Chris Gayle joins other West Indies cricket icons in thanking India for donating COVID vaccines
New Delhi, Mar 19: West Indies cricketer Chris Gayle on Friday joined a number of cricketing stalwarts from the Caribbean islands to thank India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for donating COVID-19 vaccines to their countries.
Gayle shared a message thanking India and PM Modi and called on the Indian High Commssioner there to express gratefulness.
The High Commission of India in Kingston, Jamaica and for Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos, and British Virgin Islands also posted his message on its Twitter account.
"He thanked India for gifting the COVID19 Vaccines to Jamaica and shared how much he loves being in India," it added.
Earlier, West Indies, whose cricket team is represented by players from a number of sovereign Caribbean islands, cricketing giants like legendary Viv Richards, Richie Richardson and Jimmy Adams had shared similar messages to thank the Indian government for sending the vaccines to their countries.
India has donated the COVID-19 vaccines to a number of countries as part of the "Vaccine Maitri" exercise.
Jamaican cricketer who plays international cricket for the West Indies @henrygayle thanks Prime Minister @narendramodi and people of India for providing vaccines to Jamaica as part of global #VaccineMaitri initiative of Government of India. @hcikingston pic.twitter.com/stKDSBFTPs
— Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) March 19, 2021
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The Kerala Story 2: Slow ticket sales on first day of film's release
Thiruvananthapuram/Kochi/Kozhikode (PTI): A day after the Kerala High Court paved the way for the release of the 'The Kerala Story 2-Goes Beyond' film, ticket sales of the movie are slow, but are expected to pick up in the coming days, theatre owners said.
In some theatres in the state capital, according to figures on the online movie ticket booking app, BookMyShow, ticket sales are very low.
In the PVR theatre at the Lulu Mall in Thiruvananthapuram, there were only 68 bookings till 10 am for the four shows scheduled for the day, according to BookMyShow figures.
In Kochi, Suresh, the owner of the popular Shenoy theatre, said there were around 50 per cent bookings for the four shows scheduled during the day.
"The bookings are more for the evening and night shows," he told PTI.
He said that the number of shows to be screened in the coming days will be decided based on the first day's ticket sales.
At the same time, Suresh also said that it was a slow start when the first movie -- 'The Kerala Story' -- was released in 2023.
"The bookings had slowly picked up, and there was a good collection," he said.
At Kozhikode city's Crown Theatre, a similar trend was seen last time in 2023, its owner Vinod Iyer said.
This time, the bookings are "very poor" for the four shows scheduled in his theatre for the day, Iyer told PTI.
He said that the reasons for it might be that the bookings were opened late on Friday, and people might be waiting for the reviews before making a decision.
Even in various other theatres in the city, bookings are very low, and some have cancelled shows as a result, he said.
"Hopefully, things will improve in the coming days as they did the first time," Iyer said.
A division bench of the Kerala High Court on Friday had paved the way for the release of 'The Kerala Story 2-Goes Beyond' film by staying the single judge order, which had put on hold the movie's screening for 15 days.
The bench had said that the single judge's finding that guidelines for certification have not been borne in mind by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) were "merely on the basis of a few clippings and without viewing the movie" and therefore, it "cannot be countenanced".
It had further said that once a certificate has been issued, there is, prima facie, a presumption that the authority concerned has taken into account all the guidelines, including public order.
"In the light of the afore discussions, we are of the view that the impugned order dated February 26, 2026 interdicting the release of the movie is only to be stayed and we do so. Ordered accordingly," the bench had said on an appeal moved by the film's producer Vipul Amrutlal Shah against the single judge's order.
The single judge, on Thursday, held that prima facie there was a manifest non-application of mind to the requirement of law by the censor board, CBFC.
The judge also said that "the possibility of communal disharmony or denigration of a community also being prima facie involved in the movie", and its release without scrutiny by the higher authorities would be legally improper.
The court had further said that the content of the film's teaser has "a prima facie potential to distort public perception and disturb communal harmony".
