Indians Celebrating Victory of Shilpa Shetty at Big Brother

Thousands of Indians wished for this moment. They wished and prayed with all their heart that Shilpa Shetty could win Big Brother 2007. Their prayer has come true and Shilpa came out in the top against all the odds.

The news came at night in India and it was too late anyway for celebrating. However, that did not keep the fans away. Some celebrated and today morning many of her fans are celebrating in their own way. The celebration will surely be much bigger when Shilpa returns to India from the UK. I can imagine that a huge crowd will be in the airport to greet her. I am not sure if she will get an official reception from the Indian government or not. She should get one.

NDTV Broadcast on Shilpa Shetty

Shilpa Shetty has created a huge amount of attention in the media but winning Big Brother. To celebrate her victory, one of India’s top Indian Channel NDTV broadcast a special program on Shilpa Shetty and her journey in the Big Brother.

It is a great honor for Shilpa Shetty. IN this special program, NDTV showed footage from Channel 4.

Big News: Shilpa Shetty Wins Big Brother

Shilpa Shetty was never the top Bollywood actress and she is now no longer even a leading actress in Bollywood. However, she has brought a huge honor for Bollywood by winning Big Brother, the celebrity reality show. She has won 100,000 British pounds but more than that she has earned a billion dollar achievement for herself. Yes, you can find reports about her all over the Internet now. I cannot think of any other Indian celebrity who has caught the spotlight in such a way like her.

Shilpa Shetty in Big Brother: She Came, She Suffered and She Won

Yes, Shilpa Shetty has won the celebrity reality show Big Brother UK. Channel 4 announced this in the following way:

Sensational Shilpa has been crowned the winner of Celebrity Big Brother after polling 67% of the final vote.

A window-smashing scream welcomed the news, along with disbelief from the shocked actress. "Are you kidding me?" she bawled, accompanied by the compulsory waterworks.

Unlike earlier sobbing sessions, these were definitely tears of joy. Following her farewell to Jermaine she dashed to the toilet to gain some composure.

Amidst an awesome firework display, she emerged to an adoring crowd and frantically blew kisses. History has been made.

The self-proclaimed 'Angelina Jolie' of Bollywood, Shilpa's stay has been dominated by culinary-related rows and flirtations with a certain A-Team legend.

So, whatever Shilpa got by winning the Big Brother Show, Bollywood got something with her too. Now, many people in UK will start to take note of Bollywood. She had also made her country proud. In all the major newspapers and TV channels and websites of India, you can find this news item. Now, you can find the name of Shilpa Shetty all over the Internet.

Abhishek and Ashwaraya's first public appearance after engagement

Few days ago, Bachchan junior and Aishwarya’s made huge splash in Bollywood. The couple yesterday made their first post engagement public appearance in Lucknow. Bollywood.com reports:

Bollywood's leading pair of Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan Saturday made their first post- engagement public appearance at the popular Vindhyavasni temple in Uttar Pradesh.

The leading stars offered a special pre-nuptial puja at the ancient temple of Goddess Durga at Vindhyachal in Mirzapur district, about 400 km from state capital Lucknow.

"Abhishek applied sindoor on Aishwarya's forehead at the end of the prayer", one of the priests who performed the ceremony told reporters in Vindhyachal.

"Today's prayer was also aimed at ridding Aishwarya of all ills and negative effects including the much-dreaded 'mangali' effect," said the priest.

While Abhishek was dressed in a white kurta-pyjama, Aishwarya also sported a white suit with an olive green chunni.

Actually the couple went their to attend the birthday ceremony of Amar Singh, the secretary of Samajwadi Party. He is also a family friend of the Bachchan’s. In that temple 51 young couples got married. Among others, there were Aishwarya’s parents, Jaya Prada, Anil Ambani and his wife Tina.

ICC Cricket League Division 1 Starts with the Top Six Associat Members Ahead of ICC Cricket World Cup West Indies 2007

Ahead of the coming world cup crick championship, ICC introduced a competition named ICC Cricket League Division 1 where six top teams among the associate members of ICC are taking part and as all the six countries have got the ticket of this upcoming word cup cricket, so it is a tournament of preparing themselves before the facing the world stars. Through this tournament the participating countries will be able to work out the problem and the will be able to perform better in the final competition against the top ten teams of world cricket. Moreover, the importance of this tournament can be increased if you come to know about the information that the top two teams of this tournament will be qualified for the first ICC Twenty20 world cup which is supposed to be held this year. The tournament has opened yesterday in Kenya and the participating teams of the tournament are Kenya, Bermuda, Scotland, Ireland, Canada and Netherlands. Sportsfeatures reported:

Speaking at the opening ceremony in Parklands Sports Club in Nairobi, ICC’s High Performance Manager Richard Done said this event was a great chance for players and coaches to make their final preparations for the CWC in a competitive environment.

