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Suresh (sureša) is a Sanskrit word which means "Ruler of Gods"; from sur ‘god’ + īša ‘lord’, which is an epithet of the god Indra.

It is commonly used as^{[citation needed]} a synonym for the Hindu God Vishnu. It may also refer to Devendra or Shiva depending on which branch of Hinduism.

Suresh is a frequently used name for Hindu male children. It is a popular first name in India and a common family name in North America and the Caribbean. Variations of this name in Latin America include Sureza, Sureze, Cires and Cirez.^{[citation needed]} Several of these examples are found on the South-Eastern region of the Dominican Republic (La Romana, San Pedro de Macoris, Boca Chica, etc.)

People with the name Suresh[link]

• Suresh (actor), Indian Tamil-Telugu film actor
• Suresh Babu, athlete
• Suresh Gopi (born 1960), Indian Malayalam film actor
• Suresh Joachim, Tamil Canadian film actor, producer & multiple Guinness World Record holder
• Suresh Krishna (actor), Indian Malayali film actor
• Suresh Krishna (director), Indian Tamil film director
• Suresh Kumar, American economist and businessman, Director-General of the U.S. Foreign Commercial Service
• Suresh Oberoi, Indian Hindi movie actor
• Suresh Raina, Indian cricketer
• Kandaiah "Suresh" Premachandran, Sri Lankan Tamil politician and leader of the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front
• Suresh Babu Daggubati, Indian Telugu film producer

Other uses[link]

• Suresh v. Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) – a leading case of the Supreme Court of Canada

This article may contain wording that promotes the subject through exaggeration of unnoteworthy facts. Please remove or replace such wording.

Suresh Kumar Raina ( pronunciation (help·info) (born 27 November 1986) is an Indian cricketer from Gaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. His family comes from a town of Rainawari, in Jammu & Kashmir,thus the surname "Raina".^[1] Raina has been a member of the Indian cricket team for ODIs since July 2008, and was included in the Test squad in early 2006, but did not make his debut until July 2010. Domestically, he plays for Uttar Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy and Central Zone in the Duleep Trophy. He is a left-handed batsman and an occasional off spinner.

Personal life[link]

Raina decided to take up cricket seriously in 1999, and moved from his city Muradnagar, Ghaziabad, UP (near New Delhi) to Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, to attend the specialist government Sports College.^[2] He rose to become the captain of the Uttar Pradesh U-16s came to prominence amongst Indian selectors in 2002, when he was selected at the age of 15 and a half years for the U-19 tour to England, where he made a pair of half-centuries in the U-19 Test matches.^[3] He toured Sri Lanka later that year with the U-17 team. He made his Ranji Trophy debut for Uttar Pradesh against Assam in February 2003 at the age of 16, but did not play another match until the following season. In late 2003, he toured Pakistan for the U-19 Asian ODI Championship before being selected for the 2004 U-19 World Cup, where he scored three half centuries, including a 90 scored off only 38 balls. He was then awarded a Border-Gavaskar scholarship to train at the Australian Cricket Academy and in early 2005, he made his first-class limited overs debut, and scored 645 runs that season at an average of 53.75.^[4] He was selected to participate in the Challenger Series in early 2005,^[5] and after injury to Sachin Tendulkar and suspension to captain Sourav Ganguly, Raina was selected for the Indian Oil Cup 2005 in Sri Lanka.^[6]

Career[link]

Early international career[link]

Raina bowling in the nets

Raina had a difficult start to his international career, being dismissed first ball by Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan.^[7] After scoring 37 runs in the tournament at an average of 12.33, and with the return of Ganguly from suspension, Raina was omitted from the starting XI for the tour of Zimbabwe. With Ganguly being sacked after a row with Indian coach Greg Chappell and Mohammed Kaif injured, Raina played in five of the matches against Sri Lanka in India, mostly as a supersub, and made a cameo 39 not out to guide the team to victory in the fourth ODI. He was again watching from the sidelines in the series against South Africa after Kaif's return and Gautam Gambhir forced his entry into the team with a century, but got another chance to become a regular member of the Indian middle order during the 2010 tour of Pakistan, after vice-captain Virender Sehwag returned home injured. He was only required to bat in one match, in which he helped guide the latter part of the successful run chase in the fourth ODI.

