ICC would be mad to allow 'Big Three' takeover: Mani

“What will be interesting is what the Big Three will do if the plan is blocked.” -Photo by Reuters

LONDON: Former International Cricket Council (ICC) president Ehsan Mani says it would be “sheer madness” for the governing body to effectively hand over control of the sport to India, Australia and England.

It was announced after a board meeting in Dubai last month that a new five-member ICC executive committee would be established to include representatives from the ECB, Cricket Australia and the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

However, the plan has received widespread criticism.

The current executive committee includes representatives from all 10 Test-playing countries, and some suggest the new proposals will allow the 'Big Three' to take over at the expense of other cricketing nations.

“If these proposals are accepted then the Big Three will decide how the ICC runs and what it does,” Mani told Reuters in a telephone interview from his home in Islamabad.

“The board of the ICC cricket council will effectively have no powers apart from approving whatever India, Australia and England do.

“If these proposals are accepted they are going to be doing severe damage to world cricket. It would seriously affect the credibility of the ICC as the governing body.”

Mani believes three of the 10 Test-playing nations will reject the new proposals.

“As far as I know South Africa, Sri Lanka and Pakistan will not vote for it and without those three this cannot go through,” said the 68-year-old businessman who was president of the ICC between 2003-06.

“Do you really want to run World Cups and such like without these countries and without South Africa who are the number one-ranked Test team in the world? That would be sheer madness.”

India have long been regarded as the traditional powerhouse among the Test-playing nations and the Pakistani says England and Australia might think again about the new proposals if they are rejected.

“What will be interesting is what the Big Three will do if the plan is blocked,” said Mani.

“Bangladesh and West Indies have only supported the Big Three because they've been given the incentive that they will get more tours from these countries, hence more money from television rights.

“I question the morality of that but if this move is blocked, then it will be a serious time for England and Australia to think about how much damage they might be doing to the game just to fall into line with something that India wants.”

FREE-FOR-ALL

Mani said the new proposals would encourage a free-for-all scenario to develop in terms of future Test series.

“Under the present Future Tours Programme every country is obliged to play every other country in a four-year cycle home and away at least once,” he explained.

“What the Big Three are saying is do away with that, let all the countries decide who they will play against, with no obligation to play any of the other members.

“So you will have a free-for-all situation that certain countries will misuse to go where they want...it will totally unsettle international cricket because members will only play against countries where they make money,” said Mani.

“It would mean they won't be interested in countries like Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, New Zealand or possibly even West Indies where they will lose money to tour.”

Earlier this week, chairman of the ECB Giles Clarke said the new proposals would help give countries greater financial stability.

Yet Mani believes the lesser cricketing nations who are outside the 10 Test-playing elite will suffer financially under the new plans.

“The Big Three are also proposing to cut the funding of the associate and affiliate members and that will kill off the development programme of the ICC,” he said.

“What they are saying is we'll give $210 million to associate members, half of that will go to the top six countries so the other 90-odd will have to share $105 million.

“What they further say ... is that the new ICC executive board will decide which of those countries will get money and how much - that goes against the very constitution of the ICC,” Mani added.

“The constitution says the associate members will get 25 percent of ICC revenues. It doesn't give the board of the ICC the right to decide who gets how much.

“What the executive board doesn't appreciate is that although these countries don't necessarily play a high standard of cricket, there are big economies involved like China and the United States that over time with the right sort of investment could give the ICC a huge amount of returns in terms of money.”

Pakistan feel ‘cheated’ over ICC vote

PCB chief Zaka Ashraf said he felt “cheated” after South Africa abandoned their opposition to controversial ICC reforms. – File Photo

KARACHI: Pakistan cricket chief Zaka Ashraf Saturday said he felt “cheated” after South Africa abandoned their opposition to controversial reforms of the sport's world body, allowing the proposals to be approved.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman said South Africa had opposed the International Cricket Council (ICC) reforms, seen as favouring the “Big Three” of India, England and Australia, as recently as Friday.

But South Africa supported the proposals at an ICC board meeting in Singapore on Saturday, giving them the extra vote they needed to pass.

Of the 10 full ICC members, eight were in favour with only Pakistan and Sri Lanka abstaining.