“This tournament is an end it itself as it will provide silverware and bragging rights to the top Associate side,” said Mr Done.

“But of far greater importance is the fact that the World Cricket League is a key stepping stone towards the main prize, the ICC Cricket World Cup, for each of these six teams.

“It will provide the perfect platform which the players can build on once they arrive in the Caribbean in a month and, with that platform, they will be well equipped to be competitive.

“That ability to compete at the next level up is crucial to giving the Associate game the credibility it needs to flourish on a long-term basis.

“Only with the credibility that comes from the desire of players to compete at the highest level possible can we hope to make our strong sport even stronger from top to bottom as it is the only way we can encourage fans, sponsors and Full Members to give us the support required,” he added.

Mr Done highlighted the progress that has already been made towards this goal when he said: “As part of our commitment to close the gap between Associates and Full Members we have made sure these teams are now playing much more meaningful cricket than ever before.

“Between the World Cup in 2003 and the end of 2005, there were 11 ODIs involving Associate Members. In 2006 and through to the start of the World Cup, they will have played another 62 ODIs, including 17 against Full Members.

"For the first time, all six countries have had full-time national coaches in place for at least 12 months leading into the World Cup. This is a key factor in improving playing stardards"

The tournament will be very important for the teams as the matches of this tournament will be recorded as the ODI matches by ICC. This is a good initiative to uplift the performance levels of the teams which will make the world cup cricket more competitive. I would like to see these things frequently in future which will indirectly help cricket to spread out cricket in the world.

Richard Blackford Painted Some Picture Expressing the Culture of Cricket in the Caribbean Region

Jamaican artist Richard Blackford has recently created some pictures of cricket field which shows the excitement and the passion of cricket. Ahead of the ICC Cricket World Cup he has done this praiseworthy work. In his works, he features the history of the game cricket and the pictures seem to talk in favor of cricket itself which is very much interesting to look at. This is the best way to gather the culture of Caribbean cricket. In a picture it is seen that some people are playing cricket the beach which typically depict the traditional cricket of West Indies. Jamaica Observer reported:

Blackford's drawings ranges from a group of cricket lovers playing "ketchie shoobie" at the public Hellshire Beach, in St Catherine, to a new batsman at the wicket being caught airborne trying to evade a characteristically sharp rising delivery from a West Indies fast bowler.

And then the wonderful sight of a batsman being comprehensively bowled by a fired-up Windies quick to a traditional scene of a crowded Caribbean village inherently involved as they watched a "Curry Goat" match.
It was only two years ago, Blackford said, that the idea of creating Images of the Game came about after the West Indies were awarded the right to host the ICC Cricket World Cup.

"We started out doing just a flat calendar... and the idea started growing on me: 'why don't we put these things together as a collection?' And that was about August last year," Blackford told the Sunday Observer at the launch Thursday at Kingston Cricket Club.
Images of the Game, he said, is not exclusively cricket.

"It (Images of the Game) concentrates on cricket now, because cricket is in vogue now," said Blackford, "and I personally believe it represents... what we all should do in Jamaica. We must try to get behind whatever the country is promoting."

The future success of Blackford's ideology will, however, be dependent on how well his 2007 Souvenir Cricket Calendar does.
But according to George Davis, executive director of marketing firm The Book Merchant Limited, plans have been long in place to maximise sales worldwide.

"It's a two-in-one product, meaning it's a calendar, but also a bit of art. So it shouldn't be hard to sell," said Davis, whose company will be marketing the collector's item.
"I think people are going to go crazy (for the calendar). They haven't seen anything like this from this side of the world. We think it's going to create a lot of excitement.

"We're sending two of our colleagues to other parts of the Caribbean and also to the UK and as far as to India," Davis added.
Fans are in for a treat, as Blackford has been invited by the organisers of this year's World Cup to host exhibitions of his cricket paintings during matches at Sabina Park and the grand final in Barbados.
"... This is a winner, this is a seller, this is vision," said Pat Ramsay, director of Art and Culture at the UTech Centre for the Arts, in delivering the main address in front of members of the cricket fraternity and the diplomatic corps.

"This shows somebody who... has vision and implemented his vision and is able to produce."
Images of the Game Souvenir Cricket Calendar 2007 is being sold at J$1,200 per copy. Interested persons may visit the website, www.imagesofthegame.com, to order framed copies and signed and unsigned prints done on matted paper.

This is a good initiative Richard Blackford taken ahead of the coming world cup tournament as it is a way of presenting the Caribbean culture of cricket. I hope this artistic idea will generate a huge amount for Mr. Blackford.