Sports India

Had Sachin Tendulkar and Sanjay Manjrekar accepted the invitation, the evening would have had every news hound agog with curiousity.

They decided to stay away and give the rumour mills some breathing space.
So while the spice was missing, there was enough star value to keep the aficionado happy.

Cricketers Sunil Gavaskar, Ajit Agarkar, Ramesh Powar and Dilip Sardesai; Formula One driver Narain Karthikeyan, sprinter Adil Sumariwala; shooter Morad Ali Khan; prominent Mumbai industrialists — the guest list was quite lengthy at the launch of a book ‘To Strive And To Soar’.

Instead of runs, milestones and records, words flew with abandon. They dwelled on topics related to Indian sports and the theme of the book.

For instance, Powar and Agarkar spoke about India’s gameplan for the tri-series against Sri Lanka and Rohan Gavaskar, coming out of the the shadow of his father, also spoke on the game.

Gavaskar used the platform to urge the business institutions to enroll sportsmen on their rolls; an endeavor the batting legend felt would provide job security to budding and talented sportsmen.

Meanwhile, Karthikeyan enjoyed his interaction with cricketers and revealed that he does often catch a game of cricket on the telly. The good news for him, of course, would be that his good friend — missing on Monday evening — would be soon found on the cricket field.