Upon his return to India, he was called up to the Test squad, at the expense of former captain Ganguly, although he did not play in the Test series against England. He earned his first man of the match award in the subsequent ODI series after scoring an unbeaten 81* in a successful run-chase at Faridabad. After scoring two more half-centuries in the series at an average of 48, Raina was awarded a BCCI C-grade contract.^[8] He was selected for both squads for the tour to the West Indies, but did not make his Test debut.

After a poor run in the Malaysia Tri-Series in September and in the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy, Raina was relegated to the bench midway through the ODI tour of South Africa. This spread to the Test team, where he was dropped from the squad altogether despite the injury to Yuvraj Singh, with Ganguly and Dinesh Karthik being recalled to the team. In January 2008, Raina was recalled to the team and toured Australia for a limited overs campaign, but did not play in any of India's 10 ODIs or the one-off T20 international.

After a strong IPL season in 2008, Raina broke back into the XI for a triangular ODI tournament in Bangladesh when senior batsman Sachin Tendulkar was rested from the competition.

On 25 June 2008, he scored his maiden hundred against Hong Kong during the 2008 Asia Cup. His 66 balls hundred was at the time, the second fastest century in Indian ODI history.^[9] He scored 84 of 69 against Pakistan and 116 of 107 against Bangladesh, in next two matches. Hence, he won man of the match award successively three times.^[10][11] Since then, Raina has been a member of India's full-strength ODI and T20 team.

2010 World Twenty20[link]

During the 2010 World Twenty20 in the West Indies, Raina was criticised for a perceived weakness against the short ball. With his 101 from 60 balls with five sixes and nine fours in the 2010 ICC World Twenty20 against South Africa on 2 May 2010, he became the third player to score a Twenty20 international century after the West Indies' Chris Gayle and New Zealand's Brendon McCullum. He then missed the ODI series in the West Indies because of injury. In January 2010, Raina scored 106 from 115 balls in the final of the triangular ODI tournament against Sri Lanka in Bangladesh. His innings took India to 245 after they collapsed to 5/60, but it was not enough to save the match.

2010 South Africa tour of India[link]

In South Africa's tour of India in 2010, Raina was called in the squad for the second test, but was not selected in the playing XI. He captained the Indian team for the Tri-series against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe as all the other first-choice players were rested from the tournament. India lost the first match under his captaincy against Zimbabwe by six wickets, but won the next match against Sri Lanka. The Indians then lost their remaining two matches and did not make the final.

2010 tour of Sri Lanka[link]

Raina was then brought into the Test squad for the tour of Sri Lanka in July and August 2010. He made his debut in the Second Test after Yuvraj Singh was ill. Sri Lanka made 4/642 declared and India were in trouble at 4/241 when Raina came in to join Sachin Tendulkar. Raina went on to reach a century on debut as the pair put on a double century partnership. Yuvraj recovered in time for the Third Test but the selectors opted to retain Raina. However, poor form throughout 2010-2011, including a failure to make any impact on the Centurion Test which South Africa won by an innings, he was dropped in favour of rookie Cheteshwar Pujara for the remainder of the series, in which India battled back to draw 1-1.

2011 Cricket World Cup[link]

He was on the bench through the first half of the 2011 Cricket World Cup as captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni went with the in-form Yusuf Pathan. This remained so until the group game against West Indies, which he started due to an injury to Virender Sehwag. He started against defending champions Australia in the quarter-finals as Dhoni made a strategic change, omitting Yusuf Pathan in favour of Raina. Raina responded by assisting Yuvraj Singh in a successful run chase through high pressure, making 34 from 28 balls to carry India to victory. In the semi-final against Pakistan, he batted with tailenders and scored unbeaten 36 runs without which India would have been hard pressed to bowl Pakistan out, as they ultimately did. He also fielded well in this game, taking the catch which completed Younis Khan's dismissal of Yuvraj's over.^[12] He took another catch in the final against Sri Lanka, and did not have to bat.

