Viswanathan Anand, FIDE World Chess Champion, returned to Chennai to a tumultuous welcome at the Anna International Terminal. The bustle and din there gave way to scenes of spontaneous celebrations as airport personnel and passengers joined the well-wishers in according the four-time World Champion a warm welcome. Among the first to greet the champion were his parents, Susheela and Viswanathan.

Anand retained the World Chess Championship on May 11, defeating Topalov by a score of 6.5-5.5 in Sofia. The decisive win came in the 12th game of the match. Making light of a loss in the first game that came on the back of a 40-hour bus journey to Sofia that was occasioned by the cancellation of air traffic all over Europe, Anand raced to a one-point lead at the end of the fourth round. Though Topalov stretched Anand all the way to the 12th game, the Indian triumphed with black pieces in the final encounter to defend his title.

Cricket in India has become a highly successful commercial venture. The value of IPL, which started only there years ago, is now more than US$4 billion. As like any other commercial entity BCCI should start thinking about having separate teams for Tests and Twenty-20s. The game is vastly different and the viewers are far apart. While many Test cricket fans will continue to watch the Twenty-20 games it is not true the other way. 

Cricket Australia has started thinking on those lines for a totally different reason. The Aussie Test players are simply not able to adapt to the shorter version. Two of their biggest stars of Test cricket, who are also the Captain and his deputy, have become a failure in the Twenty-20 games which forced Ponting to pull out of the version a year back after IPL dumped him in controversial circumstances. Michael Clarke’s batting failure recently at the World 20-20 tournament will definitely cost his place in the next series.

Indian-born THOMAS LEWIS HENDERSON,  a popular taxi driver and storyteller in Melbourne, makes his theatrical debut in Robert Gough's new stage play, An Elephant in the Room.  It's an amazing story: FROM JHANSI TO MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA, TO THE STAGE AT THEATRE WORKS, ST KILDA!!!

RETURNING to the stage after more than 40 years, THOMAS HENDERSON, who cites Shakespeare's Julius Caesar as one of his favourite plays, makes his Australian theatrical debut in AN ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM!