Dinesh Mongia

After playing several innings as a cricketer, Dinesh Mongia has hit a maximum by entering Bollywood.

While the latest flavour of Bollywood— biopics— are fetching a great response, cricketer turned actor Dinesh Mongia feels too much padding, spicing up and commercialization is snatching away reality

Dinesh Mongia, 36, former Indian all-rounder who had shared dressing room with Sachin Tendulkar a number of times, remembers him as "down-to-earth pure gentleman" and senior mentor always ready to help young players.

While various cricketers have given Bollywood a shot, the latest to jump on the bandwagon is Dinesh Mongia. Dinesh is all set to make his debut in a Hindi comedy film.

Cricketer Dinesh Mongia is set to make his debut with the comic caper, Kabab Mein Haddi, directed by Rabinder Parashar.

Former India all-rounder Dinesh Mongia, member of the Indian team which finished runner-up in the 2003 World Cup, on Tuesday announced his retirement from all formats of cricket on Wednesday.

India's Gautam Gambhir and Red Bull announced an Asian tri-nation college cricket series -- Red Bull Campus Cricket-- involving colleges from India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Within a few days of Sachin Tendulkar taking retirement from cricket, a 15-year-old scored 546 runs to prove his potential in front of the world.

After donning the role of Indian hockey team captain and making sure his team ended in the top two during Commonwealth Games, Rajpal Singh is going back to the classroom.

Former England batsman Graeme Hick joined the 'rebel' Indian Cricket League and will play for 'Chandigarh Lions' team in the ongoing Twenty20 tournament.

Due to lack of BCCI affiliation, Chandigarh doesn't have a Ranji team of its own.The cricketers of the city have to either play from Punjab or Haryana.

Come Indian Premier League (IPL) season-5 and cricket buffs in Chandigarh would have a reason to cheer. They are expected to get a chance to enjoy matches of the tournament being played out in the city itself.

A day after the formal announcement of alliance among BJP, former Punjab CM Amarinder Singh and Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, former Akali Dal veteran, several prominent faces from the state, including former India cricketer Dinesh Mongia and two sitting Congress MLAs, joined BJP on Tuesday. The Congress legislators who joined BJP are Fateh Singh Bajwa, MLA from Qadian and Balwinder Singh Laddi, sitting MLA from Hargobindpur.

High on spirits, over 500 youngsters are all set to participate in a giant marathon against corruption next week to announce region's oldest cultural-cum-technical event - Cyanide 2012.

Daler Mehndi has sung many songs for superstar Amitabh Bachchan

ICL's chief selector Kiran More is optimistic about his players proving the critics wrong by making themselves noticed by their performance.

Saurashtra's three-Test-old Ravindra Jadeja has been described as a sofa-cum-bed. Everyone knows his inadequacies and it feels rude to keep banging it in.

India will be looking to plug the loopholes and pocket the three-match One-day cricket series against Bangladesh in the second One-Day International in Dhaka on Saturday.

Indian team, led by skipper Rahul Dravid, on Monday arrived to play three ODIs and two Test matches against Bangladesh.

To encourage underprivileged students of government schools to make it big in the field of cricket, the UT education department had started a cricket academy in DAV College, Sector 10.

As Dilip Vengsarkar chairs the selection meeting on Tuesday to choose the ODI team for Ireland and Scotland, and a Test team for England, there is still no clarity on the final composition.

Lahore Badshahs proved that they were a cut above the rest. TOI check out the hits and flops in ICL part-2.

Thousands of miles away from home 2 New Zealanders will be trying to outwit each other as Chandigarh Lions take on Mumbai Champs in their 1st match of the ICL 20s Indian Championship on Monday.

MUMBAI: As a new cricket season dawns on Wednesday with the Challenger series, it's worth looking at the aspirants in the context of the spots they will target in the Indian squad.

In a setback to the ruling Congress party in the state, two sitting MLAs - Fatehjung Singh Bajwa and Balwinder Singh Ladi- joined BJP on Tuesday.

Sankalp Association of DAV College, Chandigarh, organized a charity show,'Sparkles-09' where the association collected funds and donated the same to PGIMER for treatment of critically-ill underprivileged children.

PATIALA: It's a big day for Patiala on Thursday when a Punjab (Pak) CM's XI plays Punjab (India) CM's XI, at Dhruv Pandove stadium during the ongoing heritage festival in the city.

BANGALORE: Dinesh Mongia struck a fine 88 as India 'A' beat England 'A' by two wickets in the second one-dayer to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match cricket series at the Chinnaswamy stadium.

Dinesh Mongia sees the absence of senior pros Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly as an opportunity for him to cement his place in the side.