“I think South Africa cheated us,” Ashraf told AFP by phone from Singapore.

“Just last night (Friday) they told us that they have changed their stance and told us that it was the decision of their board (CSA). It disappointed us.”

Pakistan, Sri Lanka and South Africa were the three opponents when the reforms were debated at an ICC board meeting last month. Pakistan and Sri Lanka will now discuss the proposals with their respective boards.

“Our stance was based on principle but other countries went after money. I am afraid the big share of money will go to the Big Three.”

“The ‘Big Three’ will get money from the share of the other seven,” Ashraf said.

But he added: “We have requested the ICC board to give us time. We will discuss this matter further in our board of governors meeting and will try to get the PM's (Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif) advice on this.”

Separately, former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif said he fears “severe consequences” from the revamp to cricket worldwide.

“I think this is more damaging to cricket than match-fixing,” Latif told AFP.

“Giving powers to three ‘dons’ mean they will take every decision on their whims... handing power to three means the ICC ceased to exist.”

Among the reforms, the “Big Three” were given permanent seats on a new, five-man executive committee, while India's N. Srinivasan was made chairman of the decision-making ICC board.

Pakistanis, Iranians held in huge Tanzania heroin haul

Anti-narcotics police have arrested eight Iranians and four Pakistanis found with 200 kilos of heroin off Tanzania’s coast. – Reuters File Photo

DAR ES SALAAM: Tanzanian anti-narcotics police have arrested eight Iranians and four Pakistanis found with 200 kilogrammes (440 pounds) of heroin off the east African nation's coast, a spokesman said Wednesday.

The haul, which in Europe would have a street value of up to 10 million euros, is the latest in a string of major seizures of the narcotic – which is mostly produced in Afghanistan – off of Tanzania amid fears that east Africa could be emerging as a key narcotics transit point.

“The suspects were arrested in the early hours of Tuesday on a dhow that was sailing from the island of Zanzibar to the commercial capital Dar es Salaam,” Tanzanian police spokesman Godfrey Nzowa told AFP.

“They are being held for questioning and necessary legal action will follow,” he added.

At least four large hauls of heroin – amounting to 1.5 tonnes in all – have been made in Tanzanian waters in the past year by a Canadian warship that patrols there, according to Canadian media.

Bill Gates: from teen geek to world's richest man

He fell in love with the machines and school officials tapped into his programming prowess, swapping computer time for his services.— File photo

NEW YORK: As a geeky-looking teenager, he started in a garage and created the world's biggest software company.

He then became the world's richest man and the world's most prominent philanthropist.

Bill Gates is now back in a hands-on role at Microsoft, the company he co-founded in 1975, which has been losing ground against rivals in the new tech landscape.

In a shake-up announced Tuesday, Gates, 58, assumes a new title — a board member who is “founder and technology advisor,” while giving up the role of chairman, while Indian-born Satya Nadella, 46, becomes Microsoft's third CEO.

It represents a new chapter for Gates, who left as CEO in 2000 as he handed the company reins to Steve Ballmer to devote more time to his charitable foundation.

In 2008 he stepped away further from day-to-day operations.

“I'm thrilled that Satya has asked me to step up,” Gates said Tuesday of his new role, adding that “I'll have over a third of my time available” to work with Microsoft on various products.

Born October, 28, 1955, William H. Gates grew up in Seattle with two sisters.

His father William was an attorney and his late mother Mary was a schoolteacher and chairwoman of United Way International.

Gates was a 13-year-old student when he began programming computers.

He fell in love with the machines and school officials tapped into his programming prowess, swapping computer time for his services.

Among the tales told about Gates is that while working on school computers, he tinkered with programming to put him in classes made up mostly of girls.

Gates met Ballmer while the two were students at Harvard University. With the blessing of his parents, he left college after two years to start “Micro-soft” with his childhood friend Paul Allen.

Gates has said that a chip released by Intel convinced him the time was right for a software company.

The duo got the rights to computer software, modified it and rechristened it Microsoft Disk Operating System (MS-DOS).

A key move by Gates was to focus on licensing software to computer makers in numerous “partnerships” that resulted in affordable machines being available to the masses.

As the PC market grew, Microsoft became not just the world's top software company but the biggest company by value.

