Latest News
Carey century keeps Australia afloat as Ashes refuses to find slower gear
Astonishingly, this Ashes series is just seven days old, but it remains in no mood to slow down and take stock of its surroundings. This opening day at Adelaide Oval was, in its own way, every bit as chaotic as the six that had gone before it. By its close, a cricket-record crowd of 56,298 was none the wiser as to whether England were in the process of clawing themselves back from the brink in this series, or whether Alex Carey’s brilliant maiden Ashes hundred had already pitched them most of the way through the exit.
Arguably, the day’s only moment of stillness came in the minutes before the first ball was bowled, when the teams and crowd united in a pitch-perfect tribute to the victims of the Bondi terror atrocity. Either side of that serene moment, it was turmoil – starting with Steven Smith’s shock withdrawal, 45 minutes before the toss, due to vertigo, a moment which, in turn, granted Usman Khawaja a reprieve, not only for this contest, but arguably his Test career.
The madness continued through an opening gambit in which England’s bowlers threatened to lose the plot on a sweltering morning in the field – only for Australia to hand it straight back to them with a run of five culpable dismissals in a row, and six out of eight all told. The most damning of these were the two wickets in three balls, immediately after the lunch break, with which Joffra Archer ignited England’s revival as part of a very personal response to the criticism he had attracted in the wake of the Brisbane loss.
As if that was not sufficient, there was also space in the narrative for Khawaja’s career prospects to turn on a dime, thanks to a drop at slip from Harry Brook on 5 that persuaded him to shed the reticence and feast on numerous freebies from a toiling but deeply flawed attack. And in the final session, another DRS drama also reared its head, with Carey’s reprieve for a caught-behind on 72 subsequently declared by Simon Taufel, the former ICC umpire, to be another failure of “technology calibration”. Carey himself conceded at the close that he thought he’d heard a nick.
The upshot was another Ashes day conducted at warp speed. That Australia’s run-rate ended up shy of 4 an over was due entirely to the hard-lined discipline, and intermittent raw speed, of Archer, whose 3 for 29 in 16 overs made him as much of a lone wolf in England’s attack as Mitchell Starc had been for Australia in each of his first innings at Perth and Brisbane.
And in the same way that Starc’s superiority had drawn nervy errors from England’s batters in those games, so Australia were the team that frittered away a chance for a choke-hold on this contest, and potentially the series.
Only once this century had the hosts scored less than 439 after winning the toss and batting first at Adelaide – and that innings of 245 had come in England’s epochal victory on their triumphant tour in 2010-11. With that nemesis Starc still in situ at the close on 29 not out, it’s not out of the question that he’ll be able to marshal the tail on the second morning, as he did so effectively at the Gabba. But against a three-over-old ball, and against an England team who are in the process of showing their “dog”, flawed and feral though it may be, it ought to be over to England’s batters soon enough, to show if they’ve heeded any lessons from their frivolity to date.
Despite all the apparent hard talk since Brisbane, the opening exchanges gave the impression that certain members of England’s attack were still living it up in their beach bar in Noosa. Brydon Carse, promoted to the new ball in the absence of Gus Atkinson, started with real purpose … for all of five balls, before sacrificing his threatening seam and swing for a diet of half-trackers that Jake Weatherald in particular was delighted to cash in on.
It took a barely acknowledged moment of brilliance to blast England their opening. Archer – conspicuously missing his trademark gold chain after the ad hominem attacks he had received for wearing it – ground his way through his gears to draw Weatherald onto the front foot before scorching a 147kph bouncer into his splice. Jamie Smith gathered the top edge with barely a flicker – conscious perhaps of his culpable drop of Travis Head at a similar moment in the second Test. At 33 for 1, England were in the mix.
Moments later, they were surging at 33 for 2, courtesy of a stunning one-hander from Zak Crawley, as Head slammed a hard-handed drive low to his left at short cover, to give Carse’s tempestuous day a kick-start.
Out came Khawaja, still blinking at the absurdity of his circumstances. However, as he ground out five runs from his first 27 balls, it initially seemed that obsolescence would have been the kinder fate for a player who is due to turn 39 midway through this contest. But then, he lashed into a drive as Josh Tongue fired in a full length, and Brook at second slip made a meal of a tough but takeable chance, away to his left.
It was the pardon that freed Khawaja of his reticence. His very next ball was pinged off the pads through square leg for four – the first of five boundaries in that region, and eight behind square all told – and as he romped along to an 81-ball fifty, England’s basic lack of discipline was being laid all too bare.
But then, so too was Australia’s. Honours were broadly even when the teams went to lunch on 94 for 2, but what followed would have beggared belief, had it not been for England’s own batting opting for similar self-immolation all series long. Archer’s first ball after the break was little more than a loosener, but Marnus Labuschagne met it with a floppy, half-formed pull that Carse at midwicket could not have dropped if he’d tried – and seeing as he’d missed a similar sitter off Josh Inglis at Brisbane, he did have previous in that regard.
