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Sport
Asian Voice - Saturday 15th October 2011
Pakistani scandal deepens, as does the international silence on Woolmer's death
By Premen Addy
Whatever Shakespeare may have said about the state of Denmark it pales before the rot that has taken hold of the state called Pakistan, whose name in Urdu or Persian means pure. Pure what?, you may well ask. The country's Time of Trouble, in whichever direction you look, rolls on regardless. No sooner does one cancer disappears than another sprouts up obligingly, mocking all and sundry to discover a cure. For that we might have to await the second coming of the Risen Lord. At each turn of the saga of Pakistan's fraternity of 'bent' cricketers the plot thickens and the narrative assumes an epic form. A London court heard how a Pakistan cricket captain, Salman Butt, 26, and his two leading pace
Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer
bowlers Mohammed Asif, 28, and Mohammed Amir, 19, engaged “in rampant corruption” after accepting bribes to bowl deliberate no-balls. They conspired with Mazhar Majeed, a London-based sports agent, to fix part of the Lord's Test last year between England and Pakistan. The four men were accused of 'spot fixing', in which parts of the match are illegally rigged, for example by timing the
Shane Jurgensen named Bangladesh bowling coach
Australian Shane Jurgensen has been appointed as the new bowling coach of Bangladesh, the country's cricket board said. The 35-year-old Queenslander and former New Zealand bowling coach is expected to arrive soon. "Jurgensen is a vastly experienced bowling specialist. He has also had an accomplished cricket career and his input will be extremely important for our cricketers," BCB chief executive Manzur Ahmed said in a statement. His contract is until June, 2013 and he links up with fellow Queenslander Stuart Law, who was appointed head coach of Bangladesh in July.
delivery wide or no-ball, but the overall outcome of the game remains untouched. These revelations were the product of a sting operation conducted by undercover News of the World reporter Mazar Mahmood, who claims to have been told by Majeed that he had been involved in match fixing with Pakistani players for over two years, which had yielded him “masses and
masses of money”. The going rate for fixing part of a match would vary between ￡50,000 to ￡80,000 but fixing results would cost a great deal more, something in the vicinity of ￡400,000. Fixing a Test would be an astronomical ￡1 million. Majeed, 36, owned Croydon Athletic Club and a chain of ice cream parlours called Afters, through which he channelled “significant sums” from corrupt match and spot-fixing, the court was told. It's a depressing tale. Cricket reflects its society, and Pakistan is among the most corrupt and violent on earth. With all this dirt polluting the public space, is it not time to reopen discussion on the mysterious and tragic death of Pakistan's English coach, the genial and popular
Bob Woolmer
Bob Woolmer who was found dead in his hotel room in Jamaica during the Cricket World Cup in the Caribbean in 2007? According to the local pathologist, Woolmer was strangled – the team had done badly and he was resented by some Pakistanis as an unbelieving kaffir – but the British authorities went into overdrive: the pathologist's findings were hurriedly repudiated by Scotland
Yard investigators, and the verdict of accidental death was solemnly pronounced. Woolmer's widow and sons in South Africa were generously compensated for their loss and there the matter has rested. Isn't this a fit case for the International Criminal Court at the Hague to consider? Not if the good name of a longstanding client of Anglo-America, like Pakistan, is involved. The rule of law has counted for little in the school for scoundrels. Such are the contemporary truths of a toxix world. Remembering Graham Dilley, the former England fast bowler who passed away last week, savour the following line from an England-Australia Test score book: " Lillee, caught Willey, bowled Dilley". This should bring a smile to every face. If you understand it, that is.
