All Entries in the "Jokes" Category
Aamer, Asif axed from awards list: source
KARACHI: Embattled Pakistan bowlers Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif, currently embroiled in a corruption storm, have been dropped from the International Cricket Council’s annual awards list. “The pair’s nominations have been withdrawn and the jury has been informed,” an ICC spokesman confirmed to AFP without giving further details. Aamer was in the running for the best emerging player award while Asif was listed in the best cricketer category. The awards ceremony will take place in Bangalore on Monday. Aamer and Asif, as well as Test captain Salman Butt, are all being investigated following allegations of ‘spot-fixing’ in the fourth Test against England last week. All three have been charged by the ICC with “various offences” under its anti-corruption code and they have been suspended pending a decision on those charges.
Downlaod Angry Birds Lite Beta for Android Phones (Free)
If you are an iOS user, chances are that you already play or at least know about Angry Birds. It’s probably the most addictive game in the App Store. The goal of this game is to take down pigs hiding in buildings by launching birds at them. The game is not only addictive, the sounds
Zimbabwe poised for Pakistan tour
HARARE: Zimbabwe could end Pakistan’s status as a no-go cricket zone after offering to tour the strife-torn and flood-devastated nation, officials said on Friday. The tour is loosely scheduled for later this year, probably during November and early December, and could be a series of ODIs and Twenty20 matches as decided by the Pakistan Cricket Board. Much depends, though, on a satisfactory security check and report beforehand, which will dictate whether the Zimbabweans actually go. The Zimbabwe players have not yet been sounded out on whether they are prepared to play in Pakistan, given its recent history of violence, but convenor of selectors Alistair Campbell told AFP he was confident the majority would be willing. “Nobody will be pressured to go if they decline,” he said. Zimbabwe Cricket managing director Ozias Bvute said the idea of touring Pakistan, which has been off-limits because of the country’s deteriorating situation, emerged several weeks ago. But the offer was developed into a fund raising effort designed to help the millions of flood victims. “It’s become a gesture of help,” he said. Bvute added that the Pakistan cricket authorities, currently engulfed by the spot-fixing scandal in England, have welcomed the idea. Pakistan are due to tour New Zealand towards the end of the year so that schedules may need to be worked out to accommodate the Zimbabwe series. Meanwhile Zimbabwe are smarting over the British government’s advice to Scotland that they should not travel to Harare for their Inter-Continental Cup fixture in October. Campbell said: “We have 10 Englishmen playing cricket and coaching in Zimbabwe, including our national coach Alan Butcher, and apart from anything else the decision is an insult to them.” But in a cautiously worded statement Bvute said that sport was a great healer and “strained relations will eventually be restored for the common good”. Those strained relations are primarily with England, Australia and New Zealand, while Zimbabwe gets its main (and majority) support from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and to some extent South Africa and West Indies, helping to maintain their status as a full ICC member. After consultations with the International Cricket Council and with Indian and Sri Lankan authorities in June during a triangular series, it was agreed that Zimbabwe could make a return to Test cricket next May or June. That series could be against Bangladesh in Harare and Bulawayo and would end Zimbabwe’s six-year Test exile.
Mani slams PCB role in fixing scandal
BIRMINGHAM: The former head of the International Cricket Council criticized the Pakistan Cricket Board on Friday for its handling of the fixing scandal that has engulfed the sport. Ehsan Mani, president of the ICC from 2003-06, told The Associated Press in a phone interview that the PCB had ”lost the moral ground” after failing to take charge of a case which emerged last weekend when three Pakistan players — Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif —were implicated in betting-scam allegations. ”If the allegations are proven, the whole thing is totally unacceptable,” said Mani, speaking from Islamabad. ”Everyone involved in cricket, especially the ICC and PCB, have always said they adopt a no-tolerance policy to this kind of thing. ”But what has been disappointing is that the PCB has not taken the lead in this case since the whole issue broke. Since it happened, the players would not have been in a fit state of mind to play a cricket match.” ”The PCB has done nothing except talk about playing those players until proven guilty and the ICC was forced to act. The PCB has lost the moral ground on this one,” Mani said. Mani was Pakistan’s delegate when he served as a highly respected president of the ICC. He improved relations between the Asian bloc and the western nations, and was instrumental in brokering lucrative media rights sales for the PCB. Mani said he opposes the involvement of the Pakistan High Commission in what he deems a cricket matter. ”It is not right that the government should be involved in this,” Mani said. ”We cannot talk about the players at this stage but the PCB have not come out very well in this. They should have been taking a lead role. ”They have failed to educate the players and failed to monitor the movement of people following the players who they knew about and who they had warned the players not to have contact with. Only warning the players is not good enough. They (PCB) have lacked professionalism.”
