Man who predicted 2011 World Cup victory says Team India will succeed overseas

Narendra Bunde, a resident of Nagpur and a ‘cricket astrologer’ by profession, had “predicted” some months ago that Mahendra Singh Dhoni, now 36, would be playing in the 2019 World Cup in England, at a time when many questioned his place in the limited-overs team.

He is known to have got his predictions right about Sachin Tendulkar’s comeback from the tennis elbow injury, his Bharat Ratna honour, Sourav Ganguly’s comeback, India’s World Cup triumph in 2011, the astrologer says that time has come for Virat Kohli‘s team to taste success abroad.

I can foresee that

Apart from that, he is confident that Kohli will soon strike an endorsement deal unheard of in the history of Indian sports. “I predicted about Dhoni when people were talking all sorts of things against him. Look at the results in the past four months. I can foresee that he will be very much there in the 2019 World Cup,” said Bunde, as reported by DNA.

Regarding the current India captain, he says, “What Kohli will soon be signed up for is like what (Mark) Mascarenhas did with Sachin (Tendulkar). In fact, it’s going to be bigger than that in today’s age. Kohli’s Venus is very strong at the moment and that is why he will do well abroad.”

India are presently touring South Africa and will travel to England in the summer followed by a tour of Australia.

“I mean it will be not as bad as in the past when the opposition would whitewash us. According to his stars and planetary positions, there are chances of positive results in places like New Zealand and Australia.”

In the 1990s, it was Mascarenhas who changed the game of celebrity management and turned Tendulkar into a multi-millionaire. Bunde, earlier a jeweller, said that he had taught himself to see the future by reading books on the subject and picking the brains of renowned astrologers.

Interestingly, many cricketers have sought his advice, including Sourav Ganguly, Murali Karthik, S Sreesanth, Zaheer Khan, Gautam Gambhir and Suresh Raina. Even actress Preity Zinta had sought his guidance when her IPL franchise Kings XI Punjab was going through a torrid time.

The Indian women’s team reached the final of the ICC World Cup last year, and Bunde says skipper Mithali Raj, too, took tips from him. And so did Vidarbha captain Faiz Fazal, under whose leadership, Vidarbha won their first-ever Ranji Trophy.

“I spoke to Faiz Fazal and asked him to wear number 24 in the domestic one-day games. He did that. As for Mithali, I asked her to wear number 33 jersey and it eventually proved lucky for her,” he was quoted by DNA as saying.