Can cricketers jive? No, if Sourav Ganguly’s footwork in the recent Hero Honda ad is any indication. But guess who’s moving on? Ousted cricketer Vinod Kambli, part of the entertainment at the Ceat Cricket Ratings Awards held in Mumbai’s Brabourne Stadium last week, came as a surprise. In what was an apparent Page Three gig, Kambli got on stage in a can’t miss orange sweatshirt for a foot-tapping dance number with starlet Namrata Shirodkar. Ably fielding Shirodkar’s languid moves, Kambli cheerily endured flashbulbs. “The cricketers were most enthusiastic,” recalls Ceat Vice-Chairman Harsh Goenka. And Kambli? This time, he hit it off.

Twin Purposes

Amar Singh, Samajwadi Party general secretary, swears the bash won’t be so lavish next year. But last week, for the first birthday of twin daughters Disha and Drishti at Delhi’s Taj Palace, Singh got all of Bollywood—and the Indian polity—to attend.

At the cake-cutting, singers Sonu Nigam, Hariharan and Anu Malik crooned “happy birthday”. But it was Singh who got the ladies’ attention—if only they made dads like him.

All The Way to LA

The distance from Mumbai to New York, for ex-Femina Miss India-turned Miss Universe Lara Dutta, 24, is getting shorter. Dutta, who has one flat in Bandra, another in NY, is busy straddling nations. Not for a peacekeeping mission—or for sporting alliances with Derek Jeter or Tiger Woods—but to make an impressionable dent in Hollywood. To make her debut more legitimate, Dutta is now taking acting lessons from Jade Barrymore, Charlie’s Angels star Drew Barrymore’s mom. Dutta has a few films lined up in Los Angeles. But her beau in Mumbai, model Kelly Dorji, will just not say what yet.

Bankable Model

He is a role model. Now, Infosys chief N. R. Narayana Murthy, 56, a model for Microsoft in its most recent ad for Windows XP, is enjoying the goodwill the spot of modelling has generated. For the guys at Infosys, it’s nothing surprising. Says managing director Nandan Nilekani: “It is an extension of his personality.” Murthy, of course, did not get a modelling fee, but the endorsement has paid off. In September 2000, the two companies had struck an alliance for delivering e-business solutions. Murthy, obviously, has delivered.

-Compiled by Methil Renuka