Madonna has lived in London for some years now but it appears that she still has not taken a liking for the sport of cricket.  In May, Madonna wowed a 12,000-strong crowd with tracks from her new album, Hard Candy, at her only UK festival appearance of the summer – at Radio 1's Big Weekend in Maidstone, Kent.  The event was opened by American R'n'B heavyweight Usher, who got off to a bad start when he told the crowd how delighted he was to be playing in Manchester (when he was in Kent!).

However, the cricket lovers of the town were not wowed.   Her Madonna-ness flew down on a cricket match and landed the helicopter near Mote Park despite complaints from the cricket teams, according to the Daily Star.  

Daily Star noted "But the Material Girl’s arrival infuriated two local teams who refused to cancel their game, despite losing their bails and a few cucumber sarnies as Madge’s flying machine landed."  My man at silly mid-off said: “Organisers tried to get them to postpone the match but they refused so we had no choice but to land the helicopter during the game. There were certainly some grumpy men in whites.”

"We had weeks of negotiations getting Madonna on site," added a source. "We were told to imagine our own queen was paying a visit and then some." 

“I am happy to be here with the team. My passion for sports led me into this venture. Though I also think of it as a fine business proposition,” said the actor, one of Bollywood's all-time greats,  who is a extremely popular among Bengali film fans and sports buffs.

Speaking on the occasion, West Bengal Sports Minister Subhas Chakraborty said, “I congratulate Mithun for the bold step. We have some 30 stadiums in the state from Siliguri to Contai. We will convert any one ICL wants into a cricket ground and make it their permanent practice venue. They are welcome in the state.”

Mithun has always been a keen sports fan.  The Bengal Football Academy is his baby and he is said to have traveled all over Bengal to raise money by playing exhibition matches - successfully raising Rs 37 lakh back in 1999.

Mithun is also an extremely successful businessman.  He wants to go public with his chain of mid-market hotels operating under the Howard Johnson The Monarch hotels brand to raise capital for expansion across the country. 

Mithun is married to Yogita Bali - a Bollywood actress from the 70's.

Mithun with Hristhita at a recent film launch

ICL received a much needed boost on August 22nd with well known Telugu actor Vishnu Manchu becoming a stakeholder of the ICL team - the Hyderabad Heroes. Manchu, famous for his movie 'Dhee', bought a minority stake of the successful Hyderabad Heroes team.

ICL Executive Board Member Kiran More said while announcing Manchu's foray in cricket said that this would provide potential sponsors and sports investors an opportunity to double their advantage by becoming minority stakeholders and brand builders.

"On behalf of ICL, I welcome on board the Telugu film industry superstar Vishnu Manchu as an investor and enthusiastic cricketer. Vishnu's impressive credentials as an entrepreneur and his popularity in Hyderabad adds solidity to ICL's objective of promoting domestic Indian cricket," the former India stumper said. 

Vishnu together with Andy Srinivasan, manages ThinkSmart - a company with offices in USA and India.  ThinkSmart provides editing, graphic design, animation and other services to the film industry.  ThinkSmart's USA Head Andy Srinivasan is married to Vishnu's sister Lakshmi - a Hollywood actress who currently appears in Las Vegas.

 Manchu Vishnu bought a stake in Hyderabad Heroes marking a foray into cricketainment for the co-owner of ThinkSmart.

Vishnu is the brother of Lakshmi Manchu who appears in the TV serial Las Vegas.

Crowe is a big cricket fan. He played cricket in school and his cousins Martin Crowe and Jeff Crowe are former NZ Black Caps Captains.  

Russell Crowe so loves the sport of cricket that in April of 2003, when he got married to Danielle Spencer, his three day long wedding celebration featured a Saturday cricket match between Crowes and Spencers on a specially built pitch on his 800-acre ranch at Nana Glen, 250 miles north of Sydney on Australia's east coast.   At the reception, the Oscar-winner took to the stage with his band Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts to rock on into the evening.

Russell Crowe played alongside Jeff and Martin at Auckland Grammar School

Russell Crowe with Danielle Spencer  - His wedding featured a cricket match between Spencers and the Crowes.  No points for guessing who won.

Looks like even Iron Maiden could not escape cricket on his Indian tour!

Once a football anchor on Zee Sports, Mayanti Langer has switched to cricket.   This Punjabi 21 year old was the only student in Sriram School, New Delhi, to play football.  Soon, she became the lead coordinator at the Girls’ Football League at the Indian Youths Soccer’s Association in New Delhi.    

She was no Mandira Bedi.  Mayanti knew the sport of football enough to go on TV with it.

And she got her big break when in 2005, she started doing half time and review shows for Alchemist Federation Cup and Santosh Trophy for Zee Sports. 

