Skip to main content

The world of cricket will never be the same

All the concerns from Australia, England and other nations proved justified - Pakistan is not a safe place for foreigners, particularly professional sportsmen. Pakistan, such a talented cricket nation, have been out of the Test arena for over a year before this series against Sri Lanka, the one close neighbour who thought they would have no trouble with security. But even that proved too much of gamble this morning as terrorists attacked the Sri Lankan team bus as they arrived for the third day of the Test match in Lahore. Thankfully, none of the injuries to the five players hit by gunfire are reported to be serious.

India had its troubles in Mumbai but that was a political attack rather than anything involving sport. Pakistan is now on the outer, I can't see any international matches being played there for a long time. If they are able to 'host' matches in the near future, then Dubai, England or Sharjah are possible venues.

This could be a watershed moment for the ICC. It's time some tough decisions were made regarding security, events, sanctions and then there are the on-field matters such as the controversial referral system. The ICC Champions Trophy, a joke of a 50 overs tournament has been postponed again and again after teams refused to travel to Pakistan. There is no room on the calendar for it. Time to bin it completely and look at scheduling windows for events like the IPL and Twenty20 Champions League so players actually get a break at some stage, and each country can put its best team out more regularly.

Comments

  1. this attack on Sri Lanka's cricket team was senseless to say the least, nothing but destructive to all parties involved

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for your comments, but if you're a spammer, you've just wasted your time - it won't get posted.

Popular posts from this blog

It's all gone Pete Tong at Betfair!

The Christmas Hurdle from Leopardstown, a good Grade 2 race during the holiday period. But now it will go into history as the race which brought Betfair down. Over £21m at odds of 29 available on Voler La Vedette in-running - that's a potential liability of over £500m. You might think that's a bit suspicious, something's fishy, especially with the horse starting at a Betfair SP of 2.96. Well, this wasn't a horse being stopped by a jockey either - the bloody horse won! Look at what was matched at 29. Split that in half and multiply by 28 for the actual liability for the layer(s). (Matched amounts always shown as double the backers' stake, never counts the layers' risk). There's no way a Betfair client would have £600m+ in their account. Maybe £20 or even £50m from the massive syndicates who regard(ed) Betfair as safer than any bank, but not £600m. So the error has to be something technical. However, rumour has it, a helpdesk reply (not gospel, natur

Betdaq.... sold...... FOR HOW MUCH???

So as rumoured for a while, Ladbrokes have finally acquired the lemon, sorry, purple-coloured betting exchange, Betdaq. For a mind-boggling €30m as 'initial consideration'. That's an even more ridiculous price than Fernando Torres for £50m, or any English player Liverpool have purchased in recent seasons! As I've written previously there are no logical business reasons for this acquisition. from Nov 29, 2012 The Racing Post reported this week that Ladbrokes are nearing a decision to acquire Betdaq. This baffles me, it really does. Betdaq are a complete and utter lemon. Their only rival in the market has kicked so many own goals over the years with the premium charge, followed by an increase in the premium charge, cost of API and data use, customer service standards which have fallen faster than Facebook share value, site crashes and various other faults. So many pissed off Betfair customers, yet Betdaq are still tailed off with a lap to go. Around the world, Betfair

lay the field - my favourite racing strategy

Dabbling with laying the field in-running at various prices today, not just one price, but several in the same race. Got several matched in the previous race at Brighton, then this race came along at Nottingham. Such a long straight at Nottingham makes punters often over-react and think the finish line is closer than it actually is. As you can see by the number of bets matched, there was plenty of volatility in this in-play market. It's rare you'll get a complete wipe-out with one horse getting matched at all levels, but it can happen, so don't give yourself too much risk...