Matthew Bell: The IoS Diary

In his heyday he was the nation's greatest batsman, captaining England in a record 54 Test matches. But it seems Mike Atherton has taken retirement more seriously than most, having thrown away every last set of whites. News of this bizarre purge emerged after he agreed to play in a friendly match at Lord's later this month to commemorate the late cricket-loving playwright Harold Pinter. Pinter's old team, the Gaieties, are to play the Lord's Taverners on 27 September. Taverners captain Mike Brearley was delighted when Atherton agreed to emerge from retirement, only for Atherton to ring back and admit to not having any whites. If any reader of Atherton's size wishes to lend him theirs, the diary will be happy to pass them on.

Much excitement in Cornwall the other day when what appeared to be Barack Obama's helicopter touched down in Penzance. The appearance of the giant green chopper emblazoned with "Marine One" coincided with a gap in the US President's public engagements, fuelling speculation that the first family was taking a tip from David Cameron and recharging its batteries on the Cornish Riviera. But before gossip spiralled out of control, a spokesman from British International Helicopters cleared up the mystery, explaining that the helicopter had been temporarily re-liveried for use in the filming of A Special Relationship, a forthcoming movie about the relationship between Bill Clinton and Tony Blair starring Michael Sheen and Dennis Quaid. Or is that just the official line?

Expect some misty eyes among hacks on Thursday as they recall the launch of the Sunday Correspondent 20 years ago. Robert Peston, one of several famous alumni, recalls those heady days. "Well, I probably had more fun there than I've had anywhere else," he tells me. "The team was mad, eccentric, shambolic, brilliant – astonishingly talented. My best memory was traipsing across communist Russia for a week with Roland Rudd, desperately searching for a story. We finally landed at 3am in the concrete wasteland of Donetsk, Ukraine, wondering how on earth we were going to justify the trip. We made our way to a local trade union leader, who told us one thing we could understand – "we go on strike next week". Politically this was hugely significant, a signal of the collapse of the authority of the communist government. Phew, we had our scoop and could claim back our substantial expenses." No wonder the Sun Corr lasted only a year.

Former Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren was once a balls-to-the-wind anarchist so it's a pity to learn he's become somewhat tetchy about his image in old age. The Art Newspaper ran a tiny diary item in its September issue reporting that McLaren was to enjoy the honour of an art exhibition in North Korea. However, it turns out not to be true and McLaren is steaming, and has complained in rather fruity language. "What kind of disreputable publication are you?" thunders an email from his improbably named assistant, Young Kim. The email goes on at boring length, wailing that the story is completely false and outrageous, and hurling such stingers as "Do you have no publishing ethics and policies of truth?". Yikes.

Has Sir Alan Sugar been offered a two-for-one deal from his lawyers? Not content with suing Daily Mail journalist Quentin Letts, Sugar has instructed City firm Herbert Smith to fire off threatening letters to plumber-to-the-stars Charlie Mullins, millionaire founder of Pimlico Plumbers, for daring to suggest the Government's Enterprise Tsar did not know much about apprenticeships. Far from being cowed, I gather Mullins has hired top libel specialists Mishcon de Reya, on the principle that you fight fire with fire. This could last longer than most plumbing guarantees.

A bit of an own goal from whisky magnate Grant Gordon, who is lobbying to derail the Dorenell wind farm proposal on Speyside. "Can you imagine," he harrumphed, "if they wanted to create a wind farm in the middle of Champagne? They would never do it." Ooops. The Champagne prefecture has more than 20 wind farms, many of them located close to famous Champagne producing vineyards, and they want more.

m.bell@independent.co.uk