(Shobhaa De is an established writer, columnist, opinion shaper and social commentator, who is considered an authority on popular culture.)
Half a century ago, or very nearly that, I was at a cricket match being held inside the famous Brabourne Stadium in Bombay. I was seated in a special enclosure as the guest of one of the members of the CCI Club, and it was considered a very big deal to be with this crew rather than with the genuine cricket-lovers in the stands. Most of the people around me had zero interest in cricket. But nearly every lovely lady present during that test match was either having a fling with a cricketer, or desperately wanting to have one. Remember, this was the Gary Sobers era. And Anju Mahendru had not met Rajesh Khanna at that point. If my memory serves me well, Sharmila Tagore was still a Tagore and waiting for the Noob to make her his Begum. Yes, it was that long ago... but even back then, the magnetic pull between Bollywood stars and cricketing heroes was very apparent.
While Gary and Anju broke up, predictably enough, Neena Gupta boldly went ahead and had Vivian Richard's baby (hello, Masaba!). Other liaisons followed. Like Azharuddin and Sangeeta Bijlani. But none of these saucy couplings matched the feverish passion and obsessive interest that was generated by the Imran Khan and Zeenat Aman affair. Their Indo-Pak romance had fans from both sides of the border hanging on to every scrap of gossip that was thrown at them, but the much-anticipated nikaah never happened.
When one compares the love stories of that era to later chakkars between say, a bashful Sourav Ganguly and his alleged 'temple marriage' to Nagma while his wife, Dona, was the one who kept a straight bat and stayed steadily at the crease, everything appears so damn
pheeka and tame. In today's day and age, our guys in blue appear lame beasts compared to the swashbuckling lover boys like Abbas Ali Baig, and a certain wild-haired, wild-eyed bloke (Mohsin Khan) who married our Reena Roy and took her to Pakistan to start a fresh innings. Alas, that didn't work out, and Reena is back in India, with their daughter Jannat, now renamed Sanam, while Mohsin ... err.... who cares what happened to Mohsin? It's hard to keep a track of these spinners of bhalo bhasha, on and off the field. Bhajji and Geeta Basra, Yuvraj and Kim Sharma. Suresh Raina and Shruti Hassan. Why, even Sushmita Sen and Wasim Akram!
Given the long and colourful history of such relationships, it's ironic that the cricket board is behaving like a bunch of nuns running a convent. All that nonsense about WAGs being banned from staying with their men on tour is so much baloney. Virat and Anushka have been at the receiving end of these outdated moral rules, and look at how the boy is batting! Makes one wonder, doesn't it? Sex is definitely good for the game, and the sooner those fuddy-duddy fellows banning cohabitation realise it, the better for cricket!
The World Cup beckons and we want to keep that trophy. Right? If our star cricketer is starved on any level, how will he give his best on the field? In the interests of our country's izzat, let's get those antiquated blokes to change the rules. Or bend them. Or turn a blind eye.
Let's start a campaign to get Anushka to be Virat's roomie. Come on, it's fine! Don't you want to watch him blow her kisses each time he scores a century? Forget saying, "Hawwww ji..." Remember, all they are doing is lying back and thinking of India!
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