Cricket's greatest bearded XI

Indian cricket

Tendulkar set for PITCH debut

Sachin Tendulkar has been on TV screens around the world for over two decades but he's now set to make his debut in animated form - as part of a new series called 'Master Blasters.' Tendulkar will travel the world in his "spaceship cum stadium", playing cricket matches with and against some of the best cricketing talent on offer. He even has his own arch rival, Peter, who looks to humiliate the hero at every turn.

In the series, Tendulkar is appointed by the Programme for International Training of Cricket Heroes (PITCH) to run a training camp for the finest young cricketers around the world. Tendulkar will feature along with an assortment of twelve kids, with the series promising elements of comedy, life coaching, and of course, cricket. Tendulkar says he was a Superman fan in his youth; here's his chance to live yet another dream.

IPL 2013

CSK pay tribute to 'Sir Jadeja'

Most of you have probably heard several jokes about 'Sir' Ravindra Jadeja, in the Chuck Norris/Rajnikanth template, floating around. How about his one? "Sir Jadeja once wanted to make a silt mountain to play as a kid, now we all call it Mt Everest." That one's courtesy Jadeja's India and Chennai Super Kings' captain, MS Dhoni.

Jadeja had to put up with some serious ribbing from Dhoni and his Super Kings' team-mates on Tuesday, prior to their evening practice session in Mohali. Dhoni, Suresh Raina, R Ashwin, and even franchise official Gurunath Meiyappan, all got into the act, tweeting joke after joke about "Sir Jadeja". Among other things, Jadeja was credited with inventing something new every time he made an error, making the road move whenever he sat in his jeep with the intention of going for a drive, and making the ball come to him instead of running to claim a catch.

Jadeja's response? He tweeted Dhoni and Raina confirming he had no intention of being the next Rajnikanth, and went on to pose for photos in the team bus with Raina.

God realised RAJNI sir is getting old so he created sir ravindra jadeja

— Mahendra Singh Dhoni (@msdhoni) April 9, 2013

Sir once memorized videos,photos and text.Now we use them as hard disks and pen drives.#sircsk @mahender_ms @s_badrinath @aniruda77 @mvj888

— Ashwin Ravichandran (@ashwinravi99) April 9, 2013

Sirr Jaddduuu Off to training lol twitter.com/ImRaina/status…

— Suresh Raina (@ImRaina) April 9, 2013

Badgers stop play, Pitbull starts it

Rear-ended in Hambantota

Pakistan cricket

Naveed breaks the speed limit

Pakistan cricketer Rana Naveed can be a big hitter when needed - and now he's shown he can be a fast bat too. He faced 45 balls in one minute at an event in Lahore on Wednesday, taking him into the Guinness Book of World Records for the most number of deliveries faced in a minute after easily overhauling Andrew Flintoff's record of 19.

Of the 50 bowlers who lined up to have a bowl at Naveed at the Lahore City Cricket Association Ground, only 48 managed to hit the deck. Naveed missed three of those balls. Incidentally, he would have faced the remaining two bowlers had the eager crowd not run on to the pitch to celebrate the record.

Why I don't like kids in my cricket team

India's No. 1 fanboy

A ripping yarn

All in the mind

History

The life and times of the extraordinary Bob Crisp

The Wisden Cricketers' Almanack perhaps put it most succinctly: "Statistics are absurd for such a man." For Robert Crisp, had a remarkable life that went beyond the nine Tests he played for South Africa - from climbing Mount Kilimanjaro to surviving attacks on battle tanks during the Second World War and beating cancer later in life. In the The Spin, Andy Bull looks at one of cricket's great adventurers.

Jonathan Crisp says he has it on "very good authority from a lot of different people" that his father was recommended for the Victoria Cross, but Field Marshal Montgomery refused to allow it because Crisp was so ill-disciplined. He was demoted three times. But then he was also mentioned in despatches four times. Crisp was awarded the Military Cross instead. He was presented with it by King George VI, who asked him if his cricket career would be affected by the wound. "No sire," Crisp replied. "I was only hit in the head."

Batman smashes batsman

England cricket

Swann's costly trick shot

Many of England's players are known to enjoy a round of golf on a day off and there a plenty of wonderful courses for them to take advantage of in New Zealand.

However, Stuart Broad may have second thoughts about playing alongside Graeme Swann again after the offspinner did some serious damage to Broad's driver while attempting to show off a trick shot. Put it this, way Broad won't be making many fairways with it any more. Check out Broad's Youtube video for the full picture.

The Jim ban

Indian cricket

Sehwag cheers at prison game

Virender Sehwag and his opening partner for the forthcoming Australia series, Shikhar Dhawan, took some time off to encourage cricketers on a different playing field. The duo visited Tihar Jail, the largest prison complex in South Asia, to cheer on inmates at a cricket match. The match was organised as a part of sporting competition organised for inmates.

Swollen fatherhood

England cricket

Storm in a tea break

A whiz move by the ECB's marketing department to liven up the innocuous Test-match tea break could set off a fresh round of sniping across the Pennines. For the next three seasons, the time between 3:40 and 4pm during Tests in England will be called the Yorkshire Tea Break. Every tea break would now be made "fun and engaging for the many fans of the game", a Yorkshire Tea representative said. Not, perhaps, the fans in traditional rivals Lancashire. On hearing the news, the Manchester Evening News' cricket writers, true Lancashire loyalists, snapped back on Twitter: Yorkshire Tea have just signed deal with ECB to be the "Official Brew of England Cricket"! Not at Old Trafford it isn't!" Old Trafford stages the 3rd Ashes Test in August and a Lancs CCC's spokesman said politely of the new development, "Of course we will be selling Yorkshire tea, but we would expect sales of coffee to go through the roof as a consequence."

Meeting cricket's power couple

Magic Rain Stops Play