Meet Tendulkar's biggest Fan

It won't be wrong to call Mary Serrao the biggest and most passionate fan Sachin Tendulkar has had in the 20 years he has played international cricket.

If sharing her birthday with the master batsman is not enough, the 86-year-old celebrates every important landmark Tendulkar achieves.

On Sunday, when Sachin completed 20 years in international cricket, Mary was the happiest person in the world, perhaps even more than the cricketing legend and his family.

The moment she realised that November 15 was when he would cross the milestone Mary started planning for the big day.

She organised a party at her home, summoned family members from across the city and distributed sweets to her neighbours.

"But the most important thing was that we made fish curry. Tendulkar loves fish curry so much," Mary told rediff.com.

Sachin Tendulkar favours use of maximum technology for accurate decisions

Indian star batsman Sachin Tendulkar said that maximum technology should be used in cricket to make the umpire's task more accurate

Umpires should be left to adjudge only leg-before decisions while technology takes care of the rest, according to Indian batting legend Sachin Tendulkar.

"It is tough for the umpires to watch the no-balls and watch what's happening in the front," he was quoted as saying on the 'India Today' website.

"For basic line decisions, like no-balls and run outs, you must have a laser or something like that. Something like what you have in tennis to decide serves.

"You can call it (a no-ball) with a machine."

Tendulkar, 36, who begins his 21st year in international cricket next month, even advocated rotating on-field umpires every session of a Test match to give them adequate rest, but denounced the referral system.

Tendulkar, a veteran of 159 Tests and 431 one-day internationals, said bat-pad decisions can be relied on television X-ray technology called "hot spots" which clearly illustrates the first point of contact of the ball -- either pad or bat.

"They should use the hot spot for bat-pad decisions, so the main umpire has to make only the leg-before calls," he said. "I'm quite happy with the hot spot because that establishes the contact.

"For caught behind and all, the hot spot will come. Close-in catches, again the hot spot will come. You don't need a machine for clean bowled, so only the leg-before decisions is what the umpire has to concentrate on."

Tendulkar, the world's most prolific batsman, said three on-field umpires should be nominated so that they can take turns to rest for a session of a Test.

But he did not support the new referral system, where umpires get help from a colleague watching television replays to adjudicate on close decisions.

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Sachin, Aishwarya among online applicants for voter cards

Election fever has gripped not only ordinary citizens in poll-bound Maharashtra but also celebrities like cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar and Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai who have applied for voter cards online.

Other celebrities who have applied for the voter ID card include Akshay Kumar, wife Twinkle Khanna, actress Sonam Kapoor and father Anil Kapoor, Neha Dhupia, Preity Zinta and Kim Sharma.

"Sachin had applied online for the voter ID. As his name was already in the list, the card was prepared immediately," District Deputy Collector and Deputy Election Officer Sanjay Bhagwat told PTI.

Sachin's manager collected the card from the commission office yesterday, he said.

Aishwarya has provided most of the details except her date of birth and soon her card would also be ready, Bhagwat said.

Akshay, whose name was not in the voters' list, applied online.

Sachin Tendulkar Orkut Theme

A lot of you people must use Orkut and must be wondering how to change the default boring Orkut theme. We found Sachin Tendulkar Orkut Theme just to celebrate his recent Century in Compaq Cup Final
I would like to point out though, that these Orkut themes will only be shown to you when you are browsing Orkut.

First I will list the requirements that you need to fulfill in order to install these Orkut themes.

* Mozilla Firefox Browser
* Greasemonkey

Installation Procedure for these Orkut Themes

Once you have installed Mozilla Firefox and the grease-monkey add-on

Install Sachin Tendulkar Orkut Theme

Click install in pop up and it will be installed in seconds !

You can then go to browse Orkut with your new theme.

If you want to change a theme then you will first install the new theme from this page. Then you have to right-click on the little “monkey” face in the status bar below. From there, you will see a list of your installed scripts which will have the different Orkut themes. Just uncheck any theme you do not want to use and check any Orkut theme that you do want to use. Its just that simple!

Uninstall Procedure for these Orkut Themes

If you want to completely remove any of these Orkut themes then right-click the monkey face and click Manage User Scripts. You will see a list of your installed scripts. Just select any script that you want to remove and click the Uninstall button at the bottom.

Yuvraj Singh and Kim Sharma revive their affair?

