Mid Day

War of words intensifies!

There is an intense battle on between English and Australian media on the sidelines of the Ashes

A fellow journalist who works for The Australian newspaper recently wrote: "England only loves the Ashes when it wins them: for Australia the opposite seems to apply".

To which one may add: Ditto, ditto the media of the two countries, currently embroiled in a dog-eat-dog newspaper 'jihad' on the sidelines of the Ashes.

Reportage in the English media following England's trials and tribulations on Day One of the ongoing first Test at Brisbane's Gabba has had the Australian media in splits on its sports pages.

"They brashly declared victory before the first ball had been bowled, but England's bragging was quickly silenced after the day's play", Sydney's The Telegraph exulted after the cocky tourists had been bundled out for a pedestrian 260 on a wicket that held no devils.

It quotes London's normally staid The Telegraph newspaper as jumping into the fray with the chauvinistic headline: "May the best team win (so long as it's England).

London's Daily Mirror, ostensibly punch-drunk after England's recent impressive performances, saucily challenged: "Bring on Those Saggy Greens" in a swipe at Australia's much-ballyhooed traditional baggy green cap.

Andrew Strauss

The paper went on to quote captain Andrew Strauss, who was out for a duck off the third ball of the match, bragging that England, who have not won a Test at the venue since the 1986-87 series, had the "firepower to leave fortress Gabba in ruins."

"England have warned Australia that the walls of their Brisbane fortress will come crumbling down," Strauss is reported as saying.

The tabloid termed Australian captain Ricky Ponting a "three-time" loser.

"You're once, twice, three times a loser (and we love you for that,") it sneered.

In a call to arms, the Daily Express announced in a back page headline: "Destiny Calls" and "We've nothing to fear now."

'Best'
It quoted Strauss saying of his cock-a-hoop side, currently no 4 in the ICC Test rankings, way behind top-of-the-table India: "We want to be the best side in the world."

The Daily Star, not particularly renowned for its restraint, brazenly predicted: "Strauss to make Aussies squirm" and the Sun proclaimed "Skipper Strauss so sure his lads can bash the Aussies."

Peter Siddle's hat-trick on his 26th birthday, and his six wicket haul (it would have been seven but for a dropped catch) won grudging mention in the barrage of one-sided reporting in the Old Country with England's inadequate total attributed to "below-par" batting and "nerves" rather than inspired bowling by Siddle, a surprise, last-minute inclusion in the side in place of Douglas Bollinger.

The (erstwhile) venerable London Times was more forthright yesterday.

"They (the Australian bowlers) didn't bowl like a bunch of world-beaters -- they bowled like men uninspired," their cricket correspondent Simon Barnes wrote.

"They looked like second-raters. England were unable to take advantage of a genuine opportunity because they didn't believe they were good enough."

In a reference to captain Strauss's pre-Test resolve to be "unemotional and logical", Barnes wrote: "(You might) as well try to stay unemotional and logical when you take your beloved to bed for the first time."

Former England captain Nasser Hussain, who Indian cricket fans remember for his unsporting, Jardine-like negative tactics, wrote in The Daily Mail:

"England should be kicking themselves. Australia's attack looked pretty ordinary most of the time and, in a sense, Siddle has glossed over some of their issues.

"For large chunks of the day they looked exactly what they are: the team ranked fifth in the world.

"And that's why England will be all the more infuriated to have been bowled out for 260."

With their team in dire straits at the end of the third day yesterday, it should be entertaining to read the jaundiced hogwash the oh-so-superior English cricket writers dish out this Sunday morning.

Indian pitcher to star in Hollywood picture

Sony Studios keen on turning Major League Baseball player Rinku Singh's life into Film

Hollywood pitcher, no, not Bollywood picture. Although unusual in this day and age of globalisation, a baseball pitcher of Indian origin is reported to have made it to the American major league.

And, Sony Pictures are reportedly keen to make a film about him and his chosen career.

Rinku Singh's life story sounds like an implausible Bollywood movie script from Indian javelin thrower to professional pitcher with the Major League Baseball franchise, the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Twenty-two year old Rinku is said to "grip the baseball bat" like its cricket counterpart.

His rags to riches story has weaved its way through reality TV stardom in Million Dollar Arm in 2008 and a meeting with US president Barak Obama at the White House earlier this year.

"The first time I picked up a baseball I threw 87 km/h. Then I went to the final in Mumbai and threw 90 km/h," he says.

Rinku Singh shot to fame as a reality star in Million Dollar Arm in 2008

Rinku Singh, with the "rocket arm", is set to display his prowess to Australian baseball fans this weekend for the Canberra Cavalry in Melbourne.

Doubts have been expressed here about the validity of Singh's claims, as well as those of his fellow Indian Dinesh Patel, as being nothing more than a publicity stunt.

But team manager Steve Schrenk is quoted as saying that Singh has the potential of "making it all the way to the majors".

Singh will be in the Cavalry's bullpen for the weekend's four-game Australian Baseball series, which began at the Melbourne Showground last night. It'll be interesting to check the claims.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

Ben Hilfenhaus ensures he gets it right with the first ball of the Ashes

Australia's Ben Hilfenhaus, who bowled the first over of the Brisbane Test at the Gabba yesterday, didn't quite emulate the ludicrous example of England's nervy opening bowler Steve Harmison, who fired the very first ball of the Ashes Test at the same venue four years ago straight into the hands of a mystified Freddie Flintoff at second slip.

The gaffe set the tone for a five-nil series shellacking of England.

Hilfenhaus did quite the opposite by claiming England captain and opening batsman Andrew Strauss with the third ball of his first over of the match, caught by Michael Hussey at gully, to put England immediately on the back foot.

Ben Hilfenhaus

With the ghost of Steve Harmison still, apparently, hovering above the Gabba and with Australian captain Ricky Ponting ominously predicting the first morning could unravel the course of the series, a reporter had puckishly asked England captain Andrew Strauss at the pre-Test press conference if his seemingly confident squad would experience the sort of nerves betrayed by Harmison.

