The Indian Premier League (IPL) hasn't just got players, fans and Bollywood stars excited but even the bookies can't wait for the action to begin.
They believe matches can be fixed when the Twenty20 tournament starts on April 18, but IPL bosses are sure their moves will come to naught.
But across the country, men who form part of cricket's underbelly are licking their lips in anticipation, as the bookies believe that with no national pride to play for, IPL matches and players will be easy targets.
"Sab malik ke liye khel rahen hain. They have got money for that, toh malik jaisa bolega who vaisa hee karenge. Malik ne bool diya wicket fainkna hain toh fainkna hee padega unko (Everyone is playing for his owner. If the owner says then the player will have to throw away his wicket)," a bookie says.
Even as the IPL has brought in big money in the world of cricket and caught the attention of many but are the IPL authorities really prepared to prevent match-fixing.
IPL bosses say they are fully aware of the risks and say the hype in the build-up to the event is important. However, they say the credibility of the tournament to them is paramount.
"We have made it abundantly clear that Anti-corruption code of ICC will be applicable. We are having a close coordination with the ICC. We have taken more precautions than one would have taken for even a World Cup," IS Bindra, IPL's Infrastructure Committee head, said.
Cricket's tryst with match-fixing claimed not just high-profile victims but for some; destroyed the soul of the game.
So the game's keepers will have to ensure, that this latest glitzy avtaar doesn't let the ghost to re-emerge.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
South African team arrives in Chennai
The South African team arrived this morning for its first Test match against India beginning on March 26.
The players arrived at the international airport by an Emirates flight from Dubai around 9 am and were soon escorted to their hotel in luxury coaches.
Tight security arrangements were made at the airport. The Indian team members are arriving in batches. Virender Sehwag and bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad arrived last night while others would be reaching on Saturday.
South Africa will play three Test matches against India with Ahmedabad (April 3-7) and Kanpur (April 11-15) hosting the last two matches.
However, South Africa captain Graeme Smith said on Friday that recent selection controversies had taken their toll on team at a news conference shortly before leaving for a three-Test tour of India.
"The evidence of this week shows that the off-field stuff does have an effect on the team," Smith said. "There are a few things we need to work through, they can't be left undealt with. We need to find a way to deal with these issues so we can concentrate on the cricket."
I didn't say Gill misused IHF money: Aiyar
NEW DELHI: Sports Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar denied tonight that he had accused Indian Hockey Federation President KPS Gill of spending the organisation's money on his daughter's wedding.
In a clarification, the Minister said that he had only stated that the money was made available to improve the game.
In a clarification, the Minister said that he had only stated that the money was made available to improve the game.
"I hotly deny that I have accused KPS Gill of misusing IHF money to fund his daughter's wedding, as claimed by a news channel." "In fact, the clip following this claim shows me making the general point that money is made available to improve the game. Nowhere in that clip or anywhere in the interview have I accused Gill of any personal abuse. I'm consulting my lawyers in the matter," Aiyar said.
Dhoni, Harbhajan clear fitness test for SAfrica Test series
NEW DELHI: Ending the speculation surrounding offspinner Harbhajan Singh and ODI captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni's fitness, the Cricket Board yesterday said the duo has recovered from injuries and would be available for the three-Test series against South Africa starting next week.
While Harbhajan was nursing a left hamstring injury, Dhoni was recuperating from a sprain in the fourth finger of his right hand picked up during the tour of Australia.
While Harbhajan was nursing a left hamstring injury, Dhoni was recuperating from a sprain in the fourth finger of his right hand picked up during the tour of Australia.
However, both of them yesterday cleared the fitness test conducted by physiotherapist Paul Close in Bangalore.
"As per the report both the players have recovered from injuries and passed the required Physical Fitness Test and both are available for South Africa Series," the BCCI said in a statement.
India has no intention to dominate world cricket: Bindra
MOHALI: Though India has become an "engine of growth of world cricket" and is "sustaining" it, it has no intentions to dominate international cricket because the country earlier itself fought against the domination of one or two nations over the sport, ICC's new principal advisor-designate I S Bindra said yesterday.
"India is an engine of growth of world cricket, it is sustaining, it is generating 85 per cent of revenue," Bindra, who will be taking over his new assignment from July, told a press conference here.
"India is an engine of growth of world cricket, it is sustaining, it is generating 85 per cent of revenue," Bindra, who will be taking over his new assignment from July, told a press conference here.
When a reporter asked that there was "some resentment" against India due to its growing financial clout in the sport, Bindra, who is also president of Punjab Cricket Association, said there is no such thing and added "in fact, every country fully supported our initiative of launching Indian Premier League.
"India has fought against domination of one or two powers and we will not tolerate domination by anyone, including by India itself," 66-year-old Bindra, whose initial term of contract as ICC's principal advisor will be for two years, said.
