Royal Challengers Bangalore star batsman Chris Gayle, the darling of Bangalore’s cricket fans because of his big-hitting abilities, is now set to win many admirers in the Kannada film industry - known as Sandalwood. Gayle has reportedly been attending Sandalwood star parties and audio launches and such is his popularity that his face can be seen on posters of Kannada movies plastered on the walls alongside the industry’s top actors.

Recently, Gayle was the chief guest at the audio launch of the film Kiladi Kitty, prompting crowd frenzy akin to that at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, the Royal Challengers’ home ground. Having released the movie's soundtrack, Gayle thrilled the audience by dancing to a song from the film along with Haripriya, its lead actress. His footwork is obviously as good as his handwork.

Australia’s captain Michael Clarke, known for his cover drive, is going to try driving of a different kind when he makes an appearance in next week’s International Rally of Queensland. Clarke will compete in two stages of the race between May 25 and 27. The rally has attracted some of the biggest names in the sport, including former world rally championship stars Alister McRae and Chris Atkinson. Clarke will drive alongside Mark Stacey, who has competed at international level for two decades, and said he was looking forward to racing against the best.

“It’s pretty well known that I have a passion for driving, but a part of me has always wondered what it would be like to go up against the best in the business,” Clarke said. “There’s no doubt that rally driving is one of the most exhilarating sports around and, as someone who puts my heart into everything I do, this is a great opportunity to mix it with some of the world’s best drivers.”

Shahid Afridi is set to become the second Pakistan cricketer, after Imran Khan, to feature in a biopic. The movie titled ‘Main Hun Shahid Afridi’ [I am Shahid Afridi] attempts to capture the struggles and achievements of the cricketer at the start of his career. According to the Pakistani media, 19-year-old Noman Habib, himself an aspiring cricketer, plays Afridi in the film. Producers say that more than half the film has already been completed and that stadiums in Karachi and Sialkot were used for filming.

Australia fast bowler Brett Lee, better known for dishing out chin music on the green, is now focusing on music of a different kind; music therapy. Lee launched India’s first Music Therapy Academy in Delhi to train Indian musicians to bring children as well as grown-ups affected by trauma, illness or cognitive challenges into the national mainstream.

“Music is widely undervalued as a powerful tool to help people overcome trauma, deal with disabilities, express themselves and respond to treatment when suffering from physical and psychological ailments,” Lee said. “It is my hope to see many more of these academies established across India to train musicians to use their talent to transform lives of those less privileged.”

Lee said that music has helped him cope with several personal crises which included a divorce in 2008. “I turned to music during professional problems, during the personal crisis that I endured a few years ago. Music provided relief after a bad day in cricket and everything else. Music therapy has been brilliant for me," he said.

There are Sachin Tendulkar fans and then there is Ratilal Parmar, who has spent a fortune collecting currency notes having numbers associated with the numerous landmarks littered across Tendulkar’s career. Parmar’s latest acquisition is a ten-rupee note bearing the number 240412, the date of Tendulkar’s 39th birthday.

"I wanted to do something different. That is why I started collecting currency notes that match his records and important dates. I have kept track of his entire career this way," Parmar, 56, told Mid-Day from Morbi, a town in Gujarat, India.

Despite going to great lengths to accumulate his treasure, Parmar has met Tendulkar only once, during the Ahmedabad Test of 2010 against New Zealand. Parmar’s desire now is to gift the unique collection to Tendulkar, of course, during a personal meeting. "I want to present Sachin with the notes associated with his milestones, especially the 100th international ton [Parmar has a note numbered 160312 which is the date when Tendulkar reached the record against Bangladesh in Dhaka].

Parmar has had to put a lot of money where his heart is. “This isn’t easy to do. I must have spent nearly Rs 10 lakh [one million] to collect these notes,” Parmar said. “I knew some people in banks and they would help me find notes matching a particular event. At times, I would have to plead with them." Now who said being a fan involved only emotional investment?

Cricket may have missed the cut for the Olympics but there's a chance it might return to the Commonwealth Games in 2018. Mark Stockwell, the chairman of the Gold Coast CWG, has said that cricket would add an extra bit of magic to the event. The issue was also discussed by the ICC in Dubai recently and the feasibility of including cricket at the CWG is being studied. Cricket was last played at the CWG in Malaysia in 1998 – South Africa won that event – and the driving force for cricket's inclusion that time was Tunku Imran, who is now chairman of the CWG Federation sports review committee. “If the ICC agrees, we could have the sport in the 2018 CWG," Imran said. "But it is not going to be easy.”

