Jonty Rhodes, after Navjot Singh Sidhu, for Bigg Boss 5?

Given the kind of information being supposed ‘deliberately leaked’ and in the age of media speculation and over hype, it is hard to sift reality from the made up. The news of Jonty Rhodes joining former Indian cricketer, Navjot Singh Sidhu, in the house for Bigg Boss 5 certainly falls in that category.

Jonty Rhodes

Although the Champions League Twenty20 2011 seems to be primarily on the agenda for cricket lovers, it would appear there is another place where cricket weds entertainment. There was not much of a surprise when Sidhu’s name was once again associated with the reality television show. After all, his name had also previously come up although sources close to the show claim that this time they have the vociferous cricketer turned commentator/cricket expert signed on the dotted line. However, nothing can be confirmed until the 5th season of Bigg Boss gets underway.

If yesterday’s story was about the possibility of Lady Gaga joining Bigg Boss 5 in India, Friday’s buzz has been about the former South African cricketer – the livewire fielder who now serves as the fielding coach, Jonty Rhodes, could well join Bigg Boss 5 to be co hosted by Bollywood heavyweights, Salman Khan and Sanjay Dutt.

Rhodes, not averse to adventure and travel, would have perhaps fit better in other reality shows. However, there seems to be novelty about having him in the house as the foreign guest ‘atithi’ although it is unclear how Rhodes will manage to do that with overlapping assignments. Inmates of Bigg Boss are usually contracted for three months wherein they will be locked in and although Rhodes apparently is fair game, there are several factors that are going to have to be worked out before that does become a reality.

It is always something of an amusement when the names of cricketers are associated with such popular reality shows although thus far, Salial Ankola bit the dust early in the inaugural year due to personal problems and Vinod Kambli had only a guest starring appearance, if you will, in that he used the little time to apologise and win over Sachin Tendulkar and make a case for the IPL but failed to entertain the audience enough to stay along. In that perhaps, the cricketers have not lived up to their celebrity star billing in India and while the house will certainly boom with the voice of Sidhu if he does manage to get caught this time by the television channel, there may be a few vibrations and bustle about the place if Jonty Rhodes gets on board.

Perhaps the person who gained the most, coming with cricket in the background has been Veena Mallik, the Pakistan actress and Pakistan cricketer Mohammad Asif’s ex-girlfriend who walked away with plenty of personal publicity enough to cause a stir and the buzz all around, match fixing allegations left well behind.

If this was merely more speculation generation on the part of the television network to garner early hype, poor joke. If it is indeed creditworthy news, it should be interesting if Jonty Rhodes can manage to create the buzz that Pamela Anderson’s brief two day presence managed to create.