-rap sensation Vanilla Ice. The series starts on January 9, presumably so as not to distract from England’s Ashes campaign which is due to end in Sydney on January 7.

A woman who shares the same name as Shane Warne’s long-suffering ex-wife Simone Callahan has been receiving plenty of undue attention from the tabloid press following news of Warne’s relationship with socialite Liz Hurley. The other Simone Callahan, from Geelong in Victoria, has been mistaken for Warne’s ex in the past and is once again being hounded by journalists from the British and Australian tabloids.

“It seems as though whenever there’s a drama with Warne they’ll contact me and knowing Warne there’s always a drama,” said Callahan.

“The British tabloids are the worst. They’ve called my dad’s house and left messages for my cousin. Dad’s also getting contacted by emails and on Facebook. He loves it; he thinks he might make a few dollars out of it.”

One man has the reputation of being a crocodile hunter, while the other wants to model his batting on Matthew Hayden, who knows a thing or two about water sport. Fitting then, that Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel have been chosen to mark the 100-day countdown to the World Cup, which begins on February 19, with a shark dive at the Dubai Aquarium and Underwater Zoo on Tuesday. The pair will take the World Cup trophy to the bottom of the 11-metre deep aquarium and will be watched by ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat and members of the South Africa and Pakistan teams.

With the capacity to hold 10 million litres of water, the complex has more than 33,000 aquatic animals, and for a short while on Tuesday, it will also feature two South African fast bowlers and a glittering trophy.

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 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.

Sitting in the Oval crowd on the final day of the Ashes in 2005, the comedian Miles Jupp experienced a “Damascene moment”. Down on his luck in his chosen career, and jealously observing the lucky few who were being paid to watch the sport he loved, he decided he would chance his arm at something completely different – and resolved to become a cricket journalist.

“Joining the press corps seemed like the perfect job,” said Jupp. “The more I thought about it, the more romantic my vision of life inside that world became: a clubby and convivial group of cricket lovers travelling the world together, watching the game and sharing stories about it, working and hunting as a pack.”

And so, with that idyllic vision in mind, he set his sights on England’s tour of India in February and March 2006, and even managed to extract vague promises of work via his contacts at the BBC and The Western Mail. However, upon arrival, he found himself completely out on a limb.

“I was left in India for a month with no pass, no work and the monumental task of looking busy,” he said. “It is incredibly hard to look busy when you have absolutely nothing to do. It is frowned upon to make excited, girly noises when a famous player is standing near you. And it is difficult to be taken seriously as a cricket journalist when more and more of your colleagues in the press box start noticing that you look a lot like one of the actors in the children’s television series Balamory.”

The net result, however, was to furnish Jupp with a stock of raw material which he has now taken back to his original career as a stand-up comic. “It was a month in which I was sometimes embarrassed, humiliated, self-conscious, bored, lonely or horribly sick,” he added. “But also at other times I was excited, accepted, joyful, got to mix with my heroes and learned to understand my relationship with the game.”

Fibber in the Heat (A Cricket Tale) will be showing at the Gilded Balloon Teviot in Edinburgh from August 5-29, starting at 8pm. For more information, or to book tickets, go to www.gildedballoon.co.uk, or ring 0131 622 6552.

When the British Prime Minister is visiting India the best way to strike a chord is to talk cricket, the quintessentially English game that now has a distinctly Asian flavour. Addressing employees of a software firm in Bangalore, David Cameron connected by mentioning Ian Botham, whom he called his childhood idol. “Many of you in this room would have grown up revering Kapil Dev. I did the same with Ian Botham,” Cameron said. Then, possibly just to be safe, he mentioned the T word. “And Sachin Tendulkar, the Little Master, is so talented that wherever you’re from, you can’t help but admire him as he hits another century.”

And though the seat of cricket’s power has shifted, for all practical purposes, from Marylebone to Mumbai, George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, showed his knowledge of the game’s nuances by quickly correcting an analogy. According to the Wall Street Journal, one business leader thanked Osborne for making his trip to India within 10 weeks of taking office, likening it to hitting a six in the first over of a Test. Osborne’s response was swift: “A batsman hitting a six in the first over of a Test isn’t likely to survive at the wicket for too long. I have every intention of staying the long haul.” He obviously isn’t a Sehwag fan.

County cricket followers are well known for being a hardy bunch – huddled under blankets and desperately grasping their Thermos flasks - they are used to braving most conditions to watch their local favourites in action.

But two Sussex fans, Jan Marszel and Richard Haynes, had much more than dodgy weather to deal with when a meteorite sailed towards the boundary and hit one man in the chest.

Rudely interrupting Luke Wright and Monty Panesar’s eighth-wicket stand against Middlesex, the rock, five inches in length and thought to be anything up to 4.5 billion years old, crashed into the ground just in front of their two seats square of the wicket and bounced up to hit Mr Marszel in the chest.

“It landed five yards inside the boundary and split into two pieces,” he told the Daily Telegraph. “It came across at quite a speed - if it had hit me full on it could have been very interesting."

Mr Haynes said: “We were quietly supping our pints, both looked up at the same time and saw a black object coming towards us - we didn’t know what it was.

“If it had come from the other direction we might have suspected someone had thrown it, but we saw it come in straight over the ground from quite a way out - it was definitely a meteorite.”

Dr Matthew Genge, a meteorite expert at Imperial College, London, told the Telegraph: “If this turns out to be a meteorite it’s very exciting and would be the first fall in the UK since 1992. Potentially it contains secrets as to the formation of our solar system."

Apparently the 37kg, metre square, 852-pages-edged-in-gold-leaf book on Sachin Tendulkar won’t contain any of the batsman’s blood after all, and it isn’t a biography either.

