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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.

Cricket haters (here's looking at you, America) often complain that a huge amount of time in the game is spent standing around doing nothing. But those of us who get cricket know that standing around doing nothing can be mentally exhausting, and killing on the feet. The only times you can chill (other than during lunch, tea, drinks and when your team is batting) are between or after games.

Cricket's a game designed for television adverts. But what about print? This 1930s ad above, for the London & North Eastern Railway, promotes rail travel to Bridlington, north Yorkshire, where you can… play beach cricket and volleyball and golf and tennis, and ride ponies and build sandcastles. I suppose you could also bathe if you absolutely had to.

While cricket's drinks breaks can be mundane affairs, even when the drinks trolley resembles a cola bottle, drinking during (and after) the game can be as intoxicating as watching the action.

Unlike football, cricket requires several implements (and a reasonably flat piece of ground) to play comfortably. But in informal games, you usually only get a ball and improvise the rest. Sometimes even the ball is an amalgamation of things vaguely mashed into a sphere. But the easiest set of objects to improvise is stumps.

In the photo above, from Swansea in 1910, the ladies use their umbrellas as a very sturdy set of stumps, which, at a pinch, could be used to cover the pitch if it rains.

Maria Sharapova may not know who Sachin Tendulkar is, but she might have an inkling about the game he plays, given the number of tennis players from Australia (at least a while ago) on the circuit, and, er, the few from England.

Speaking of England, do you know how they won the 1966 football World Cup? By playing cricket during breaks between games. In the above photo, (from left) Bobby Charlton, Terry Paine, Nobby Stiles, the 21-year-old Alan Ball (batting), Gerry Byrne and Peter Bonetti hone their ball-watching skills.

Cricketers can learn a thing or two about celebrations from Stiles, who danced on the Wembley pitch after winning the final, holding the trophy in one hand and his false teeth in the other.

Schoolboy Pranav Dhanawade's recent 1009 not out might have made it into official records, but for many of us it was also a reminder of the game as it is played outside the confines of the international circuit, and especially of the particular enjoyment you got from cricket as a child.

Sometimes, before the enjoyment came the waiting, like in the above photo, taken in New Delhi in 2009. For all of Bradman's knocking the ball against a water tank, most of us prefer the less solitary way, of playing with friends.

Cricketers, amateurs or pros, tend to be gear junkies. And ours is a sport that indulges them with bats, balls, gloves, inner gloves, pads, thigh pads, chest guards, elbow guards, abdomen guards, grips, bat cones, boots, boots with spikes, jerseys, jumpers, skins…

Cricketers travel to so many places that their houses must be full of curios and souvenir refrigerator magnets, and they can probably never escape the question: "What did you bring me?"

South Africans Fanie de Villiers and Steve Palframan hit a local flea market in Pakistan in the above photo during the 1996 World Cup. Gifts for everyone!

When you play a game in wide open spaces, sometimes you get unexpected visitors and pitch invaders.

Did the batting team gallop to a big score in the photo above? Or did wickets fall on the trot? Bolton's Bench, New Forest, 2002.