By Hindustan Times

Mumbai, June 27 -- Sameera Reddy is upset. She has tickets to the Football World Cup final in South Africa but will not be able to catch the action 'live'.

She has two films, Red Alert-The War Within, and a Malyalam film with Mohanlal, Oru Naal Varum, coming up and will have to be around to promote them.

Sister Sushma will take her place while Sameera will be watching the match on her telly.

"My gut feeling tells me that either Brazil or Argentina could win. It's nice to see Diego Maradona in a suit. He is a great coach," she smiles. "Of course, we've already had some big upsets. Switzerland beating Spain, Italy and France bowing out in the first round and even Geece making an early exit. The Greek side of my family (sister Meghna is married to a Greek) are so depressed."

Sameera was in Paris recently for the final of the French Open at the Roland Garros. She had booked her seats in advance and was within handshaking distance of the players.

"There was pin-drop silence throughout the match till Rafeel Nadal hit the winning shot. Then, loud cheers broke out. When Nadal fell on his back, I wanted to hug him," she reminisces. Did she? "If I had, I'd have lost my mind and never come back," she laughs. "I hope we have a Federar (Roger) and Nadal final at Wimbledon. I had thought of going for that one too but work scores over play," she sighs.

Sporty Sam was also a regular at the IPL matches. She hopes to be back in the stands in Season 4 as well and wouldn't mind being the mascot for a team. There may be feelers from the Kochi team but there's still months to go before IPL returns, she points out.

What about ex-IPL commissioner Lalit Modi? "I hope he returns too. He did put together one of the most powerful sporting events that took the world by storm and gave a boost to Indian cricket. I don't know what went wrong where. But I hope the controversies around cricket are cleared soon and the spirit of the game triumphs," she asserts.