DUBAI // Shane Warne wants to train alongside Yasir Shah and his Pakistan teammates ahead of the third Test in Sharjah.
The Australian great is idolised by Yasir, Pakistan’s leg-spinner who climbed to No 2 in the world rankings for Test bowlers after taking eight wickets against England in Dubai this week.
The pair met in Adelaide during the World Cup earlier this year, and Warne would be happy to share more of his expertise with Yasir, given the opportunity.
He flew in from Australia to the UAE this week to promote a golf tournament, before heading on to the United States for the new Twenty20 competition he and Sachin Tendulkar are promoting. He is keen to get in some overs of bowling practice ahead of that event while he is here.
England also have a leg-spinner, Adil Rashid, as part of their tour party here in the UAE. Warne wants to see Rashid succeed, in the same way he does Yasir, but acknowledged the idea of a training session with England is less likely.
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Talking points from the second Test between Pakistan and England in Dubai
“If I could find some time this week, I would love to go down and have a bowl with [Yasir], because I am trying to prepare for the Cricket All Stars next week as well,” said Warne, who is due to fly out of the UAE on Friday.
“I am trying to get as much practice in as I can. I might not be that welcome down in the England camp, so I might have to try the Pakistan camp to have a bowl.
“I might get a bit competitive in the England nets, I might try to knock a few of them over.”
Having watched the start of the Dubai Test between Pakistan and England, while still in Australia, Warne has some pointers he thinks Yasir could benefit from.
“I think he is a wonderful bowler,” said Warne. “From what I have seen of this Test match, he has got all the toys, I just think he gets a little impatient.
“I think he just needs to slow down a little bit, take a breath, chill out, and set up a batsman a little more, rather than just go ripping leg-break, straight one, wrong ‘un. To me, he just needs to be a little more patient and toil away.”
Based on his own experience, Warne believes both spin bowlers will enjoy the conditions they are presented with in Sharjah, when the final Test starts on Sunday.
He took 16 wickets – at an average of 9.62 – in the two Test matches he played at the UAE’s oldest cricket ground, when Australia beat Pakistan in October 2002.
“Both of them have the grounding, have done their apprenticeship, but I think they are completely different bowlers,” Warne said.
“I think Yasir is a real hustle and bustle leg-spinner. To me, he is the best leg-spinner in international cricket at the moment. He is a wonderful bowler.
“Rashid will hopefully get better. He is not as fluent as a Yasir Shah, but that doesn’t mean he is not as effective. He can be just as effective.
“If Rashid gets his confidence up, I think he can be a real handful.”
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The biog
Name: Fareed Lafta
Age: 40
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Favourite poet: Al Mutanabbi
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
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Founded in 1985 by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, the Central Veterinary Research Laboratory (CVRL) is a government diagnostic centre that provides testing and research facilities to the UAE and neighbouring countries.
One of its main goals is to provide permanent treatment solutions for veterinary related diseases.
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Three-day coronation
Royal purification
The entire coronation ceremony extends over three days from May 4-6, but Saturday is the one to watch. At the time of 10:09am the royal purification ceremony begins. Wearing a white robe, the king will enter a pavilion at the Grand Palace, where he will be doused in sacred water from five rivers and four ponds in Thailand. In the distant past water was collected from specific rivers in India, reflecting the influential blend of Hindu and Buddhist cosmology on the coronation. Hindu Brahmins and the country's most senior Buddhist monks will be present. Coronation practices can be traced back thousands of years to ancient India.
The crown
Not long after royal purification rites, the king proceeds to the Baisal Daksin Throne Hall where he receives sacred water from eight directions. Symbolically that means he has received legitimacy from all directions of the kingdom. He ascends the Bhadrapitha Throne, where in regal robes he sits under a Nine-Tiered Umbrella of State. Brahmins will hand the monarch the royal regalia, including a wooden sceptre inlaid with gold, a precious stone-encrusted sword believed to have been found in a lake in northern Cambodia, slippers, and a whisk made from yak's hair.
The Great Crown of Victory is the centrepiece. Tiered, gold and weighing 7.3 kilograms, it has a diamond from India at the top. Vajiralongkorn will personally place the crown on his own head and then issues his first royal command.
The audience
On Saturday afternoon, the newly-crowned king is set to grant a "grand audience" to members of the royal family, the privy council, the cabinet and senior officials. Two hours later the king will visit the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, the most sacred space in Thailand, which on normal days is thronged with tourists. He then symbolically moves into the Royal Residence.
The procession
The main element of Sunday's ceremonies, streets across Bangkok's historic heart have been blocked off in preparation for this moment. The king will sit on a royal palanquin carried by soldiers dressed in colourful traditional garb. A 21-gun salute will start the procession. Some 200,000 people are expected to line the seven-kilometre route around the city.
Meet the people
On the last day of the ceremony Rama X will appear on the balcony of Suddhaisavarya Prasad Hall in the Grand Palace at 4:30pm "to receive the good wishes of the people". An hour later, diplomats will be given an audience at the Grand Palace. This is the only time during the ceremony that representatives of foreign governments will greet the king.
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