"We know pretty much who's going to be taking that first ball, and we know pretty much he's got great control over the ball."

"The first ball doesn't win or lose you the Ashes," Strauss, obviously choosing to forget the humiliation of the 2006-07 team of which he was a member, responded matter-of-factly. He went on to say he believed the two sides are so evenly matched the series will be decided over 25 days, not the opening ball, or session, or day, or indeed the entire first Test.

"Was it the worst ball I ever bowled?" Harmison asked self-deprecatingly recently of his moment of embarrassment. He went on to reply: "I think it was probably the worst ball anyone has ever bowled in Test cricket. It was atrocious.

"All I wanted to happen was for a big hole to open up in the ground and for me to jump in it and disappear."

Australian opener Justin Langer was then the batsman with Matthew Hayden the non-striker. Hayden said earlier this week Langer thought for a while he had taken guard on the wrong strip.

Four years earlier, England captain Nasser Hussain had been hauled over the coals by the English media for inserting Australia after winning the toss, only to see Steve Waugh's home side rattle up 364 for two by the end of play.

History aside, Strauss is expecting the present series to be tenaciously fought all the way to the last day of the fifth Test at Sydney in the first week of January next year.

"The first day is important obviously, and people always look back at the first day of the series and say this might have happened or that might have happened.

"But the reality is that generally the better side over the five Tests will win, and if you want to be the better side you play consistent cricket for all five Test matches.

"If you want to win the series you need to win a lot more days than you lose. So that's the way we're looking at it."
Endorsing the England captain's point of view, Ponting said: "There's a lot that's often made of the first hour but it's not the be-all and end-all. Test cricket's about five long days over five different games."

Ponting, almost a quarter of whose 39 Test centuries have come in the first innings of the opening match of the series, went on to add: "I've always really focused on making sure that I'm right for that first innings of the series. I feel can have a big say in how a series develops with my first innings in a series."

Ponting has been under fire for Australia's slide from No 1 to No 5 in the ICC Test rankings and his perceived weakness against the rising delivery which induces him to hook and perish caught in the leg and mid-wicket regions.

A third successive Ashes defeat (after 2005 and 2009) would indubitably spell 'finis' to his distinguished career as Australia captain but a victory could see his reign continue until the next Ashes series (in England) in 2013.

Ponting has demanded that the actual Ashes urn be brought to Australia for the last Test (he was handed the real six-inch, 127-year old diminutive trophy after Australia's 5-0 win in 2006-07). The MCC has declined to make it available again, saying it's too fragile to be transported across the world to Australia from Lord's.

An MCC official accompanying the urn to Australia four years ago claimed the pedestal and handles were cracked during travel. A Waterford Crystal replica was paraded around the Gabba yesterday by Queensland hero Matthew Hayden.

Opting to bat after winning the toss, England were bowled out for 260 on a slowish wicket which had pronounced bounce. Pace bowler Peter Siddle, a surprise, last-minute inclusion in the squad ahead of the fancied Doug Bollinger, celebrated his 26th birthday before a sell-out crowd of 42,000 with impressive figures of six for 54, including the hat-trick wickets of Alastair Cook (67), Matt Prior (0) and Stuart Broad (0). Ian Bell (76), Cook and Kevin Pietersen (43) lent a semblance of respectability to the tourists' total.

Ashes will be the mother of all duels

Aussies determined to get back at England after 2009 Ashes loss

On the eve of today's first Ashes Test at Brisbane, almost 15 months after surrendering the Ashes to Old Enemy England, Australian captain Ricky Ponting says there is "nothing I want right now than to stand next to my team-mates victorious in one of the greatest Test series ever played."

In a signed article in yesterday's The Australian newspaper, Ponting writes: "There probably hasn't been a day go by since that I haven't thought about that series: what we did well, what we didn't do well enough and what we would do to perform better if we could start all over again."

Looking back at the Ashes series in England, Ponting writes: "Three or four very costly sessions of cricket saw us hand back the Ashes urn in England.

"That's all in the past now, but we do get the chance to 'start all over again' when the summer's series commences.

"For me, I have been unrelenting in my preparation for this series. I'm well aware of the importance of this series for my country, for my teammates, myself and Cricket Australia."

After a few days of uncertainty over his fitness, vice-captain and star batsman Michael Clarke was yesterday pronounced fit to play today.

This means that a historic day in Australian cricket - the first time that a Pakistani of Australian origin, the highly rated Islamabad-born Usman Khawaja, will wear this country's cherished baggy green Test cap, will have to wait.

Australian spin bowling legend Shane Warne, who last night premiered his new celebrity show on television, says, "We are in for a cracker of a series because England no longer fear Australia. England have a good chance of winning the first Test in Brisbane because they've brought a major change with them for this series - attitude.

"They are not intimidated by the Australian attack and honestly believe they are a better team. They were embarrassed here in the last series, losing 5-0. This time they believe they can win. And let me tell you " in sport, self-belief is half the battle."

However, patriotic Australian that he is, Warne says: "For the record, I think Australia will win this series - by one Test."

CWG did nothing for India's prestige internationally

Having basked sufficiently in unparallelled pride and joy over our Commonwealth Games performance, it's now time to conduct a comprehensive post mortem.

The time is at hand to give praise where due " especially to our valiant competitors and coaches for their blood, tears, toil and sweat. More importantly, it's time to hold the guilty accountable for the hurt and humiliation they caused the nation and its people.

The maverick Mani Shankar Aiyar, as indeed the prophets of doom and gloom, will not find much cause to celebrate.

Nowhere near being the showpiece and the "best-ever" promised by Suresh Kalmadi and his team, the Games were conducted overall in a surprisingly satisfactory and incident-free manner, following the scandalous, although somewhat sensational and unsubstantiated, media revelations of inept administration, ham-handed preparation and, worse of all, rank corruption in the lead-up to the event.