After graduating from Hindu College in English Honors, she covered the FIFA Beach Football as a guest anchor.  Then came Football Café — a weekly magazine show on football.

When Zee Sports launched ICL, they picked Mayanti to anchor the ICL show.   

Supermodel, VJ, and now Cricket Anchor Archana Vijay, interviewed Virender Sehwag just before the start of play on the day he went on to score his triple century.   She has that effect on people.

Archana Vijay's life changed overnight after winning Channel [V]'s Get Gorgeous title in 2004.  Alipore's Archana Vijaya who went to Loreto House and Bhawanipore College is a sports fanatic, but was more inclined towards basketball in school.   After winning the Get Gorgeous title, Archana switched to walking the ramp in Milan, Rome, Paris and became a Channel [V] anchor.

The 24-year-old quit Channel [V] to do Tour Diary for Extra Cover on Neo Sports - an 'inside the locker room' style pre-match program that one normally associates with soccer and NBA basketball.   She is not Mandira Bedi or Mayanti Langer.   Her cricket show is all about the cities, the romance of the place and the places to be - a tour diary.   "I make the people far away feel at home," she says.

For instance, she went shopping with Andrew Symonds (in Hyderabad), visited Sreesanth's house in Kochi, and did dandiya in Gujarat with Irfan Pathan.   The type of stuff that draws audiences.

Move over Mandira, IPL launched the career of the sexy Goan girl Lekha Washington.   "The roving anchor of IPL!"

Was she there just as eye-candy or did she know about cricket?  “I was mildly interested in cricket before this happened. But this tournament has been an eye-opener for me,” she admits

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"I was a bit nervous initially,  but I made up for that by reading and watching cricket matches. After the matches, I had to interact with the crowds. To be frank, my interaction with people increased my knowledge of the game."   How was it dealing with IPL?   “There was a lot of testertone on the field with 22 cricketers but they were all gentlemen,” Lekha insists.

Like Mandira, Lekha Washington has had her share of blunders.  "I got major flak when I asked an umpire which is his favourite team," Lekha says.  "You just can’t do that!”  Thankfully, the umpire just laughed.

Here favorite teams were Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals.   Not bad!    IPL helped her meet her favorite cricketer Shane Warne who gave her three interviews.   “I was the only one whom he gave three interviews!"   She is also happy about her interactions with Sanath Jayasuriya, Adam Gilchrist etc.

Lekha Washington has acted in a couple of Tamil flicks - Kettayan and Jayamkondaan but she wants to be a Bollywood star and the IPL gig has helped her. 

Lekha with Ntini

 Lekha in a forthcoming movie

Lalit Modi and, to a lesser extent, Sharad Pawar left no stone unturned in making sure IPL was a huge success and they were not shy of TV coverage.

In some instances, they also wanted make sure everything was going well "behind" the scenes.

Lalit checks out Preity while Pawar looks after Maureen

Preity Zinta was the owner, cheerleader, chief supporter for Kings XI Punjab.   They played as much for her hugs as they did for her money.  Yuvraj gets one here for winning a match.  Sreesanth got one after getting slapped by Harbhajan.  And Piyush got one after a victory against KKR.

Piyush's turn.

Katrina Kaif was loyal to Royal Challengers despite their poor showing.   Heck, if the choice was between winning the trophy or getting a sympathetic hug from Katrina, the Royal Challengers did the right thing

 Meanwhile, she was spotted standing with Akshay Kumar, who was a DareDevils supporter.

Brett Lee and Mandira Bedi were seen pitching Timex watches.   They were not exactly working hand-in-hand - more like the minute hand and the hour hand.  But Brett was grinning.

Vidya Balan, star of Parineeta, thinks Shane Watson is hot.  Vidya says she "couldn't take my eyes off him."    

Not bad Shane! 

IPL may have gone over the hill.   In the beginning, everything was fresh and sexy.  Bollywood was in control and they brought in their item numbers experience!   King of Good Times, Mr Mallya arranged visas for Redskins cheerleaders.

BEFORE

 And then the politicians got into the act!  The party poopers made everyone cover up!   And guess what we ended up with!

AFTER

 No wonder, soccer is the world's most popular sport!   Brazilian politicians would never have asked these soccer cheeleaders to cover up.    

The SportsWorld Indoor cricket centre, a team that was previously called "Grumpy Old Men" proved that they were the kings of good times.   Not even Vijay Mallya can match their achievement.   They landed an exclusive sponsorship deal with Hooters Restaraunt (Parramatta), famous for their great tasting wings :-)   These girls know how to hold a cricket bat and about the blade's sweet spot!

I am sure this team has had no absentee players in some time!