(Shobhaa De is an established writer, columnist, opinion shaper and social commentator, who is considered an authority on popular culture.)
Half a century ago, or very nearly that, I was at a cricket match being held inside the famous Brabourne Stadium in Bombay. I was seated in a special enclosure as the guest of one of the members of the CCI Club, and it was considered a very big deal to be with this crew rather than with the genuine cricket-lovers in the stands. Most of the people around me had zero interest in cricket. But nearly every lovely lady present during that test match was either having a fling with a cricketer, or desperately wanting to have one. Remember, this was the Gary Sobers era. And Anju Mahendru had not met Rajesh Khanna at that point. If my memory serves me well, Sharmila Tagore was still a Tagore and waiting for the Noob to make her his Begum. Yes, it was that long ago... but even back then, the magnetic pull between Bollywood stars and cricketing heroes was very apparent.
When one compares the love stories of that era to later chakkars between say, a bashful Sourav Ganguly and his alleged 'temple marriage' to Nagma while his wife, Dona, was the one who kept a straight bat and stayed steadily at the crease, everything appears so damn pheeka and tame. In today's day and age, our guys in blue appear lame beasts compared to the swashbuckling lover boys like Abbas Ali Baig, and a certain wild-haired, wild-eyed bloke (Mohsin Khan) who married our Reena Roy and took her to Pakistan to start a fresh innings. Alas, that didn't work out, and Reena is back in India, with their daughter Jannat, now renamed Sanam, while Mohsin ... err.... who cares what happened to Mohsin? It's hard to keep a track of these spinners of bhalo bhasha, on and off the field. Bhajji and Geeta Basra, Yuvraj and Kim Sharma. Suresh Raina and Shruti Hassan. Why, even Sushmita Sen and Wasim Akram!
The World Cup beckons and we want to keep that trophy. Right? If our star cricketer is starved on any level, how will he give his best on the field? In the interests of our country's izzat, let's get those antiquated blokes to change the rules. Or bend them. Or turn a blind eye.
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