Yuvraj, Harbhajan slam bookie Mazhar Majeed Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh outrightly rejected bookie Mazhar Majeed's claim that he had access to them. While Yuvraj came out on Twitter slamming Majeed's claims, Harbhajan threatened action. "I don't know who this person is; I have never met him. We will definitely take some action against him. I don't know whether it will be a legal action or whatever," said Harbhajan in Nagpur where he is currently playing in the Challenger Series. "But I will definitely bring it to BCCI's notice and I am sure that they will take the right kind of action against these kind people who are trying to spoil the game," added the feisty offspinner. Yuvraj, on the other
hand, slammed the bookie on Twitter. "Who is Majeed! Absolute rubbish! Don't know, never met!" tweeted Yuvraj. Recordings of Majeed's conversation with the undercover News of the World journalist last year are being heard in a spot-fixing trial in London's Southwark Crown Court, in which the bookie has made startling revelations. Majeed has also come up
with a series of boasts, including that he was good friends with former Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner Lalit Modi and exPakistan captain Imran Khan. While the recordings were being played, the undercover journalist sat in the witness box behind a screen to hide his identity from the public and media. Majeed also dropped the names of West Indies' Chris
Gayle and Australia's Ricky Ponting and Brett Lee. In this series of namedropping, Majeed has also mentioned a discussion with Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ijaz Butt about setting up a Twenty20 tournament in Pakistan. Mahmood, the undercover journalist who carried out the sting operation that resulted in spot-fixing charges being levelled at three Pakistani cricketers Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer, gave evidence as a prosecution witness. He described in detail and played tapes of his encounters with Majeed. Mahmood, who had posed as an Indian businessman in the sting operation, was in court shielded behind a blue screen to protect his identity from the public.
Mumbai Indians spin dream win in CLT20 final Mumbai Indians turned on their spin power and beat fancied Royal Challengers Bangalore by 31 runs in the final of the Nokia Champions League T20 tournament, in Chennai on Sunday. After restricting Mumbai Indians to 139 built around a fighting 41 by James Frankling, RCB, who had successfully chased 200-plus targets in two consecutive matches coming into the final, struggled on a slow pitch that afforded turn and fell to 108 in a very disappointing batting performance. Mumbai Indians, without half-a-dozen key players owing into injury, including Sachin Tendulkar, went home richer by $2.5 million while RCB received $1.3 million.
Spearheading the Mumbai victory was skipper and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh who came away with 3 for 20 and young leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal (2 for 9 in three overs) while seamers Lasith Malinga (2 for 23), Abu Nechim (2 for 26) and Kieron Pollard
picked up timely wickets to complete a fine win. Yet, Mumbai Indians bowling was anything but disciplined as they sent down 14 wides and a noball as Mr Extras contributed 20 runs. The RCB chase began on a typical note with a flurry of boundaries off
Tillkaratne Dilshan's bat while the other opener Chris Gayle barely got a look in. The pair put on 38 runs in four overs. Skipper Harbhajan Singh opted to bowl Lasith Malinga a third over and the move paid off as the Sri Lankan ace knocked back Dilshan's
off-stump to draw first blood. Harbhajan brought himself on for the next over and trapped a tentative Gayle in front. The struggles for RCB began soon as the slow pitch that offered a bit of turn seemed to suit the Mumbai bowlers who gave little away. In fact, the RCB batsmen appeared ill at ease when the spinners were introduced and sure enough, they lost Mayank Agarwal, Virat Kohli and Arun Karthik in quick succession. Agarwal holed out to Pollard in the deep off legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal and then an impatient Kohli gifted his wicket to Harbhajan, attempting a slog-sweep and caught at mid-wicket. RCB slid deeper into the quick sand
when in the next over, Karthik departed, caught in the deep off Chahal. Thus, going into the final six overs, RCB needed 63 runs and the mounting pressure told on the batsmen as wickets continued to fall at regular intervals as Mumbai eventually ran out deserving winners. Earlier, Mumbai batsmen too struggled to get going. It was left-arm spinner and skipper Daniel Vettori (2 for 30) and seamer Raju Bhatkal (3 for 21) who did the bulk of damage after an early strike by new ball bowler Dirk Nannes who was quick and hostile. Barring Franklin, there was hardly any worthwhile effort from the other batsmen, a couple of whom threw away good starts.