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Smith not taking Bangladesh too lightly
February 17th, 2008South Africa’s Captain Graeme Smith refuses to comment on their revenge from their loss in the World Cup against Bangladesh. He said that his team is focusing more on the matches scheduled ahead.
When he was asked whether that defeat still troubles him, he replied “We always respect them and obviously they will get more respect now especially when they are going to play in their own conditions. I don’t think they [Bangladesh] will be easy prey. We are more interested to focus on our game.
“We have played together for the last three months and I am confident that we are strong enough to adjust to any condition and play for the best possible outcome. We had a good tour of Bangladesh five years back and we are similarly looking forward to another successful outcome in this series.”
Smith also added that his team is beaming with confidence on a recent home series win against the West Indies and also a good performance against Pakistan and New Zealand. He says that his team is capable handling different conditions and putting up a good performance.
Smith is confident that his side will play some attractive cricket when he said “We have got some wonderful cricketers in the side. We will play a brand of cricket which the Bangladeshi fans will love to watch and they will definitely enjoy our cricket.”
Bangladesh has not named their squad yet as they face South Africa on 22nd February in the Mirpur Stadium. South Africa have a three one-day practice match before the start of the series.
[by Shahnawaz Alam]
Photo: Reuters
Steve Bucknor returns to test Cricket
February 17th, 2008
Steve Bucknor is back from his suspensions, due to his controversial umpiring decisions in India’s tour of Australia in the second Test in Sydney. He is selected alongside Aleem Dar in the two match test series in Dhaka and Chittagong when South Africa tour Bangladesh
The ICC was criticized for their decision. They faced pressure from the BCCI as they threatened to withdraw from the competition following the controversies in Sydney. Bucknor has umpired 120 test matches and is third behind David Shepherd and Rudi Koertzen in the one-dayers with 167 matches.
[by Shahnawaz Alam]
Photo: Reuters
Peterson due to represent The Proteas
February 17th, 2008South Africa’s left-arm spinner Paul Harris will not make it in South Africa’s tour of Bangladesh as he is undergoing a surgery on his abscess. Robin Peterson is due to fill his absence. This was a last minute decision that was made, due to Harris’ injury, for South Africa’s squad.
The convener of selectors, Joubert Strydom, said “Robbie has shown excellent form in the Supersport Series. He was the leading wicket-taker among South African spin bowlers with 24 wickets.”
Paul has had an excellent record. He managed 30 wickets in 10 Test matches giving away an average of 25 runs since his debut 12 months ago. Peterson’s international career has been struggling. He has made only five appearances for South Africa, which was back in the 2003-2004 season. The other spinner selected for South Africa is the off-break bowler Johan Botha.
They would now compete against each other for a place in the national side. Botha has the slight edge since he has been playing recently, while Peterson’s last international match was last year in the Caribbean during the world cup.
After South Africa arrives in Bangladesh, they have a warm up match before the tournament against Bangladesh Cricket Board XI.
[by Shahnawaz Alam]
Photo: Reuters
FA Cup: Man Utd vs Arsenal
February 16th, 2008Today is Sir Alex Ferguson’s 100th FA Cup tie as Manager of Manchester United. Being the most successful clubs in English football, Arsenal and Manchester United are currently the top
two in the league. They have appeared 35 times in the FA Cup final between themselves and have won it 21 times.
This is the 35th time that Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson Face off against each other. From the previous 34 Man United won 11 times where Arsenal won 13. From the remaining other fixture eight of them finished on level scores and the other two remaining were decided on penalties, where Man United won the 2003 Community Shield and Arsenal won the 2005 FA Cup.
Recently the Gunners are unbeaten in their last 3 matches against the Red Devils, where they drew one and won the in the premier league. United won 2-0 against Arsenal back on 9th April 2006 at Old Trafford.
This season they faced each other and drew the match at 2-2 at the Emirates Stadium on 3rd November 2006, where Gallas scored an own goal to give the Red Devils the lead. Fabregas soon drew level for the Gunners, but Christiano Ronaldo had other plans when he scored and gave United the lead. Just when the match was about to end Gallas scored in the dying minutes of stoppage time and drew level.
In the history of the FA Cup they played against on another 12 times, one them being a replay. Their most recent FA Cup encounter was at the Millennium Stadium in the final. It was a goalless draw which resulted in a dramatic 5-4 victory for the Gunners on Penalties. However the most memorable clash between them in the FA Cup was in 1999 at Villa Park when the scores were level at 1-1 and the game headed to extra-time. Ryan Giggs got the win for United with a 109th minute goal from a magnificent solo effort succeeded by a shirt-swinging goal celebration.
For today’s encounter Manchester United have Wayne Rooney and Patrice Evra back from suspension. Louis Saha is available for use after his knee problem. However Gary Neville and Mikael Silvestre are expected to be sidelined.
For Arsenal, Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Eboue are back after their International duties in the African Cup of Nations. Theo Walcott is out with a thigh injury, Gael Clichy with a hamstring injury and Philippe Senderos with a knee problem. Bacary Sagna is not expected to play due to personal reasons.
The Squads
Man Utd: Van Der Sarr, Kuszczak, Brown, O’Shea, Simpson, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Fletcher, Nani, Park, Scholes, Ronaldo, Anderson, Carrick, Hargreaves, Giggs, Tevez, Rooney, Saha, Welbeck.
Arsenal: Lehmann, Fabianski, Senderos, Hleb, Fabregas, Flamini, Adebayor, Eduardo, Bendtner, Traore, Song, J Hoyte, Gilberto, Gilbert, G Hoyte, Lansbury.