2011 tour of the West Indies[link]

After the World Cup Raina took over as captain of the ODI side for the tour of the West Indies after Dhoni opted to rest and Gambhir was injured. India won the series, but Raina averaged just 16.4. In the Test matches he scored 232 runs at the average of 46.4 making crucial fifties in each Test.

2011 tour of England[link]

He was selected for the England tour in July. There was a lot of debate whether who should play in first test at Lord's, Yuvraj or Raina. But a century in a practice match against Somerset sealed a place for him in the playing eleven. Aside from a half-century in the first Test at Lord's, Raina managed just 27 runs from seven innings. He struggled against short bowling and in the final Test was out for a 29-ball duck, the longest in India's Test history.^[13][14]

Raina running through a poor form in the Test series especially in the last match made some impact in the 5 match-ODI series though the team was unable to secure a win at all.He top-scored in a rain-affected game at the Lord's scoring a commendable 84 from 111 balls.In the first One Day International he scored 88, but fell to steven Finn.

Indian Premier League[link]

Suresh Raina was signed by the Chennai Super Kings for $650,000 for the first three years of the tournament.

Raina made significant contributions in the first edition of the tournament to compensate the Chennai Super Kings over the losses of key players in Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey and Jacob Oram. He played a vital MOTM performance in the last league fixture to give Chennai Super Kings the win they required to qualify for the semi-finals. Ultimately the Super Kings finished as the runners-up of the league with Raina with 421 scoring the most runs for them.

Raina found form in the 2009 IPL scoring 434 runs off the 14 games he had played at a strike rate over 140.00.He made a sensational 98 runs from 55 balls (losing his century due to scoring errors) against the Rajasthan Royals at Centurion.He was the fourth leading-run getter of the tournament and second for the Super kings behind Orange-cap holder Matthew Hayden.Raina also became the fifth economical bowler of the tournament taking 7 wickets in all.

Again in 2010 IPL, Raina's consistent batting throughout the series won him applause and became the all-time run-getter of the league surpassing Australian legend Adam Gilchrist halfway down the tournament.He also captained the Super Kings for three matches in skipper Dhoni's absence and took some sensational catches in the field. He scored 520 runs in all, making him the third highest-run getter of the series and the first for Chennai. He also was awarded the "best fielder award" by the BCCI ahead of the finals.^[15] He played a vital half-century which turned the final to Chennai's tide who ultimately went on to become the champions beating the Mumbai Indians.

At the end of the season,Raina set the record for scoring the most no. of runs in the tournament, with 421, 434, and 520 and also taking the most no. of catches, two records that are still to be broken.^[16] Raina also had hit the second maximum no. of sixes behind Adam Gilchrist in the three editions of the league. He was retained by the Super Kings for the 2011 Indian Premier League along with Murali Vijay, Albie Morkel and skipper Dhoni.

In the 2011 IPL too, Suresh Raina maintained his reputation as the leading run-scorer with 438 runs, again being the only player to cross 400 do so for all the four seasons.His most crucial knock came against the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Qualifier where he played a stunning innings to get the game back to Chennai's favor.

Achievements[link]

Test Centuries[link]

Num	Score	Balls	4s	6s	Opponent	Venue	Date	Result
1	120	228	12	2	Sri Lanka	Colombo	2 July 2010	Won

ODI Centuries[link]

Num	Score	Balls	4s	6s	Opponent	Venue	Date	Result
1	101	68	7	5	Hong Kong	Karachi	25 June 2008	Won
2	116*	107	11	3	Bangladesh	Karachi	28 June 2008	Won
3	106	115	10	1	Sri Lanka	Dhaka	13 Jan 2010	Lost

T20I Centuries[link]

Num	Score	Balls	4s	6s	Opponent	Venue	Date	Result
1	101	60	9	5	South Africa	Gros Islet	2 May 2010	Won

