Bullet-Proofed Fire Trap for the Cairns

Kiwi all-rounder Chris Cairns family had a narrow escape early this month when a fire broke out in their luxury home in the Netherlands. While Chris himself was away in London, his South African wife Carin and his two sons, Bram and Thomas struggled to make their way out of their bullet-proofed home as smoke and fire engulfed them. ( I wonder why Chris Cairns needed bullet-proof safety for his family)

Mrs. Cairns tried valiantly to break one of the glass windows to escape and get some much needed air, but the extra-secure windows were too tough to be broken. Carin said she kept thinking of Chris all the while - "only if he had been there with her, he could have broken the window with his hard hitting cricket bat". It was Chris itself who came to the rescue - having got to know of the incident on the phone, he was able to call up the Dutch Fire Brigade, who arrived on time to rescue the Cairns.

Wonder what Cairns is doing in the Netherlands with all that bullet-proof stuff? Isn't the Indian Cricket League calling him!!

*****

For Live Streaming Cricket Links for the India-England ODI Series, click here:

Chak De India

King Khan was at the Oval today ( day 1 of the 3rd and final cricket test between india and england). He was seen in the star cricket commentary box promoting his new sport-themed movie 'Chak De India".

Watch this montage of indian cricket clippings set to the tune of Chak De

Becker at Lord's

A not-too-interested-in-cricket Boris Becker entered the hallowed premises of the Lord's Cricket Ground yesterday, girlfriend Sharlely Lilly Kerssenberg in tow. Replying to questions on cricket, the former tennis star could only mumble the names of Lara and Flintoff to show some degree of knowledge of the game. He and girlfriend Sharley were more focused on the alcohol, downing more than a few glasses of wine.

In progress, at Lord's is the first test match of the current series between India and England. But to the shock and horror of many, Becker after failing to get too excited about the cricket, turned his back to the ground and switched on his TV, and watching some golf instead!

Cricket on the moon

Now, isn't that an exciting idea? No shot would be too high for the fielders as they jump up against a gravitational force that's about 16 percent of earth's. Imagine what all Jonty could have done there!

An internet cricket gaming company has just acquired land to build a cricket field on the moon - and that for a mindboggling sum of 25 $ . ( I am already thinking of renting it out for myself for a year or so !!) . Wonder what the valuation of the entire moon is - am quite surprised why Richard Branson hasn't yet bought it out completely? Surely, if that's the price of a cricket field on the moon, the entire moon can't be too expensive for Mr. Virgin.

I hope you aren't getting any ideas for yourself.

Getting selected into the Delhi cricket team: DDCA style

This story appeared in the Cricinfo, early this year - sometime in February. Don't know how Beyond Cricket missed. Time to make amends:

Step into the Ferozeshah Kotla this week and you will hear the story of how a desperate couple, at their wit's end over how to get their son into an age-group team, came up with a strategy that was as simple as it was smart. Having heard about how a certain selector had made salacious suggestions to the mothers of several young aspirants, they took the man to dinner. Midway, the father got an urgent call and left, asking the lady to drop the selector home. Along the way, she and the selector made a private date and sure enough, soon after she obliged him, the boy made it to the age-group team. Of course, as the selector eventually found out, the woman he had made (and kept) the date with was not the boy's mother; she had been paid to do a job.

The rot in DDCA seems to be complete - no wonder stories of players looking for opportunities beyond Delhi are doing the rounds all the time.

Situation Vacant: Link to the Pak Coach Ad

Click here to see for yourself the advertisement which the PCB put up for the new vacancy which came up after the death of former coach, Bob Woolmer. You can trust the PCB and BCCI to come up with new and newer antics.

Just one hitch - the ad is in Urdu.

Live off your blog

I started blogging a little under a year back, out of fun. Blogging seemed to be an interesting idea - here was a platform to announce your views and opinions to the world, and even get the world to react to it. And, all for free. So far, so good. But wouldn't it be better if we could make some money out of it too? Afterall, I have begun putting in quite a bit of effort into my blogs, and it would be nice if i could get paid for it, like we do for other useful tasks we do.

So, here's a new opportunity to make some real good cash, by writing reviews - tell your readers what you think of a site or a product or a service, and get paid for it. Cool na?
Bloggerwave

is one great platform for bloggers like you and me to monetize our efforts. And it's pretty simple too. These guys were quick to approve my blog - about a day only, and then it's upto you to choose to do the reviews that you want. And don't forget to thank me, if you end up making a neat sum at Bloggerwave. Cheers!