BCCI decides to revive India-Pakistan cricket ties

January 24, 2014

India-Pakistan_cricket_tiesJan 24: The cricketing ice between India and Pakistan is melting. The frosty diplomatic relations notwithstanding, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has decided to renew the bilateral ties with Pakistan. The inevitable fallout of the decision is India's readiness to play Pakistan anywhere.

In other words, the BCCI, which has been steadfastly against going to a neutral country to play Pakistan, has climbed down from that hard position. It is willing to send the team to any country, including Abu Dhabi and Dubai. They might even say yes to Sharjah.

A decision to this effect was taken at the emergent working committee meeting of the BCCI in Chennai yesterday. The BCCI sent out a general press statement but specifically mentioned Pakistan. "The meeting has authorized the office bearers to discuss bilateral matches with other Full Members (including Pakistan) and sign formal FTP Agreements," the BCCI stated in a release.

The decision follows a telecon between BCCI president N Srinivasan and recently-restored president of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Zaka Ashraf. There is no immediate window for a series to be organised but the BCCI is open to play a short series against Pakistan in the next 12 months.

"There is no window till 2015 to accommodate a full-fledged series but we can squeeze in a short series if a proposal from the PCB comes through," Sanjay Patel, BCCI secretary, told Mirror. He was categorical that Team India will be ready to travel to any place that Pakistan suggests, including the venues in the Middle East where Misbah & Co play their home games.

India have not played a match the Middle East, particularly in Sharjah, since 2000 and the last bilateral series between the countries was a short ODI-T20 series in 2012-13. It is now India's turn to visit Pakistan. Given India's busy schedule, a window for a short series is not possible but the countries could work out a schedule between September and December this year.

"We welcome the BCCI decision. I've had a discussion with Srinivasan and we knew that the BCCI would take such a decision," Ashraf said.

Position paper

The focus of the meeting, however, was elsewhere. The meeting was called to discuss and authorise the officebearers to act according to the proposals on restructure of the International Cricket Council (ICC). The meeting welcomed the proposals pertaining to the distribution of the ICC revenue, the largest share of which should come the BCCI's way.

The members have also endorsed the 'Position Paper' containing the draft of the ICC restructure and empowered the office-bearers to take necessary measures. "The committee discussed at length the proposals of the ICC working group and felt that this proposal was in the interest of cricket at large. The committee unanimously authorised the office bearers to enter into agreements with ICC for participating in the ICC events and host ICC events, subject to the proposal being approved in the ICC board," the BCCI said in a release.

CASE AGAINST KIADB

The BCCI is worried that Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) is not returning Rs 50 crore that was given to them for the purchase of a piece of land where the board wanted to set up a state-of-theart cricket academy. Now that the land cannot be sold to the BCCI, for obvious legal and technical reasons, the BCCI wants money back from the KIADB. It has been learnt that letters have been exchanged with KIADB and at the working committee it was decided that the BCCI have to resort to legal recourse. Informed a member, who attended the meeting: "There was a detailed discussion over the matter. It was felt that the board should file a court case. We're awaiting an advice from the legal cell. We'll act upon their advice promptly."

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News Network
June 24,2020

New Delhi, Jun 24: Star Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan deeply regrets his "silly mistake" of not reporting a corrupt approach by an Indian bookie to the ICC, leading to his one year suspension from the game.

Shakib was banned for two years, one year of it suspended, for failing to report corrupt approaches during an IPL edition by an alleged Indian bookie named Deepak Aggarwal.

"I took the approaches too casually When I met the anti-corruption guy and told them and they knew everything. Gave them all the evidence and they knew everything that happened," Shakib told Harsha Bhogle on 'Cricbuzz in Conversation'.

"To be honest, that's the only reason I was banned for a year, otherwise I'd have been banned for five or 10 years," he added on the ICC's investigation.

The 33-year-old, who was in brilliant form before the ban, amassing 606 runs in the 2019 World Cup in the UK, said he regrets how he went about the situation.

"But I think that was a silly mistake I made. Because with my experience and the amount of international matches I've played and the amount of ICC's anti-corruption code of conduct classes I took, I shouldn't have made that decision, to be honest."

Lesson learnt, Shakib's advice to all young criceters is to never take any such message lightly.

"I regret that. No one should take such messages or calls (from bookies) lightly or leave it away. We must inform the ICC ACSU guy to be on the safe side and that's the lesson I learnt, and I think I learnt a big lesson," he added.

The all-rounder, whose ban ends on October 29, said he became a bit arrogant and never felt he was doing anything wrong by not reporting the bookie's approach immediately.

"Because you do most things right in your life, you tend to get arrogant with some decisions. You may not realise but you're doing wrong by the books. It never came to my mind that I am doing something wrong

"It was just a feeling of 'okay, what's going to happen, leave it' and I continued with my life. But that's the mistake I made. And that happens," Shakib said.

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News Network
April 5,2020

New Delhi, April 5: England batsman James Vince lashed out at people for not taking proper measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic and said people are going out as if "everything is normal".

"Just seen the pictures of people out and about today as if everything is normal. What selfish people, surely by now they've realised this is serious. Well done to everyone who's doing their bit and staying in," Vince tweeted.

On March 13, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that Europe was now the 'epicentre' of the disease.

The death toll due to the novel coronavirus in the UK has exceeded 4,313 with at least 708 new deaths in the last 24 hours, the largest one-day rise since the start of the outbreak as confirmed by the Department of Health and Social Care.

The total number of cases in the UK as on Saturday is 41,903, a rise of 3,735 cases in the last 24 hours.

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Agencies
January 11,2020

London, Jan 11: Former cricketer Sachin Tendulkar's famous lap around the Wankhede Stadium after the World Cup 2011 win has been nominated in Laureas's list for the most inspiring sporting event in the last twenty years.

The moment featuring Tendulkar has been described as "Carried on the shoulders by a nation".

On his sixth attempt at the World Cup and with India not having won the competition since 1983, Tendulkar finally became a part of the team that lifted the coveted trophy. Carried on the shoulders of the Indian team, he made a lap of honour, shedding tears of joy after the victory was sealed in his home city.

The 2011 World Cup was also the first time, in which a host nation ended up winning the trophy.

Apart from Tendulkar, England's Andrew Flintoff is the only other cricketer to feature in the list. In 2005, England managed to defeat Australia in an Ashes Test, but Flintoff chose to first shake hands with Brett Lee rather than celebrate with his side.

Matthias Steiner (weightlifting), Natalie du Toit (swimming), Sky Brown (skateboarding), Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee (triathlon), Xia Boyu (mountaineering) have been nominated in the list.

Female tennis stars also feature in the list for coming up with an equal play, equal pay campaign. After pressure from Venus Williams and others, Wimbledon announced that female tennis players would receive prize money equal to the men's.

German international footballer Miroslav Klose was playing for Lazio in Italy's Serie A in 2012 against Napoli when he rose for a ball in the early moments of the game.

The ball came spiraling off his hand and skirted into the back of the net and a goal was awarded. While most players would carry on as if nothing had happened, Klose was honest with the referee and admitted that he handled the ball.

As a result, he also finds a place on the list.

The Laureus Sporting Moment Award celebrates the moments where the sport has unified people in the most extraordinary way.

This campaign has shortlisted 20 sporting stories from the last 20 years that have left their mark on the world.

The winner will be decided on the basis of public voting. It has already started, and the final date to cast the vote is February 16.

Finally, the result will be declared on February 17.
With three knock-out rounds, the top-20 moments will be whittled down to ten then five, with the top-five moments going head-to-head.

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