The meticulous manner in which Chile handled the rescue of its miners about the same time India's competitors were doing the country proud has led to the coining of the phrase "Doing it the Chilean way". It was the antithesis of our disgraceful "Indian way" planning and preparation which led to our becoming the laughing stock of the Commonwealth, if not the world.

Disaster
But for the last-minute stepping in of New Delhi and the marshalling of its many resources, the Games would have been a disaster.

Precious human lives were lost, and invaluable national resources spent in the staging of the Games which, after all, did nothing for the prestige of the nation internationally.

Worst of all, the (hitherto unproved) allegations of corruption have besmirched our reputation and shown us to be a nation of congenitally corrupt people.

Since justice delayed is justice denied, the people of our country deserve an immediate full, free and impartial investigation into the allegations of wrongdoing concerning public funds at different levels.

Nothing short of deserved punishment will meet the ends of justice in a country in which millions are still starving and thousands of farmers are committing suicide.

Subash Gupte was best leggie of all time, says Sobers

West Indian legend Garry Sobers says India's Gupte was the finest leggie of all time

According to West Indian legend Garry Sobers, India's Subash Gupte is the finest leg-spinner of all time.

In a book released in England yesterday entitled In a League of Their Own, Sobers, considered the greatest all-rounder ever, says: "I like Shane Warne's aggressive attitude, but in my estimation Subash Gupte was a better leg-spinner."

Mumbai-born Gupte migrated to the Caribbean and died there eight years ago. He played 36 Tests for India and took 149 wickets at an average of 29.55.

The insightful book by English writer Richard Sydenham, an occasional contributor to MiD DAY, is a collation of the all-time top XI from Jack Hobbs down to Don Bradman and Sachin Tendulkar. In the foreword, Sobers writes: "Someone who is called great from today's game is Shane Warne, but I have reservations about him.

"I think he is a great bowler, but I'm not sure how well he compares with spinners overall. I think people get carried away with the man's ability as he hardly ever bowled a good googly.

Subash Gupte, who passed away eight years ago

"To me, Shane Warne is a great turner of the ball. I like his aggressive attitude, I love the way he attacks batsmen and I give him 100 per cent for that as not enough spinners bowl with that approach, but in my estimation Subash Gupte was a better leg-spinner."

Sobers also has a dig at former England opener Geoff Boycott: "Geoffrey was a great player in his own style. He played within his limitations and didn't take too many chances with good balls or even half-good balls.

"Great players have to take good balls and turn them into bad balls, but Geoff never seemed to be able to do that."

Legendary umpire Dickie Bird is more concerned with the disappearance of cricket's rogues.

"Not as many players nowadays look as though they enjoy their cricket, like in previous eras," he writes.

"I used to love the camaraderie that I had with people like Ian Botham, Allan Lamb and David Gower.

"Don't get me wrong, although they used to enjoy a laugh and a joke, they were also fierce competitors and always out to win.

"I think the influx of vast amounts of money coming into the game is largely responsible for the significant loss of characters and entertainers that cricket was once able to boast plenty of."

Warne is now a television commentator and professional poker player. He scored 3000 Test runs and holds the record for the most test runs without a century. His brilliant career was marred by off-field scandals which led to a ban from the game for testing positive for prohibited substances and charges of bringing the game into disrepute through accepting money from Indian bookmakers and marital infidelity.

(With inputs from agencies and newspaper reports)

Batting average on Ricky Ponting's mind

In what may be his last tour to India, skipper Ponting is keen to improve on his poor average here

Before his team's departure for India on a tour that is almost certainly his last before retirement, Australian captain Ricky Ponting said he is determined to do well against the world No.1 Test team.

"We have to do a lot of things right if we want to be competitive over there. I'm as determined as ever,"he said.

"I'm feeling excited about the tour. It's a great challenge for me personally knowing that I haven't performed as well there as I would have liked in the past," he said.

Ponting has scored 12,026 runs in Tests, but only 438 of them have come in India. His average of just 20.85 against India is undistinguished compared with his career average of 54.66 from 146 Tests.

"I've had really a good break and worked pretty hard on my body and game over the last few weeks to make sure I'm in good touch for when I get there.

Asked at a media briefing if the tour would be a contest between the No. 1 ranked Test team and an Australian team that still thinks it is No.1, Ponting replied: "No. I think we've got some work to do there. I'd love to get the team back to No. 1 again and this will hopefully be one of those steps along the way.

"If we play the cricket I know we are capable of in India and we can win the series, that will do great things for us to get back up near the No.1 ranking."

With Cricinfo naming Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag in the website's greatest Indian team of all time, Australian coach Tim Nielsen said:

"They're the No. 1 ranked team in the world and that's no fluke. We get the chance to test ourselves against the best in their home conditions in a completely different environment to what we've had in the past 12 months.

"We were at home last summer, went to New Zealand, played two Tests in England with the ball swinging and seaming.

"That won't be happening in India. Our batsmen will be facing quality spin bowling on turning decks. They're good old-fashioned, hard Test match slogs."

Ponting also said an important aspect of his role as captain was to make sure his emerging players know how to deal with the curse of corruption.

The Australian team was briefed by anti-corruption officers during a recent camp, something the BCCI would do well to emulate.

With Indian bookmakers making front page headlines in recent times because of their suspected global network of betting and match-fixing, Ponting said he would himself do everything possible to help his young players deal with possible attempts to corrupt them.

"Me, being a captain of the side, and a big part of the leadership group, will make sure any young guy coming into the squad is briefed about a number of things and, obviously, with corruption being the topic that's on everyone's lips at the moment, we'll make sure that the new young players are very aware of everything they could be confronted with in the next few weeks."

