NZ stand-in skipper Tom Latham loves rugby

Tom Latham during a practice session on Saturday. Pic/PTI

Just like how cricket leads the popularity charts in India, in New Zealand rugby is the No. 1 sport. And with the rugby World Cup on in France, some of the Kiwi cricketers here have been keenly following the action on TV. New Zealand's All Blacks hammered Argentina's Pumas 44-6 at the Stade de France late on Friday night to storm into a record fifth Rugby World Cup final and NZ skipper Tom Latham here in Dharamsala was up late watching on his TV Set. "I definitely stayed up for the All Blacks and watched them. It was a great contest, obviously Kiwis support each other wherever they may be around the world and we're certainly no different in supporting the All Blacks. We've had so much support back home for us here and this World Cup as well," Latham said at the match-eve press conference on Saturday.

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Anurag Thakur is omnipresent

Anurag Thakur

India's Information and Broadcasting and Sports and Youth Affairs minister Anurag Thakur is omnipresent at Dharamsala here, not physically, but through hundreds of huge posters that begin to appear en route from Kangra to Dharamsala and are then spread across the length and breadth of this beautify hilly town. "Welcome to Dharamshala" reads the posters with his photograph alongside similar posters of his younger brother and IPL chairman Arun Dhumal. The Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) office and the stadium's Media Centre also have huge murals of their former president Thakur, who was at the helm of affairs here for 16 years. It was under his watch that the picturesque HPCA Stadium took shape in 2003, a whopping 1,457 metres above sea level with the snow-capped Dhauladhar mountain ranges forming a gorgeous backdrop.