New Delhi: "The Indian Premier League is a smouldering cesspit ... the sunniest of places for the shadiest people." - Robert Craddock ripped the million-dollar league apart in his column for the Australian newspaper The Daily Telegraph after the spot-fixing scandal that has once again put a serious question mark on the credibility of the IPL.
Writing in his column, Craddock began by taking on the aftermatch IPL parties, saying "they [players] come out after dark at the notorious IPL parties where all involved can pluck a drink or maybe something a little stronger if that is your wish. The lights are dim, the music loud, the drinks strong, cold and plentiful. Famous faces flash past in the shadows."
He went on to indicate that it was at one of these parties that the Rajasthan Royals' player Sreesanth, arrested in the case along with his two other team-mates at the IPL franchise, was offered a bait. "It was here that the first tentacles of illegal bookmakers reportedly offered their poisoned fruit to young fast bowler Sreesanth ... What mindless fools they [tainted players] have been. Sreesanth's annual IPL salary of $681,000 could have bought him three or four large houses in his home region of Kerala but he wanted more."
The column also said that the training programmes for players during the tournament are 'sloppy' and the Australian players 'often return fat' due to 'reckless eating habits'. "Very few Australian cricketers have gone to the Indian Premier
08:16 AM, May 18, 2013
Washington: Indian American software magnate Vivek Ranadive, who has become the first person of Indian descent to become the owner of a major US basketball team, plans to build the Sacramento Kings into a global brand. "It's going to be exciting," he told the USA Today after securing an agreement to buy 65 percent of the Kings from the Maloof family for a National Basketball Association (NBA) league-record valuation of...
11:14 PM, May 17, 2013
Guna: Congress General Secretary Digvijaya Singh on Thursday expressed doubt as to whether giving autonomy to CBI would serve the purpose. "There is a question mark on the issue," he told reporters in Guna. "Giving autonomy to CBI...may be like giving autonomy to a police inspector," Singh said. "Is the common man in favour of giving autonomy to an inspector?" he asked. The issue of CBI's autonomy has come to...
01:42 AM, May 17, 2013
Yangon: Two passengers have been injured when a plane landing in Myanmar shot past the end of the runway when its brakes failed. The Facebook page of Myanmar state radio and TV reported that a Fokker plane of Myanmar Airways carrying 55 passengers went 200 meters past the end of the runway at Monghsat in northern Shan state on Thursday before it hit a fence and stopped. It said a...
09:44 PM, May 16, 2013
Kathmandu: All 22 people, including eight Japanese tourists on board a Nepal Airlines aircraft on Thursday escaped with minor injuries after the small plane skidded off the runway while trying to land and plunged into a river in northwestern Nepal. The accident occurred as the Twin Otter airplane on a flight from Pokhara skidded off the runway while trying to land at Jomsom Airport in a mountainous region and crashed...
04:22 PM, May 16, 2013
In spite of the liberalisation of the Indian economy which has opened up so many avenues of quality employment, an IAS berth still appeals to a large number of young Indians. For a select few like Manjunath, it becomes the be all and end all of their lives. Is there need for greater sensitisation of IAS aspirants? Can counselling play a role? IAS officer Dr Raja Sekhar Vundru joined IBNLive...
05:33 PM, May 15, 2013
New Delhi: Indian navy's first Boeing P8I long-range maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft landed at INS Rajali Naval air station in Arrakonam, Tamil Nadu on Wednesday. Two more aircrafts are expected later this year and a total number of eight such have been ordered from Boeing. All the deliveries are expected to be completed by 2015. "The Indian Navy would be only the second operator of this aircraft after...
04:04 PM, May 15, 2013
Kolkata: Violence broke out on Tuesday at an anti-chit fund rally, held by Democratic Students Organisation (student wing of Socialist Unity Centre of India) in Kolkata. Police had to resort to lathicharge to disperse the participants of the rally, who were trying to hold a law violation programme. There are reports of injuries on both sides. More details are awaited. ...
03:35 PM, May 14, 2013
New Delhi: An Army helicopter, on air maintenance operations, crashed on Monday morning in the icy heights of Siachen glacier but both the pilots survived the accident and were being evacuated for treatment, army sources said. The advanced light helicopter (ALH) 'Dhruv', flown by two pilots of the Army Aviation Squadron, crashed in the northern glacier at around 8:00 am, the sources said. They said of the two pilots, one...