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Suresh Raina

• Player profile: Suresh Raina from ESPNcricinfo
• Player profile: Suresh Raina from CricketArchive
• Suresh Kumar Raina on Twitter

v t e India squad – 2006 ICC Champions Trophy 1 Dravid 2 Tendulkar 3 Agarkar 4 Dhoni 5 Harbhajan Singh 6 Kaif 7 Mongia 8 Patel 9 Pathan 10 Powar 11 Raina 12 Sehwag 13 R. P. Singh 14 Sreesanth 15 Yuvraj Singh Coach: G Chappell

v t e India squad – 2009 ICC World Twenty20 3 Harbhajan 7 Dhoni(c) 45 Rohit 12 Yuvraj 84 Jadeja 28 Yusuf 5 Gambhir 30 Ojha 9 R. P. Singh 29 Ishant 48 Raina 46 Sehwag 63 Irfan 34 Zaheer 1 Karthik 8 Praveen Coach: Kirsten

v t e India squad – 2010 ICC World Twenty20 3 Harbhajan 7 Dhoni(c) 45 Rohit 12 Yuvraj 26 Jadeja 28 Yusuf 5 Gambhir 24 Chawla 08 Vijay 64 Nehra 48 Raina 46 Yadav 23 Vinay 34 Zaheer 1 Karthik 8 Praveen Coach: Kirsten Praveen Kumar was injured and replaced by Umesh Yadav halfway through the tournament.

v t e India squad – 2011 Cricket World Cup (2nd Title) 3 Harbhajan 5 Gambhir 7 Dhoni (c & wk) 10 Tendulkar 11 Chawla 12 Yuvraj 13 Munaf 18 Kohli 28 Yusuf 34 Zaheer 36 Sreesanth 44 Sehwag 48 Raina 64 Nehra 66 Ashwin Coach: Kirsten Praveen Kumar was injured and replaced by Sreesanth.

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2011)

Suresh Wadkar
Wadkar at the launch of Sonu Nigam's album Classically Mild
Background information
Born	1954 (age 57–58)
Genres	film music (playback singing), Indian classical music
Occupations	Singer
Instruments	Vocalist
Years active	1976–present

Suresh Ishwar Wadkar (Marathi: सुरेश ईश्वर वाडकर, born 1954) is an Indian playback singer. He performs in both Hindi and Marathi films.He has sung songs in some Bhojpuri films and in Konkani.

Early life[link]

Suresh Wadkar from Bhandari Caste , was born in Kolhapur at post. Dindnerli Tal. Karvir, India. At the age of 8, he began acquiring basic music education from Jialal Vasant. He soon impressed his guru with the quality of his voice. He began performing on the stage at a very early age.

Music Teaching life[link]

Back in 1968, when Suresh Wadkar was barely 13, Acharya Jialal Vasant entrusted him with a student to initiate in Tabla. A year later, he was given the responsibility of a group of youngsters to teach vocal classical. Our system of education in music makes it mandatory to teach before you appear for your graduation in music through Prayag Sangit Samiti, because there “Prabhakar” certificate is equivalent to B. Ed. and it authorizes you to teach professionally. Guruji made every child studying for Senior Diploma, to sit in the class of 1st year with an experienced teacher and learn the process of “teaching”. Suresh successfully completed his “Prabhakar” and joined “Arya Vidya Mandir, Mumbai as a music teacher. A lot of famous “stars” of today had the opportunity to learn from him.

Acharya Jialal Vasant, announced during his felicitation function organized by his students on May 1985. He said, “We continuously talk about the benefits one enjoys when one is blessed with a good Guru. But let me tell you, that every Guru looks for at least one student, who can take his torch forward. I have been, I must say, very fortunate to get ‘the’ student; I have always looked for in Suresh. I am fully confident that he will leave no stone unturned to accomplish what I desire the most – to attain excellence both as a singer & a teacher. I feel that my mission is fulfilled.”

He has a music school in Mumbai, India (www.ajivasan.com) and New Jersey/New York, USA (www.sureshwadkarmusic.com) where methodical training is given to students.