“There is no truth in my blood being part of the book. The book is basically a photographic publication that celebrates my life and is not an autobiography or a biography," Tendulkar told Times of India. “I understand this information came out during the Test match. As I was focusing on the game, I only got to hear about it yesterday.”

The Guardian had quoted Karl Fowler, chief executive of the book’s publisher, Kraken Media, as saying that the “signature page will be mixed with Sachin's blood. It is what it is – you will have Sachin's blood on the page.”

However, Fowler reportedly told the Times of India that he had been “misunderstood”. "The Opus will not carry any blood as mentioned in the several articles/TV reports that have appeared over the last few days,” he said in a statement. “I believe that my thoughts on this have been misunderstood."

So no blood, no biography and a price tag of $75,000?

How much would you be willing to cough up for a special edition of Sachin Tendulkar’s biography? Before you decide on a figure, you should know that these particular books measure half a metre square, weigh 37kg, comprise 852 pages edged in gold leaf, one of which has been made with Tendulkar’s blood mixed into the pulp, and include unpublished family pictures and Tendulkar's thoughts about his career. They cost $75,000 each, and only ten copies are being printed, all of which have been pre-ordered.

"The signature page will be mixed with Sachin's blood – mixed into the paper pulp so it's a red resin. It is what it is – you will have Sachin's blood on the page," publisher Kraken Media's chief executive Karl Fowler told the Guardian. "It's not everyone's cup of tea, it's not to everyone's taste and some may think it's a bit weird. But the key thing here is that Sachin Tendulkar to millions of people is a religious icon. And we thought how, in a publishing form, can you get as close to your god as possible?"

And there’s more. The book will also contain Tendulkar’s DNA profile, obtained from a saliva sample, giving those who want to know a look at his “genetic makeup”.

There are around 1000 cheaper bloodless versions of the book as well, which will cost between $2000 and $3000, but will include the DNA profile.

What’s a ‘Crackit’? It’s a cross between a cricket bat and a tennis racket. It had the shape of a bat but is strung like a racket, and is the invention of Matt King, who played rugby for Melbourne Storm and now represents Warrington.

"It's a lightweight version of a cricket bat, but it's strung and is just like a tennis racket,” King told BBC Radio Merseyside. "It's designed to help kids play cricket a little bit easier and hopefully get families outside and enjoying the outdoors together.”

King said the idea of the Crackit was borne out of his childhood, when his sister would play cricket with a tennis racket because the bat was too heavy, and is now in talks with manufacturers. “We've designed one at the moment and it's a working prototype, but it's a little bit heavier than we would have liked. We're in the process now of getting the weight down and still trying to maintain the strength it has at the moment.”

A 47-year-old mother from North Baddesley, Hampshire, was arrested after refusing to return a cricket ball which her neighbours’ children had hit into her yard, allegedly damaging her car reports the Telegraph.

A visit from the children’s father made no difference to Loretta Cole, who said she was trying to teach the children a lesson, and she was then visited on three occasions by police who tried to persuade her to return the ball. A Hampshire police spokeswoman said that on each occasion Mrs Cole was ''obstructive'' and refused.

''She was made aware that the incident would have to be treated as theft if she continued to keep the ball but that it would be much better for all involved if it could be dealt with by way of a common sense approach,” said the spokeswoman.

“After continuing to refuse to return the ball the suspect was arrested and bailed to attend Lyndhurst police station on July 2. The ball was seized by police as evidence. Mrs Cole was given the opportunity to return the ball a number of times and if this had happened no further action would have been taken. However she left the officers attending with no alternative choice but to take action.”

Mrs. Cole was detained for five hours while she was questioned, had her photograph, DNA swab and fingerprints taken.

''I asked the police if I give the ball back, could I be given a reassurance that they speak to the parents. I wasn't given an assurance and it was left at that,” said Cole.

It was unclear when, if ever, the ball might be returned to the children.

Do you know how to hurl? Neither did many of the Australians until they were given lessons by one of the legends of the sport. Ricky Ponting’s team, which is currently in Ireland, play the hosts in a one-off ODI in Dublin on Thursday. But on Monday, the Australians as well as the Irish team indulged in a spot of hurling at Clontarf under the guidance of one of the greats of the game, Kilkenny’s DJ Carey. Both teams played a Long Puc competition at Croke Park. The Australians started off with mixed results but got into the groove soon enough with big-hitting Cameron White looking the most natural. “They can certainly adapt,” Carey told Irish Times . “They’re very athletic and the eye-hand coordination is there.” Ponting, being competitive as ever, couldn’t wait to improve on what was a sluggish start at hurling for him. “I’m itching to get back out there and have another go,” he said. “It wasn’t the best start with the first couple of hits.”

The French are coming and they want to conquer Lord's. Banned as an alien sport by the Vichy regime 70 years ago, cricket has been introduced in primary schools in France, where, Adam Sage writes in the Times, “pupils are getting to grips with le coup d’équerre (the square cut), la balle courbée vers l’extérieur (the outswinger) and a triumphant cry of et alors (howzat).”

The prevalence of a sport traditionally mocked as an “incomprehensible activity practised by British eccentrics” can be put down to the widespread immigration of Britons and South Asians, who make up the bulk of France’s cricket-crazy community. The country has also established a state cricket diploma, which is expected to received official approval this year, in order to develop its own professional coaches.

To help its new coaches understand the MCC’s 42 laws and five appendices, France Cricket has translated them into French and published the translated version on its website for the first time. If you have ever wondered what the French term for bouncer is, the answer is rase-tête, which literally translates to head shaver.

