Though she says she is yet to receive any confirmation from the office of Shah Rukh Khan, the owner of the team, the inside dope is that she is the chosen one. “I have been told that I will be singing. I am really excited and am looking forward to it,” said Usha.
As of now, the composer or the lyricist for the song has not been finalised, but Usha is already brimming with ideas for “catchy lines” to stir up cricket frenzy. “In the Garden of Eden, let’s rock the pitch!” She hums, and asks: “How does that sound?”
“How about ‘Hey, it’s the world together on the cricket field” or, ‘Rock the boat of the rivals’.” Usha surely has no dearth of ideas as she sings with her trademark infectious cheerfulness.
On the IPL Kolkata team, Usha says it is a “perfectly balanced team”. “We have the best players in the world — Sourav Ganguly, Ricky Ponting, Shoaib Akhtar — it could not have got any better,” she said.
She believes that the concept of IPL is a celebration of unity and team spirit that transcends regional, national and even international barriers. “You cheer for a team irrespective of the region, state or country to which the players belong. It is a melting pot of cultures,” she says.
And quite like her, as she points out: “I was born in Mumbai to a Tamil family. I married into a family which belongs to Kerala and I stay in Kolkata,” she laughs. She sings in more than 13 Indian and eight foreign languages.
Usha is quite hopeful that Twenty20 cricket will find a wide viewership among women. “Even those women to whom the technicalities of Test cricket does not appeal will enjoy this shorter version of the game.”