Suresh Wadkar added a new chapter in his Music life when he started the First Online Music teaching school "SWAMA" (Suresh Wadkar Ajivasan Music Academy) under Ace Open University.

Singing career[link]

Though groomed for Indian classical music, he entered the Sur-Singar competition in 1976. Wadkar won the competition which was judged by composers from the Indian film industry including Jaidev. Jaidev later offered him the song "Seene Mein Jalan" in the film Gaman (released in 1978). He also performed in the film Paheli (released 1977).

At the time, Lata Mangeshkar was so impressed with his voice that she strongly recommended him to film personalities including Laxmikant-Pyarelal, Khayyam and Kalyanji-Anandji.^[1] Laxmikant-Pyarelal, impressed with his voice, soon recorded a duet with Lata "Chal Chameli Bagh Mein" for Krodhi (released in 1981). Soon after, he was given the opportunity to perform for songs in Hum Paanch, Pyaasa Sawan ("Megha re Megha Re") and above all, his turning point in films - Raj Kapoor's Prem Rog (released in 1982).

Wadkar also produced the film Tanman.com.^[2] He was a judge on the Indian TV singing show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Little Champs International and at the 2005 Sanjeet Awards.^[3]

Suresh Wadkar has for the first time sung a song in the upcoming Tamil film Kanden Kadhalai. This film is an adaptation of the Hindi Blockbuster Jab We Met. The song is a ghazal type song called "Naan Mozhi Arindhaen".

His voice has been acknowledged to have a quality for devotional songs. He has sung numerous devotional songs in various languages.

In 1996, Wadkar sang Channeache Rati among several other songs in Rajendra Talak's Konkani album Daryachya Deger with Asha Bhosle.

In a recent program, Suresh Wadkar gave credit to Ravindra Jain for shaping his singing career.

Marathi Music career[link]

Suresh Wadkar has worked with some of the top class Marathi music directors like Pt.Hridaynath Mangeshkar, Sudhir Phadke, Shrinivas Khale, Shridhar Phadke, Vasant Desai, Ashok Patki, Anil-Arun etc. Some of his notable marathi songs are:

• Dayaghana with pt.Hridaynath Mangeshkar
• Kaal dehasi ala khau with Shrinivas Khale
• tula pahile mi with Shridhar Phadke
• Omkar swaroopa
• Pahile Na Mi Tula

Stage Performances[link]

Suresh Wadkar often performs with other legendary artistes such as Zakir Hussain, Shrinivas Khale, Hridaynath Mangeshkar, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhonsle, and Kavita Krishnamurthy for numerous stage performances.

Personal life[link]

Wadkar is married to classical singer Padma.^[4] He has two daughters, Ananya and Gia.

Awards[link]

In 1976, Wadkar won the Madan Mohan Best Male Singer Award at the Sur-Singar competition.^[5]

He also won the 2007 Maharashtra Pride Award which is given by the government of Maharashtra to citizens of note.^[6]

He is also a recipient of the Lata Mangeshkar Puraskar instituted by Madhya Pradesh government.

In 2011, he won the National Award for Best Male Playback Singer for Mee Sindhutai Sapkal (Marathi).

Collaborators[link]

Suresh Wadkar has sung for a variety of composers in the Indian film industry. These include:

• Shrinivas Khale (Marathi)
• Shridhar Phadke (Marathi)
• Anil-Arun
• Laxmikant Pyarelal
• Kalyanji Anandji
• R.D. Burman
• Ilayaraja
• Ravindra Jain
• Bappi Lahiri
• Khaiyyam
• Usha Khanna
• Arun Paudwal
• A.R. Rehman
• Vidyasagar
• Nadeem-Shravan
• Vishal Bhardwaj
• Rajesh Roshan
• Raamlaxman
• Shiv-Hari
• Jatin-Lalit
• Hridayanath Mangeshkar
• Shridhar Phadke
• Anand-Milind
• Anu Malik
• Himesh Reshammiya
• Shanker
• Ravi
• Chitragupta
• Jaidev
• Brahma Kumaris
• Kaushal Inamdar

