Livin' on a prayer

Darren Sammy said after the World T20 final that West Indies was a praying team, and his team-mate Andre Fletcher was a pastor. Players and fans often seek divine intervention during a match or give thanks after it, with players of the Muslim faith routinely offering a sajda - touching the head to the ground - after a milestone.

But the photo above, taken in Kolkata in 2006, seems as full of complex meaning as the most esoteric of spiritual philosophies. There's an idol of the Hindu goddess of knowledge, Saraswati, placed on a pitch. Flanking the deity on two pulpits are cutouts of Sourav Ganguly and Greg Chappell (don't miss the fine detailing on the news-media microphones). And then there are a lot of Australian fielders behind them, the one at mid-on sporting a 1970s upturned-collar look. Is the batsman adjusting his abdomen guard? Is that supposed to mean something? Who is the "Challenger"? So many questions.

Fred Trueman offers up a prayer before facing Wes Hall at Lord's during a single-wicket tournament in 1964.

The euphoria of India's 2011 World Cup win stayed for a while, it seems. In Ahmedabad in September that year, during the festival of Ganesh Chaturthi, an idol of the Hindu deity Ganesha, holding the World Cup, is carried on the shoulders of a Sachin Tendulkar statue and surrounded by the other World Cup winners, on its way to be immersed in the Sabarmati river.

September 1956: Two England captains flank a future captain, Colin Cowdrey, on his wedding day. The Rev David Sheppard assisted at the wedding in Kent, while Peter May, who was England's captain then, was Cowdrey's best man.