May 2011

Cricketer's Passion for Wheels

Cars being the most popular and luxurious mode of travelling has become an object of desire for all class of people. Lower middle class people always dream to graduate from two wheelers to four wheelers whereas high-class people yearn to own expensive and high-end cars that symbolises their social status.

As some people have a hobby of collecting stamp, coins, and antiques similarly many carry a great passion for cars. The trend has changed unlike earlier when people used to think twice before buying a car. Now car shopping has become instant with the changing generation. Every person is driven by some passion depending upon individual's taste. Apart from common person, to know about celebrities fervour is something which attracts most of us. We are always keen to know about their likes, dislikes, and passion.

Indians love cricket and cricketers. Cricketers and cars are always interlinked. In every match cricketers are often gifted with cars for various titles like 'man of the match', 'man of the series', 'best batsman', and so on. Cricketers have a great passion for cars and they are also avid collectors of them.

Along with their love for the game, Indian cricketers are known for their craze for cars. Cricket being a glamour sports is always in limelight for one or the other reason. Cricketers are believed to get enchanted by beautiful and attractive things whether they are Bollywood heroines or seducing cars.

Unlike other youngsters, cricketers afford to buy any models they want. Harbhajan Singh is completely in love with cars and being a great fan of Hummer he finally owned it during his visit to Australia. The all-time favourite star Sachin Tendulkar is also a car fanatic. This shining star of cricket not only loves driving but also has a great knowledge of this magic machine. Sachin owns a Ferrari and a BMW. He also keeps himself update on the automobile industry.

Another cricket star Yuvraj Singh was recently gifted with three fancy cars for the Twenty20 World Cup. He is a proud owner of BMW M-5, BMW M-3, and also a Merc. Yuvi loves to drive and specially his BMW M-3 convertible. Dhoni who owns a Mitsubishi Pajero also loves cars but prefers to be behind the handles than wheels.

When talking about cricketers how can we forget the Bengal tiger Sourav Ganguly who has gifted his wife Dona with Mercedes convertible. Standing apart in the crowd, Anil Kumble is not a car lover and happy with a Ford Endeavour.

Hearthrobe Rahul Dravid drives Hyundai Tucson gifted by the International Cricket Council for being the best Test Player for the year 2004. Virender Sehwag adore cars and prefers to drive his BMW 5 Series either early in the morning or late at night as it is the best time to drive in calm and relaxed way.

BMW seems to be a popular car brand among the cricketers as it is the choice of many. Rohit Sharma from Mumbai too eyes BMW. Currently, he drives Skoda Laura and dreams of buying a BMW. One of the leading batsmen Gautam Gambhir is also obsessed with cars and desires to own a BMW model. He owns Santro, Toyota Corolla and Maruti SX4 and prefers to be driven rather than driving himself.

The angry young man of cricket Sreesanth who presently drives Honda Civic nourishes his dream for a Porsche. Similar to Gautam, he too loves to be driven rather than driving himself. Irfan Pathan does not have a lavish dream of owning an expensive car and is happy with his Scorpio.

The bowler Praveen Kumar is satisfied with his Ford Endeavour. Ishant Sharma who is known to drive away opponents with his fast bowling owns a Honda City. The lad is now just waiting for the right time to upgrade to an SUV very soon. The passion and the trend of gifting cars in cricket will remain on as long as India's 'Men in Blue' will stay in victory.