How to set android Sqlite row number on action bar

I have successfully created a notification count on my action bar from AndrewS explanation in s/o.The count shows zero as i have not implemented any methods yet. On another activity i can show my sqlite row count with this method on my onCreate();:

int profile_counts = myDb.numberOfRows();
        myDb.close();
        txt.setText(String.valueOf(profile_counts));

I would like to duplicate the result here and show the count on my actionbar.So i tired this on my activity:

  static Button notifCount;
  static int mNotifCount = 0;

public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        // Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.
        MenuInflater inflater = getMenuInflater();
        inflater.inflate(R.menu.menu_main, menu);
        MenuItem item = menu.findItem(R.id.badge);
        MenuItemCompat.setActionView(item, R.layout.feed_update_count);
        View view = MenuItemCompat.getActionView(item);
        int profile_counts = myDb.numberOfRows();
        myDb.close();
        notifCount = (Button)view.findViewById(R.id.notif_count);
        notifCount.setText(String.valueOf(profile_counts));
}
        return true;

    }
    private void setNotifCount(int count){
        mNotifCount = count;
        invalidateOptionsMenu();
    }

But my activity crashes with the following logcat error.

05-07 06:12:48.690    3069-3069/com.snappy.stevekamau.cosmeticsapp W/dalvikvm﹕ threadid=1: thread exiting with uncaught exception (group=0xa4d8ab20)
05-07 06:12:48.690    3069-3069/com.snappy.stevekamau.cosmeticsapp E/AndroidRuntime﹕ FATAL EXCEPTION: main
    Process: com.snappy.stevekamau.cosmeticsapp, PID: 3069
    java.lang.NullPointerException
            at com.snappy.stevekamau.cosmeticsapp.MainActivity.onCreateOptionsMenu(MainActivity.java:207)
            at android.app.Activity.onCreatePanelMenu(Activity.java:2538)
            at android.support.v4.app.FragmentActivity.onCreatePanelMenu(FragmentActivity.java:275)
            at android.support.v7.app.ActionBarActivity.superOnCreatePanelMenu(ActionBarActivity.java:276)
            at android.support.v7.app.ActionBarActivityDelegate$1.onCreatePanelMenu(ActionBarActivityDelegate.java:79)
            at android.support.v7.widget.WindowCallbackWrapper.onCreatePanelMenu(WindowCallbackWrapper.java:49)
            at android.support.v7.internal.app.ToolbarActionBar.populateOptionsMenu(ToolbarActionBar.java:459)
            at android.support.v7.internal.app.ToolbarActionBar$1.run(ToolbarActionBar.java:69)
            at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:733)
            at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:95)
            at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:136)
            at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5001)
            at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
            at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:515)
            at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:785)
            at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:601)
            at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)

Obviusly i'm not doing it right but i am stuck on this.Any help or suggestions will be appreciated.If you need more code,let me know.

On my database:

 public int numberOfRows() {
        String countQuery = "SELECT  * FROM " + CONTACTS_TABLE_NAME;
        SQLiteDatabase db = this.getReadableDatabase();
        Cursor cursor = db.rawQuery(countQuery, null);
        int cnt = cursor.getCount();
        cursor.close();
        return cnt;
    }