Australia warns its Commonwealth Games athletes against terror attacks

Perry Crosswhite

An e mail from Athletics Australia advising athletes to exercise "increasing caution because of high risk of terrorist attack on next month's Commonwealth Games" is causing fear among its team members.

The e mail was sent after Indian police warned last Saturday of terrorist attacks in Mumbai and includes updated advice from the department of Foreign Affairs which issued a new travel advisory to Australian citizens.
"There is a high risk of terrorist attack in New Delhi," the advice warns.

"Since 2000, there have been at least 14 major terrorist attacks in New Delhi on locations such as markets, train stations and other public places. These attacks have caused hundreds of deaths and injuries. Australians in New Delhi should be aware that the Commonwealth Games will be held in a security environment where there is a high risk of terrorism.

"We advise you to exercise a high degree of caution in India at this time because of the high risk of terrorist activity by militant groups," the warning says.

However, Australian Commonwealth Games Association chief Perry Crosswhite has been assuring the Australian media that the fears are unfounded.

"We are still planning to go and we have been told there is an acceptable level of risk," he said.

Legalise betting, says ICC chief Lorgat

With British police and ICC investigations into allegations of involvement in betting by three Pakistani cricketers continuing, International Cricket Council chief executive Haroon Lorgat has advocated legalising of betting in countries like India which currently ban it.

"I am especially keen to engage with governments to consider the regulation of betting," Lorgat said in a statement from Cape Town last night.

Meanwhile Pakistan's former ICC president Ehsan Mani has also advocated legalising of betting.

"From what I understand whenever India play a one-day match $200million to $300million will be bet," Mani is quoted as telling Wisden Cricketer magazine.

Haroon Lorgat

"The ACSU (Anti-Corruption and Security Unit) works very closely with the bookmakers in countries where gambling is legal.

"So when there is a sudden change in the direction of the odds, it is quickly on to it.

"But in the grey markets, particularly India, where it is totally unregulated, the ACSU's intelligence can only ever be superficial. So this is the time for the ICC to say to the Indian government that you have to bring this into the loop.

"I don't know why it hasn't happened, as the government would make a lot of money out of it.

"In Pakistan one might argue it is against their religious beliefs but, if it is happening anyway, the pragmatic approach has to be taken. This is hurting the credibility not only of the game but of India and Pakistan."

Indian bookie approached Aus cricketers

As details of the sensational betting scandal concerning the Pakistan cricket team continue to make front page headlines on a daily basis, the role of a suspected Mumbai-based gangster, linked to illegal Indian bookmakers, is featured prominently.

The latest is the disclosure today by Australian players Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson, Brad Haddin and Shane Watson who gave the ICC, the game's highest authority, the identity and mobile phone numbers of a match-fixing cheat who approached them at the team hotel bar at the last ICC Twenty20 tournament in London. The ICC ostensibly paid no heed to the information.

The man, said to be a likeable, well-spoken Indian fan with intimate knowledge of the players' performances, especially Lee in the IPL, is said to have approached the Australian players in the team hotel bar and boldly knocked at the door of Brad Haddin at 11 pm to invite him to his room for dinner.

Briefed in advance by Cricket Australia to be careful of such advances, the players not only declined but reported the matter to manager Steve Bernard, who included the happenings in his report to the ICC.

The ICC is said to have done nothing about the matter leading to strident criticism of the august body, with some critics suggesting that the India-controlled body (which has Sharad Pawar as president) was both incompetent and unwilling to do anything to police the game because of vested interests.

Some Australian critics, incensed at the opposition by the Asian bloc to former Australian Prime Minister John Howard's nomination as next ICC president, have even suggested that Australia, England and New Zealand should opt out of the ICC and form their own controlling body as a means to "cleanse" the game.

Brother Ashraf says Amir should be punihsed if found guilty

Brother Ashraf says Amir should not be shown leniency if found guilty

Chosen the face of Pepsi Cola for his good looks and awesome potential, Pakistani fast bowler Mohammad Amir was unabashedly projected in his native Pakistan as an ever-smiling Slumdog Millionaire, an example of hard work enabling a youngster from an underprivileged background to achieve unparalleled fame and glory.

Last Sunday at the end of the ignominious Test against England at Lord's, when Amir was booed by a handful of disgusted spectators as he received his award for Pakistan's man of the series, the winsome smile was conspicuous by its absence.

What does his future hold? Pakistan pacer Mohammad Amir. PIC/GETTY IMAGES

According to London's Daily Mail, police confiscated eggs from some onlookers, while others reportedly shouted 'thieves' at the players.

In Pakistan, fans held placards of donkeys with names of the shamed players stuck on their heads and pelted them with rotten tomatoes and shoes, showing the level of rage in Pakistan.

The anger across the border is said to be particularly acute because the players are alleged to have been lining their pockets while tens of thousands of their countrymen suffer in the devastating floods. Pakistan's iconic former Test captain Imran Khan, laconic as ever, is quoted as saying: 'People are deeply upset, demoralised.'

With 18-year old Amir's promising cricket career, in an era fondly yearning for a tearaway fast bowler, already in tatters for his role in the avarice-driven 'spot betting' racket, close relatives of the teenage sensation say he deserves to be punished if he has brought shame on Pakistan.

According to the newspaper: "In Amir's home village of Changa Mera, 40 miles from the capital Islamabad, (his) brother-in-law Mohammad Ashraf said the player's family had been stunned by the revelations.

"Having enjoyed undreamt-of adulation in Pakistan for producing a national hero in the cricket-crazy country, they are saddened he is now being portrayed as a cheat."

Mohammad Amir's brother Ashraf, a property dealer, said: 'If Amir is a culprit and involved in gambling, he should be punished. 'Though he is our relative, he is also a national player and the "property" of Pakistan. If he is found guilty, he will be a national culprit and should be punished.'

