A mystic, a musical and a mistaken identity

Written in the stars? Sourav Ganguly's mother believes the fates haven't been kind, and so she called in a priest who travelled to Lucknow to acquire spiritual powers. "I'm Sourav's family priest and have been sent here by his mother," Kartik Chatterjee announced. "Sourav's mother has been really upset ever since he was pulled out of the Indian team and she strongly felt her son's stars were not favouring him." What's more, if you believe the chap, then Ganguly's going to be back in the Indian team by October at the latest. "Sourav will be back in action any time between July 15 and October 15," he concluded, offering the most precise prediction since Mystic Meg cocked up the Lottery on a regular basis.

The new Shane ... Richie? Lock up your stagehands, Shane Warne's coming to Broadway. Hot on the heels of all the other tributes comes Shane Warne: the musical. Hours of head scratching must have gone into that title, eh. Anyway, Warne isn't that impressed with the idea of his best texts being set to song: "It depends on what sort of spin he wants to put on it, doesn't it? He can be factual, he can not be factual. He can exaggerate it. I don't know, I haven't thought it through whether I like it or don't like it." But he did have fun when we asked him who he wants to play him. "Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe," he mused at first. But then - got 'im! "Richie Benaud!" he shouted. "Richie Benaud to play me in a musical!" Ripper idea, mate.

One man who probably won't be in the audience is a taxi driver who works around the Rose Bowl. "Shane Vaughan? Who's that, then?," he asked. "Is he in Eastenders?", presumably having taken a fare to Mars for all of last summer. He wasn't quite right - but there's a thought: Warne behind the bar at The Queen Vic, pulling pints and, sorry, with busty barmaids.

The untouchable? Quite what Virender Sehwag and Mahela Jayawardene made of the events towards the end of the fourth day in Antigua is anyone's guess. Mahendra Singh Dhoni was powering India towards the declaration when he hoisted Dave Mohammad to the deep midwicket boundary and Daren Ganga held the catch. Innings over? Simple decision? Nope. Dhoni began walking off, but Rahul Dravid signalled for him to wait, appearing to want to signal a declaration; but there was doubt as to whether Ganga's foot touched the rope. A surreal 15 minutes followed: TV pictures were inconclusive, the umpires looked clueless and Brian Lara began to get very annoyed. He grabbed the ball off Asad Rauf, the umpire, gave it an extended polish, and there was plenty of good old finger-wagging to boot. In the end Dhoni was 'advised' to walk off by Lara and the innings ended. Sehwag and Jayawardene were fined 20% of their match fees for shows of emotion turning tense periods of tense Tests. What did Lara get? Nothing, apart from a seven-ball duck in the second innings.

England's schedulers may have done the decent thing and arranged matches around the football World Cup, but play must go on in the local leagues. Or must it? Saturday's opener against Paraguay meant clubs around the country lost players and some matches were even cancelled. It seems cricket is not the new football - as Andrew Flintoff would agree. He and Steve Harmison were in Germany for the game and a beery Flintoff, with his typical in vino veritas approach, announced: "Football is our national game, the one everyone gets behind." Just where was he during last year's Ashes?!

Well, well At least there's some zest left for the game in some quarters. Over in Kolkata an enthusiastic amateur had to be rescued from a well which he had jumped down to rescue a cricket ball. While visiting his aunt, Alok Patra had gone to join in with a game of street cricket. All was fine until the ball was hit into the well. Funnily enough none of the local boys were up for going down, so Patra bravely took it up on himself to scramble down - and found himself shafted as he promptly became stuck. There's commitment for you, if questionable in its zealousness. In a pleasing departure from rescuing cats up trees, some firemen rushed to his assistance. All's well that ends well.

Quotehanger
Never enough! Whatever it is in life, it's never enough."
Who else but Shane Warne on his life's philosophy.