World Markets Simplified

London Olympic organisers are investigating how a bucket of Australian-tagged condoms found its way into the athletes' village without official consent.

Australian BMX cyclist Caroline Buchanan tweeted a photograph from the athletes' village of a container of condoms with a placard reading "Kangaroos condoms, for the gland downunder" with the picture of a boxing kangaroo.

She joked that the container seemed to back up rumours that the athletes' village becomes a hot bed of activity as thousands of competitors complete their events and celebrate after years of working to get to the Olympics.

"Haha, the rumours are true. Olympic village," tweeted Buchanan, whose BMX contest starts on Wednesday.

Barcelona started the trend of supplying free condoms to athletes when the Spanish city held the Olympics in 1992, with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) endorsing the move to help AIDS awareness and prevention. The handouts came with health information.

The London Olympic organisers, LOCOG, have provided 150,000 free condoms in dispensers for the 10,800 athletes at the Games. They are supplied by Durex, part of British consumer goods group Reckitt Benckiser, which paid for the supply rights.

A LOCOG spokeswoman said they were trying to find out who distributed the so-called Kangaroo condoms, with the container shown to hold condoms from Durex rivals Ansell Ltd, an Australian company and Pasante, a private British company.

She said athletes and officials were allowed to bring products into the village for their personal use.

"We will look into this and ask that they are not handed out to other athletes because Durex are our supplier," said the spokeswoman.

Organisers tightly control which brands can be promoted at the Games, striking sponsorship deals with a limited number of companies and trying to stop non-sponsors from getting free publicity on the back of the Olympics.

A spokeswoman for Ansell said her company knew nothing about the issue and it could well be a prank.

"We have had no official participation or association with the Olympics at all," she said.

Lawrence Boon, managing director of Pasante, said his company had no involvement with the distribution of condoms in the athletes' village and he suspected it was a prank by the Australian team.

"We have no association with the Olympics but we did launch a gold condom this year for champions," said Boon.

"With such high teenage pregnancy and STD rates, we try to make people carry condoms by making them fun and interesting."

A Durex spokeswoman said Durex was "proud to be supplying free condoms for the Olympics Games" but declined to elaborate further.

The number of condoms supplied at London tops the 100,000 made available to athletes in Beijing four years ago.

In Sydney in 2000, organisers took delight in having to order 20,000 more condoms after the initial allocation of 70,000 ran out.

( Reuters, Pic: Twitter )

Cricketer Yuvraj Singh's memoir 'In Different Form', is scheduled to be published in December 2012 by Random House India.

The publishers in a press release say the memoir will be an open, candid, intimate and remarkably personal account of his journey through cancer - from denial and acceptance, from his battle to defeat the disease to the struggles he still faces.

For the first time Singh will tell, in his own words, the real story behind the 2011 World Cup when on-the-field triumph hid increasingly puzzling health problems and worrying illnesses. The cricketer says, "If I think of it my life is full of words beginning with C. I was born in Chandigarh, I became a cricketer, and through my decade as an international cricketer all I craved, along with the rest of the India team, was the Cup. This story, though, is about the new C in my life. It is the story of my cancer."

He will reveal how, plagued with insomnia, coughing fits that left him vomiting blood and an inability to eat, he made a deal with God on the night before the final to give him the World Cup, and in return God could take anything he wanted.

In the memoir he will speak honestly about the fears, doubts and lows he experienced during chemotherapy - when he lost energy, lost his appetite and lost his hair – and he had to battle to find the will to survive. And, most importantly, he will speak to other sufferers to help them come through the sadness, loneliness, fear and desperation of cancer.

Like Lance Armstrong's 'It's Not About The Bike', 'In Different Form' will be a brutally honest account of a sportsman fighting not for victory, but for his life.

Milee Ashwarya, editorial director for Ebury Press, Random House India acquired the memoir from Shruti Debi at Aiken Alexander India.

Ashwarya say, "In Different Form helps us understand Yuvraj as a cricketer and as a person through his most trying times. I felt Yuvraj’s story needed to be told, and we at RHI are delighted that he has chosen us to help him do that."

Yuvraj Singh says, "From the World Cup to cancer, the last two years have taught me a lot. In the team I am someone who feels I can help youngsters with what I have learned from my mistakes and always keep the team in great spirits. After cancer when I found out how many cancer patients there are in India, I learned that I belong to a much bigger group of people. I can imagine they may be lonely, confused, scared. So, I wanted to share my ups and downs. Guys, we are one team. I am thrilled that Random House India have joined me in giving shape to this book. I am thrilled also at the coincidence that they published Lance Armstrong’s book. I can't wait to see this book become a reality."

Random House India will publish In Different Form on 12th December 2012 in hardback and also special leather-bound edition.

New Delhi: The Congress has recommended cricketer Sachin Tendulkar's name for the Rajya Sabha and is now waiting for Tendulkar to respond to the same, according to sources. Sources say that Sachin Tendulkar may not accept the nomination. However, an official announcement was awaited.

Sources say that the Congress has offered to nominate him in the President's quota. Tendulkar along with his wife Anjali met Congress President Sonia Gandhi at her 10 Janpath Residence in New Delhi.

Although officially the Congress said that Sonia wanted to meet Tendulkar and personally congratulate him on achieving the historic achievement of scoring 100 international centuries, but sources say the main agenda was his nomination for the Rajya Sabha.

Sachin has accepted a nomination for Rajya Sabha, according to the update from sources. He is the first active sportsperson and cricketer to have been nominated to the Rajya Sabha.

Tendulkar along with his wife Anjali met Congress President Sonia Gandhi at her 10 Janpath residence in New Delhi.

Although officially the Congress said that Sonia wanted to meet Tendulkar and personally congratulate him on achieving the historic achievement of scoring 100 international centuries, but sources say the main agenda was his nomination for the Rajya Sabha.

Reacting to the reports of Sachin Tendulkar's proposed nomination, BJP leader Najma Heptulla said, "We are very happy that Tendulkar's name has been proposed for the Rajya Sabha."

"Tendulkar is a great player, we are proud of him. If he is being nominated, surely he would devote some time to Parliament," BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

However, the proposal didn't go well with people from the cricket fraternity. Cricket analyst Harsha Bhogle said, "I don't think it is the greatest idea. He doesn't have the experience of governing or doing social work. People are trying to gain mileage out of Tendulkar."

Meanwhile, the Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) welcomed the government's nomination of Tendulkar as a member of the Rajya Sabha, saying that the iconic batsman deserves such an honour.

BCCI Chief Administrative Officer Prof. Ratnakar Shetty said that the Board was happy with the government's move. "We (BCCI) are happy that Tendulkar's services as a sportsperson has been recognised. He's been a true ambassador for the country and he deserves it," he said.

In the past, eminent personalities like directors Shyam Benegal, Mrinal Sen and playback singer Lata Mangeshkar had been the nominated members of the Rajya Sabha.