Former Australian fast bowler Geoff Lawson, who coached Amir in Pakistan at the age of 16 in an under-19 camp in his capacity as national coach, remembers the youngster, from a small village in Swat Valley and considered a future Wasim Akram, as one who was delayed by three hours reporting at training because the Taliban had closed the highway.

Lawson remembers the teenage fast bowling prodigy, who has made pundits the world over sit up and take notice, for his constant smile, his zest for the game and his unbounded energy.

The wunderkind had slipped, as the desi expression goes, from hero to zero, for his heinous involvement in a scam that has caused his prime minister to say it has made the heads of Pakistanis "hang in shame."
Amir could be handed a lifetime ban if found guilty.

As the crisis in world cricket has unfolded dramatically, there has been an escalating demand that the rest of the tour, during which Pakistan is scheduled to play a series of one-day and Twenty20 matches, be scrapped.

Amir, captain Salman Butt, wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal and bowler Mohammad Asif have been questioned by Scotland Yard over claims by a 'sting' by the News of the World, England's Sunday newspaper, which purportedly showed that they took cash from an international betting racket.

Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency " the country's highest law enforcement agency " has sent three investigators to the UK.

With the shamed Pakistan team facing the prospect of banishment from the world game, Scotland Yard fraud detectives and tax inspectors are trying to trace the money trail.

They are probing a complex network of companies set up by so-called 'fixer' Mazhar Majeed, who was filmed apparently accepting large piles of banknotes from undercover reporters in return for rigging games.

Majeed, a Pakistani expatriate, owns a �1.8million mansion in Surrey and is listed as director of 18 companies
Last week at Lord's , millions around the world watched as Amir and fellow bowler Asif deliver three 'no balls' " at exactly the stages of the match "fixer" Mazhar Majeed specified to reporters.

There have also been claims that all the matches in the Test series against England, as also the Sydney Test against Australia last year, had been tainted by fixing.

(With inputs from The Mail).

Now, a Mumbai element in spot fixing

A suspected Mumbai gangster with links to illegal bookmakers allegedly approached Australian cricketers during the tour of England last year.

It has been revealed that the gangster approached Shane Watson and Brad Haddin at the team's Royal Kensington Garden hotel after the Lord's Test and during the Twenty20 tournament that Pakistan won.

Both players are said to have immediately reported the approaches to authorities. Neither is suspected of any wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, the former girlfriend of Mohammed Asif, one of the two Pakistani pace bowlers (along with Mohammed Amir) who is accused of working with Mazhar Majeed, the alleged "spot betting" match-fixer trapped by London's News of the World Sunday newspaper in a sting operation, has spilled the beans about a trip Asif made to Bangkok before the Australian tour.

It has now been confirmed that the Pakistanis contrived a defeat in the Sydney Test after Australia were 200 runs in deficit in the first innings.

Pakistani actress Veena Malik is quoted here by Indian newspaper DNA as saying: "Since his comeback (from a drugs ban), he is totally involved in this. Once he told me that the entire Pakistan team is involved. From head to toe, the Pakistani players and officials are involved."

Malik, who is accused of working with Majeed, said: "One day he got business class tickets and went to Bangkok. He told me that he was offered $US40, 000. I advised him not to be part of such activities but he did not listen. He went ahead and demanded $200,000 from them. He borrowed $US 3 million from me to pay certain people to have his ban reduced to one year (from two)."

According to a Sydney newspaper, the Mumbai gangster also sought to procure information from other international cricketers and at least one member of the media during last year's Twenty20 tournament in England. The ICC's anti-corruption and security unit has begun an investigation into his dealings.

The brazen approaches are seen to demonstrate the extent to which illegal bookmakers have been emboldened by the rapid expansion of Twenty20 cricket, including the IPL.

Australian captain Ricky Ponting said yesterday he is "blown away" by the extent of the betting allegations levelled at the Pakistanis even as Australian players and administrators were at pains to maintain the Pakistani's alleged "tanking" of the Sydney Test last year in no way devalued their team's deserved and hard-fought win.

With Pakistan reeling under the ongoing flood crisis and fans in that country livid at the revelations, former Test captain Imran Khan has said that the guilty players should be punished but the team spared.

"The people who are guilty should be removed from the team and replaced and should be punished as an example for future generations to realise that crime does not pay.

"It's a very depressing day for Pakistan cricket," he said, "but I still want to wait until the whole story unfolds... until we know whether the allegations are correct."

Majeed was with Pak players on the tour to Australia as well

Investigations by The Australian newspaper reveal that alleged match-fixer Majeed was with the pakistan players during the Australia tour and was allowed access to their hotel rooms

The revelations by a London newspaper concerning the disgraceful conduct of the Pakistani cricket team have caused seismic shocks across the world to Australia.

Investigations by an Australian newspaper have led to the disclosure that Mazhar Majeed, the alleged match-fixer at the centre of the Lord's betting scandal, was in Sydney with the visiting Pakistan side during last year's controversial Sydney Test.

Remember this four-play? Pakistan wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal looks dejected after dropping Peter Siddle during Day Four of the Sydney Test against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground in January.
Akmal dropped four catches in that match which alleged match-fixer Mazhar Majeed claims was fixed. Pic/Getty Images

That match, which now looks to have been tainted by outright cheating, saw some curious batting and bowling performances by the Pakistanis, including ultra-defensive field placements by then captain Mohammed Yousuf and four elementary dropped catches by wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal, which enabled Australia to draw the Test after a 200-run first innings deficit.

Investigations by The Australian newspaper have revealed that Majeed was with the players during the tour and was allowed access to their hotel rooms.

Familiarity
Majeed and his brother Azhar Majeed are said to be closely involved with the Pakistani players and claim to represent Younis Khan, Abdul Razzaq, present captain Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Yousuf, Shahid Afridi. Kamran Akmal, Misbah-ul-Haq and others.

Former Australian captain Richie Benaud said that in his 52 years of being involved in cricket, "nothing has distressed me more" than yesterday's revelations.