Bindra said among his priorities in the new job will be to implement the vision of the ICC, development of cricket, particularly in USA and China, assisting in improving relations between members and assisting the BCCI in ensuring the smooth conduct of ICC events, including World Cups.
"Now, extending and popularising this game in two major economies (US and China) is going to be one of our priorities. I had a long chat with (ICC's CEO designate) Imtiaz Patel on many issues including this one...," he said adding Patel fully supported him.
Himalayan tragedy awaits India, China'
Shrinking Himalayan glaciers are going to turn Chinese and Indian rivers like the Ganga and the Yangtze into seasonal rivers that dry up in summers and could eventually lead to "politically unmanageable food shortages" in the region, a leading environmental scientist has warned.
Climate-driven shrinkage of river-based irrigation water supplies has been on the environmental community's radar for some time, but the alarm put out by Lester Brown, President of the Earth Policy Institute, while invoking a "civilization-threatening scenario," is the starkest yet.
"The world has never faced such a predictably massive threat to food production as that posed by the melting mountain glaciers of Asia," Brown said in a paper released this week.
"In a world where grain prices have recently climbed to record highs, with no relief in sight, any disruption of the wheat or rice harvests due to water shortages in these two leading grain producers will greatly affect not only people living there but consumers everywhere."
Moreover, Brown said, in both of these countries, food prices will likely rise and grain consumption per person can be expected to fall. In India, where just over 40 per cent of all children under five years of age are underweight and undernourished, "hunger will intensify and child mortality will likely climb."
The projections were based partly on the fact that China and India are the world's leading producers of both wheat and rice -- humanity's food staples.
China's wheat harvest is nearly double that of the United States, which ranks third after India. With rice, China and India are far and away the leading producers, together accounting for over half of the world harvest.
In a separate teleconference, Brown said India's Gangetic plain faded the prospect of losing the double cropping that allowed it to harvest wheat in winter and rice in summer. Water tables were also dropping rapidly in both India and China and were dangerously low in many places.
"Both countries have lost momentum in the effort to raise grain production. In both countries stocks are down to minimal levels and both are wrestling with serious food price inflation," he said in remarks that come amid convulsions already in the world grain market.
Mountain glaciers in the Himalayas and on the Tibet-Qinghai Plateau are melting and could soon deprive the major rivers of India and China of the ice melt needed to sustain them during the dry season, Brown's paper said. In the Ganges, the Yellow River and the Yangtze River basins, where irrigated agriculture depends heavily on rivers, this loss of dry-season flow will shrink harvests.
The paper referred to the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that Himalayan glaciers are receding rapidly and that many could melt entirely by 2035. If the giant Gangotri Glacier that supplies 70 per cent of the Ganges flow during the dry season disappears, it warned, the Ganges could become a seasonal river, flowing during the rainy season but not during the summer dry season when irrigation water needs are greatest.
The Ganga is the largest source of surface water irrigation in India and the leading source of water for the 407 million people living in the Gangetic Basin, a population larger than any other single country other than China. The Yellow River and Yangtze basin hold a similar position in China.
Brown said that as food shortages unfold, China will try to hold down domestic food prices by using its massive dollar holdings to import grain, most of it from the United States, the world's leading grain exporter. As irrigation water supplies shrink, Chinese consumers will be competing with Americans for the US grain harvest.
Climate-driven shrinkage of river-based irrigation water supplies has been on the environmental community's radar for some time, but the alarm put out by Lester Brown, President of the Earth Policy Institute, while invoking a "civilization-threatening scenario," is the starkest yet.
"The world has never faced such a predictably massive threat to food production as that posed by the melting mountain glaciers of Asia," Brown said in a paper released this week.
"In a world where grain prices have recently climbed to record highs, with no relief in sight, any disruption of the wheat or rice harvests due to water shortages in these two leading grain producers will greatly affect not only people living there but consumers everywhere."
Moreover, Brown said, in both of these countries, food prices will likely rise and grain consumption per person can be expected to fall. In India, where just over 40 per cent of all children under five years of age are underweight and undernourished, "hunger will intensify and child mortality will likely climb."
The projections were based partly on the fact that China and India are the world's leading producers of both wheat and rice -- humanity's food staples.
China's wheat harvest is nearly double that of the United States, which ranks third after India. With rice, China and India are far and away the leading producers, together accounting for over half of the world harvest.
In a separate teleconference, Brown said India's Gangetic plain faded the prospect of losing the double cropping that allowed it to harvest wheat in winter and rice in summer. Water tables were also dropping rapidly in both India and China and were dangerously low in many places.
"Both countries have lost momentum in the effort to raise grain production. In both countries stocks are down to minimal levels and both are wrestling with serious food price inflation," he said in remarks that come amid convulsions already in the world grain market.