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the India captain, will soon be launching a chain of gymnasiums across the country. According to the Economic Times, Dhoni has started a company called SportsFit World Pvt Ltd, which has plans to open 200 gyms over the next five years. Arun Pandey, Dhoni’s manager, said the first four of these gyms, to be called SportsFit, should open within the next eight weeks. Pankaj Guliani, the company’s chief executive, said the gyms will focus on performance-based fitness. "As wicketkeeper and batsman, Dhoni does a minimum of 540 squats in one day of a Test match. So our entire objective is to set new standards of fitness among Indians.” The first SportsFit gym will open in Gurgaon, spread across 25,000 sq ft. It will be followed by gyms in Delhi, Chandigarh and Faridabad. Guliani said SportsFit intends to be "the country's most ambitious fitness brand".

The list of Australian cricketers who have succeeded in other sports is small but select. Victor Richardson (baseball), Keith Miller (Australian rules football), Brian Booth (hockey) and Dirk Nannes (skiing) are just a few of the men who have dabbled in other fields. Greg Blewett might be the next somewhat surprising name on the list.

Blewett has been selected to represent South Australia at an interstate teams golf tournament in May. And while it's an amateur competition and Blewett has no immediate plans to take his golfing skills on the professional tour, he hasn't ruled out the possibility of taking the sport further, particularly in ten years' time when he would qualify for the seniors tour.

"Being around some of the pros and some of the top amateurs, I’m a fair way off," Blewett told the Australian Cricketers' Association. "I’m fairly realistic – I’m 40 years of age and am really happy with my employment at the moment, so I just can’t give all that up and have a crack. If you’d really want to do it you’d have to sink a lot of time into it. That’s just not an option at the moment. I’m going to keep trying to get into some amateur events, keep practising and then see what happens after that.

"Maybe more realistically, I can join the seniors’ tour, which you can compete in once you reach 50. Try and get my experience up until then, but in the meantime I don’t have any real ambitions of hitting the pro circuit."

Blewett plays off a handicap of +2 and turned down the chance to commentate on Australia's Test tour of the West Indies so he could play in next month's tournament. One man who is in the Caribbean is Ricky Ponting, an outstanding golfer in his own right, and the man Blewett credits with influencing his golf while they were both Test cricketers.

"We played a bit when we were on tour," Blewett said. "He’s always been better than me. He comes from a real golfing background, so he set the standard."

Former England ODI captain Adam Hollioake, who played his last first-class match in 2004, is now getting ready for another fight. In fact, he is embarking on a new career in the world of mixed martial arts (MMA). His opening fight takes place in Gold Coast Convention & Exhibition Centre in Queensland, Australia on May 5.

“I think a lot of people are wondering why I’m doing it. It’s something I’ve loved from a young age. It’s a strange thing to actually like, (but) I’ve always had a love for fighting, not in a thug kind of way, but more in the arts and skills and all the other mental aspects that are involved. It seems a strange thing to go from cricket to fighting, but it’s something that I actually enjoy," he told The Mirror.

Hollioake has been working on his skills in boxing, muay thai, wrestling and jiu-jitsu. Even though he is trading his cricket bat for a pair of 4 oz gloves, he might surprise his opponents with his footwork, hooks and uppercuts.

A ride on the metro descended into chaos © Hindustan Times

What happens when recognisable faces like Virender Sehwag, Irfan Pathan and Umesh Yadav decide to go for a ride on the Delhi Metro? Chaos. The cricketers had been invited for a short ride by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation as part of a tie-up with IPL franchise Delhi Daredevils to raise awareness among commuters about making proper use of the public transport system. But a sighting of international cricketers in public generally descends into confusion and disorder in India. So it did at the INA metro station, as people pushed around for a closer view of the players, who made a quick exit a couple of stops later at the Udyog Bhawan station.

“The idea was to raise awareness about keeping the trains and platforms clean, not obstructing train doors and standing behind the yellow line [on platforms]. But there was utter chaos,” a metro official told DNA.

As part of the tie-up with Delhi Metro, Sehwag and other Daredevils players will also feature in audio and video awareness messages to be played at stations. One wonders if that would lead to better commuting habits among metro users. At least there won’t be any chaos.

Ryan Harris had to be summoned from the toilet in order to help complete a dramatic victory for Australia over the West Indies in Bridgetown. Harris' captain Michael Clarke had chosen to make a shuffle to the lower order batting, promoting both he and Ben Hilfenhaus above Peter Siddle after they made significant contributions in the first innings. Now slated to bat at No. 8 at the fall of the sixth wicket, Harris required a comfort break as Australia drew nearer to the target. But the loss of Matthew Wade's wicket forced a brief moment of panic when Harris wasn't visible on the balcony. Team-mates rushed in to get him, and he was soon trudging out to help collect the remaining runs. After the match, Clarke explained his decision while Harris chuckled about his toilet break timing.

“The way Ryano and Hilf batted in the first innings, they were full of confidence and that was my reason for it,” Clarke said. “I think the time they had in the middle, they had seen the conditions in the first innings and were used to that batting and were confident. They'd both scored runs against that opposition in the first innings so whatever we needed I thought those two guys could do it.”