Sachin Tendulkar may want muted celebrations of his 40th birthday tomorrow but the city of joy is all set to throw a huge party for the veteran Indian batsman.
The Mumbai Indians batsman, who happens to here on the special occasion for his IPL team’s clash against Kolkata Knight Riders tomorrow, will begin the day with a customary cake-cutting ceremony at the team hotel. “We have arranged a special programme way ahead of the match (in the morning) where Tendulkar will cut a cake in front of the media and address the gathering,” Mumbai Indians team manager told PTI.
There is no confirmation as of now but it appears that Tendulkar’s wife Anjali may join him along with team owner Nita Ambani for more celebration. “He always prefers to celebrate his birthday quietly. He does not like partying and a big bash. It won’t be any different this time,” a person close to Tendulkar said. Later ahead of their 8pm match, Tendulkar will cut a giant 40-pound cake specially ordered by the Cricket Association of Bengal in the lawn outside the dressing room.
“The CAB will want to celebrate even when he is 100, and we wish him a healthy and beautiful life,” CAB president Jagmohan Dalmiya said. The chocolate cake will be made up from special cocoa from Ghana and Madagascar. “We will start preparing the cake sharp at 5am and it would take about six hours to bake,” chef Bikash Kumar said.
“40kg is no big deal as we have made bigger cakes than this but what is really big is it’s being made for the country’s icon. We are really proud of this,” the chef, who is a cricket fan and has earlier made cakes for city’s favourite son Sourav Ganguly, added.
The cake will have an image of Tendulkar and it could be that of the World Cup-winning moment of April 2, 2011.
