'Cruel betrayal': Cricket's heart broken in Australia over ball-tampering

Agencies
March 26, 2018

Sydney, Mar 26: Being Australia's cricket captain is widely seen as the second most important job in the country behind the prime minister. Many would argue it holds even more prestige.

In an astonishing development, the captain said he hatched a plot to tamper with the ball in the third Test against South Africa, which saw team-mate Cameron Bancroft use yellow sticky tape on Saturday in Cape Town to try and alter its condition.

He was caught on camera and comically tried to hide the evidence by stuffing it down the front of his trousers.

Everyone from former Test greats, to the Australian Sports Commission, and the public condemned what happened, with the story dominating front pages, television news and coffee shop chatter.

Even Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he was "shocked and bitterly disappointed".

"It seemed completely beyond belief that the Australian cricket team had been involved in cheating," he said.

Cricket, long considered the gentleman's game, is more than a sport in Australia -- it is widely seen as helping shape the country itself, with its British origins helping foster and develop the national character, morals and ideals.

Wearing the baggy green cap of the national team is sacred, an honour earned by barely 450 people.

With that accolade comes great responsibilities in a former colony whose national identity owes much to its prowess in sport.

"To cheat is just not in the spirit of what Australians do. They fight hard, they play hard, but they don't cheat," cricket fan Steve Chaka told AFP in Sydney.

Another, Giovanni Cettolin, said Smith's lapse of judgement was "definitely not good sportsmanship for an Australian".

"Us Aussies all dig in and fight hard, you know, and obviously he didn't do that. It's a shame, it really is."

As Jaimie Fuller, executive chairman of the Skins compression wear a group of companies, explained in a full-page newspaper advert Monday: "Cricket is such a part of our national psyche that it helps define us.

"It helps give us a sense of what is fair, and what is not; what is right and what is wrong."

He said Cricket Australia had a moral responsibility to display good governance in how it responds to the scandal.

"If you don't, it's not just the Australian cricket team who is shamed, but it will be all of you. It will be cricket. And it will be all of us."

Catherine McGregor, author of the book "An Indian Summer of Cricket", said it would take a long time for the Australian public to forgive "this cruel betrayal".

"No other game is so self-conscious in revering noble defeat, nor in insisting how it is played is more important than the result," she wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald.

"Cheating in order to win at any price 'just isn't cricket'."

She added that the anger of cricket lovers around the country was understandable.

"They are the true believers. This team is unworthy of them."

Australian cricket fans have long regarded the national team's style as hard but fair, but there has been mounting concern about the perceived arrogance from some, with the cheating scandal a step too far.

Peter Lalor, cricket correspondent for The Australian and Sydney's Daily Telegraph, said the conspiracy clearly showed "there is something rotten at the heart of the Australian cricket team".

"The public has struggled to love a side that wins ugly, but success and nationalism and tradition have patched the frayed fabric," he wrote Monday.

"A conspiracy to cheat, however, has ripped the cloth and major repairs will be needed."

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News Network
January 22,2020

Jan 22: Microsoft Corp’s chief executive officer said he worries that mistrust between the US and China will increase technology costs and hurt economic growth at a critical time.

Using the $470 billion semiconductor industry as an example of a sector that is already globally interconnected, Satya Nadella said the two countries will have to find ways to work together, rather than creating different supply chains for each country.

“All you are doing is increasing transaction costs for everybody if you completely separate,” Nadella said in an interview with Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait at Bloomberg’s The Year Ahead conference in Davos. That’s a concern as the executive said the world is on the cusp of a revolution around technology and artificial intelligence.

“If we take steps back in trust or increase transaction costs around technology, all we are doing is sacrificing global economic growth,” he said.

The agreement signed last week between the US and China was “not sufficient,” said Nadella, but represented “progress” on the issue of intellectual property protections for US technology companies working with China.

Nadella said he worries about the development of two separate internets, noting that to some degree they already exist “and they will get amplified in the future” with massive technology companies already in place in China.

The viewpoint clashes with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who has been sceptical about the idea that ongoing US-China trade tensions could ever lead to a bifurcated system of two internets.

China and the US are the two leading AI superpowers, however the cooling political relations between them have slowed the international collaboration.

Nadella also warned that countries that fail to attract immigrants will lose out as the global tech industry continues to grow. The CEO has previously voiced concern about India’s Citizenship Amendment Act, calling it “sad.”

“However, Nadella said he remained hopeful.

“The fact that there is a 70-year history of nation-building, I think it’s a very strong foundation. I grew up in that country. I’m proud of that heritage. I’m influenced by that experience.”

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News Network
January 14,2020

New Delhi, Jan 14: One of the four Nirbhaya gang rape convicts, who are scheduled to be hanged on January 22, moved a mercy plea before President Ram Nath Kovind to set aside the death sentence issued against him.

He also moved the Delhi High Court to set aside the death warrant issued by a trial court. This hearing is scheduled for Wednesday before a bench of Justices Manmohan and Sangita Dhingra Sehgal.

The petition, filed through advocate Vrinda Grover, seeks setting aside of the January 7 order issuing the warrant of his execution.

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News Network
May 11,2020

May 11: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday said many states were amending labour laws, but the fight against the novel coronavirus pandemic cannot be an excuse to exploit workers, suppress their voice and crush their human rights.

Gandhi said there cannot be any compromise on the basic principles by allowing unsafe workplaces.

"Many states are amending labour laws. We are together fighting against corona, but this cannot be an excuse to crush human rights, allow unsafe workplaces, exploit workers and suppress their voice," he said.

"There cannot be any compromise on these basic principles," he added.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh also said it would be dangerous and disastrous to loosen labour, land and environment laws in the name of economic revival and stimulus.

"In the name of economic revival and stimulus, it will be dangerous and disastrous to loosen labour, land and environmental laws and regulations as the Modi govt is planning.

"The first steps have already been taken. This is a quack remedy like demonetisation," Ramesh tweeted.

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