Selected filmography[link]

• 7 Khoon Maaf(2011)
• Kanden Kadhalai(2009) (Tamil)
• Kaminey (2009)
• Ek Vivaah... Aisa Bhi (2008)
• Omkara (2006)
• Vivah (2006)
• Bal Ganesh (2006)
• Indra (2002)
• Hu Tu Tu (1999)
• Sar Utha Ke Jiyo (1998)
• Satya (1998)
• Maachis (1996)
• Prem Granth (1996)
• Rangeela (1995)
• Guddu (1995)
• Aaina (1993)
• In Custody (1993)
• Parampara (1992)
• Dil Aashna Hai (1992)
• Thalapathi (1991)
• Lamhe (1991)
• Lekin... (1991)
• Henna (1991)
• Kurbaan (1991)
• Aaj Ka Samson (1991)
• Patthar Ke Phool (1991)
• The Blow (1991)
• Shiva (1990)
• Parinda (1989)
• Bhrashtachar (1989)
• Toofan (1989)
• Purani Haveli (1989)
• Chandni (1989)
• Hero Hiralal (1988)
• Libaas (1988)
• Thikana (1987)
• Hifazat (1987) directed by Prayag Raj
• Ram Teri Ganga Maili (1985)
• Utsav (1984)
• Sadma (1983)
• Masoom (1983)
• Disco Dancer (1982)
• Prem Rog (1982)
• Hum Paanch (1980)
• gaman (1978)
• Paheli (1977)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Suresh Wadkar at the Internet Movie Database
• Suresh Wadkar sings Marathi ghazal

Billy Bowden

Personal information
Full name	Brent Fraser Bowden
Born	(1963-04-11) 11 April 1963 (age 49) Henderson, New Zealand
Nickname	Billy
Umpiring information
Tests umpired	70 (2000–present)
ODIs umpired	165 (1995–present)
T20Is umpired	19 (2005–present)
Career statistics
Source: Cricinfo, 4 February 2012

Brent Fraser "Billy" Bowden (born 11 April 1963) is an international cricket umpire from New Zealand. He was a player until he began to suffer from rheumatoid arthritis and took up umpiring. He is well known for his dramatic signalling style which includes "crooked finger of doom" out signal.^[1]

Career[link]

In March 1995 Bowden officiated his first One Day International between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at Hamilton. In March 2000 he was appointed his first Test match as an on-field umpire, and in 2002 he was included in the Emirates Panel of International Umpires. A year later he was asked to umpire at the Cricket World Cup in South Africa, and was chosen to be the fourth umpire in the final between Australia and India. Shortly after this he was duly promoted to the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Umpires, of which he is still a member. He reprised his role as fourth umpire in the 2007 Cricket World Cup final and was involved in the wrong decision that caused the match to end in darkness.^[2] Bowden was involved in an incident at the 2006 Brisbane Ashes test while standing at the square leg fielding position, when knocked to the ground by a ball hit by Geraint Jones.^[3] In January 2007, Bowden became the youngest umpire to officiate in 100 ODIs during the New Zealand and Sri Lanka match at Hamilton, which corresponded exactly with his first ODI in 1995. Simon Taufel bettered that record a few days later.

Signals[link]

Suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, it was too painful for Bowden to signal a batsman out in the conventional fashion,^[4] with a straight index finger raised above the head, and this led to the "crooked finger of doom". He has also put his own slant on several other signals, including a "crumb-sweeping" wave of the arm to signal four, and the "double crooked finger six-phase hop" to signal a six. His signals are sedate in Tests, more flashy in ODIs and decidedly flamboyant in Twenty20. His behavior has attracted him both fans and critics alike. Martin Crowe has referred to him as Bozo the Clown,^[4] and at least one commentator has said he should remember that cricket is for the players and fans, not for the umpires.^[5] However there was the suggestion that he needs to do the signals in the way he does because of his arthritis, as he needs to keep his body fluid.^[4]

International Umpiring Statistics[link]

As of 4 February 2012:^[6]

	First	Latest	Total
Tests	New Zealand v  Australia at Auckland, Mar 2000	England v  Pakistan at Dubai, January 2012	70
ODIs	New Zealand v  Sri Lanka at Hamilton, Mar 1995	India v  Sri Lanka at Sydney, February 2012	165
T20Is	New Zealand v  Australia at Auckland, Feb 2005	New Zealand v  Pakistan at Auckland, Dec 2010	19

Awards

ICC Bronze Bails Award for 100 ODIs.