Flower says cricket ‘will survive’ fix row
CARDIFF: England coach Andy Flower on Friday said cricket “will survive” the spot-fixing row engulfing the Pakistan team. England play the first of two Twenty20 internationals against Pakistan at Sophia Gardens here on Sunday in what will be their first outing in the format since winning the World Twenty20 title in the Caribbean in May. But the fixture has been overshadowed by newspaper claims of spot-fixing during last week’s fourth Test at Lord’s. “No-one wants that sort of news on the front or back page,” Flower told reporters at Sophia Gardens on Friday following an England training session. “We’ve got to focus on playing the game. We’ve got a Twenty20 game on Sunday that we are working towards,” Flower said. “Obviously, it’s not a very healthy position that we seem to be finding ourselves in right now but the game will survive, there’s no doubt about that. “It’s a great game, people love playing it, people love watching it, that’s why it will survive,” the former Zimbabwe batsman insisted. The News of the World, a Sunday tabloid, has promised further revelations in its next edition which will first hit the streets just hours before England play the first of two Twenty20s against Pakistan, both in Cardiff. “Last Sunday, the guys did find it very difficult but they held themselves very well,” Flower said. He added: “It (the promised revelations) should be really interesting to watch but obviously not very pleasant for anyone involved in this game but we can’t speculate on what might come out.” The upcoming series will see England without Kevin Pietersen after the star batsman, man of the tournament at the World Twenty20, was dropped for the first time in his four-year international career following a run of poor form. The hope is that by playing for Surrey, where he is on loan until the end of the season, Pietersen will regain his touch ahead of England’s defence of the Ashes in Australia starting in November. “Selection matters are always very tricky because you are talking about people’s careers and their lives,” Flower said. “Kevin would acknowledge himself he’s under-performed over the last 12 to 24 months and we decided to leave him out of the two Twenty20 matches because there’s a four-day game starting for Surrey on the day (Tuesday) the second Twenty20 takes place. “With our priority at this stage being the Ashes, we thought it best that he gets the opportunity of four days of cricket at The Oval on a good pitch to get time in the middle. “That will be very important for him to get his confidence back and to find the rhythms of batting for a long time again.”
Sachin Tendulkar honoured by Indian Air Force
NEW DELHI: India’s batting great Sachin Tendulkar was on Friday awarded the honorary rank of group captain by the chief of the Indian Air Force (IAF) for his contribution to cricket. Tendulkar, 37, was conferred the honour by Air Chief Marshal Pradeep Naik, amid loud applause from fellow officers at a ceremony in the Indian capital. “It was wishful thinking (that I would be part of the armed forces) and it has come true today. I’m extremely proud to be a part of the IAF. So dream, because dreams do come true,” Tendulkar said after being inducted. Naik said he hoped Tendulkar’s induction would inspire India’s youth to join its armed forces. “Sachin’s association will help in spreading awareness about our force,” he said. Tendulkar is the first sportsperson to be conferred a rank by the IAF and the first personality without an aviation background to receive the honour. Tendulkar, who made his international debut on a tour of Pakistan in 1989, is the leading run-getter in both Test and one-day cricket. He has scored 13,837 runs from 169 Tests with 48 centuries and 17,598 runs in 442 one-day matches with 46 hundreds. Tendulkar is also the only batsman to score a double-century in one-day cricket, making 200 not out against South Africa in Gwalior earlier this year. His next assignment for the top-ranked Indian team is a two-Test home series against Australia, starting on October 1.
Asad Shafiq, Mohammad Irfan to join ODI squad
KARACHI: Pakistan have called up batsman Asad Shafiq and fast bowler Mohammad Irfan to replace the suspended players Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Asif and Salman Butt. “The PCB chairman (Ijaz Butt) approved the names of the two players on the request of the team management and selection committee,†a PCB statement said on Friday. “Both the players are currently playing with the Pakistan A team in Sri Lanka and will now join the senior team by next week,†a Pakistan Cricket Board official said. Tall left arm pacer Irfan has yet to play for the senior team while batsman Shafiq made his one-day international debut in the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka in June. Pakistan test captain Butt and opening bowlers Amir and Asif face possible life bans after they were charged on Thursday under the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) anti-corruption code.
