Harbhajan woos youths, talks Bollywood in Lanka

Colombo, Aug 17 (UNI) Harbhajan Singh has few parallels when it comes to wooing the masses and the Turbanator struck the right chord with the Lankan youth in a hugely engrossing discussion on the intriguing Indian phenomenon of Bollywood.

First Monday's bomb blast, resulting in South Africa's withdrawal, and then incessant rain robbed the cricket-thirsty island of any real action and a motley crew had arrived to see Team India's practice at the R Premadasa Stadium and they couldn't have asked for more when Bhajji let his hair down and drew the crowd for a casual discussion.

''Who is your favourite actor in Bollywood?'' asked a youngster and Harbhajan told them to guess. Names ranged from Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty, Shahrukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan and even Amitabh Bachchan but Bhajji revealed it was Big B's son Abhishek.

Another youngster asked, ''Who is your favourite actress?'' to which Bhajji said, ''Tanushree Dutta.'' And then came a doosra from the crowd when they asked, ''who is (Mahendra Singh) Dhoni's favourite actress?'' However, Harbhajan had the entire group in splits when he quipped, ''It must be Mallika Sherawat.'' Colombo is well exposed to Bollywood and in fact the chart-toppers were played in the R Premadasa Stadium while the Bachchans and Shahrukh Khans peep out from the poster of 'Kabhi Albida Na Kehna' in the crossroads.

Harbhajan, however, was an embodiment of seriousness in the practice session and he batted, rolled his arms and then had some sleep catching practice as well.

The practice session also saw Little Master Sachin Tendulkar, coming off a shoulder surgery, practising slip catching for half an hour.

This further fuelled the speculation that he is having problems in throwing from the deeps and hence would be asked to man the slip or any other position near to the wicket.

Physio Gregory Allen King was pitching the ball and bio-mechanic Ian Frazer was with the bat for the slip catching practice.

''Don't panic, just relax,'' yelled Frazer after one catch slipped through Tendulkar's fingers.

''You can't take this one,'' Sachin shouted.

''Your hands are stiff, you just relax,'' advised Frazer.

''I don't want to hear that sound of the ball (as it thuds onto the palm),'' added the bio-mechanic and he was quite happy as the Little Master obliged.

''That's it, good job,'' Frazer said.

Even Harbhajan had something to say to Sachin.

''Paaji, I think you snatched the catch, rather than waiting for the ball to land on your palm,'' he pointed out.

Sachin, however, was not convinced and maintained he did allow the ball to come to him.

The practice session was full of innovations as Frazer had a lump of mangled rubber in his hands and it would roll and bounce every now and then and Virender Sehwag, Ramesh Powar and S Sreesanth were on their toes to catch the lump as it was rolled towards them.

Mohammed Kaif, recovering from a slight fever, meanwhile batted with a stump as Powar threw a golf ball at him.

UNI AY DH KN1404