For a change, Daniel Vettori will have to put a lid on his trademark arm balls and variations in flight. Jacob Oram cannot bounce the batters or crush their toes. The New Zealand pair will be asked to fire it in as quick as they can, with bent elbows, provided they keep it straight. The difference is, they will be armed with a baseball for a change. Currently in Florida for the Twenty20 series against Sri Lanka, the pair – who happen to be baseball fans - will take time off to throw the ceremonial first pitch at Florida Marlins' home game against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Miami. As long as they keep the ball off the ‘pitch’, it should be a success.

"I'm probably going to try and throw it as straight as I can. Travis Wilson, our old fielding coach (formerly with Atlanta Braves), has been in touch and all he wants is for us to get it as straight as we can or it's a bad look for his coaching," Oram said. "There's five or six guys who are big baseball fans; myself, Scott Styris, Shane Bond and Dan Vettori are in a fantasy league which doesn't please our wives that much but kills some time when we're on the road."

Popular British band Coldplay are sharing their love and money with a village cricket club in Gloucestershire. The 60-member Slaughters Utd are suddenly the envy of the region, after the band offered to sponsor their new kit. Bass player Guy Berryman had previously sponsored a new training kit for Stow Rugby Club’s Under-15s as he knew their manager Dave Oughton. Oughton then suggested to Slaughters that it may not be a bad idea to approach Coldplay. Good idea, as it turned out. The band are not unfamiliar with cricket – the lead singer Chris Martin once played for neighbouring club Great Rissington. If all goes well, the band could be performing in village greens for a change, if time permits. “We’ve asked Chris and Guy to come and play and hopefully bring their guitars with them,” Slaughters honorary secretary Paul Heming told thisisGloucestershire.co.uk. “They said they were flattered, but very busy – but we’ll keep on asking. It’s a bit bizarre, but exciting to be sponsored by one of the world’s biggest bands – but our youngsters think it’s cool.”

In a continuation of his laudable charity work in India, former Australian captain Steve Waugh was back in the country to meet and play sport with children from Mumbai’s slums. Waugh was in the city on behalf of the Magic Bus project, backed by the Laureus World Sports Academy, of which he is a member. Magic Bus is a sport for development project which helps to improve the lives of children living below the poverty line. Mumbai’s overwhelming slums have produced famous personalities in sports and various other fields and Waugh did his bit in trying to make a difference to their lives. His contribution to Udayan, a home for children of leprosy patients near Kolkata, has been well documented. “I have a 24-year history with India and am inspired by the people of this great country. For over 12 years I have been involved in charity work in India and over this time learnt a lot about the challenges that young people face," Waugh said. "So many of India's children do not have the opportunity to meet their full potential. Magic Bus is an inspirational programme making a difference for some of the children in India.”

Laureus gives you a chance to win an exclusive cricket bat signed by Waugh. The competition ends midnight March 31. Click here for details.

Picture perfect: The Indian team take a speedboat ride during their tour of New Zealand in 2002-03 © Anil Kumble

Anil Kumble, on the boundary’s edge, or from the team balcony, camera in hand, ready to capture a historic moment for posterity, has been a common sight for years. His passion for photography, however, was not restricted to cricket and now you can see what Kumble’s been capturing in his book, Wide Angle, which was released by Shane Warne in Bangalore on March 17.

“I always told my team-mates that while I am in the Indian team, there will be no privacy for them because I would be taking pictures,” Kumble said at the launch. “I have always been fascinated with photographs. I travelled on my first longish trip from Bangalore to Srinagar for an Under-17 national camp. My brother gave me a small aim-and-shoot camera, and you could say the bug bit me then. I have always had a camera with me on every tour after that.

“There have been some interesting events over the years and, as I said, there have been great characters in the team – [Venkatapathy] Raju, [Javagal] Srinath, Vinod Kambli and Harbhajan. Bhajji is the one of the funniest guys in the team, he is always a livewire irrespective of what may have happened. And Srinath, with all his antics, he was always game.”

Kumble’s favourite picture is of the city of Durban, taken from the 17th floor of his hotel at 4 am on a stormy morning. His favourite cricket shot is of Sachin Tendulkar reaching his 35th Test century, breaking Sunil Gavaskar’s world record.

The hockey World Cup in India got off to a flying start with underdogs South Africa scoring the first goal of the tournament against the more fancied Spanish side. And how is that relevant to cricket, you may ask. Julian Hykes, who scored the opening goal, is an aspiring cricketer who has represented Border twice in List A matches. Hykes follows in the fine tradition of South African cricketers who have made a mark in both games – Jonty Rhodes was selected for the national hockey side during the 1996 Olympics, an offer he had to refuse due to cricketing commitments. Despite being equally proficient at both games during his younger days, Hykes has focused more on hockey since breaking into the national team in 2007. However, like Rhodes, he too is keen on making a mark in cricket. “For the last three years I have been focusing more on hockey. I am 27, and am running against time if I want to make it big in cricket, but I haven’t lost hope,” Hykes told the Indian Express.

The cricketing connection does not end there – the Australia team is coached by Ric Charlesworth, a silver medallist at the Montreal Olympics in 1976, who also played 47 first-class games for Western Australia.

In an amazing coup, Fly Emirates XI – a team of amateurs who juggle cricket with busy jobs - have recruited Shahid Afridi in a bid to claim a shock victory at the inaugural Emirates Airline Twenty20 competition.

The talismanic ball-biting allrounder will be lining up alongside porters, pursers, check-in staff, baggage handlers and cargo operators as they attempt to upset the odds against some of South Africa and England’s most talented Twenty20 players, with Cape Cobras, Surrey Lions and Sussex Sharks also due to take part.

