The Indian Premier League was not monitored by the ICC's anti-corruption scheme.
The Indian Premier League was not monitored by the ICC's anti-corruption scheme.

Off-pitch episodes doctored by spin



Now that Australia have surrendered the Ashes to England for the second time in succession on their old enemy's home turf, the stories that are emerging off the pitch are just as intriguing as the events on it during the enthralling series. The media are prone to comment on the aspects of the game which go beyond bat and ball action.

We saw that when a story broke about the Australians telling the International Cricket Council (ICC) that one of their players had been approached by a bookmaker earlier in the tour. Keeping the ICC in the loop seemed the right thing to do. However, the Australian media (the Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar once called them the support staff of the Australian cricket team) can give bowling wizard Shane Warne a run for his money when it comes to spin.

They weaved in an angle about how the Indian Premier League (IPL) and Indian Cricket League left the game vulnerable when it came to betting and match-fixing. Reports also stressed how the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) decided to do away with ICC's Anti-Corruption Unit for the last IPL event held in South Africa. Sure, the BCCI were wrong for not embracing a system followed by the rulers of the game in a bid to stamp out the sport's biggest evil.

And the reason was ridiculous. The BCCI stayed quiet on an ICC offer for anti-corruption cover as they felt the cost of US$1.2million (Dh7.16m) was too expensive. When a fee was agreed it was too late for the unit to start work. This should all have been sorted out two months prior to the tournament to ensure anti-corruption measures were in place. But even with all that in mind, one cannot understand what the threat of corruption in the IPL has got to do with an Australian player being approached in England. But hey, why should that stop the pen-pushing spin-doctors?

In my opinion India and Pakistan have tried to arrest the evil. The fact some of their respective probes ended up being ridiculed by some pundits is not totally fair. Weren't players like Mohammed Azharuddin, Ajay Sharma, Ajay Jadeja and Manoj Prabhakar banned? Didn't Salim Malik face cricketing exile in Pakistan for what he had done? In contrast, what did the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) do when it was discovered that Mark Waugh and Shane Warne accepted money to disclose match-related information to a bookmaker in 1995?

They kept it out of the media and only confirmed that they had fined the duo when a journalist broke the story three years later. The writer, Malcolm Conn, won an award for this well-investigated story. But the cricket world only found out about the pair's involvement through Conn's story, which forced the ACB to call a hastily arranged media conference to finally reveal the truth. Alan Crompton, who was ACB chairman at the time, refused to admit that it was a cover-up job.

Meanwhile Matthew Hayden has called for the ICC Champions Trophy to be scrapped. It may be fair to point out that Hayden's outburst came after he had retired from international cricket and he said some audacious things during his playing days. Hayden made his point though and administrators, especially in Asia, are guilty of organising one-day series which only help in swelling the bank balances of boards and players.

An example is India versus Sri Lanka. India were in Sri Lanka last year for a Test and one-day series, returning later for a second one-day series. In a few days, they will be Sri Lanka-bound again. For whose benefit? Certainly, not the game's development. Talking of development, it must be underlined that the financial gains from the Champions Trophy was aimed at aiding under-developed cricketing countries when Jagmohan Dalmiya was president of the ICC.

It could have helped other "basic" matters too. J Y Lele, the straight-talking former secretary of the BCCI, once told me about a call he received from an ICC official in London, asking for India's affiliation fee to be dispatched before it was due. Lele was a sucker for procedure. When he was told the affiliation fee would help pay the salaries of ICC employees, he was soon on the phone to Dalmiya, asking whether he should release the money.

Dalmiya gave him the go-ahead with a promise that he would not allow the ICC to be short of funds again. He organised the first Champions Trophy in Dhaka and 11 years later it is still treated as the second most important 50-over tournament after the World Cup. Dalmiya had to deal with more than his share of vilification in his time as cricket's boss, but he put the ICC on a firm financial wicket. Let the man have his say: "When I became ICC president, we had £16,000 (Dh95,660). When I left, it had increased to £17 million". Hayden take note!

Clayton Murzello is Group Sports Editor of Indian newspaper Midday cmurzello@thenational.ae

Our family matters legal consultant

Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
 
Started: 2020
 
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
 
Based: Dubai, UAE
 
Sector: Entertainment 
 
Number of staff: 210 
 
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
Dubai Bling season three

Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed 

Rating: 1/5

Maestro
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EBradley%20Cooper%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EBradley%20Cooper%2C%20Carey%20Mulligan%2C%20Maya%20Hawke%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Emergency

Director: Kangana Ranaut

Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry 

Rating: 2/5

MATCH INFO

What: 2006 World Cup quarter-final
When: July 1
Where: Gelsenkirchen Stadium, Gelsenkirchen, Germany

Result:
England 0 Portugal 0
(Portugal win 3-1 on penalties)

German intelligence warnings
  • 2002: "Hezbollah supporters feared becoming a target of security services because of the effects of [9/11] ... discussions on Hezbollah policy moved from mosques into smaller circles in private homes." Supporters in Germany: 800
  • 2013: "Financial and logistical support from Germany for Hezbollah in Lebanon supports the armed struggle against Israel ... Hezbollah supporters in Germany hold back from actions that would gain publicity." Supporters in Germany: 950
  • 2023: "It must be reckoned with that Hezbollah will continue to plan terrorist actions outside the Middle East against Israel or Israeli interests." Supporters in Germany: 1,250 

Source: Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution

Hidden killer

Sepsis arises when the body tries to fight an infection but damages its own tissue and organs in the process.

