Shoaib Akhtar, the Rawalpindi Express, found perhaps more than his match in a manner of speaking when he came face to face with a sparkling Masserati in the Hilton hotel parking lot. The Pakistani speedster who holds the world record of the fastest ball ever bowled at over 100 miles per hour, admired the car interior through the window and exclaimed: “Wow! What a car!” He had fans and admirers watching him as he went round the black Masserati. “You come to Germany and we will gift a car like this to you,” one of them told Shoaib. Lucky Shoaib to have friends like that!!
Mercedes Taxis
• Talking about cars, I must mention the taxis in Amsterdam. They are the latest models of the most expensive brands. The first one I hired was a silver Mercedes 230E and the driver was dressed in a blue pinstriped suit! And it was a BMW driven by Raqeeb Jahangir that took me from the ground to the hotel. I was surprised when he spoke to me in Hindi. “Aao jaldi aajao (come, come soon),” he told me. I asked him his name and how he could speak Hindi. “My grandfather came here from Dutch Guyana (now Surinam) and I was born here. I don’t exactly know but my forefathers went a long long time ago to Dutch Guyana from somewhere in north India, perhaps Bihar,” said Raqeeb, a Muslim.
Big Event a Damp Squib
• What was dubbed as one of the biggest cricket events of the year has so far turned out to be a damp squib thanks to the weather. The Videocon Cup was billed as a clash of three cricketing titans but the rains have reduced the event to a non-starter. Australia, Pakistan and India competing on a league basis saw three matches scheduled but only one of them produced a result. Wednesday’s Australia-Pakistan clash was washed out without a ball being bowled. The other two matches were reduced to 33 overs and 32 overs. In the first, Pakistan defeated India by 66 runs and the second was abandoned in the last over of the Australian innings with the Indians fighting hard to come back in the competition. It was bright and sunny on Wednesday afternoon but yesterday morning the rains returned again. The organizers have suffered a big loss. They have had to build temporary stands at heavy costs and announced that the tickets for Wednesday’s match would be valid for the final. But the biggest losers are the sponsors Videocon, an electronic company in India and SET Max, a wing of Sony, India who had the telecasting rights of the event. The participating teams tried to resurrect the event by playing on the two rest days before the final but the ground would not be ready and there were other logistic complications which made it impossible to reschedule the matches.