“It is going to be a tough challenge, but I am looking forward to it immensely,” said Afridi. “I always enjoy my time in Dubai and am very excited about playing in the first ever Emirates Airline Twenty20 tournament. I know there is a real passion among cricket fans in the UAE and it will be great to play in front of them.”

Nigel Fernandez, the 32-year-old Fly Emirates XI captain who works as an Airport Services Supervisor is delighted his team will get the opportunity to learn from such a naturally-gifted player. “I can’t believe that Shahid Afridi will be playing for us,” he said. “He is among the best players in the world at the moment and to have him alongside us will give us great confidence. He is a player I greatly admire. He is a natural talent who can win matches singlehandedly. It will be an incredible experience for everyone in the team and a real honour to line up beside him.”

Cricketers have had all sorts of things named after them – grounds, stands, traffic signals, and now ale. The first pint of Trueman Ale was pulled at Skipton’s Copper Dragon brewery by former international umpire Dickie Bird, who said his old pal Fred would have “wholeheartedly approved” of an ale being named after him. The request to have ale named after Trueman was made to the brewery boss by Fred’s wife, Veronica.

“If Fred had been here he’d have enjoyed himself. Fred, my old pal, wherever you are this is for you. Cheers,” Dickie Bird said, before taking his first sip.

	Prince William: "I didn't get bowled, but I did not exactly cover myself with glory either." © Associated Press

England’s defense of the Ashes may still be 10 months away, but the opening salvo of the competition has already been sounded in the unlikely location of Flowerdale, a small town in Victoria which was devastated by bushfires last February. Even more unlikely were the participants, with Prince William, currently engaged in a royal visit to Australia, representing England while the Australian side featured four international stars, including Brett Lee and Matthew Hayden, and an unspecified number of small children.

The small community marked the Prince’s visit with a barbecue and a cricket match on the village pitch, and presented the young royal with an Australian shirt, with "William" emblazoned on the back. To his credit, on being presented with the shirt, William quipped: "Don't mention the Ashes!" In what is seemingly becoming the English way, he then clung limpet-like to the crease, seeing off a succession of deliveries from the determined young children and squeaking home to an unlikely draw. "I didn't get bowled," said the Prince, "but I did not exactly cover myself with glory either."

Cricketers have stated some unusual excuses for missing games. Pakistan’s Abdul Razzaq had one of his own when he didn’t show up at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium in Mirpur for Abahani’s Premier Division Cricket League match against Gazi Tank. The allrounder apparently failed to get on the flight to Dhaka for the match thanks to a false tip-off from an anonymous caller that the match was cancelled due to Eid holidays.

"What we learnt is that someone from Dhaka, in the name of an Abahani official, gave him a call and told that the league matches will resume after the Eid vacation and that's why he cancelled his ticket,” Jalal Yunus, vice-chairman of Abahani's cricket committee, told the Daily Star. “He took the decision from the airport but surprisingly he didn't even check with the agent.”

Yunus added that the identity of that caller is still a mystery, and that attempts to get Razzaq in the next available flight had failed. Timed out.

Few could match Sir Donald Bradman’s batting but it looks like his signature - as valuable, in monetary terms, on the auction floor - is far easier to copy. Some signatures of The Don sold by former England cricketer Dermott Reeve, who once owned a memorabilia shop, are under scrutiny by the Bradman Foundation because they are deemed too messy to be genuine. Bradman “was a very careful writer; he had beautiful handwriting”, the Bradman Museum’s marketing manager Joanne Crowley told AFP , so the "messy" signatures are being checked by a leading expert. "This is not about trying to discredit Mr Reeve, it's about trying to protect Sir Donald Bradman's name and intellectual property." Unreliable Bradman memorabilia was becoming prolific, even in shops near the museum in Bowral, Bradman's hometown near Sydney. "It's like a Louis Vuitton handbag or a Gucci wallet - there are knock-offs everywhere," she said.

Buddhism, monasteries and trekking are what you’d associate with Bhutan. And now cricket - Bhutan Post, to commemorate a century of the monarchy, has released four stamps based on cricket. While three feature local players and coaches, one of the stamps has a picture of Roger Binny, the former India cricketer, in situ at his place of work. Binny spent four years in Bhutan from 2004-2008 as the Development Officer of the Asian Cricket Council and was flabbergasted to see his work being committed to perpetuity. “I never knew about something like that,” Binny - now Bengal coach - told Hindustan Times. “It’s a great honour. I cherished the four years I had been there.” The country’s famous Gross National Happiness has just gone up a bit more.

While the Chinese have embraced cricket and espouse aspirations of beating India in a Test, their geopolitical rivals to the north are yet to come to grips with the strange sport. However, members of the Indian diaspora in Russia, like in most other countries where cricket is searching for a fan base, are again proving to be the game’s most passionate exporters. Ashvani Chopra, a businessman of Indian origin, who presides over Russia’s United Cricket League (RUCL), says the game is taking off in the country. In fact, the RUCL is conducting an annual championship with seven clubs, one of which consists of players with Russian citizenship.

"We started playing here in 1995 just for fun. In 2001 we conducted a small tournament, in which three teams - Australia, India and the selection of the rest of the world - were playing,” Chopra told AFP. "The tournament was a success and it became the reference point of our league."

And the commitment to grooming local talent is high on the agenda. "We dream of creating a Russian national team," Chopra said. "We decided that every club should have at least one local player in their line-up. From now on it's an indispensable condition for every one of the league's clubs."

But there are problems aplenty, the most immediate of which is the lack of equipment. "It's impossible to find cricket bats or the correct balls here in Moscow," Chopra said. "We have to bring all this stuff from home to play here. But we're ready to overcome any difficulties in the name of the game. Nothing can stop us. For all of us cricket is the biggest passion."

