
ISSI Miyake. That8217;s the aftershave Sachin Tendulkar8217;s room smells of. The Little Master was getting dressed for Monday8217;s dinner organised at the New Zealand High Commission for the Indian and Kiwi teams immediately after they checked into the Taj Palace hotel.
While Sachin was putting a razor to his cheek, Ajit Agarkar, Nikhil Chopra, and Vijay Bharadwaj were sweating it out in the fitness centre. Only Agarkar and Chopra weren8217;t pumping iron, just getting a haircut, a shampoo and a pumped-up champi. 8220;We are so tired we probably can8217;t even make it to any disco in town,8221; laughed Agarkar.
Tanmaya Nanda amp; Sunetra ChoudhuryGeneration next!
When Vinit Gupte and Surender Sharma walk up to the middle to take charge of the proceedings tomorrow, a new record will be created. They will be the first officials of the second generation to stand as umpires in the same match. Both Gupte and Sharma are sons of former international umpires MY Gupte of Mumbai and the late Har Prasad Sharma of Delhi.
As a debutant, Har Prasad Sharma had the distinction of raising his finger on the very first delivery to adjudge SS Naik out, caught behind off Bernard Julien in the Test against the West Indies in 1974. He officiated in three Tests.
My Gupte officiated in the Madras Test where Mohd Azharuddin scored the second of his three consecutive hundreds on debut against England in 1984-85. Vinit and Surender, both from Mumbai,have already officiated in a few one-dayers, but separately.
S Santhanam