Its virtual monopoly led to a much-publicized antitrust trial, in which the company managed to avert a break-up ordered by one judge, but had to endure years of government monitoring.

Gates turned his attention from software to fighting disease and other ills around the world with his wife, under the auspices of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The charity has disbursed more than $28 billion for causes including fighting malaria, helping small coffee farmers and for college scholarships.

Even while Microsoft has floundered in recent years against the likes of Google and Apple, Gates' fortune has not suffered. He remains near the top of the world's richest with net worth estimated by Forbes magazine at some $72 billion.

Gates has also funded other ventures including Corbis, a huge digital archive of art and photography from public and private collections around the globe.

He is also a member of the board of directors of Berkshire Hathaway, headed by Warren Buffett.

Gates has accepted Buffett's challenge to wealthy individuals, pledging to give at least half their fortunes to charity.

Gates was married on January 1, 1994, to Melinda French and they have three children. His Microsoft biography notes he is “an avid reader, and enjoys playing golf, tennis and bridge.”

Most Americans see Afghan war as failure

An opinion poll showed that for the first time, the majority of people in the United States view war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan as failures.— File photo

WASHINGTON: Winning the Afghan war depended on getting at least two foreign governments “to play ball,” those of Afghanistan and Pakistan, but the United States failed to do so, says a report released on Monday.

Also, an opinion poll released on Monday, showed that for the first time, the majority of people in the United States view war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan as failures.

A prominent US news outlet, Foreign Policy, identified 10 major mistakes that it claimed caused the United States to fail in Afghanistan.

“The first was the Afghan government itself, which was corrupt, inefficient, and increasingly unwilling to listen to well-intentioned US advice. The second was Pakistan, which continued to play footsie with the Taliban and sometimes put roadblocks (literal ones) in the way of the US military.”

The survey by the Pew Research Centre, Washington, found that, in all, 52 per cent of Americans feel the nation’s military has “mostly failed” in achieving their goals in both embattled nations.

Conversely, less than 40 per cent felt either mission had been successful.

The FP report observed that US leaders never fully appreciated that the war could not be won if they didn't get more cooperation from the two allies, and that they wouldn’t get that support as long as Islamabad and Kabul were convinced that Washington “would never call their bluff.”

The most important cause of America's failure, according to Foreign Policy, was “trying to go alone.”

The reported pointed out that after 9/11, America's Nato allies offered to help the United States go after the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Convinced that the job would be easy and that allies would simply make things harder, the Rumsfeld Pentagon responded with a brusque “No, thanks.

Putin opens Sochi Olympics Games after stunning show

Russia's President Vladimir Putin C-R) and IOC President Thomas Bach (C-L) wave during the Opening Ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympics at the Fisht Olympic Stadium on February 7, 2014 in Sochi. – AFP Photo

SOCHI: President Vladimir Putin on Friday opened the Winter Olympics Games in Sochi that are inextricably linked with his name, after a stunning ceremony where Russia sought to convince the world it is a worthy host.

The high-octane ceremony at the 40,000 capacity Fisht stadium on the Black Sea got off to a rocky start when one of five illuminated snowflakes which were supposed to morph into the Olympic rings failed to appear, leaving an embarrassing set of just four rings.

But thereafter the show charmed and stunned in equal measure, taking hundreds of millions of spectators around the world on a lightning tour of Russian history and culture guided by a young girl named Lyubov (Love).

In a nod towards Russia's proud sporting past, the Olympic cauldron was lit by two triple gold-winning Soviet winter sports icons – figure skater Irina Rodnina and ice hockey legend Vladislav Tretyak – as fireworks rained into the sky.

The flame had been brought into the stadium by US-based Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova and the final relay included Olympic rhythmic gymnastics champion Alina Kabayeva who has been rumoured in some quarters to be Putin's lover.

'Not Gonna Get Us'

Russia is under huge pressure to organise a glitch-free Games after a build-up dogged by controversies over gay rights, construction delays and security.

The concerns that have shadowed these Games were underlined when Turkish media reports said a Ukrainian man attempted to hijack an airliner en route from Ukraine to Turkey and divert it to Sochi. But a Turkish military jet forced the plane to land in Istanbul.