SUNDAY MID DAY columnist and former Australian captain Ian Chappell, who has been actively raising money for Pakistan flood relief, said he knew corruption was rife throughout cricket. He slammed the International Cricket Council and asked what the game's governing body and its anti-corruption body had been doing.

"In some ways, I am glad it's come out, because it's got to be fixed," he said.

Majeed reportedly boasted to London's News of the World newspaper that he had made more than a million dollars on the Sydney Test.

"The odds for Pakistan to lose that match for Australia were, I think, 40-1. We let them get up to 150 then everyone lost their wickets."

The pieces have now fallen in place for me because, having covered the match, I have always felt the result of that Sydney Test was fishy.

Pakistani coach Intikhab Alam, who dined with me, some senior Pakistani journalists and friends after the match, also, was at a loss for words in assessing Pakistani's inexplicable performance in the Test.

Retired umpire Koertzen slams behaviour of McGrath, Hayden and Symonds

Former Australian Test players Glenn McGrath, Matthew Hayden and Andrew Symonds were the worst behaved during his Test career, according to South African Rudy Koertzen, who retired recently.

Known as "Slow Death" for his measured raising of his finger, Koertzen stood in 108 Tests between 1992 and 2010.

The South African is quoted in the media as telling website Cricket 365 that McGrath was a "whinger" and Hayden and Symonds needed to be "closely monitored on the field".

Tough McGrath
He singled out McGrath the toughest bowler to handle.

"He (McGrath) wasn't one of the happiest guys. He always moaned and whinged. If he wasn't getting wickets and the batsmen were hitting him for a few fours, he got a bit personal and upset."

The lanky pace bowler's most infamous clash occurred in the Caribbean when he accused West Indian batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan of saying something about his wife. Both players were let off but the Australian reportedly apologised to Sarwan later.

Glenn McGrath, Matthew Hayden and Andrew Symonds

McGrath was fined four times and reprimanded once during his otherwise distinguished career.

Koertzen said he was "very fortunate to get on with probably 99 per cent of the players in world cricket.

"There was always the odd individual who had to be babied all the time. You had to be like a policeman to them," he said.

Alert
"A fielder like Hayden or Symonds you always had to be alert when they were on the field because something was going to happen. If you didn't pick it up as soon as possible, things were going to get out of hand," Koertzen said.

Rudy Koertzen

Indian cricket fans will recall Symonds' notorious run-in with Harbhajan Singh during Anil Kumble's team's eventful 2007-08 tour of Australia, which was almost called off by the Indians following the infamous "Monkeygate" brouhaha.

The Australians accused Harbhajan of calling Symonds a "monkey", which the Indians stoutly denied. In turn, the tourists complained that the home players repeatedly sledged them.

The Australian newspaper yesterday recalled Harbhajan's accusation.

"They do it so well," the Indian spinner, nicknamed "Turbanator" famously alleged.

"They keep their backs to you when they have something nasty to say to their opponent."

Aussies practising with SG balls for India tour, says pacer Mitchel Johnson

Pacer Johnson reveals Australia have started practising with SG balls to prepare for the two-test series in India

If there's been a consistent aspect in Australian skipper Ricky Ponting's recent utterances before his team's tour of India and the Ashes to follow, it is that he believes in going into every Test " no matter where - with the singular objective of winning.

This resolve was echoed yesterday by his trump pace bowler Mitchell Johnson who revealed that he and his fellow quicks have already started bowling at home with Indian-made SG balls which will be used in the two-Test series to be played at Chandigarh and Bangalore.

Ready to strike: Australia pacer Mitchell Johnson

Typically, Australia will be endeavouring to dominate India in a bid to climb up from the low fourth position they now occupy in the ICC Test rankings behind India, who barely managed to remain on top after the recent closely-fought series against Sri Lanka in Serendip.

For some time now, Australian captains have admitted that winning in India comes not so much from a master plan but from performing a series of small essentials well.

First step
Johnson is quoted by a Sydney newspaper as saying: "Practising with SG balls is the first step for us.
"The seams sit up a little bit more (than that of the Australian (Kookaburra) balls and are a bit narrower. The SG balls are also a lot harder.

"Obviously our wickets don't rough up the balls as their wickets do in India. There the ball can reverse after 10 overs. It is always a challenge playing in those conditions. I always look forward to it no matter how hard it is."
A disappointment on the recent tour of England where he took just three wickets for 72 in conditions which helped seam bowling, Johnson is determined to do well in India.
"I just wasn't there physically and mentally," he admitted. "But with the Ashe coming up, India will be a good challenge".

He considers the induction of former South African coach Mickey Arthur as coach of Western Australia, his home team, a boon. Under Arthur's tutelage, South African pace bowlers have consistently given India's distinguished batting line-up a torrid time on home soil.

Atwal thanks Aussie coach Dale Lynch for PGA win

Golfer Arjun Atwal, who created history yesterday when becoming the first Indian to win on the US PGA tour in the Wyndham Championship, has given credit to his Australian coach Dale Lynch.

Atwal, winner on the European, Asian and Nationwide tours, started working with the respected Australian coach about a year ago.

"He (Lynch) has got me not to use my legs as much and use my upper body a lot more and drive through with my right side, staying level through the ball," said Atwal, who started playing golf at the age of 14 in Kolkata but has come a long way since. He now lives in the same exclusive Florida community as Tiger Woods (who announced his divorce yesterday) and whom he counts as a friend.

Woods sent Atwal a text message before the final round at the Wyndham Championship, suggesting he shoot for a score of 21 under. The Indian held his nerve for a one-shot victory.

An ecstatic Atwal, 37, said after his win: "I'm pretty sure it's going to be huge back home. My in-laws called my wife yesterday and said the coverage was just unreal with me leading. I know there were a lot of people in India and Dubai that watched me play. I've had a lot of messages".