When Jock Campbell, physical trainer of the Australian team led by Steve Waugh, was asked who the most intense player in that team was, his answer was simple - Justin Langer. And one of the reasons behind that intensity could just be the Bushido Cross. This honour is awarded to Black Belt holders from the Zen Do Kai (ZDK) School founded by Bob Jones in Melbourne. Zen Do Kai is a martial art form that draws influences from other fighting forms such as Brazilian jiu-jitsu, boxing, karate, eskrima, judo, and muay thai.

Introduced to ZDK at the age of 16, dealing with a broken nose as a result of sparring with his mentor John Andrew, soon became commonplace for Langer. “ZDK taught me discipline, to respect elders and when carried over to cricket, helped me concentrate,” Langer told the Hindu. Small wonder then that the fiercest bouncers on the cricket field were dealt with aplomb.

This is one Test that Mahendra Singh Dhoni hasn't yet mastered. When his college in Ranchi, St. Xavier's College, released the results of its B.Com examination, Dhoni's name had a "failed" against it. This despite him marking himself 'absent' in July this year, and the Controller of Examination declaring that Dhoni's result would be shown as 'absent' because the cricketer missed both his semesters. So what was it that had literally stumped Dhoni? A clerical error, as clarified by college principal Nicholas Tete. "It was a simple clerical error," Tete said. "The list has been removed immediately. When he did not take the examination how can he fail?" A question that Dhoni would have perhaps asked himself, had the error not been noticed.

While thousands of England fans will fly across the world to support their team during the 2010-11 Ashes, one enthusiast is taking a longer route. Oliver Broom plans to cycle to Australia and he hopes to raise £100,000 for charity and teach or play cricket in 30 countries.

His trip will begin outside Lord’s on October 10 and he will spend time in France, Germany, Slovenia and Turkey. The rest of the journey will take Broom through Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. He will finally reach Darwin in Australia by boat before pedaling his way to Brisbane.

"I’ve known Oli since our school days [Radley College] and can vouch for his sanity. I look forward to seeing him on his bike in Brisbane,” England captain Andrew Strauss told the Telegraph. For Broom’s sake, hopefully England will do better than the 5-0 whitewash they received in 2006-07.

Sportsmen can serve up an infinite number of excuses to skip a match, or a scheduled meeting with the media. Just how often would you come across one which goes, “I was attacked by a swarm of bees?” Younis Khan lived to tell one such tale. While backing his car out of the garage, honey bees raided his face, leaving him all swollen in a few minutes. He then showed up late for a local match and was forced to skip a media discussion in Karachi because he couldn’t “speak freely.” Imagine denying Younis that right.

The day wasn’t a total washout. He did manage to show up for a fast-breaking party at the Karachi Press Club in his honour. He assures that it won't affect his preparations for the Champions Trophy.

He may own a Hummer (among other cars) and a Harley Davidson (among other bikes), but MS Dhoni, India’s captain, apparently enjoyed the “ride of his life” in a Mitsubishi Lancer Cedia at a car rally in Bangalore.

Dhoni was invited as a guest on the final day of the K-1000 rally, and after the race was completed expressed his desire to drive one of the racing cars. A briefing about safety measures later, Dhoni, under a race helmet, was off for a ride as the co-driver of the K-1000 winner and veteran rallyist, Arjun Balu. A few slips, a few slides, and two laps of the 2.5 km track at speeds of over 100kmph ensued. The 5000 or so present there cheered throughout.

Though Dhoni didn’t speak to the media, Balu said, "He was like any first-timer inside a rally car. He was extremely excited and even requested me to do a second lap."

While there is no shortage of what some would refer to as seasoned celebrity fans, cricket needs a few more young faces. Step up singer Lily Allen. She travelled to the Netherlands for a concert on Friday and got a coach back overnight to be back for the third day’s play and a spot on Test Match Special where she was the Saturday lunchtime guest.

Among admitting she had a soft spot for Graham Onions, Allen revealed she got into cricket when Andrew Flintoff “had a pee” in the prime minister’s garden after the 2005 series. Her father – actor Keith Allen – is a cricket lover and used to play for pub sides.

So keen was she to keep up with the score in the Netherlands that, finding the tour bus had no long-wave reception, she used one of her tour band’s electricians to rig up a mobile phone to the speaker system and listen via the web.

Allen was invited onto the show when cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew got in touch with her via Twitter she replied she "couldn't think of anything she would more like to do".

Those within the ECB’s marketing department who dismiss fans that shun new innovations as being too old school will have been shocked to find out she prefers Test cricket to Twenty20 - "It's a polar opposite to what I do … it's so relaxing when my life is so fast" - and also that she is no fan of England’s George Hamilton-teeth white kit.

A team of eunuchs has beaten a team of professional cricketers in what is believed to be the first match involving a side completely made up of eunuchs. They are social outcasts in Pakistan, where the match took place, but recent changes in the law implemented by Iftikhar Chaudhry, the country’s chief justice, have given them more rights.

“I want to dedicate our victory to him,” Sanam Khan, captain of the eunuchs' team, told the BBC. “It is only due to him that things are changing for eunuchs in Pakistan.”

The match at Sukkur, a city in Sindh, attracted a decent crowd and it is reported the eunuchs did an impromptu dance on the pitch after securing the win.

The 'Top of Europe' five-over match between India and an All-Star team from England at the highest accessible point in Europe – in Interlaken, Switzerland - resulted in the former prevailing by four runs. Former Indian captain Kapil Dev, who led the winning side, led from the front with 26, as they piled on 108 in five overs. There were also significant contributions from Sandeep Patil (25) and Ajay Jadeja (26).

