The Surfer
In the grip of the Asian betting mafia
In The Daily Telegraph , Peter Foster looks at the bookmakers who still stalk cricket, seven years after the ICC set about rooting corruption out of the game.
Martin Williamson
25-Feb-2013
In The Daily Telegraph, Peter Foster looks at the bookmakers who still stalk cricket, seven years after the ICC set about rooting corruption out of the game.
From the back-streets of Karachi and Mumbai to the gleaming towers of Hong Kong and Dubai, cricket's bookmaking underworld is still operating. Chief among those nations are the sub-continental rivals of India and Pakistan where, despite betting on cricket being illegal, millions of pounds regularly change hands over a single game. Annually, the profits can be counted in billions.
But the nature of gambling has changed, forced to adapt from the brash efforts to influence entire teams to a far more subtle approach.
It makes grim reading. In the same paper, Simon Hughes gives a first-hand report from the subcontinent.
Full postAustralia's fierce rivalry with South Africa
Ricky Ponting speaks in his column in The Australian about the rivalry between Australia and South Africa .
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
Ricky Ponting speaks in his column in The Australian about the rivalry between Australia and South Africa.
“We have been staying at the same hotel as South Africa for the past nine days yet haven't had much contact. I don't make a point of stopping to spend ten minutes chatting with Jacques Kallis or Herschelle Gibbs. There are plenty of nods and glances."
Robert Craddock writes Ponting is keen to give “nightmares” to some of South Africa’s younger players.
Peter Roebuck’s column in the Sydney Morning Herald looks at Bob Woolmer’s death.
Full postLiving next door to the Woolmer investigation
Chloe Saltau speaks to Trent Johnston, the Ireland captain, who is staying four rooms down from the one Bob Woolmer was found in at the Pegasus Hotel in Jamaica.
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
Chloe Saltau speaks to Trent Johnston, the Ireland captain, who is staying four rooms down from the one Bob Woolmer was found in at the Pegasus Hotel in Jamaica.
"It's sort of spooky," Johnston said in the Sydney Morning Herald. "There wasn't too much sleep had last night after the press conference where they escalated the investigation to the level they have. It's lock your door and that sort of stuff.
"The police were down the hallway today, and it looks like the forensic guys are in there turning the place upside down. It's a strange feeling to have excitement one moment [at beating Pakistan] and then to find out that someone who was actually part of the game has passed away. It's unbelievable."
In cricket news Robert Craddock writes in the Courier Mail the South Africans want to target the spinner Brad Hogg at St Kitts on Saturday.
Full postThe image of Jamaica
Nishi Narayanan
25-Feb-2013
The editors of the Jamaica Observer hope that the massive publicity generated by the murder of Bob Woolmer has not hurt the image of the nation.
We hope that now that strangulation has been confirmed, our authorities will move with all dispatch to find out and disclose who is the culprit or culprits, if they have not yet done so.
Many questions remain in Woolmer case
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
Robert Craddock looks at the developments of the Bob Woolmer investigation in the Courier-Mail, asking a number of questions and profiling Mark Shields, the deputy commissioner of police.
Shields is known as a man of understatement in his dangerous home city, one who does not light fires for the sake of it. Shields knew the instant he walked into a press conference and announced there was suspicion that Woolmer had been murdered that he was destroying Kingston's Cricket World Cup.
Only the memories remain
In the Hindustan Times , Pradeep Magazine pays tribute to Bob Woolmer
Jamie Alter
25-Feb-2013
In the Hindustan Times, Pradeep Magazine pays tribute to Bob Woolmer. He shares his memories of the man, the first time they met, and the subtle intricacies he noticed in a man dedicated to the game.
Full postThou shalt not knock the minnows
TV viewers might have noticed that commentators have been very chartable to the so-called minnows during this World Cup so far
Martin Williamson
25-Feb-2013
TV viewers might have noticed that commentators have been very chartable to the so-called minnows during this World Cup so far. For example, when Zimbabwe were in the Caribbean in May, the experts made no attempt to hide their feelings that they were not fit to play international cricket. But even when they tied with Ireland on Saturday, there was hardly a critical word. And even when Bermuda and Netherlands, for example, have been slaughtered, the men in the box have been remarkably jolly about them.
Robert Craddock, writing in The Australian, thinks he knows why.
It is understood commentators have been told by Global Cricket Corp producers that it frowns on them denigrating the minnows. However, it is deemed acceptable for commentators to call an event a mismatch but not to say some of the nations do not deserve to be in the tournament.
Young Black Cap calmly embraces Cup test
A golden duck wasn't exactly the cricket World Cup debut Ross Taylor wanted but as the Englishman who spectacularly caught him later discovered, worse things happen at sea.
Jamie Alter
25-Feb-2013
A golden duck wasn't exactly the cricket World Cup debut Ross Taylor wanted but as the Englishman who spectacularly caught him later discovered, worse things happen at sea.
Lows like that have been more than compensated by an inordinate number of highs among a career still in its formative stages – a maiden century, a century against Australia and the joy of an unprecedented Chappell-Hadlee series win over world champions Australia.
Speaking to Chris Barclay for the website stuff.co.nz, Taylor says he's enjoying anonymity despite the West Indies' reputation as a passionate cricketing destination.
Full postA cricket man through and through
Peter Roebuck, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald , says Bob Woolmer lived and died a cricketing man.
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
Peter Roebuck, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, says Bob Woolmer lived and died a cricketing man.
By and large the relationship was mutual because cricket enriched, almost defined, the Englishman's existence. To reflect upon his contribution is to observe its constancy and extent. In a career spanning several decades, he served in many capacities and did not fail in any of them. Had he been asked to prepare a pitch or stand as an umpire he would have agreed. Cricket was his canvas and his laboratory. Fatefully, it also became his life.
Watson's chilling moment with destiny
Ryan Watson, Scotland's stand-in captain, is best known as Graeme Smith's former captain while in school in South Africa
Kanishkaa Balachandran
25-Feb-2013
Ryan Watson, Scotland's stand-in captain, is best known as Graeme Smith's former captain while in school in South Africa. But it was one defining moment which forced him to rethink his future in the country and settle down elsewhere, one which was literally a matter of life and death.
As a 23-year old, Watson was held at gunpoint by robbers at home in - you guessed it - Johannesburg, where he was pushed into a closet, after which the thieves robbed his car. Watson recounts those chilling moments in The Scotsman.
The incident put me off a little bit, and I also didn't get a contract [in provincial cricket] that year and there were some other problems. I might go back some day, but I just live on the mentality 'see what happens'.