SYDNEY // The Australian captain Michael Clarke has acknowledged he may not be fit for the first Ashes Test against England next month, with his long-standing back problem needing extended treatment and rest.
Clarke was ruled out of Australia’s one-day tour of India this month and while desperate to be ready for the first Ashes Test in Brisbane on November 21, the star batsman is pragmatic.
“Where I sit right now is I don’t know when I’ll be back playing cricket,” he said. “We have no idea how long it’s going to take.
“There’s certainly no guarantee (for the first Test) at this stage. It’s hard for me to say that because I’m trying my best not to look at it like that.
“I’m always positive and if they ask me, I’ll say I’ll be fit in a week’s time. But you ask Alex (Kountouris, team physio) who knows me very well, and he’d say there’d be doubt I won’t be right.”
Clarke has been plagued by back problems for years and they flared up again before Australia’s final ODI in Southampton last month at the end of a gruelling five-Test Ashes tour to England, which Australia lost 3-0.
He played in that game, but selectors were reluctant to take any more risks with him given the big home summer coming up, and ruled him out of the India tour.
Coach Darren Lehmann said all he could do was hope Clarke would be fit to face arch-rivals England.
“I hope he improves his back pretty quickly,” Lehmann said.
“(The Ashes) is a long way off so hopefully with all the medicos behind him getting it right he should be right.
“But only time will tell. I can’t worry about that. What I can worry about is making sure all the other players are ready to go as well ... getting the right side for the first Test match.”
Australia are due to play five Tests against England, starting in Brisbane.
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Mary Beard
Profile Books and London Review of Books
THE SPECS
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The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
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TOURNAMENT INFO
Fixtures
Sunday January 5 - Oman v UAE
Monday January 6 - UAE v Namibia
Wednesday January 8 - Oman v Namibia
Thursday January 9 - Oman v UAE
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
What is blockchain?
Blockchain is a form of distributed ledger technology, a digital system in which data is recorded across multiple places at the same time. Unlike traditional databases, DLTs have no central administrator or centralised data storage. They are transparent because the data is visible and, because they are automatically replicated and impossible to be tampered with, they are secure.
The main difference between blockchain and other forms of DLT is the way data is stored as ‘blocks’ – new transactions are added to the existing ‘chain’ of past transactions, hence the name ‘blockchain’. It is impossible to delete or modify information on the chain due to the replication of blocks across various locations.
Blockchain is mostly associated with cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Due to the inability to tamper with transactions, advocates say this makes the currency more secure and safer than traditional systems. It is maintained by a network of people referred to as ‘miners’, who receive rewards for solving complex mathematical equations that enable transactions to go through.
However, one of the major problems that has come to light has been the presence of illicit material buried in the Bitcoin blockchain, linking it to the dark web.
Other blockchain platforms can offer things like smart contracts, which are automatically implemented when specific conditions from all interested parties are reached, cutting the time involved and the risk of mistakes. Another use could be storing medical records, as patients can be confident their information cannot be changed. The technology can also be used in supply chains, voting and has the potential to used for storing property records.
