Captain Hope

For someone who was not even in the reckoning for captaincy over a year ago, Mahendra Singh Dhoni has shown his mettle. Abhijit Chatterjee, M.S. Unnikrishnan and Shiv Kumar write on facets of the dashing cricketer and his impact HE is bold. He is bright. For a cricket-loving nation he is a harbinger of good times. He has helped mould a team, which was slipping, into a fighting squad willing and able to take on the best in the world. In just one year, India’s ODI captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has set new standards of performance. And, as the copy of a popular soft drink says, he has brought home one World Cup during his short stint as captain, even though it is in the Twenty20 format. In many ways, Dhoni’s career has an uncanny resemblance with that of another accomplished player — Kapil Dev.

ADvantage Dhoni
Sachin Tendulkar reigned for nearly two decades as the highest paid Indian sportsperson, a tribute to the marketing genius of his image consultant, the late Mark Mascrenhas. The Master Blaster followed the road map to a T, laid down by Mascrenhas who died some years ago. And it paid Tendulkar rich dividends.

ABC of MSD
Mahendra Singh Dhoni has proved his credentials in the abridged versions of cricket with a remarkable authority. He led India to triumph in the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa last year, and then recorded an ODI series win against the home team in Australia.

Singing for a cause
Suneeta Rao’s latest album Waqt is an emotional appeal to check female foeticide,
writes Nutan Sehgal
Suneeta Rao has been reigning as a singing diva for almost two decades now. Her voice, coupled with her fiery performances, had put her in the forefront of Indipop in the 1990s. She continues to remains a force to reckon with. Eight years after she hit box office gold with Ab Ke Baras, Suneeta is back with Waqt, a raga-based album, parts of which are devoted to the girl child.