Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Monday, October 4, 2010
IPL saga: BCCI likely to scrap Kochi team
New Delhi: Continuing their strong stand against the IPL Kochi franchise, the BCCI is likely to scrap the Kerala-based team after its owners failed to resolve their differences.
Sources told CNN-IBN that the new IPL franchise is likely to be scrapped by the BCCI due to an ownership row.
The Spat between franchise owners has reached an 'irreconcilable' position," sources said adding, "The four share-holders don't want Rendezvous to operate with 25 per cent sweat equity."
"Share-holders want Rendezvous to bring investments worth 25 per cent sweat equity."
It is also learnt that former minister of state for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor in an attempt to resolve the crisis has called for a meeting. However, the warring group is unlikely to meet Tharoor to resolve the differences.
"It would be truly tragic if the team were disqualified because you all were unable to follow through on your commitments to each other and to the cricket-loving public. It is not too late to save the day, but it is perilously close to becoming unsalvageable. I urge you to act with wisdom and statesmanship at this time rather than allow all the effort and expense already made to go to waste," said concerned Tharoor.
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Sources told CNN-IBN that the new IPL franchise is likely to be scrapped by the BCCI due to an ownership row.
The Spat between franchise owners has reached an 'irreconcilable' position," sources said adding, "The four share-holders don't want Rendezvous to operate with 25 per cent sweat equity."
"Share-holders want Rendezvous to bring investments worth 25 per cent sweat equity."
It is also learnt that former minister of state for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor in an attempt to resolve the crisis has called for a meeting. However, the warring group is unlikely to meet Tharoor to resolve the differences.
"It would be truly tragic if the team were disqualified because you all were unable to follow through on your commitments to each other and to the cricket-loving public. It is not too late to save the day, but it is perilously close to becoming unsalvageable. I urge you to act with wisdom and statesmanship at this time rather than allow all the effort and expense already made to go to waste," said concerned Tharoor.
Executive Team Building
One Stop Company for Promotional Activites in Asia, Contact Us Today
www.gingerevents.com Play REAL Fantasy Cricket
Sunday, October 3, 2010
LONDON: Corruption in sport destroys the credibility of the afflicted game, erodes spectator support and jeopardises commercial contracts.
Its particular evil, as the recent one-day cricket series between Pakistan and England demonstrated, is to fracture the unwritten contract between athlete and spectator. Sport loses all meaning if it is not played within an agreed set of rules.
Distrust and rancour, including open hostility between the teams, accompanied the Pakistanis throughout their seven one-day matches against England, culminating in a clash between England batsman Jonathan Trott and Pakistan fast bowler Wahab Riaz in the nets at Lord's.
The bad feeling followed the suspensions of Pakistan test captain Salman Butt and his two leading pace bowlers Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif after newspaper reports that they arranged for no-balls to be deliberately bowled in the fourth test against England at Lord's last month.
The trio have maintained that they are innocent of spot-fixing, an offence which carries a maximum life ban. They and Riaz have also been questioned by police.
Spot-fixing, or manipulating individual incidents within a match for financial gain, may not necessarily alter the outcome of a match. But it is an insidious disease which, when detected, creates a poisonous atmosphere of suspicion and distrust.
Although athletics remains the central sport of the summer Olympics, it has suffered a probably irreversible slump in popularity outside its European strongholds after a series of doping scandals showed spectators could not believe what they were seeing.
Its supporters could at least argue that track and field athletes take banned drugs to enhance their performances, unlike corrupt cricketers who cheat fans by taking money to deliberately under-perform.
The 2000 match-fixing furore, after which international captains Hansie Cronje (South Africa), Salim Malik (Pakistan) and Mohammad Azharuddin (India) were banned for life led to a rash of ill-informed articles about the besmirching of a noble game.
LORD'S BOOKMAKERS
In fact the game was partly founded in gambling, as noted by cricket historian Rowland Bowen, whose 1970 book “Cricket. A History of its Growth and Development” is a masterly riposte to some of the more sentimental nonsense peddled about the game's inherent moral superiority over other sports.
“There have been always been different kinds of gambling in the game,” Bowen wrote.
“The harm came when individuals started backing themselves or their teams or when others started 'selling' matches.
“Some attempt was made to suppress the evil, at Lord's, in the early 1820s but it cannot have been successful or permanent, for bookmakers were still at Lord's 50 and 60 years later and of course almost to the end of that time players were accused of selling matches.”
Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif, who gave evidence to the Pakistan judicial inquiry into match-fixing first convened in 1998, said match-rigging had to be viewed in the wider context of acknowledged malpractices in, for example, horse racing and soccer.
“To me, it (match-fixing) started from horse racing, where the jockey controls the horse,” Latif said in an emailed response to questions from Reuters.
“Coming back to cricket the increasing number of Twenty20 matches has in fact raised the amount of doubts and I feel the situation has got worse from that of the 1990s.”
Latif, who has accepted a role as coach of Afghanistan after criticising the Pakistan Cricket Board's (PCB) handling of the spot-fixing scandal, said part of the problem was that no player could be sure of his place in international cricket.
