Upala KBR (DNA; January 13, 2016)


Says a source, “The Mumbai Heroes team comprising Bobby Deol, Ritesh Sidhwani, Sohail Khan, Aftab Shivdasani and Suniel Shetty, have been sweating it out of late playing rigorous cricket for their upcoming season. Recently, during one of the practice matches, since the game was a crucial and intense match, the atmosphere was heated so a volley of cuss words were doing the rounds on field.”

It was then to ease the tension and lighten up the game, that Suniel came up with a suggestion during the break. “He told the team that for every swear word mouthed by any player, the player would have to cough up a fine of Rs 5000 and the same would be given to charity. The money would go to Mumbai Heroes’s own charity, Mumbai Heroes Charity.”

Suniel adds, “I am a Mumbai street boy so I think I will give the maximum gaalis where bowling and batting are concerned so everybody just hang on! As long as I collect funds for the needy, it doesn’t matter.

Vickey Lalwani (MUMBAI MIRROR; February 25, 2014)

Mumbai Heroes, the CCL (Celebrity Cricket League) team owned by Sohail Khan, was enjoying a good run in the fourth edition of the tournament after three years of lost matches. But the spell came to an abrupt end when they lost the semi-final to Karnataka Bulldozers in Bangalore, yesterday. Mirror has the real story on what went wrong.  

A source from the team has revealed to this newspaper that there was dissention in the ranks, courtesy a rift between Aftab Shivdasani and the team’s captain Suniel Shetty. After a long-drawn rift, things recently came to a head following which Suniel walked out and returned to Mumbai mid-tournament. Salman Khan, the team's brand ambassador was not amused by the spat as the two actors allegedly came to blows during a meeting in Bhubaneshwar, just before the match against Bengal Tigers in Cuttack. An eyewitness told Mirror, "Aftab and Suniel had to be separated. The spat was full of expletives. Aftab felt that Suniel has been a biased captain while Suniel felt that Aftab is too slow a player.” Suniel then decided not to be a part of the playing eleven in the Cuttack match and was also missing when the Mumbai team played against Veer Marathi in Hyderabad. Worse still, Suniel didn’t even come to the grounds in the semis. Buzz is, Aftab and Suniel have not been on the same page for four years. A source close to Suniel, told Mirror, "Aftab who is Suniel's deputy, tends to take decisions and when Suniel tries to explian his decisions to Aftab, he throws a fit.” Added the source, "Suniel's exit affected the team adversely. Though they won the next two matches after Suniel's walkout, they lost the all-important semi final. Suniel is a good batsman and his presence may have made the difference. Moreover, his exit played on the minds of his teammates.” While Aftab chose not comment on his ' daggers drawn' equation with his team's captain, Suniel simply said, "My father has been unwell. Hence, I did not play the three matches in question."

Sonali Joshi Pitale (MID-DAY; January 28, 2014)

Looks like all is not well between Tanishaa Mukerji and Armaan Kohli. The two actors became more than close friends during their stint on the TV show Bigg Boss. Though rumours suggested that their special friendship was over, the duo was seen partying in Goa. An insider says, “Tanisha is in touch with Armaan and Saturday’s cricket match — where he played for Mumbai Heroes — was his first big public outing after the show. He was looking forward to seeing Tanishaa at the match.” A source close to Tanishaa says that Armaan was expecting her to be present at the match, but Tanishaa decided to attend an awards function on Friday night as her mother Tanuja was being felicitated at the event. “She then flew to Dubai and had no time to attend Armaan’s match. There are a few more matches which will take place in the city and she will try to attend one of them.”

Tanisha remained unavailable for comment.