There were no signs of such tension in Sochi as the teams entered the stadium – led by tradition by Olympic Games founder Greece – to the sound of pumping dance house music in an effort to dynamise the procession.

The Russian team won huge cheers as they entered to the song “Nas Ne Dogonyat” (“Not Gonna Get Us”) by female pop duo Tatu known for their raunchy lesbian-tinged pop videos.

Although both girls are heterosexual, their involvement could be seen as a coded riposte to Western allegations that Russia is intolerant of homosexuality.

In line with Olympic protocol, Putin, who has championed the drive to host the Olympics in Sochi since before the successful bid in 2007, made no speech save declaring the Games open.

Putin welcomed more than 40 other heads of state and leaders for the ceremony, including UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and embattled Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

However US President Barack Obama as well as the leaders of key EU states Britain, France, and Germany are conspicuous by their absence, a move seen by many as a snub over Russia's now notorious anti-gay law.

IOC President Thomas Bach made an impassioned call for politicians to stay out of sports, saying “have the courage to address your disagreements in political dialogue and not on the back of your athletes.”

Enough to silence sceptics?

Some 3,500 fireworks weighing a total of 22.5 tonnes were set off in the course of the ceremony which involved some 3,000 performers and 2,000 volunteers.

The ceremony aimed to tell the story of Russia's history – from ancient times through the imperial era and the revolution – in a way comprehensive and exciting for both Russians and foreigners.

The ceremony included a new ballet based on the ball scene from Tolstoy's novel “War and Peace” performed by dance stars including Svetlana Zakharova of the Bolshoi Ballet and the gravity defying superstar Ivan Vasliev.

Burly shaven-headed heavyweight boxer Nikolai Valuev played the role of a giant but friendly Soviet policeman Uncle Styopa in an episode that sought to portray 1960s USSR as a jazzy and stylish haven for lovers.

For many older Russians, the ceremony may bring a pang of nostalgia for the 1980 Moscow Summer Games in the Soviet era, which are still remembered fondly, in particular for the cute mascot Misha the bear.

But it remains to be seen whether the Sochi opening ceremony will shift the cloud of controversy that has hung over the Games, the most expensive in history with an estimated price tag of $50 billion.

In a symbolic gesture, Google marked the Winter Games by flying the gay flag Thursday in a search page Doodle that linked to a call for equality in the Olympic Charter.

Security concerns had already intensified as the United States announced a temporary ban on liquids and gels in hand luggage on Russia-bound flights, following a warning that militants could stuff explosives into toothpaste.

Tom Cruise's lawyer dismisses 'bizarre' $1 billion lawsuit

Tom Cruise. – Photo by AFP

LOS ANGELES: A lawyer for Tom Cruise poured scorn on a $1 billion lawsuit alleging that filmmakers stole a screenwriter's work to create a blockbuster “Mission: Impossible” film, calling the legal action “bizarre."

Timothy Patrick McLanahan claims the 2011 film “Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol” was based on a script he wrote in 1998 called “Head On,” which he tried unsuccessfully to get made in Hollywood.

He pitched it initially to the William Morris Agency, but “I was told... that they could not use the script as a movie,” McLanahan wrote in the lawsuit, filed in December and published this week by celebrity news website Radar Online.

He alleges agents there then passed the screenplay, without his permission, to Creative Artists Agency (CAA), which represents Cruise, leading to a project he claims became the 2011 “Mission: Impossible” movie.

When McLanahan watched the film, “I immediately realized that the scripts for this movie had been illegally written and produced from Head On's 1998 copywright,” he wrote in the lawsuit, which names Cruise among 13 defendants.

But Cruise's lawyer Bert Fields dismissed the lawsuit.

“Tom Cruise has never stolen anything from anyone,” he told AFP Wednesday.

“This bizarre lawsuit against 13 people... will be quickly dismissed by the court.”In his legal filing, McLanahan specified why he is seeking $1 billion.

He noted that “Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol” made over $690 million at the box office, some $145 million in DVD and Blu-ray sales, and millions of dollars in film rentals.

“Because the Ghost Protocol film generated close to $1 billion, I am asking for this amount in damages,” he wrote in the lawsuit, filed in California on December 17.