“Look, every sportsman wants to secure his future as no one can guarantee that he would be kept in the team for a certain period therefore when he is offered a sum of money which would be equivalent to accumulated earnings of the next five years then naturally he would get attracted to the offer,” he said.
“If a player is selfish, he would be easily trapped. And in view of my own experience a top player is more selfish then an ordinary one.”
CONDON COMMENTS
Before the latest crisis erupted, the outgoing head of the International Cricket Council's (ICC) Anti-Corruption and Security Unit, Paul Condon, made some prescient comments before handing over to another former policeman in Ronnie Flannagan.
“The challenge for the game is to stop that small minority of bad players, and it is a tiny, tiny minority, from being induced into doing these spot fixes,” Condon told reporters.
“My prediction is that you will never totally eradicate that from the game. If you were designing a game to fix you would design cricket because it is a whole series of discrete events, every ball you can bet on. So there will always be that temptation.
“If we get complacent, fixing will be all over it like a rash in a year, two years, so we need to keep the pressure on.
We are in good shape but sadly from time to time you are going to hear, hopefully, individuals but maybe teams who let world cricket down."
Pakistan's troubled tour of Britain finally ended on Wednesday night with Butt, Amir and Asif already back home after agreeing to return to Britain if required to help with a police investigation. They have also filed replies to the ICC's charges.
Until the case is concluded one way or the other it is impossible to judge the possible fallout. But an indication of sponsor unease came with the news that the official kit suppliers to the PCB were reviewing their contract and suspending their commercial relationship with Amir.
"Like everyone else in the cricket world, we are truly saddened and shocked by these match-fixing allegations. I sincerely hope they are not true," said BoomBoom managing director Ali Ehsan.
"(However) we cannot allow our brand to be associated with any whiff of corruption or suspicion of foul play."
LAHORE: Pakistan paceman Mohammad Asif celebrated his wedding to childhood friend Sana Hilal in Lahore on Thursday.
Asif, who is being investigated by British police in a major spot-fixing scandal, officially tied the knot in March but the celebrations were held in the capital of Punjab after Asif’s return from England last month.
The 27-year-old was one of three Pakistani players provisionally suspended by the International Cricket Council after a British tabloid claimed no-balls were delivered to order during last month's Lord's Test against England.
The ICC is expected to form a commission to hear the case after Scotland Yard completes an investigation.
“I hope marriage will be the turning point in my career and change my life in a positive way,” Asif was quoted as saying by local television channels.
Several team-mates, including Test cricketers Mohammad Hafeez and Misbah-ul-Haq were reportedly present at the wedding festivities.
“Asif is very relaxed and is hopeful that he will be cleared of any spot-fixing charges. He hopes that his wedding will bring luck for him,” said a family friend, who did not want to be named.
Since his debut in 2005, Asif's career has been dogged by controversy.
He twice failed dope tests and twice tested positive for a banned steroid.
In 2006, he was banned for one year – a punishment overturned on appeal.
But when he tested positive again in the inaugural Indian Premier League (IPL) season in 2008, his appeal against a one-year ban failed.
He was then arrested at Dubai airport for possessing a banned drug while returning from the IPL.
He was detained for 19 days and deported after police found the quantity of the banned drug “insufficient” to pursue a case.
Further scandal came when actress and model Veena Malik claimed he owed her huge amounts of money.
She also alleged that Asif was involved in match-fixing and was said to have handed evidence to the ICC's Anti-Corruption Unit earlier this month. —Agencies
Cricket-Pakistan's Amir and Asif appeal ICC ban
Pakistan bowlers Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif have joined captain Salman Butt in appealing their suspensions from the game over allegations of spot fixing, the Geo television channel reported on Sunday.
Amir and Asif have sent their appeals and replied to the notice issued to them by the International Cricket Council (ICC) anti-corruption and security unit through their lawyers, the channel reported quoting sources close to the players.
Butt had already filed his appeal last week.
The three have been suspended until newspaper allegations have been investigated that they fixed parts of games during the tour of England which finished last month.
They have denied wrongdoing and have been supported by Pakistan cricket chiefs.
The Pakistan Cricket Board's legal advisor Talib Rizvi, contacted by Reuters, said since it was a weekend he was not aware of whether the players had sent their appeals.
"But they are working through their own lawyers who were working on the appeals. The board had advised them to send the appeals to the ICC as soon as possible," Rizvi said.
Amir and Asif have sent their appeals and replied to the notice issued to them by the International Cricket Council (ICC) anti-corruption and security unit through their lawyers, the channel reported quoting sources close to the players.
Butt had already filed his appeal last week.
The three have been suspended until newspaper allegations have been investigated that they fixed parts of games during the tour of England which finished last month.
They have denied wrongdoing and have been supported by Pakistan cricket chiefs.
The Pakistan Cricket Board's legal advisor Talib Rizvi, contacted by Reuters, said since it was a weekend he was not aware of whether the players had sent their appeals.
"But they are working through their own lawyers who were working on the appeals. The board had advised them to send the appeals to the ICC as soon as possible," Rizvi said.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Kabir Khan Coach to Uae
Kabir Khan, the former Pakistan fast bowler and Afghanistan coach, will now coach the United Arab Emirates. 2/Oct/2010
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