Cricket and cinema, two of India’s greatest passions, came together in Leeds today for an all-star celebrity cricket match as part of the Global Cool partnered IIFA Weekend.
Playing on the hallowed ground of Headingley, home to Yorkshire Cricket Club, a celebrity IIFA XI, made up of some of the biggest names in Indian cinema and cricket, competed against a Yorkshire XI comprising some of the county’s best known players past and present and two British members of Parliament.
Basking in the June sunshine, the near capacity crowd thronged as actress Shilpa Shetty took an impromptu walkabout around the field while an aeroplane flew overhead pulling a large banner wishing the star a happy birthday.
Captained by Saif Ali Khan, the Bollywood team also included Arjun Rampal, Dino Morea, Fardeen Khan, Aftab Shivdasani, Ritesh Deshmukh, Sohail Khan, Arshad Warsi, Boman Irani, Upen Patel, Arbaaz Khan, Vishal Bhardwaj and Mohammed Azharuddin. The IIFA team’s force was also strengthened with the help of Kapil Dev, the former Indian captain who was voted ‘Indian Cricketer of the Century’ in 2002.
Making up the Yorkshire side was Nick Knowles, Rosalie Birch, Gladstone Small, Devon Malcolm, Jay Sean, Sherwin Campbell, Chris Lewis, Danny McGuire, Harry Gration, Greg Wise, Manish Bhasin, Ajmal Shahzad, Andrew Gale, Colin Salmon, Oliver Milburn and MPs Keith Vaz and Shahid Malik.
Dickie Bird, the much loved veteran Yorkshire umpire, came out of retirement to oversee the proceedings.
Also making a brief appearance at the match was Indian Cinema legend Amitabh Bachchan. Accompanying the actor and IIFA ambassador was his son and fellow actor Abhishek, and new daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai.
The IIFA XI eventually won the match after Kapil Dev hit a boundary off the last ball to score the winning runs. Batting first, the Yorkshire XI scored 142 in 20 overs.
Stewart Regan, Chief Executive of The Yorkshire County Cricket Club, accepted his county’s defeat graciously, saying: “It’s been a special day for the club and an amazing week for the county of Yorkshire. Everyone here seems to have thoroughly enjoyed the game today. The local Asian population love Bollywood and cricket.”
Click here for Yorkshire Cricket Club’s coverage of the day
Click here for official IIFA website
I think that playing cricket does not lead to the emission of Global Warming.The govt. of the countries should gather together and take protective steps to reduce Global warming becoz after40 odd years it will not only destroy the commoner but also the multi millioners.
Comment by Saurav Sarkar — June 18, 2007 @ 4:00 am
isaw the iifa awards date17thjune2006 on starplus at 8p.m. i really enjoyed myself that night. specially i enjoyed the last performence of salmaan khan and govinda ahuja because that was really amazing.for kind of your knowledge that every year i see this beautiful international function on television and enjoy the every moment of these types of function. keep it. thank you.
Comment by narinderahuja — June 19, 2007 @ 9:28 am