Has Yuvraj Singh continued remaining a foot loose single dude after his break up with Deepika Padukone or has he gone back to his ex girlfriend Kim Sharma for good is the question on everyone’s mind whoever have seen the couple hitting Mumbai’s hottest spots together. Our source spotted them just days back at a Mumbai café.
He recalls, “Yuvraj Singh drove his car around the popular suburban Mumbai cafe a few times before him stepping out and entering it. He then entered the cafe only a couple of minutes before his on-and-off girlfriend Kim arrived in a chauffeur-driven car. The two were seen chatting over endless cups of coffee. While they seemed quite comfortable with each other, onlookers sensed that the two were consciously maintaining a distance from each other.”
Our source continues, “It looked like the couple was consciously trying to be discreet in public, so they stayed at an arm’s length from each other. When it was time to leave however, Yuvi held Kim’s hand and walked her to his car and took her on a drive, while Kim’s car followed them around.”
-Sampurn Media

Sourav Ganguly turns Lecturer!Oxford

As the International Cricket Council celebrates 100 years this year, the game's administrators have decided to go intellectual with a couple of lectures planned at the world's oldest university in the English speaking world. A choice selection of the game's greats has been invited to speak about various facets of the game, and among them is the true Royalty of Kolkata.

Sourav Ganguly spoke at the centennial celebrations of the ICC. But it was not all jovial, especially when an Englishman was harsh on the riches of the IPL.

"Money is good, but it hasn't done any good to the attitude. Lot more people in the game are calculating and managing their way to maximize the opportunity," said Angus Fraser, the cricket correspondent of The Independent.

But never one to back away, Dada was quick to counter.

"Players still want to play for their country. All established players only have IPL contracts. If you play in the IPL and not play international cricket, like Freddie is doing, you won't survive. You have to be a good international player to get your contracts ever year," said Ganguly.

Well, it would make sense for the former Indian skipper to guard the territory given how quickly he's made the transition from player to a commentator to an administrator. But he's already smartened up to the old BCCI game of not revealing too much too soon.

"It should be a balance of both. Administrative skills are required and both need each other. You need a mixture of both, you need everything from players, taking it baby steps at a time," added the southpaw who has played 113 Tests and 311 ODIs for India.

There is no doubt that Sourav Ganguly was the star attraction at this conference organised by the ICC on 100 years of cricket in Oxford University. But Sourav was quite the careful diplomat in what was an otherwise no holds barred, frank discussion, which perhaps is not surprising now that Sourav has openly stated his ambitions of a future in cricket administration.

Exclusive Bollywood Actress Love affair with cricketers

It looks like Bollywood ’s love affair with cricket is not limited to the ongoing Indian Premier League. Rather, the players seem to be besotted to tinseltown’s heroines -- or is it the other way around? Recently, there were reports of Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni dating south Indian actress Lakshmi Rai.

According to the grapevine, the model-turned Tamil actress met Dhoni when he was leading the Chennai Super Kings in last year’s IPL matches, and the two have become an item.

Of course, Rai denied the rumours.

Like Dhoni and Rai, there have been quite a few link-ups in the past. We take a look at some of the recent and most prominent ones:

Isha Sharvani and Zaheer Khan

The pretty 23-year-old actress, who acted in films like U Me Aur Hum and Luck By Chance, was reportedly dating the 30-year old left arm pace bowler for two years before calling it quits in 2007.

Rumours of the two getting back together were doing the rounds when they were spotted at a gym. However, nothing came out of it as Isha is now reportedly seeing a London-based filmmaker .

Kim Sharma and Yuvraj Singh

She’s famous for her role in Mohabbatein while he’s the dashing left-handed batsman, who can also bowl a mean spin.

The two dated for four years before calling it quits. According to reports, the two split because Yuvraj’s mother disapproved of Kim and her lifestyle. There were also rumours that the Kim was seeing Vivek Oberoi which then led to the split.

Deepika Padukone and Yuvraj Singh

Yuvi makes the list again -- this time, with Deepika, who is now dating Ranbir Kapoor.

What gave rise to the link-up rumours was that the two were seen together on a number of occasions during the India-Pakistan one-day series. Deepika also attended Yuvraj’s birthday party right after the India-Pakistan Test match in Bangalore.

Karishma Kotak and Yuvraj Singh

Yuvraj seems to be quite the ladies man. He has been spotted many times with London-based model Karishma Kotak, best known for her work as a Kingfisher calendar girl.

If the rumours are true, we wonder how long will this hottie, who made her acting debut in Shankardada Zindabad, a Telugu remake of Lage Raho Munna Bhai, hold Yuvi’s attention.

Shriya Saran and Sreesanth

We’ve heard that men love the chase but in this case, it was apparently the woman, who did all the chasing.

Apparently, the south siren was so smitten by the cricketer at a fashion week party that she went out of her way to impress him. Shriya fussed over the cricketer and never left his side during the event.

Sayali Bhagat and Shoaib Malik

Now this one is confusing. According to some, the 25-year old former Miss India fell in love with the Pakistani cricketer. The two then embarked on a long-distance relationship.

But Shoaib has denied the romance, called the relationship a friendship.

Then, there is the matter of a film that the two are supposed to be doing together by Wilson Louis. The film is a love story between a cricketer and a model. The two are said to be playing themselves in the movie.