Brett Lee, the millionaire

Australian fast bowler Brett Lee, he with the blonde poster boy looks, appears set to capitalise upon his popularity in India, even as he still hopes he will be able to play for Australia in next year's Cricket World Cup in the sub-continent.

According to Lee's manager Neil Maxwell: "He has the earning potential of $20 million (approx Rs 80 crore) in the next six to seven years.

"There is such a huge market over there " where Bollywood stars sign up for $49 million " he has such a broad range: there are limitless opportunities. Over there it's like Beatles stuff, he's mobbed with phone numbers stuffed in his pockets.

Australia's star cricketer Brett Lee

"Sitting in the (Channel Nine) commentary box isn't the only thing on the fast bowler's agenda. He hopes to branch into lifestyle shows " his interests include camping, fishing and his farm in the Southern Highlands".

People in the know say the fast bowler, who has just signed up with the television network (Nine), has a broad range of Indian ventures, spanning from a clothing line, modelling, a television contract and roles in Bollywood films.

Lee's album of duets with Asha Bhonsle achieved amazing success and he now has a new band, White Shoe Theory, which has lined up eight gigs in India.

Now 33, Lee is single father of three-year-old son Preston by Liz Kemp, his divorced podiatrist wife who left him two years ago and now lives a few suburbs away from Lee outside Sydney.

"It's a matter for us of doing the right thing by Preston," Lee told a Sydney newspaper over the weekend.
"I won't be away from Preston for more than a week at a time and Preston has travelled to India with me " he's even seen the Taj Mahal which I haven't."

Lee insists his cricketing career is not over yet.

"I want to play for Australia again " my goal is to get to the 2011 World Cup playing for Australia, so if I can tick that box, I might move on.

"But if, for some reason", he says, "through injury or anything, I can't get back, then OK, I'll be disappointed but it won't be the end of the world because I'll have so many other things waiting to happen.

"I want to achieve that goal but if it doesn't happen I won't be suicidal,' Lee says.

"I don't want to be the guy who got to 33 and thought, "Well I haven't anything behind me. I haven't worked. I didn't finish my HSC " "what now?" which happens to so many sportspeople because they are so focused on achieving their goals.

"I suppose I've made a conscious effort to do this stuff before I started. A lot of this stuff is on the backburner for when cricket finishes."

Meanwhile, owning a farm, with 100 head of Angus cattle, a dream since he was 10 years old, is a magnificent obsession.

"I never feel more at peace than when I'm driving down to the farm," he says. It's the only time I ever wind down," Lee says.

Lee has been to India more than 35 times but says he "can't get enough of its culture, music and fashion".

"I don't know what it is " I just love the people and I have just taken a real interest in it and want to do a lot more over there with the charities. We worked with Deakin University there helping to put clean drinking water in the communities.

"Spending time through a leadership coaching role " the kids with nothing behind them, just have this love for cricket " it's an incredible country," Lee says.

"You can walk into the most amazing seven-star hotel and walk out the door and find immense poverty. Yet, in saying that, these kids are happy. All you do is smile at them and their eyes light up."

According to Surjit Singh Gujral, renowned restaurateur " two of his restaurants in Sydney are veritable cricket museums and the favourite eateries of cricketers from all over the world, journalists and administrators " "Brett Lee's love for India has made him beloved by Indians. Common with all commoners, he has a heart of gold.

"All Indian kids want to become Brett Lee. He always mixes with the local people when he is in India, he gets out and plays with the kids and that has built his reputation as a great man," Gujral says with unabashed approbation.

(Source: The Sun-Herald)

Some balance, please

Aus Commonwealth Games Association chief executive Perry Crosswhite feels the issue of unprepared venues in Delhi is blown out of proportion

Australian Commonwealth Games Association chief executive Perry Crosswhite has called for "balance" in reporting of the New Delhi Games.

Releasing pictures of six venues -- the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, to be used for the opening ceremony and athletics, and the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee swim complex, nearing completion, as also arenas for gymnastics, hockey, netball and track cycling, Crosswhite said: "Suggestions our athletes are going there to compete in rubble, it's nonsense.

"Yes construction is behind. We know that. But it's time for some balance in the reporting of this issue -- time our body was given a fair go -- because right now, there are also several venues ready for competition."

Crosswhite

Crosswhite reacted brusquely to the security concern for the Australian competitors from swimming great Dawn Fraser, who questioned the organisers' ability to prevent a terrorist attack like the 1972 Munich massacre.

"Look, everyone is entitled to their opinion. But I was in Munich and in Montreal four years later, when soldiers travelled on our buses.

"I was in Los Angeles in 1984, too, when snipers were situated on the rooftop.

"It's because of what happened in Munich that security is now so strict. It's why we've got the High Commission involved. And if the highest possible security measures aren't in place we won't be going."

Fraser's fears over CWG are without proof

We, in India, have our inimitable, non-conformist boat-rocker Bishan Singh Bedi.

Australia has its maverick Neil Harvey, grouchy retired Test cricketer, who can always be counted on to provide outrageous quotes and juicy sound bytes to sensation-mongering media persons.

Short of salacious material to shock or titillate your audience?

"Call Bishan or Neil, pronto. They won't let you down", seems to be the mantra for insatiable newshounds ever on the prowl for such delights.

Australia swimming legend Dawn Fraser

Not far behind the aforesaid gentlemen is tetchy Australian swim legend Dawn Fraser, who yesterday joined the growing band of strident New Delhi Commonwealth Games doomsayers abroad.

Firing her latest acerbic salvo to a Sydney tabloid, Fraser lent her voice to the mounting chorus of prophets of gloom, urging Australian athletes to withdraw from the Games.

"If organisers cannot get a hockey stadium right, how do they prevent another Munich," asked the cantankerous Fraser who, without anything plausible to go by, has already made up her mind about the security, safety, sanitation and the quality of food in New Delhi.

