Sunday 16 October 2011

The Biggest match fixers “Australian cricketers”

Written by Fun Souls | October 11, 2011 | 0

The Biggest match fixers “Australian cricketers”

A cricket agent accused of taking bribes to fix matches claimed that Australian players and Pakistan stars were also involved in betting scams, a court heard on Monday.

Mazhar Majeed, 36, told an undercover journalist the Australians were ‘the biggest’ when it came to rigging games, Southwark Crown Court was told.

Claiming match-fixing had been going on ‘for centuries’, he named celebrated former Pakistan fast-bowlers Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis as alleged participants.
It’s a fix: Mazhar Majeed claimed in court that Australian cricketers were the biggest match fixers

It’s a fix: Mazhar Majeed claimed in court that Australian cricketers were the biggest match fixers

Majeed also boasted that he knew Hollywood star Brad Pitt and tennis ace Roger Federer ‘very well’ and could arrange for them to promote a proposed cricket tournament in the United Arab Emirates, the court heard.

The jury was played covert recordings of meetings between the London-based agent and former News of the World journalist Mazher Mahmood, who was posing as a rich Indian businessman seeking major international players for the tournament.
Accused: Former Pakistan fast bowlers Wasim Akram (left) and Waqar Younis (right) have been named in court by Mazhar Majeed

Accused: Former Pakistan fast bowlers Wasim Akram (left) and Waqar Younis (right) have been named in court by Mazhar Majeed

Majeed met Mr Mahmood at a west London restaurant on August 18 last year – the first day of Pakistan’s Oval Test against England – and after the meal discussed match-fixing in the undercover reporter’s car, the court was told.

Naming famous former Pakistan national cricketers, the agent said in the recording: ‘It’s been happening for centuries. It’s been happening for years. Wasim, Waqar, Ijaz Ahmed, Moin Khan – they all did it.’

Majeed went on to allege that Australian players would fix “brackets”, a set period of a match on which punters bet, for example, how many runs will be scored.

‘The Australians, they are the biggest. They have 10 brackets a game,‘ he said in the tape played to the court.

Mumbai Indians win the CLT20 final

Written by Fun Souls | October 11, 2011 | 0

Mumbai Indians win the CLT20 final

Mumbai Indians turned on their spin power and beat fancied Royal Challengers Bangalore by 31 runs in the final of the Nokia Champions League T20 tournament, here on Sunday.

clt20-final-mumbai-v-bangalore-highlights-18

After restricting Mumbai Indians to 139 built around a fighting 41 by James Frankling, RCB, who had successfully chased 200-plus targets in two consecutive matches coming into the final, struggled on a slow pitch that afforded turn and fell to 108 in a very disappointing batting performance.

Mumbai Indians, without half-a-dozen key players owing into injury, including Sachin Tendulkar, went home richer by $2.5 million while RCB received$1.3 million.

Spearheading the Mumbai victory was skipper and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh who came away with 3 for 20 and young leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal (2 for 9 in three overs) while seamers Lasith Malinga (2 for 23), Abu Nechim (2 for 26) and Kieron Pollard picked up timely wickets to complete a fine win.

Yet, Mumbai Indians bowling was anything but disciplined as they sent down 14 wides and a no-ball as Mr Extras contributed 20 runs.

The RCB chase began on a typical note with a flurry of boundaries off Tillkaratne Dilshan’s bat while the other opener Chris Gayle barely got a look in. The pair put on 38 runs in four overs.

Skipper Harbhajan Singh opted to bowl Lasith Malinga a third over and the move paid off as the Sri Lankan ace knocked back Dilshan’s off-stump to draw first blood. Harbhajan brought himself on for the next over and trapped a tentative Gayle in front.

The struggles for RCB began soon as the slow pitch that offered a bit of turn seemed to suit the Mumbai bowlers who gave little away. In fact, the RCB batsmen appeared ill at ease when the spinners were introduced and sure enough, they lost Mayank Agarwal, Virat Kohli and Arun Karthik in quick succession.

Agarwal holed out to Pollard in the deep off leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal and then an impatient Kohli gifted his wicket to Harbhajan, attempting a slog-sweep and caught at mid-wicket. RCB slid deeper into the quick sand when in the next over, Karthik departed, caught in the deep off Chahal.

