Tell-a-vision!

doweshowbellyad=0; Faisal Raza (TOI Photo)It might have been Salil Ankola who started the trend, but a television duo is all set to bring cricket back into television in a far more radical way.
Ayub Khan and Faizal Raza Khan’s brainchild will have actors like Ayub, Faisal, Naman Shaw, Sharad Malhotra, Amit Verma, Manav Vij, Anoop Soni, Jay Bhanushali, Manoj Biddvai, Salil Acharya, Karthik Sabharwal and Ashish Kaul turn into batsmen and bowlers.The actors have formed a team and will play at Ritambara Ground in Mumbai every two days (Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday from 7 am to 11 am). The actors will play for social causes like AIDS, girl-child development and for other NGOs to begin with.
They are also trying to rope in professional coaches from Sports Authority of India to help them hone their cricketing skills. Says Faisal, "I used to play cricket for Solhah Singarr. One day, I came up with the idea of forming a team of actors who would play cricket and football for various social causes and corporate houses. Ayub, my close friend, who works with me in Rakhi, loved the idea and we got cracking. Anil Wanwari, CEO of a TV portal, will also be backing our project. We weren’t sure if actors would come to practice matches early in the morning and take it seriously, but we were surprised to find 16 actors turn up. They are playing the game professionally and have bought cricket kits worth Rs 15,000. While playing, some of the actors hurt themselves, but it was nice to see them all play along enthusiastically."
Adds Faizal, "We have just formed a team and are busy rehearsing as of now. We plan to get sponsorships as we get going with our matches. So, besides entertaining people with our matches, we also will be playing for good causes to help our society. Even school kids join us in practising once in a while. It’s good fun and if all goes well, we will cut a music album to promote our team. And the rest of it is under wraps!" Howzatt, guys! And isn’t it a shame that Bollywood hasn’t been able to emulate the same ‘team spirit’? Guess our superstars are too busy buying entire teams altogether in wanting to emulate UK celebs. But we prefer this unique gesture by our television hunks for sure.