The World Health Organisation estimates it affects about 30 million people each year and that about six million die.

Of those about three million are newborns and 1.2 are young children.

Patients with septic shock must often have limbs amputated if clots in their limbs prevent blood flow, causing the limbs to die.

Campaigners say the condition is often diagnosed far too late by medical professionals and that many patients wait too long to seek treatment, confusing the symptoms with flu. 

How Tesla’s price correction has hit fund managers

Investing in disruptive technology can be a bumpy ride, as investors in Tesla were reminded on Friday, when its stock dropped 7.5 per cent in early trading to $575.

It recovered slightly but still ended the week 15 per cent lower and is down a third from its all-time high of $883 on January 26. The electric car maker’s market cap fell from $834 billion to about $567bn in that time, a drop of an astonishing $267bn, and a blow for those who bought Tesla stock late.

The collapse also hit fund managers that have gone big on Tesla, notably the UK-based Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust and Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF.

Tesla is the top holding in both funds, making up a hefty 10 per cent of total assets under management. Both funds have fallen by a quarter in the past month.

Matt Weller, global head of market research at GAIN Capital, recently warned that Tesla founder Elon Musk had “flown a bit too close to the sun”, after getting carried away by investing $1.5bn of the company’s money in Bitcoin.

He also predicted Tesla’s sales could struggle as traditional auto manufacturers ramp up electric car production, destroying its first mover advantage.

AJ Bell’s Russ Mould warns that many investors buy tech stocks when earnings forecasts are rising, almost regardless of valuation. “When it works, it really works. But when it goes wrong, elevated valuations leave little or no downside protection.”

A Tesla correction was probably baked in after last year’s astonishing share price surge, and many investors will see this as an opportunity to load up at a reduced price.

Dramatic swings are to be expected when investing in disruptive technology, as Ms Wood at ARK makes clear.

Every week, she sends subscribers a commentary listing “stocks in our strategies that have appreciated or dropped more than 15 per cent in a day” during the week.

Her latest commentary, issued on Friday, showed seven stocks displaying extreme volatility, led by ExOne, a leader in binder jetting 3D printing technology. It jumped 24 per cent, boosted by news that fellow 3D printing specialist Stratasys had beaten fourth-quarter revenues and earnings expectations, seen as good news for the sector.

By contrast, computational drug and material discovery company Schrödinger fell 27 per cent after quarterly and full-year results showed its core software sales and drug development pipeline slowing.

Despite that setback, Ms Wood remains positive, arguing that its “medicinal chemistry platform offers a powerful and unique view into chemical space”.

In her weekly video view, she remains bullish, stating that: “We are on the right side of change, and disruptive innovation is going to deliver exponential growth trajectories for many of our companies, in fact, most of them.”

Ms Wood remains committed to Tesla as she expects global electric car sales to compound at an average annual rate of 82 per cent for the next five years.

She said these are so “enormous that some people find them unbelievable”, and argues that this scepticism, especially among institutional investors, “festers” and creates a great opportunity for ARK.

Only you can decide whether you are a believer or a festering sceptic. If it’s the former, then buckle up.

The specs

BMW M8 Competition Coupe

Engine 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8

Power 625hp at 6,000rpm

Torque 750Nm from 1,800-5,800rpm

Gearbox Eight-speed paddleshift auto

Acceleration 0-100kph in 3.2 sec

Top speed 305kph

Fuel economy, combined 10.6L / 100km

Price from Dh700,000 (estimate)

On sale Jan/Feb 2020
 

Water waste

In the UAE’s arid climate, small shrubs, bushes and flower beds usually require about six litres of water per square metre, daily. That increases to 12 litres per square metre a day for small trees, and 300 litres for palm trees.

Horticulturists suggest the best time for watering is before 8am or after 6pm, when water won't be dried up by the sun.

A global report published by the Water Resources Institute in August, ranked the UAE 10th out of 164 nations where water supplies are most stretched.

The Emirates is the world’s third largest per capita water consumer after the US and Canada.

If you go
Where to stay: Courtyard by Marriott Titusville Kennedy Space Centre has unparalleled views of the Indian River. Alligators can be spotted from hotel room balconies, as can several rocket launch sites. The hotel also boasts cool space-themed decor.

When to go: Florida is best experienced during the winter months, from November to May, before the humidity kicks in.

How to get there: Emirates currently flies from Dubai to Orlando five times a week.
SERIE A FIXTURES

Saturday Spezia v Lazio (6pm), Juventus v Torino (9pm), Inter Milan v Bologna (7.45pm)

Sunday Verona v Cagliari (3.30pm), Parma v Benevento, AS Roma v Sassuolo, Udinese v Atalanta (all 6pm), Crotone v Napoli (9pm), Sampdoria v AC Milan (11.45pm)

Monday Fiorentina v Genoa (11.45pm)

TV: World Cup Qualifier 2018 matches will be aired on on OSN Sports HD Cricket channel

Key facilities
  • Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
  • Premier League-standard football pitch
  • 400m Olympic running track
  • NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
  • 600-seat auditorium
  • Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
  • An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
  • Specialist robotics and science laboratories
  • AR and VR-enabled learning centres
  • Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills

The Two Popes

Director: Fernando Meirelles

Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Jonathan Pryce 

Four out of five stars

Living in...

This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home. 

Paatal Lok season two

Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy 

Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong

Rating: 4.5/5