Sonu Nigam to jam with Bryan Adams

Singer Sonu Nigam will be taking the stage along with international pop singer Bryan Adams at the opening ceremony of the World Cup tournament at the Bangabandhu Stadium in Dhaka today, but the big-wigs of B-Town will be conspicuous by their absence.

Sources say that the A-lister actors are so busy that they couldn’t spare a date for a performance.

However, chief organiser of the show, Sabbas Joseph clarified that it was a conscious decision to steer clear of the Indian film industry at the opening ceremony of the World Cup. “Irrespective of their being available or not, we didn’t want to include them as we didn’t want the focus to divert from the main event.”

Sabbas informs that along with Sonu, who’ll be singing in English, the musician trio Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy will be singing in Bengali!

“We are trying to put up a grand show for the opening ceremony and have hired about 3,500 performers for it. We also have the legends of Bangladesh like Runa Laila, Sabina Yasmin and Mumtaz performing at the opening,” informs Sabbas, adding that it also includes Sri Lankan performers like be Snayushi and Iraj.

According to Ratnakar Shetty of the Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) the guest list has been drawn up keeping with the ICC (Indian Cricket Council) protocol to  include all the heads from the cricket boards of all the cricket playing nations. The other prominent guest on the list at the opening ceremony will be the Prince of Saudi Arabia and politician Arun Jaitley.