02:22 PM, May 13, 2013
New Delhi: An Army helicopter, on air maintenance operations, crashed on Monday morning in the icy heights of Siachen glacier but both the pilots survived the accident and were being evacuated for treatment, army sources said. The advanced light helicopter (ALH) Dhruv, flown by two pilots of the Army Aviation Squadron, crashed in the northern glacier at around 8:00 AM, the sources said. They said of the two pilots, one...
01:49 PM, May 13, 2013
Islamabad: Despite a bloody campaign marred by Taliban attacks, polling began in Pakistan on Saturday amidst threats of violence, pitting a former cricket star against a two-time prime minister once exiled by the army and an incumbent blamed for power blackouts and inflation. The vote marks the first time in Pakistan's 65-year history that a civilian government has completed its full term and handed over power in democratic elections. Previous...
07:24 AM, May 11, 2013
New Delhi: Compulsory military training to all youths is against democratic ethos of the country and is highly undesirable as some of the trained men could join the ranks of radical forces, Defence Minister AK Antony told the Lok Sabha on Monday. In a written reply to the House, he also said the government is not in favour of making military training compulsory as under the democratic set up of...
12:03 PM, May 07, 2013
In their book Flight of the Buffalo, corporate gurus James Belasco and Ralph Stayer beautifully state the politics of change when they say, "change is ...
12:59 AM, May 07, 2013
Madrid: A historic jet plane crashed into a hangar and exploded in a fireball at an air show southwest of the capital on Sunday, severely injuring its pilot who later died in the hospital, officials said. A spokesman for Spain's Defense Ministry said the pilot, Ladislao Tejedor Romero, 35, an experienced jet pilot and assistant to Defense Minister Pedro Morenes, died of his injuries in the serious burns unit of...
09:00 AM, May 06, 2013
Kolkata: President Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday praised public interest litigations (PIL) for helping in delivering justice, but urged the judiciary to "observe self discipline" to "maintain the balance with the executive and legislature". "I would like to compliment the Indian judiciary for one innovation: PIL. A man staying in the remotest part of the country can write a postcard to the chief justice of this largest functional democracy and can...
05:10 AM, May 06, 2013
Washington: The US Air Force announced its X-51A Waverider aircraft has achieved the longest hypersonic flight in history, flying for three and a half minutes on scramjet power at more than five times the speed of sound. The final flight of the unmanned aircraft built by Boeing reached Mach 5.1 over the Pacific Ocean May 1. It travelled over 230 nautical miles in just over six minutes, reported Xinhua. "It...
02:07 PM, May 04, 2013
Mumbai: An Air India pilot and two air hostesses were suspended after an airline probe found that the cabin crew overstayed in the cockpit on a Delhi-bound flight from Bangkok on April 12. The action came amidst reports that while the pilot took a nap in the business class, the air hostesses were left to operate the aircraft over 20 minutes, endangering the safety of 166 passengers on board. The...
06:58 PM, May 03, 2013
Beijing: Chinese police have broken a crime ring that passed off more than $1 million in rat and small mammal meat as mutton, authorities said, in a food safety crackdown that coincides with a bird flu outbreak and other environmental pressures. Authorities have arrested 904 suspects since the end of January for selling and producing fake or tainted meat products, the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement posted...
02:22 PM, May 03, 2013
Paris: Boeing has shown airlines a blueprint for the world's longest-range passenger jet, adding spice to a long-awaited revamp of its 777 wide-body jet, people familiar with the matter said. Boeing on Wednesday launched a race against Airbus for sales of the newest long-haul jets by announcing it had begun selling an upgraded aircraft family code-named 777X. First seen in the 1990s, the 777 cornered the market for large twin-engine...
06:43 AM, May 03, 2013
Mumbai: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday accused the UPA government of "degrading" constitutional institutions and endangering the federal structure of the country. "All our constitutional institutions are being degraded. If we don't give strength to our constitutional institutions, all systems will be finished," Modi said. "A democracy functions according to systems. It cannot be based on individuals. People may come and go, but the system of democracy is...
03:57 AM, May 03, 2013