During the chase, the England team were propped up by Radford, who scored 25, along with ICC match referee Chris Broad and Collis King, both of whom managed 26. It was left to the pair of skipper Alvin Kallicharran and John Emburey to get 38 off the last over.

A six off every ball was not impossible since the ball was disappearing regularly to the glacier 50 yards away from the centre. Jadeja then bowled a no-ball and the asking rate came down to five per ball and six off the last. Kallicharran aimed for the straight field but was beaten by the bounce and mishit behind the 'keeper for just a single.

The fans soon rushed on to the artificial pitch, to join Kapil and his team, and umpires Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi and Farokh Engineer, to sing the Indian national anthem and celebrate the victory.

"The event was supposed to be a fun thing, but once you wear your cricket gear, you only want to win and we were happy to do it on our Independence Day in front of Indian tourists," Kapil told the Times of India.

Patil said though the artificial pitch behaved well but "running on snow was a problem”. “The ball was bouncing but we kept it at a reasonable pace.”

As cricket scales newer heights, 14 former international players, including five Test captains, will make a comeback of sorts at the Bernese Alps in Jungfraujoch, Switzerland, Europe's highest altitude railway station. The proposed six-a-side match, to be played at 11,333 feet, will have an Indian team playing an All-Stars side. The five-over contest could feature stars like Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar, Viv Richards, Mohammad Azharuddin, Steve Waugh, Michael Vaughan, Chaminda Vaas, Sourav Ganguly, Anil Kumble, Ajay Jadeja, Shane Warne and even Andrew Flintoff.

Organised by Jaideep Sinh Parmar, the grand-nephew of former Indian cricket chief Raj Singh Dungarpur, the match has been scheduled for August 15, India’s Independence Day. "We are hosting it during the Independence weekend...” said Parmar. “We are bringing back players who have bid goodbye to cricket and the list includes five former Test captains,"

Interestingly, the matting pitch, which will be flown out from India, will be placed on a giant wooden square that has been placed at the centre of a 30-yard field. “Depending on the day’s wind conditions, we will decide upon the direction of the pitch,” Parmar said.

The organisers have wisely kept a reserve day for the game. “The temperature is expected to be around 2°C, but with the heavy winds that lash the peak, you never quite know,” Parmar said.

The Waugh brothers are probably the most famous twins to play cricket, but at least you could tell them apart. That wasn’t the case with Nazim and Zahid Mohammed who were identical twins, and they tried to use it to their advantage.

While playing for New Brighton in the Liverpool and District Cricket Competition they decided to make the most of each other’s skills. Nazim, the better bowler, was named in the side but when his team’s turn came to bat he switched with Zahid who was meant to be the better batsman.

The opposition couldn’t tell the difference, but what gave them away was probably that Nazim bowled right hand and Zahid batted left. Officials noticed and reported the pair who were and the pair were banned and have also resigned. The team manager also quit despite not knowing anything of the mischievous plan.

The irony in all this is that the switch didn’t even help. Zahid made a duck. That’s karma.

	Chris Gayle makes a surprise visit to Excelsior High © DigicelCricket.com

It’s no secret that West Indies captain Chris Gayle is one of the best dancers in his team. Come the four-match series against India, it would be worth keeping an eye on him because he has promised a new dance move. Gayle made a surprise visit on Wednesday to his old school - Excelsior High - where a bunch of enthusiastic boys demonstrated the new move to him on stage. One of them, Ronaldo Fletcher, asked Gayle to show it to the rest of the world when he takes a wicket against the visiting Indians. Gayle, who earlier presented a full sized autographed bat signed by the entire West Indies cricket team to the school principal, agreed. Here's looking forward to a Gayle wicket and... shall we call it the Excelsior dance.

Women cricketers now have their own bat – the Chic, a blade specifically designed for them. Holly Colvin, who was part of England’s triumphant World Twenty20 squad, will be one of the first to use it against the unsuspecting Australians during the upcoming Ashes Test.

"The Chic feels fantastic,” Colvin gushes. “It is really light and feels great in your hands but the sweet spot is so big. Every time you middle one it speeds off the bat."

The bat, made by Sussex-based manufacturer Newbery, is smaller than the standard one used by men. It has a marginally thinner handle and a bigger sweet spot. "Women's cricket is growing in popularity and we have been inundated with girls and women of all ages to hand-craft a bat specifically for them and we think they will enjoy using the Chic," Neil Lenham, Newbery chief executive, told the Mirror.

First the Mongoose, now the Chic, what next?

Given the amount of time birds spend lounging on the outfields of the world’s cricket grounds, it’s a surprise that more don’t get killed by flying balls or speedy fielders.

A few do prove too slow to take evasive action - one, a sparrow killed in flight at Lord’s in 1936, was stuffed and is on display in the museum there. Only last season a pigeon was culled by a Matt Nicholson late cut while dozing down at third man at The Oval.

But few have been as unlucky as the bird splattered while flying across the pitch at Headingley during last weekend’s Twenty20 Roses match. One moment it was contemplating the next statue to perch on, the next it was brought down by a deadly-accurate throw from Jacques Rudolph. Its final ignominy came when it was picked up by Rudolph and dumped on the boundary edge, awaiting collection by the cleaning staff, or the local fox.

The bird may be gone but not forgotten. Its last moments live on thanks to YouTube.

It was hardly a dangerous sequence, but actor John Abraham would have wished he used a body double. Abraham and India fast bowler L Balaji were filming a cricket training camp scene for the movie Hook Ya Crook when a yorker from Balaji broke the actor’s ankle.

But like a true professional, Abraham continued to shoot. It was much later that an X-ray revealed a fracture. The injury will keep Abraham out of action for 15 days but he has no shooting scheduling during that period.

