Below, Osman Samiuddin outlines the talking points in cricket this week:
No Afridi goodbye
It seems as if the sizeable Pathan population in the UAE might have to wait till the Pakistan Super League (PSL) next February for a glimpse of Shahid Afridi in action.
Over the years of Pakistan's exile in the UAE, Afridi has become a hugely popular crowd-puller in the country, capable of filling up stadiums on his own. Since being replaced by Sarfraz Ahmed as Pakistan's T20 captain, however, Afridi has been in virtual retirement. Of late, reportedly, he has been angling for one final return to the side so that he can be accorded a fitting farewell in the arenas of some of his greatest moments.
Not happening, the Pakistan board confirmed this week and, it has to be said, it is only right. Afridi’s value to the side has long receded and nobody gets to choose how they go, not even the king of retirements.
Goodbye Simmons
It never looked like it was going to last but there will still surely be sadness in some parts of the Caribbean at the sacking of Phil Simmons as West Indies coach.
The polite version had the board identifying “differences in culture and strategic approach.” In reality, this was always a tumultuous pairing, especially because Simmons was unafraid to speak his mind about the administration’s shortcomings. Test results, admittedly, were poor: nine losses in 14 Tests. But he did play a part in the World T20 triumph and was popular with the players. And if there is any doubt about where the problem lies in West Indian cricket there should be no longer. Since the World T20, three key pillars of the team management – former captain Darren Sammy, bowling consultant Curtly Ambrose and now Simmons – have gone.
It’s the board, stupid.
IPL trouble brewing?
On Sunday, the president of the Indian board, Anurag Thakur announced what everyone suspected was coming – an open tender process to find a broadcaster for the next set of IPL’s TV rights.
The current set of rights, held by Sony TV, end at the end of the next season. By itself there is nothing wrong with this; in fact, it adheres to a court-imposed demand to be transparent in its commercial dealings. Except that, according to reports, the existing contract with Sony stipulates that the broadcaster has the right to make a first offer on the next set of rights.
In that light, an open tender is unlikely to leave Sony especially happy about the situation. Legal recourse cannot be ruled out, which ultimately means that the world’s most lucrative cricket league will continue to be embroiled in high-profile controversies as it enters a second decade.
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Know your cyber adversaries
Cryptojacking: Compromises a device or network to mine cryptocurrencies without an organisation's knowledge.
Distributed denial-of-service: Floods systems, servers or networks with information, effectively blocking them.
Man-in-the-middle attack: Intercepts two-way communication to obtain information, spy on participants or alter the outcome.
Malware: Installs itself in a network when a user clicks on a compromised link or email attachment.
Phishing: Aims to secure personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.
Ransomware: Encrypts user data, denying access and demands a payment to decrypt it.
Spyware: Collects information without the user's knowledge, which is then passed on to bad actors.
Trojans: Create a backdoor into systems, which becomes a point of entry for an attack.
Viruses: Infect applications in a system and replicate themselves as they go, just like their biological counterparts.
Worms: Send copies of themselves to other users or contacts. They don't attack the system, but they overload it.
Zero-day exploit: Exploits a vulnerability in software before a fix is found.
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
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