VIRGIN KING GETS NO-BALLED

Apart from one of his resorts burning down and Kate Winslet running in to save his mother from the fire, these have been quiet days for billionaire Sir Richard Branson.

All those halcyon days when he was the Man In The Hot Air Balloon, when he was charging for future space travel, when Virgin Weddings were a success, even when his reality show which tried to outdo “The Apprentice” flopped disastrously, when he was always photographed picking up Virgin Atlantic stewardesses and swinging them around, well, they seem like eons ago.

But one cannot keep a good hype merchant down.

Just like Simon Cowell needing publicist Max Clifford to boost his Google search rankings by coming up with something daft to say, Sir Richard has now sought to come to the aid of the kicked-in-the-nuts Indian cricket team.

What, we thought, isn’t this like rubbing more salt into a soggy papadum?

An Englishman wishing to help the Indian cricket team which just got battered by England in the Test series AND the One-Days played to date?

So what was Sir Richard’s offer?

With his love of many things Indian and great friendship with Vijay Mallya – “The Richard Branson of India”- nothing much more than the offer to sponsor the Indian cricket team.

However, the Board of Control for Cricket of India (BCCI) politely refused the generous multi-million-pound offer by the barking man and cricket -mad magnate.

As one of the Board official snapped:  “We can’t have VIRGIN written on our shirts when we’re getting screwed in every match in England!”

Hearing this, we were reminded of a quote by William Bennett and which can also be applied to one’s job or love life:

“Happiness is like a cat. If you try to coax it or call it, it will avoid you, it will never come. But if you pay no attention to it and go about your business, you’ll find it rubbing up against your legs and jumping into your lap.”

#VijayMallya #SimonCowell #BCCI #VirginAtlantic #MaxClifford #RichardBranson