Abraham received a thumbs-up from Balaji. “The wicket was a bit uneven and the ball hit his ankle, but he was a complete sport, he immediately went back to the pitch and played his next shot. I was very impressed with the kind of shots he played to my bowling,'' Balaji said.

Champion stuff from the ‘reel’ batsman.

Durban has happy memories for Yuvraj Singh – it’s where he hammered Stuart Broad for six sixes in an over during the World Twenty20 in 2007. Now, he’s set to use bat and ball to spread some of that happiness around. Come May 19, his charity foundation will host a fundraiser for ‘Cricket Beyond Boundaries’, a project to introduce cricket to children of diverse communities in the Western Cape’s Gansbaai region as a means of breaking barriers and promoting integration. Tuesday’s event, planned as the first of a series, will include an auction of cricket memorabilia and features as its guest of honour Vikas Swarup, the author of Q&A, the book on which the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire is based. Now that’s not a bad inspiration for anyone trying to break barriers.

Not to be outdone by the Englishmen who played cricket on Mount Everest, Mark Waugh and thirteen other tough Aussies climbed three of the highest mountains in Australia in only three days. They did it to raise money for The Smith Family charity.

The group was split into two teams Middle Order (cricket) and The Super 7 Blues (rugby, because former Wallaby, Michael Brial, was also part of the event) pitted against each other to scale Bimberi, Australian Capital Territory’s highest mountain, Mount Kosciusko and Victoria’s Mount Bogong.

“The last climb really took it out of us, our legs were starting to cramp and the early morning starts were beginning to take their toll,” Waugh said. The group didn’t play a Twenty20 match, like the Everest trekkers did, but Waugh did hit a snow ball on Mount Kosciusko.

Afghanistan, the newest ICC country to be inducted into their enjoyably competitive list of one-day nations, have won their first ODI. Well, sort of. That’s what the Afghans will tell you after thumping an English village XI containing names such as Matthew Fleming, the former Kent and England allrounder, and Jamie Theakston. Yes him, off the telly.

	© Leslie Knott

Ditchling Cricket Club, captained by Theakston, were walloped by 124 runs at a heavily-secured NATO base in Kabul on a humid and rainy Friday. Afghanistan, who recently and sensationally qualified as a one-day international nation, took great pleasure in smacking six after six out of the compound, as one journalist told Cricinfo. “There were sixes all over the shop,” said Leslie Knott, a film-producer covering Afghanistan’s rise from obscurity. “And then a giant storm came in and blew the tent down.”

Fleming, who was once an officer in the now-redundant Royal Green Jackets, is out in Afghanistan on behalf of MCC, unveiling pitches to local communities, as revealed in Cricinfo’s interview with him this week. "We believe that cricket can change people's lives,” he told AFP. “We just want to give the people who wouldn't necessarily have the opportunity, the opportunity. The challenge for them now is to become more experienced and harness that talent, and that intensity, and enthusiasm."

Theakston, who made 20 out of Ditchling’s thoroughly village 138 for 7, remained benevolent in spite of the hammering. "I think it is important for people to understand there isn't a suicide bomber on every corner... and that Afghans live their lives and do things like play cricket.”

For more information on Leslie Knott's work, and the documentary being made, click here

Don’t run singles at high altitude. That is the advice of Gareth Lewis, 27, a British policeman who has just played a 20 over-a-side game at Gorak Shep, close to Mount Everest base camp, a staggering 17,000 feet above sea level. “It was difficult to bat and bowl at that height. There were not many singles. Batsmen hit lots of sixes and fours," Lewis said. "I took just six or seven paces to bowl instead of a full run-up."

Lewis was vice-captain of Team Tenzing which lost to Team Hillary by 36 runs on April 21, but he was not disappointed. "It was one of the most memorable experiences of my life," he said.

His team-mate Nick Toovey, 28, shared that feeling. "It was fairly surreal. There was Mount Everest next to you, and yaks on one side of the pitch. I was sad it was all over, I wished it had lasted a bit longer." Jonathan Hill, who umpired the game, had even thought up an excuse for possible poor decisions. "Concentrating was difficult because your brain works slower up there," he said.

It was literally a heady feeling for the two teams and the umpires, doctors and handful of spectators who climbed for nine days carrying their bats, pads and even a roll-up pitch to get to Gorak Shep for the world’s highest cricket match. Next stop? Getting the game registered with Guinness World Records.

They’ve done it. They’ve played cricket on Everest. As if the challenge of getting to the highest mountain in the world wasn’t hard enough, the two teams from England also had to get past the red tape from the local authorities. But they finally accomplished their dream of setting a high-altitude record for field sports by playing Twenty20 cricket at Gorakshep, which is 16,940 feet above sea level. The record, however, still needs to be ratified by Guinness World Records, which reportedly does not have an entry for field sport at a highest altitude.

For the record, Team Hillary defeated team Tenzing.

It's good to know that the prevalence and strength of red tape isn't affected by altitude. The British group that was flying, driving and trekking for 11 days to play cricket on Mount Everest – see the Buzz entry two blogs ago – has been turned away by Nepalese conservation officials.

They were aiming to play a Twenty20 match more than three miles above sea level in what would be the highest altitude recorded for an organised field sport. But the touring party has been refused access to the Sagarmatha National Park and was told nobody was allowed to play cricket inside the protected area.

It seems the Brits have been caught in the middle of a power struggle between the Minister for Forest and Land Conservation, who said they could play, and the national park’s management, which said they couldn’t. The match was due to go ahead next week, which means the players have a few days to try and sort out the bungle.