References[link]

1. ^ Billy Bowden Signaling Style Photos
2. ^ Malcolm Conn (2007-05-02). "Neutral umpires have failed". www.theaustralian.news.com.au The Australian. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21656083-5001505,00.html. Retrieved 2008-12-16. 
3. ^ "Quick Singles: Jones 1 Bowden 0". Cricinfo. http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/newzealand/content/story/269761.html. Retrieved 2007-03-22. 
4. ^ ^{a b c} "Bowden breaks the mould". news.bbc.co.uk BBC. 2003-08-20. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/test_match_special/3135395.stm. Retrieved 2007-03-22. 
5. ^ Malcolm Conn (2007-01-05). "Bumble Bowden should be humble". www.theaustralian.news.com.au The Australian. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21012467-23212,00.htm. Retrieved 2008-12-16. 
6. ^ "Billy Bowden | New Zealand Cricket | Cricket Players and Officials". ESPN Cricinfo. http://www.espncricinfo.com/newzealand/content/player/36339.html. Retrieved 2011-10-14. 

External links[link]

• Billy Bowden at Cricinfo.
• [1] - Podcast site of the Beige Brigade

Suresh Gopi
Born	Suresh Gopinathan Nair (1959-06-26) June 26, 1959 (age 53)[1] Kollam, Kerala, India
Other names	Suresh
Occupation	Film actor, playback singer[2]
Years active	1965, 1986 - present
Spouse	Radhika
Children	Lekshmi (deceased), Gokul, Bhagya, Bhavna, and Madhav
Parents	K Gopinatha Pillai, V Gyanalaxmi[3]
Website
http://www.bharatsureshgopi.com

Suresh Gopinathan Nair (born 26 June 1959),^[1] often credited as Suresh Gopi (Malayalam: സുരേഷ് ഗോപി), is a national award winning Indian film actor who works mainly in Malayalam cinema; he is famous for his roles in police dramas. He is noted for his leading roles as much as his character roles. He is also famous for his philanthropic efforts.^[4]

Personal life[link]

He was born in Kollam into a Hindu family to Gnanalekshmi and Gopinathan Pillai. Suresh Gopi did his schooling at the Infant Jesus Anglo-Indian High School at Thangasseri. He graduated with a BSc in Zoology and M.A in English literature from Fatima Mata National College in Kollam. He is married to Radhika, the granddaughter of late actress Aranmula Ponnamma, and has five children: Lekshmi (deceased in a traffic accident at the age of two in 1992), Gokul, Bhagya, Bhaavni, and Madhav. He is settled at Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum) and is currently living in Sasthamangalam

Career[link]

1965: Child artist[link]

Suresh Gopi first appeared onscreen as a child in K. S. Sethumadhavan's Odeyil Ninnu (1965). It was a popular film that had Sathyan in the lead role along with Prem Nazir.

1980s: Early career[link]

He returned to acting in the mid-80s with Sathyan Anthikkad's T.P. Balagopalan M.A. (1986), where he played a prospective groom in a small scene. He went on to play supporting and villain roles. Some other roles of his include Balan in Nandi Veendum Varika (1986), Kumar in Rajavinte Makan (1986), Vinod in January Oru Orma (1987), Shekaran Kutty in Irupatham Noottandu (1987), Suresh in New Delhi (1987), Harry in Oru CBI Diary Kurippu (1988), Unni in 1921 (1988), and Aromal Chekavar in Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha (1989). He played the comic role of Inspector "Minnal" Prathapan in Manu Uncle (1988) and of Dr. Narendran in Padmarajan's Innale (1989).