Download TweetDeck Beta v0.9.7 for Android
TweetDeck has jumped from the beta 6 release of TweetDeck for Android directly to beta 7. Some new features has been added and the app seems a bit faster to me than before with no lags. I’m still exploring the app for mroe changes and tweaks. You can catch the official changelog below: Option to
Manager Yawar Saeed urges team to stay strong
TAUNTON: Pakistan cricket team manager Yawar Saeed urged his squad on Friday to stay strong and “ride the pressure” for the remainder of the tour of England in the wake of a fixing scandal. Media scrutiny on the squad has intensified following the newspaper allegations of a betting scam involving test captain Salman Butt and strike bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir. The three players were suspended by the International Cricket Council on Thursday for violating the sport’s anti-corruption code. “We are human beings. Everybody has pressures in life – we have to ride the pressure, not give in to the pressure,” Saeed said. Saeed said the squad had every intention of staying on for the rest of the tour, which comprises two Twenty20 matches and a five-match one-day series against England, insisting cancelling it had “never crossed my mind.” Saeed refused to be drawn on the views expressed by Pakistan High Commissioner Wajid Shamsul Hasan, who on Thursday suggested the three players implicated had been “set up” and that video images released by British tabloid the News of the World may have been manipulated. “I am concentrating on managing the team. Me and the rest of the team are trying to do the best we can, play the best cricket we can,” Saeed said. “My personal view is that we should let them (the investigators) go ahead and wait until the final decision comes.” Saeed said he would no longer be in contact with Asif, Amir or Butt while they were not part of the squad. —AP
Amir reports to police; Asif and Butt to be quizzed later
LONDON: Mohammad Amir, one of three Pakistan cricketers embroiled in betting scam claims, reported to a British police station on Friday.
Wajid Shamsul Hasan criticises ICC suspensions
LONDON: The International Cricket Council’s suspension of Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Asif and Salman Butt on corruption charges is “unhelpful, premature and unnecessary,” Pakistan’s high commissioner in Britain said on Friday. Pakistan High Commissioner Wajid Shamsul Hasan said cricket’s ruling body should not have acted until investigations by the police and its own anti-corruption unit were complete. Hasan, who met with the players for three hours in London on Thursday, reiterated his belief that bowlers Asif and Amir and Test captain Butt are innocent of conspiring with bookmakers in a betting scam. “There is a live police inquiry which takes precedence over both the ICC, civil or regulatory investigation and indeed any internal disciplinary investigation,” Hasan said in an interview with BBC Radio 4. “To take action now is unhelpful, premature and unnecessary considering the players had already voluntarily withdrawn from playing.” The ICC charged the players with corruption late Thursday. ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat and Ronnie Flanagan, the chairman of the ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit, are set to explain the decision at a news conference later Friday. The suspensions followed allegations by a British newspaper that Amir and Asif deliberately bowled no-balls at predetermined points in last week’s fourth test against England. Amir, Asif and Butt were expected to be questioned by police on Friday. They were first questioned late Saturday when the allegations were made public and had their mobile phones confiscated. The ICC provisionally barred the players from all forms of cricket pending a resolution of charges of “various offences” under the sport’s anti-corruption code. “We will not tolerate corruption in cricket – simple as that,” Lorgat said in a statement. “We must be decisive with such matters and, if proven, these offences carry serious penalties up to a life ban. The ICC will do everything possible to keep such conduct out of the game, and we will stop at nothing to protect the sport’s integrity. While we believe the problem is not widespread, we must always be vigilant.” The ICC said the players have 14 days to decide if they want a hearing. “It is important, however, that we do not prejudge the guilt of these three players,” Lorgat said. “That is for the independent tribunal alone to decide.” Butt, Amir and Asif had earlier missed their team’s warm-up match against county side Somerset to meet with Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ijaz Butt and Hasan in London.
Apple Posts iPad iOS 4.2 Coming Soon Page
Apple has posted the dedicated iOS 4.2 software update page for iPad with 100 new features. The iOS 4.2 release is expected in November 2010 for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. The iPhone and iPod Touch both of the devices are already on iOS 4 whereas iPad is right now working over custom iOS 3.2
Review: Samsung Galaxy Tab
Overveiw and Design Samsung’s Galaxy Tab device might not have been the best kept secret in the world, but its arrival at IFA still saw a lot of excitement and clamour to try out the new tablet. The dinky device, which has a 7-inch screen and weighs in at only 380g, is meant to be
Skype 5.0 Beta for Windows with 10-Way Video Calling
Skype’s latest Windows-only 5.0 beta 2 doubles their five-way video calling to ten. TEN. How does ten-way video calling look? Like this. If you add two. We could only get eight, and four of them was me. While the eight-way video call was going, everything looked and sounded fine. I had to mute all four
Save Your Money: Do Xbox 360 Repair Yourself
The Xbox 360 repair can be something on which you might have to spend a lot of your money and in these days of economical crisis you would want to save as much of your money as possible. If you are a video game lover and are much fond of playing these games on your