BOLD & BEAUTIFUL: Sania Mirza at Wimbledon

India: a million Mirzas now

After Sania Mirza had been beaten 6-4, 6-7, 6-4 by the Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova, the US Open champion, after a hard fought encounter on the Centre Court at Wimbledon last week, the veteran BBC commentator, Bill Threlfall (I think), was all praise for the Indian.

He called her “one of the most talented 18-year-olds it has been my pleasure to have seen” and added: “Remember the name ? Sania Mirza. We will hear a lot more of her.”

This we did about the girl Wimbledon had fallen in love with the very next day.

“Centre Court will want to see more of the tempestuous teenager breaking the mould of the traditional Indian woman as well as records every time she steps on a court,” declared The Times.

The Daily Telegraph said that Kuznetsova “found her Indian opponent’s booming groundstrokes too hot to handle before calling on her greater experience to squeeze through in 2hr 17min”.

In the end, genes worked in favour of the Russian, who is nearly 20. As The Independent disclosed, “Her father, Alexandr Kuznetsov, has coached six Olympic and world cycling champions including her mother, Galina Tsareva, the holder of 20 world records. And her brother Nikolai was a silver medallist at the Atlanta Olympics.”

Most poetic of all was the piece in praise of Sania by Richard Jago in The Guardian: “Through it all she had displayed a boldness, an articulacy and a love of the limelight which has brought predictions of a Bollywood career further down the line. Now she handled the Centre Court occasion debut with characteristic flair, swivelling into brilliantly struck forehands with astonishing racket-head speed, gradually overcoming her nerves, recovering from her mistakes, making a dramatic surge at the finish, and handling bristling press conferences as though they were a natural extension of her life.”

“It was a dream and I loved it,” Sania told the paper. “I have played in front of big crowds before but to be honest I was nervous. This was Wimbledon Centre Court, not any old centre court, and you just have to go out there and try to win.”

The Guardian headline summed up a memorable afternoon at Wimbledon: “Magical Mirza the centre of attention.”

Sania has certainly come a long way since I first saw her as a 16-year-old win the girls’ doubles at Wimbledon.

After her latest thrilling battle, what’s required (with apologies to Naipaul) are a million Mirzas now to bloom forth in India.

ROOM FOR ALL: Various Indian guests with John Major (right) at the unveiling of the India Room at the Oval

Major’s mark

It is a question I have been repeatedly asked since my schooldays when I made a career out of getting caught at slip for a duck. And now Sir John Major, who had come to see Sachin Tendulkar open the India Room at the Oval last week, asked me the same question: “Are you by any chance related to Pankaj Roy?”

The former British Prime Minister got a politician’s reply.

“Sometimes,” I said. “It depends.”

“Ah,” he said, his eyes brimming with admiration, taking my answer to be a yes, though I had not quite told a fib (and, in a sense, all men are brothers).

Over the years, I have written gushingly about Major, who now told me how thrilled he was to have been made a life member of the Cricket Club of India.

“I now go to India twice a year,” he added.

Thanks to fundraising by the Indian businessman Sir Gulam Noon, most of the money for the India Room has rolled in. But he needs more, partly to acquire additional photographs to hang on the walls, “including a good one of Pankaj Roy”.

Those sending a cheque for ?10,000 plus, made out to “The Oval Trust”, will have their names put up on the Honours Board and “become a part of Oval history”. The address is Sir Gulam Noon, 25 Queen Anne’s Gate, St James’s Park, London SW1H 9BU.

Farokh’s fable

One of the guests in the India Room was that most agreeable of men, Farokh Engineer, India’s legendary wicketkeeper-batsman. As a youngster I had seen him drive an England pace bowler straight back to the pavilion. In those days we didn’t often do things like that (sometimes, in my gloomier moment, I think not much has changed).

Now, he gave me his card. His house in Cheshire, is called The Far Pavilion. And Farokh’s biography, From the Far Pavilion, has been written by Manchester Grammar School teacher John Cantrell and published in England by Tempus Publishing (?20).

“It’s not been published in India yet but I have given a few copies to friends,” he tells me. “They are bringing it out in paperback ? I hope that will be available in India.”

“My wife and I bought the house 18 years ago,” he continues. “It’s a Tudor house. I just like the name The Far Pavilion, partly because of the cricket connection and partly because I like the book.”

He is referring to M.M. Kaye’s novel, The Far Pavilions, which will celebrate its 100th performance on July 11 at the Shaftesbury Theatre where it is running as a musical. The producers are planning to invite Farokh and his wife as special guests.

“Her name is Julie,” discloses Farokh.

By coincidence, the name of the heroine of Kaye’s novel is Princess Anjuli, shortened by her lover to just “Juli”.

OLD IS GOLD: Prithvi Narayan Chaudhuri (right) with Romola

Like father

The late Nirad C. Chaudhuri had affection for old England. So does his youngest son, Prithvi Narayan Chaudhuri, who is happy to be back among familiar haunts. The problem is that the familiar haunts have become unfamiliar in some ways.

“Soon the English will become an ethnic minority,” he says, with a chuckle.

He wonders what proportion of the population of London is non-white. “Half?” he suggests.

It might seem like that in parts but the correct proportion is between a quarter and a third.

“In places, you don’t hear much English,” he says.

This is not a state of affairs which entirely meets with his approval.

Prithvi reassures himself by reminding himself that the beautiful English countryside still remains largely English.

Given so many Indians want to come to Britain on holiday, the UK and Indian governments should consider short-term travel without visas ? the arrangement Britain has with the US.

Prithvi announces he has hired a car to explore the countryside. In London, apart from a matinee performance of The Far Pavilions, his entertainment has consisted of a number of English plays, a concert of Western classical music and an opera ? things which Indians living in England almost never do.

His father would have approved.

INDIA CALLING: Author Mark Kobayashi- Hillary

Tittle tattle

The British author, Mark Kobayashi-Hillary, who is very much in favour of outsourcing to India, has received an invitation from the (very progressive?) West Bengal chief minister who liked his book.

“I am speaking at the Infocom in December ? this is the big conference aimed at showcasing West Bengal to the world,” he says. “The chief minister personally saw the book and contacted the high commission in London ? the deputy high commissioner called me to pass on the chief minister’s invitation to come to Calcutta for the Infocom in December.”

In view of all the fuss over The Sun story about leakage of confidential information from Indian call centres, reserve your seats now.

Mark is updating his book, Outsourcing to India: The Offshore Advantage, which has become the bible of the business.