Fraser, the greatest Australian woman swimmer of all time, said (again without substantiation) her greatest fear is that the Games organisers are not equipped to prevent a repeat of the 1972 Munich Olympics bloodbath in which 11 Israeli athletes, coaches and officials were taken hostage and killed by Palestinian terrorists.

"The Indians are telling us that security will be right," Fraser assumed angrily. "But they've also been telling us for months that their stadiums are ready to go too and, quite obviously, they are not.

"So what else are they keeping secret? Where is the food coming from? How is the sanitation? I know Australia has never boycotted the Commonwealth or Olympic Games, but we're simply being told too many lies.

"I would hate to see another Munich but, with things getting worse and worse, I have great concerns. Can they prevent it?"

Dawn Fraser's comments about construction delays (she makes no mention about corruption) are eminently valid.

But, why do I sense a trace of puffed-up arrogance, if not downright contempt, in what the snooty Fraser says without any proof about security, food and sanitation?

Knowing just how bad things are and how much disgrace all the scandalous revelations concerning the Games by our own media have brought upon our nation the world over, we can do without any more toffee-nosed arrogance from disdainful firangis.

Corruption in the affairs of the CWG Organising Committee is nobody's business except that of the Indian people, their government and the IOA.

Am I being overly sensitive in resenting this arrogance and alarmist posturing? Am I out of line in wishing that, although seemingly unlikely " and, despite all their faults, even "sins" " the Games organisers finally make the event the outstanding success they have been promising our nation.

It's happened before, notably at the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games and the Athens Olympic Games, 2004.

In both cases, it seemed highly unlikely even a month before the opening that the venues and supporting infrastructure would be ready in time. The Cassandras ended up with egg on their faces when both nations came through with flying colours.

Were that to happen in New Delhi, it would be a fitting slap in the face of fear-mongers of the likes of Dawn Fraser who, either deliberately, or foolishly in their craving for publicity, play into the hands of the dark forces that are relentlessly endeavouring to discredit India.

Don't taint country's image further

Suggesting that power struggles in India and biased reporting by the local media could be part of an ulterior move to torpedo the New Delhi Games, the chief executive of the Australian Commonwealth Games Association has said that continuing criticism is part of a concerted attempt to stop or even relocate the event.

Perry Crosswhite told an Australian news agency: "You are not going to take athletes if it is not safe or secure ... but you shouldn't just push for the Games to be cancelled. A lot of people out there, I think, are trying to do that... I am not sure what it is - whether we don't believe it will be as good as in the past, so let's continue for them to be found out for what's wrong. I don't think that's right. I don't think it's fair to the Indians. I don't think it's fair to the Commonwealth Games or to the athletes."

With Games OC chairman Suresh Kalmadi persisting in his denial mode in the face of the mounting tsunami of allegations of wrongdoing, promising that the New Delhi Games will be the best ever, Crosswhite said: "Their media is just unbelievable. They are crucifying each other. There is nothing we can do about that."

The Australian official recognised that much of the infrastructure remained unfinished just 47 days before the Games' scheduled opening but pointed out that many facilities on the inside were, in fact, complete.

Top-class
Crosswhite said: "The athletes' village is one of the best villages the athletes have ever stayed at. They have quality apartments, two athletes to a bathroom " we have never had that before. Sometimes people just ignore all that and see there is a bunch of rubble outside and say that this is pretty hopeless. I don't think that is necessarily neither right nor fair. There have been a lot of games - Commonwealth and Olympic - which at this point of time hadn't looked all that flash."

Saying that the decision whether to go to Delhi or not was entirely that of the athletes, Crosswhite applauded prime minister Manmohan Singh's initiative in creating a ministerial committee to oversee the Games following the torrent of allegations of corruption and poor workmanship.

"Hopefully, that will bring the diverse areas together," he said.

Bedi's beamer
Meanwhile, former Test spin bowler Bishan Singh Bedi has urged foreign athletes to boycott the Games.
In manner reminiscent of MP Mani Shankar Aiyar, (who publicly hoped that the New Delhi Games would fail), Bedi, in an interview to a Sydney newspaper yesterday, injudiciously washed dirty linen in public abroad, while (correctly, it must be admitted) laying bare the "shameful corruption and incompetence" of some Games officials.

"It is an absolute embarrassment," Bedi said. "The Games are completely in the doghouse. I am yet to be convinced they will happen because there are so many things that won't be done... If I was an athlete I wouldn't bother turning up. I would stay away"

Safety concerns
As reports of dozens of workers' deaths and that of at least one child in the legion of child labourers and grossly underpaid workers deaths swirl, senior Commonwealth Games officials yesterday expressed serious safety concerns for athletes and spectators following revelations that substandard building materials - including fabricated concrete - have been used to construct some of the venues.

Sports minister M S Gill has stated in parliament that the venues are "world class". But at this stage, at any rate, there are not likely to be many takers for this mind-boggling assessment.

Here in Australia, as, indeed, back home, incensed Indians are hoping that prime minister Manmohan Singh who has ordered a "thorough investigation into all complaints received about irregularities in building standards, loss of revenue or over-payments in handing out contracts" and promised that "all those found guilty should face severe and exemplary punishment" will be true to his word.

The need of the hour at this critical juncture, to paraphrase Winston Churchill, is for all good men, especially in the media, to come to the help of our country.

This is not the time to indulge in salacious finger-pointing, mud-slinging, rumour-mongering, witch-hunting and character assassination - no matter how compelling the evidence. Now is the time to do everything humanly possible to help conduct and project the Games in a positive manner that will redeem our loss of face.

Punitive action
Indisputably the most stringent punitive action possible is called for against all those " bar none " responsible for making India a laughing stock the world over. But trial by media, politicking and scoring of brownie points by interested parties is not an option at this critical juncture.

The time for retribution should be post-October 14 when the Games end " hopefully in a blaze of glory
for India.