He played Sethumadhavan in Siddique-Lal's blockbuster In Harihar Nagar (1990). Another role was of Christopher Luke in Viji Thampy's Nagarangalil Chennu Raparkam (1990). The film that helped him get noticed as a serious police officer was the satirical comedy Aanaval Mothiram (1990), where he played Sub-Inspector Nandakumar and co-starred with Sreenivasan.

1990s: Peak[link]

The films that made Suresh Gopi a bankable lead actor were Thalastaanam (1992), Ekalavyan (1993), Mafia (1993) and Commissioner (1994), all by Shaji Kailas and scripted by Ranji Panicker. All of them were police dramas and had, more or less, similar themes. He became immensely popular with his role as Bharathchandran IPS in the block-buster movie Commissioner. Renji Panicker's dialogues employed by Suresh Gopi in English became quite popular with the masses.

During this period, most of his films were dubbed and simultaneously released in Telugu, which made him a sensation in Andhra Pradesh.

During the early to mid 90s, he also played characters of substance in films such as Jayaraj's Paithrukam (1993), Fazil's Manichithrathazhu (1993), Sathyan Anthikkad's Samooham (1993) and Sibi Malayil's Sindoora Rekha (1995).

The success of his cop roles led to more films of such nature, where he either played police officers or other tough characters in films such as City Police (1993), The City (1994), Rudraksham (1994), Kashmeeram (1994), and Mahatma (1996), with most of them failing to get noticed.

In 1997, with Jayaraj's Kaliyattam (1997), an adaptation of Shakespeare's Othello, Suresh Gopi won the National Film Award for Best Actor for playing Kannan Perumalayan. He proved he was more than just another mainstream actor. This was a turning point in his career.

In the late 90s, Suresh Gopi was noted for playing in Joshi's films such as Lelam (1998) and Pathram (1999), again, scripted by Ranji Panicker. He played Nasrani character Chackochi in Lelam and journalist Nandagopal in Pathram where he co-starred with Manju Warrier. Suresh Gopi, Jayaram, and Manju Warrier teamed up in Sibi Malayil's Summer in Bethlahem (1998) which was a commercial success.

2000 - Present[link]

He started off 2000 with Millennium Stars directed by Jayaraj. The movie was a colossal flop and severely affected the careers of all the stars involved. But he had a success later the same year in Thenkasipattanam. After 2000, when his films were doing fairly well, he decided to stop acting in movies depicting violence, a decision he would later regret. It was also rumored that he was giving up his acting career for pursuing a political career. He acted in off-beat movies and accepted only soft roles from 2001 to 2005. With his movies failing to make an impact, he had just one release each in 2002 and 2003. In 2005, he decided to return to action movies. Ranji Panicker, scriptwriter of his most successful movie, Commissioner, directed the sequel Bharathchandran I.P.S. portraying him as the police commissioner. The movie was a super hit and was followed by a number of movies in the same genre, in which he played the typical police officer or detective. Some of them were successful, like The Tiger, Chinthamani Kolacase directed by Shaji Kailas, Nadiya Kollappetta Rathri directed by K. Madhu and Detective. All the others, such as Time, Aayudham, Thavalam, Rashtram, Pathaka, Bullet and Smart City, were flops. In between he attempted to do a different role with negative shades in Lanka which, flopped at the box office and ignited a controversy for an unaesthetic kissing scene with his female co-star, Mamta Mohandas. In 2006 he reunited with his favorite director Shaji Kailas for the movie Time, which had huge expectations but bombed at the box office. It was dubbed into Telugu as Police Ante Veedera and Hindi as On Duty, but failed to fetch better results.

Before coming to the film world, he had displayed great interest in the field of literature; his favourite authors are Bernard Shaw and Shakespeare. He is famous for his philanthropic efforts.

In 2008, Suresh Gopi appeared in multi-starrer Twenty: 20 produced by AMMA. Again, he acted with Mohanlal in Pakal Nakshatrangal, an off-beat movie directed by Rajiv Nath.