As if climbing Mount Everest isn't hard enough. The whole fiasco must feel a little like being stranded on 99.

How far would you go to play cricket? A group of 50 people set out from Lord’s on Friday to play a Twenty20 match on Mount Everest in the Himalayas, the Times reported. They’ll get to their venue, a frozen lake near an Everest base camp called Gorak Shep (“dead raven” in the Sherpas' language), after 11 days of flying, driving and trekking to reach a plateau more than three miles above sea level - the highest altitude recorded for a field sport.

The teams – appropriately named Hillary and Tenzing – will use wooden stumps and bats, a pink leather ball, and an artificial pitch. The thin air is expected to make the player’s hearts beat 30% faster than usual and after their efforts they will take a proper British cricket tea and raise the Union Jack in the Queen’s honour. And oh, the game is being played for charity, with over £250,000 expected to be raised for the Himalayan Trust and the Lord's Taverners.

Snooker has been one of sport's more traditional games, which is perhaps why it's taken the cue from another traditional sport to reinvent itself. Impressed by the success of cricket's Twenty20 format, World Snooker chairman Rodney Walker is adapting the principles to draw new fans to the green baize tables. Outlining his plans in the Guardian he said the new format - tentatively dubbed 'Super6s' - would feature balls of only six colours (as opposed to eight), with games intended to last an average of six or seven minutes.

The game is due to be trialled at this month's World Championships in Sheffield with a ‘Legends v Rising Stars’ tournament.

"As an observer of snooker you cannot churn out the same diet year after year,” Walker said. “Look at what Twenty20 has done for cricket. It has brought in a whole new audience so what we have in mind we think would be appealing to a younger audience.”

The 1980’s film Arthur’s Hallowed Ground tells the story of a possessive curator who has tended the same school cricket field for half a century and strives to bring to fruition his idea of a perfect pitch, against the wishes of his seniors who want him to create a track which suits the struggling home team. Auckland businessman Derek Evennett faces no such obstacles, for he owns the Coatesville Cricket Ground, the realisation of his own ambition to create the ideal cricketing venue.

Bought at a price of NZ$1.06 million, the ground was built to international specifications, with 70-metre boundaries, and has played host to several club and school-level matches. However, Evennett, who has spent a lifetime playing and umpiring the game around the world, has regrettably stopped short of taking the next step – building a pavilion. He has instead put it up on sale, hoping for another “fanatic” to step in and complete the task. Arthur didn’t own his ground but his devotion to it imbued him with a sense of ownership. Evennett, on the other hand, has opted to relinquish his own prized possession and left his dream incomplete.

	Shaun Marsh and Manny Ramirez take guard in Arizona © AP

It wasn't the same as when Babe Ruth met Don Bradman, or Shane Warne showed Michael Jordan his flipper, but Shaun Marsh has traded tips with the baseballer Manny Ramirez in Arizona. Marsh, the Australian one-day international, showed Ramirez, the LA Dodgers and former Boston Red Sox slugger, some of things needed to succeed as a batsman in the game Robin Williams called baseball on valium (see video).

"I have faced some tough pitchers before, but we don't have to ever swing at a bouncing ball that is rising as it passes us," Ramirez said after his short innings at the Arizona Cricket Club. "Shaun is a great hitter and he gave me some great pointers.” Marsh was impressed after his short coaching clinic and said “maybe he can return the favour next spring”.

There are a few similarities for Marsh and Ramirez: they are capable of launching balls out of stadiums and are both out with hamstring problems. The major difference between the pair is Ramirez has just signed a two-year contract with the Dodgers worth US$45m, dwarfing the US$30,000 Marsh earned playing for King’s XI Punjab in the inaugural Indian Premier League.

The television channel Directv, which will show the upcoming IPL in the United States, organised the get-together. Back in 1932 Bradman chatted to Ruth at a New York Yankees-White Sox game and in 1994 Warne caught up with Jordan.

The European Court has ruled that a tennis racquet is not a terrorist threat, despite an airline deciding it was and throwing a passenger off a flight for the temerity of bringing one on board.

It emerged that while the EU had a list of banned hand luggage, it was actually secret for “security reasons”. The court's decision was based on that fact … how could anyone know what was allowed if the airlines and airport operators wouldn’t tell them?

The most that anyone could gather was that "any blunt instrument capable of causing injury" was prohibited. So what about cricket bats? Easyjet have ruled that they must be carried in the hold (as with fishing rods and snooker cues) while British Airways allows “bats, wickets, pads and balls” but, again, in the hold only. It’s the same in the USA, although, bizarrely, metal scissors with pointed tips under four inches in length are not deemed unsuitable to carry on.

In short, if you are travelling, out the cricket bat inside luggage in the hold (if it’s outside the luggage it may count as a separate item and attract a surcharge.

The absurdity of the anomalies was best brought home by the man allowed to bring a mini chainsaw onto a domestic flight in New Zealand because it was not on a list of banned items. Only when petrol from it began leaking from an overhead locker over passengers was it removed.

Playing at Lord's is the dream of many, but the privilege of a few. However, a new breakthrough could perhaps help you create the feel of "the home of cricket" in your own backyard. Or even splash it on yourself before your next club match.

Perfumers at Procter & Gamble have captured the essence of Lord's, according to the New Scientist. A technology called headspace analysis was used to take in the odours of freshly cut grass, cricket bats, laundered cricket kit and the players' changing room (minus the players, thankfully), and these will be used as the starting point for a fragrance. "Perfumers need inspiration, and this can come from people that surround them, places they've visited, or things that they love in the world," said Will Andrews of P&G.

We're not sure when Lord's will be available in a bottle, but keep those nostrils open. Parfum de la Lord's?