Mountain glaciers in the Himalayas and on the Tibet-Qinghai Plateau are melting and could soon deprive the major rivers of India and China of the ice melt needed to sustain them during the dry season, Brown's paper said. In the Ganges, the Yellow River and the Yangtze River basins, where irrigated agriculture depends heavily on rivers, this loss of dry-season flow will shrink harvests.
The paper referred to the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that Himalayan glaciers are receding rapidly and that many could melt entirely by 2035. If the giant Gangotri Glacier that supplies 70 per cent of the Ganges flow during the dry season disappears, it warned, the Ganges could become a seasonal river, flowing during the rainy season but not during the summer dry season when irrigation water needs are greatest.
The Ganga is the largest source of surface water irrigation in India and the leading source of water for the 407 million people living in the Gangetic Basin, a population larger than any other single country other than China. The Yellow River and Yangtze basin hold a similar position in China.
Brown said that as food shortages unfold, China will try to hold down domestic food prices by using its massive dollar holdings to import grain, most of it from the United States, the world's leading grain exporter. As irrigation water supplies shrink, Chinese consumers will be competing with Americans for the US grain harvest.
Arriving soon: Trendy terminal at IGI
Passengers arriving in Delhi after May will enter the city through a new and much more swanky arrival terminal. The terminal is being increased by about 4,000 square metres, covering the existing VIP gate area on one side and most of the area near Udaan Bhawan on the other.
Work on the terminal should be completed within the coming two or three months. However, if the present traffic congestion in front of the domestic terminals is not sorted out, the effect of the new entry zone may well be shortlived.
The new terminal will have an upper screen, balanced on huge pillars, at the entrance. Apart from supporting the roof, the pillars will also be used for lighting. Right in front will be the multilevel parking that will accommodate about 3,000 vehicles. That, however, will be ready only by January 2009.
Part of the VIP parking will be located right next to the arrival, towards Udaan Bhawan. "That is still in the planning stage. With the VIP gate having been shifted to terminal 1A, most of the VIP parking will be shifted there but some of it will remain where it is," said a Delhi International Airport (P) Ltd (DIAL) official.
The renovated terminal will have shops in an area of 2,000 square metres as against the present area of 300 square metres. Accordingly, space for airline offices will be reduced by more than half. Collecting baggage will also become easier since there will be eight conveyor belts as opposed to the five at present.
However, DIAL’s current plans to regulate traffic flow due to the ongoing work have only made the situation worse at the domestic terminal.
A new entry road for traffic moving towards the arrival terminal, leading off the road going towards terminal 1A, was opened a few weeks earlier so that congestion could be eased on the main road turning into the airport. However, despite several signages, very few vehicles actually use the new road.
The traffic has now taken to stopping on the narrow entry road for terminal 1B, causing a huge bottle neck at the entrance. A speed breaker at the very point where cars now stop also adds to the chaos.
The situation is made worse by arriving passengers crossing the road at the same spot in order to go to the parking. With the road meant for the arrival practically unused, passengers have to walk across the taxi lane and the arrival lane to reach parked vehicles. "We have put up signs but other than that, there is nothing much we can do," said a DIAL official.
Work on the terminal should be completed within the coming two or three months. However, if the present traffic congestion in front of the domestic terminals is not sorted out, the effect of the new entry zone may well be shortlived.
The new terminal will have an upper screen, balanced on huge pillars, at the entrance. Apart from supporting the roof, the pillars will also be used for lighting. Right in front will be the multilevel parking that will accommodate about 3,000 vehicles. That, however, will be ready only by January 2009.
Part of the VIP parking will be located right next to the arrival, towards Udaan Bhawan. "That is still in the planning stage. With the VIP gate having been shifted to terminal 1A, most of the VIP parking will be shifted there but some of it will remain where it is," said a Delhi International Airport (P) Ltd (DIAL) official.
The renovated terminal will have shops in an area of 2,000 square metres as against the present area of 300 square metres. Accordingly, space for airline offices will be reduced by more than half. Collecting baggage will also become easier since there will be eight conveyor belts as opposed to the five at present.
However, DIAL’s current plans to regulate traffic flow due to the ongoing work have only made the situation worse at the domestic terminal.
A new entry road for traffic moving towards the arrival terminal, leading off the road going towards terminal 1A, was opened a few weeks earlier so that congestion could be eased on the main road turning into the airport. However, despite several signages, very few vehicles actually use the new road.
The traffic has now taken to stopping on the narrow entry road for terminal 1B, causing a huge bottle neck at the entrance. A speed breaker at the very point where cars now stop also adds to the chaos.
The situation is made worse by arriving passengers crossing the road at the same spot in order to go to the parking. With the road meant for the arrival practically unused, passengers have to walk across the taxi lane and the arrival lane to reach parked vehicles. "We have put up signs but other than that, there is nothing much we can do," said a DIAL official.
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