Wasim Akram marries Australian girlfriend

August 22, 2013

Wasim_AkramLahore, Aug 22: Former Pakistan cricket captain Wasim Akram today announced he had married his Australian girlfriend, Shaniera Thompson, after clerics contended it was "sinful" for the couple to live together without being wed.

"I married Shaniera in Lahore last week in a simple ceremony and this is the start of a new life for me, my wife and for my kids," Akram was quoted as saying by a local journalist.

Akram, 47, proposed to the 30-year-old former public relations consultant last month and they married on August 12 in the presence of immediate family, sources said.

"Last week, Akram married Shaniera during a gathering at a farm house on Defence Road. Only family members participated in the ceremony," a source said.

Akram’s father is unwell and wanted to see his son married again, the sources said. His first wife Huma died in 2009.

Thompson came to Karachi earlier this month and flew to Lahore to meet Akram's father.Since Thompson arrived in Pakistan about three weeks ago, some clerics criticised Akram for spending "days and nights" with his fiancé under one roof without getting married.

"This is un-Islamic and sinful. Akram should separate himself from her and make living arrangements for her somewhere else till he gets married to her,” Mufti Abdul Qayyum told reporters.

Sections of the media too questioned Akram about the matter.

Sources said that since Akram had made up his mind to marry Thompson, he wasted no more time in tying the knot in order to stave off criticism from hardliners.

Reports said Thompson had converted to Islam and was learning Urdu.

Akram's first wife Huma died of multiple organ failure in a hospital in Chennai in October 2009. She was being flown in an air ambulance to Singapore when her condition worsened and the aircraft had to land in Chennai.

He had two sons with Huma.

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News Network
June 23,2020

Karachi, Jun 23: Pakistan cricketers Shadab Khan, Haris Rauf and rookie Haider Ali on Monday tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

"The Pakistan Cricket Board has confirmed three players - Haider Ali, Haris Rauf and Shadab Khan - have tested positive for Covid-19," said the PCB in a statement.

"The players had shown no symptoms until they were tested in Rawalpindi on Sunday ahead of the Pakistan men's national cricket team's tour to England."

The infected players will go into self-isolation.

"The PCB medical panel is in contact with the three who have been advised to immediately go into self-isolation," the statement said.

Earlier this month, former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi was tested positive for the deadly virus.

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News Network
July 16,2020

Kolkata, Jul 16: BCCI president Sourav Ganguly on Wednesday went into home quarantine after his elder brother and Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) joint secretary Snehasish Ganguly tested positive for Covid-19.

Snehasish, a former Bengal first-class player, has been admitted to the Belle Vue hospital in Kolkata after his COVID report came positive.

"He was suffering from fever for the last few days and his test report came positive today. He's been admitted to Belle Vue Hospital," a CAB official said.

"The reports arrived late in the evening. As per health protocols, even Sourav will have to be in home quarantine for a stipulated period," a source close to the BCCI President added.

Snehasish had shifted to their ancestral house, where Sourav is based, in Behala after his wife and in-laws at his Mominpur residence tested positive for the dreaded virus.

The former India captain was, however, unavailable for a comment on the development.

Recently, during an interview to India Today, Sourav had spoken about how life around him has changed, making people more vulnerable.

"My brother visits our factories everyday and he is more at risk," the former batting star had said

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Agencies
April 14,2020

Tokyo, Apr 14: Tokyo organizers said Tuesday they have no B Plan in the event the Olympics need to be postponed again because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Masa Takaya, the spokesman for the Tokyo Olympics, said organizers are proceeding under the assumption the Olympics will open on July 23, 2021. The Paralympics follow on Aug. 24.

Those dates were set last month by the International Olympic Committee and Japanese officials after the coronavirus pandemic made it clear the Olympics could not be held as scheduled this summer.

We are working toward the new goal, Takaya said, speaking in English on a teleconference call with journalists.

We don't have a B Plan. The severity of the pandemic and the death toll has raised questions if it will even be feasible to hold the Olympics in just over 15 months. Several Japanese journalists raised the question on the call.

All I can tell you today is that the new games' dates for both the Olympic and Paralympic Games have been just set up, Takaya said.

In that respect, Tokyo 2020 and all concerned parties now are doing their very best effort to deliver the games next year." IOC President Thomas Bach was asked about the possibility of a postponement in an interview published in the German newspaper Die Welt on Sunday.

He did not answer the question directly, but said later that Japanese organizers and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe indicated they could not manage a postponement beyond next summer at the lastest.

The Olympics draw 11,000 athletes and 4,400 Paralympic athletes and large support staffs from 206 national Olympic committees.

There are also questions about frozen travel, rebooking hotels, cramming fans into stadiums and arenas, securing venues, and the massive costs of rescheduling, which is estimated in Japan at 2 billion- 6 billion.

Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto addressed the issue in a news conference on Friday. He is likely to be asked about it again on Thursday when local organizers and the IOC hold a teleconferene with media in Japan.

The other major question is the cost of the delay; how much will it be, and who pays? Bach said in the Sunday interview that the IOC would incur several hundred million dollars in added costs. Under the so-called Host City Agreement, Japan is liable for the vast majority of the expenses.

This is impossible to say for now, Takaya, the spokesman said.

It is not very easy to estimate the exact amount of the games' additional costs, which have been impacted by the postponement."

Tokyo says it's spending 12.6 billion to organize the Olympics. But a Japanese government audit published last year says the costs are twice that much. Of the total spending, 5.6 billion in private money. The rest is from Japanese governments.

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