Cricket Mania With Sachin Virat and Beckham. Two days on from David Beckham’s appearance in the stands at India’s World Cup semi-final triumph in Mumbai, the Bombay Times was still running adoring spreads on Friday morning, with supplementary pictures of Beckham mooching and beaming and attending a very fancy party, dressed as ever like the reigning world over-45s BMX champion.
The Times noted that Beckham had been seen “interacting with Sachin Tendulkar”, a choice of verb that makes him sound like a rescue dog or a mute Victorian child. Much was made of Beckham’s role in India as an anti-poverty ambassador, the classic parable of a very, very rich man sitting in very, very expensive seats in a city where nine million people live in slums – and doing it all in the name of the poor, who will no doubt be delighted when the news finally filters down.