[by Shahnawaz Alam]
Australia in doubt of touring Pakistan
February 13th, 2008Australia is scheduled to tour Pakistan for March and April. But now it seems very unlikely following the meeting held in Dubai between the chairmen of both boards. After the discussions Cricket Australia’s chairman, Creagh O’Connor, sent a letter to the Pakistan board expressing the reservations on security held in Pakistan.
The PCB chairman, Nasim Ashraf said “We received a letter yesterday from CA following our meeting and, though they reiterated their commitment to supporting Pakistan cricket, they said security briefings they have received in Australia are advising them against touring.”
A security delegation of Cricket Australia is due to visit Pakistan after the general elections due to be held on February 18. However a report in the Urdu daily Jung said that Cricket Australia is unsure whether sending experts would be feasible, which indicated perhaps they already made a decision not to tour Pakistan.
“They have asked us whether we still want a security delegation sent here and if so when,” Ashraf said. “In response to this, we have told CA that we still firmly believe that the environment for cricket and cricketers is still safe here. We have also said that the security team should visit Pakistan from February 25, exactly one week after the elections.”
Ashraf also included that if Australia refuses to tour Pakistan then it would be a big blow for Pakistan cricket. He said that any country in the world is prone to terrorism and this should not dictate the sports events which are going to take place in the future because it would also have an effect on teams financially. If these events are intervened more often then simply touring other countries would become an issue for some teams. He hopes that Australia would make the right decision because there is a also a possibility of Pakistan refraining from their tour of Australia in 2009.
This would be Australia’s first tour of Pakistan in a decade and the Australian players are concerned following the violence throughout the year and the stability of the country. Despite these issues recently South Africa and Zimbabwe have completed tours without any controversial interventions during the series of matches.
Privately the board officials of PCB think it is becoming unlikely for the tour to be possible. Yet they continue to press for the tour to go ahead. The PCB’s chief operating officer Shafqat Naghmei is scheduled to meet James Sutherland, Cricket Australia’s chief executive, in Kuala Lampur and have a further discussion on security arrangements.
[by Shahnawaz Alam]
Simon Taufel pondering over retirement
February 13th, 2008The australian umpire, Simon Taufel, is currently ranked the best in the world. He has revealed that he might not renew his contract expires in 31st March and he wished not to renew it.
There an enormous amount of controversy with umpires nowadays and if Taufel does not wish to change his mind then it would be a big blow to the ICC. The spotlights are set for the umpires to perform following the incident with Steve Buckner in India’s recent tour of Australia, where he got suspended for his indecisions in the test series. While yesterday Rudi Koertzen, in the fourth match of the VB series, gave Adam Gilchrist of Australia an LBW when the replays clearly suggested that he edged the ball before it hit the pad.
Simon Taufel is only 37, which is a relatively young age for Umpires. He says that the travelling that comes along with his job is too stressful for him.
Adam Gilchrist of Australia and Shane Bond of New Zealand have retired from International Cricket. Attracted by huge pay checks, they are set to join the Indian Premier League. Simon Taufel too seems to follow their footsteps, he certainly hasn’t ruled out the thought of working in the IPL.
[by Shahnawaz Alam]
Rivals in arms: India v Pakistan
September 24th, 2007Result India won by 5 runs.
Toss India, who chose to bat first.
Series India won the 2007/08 ICC World Twenty20.
Player of the match IK Pathan (India)
Player of the series Shahid Afridi (Pakistan)
A full review will be posted later on.
[ Game Preview by Shahnawaz Alam ]
It is perhaps not the most famous event in Cricket, the Twenty20 World Cup. Old timers and purists alike have expressed their concern on Twenty20 as more of a child
European Parliament resolution on Bangladesh
September 8th, 2007[Sushanta Das Gupta, UK]
The European Parliament has been keeping track on our current events, including the student riots, detainment of teachers, violation of Human Rights on many instances and the attack on the Press and Electronic Media.
On 6th September, the EU Parliament website released a resolution on Bangladesh. The resolution states that the EU is highly concerned about the arrest of the Ex. Prime Ministers, Freedom of Press and the re-establishment of Democracy. It calls for lifting the state of emergency, banning of political activities so that parties can prepare for the coming election.
Below are the highlights from the European Parliament resolution of 6 September 2007 on Bangladesh.
Presidential Vacuum, Constitutional Crisis and the Chief Justice
September 4th, 2007[Zafa Noor, USA.]
Secular Polity to Islamic Hegemony of the Nationalists Chauvinist
August 15th, 2007
Photo: Selling Religion/Bri Vos.
[Saleem Samad, Canada.]
This article exposes the mindset of the majoritarian Bangalee Muslim nationalist population in Bangladesh. To consolidate the power base, the political parties, politicians and military dictators, have always used religion as a tool.
It is evident from the series of amendment of the Constitution from a secular to Islamic trend portrays the hegemony of the majoritarian, the Islamic nationalist chauvinist of course, over the marginalized communities.
It is indeed a losing battle of the proactive secularists entailed with the civil society and the human rights organizations. Possibly due to their inability to forge a common platform, as some political scientist would explain. Let it be informed that the civil society is divided in thin lines and sometimes partisan, thus failed to make any dent in the fragmented society.
The only hope is the strong civil society among the rural population, specially the peasant society, particularly — women, who are apparently modest in practicing religion and discreetly turned down Sharia laws championed by rural elites.
After the end of military hegemony in state politics in 1991 (which of course is another debate, whether military has at all remained out of polity), the consecutive elections to parliament, municipalities/City Corporations and Union Parishad have anchored confidence in the electoral system of the voter
