Stars descend at Amby Valley to wish cricketers

What do cross country running, Bollywood and a corporate entity have in common? Nothing, but the love of cricket. As cricket fever runs high, the World Cup bowled a maiden over. Raveena Tandon flagged off the 10-kilometer cross country Good Luck India run at Sahara India’s Amby Valley locale.
She was accompanied by Suniel Shetty, Raj Babbar, and ex-cricketer Nikhil Chopra who wished luck to the men in blue, by signing on a large Indian flag.Shetty was at a loss for words, and even asked his collegues, “Can I write ‘kick ass’ on this?� But finally like the others, he too scribbled a good luck message.
All the stars except Raveena wore the Indian cricket team T-shirt, though later, even she draped it over her shoulders. As part of the event, Sahara distributed Indian flags and organised a video-conferencing session with the men in blue who are doing duty in South Africa, but networking problems resulted in change of plans.
Instead, skipper Sourav Ganguly was telephoned and wished luck, but he was hurrying to the nets, and spoke little on the amplified phone call. Speaking about the chances of India at the World Cup, he said he was hopeful of making it to the finals, though he conceded that it would be a tough match against the Australians.
Shetty was more forthcoming, and detailed his plans back to watch the final, as well as hoping that India would get their formula right this time. “If Sachin and Sehwag bat 20 overs, they can make an entire team’s scores.� He also suggested quick dismissals of Australia’s top order, to limit their score.
The participants had some anxious moments when a few photographers joined the run midway, overtaking them to take their photographs. Their facial expressions revealed a fear of being overtaken. Finally, Indian navy cadets and Sports Authority of India (SAI) won the honours, and accepted prizes from the officials while the audience screamed “Jeetaga bhai Jeetaga, India Jeetaga.