Never straying? Sachin Tendulkar with wife, Anjali

Atherton on sex and Sachin

One of the more intriguing tributes to Sachin Tendulkar after he became the highest run getter in history was by the cerebral Michael Atherton, the former England captain who is now the chief cricket correspondent of The Times.

As far as he knew, Tendulkar had not an affair on tour, an odd remark but which has meaning in the English/Australian context.

“The archives recall not one single incriminating incident, not one drunken escapade, not one reported affair, not one spat with a team-mate or reporter,” noted Athers, adding, “As Matthew Parris (another Times columnist) wondered of Barack Obama in these pages recently, is he human?”

This comment on affairs is understandable. The Australian newspapers have been linking Brett Lee’s poor form recently with the breakup of his marriage, and the suggestion, that it was his wife, Liz Kemp, not the cricketer, who had allegedly had the affair.

In the past, there have been stories about Ian Botham during trips to the West Indies.

And when Shane Warne hits Britain, The Sun assigns a reporter to keep up with the divorced spinner’s liaisons with pub barmaids.

When Mohammed Azharuddin came to Britain as captain in 1996, he flaunted his then girlfriend, Sangeeta Bijlani, before his hungry team mates, which did nothing to improve their morale.

The great England hero of today is Andrew Flintoff, but during the World Cup in the West Indies, he got drunk, fell off a pedalo and was stripped of the vice-captaincy.

No wonder Atherton marvels at Tendulkar’s ability to keep to the straight and narrow.

Rupee rise

The Financial Times had an amusing take on the practice of making foreign tourists in India pay a higher charge, often in dollars, at important historical sites, whereas Indians are charged a nominal sum in rupees.

“After years of urging foreign tourists to pay in dollars whenever possible, India last November decided it had had enough,” the FT noted tongue in cheek last week.

“The culture ministry ordered the Taj Mahal and other heritage sites to insist on payment in a proper hard currency — the rupee,” it added.

Charitable act: (From left) Nisha Paul, Kate Snow and Annanya Sarin

Marathon maiden

Magic Bus, the charity for Mumbai slum children, set up by Matthew Spacie, an Englishman — a Calcutta branch is in the pipeline — has attracted enthusiastic staff in London, notably Tiffany Garside and Kate Snow.

The two, who run the charity’s London office, were also involved in organising Magic Bus’s recent gala dinner at the Dorchester Hotel which raised £200,000 net.

Kate, who is the daughter of veteran British broadcaster Peter Snow — he is best known for his excitable use of a “swingometer” on election nights to explain voting trends — told me that she had twice run the 21-km Mumbai half-marathon and would do so again.

Braving the rougher elements of the Bombay crowds is a risky venture for a pretty blonde, not to speak of the heat.

“Oh, we start early in the morning,” said Kate.

I asked about the footwear she uses on the hard concrete.

“Trainers,” she said.

Her dad, Peter Snow, has to think about footwear a bit more because he told me he was writing a book about Wellington, “the Iron Duke”, an enterprise that may take him to India.

Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), came to Calcutta in 1797 where he had a useful contact — as every schoolchild in India knows, his elder brother Richard Colley Wesley, later Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley, was Governor General of India, a sort of Snehasish Ganguly, with good police contacts, to Sourav.

Wellington, as Peter Snow will have to deal with in his book, is famous for three things:

For the scoreline after the Battle of Waterloo — Napoleon 0, Wellington 1

For his alleged quip, “The Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton”.

He gave his name to the Wellington boot, also known as a wellie, a topboot, a rubber boot, or what we refer to in India as the gumboot.

Going green: Ashima Narayan and Matthew Spacie

Wild about Ashima

Magic Bus founder Matthew Spacie brought his wife, Ashima Narayan, to the Dorchester dinner. She turned out to be almost more newsworthy.

A wildlife photographer, Ashima told me she is up for a “green” award in Britain for two of her documentaries, The Last Dance and In the Pink.

The first is about dancing bears and the rehabilitation of the Kalandar tribespeople who have traditionally trained the animals. The second is about the migration of flamingos to Mumbai where 20,000 of the birds, attracted by the nourishment in the effluent and the sewage, have been turning up at the Thane Creek near Sewri for the past 15 years.

“It turns the place pink but most people of Bombay don’t know about the flamingos,” said Ashima.

Perhaps it’s best to keep news of the migrants from the city’s top politicians.

Raja rose

These days bankers, more than most other people, need a drink — and who better to supply them than Warren Edwardes, who is a banker who set up Wines for Spice Ltd to create and sell wines that go well with Indian food.

The good Goan boy tells me: “My Raja Rose is going nationwide at Waitrose (Britain’s most upmarket supermarket).”

He owes it all to his upbringing: “I went to boarding school in India where I, as a 10-year-old, nicked the Mass wine from Father Bonaventure’s stock.”

Bi-country Bains

Missing home: Dalbir Bains

It’s easier getting an appointment with Gordon Brown than with Dalbir Bains, when she comes to London from Mumbai, where she has set up Boudoir London, a shop in Juhu which sells British lingerie, swimwear and lingerie to Bollywood and beyond.

Dalbir, who was born in Britain and worked in retail for 15 years, settled in Mumbai in December 2005 — “you cannot do business in India unless you are hands on”.

Dalbir, who is hoping to open 23 other Boudoir London outlets in Calcutta and other Metros across India, comes to London once a month.

“Thirty something” Dalbir wants better bi-country balance. “I was spending 90 per cent of my time in Bombay and 10 per cent in London. I miss London, my friends and my family are in London: I want to make it 60-40.”

Passion player

My best friend from Cannes days, Nandana Sen, who claims to have the best cleavage in Bengal and perhaps even India, is said to be on her way to London where interviews are being arranged for her to coincide with the London premiere of Ketan Mehta’s Colours of Passion (Rang Rasiya). I thought she was filming in Santiniketan.

Tittle tattle

Ranking those who have suffered most from the stock market plunge, The Guardian places Lakshmi Mittal at the top: “Widely reckoned to have been the biggest loser in the stock market rout of the past few months. The London-based boss of the world’s largest steel-maker, ArcelorMittal, has seen around £20bn slashed from the value of his personal fortune, after falling steel prices triggered a slump in the company’s share price.”

Mittal’s rivals shouldn’t get too excited for this is probably a temporary setback. I can’t see him returning to his flat in Chitpur any time in the near future.