Thus, going into the final six overs, RCB needed 63 runs and the mounting pressure told on the batsmen as wickets continued to fall at regular intervals as Mumbai eventually ran out deserving winners.

Earlier, Mumbai batsmen too struggled to get going. It was left-arm spinner and skipper Daniel Vettori (2 for 30) and seamer Raju Bhatkal (3 for 21) who did the bulk of damage after an early strike by new ball bowler Dirk Nannes who was quick and hostile.

Barring Franklin, there was hardly any worthwhile effort from the other batsmen, a couple of whom threw away good starts.

As such, Mumbai Indians were left to wonder what might have been as they wasted all the hard work through some sloppy batting that led to as many as three run outs and a few soft dismissals just when they were looking to accelerate.

At the top of the order, opener Aiden Blizzard was needlessly run out with his partner Sarul Kanwar ball watching rather than responding to a call for a single that was very much on. Both the openers were caught at the non-striker’s end, leading to Blizzard’s dismissal.

A while later, Kanwar was bowled by Nannes before Mumbai staged a brief recovery through Ambatti Rayudu (22) and Franklin, but they suffered a series of setbacks that weighed down

Just when the Mumbai innings seemed to stabilize, they lost a bunch of wickets as Rayudu flat-batted seamer Raju Bhatkal to Gayle at covers, Yadav caught short of the crease backing up as was Franklin attempting a second run.

Then came a double strike by Vettori as he removed Kieron Pollard (2) and Harbhajan (0) in three deliveries to leave Mumbai in tatters at 109 for seven in the 17th over.

The Mumbai innings continued to crumble as Bhatkal also struck twice in the 19th over after a couple of sixes by Malinga and Sathish to boost the total, but eventually, they were bundled out 139, a total that seemed well within the reach of the big hitting Bangalore boys, but it wasn’t as it turned out to be.

Watch Vedio Dan Wheldon dies after fiery crash at Las Vegas Indy 300

Written by Fun Souls | October 17, 2011 | 0

Watch Vedio Dan Wheldon dies after fiery crash at Las Vegas Indy 300

Dan Wheldon, the British driver who won his second Indianapolis 500 in May, died of injuries suffered in a fiery 15-car crash today in the Las Vegas Indy 300.

Drivers were stunned when told of the death ofWeldon, 33, about two hours after what many said was one of the worst crashes they’d ever seen. Fifteen cars were involved and three other drivers — J.R. Hildebrand, Pippa Mann and Will Power — were taken to a hospital with minor injuries.

“It was like a movie scene which they try to make as gnarly as possible,” said Danica Patrick (via Associated Press. “It was debris everywhere across the whole track, you could smell the smoke, you could see the billowing smoke on the back straight from the car. There was a chunk of fire that we were driving around. You could see cars scattered.”

Videos after the jump)

Wheldon had blogged for USA Today about frustrations he was having with his car and there was been talk about the high speeds, topping 220, at practice. The violence of the crash stunned drivers.

“I’ll tell you, I’ve never seen anything like it,” Ryan Briscoe said of the crash, which occurred just minutes after the race began. “The debris we all had to drive through the lap later, it looked like a war scene from ‘Terminator’ or something. I mean, there were just pieces of metal and car on fire in the middle of the track with no car attached to it and just debris everywhere. So it was scary, and your first thoughts are hoping thatno one is hurt because there’s just stuff everywhere. Crazy.”

Wheldon, who also won the 2005 Indy 500, was a native of Emberton, England, and lived in St. Petersburg, Fla. His wife and two young sons were with him at the hospital, according to ABC. He was 34th and last in the field, driving in the event as part of an IndyCar promotion that would have paid $5 million, to be split with a fan, to a non-series racer who started last and won.Wheldon was driving in the race for Sam Schmidt Motorsports.

The remainder of the race was canceled, with racers tearfully driving tribute laps as “Danny Boy” and “Amazing Grace” were played over loudspeakers.

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Sunday 16 October 2011

The Biggest match fixers “Australian cricketers”

The Biggest match fixers “Australian cricketers”

The Biggest match fixers “Australian cricketers”