As if that wasn’t enough of a gift, out came Australia’s golden child, Cameron Green, fresh from his whopping Aus$4 million deal with Kolkata Knight Riders. The only mercy for Green was that the IPL auction had taken place the previous evening. His second ball produced a nondescript push off the pads to midwicket, where Carse clung on again, rather more fortuitously this time, as the ball clanged off his right palm and into his left as he dived across to his right.
Carey, at least, remained in the zone that he has graced throughout a superb series. Right from the outset of his innings, it was clear that his timing was exquisite, even on the shots that thumped into England’s ring of cover fielders. As he and Khawaja built into a fifth-wicket stand of 91, normal service for a first innings at Adelaide was being restored – not least when England’s spinner Will Jacks entered the attack for some of the leakiest, most optimistic offspin ever to be described as a frontline option.
Though he found some purchase, which Nathan Lyon will doubtless have observed with interest, Jacks was scarcely able to land two balls in a row on the same length as his initial overs were milked at more than an run a ball. And yet, no sooner had he served up his best ball of the day, a dipping ripper that turned sharply past Khawaja’s edge, than he had delivered the afternoon’s key breakthrough. Khawaja climbed into a slog-sweep to re-establish his dominance, and picked out Tongue at deep midwicket who held on well to a fast, flat chance.
Inglis kept the runs coming, with judicious use of the reverse sweep, as he and Carey built into the evening session. But Tongue burst through his defences for 32 for arguably the day’s first dismissal that was not predominantly batter-error, before Carse claimed his second, courtesy of a lifter into Pat Cummins’ ribs that Ollie Pope collected at short leg.
That decision was upheld by DRS, unlike Carey’s earlier in the afternoon – an under-edged pull off Tongue on 72, that Ahsan Raza decreed had missed the bat, and which Snicko could not confirm despite England’s adamance, and Carey’s own apparent guilt. It was a continuation of one of the subplots of the series, though the life did enable one of the most poignant moments of the day – Carey’s century and subsequent tribute to his father Gordon, who died of leukaemia in September. The tears in his own eyes were nothing compared to those of his wife in the crowd.
Much like his team-mates, however, Carey couldn’t make the good going last for as long as he might have done. After a fine 143-ball innings, he found an unworthy way for it to end – an ugly slog-sweep off Jacks that spiralled high into the leg-side for Smith to complete his second simple take of the day.
Though Starc and Lyon endured to the close, the sense of Australia’s dominance of the contest could not. And yet, forewarned is forearmed where this series, and this England team is concerned. For the third Test running, they’ve closed the first day in a position of apparent competitiveness. It’s only when their fickle batters get going on this far from fickle surface, that we’ll know the true size of the dog in this fight. And the pulse in their campaign.
Brief scores:
Australia 326 for 8 in 83 overs (Alex Carey 106, Usman Khawaja 82, Mitchell Starc 33*; Jofffra Archer 3-29, Brydon Carse 2-70, Will Jacks 2-105) vs England
[Cricinfo]
The Bangladesh Cricket Board has removed Nazmul Islam as chairman of the board’s finance committee, following the CWAB’s player boycott of cricket in country until he resigns from his position.
“The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) wishes to inform that, following a review of recent developments and in the best interest of the organisation, the BCB President has decided to release Mr. Najmul Islam from his responsibilities as Chairman of the Finance Committee with immediate effect,” the BCB said in a statement.
“The decision has been taken in accordance with the authority vested in the BCB President under Article 31 of the BCB Constitution and is aimed at ensuring the continued smooth and effective functioning of the Board’s affairs. Until further notice, the BCB President will assume the role of Acting Chairman of the Finance Committee.
“The BCB reiterates that the interests of the cricketers remain its highest priority. The Board remains fully committed to upholding the honour and dignity of all players under its jurisdiction.
“In this regard, the BCB hopes that all cricketers will continue to display the highest standards of professionalism and dedication to the betterment of Bangladesh cricket during what is a challenging period for the game, and will do their utmost to ensure continued participation in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL).”
Both BPL matches on Thursday – the first between Chattogram Royals and Noakhali Express, and the second between Rajshahi Warriors and Sylhet Titans – have been postponed due to the player boycott.
Even though there seemed to be movement on the issues – the BCB agreed to the player body CWAB’s demands and removed Nazmul Islam from his position as head of the board’s finance committee – but it came too late in the day for the matches to go ahead as scheduled. There was no confirmation yet whether the boycott would be called off or not, and whether the BPL matches on Friday would also be impacted.
[Cricinfo]
A crane collapse has killed two people on the outskirts of Thailand’s capital Bangkok, one day after a falling crane in the country’s northeast killed 32.
Thursday’s accident in Samut Sakhon province involved a crane being used to construct an elevated highway that fell onto the road below, Police Colonel Sitthiporn Kasi, superintendent at the local district police station, told the Reuters news agency. Another police official from the station told Reuters that five people had also been injured in the accident.
Transport Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn said the same building firm was also involved, linking Italian-Thai Development to the country’s second deadly crane collapse in two days, according to local media.
The company was contracted to build a section of a China-backed high-speed rail project where a huge crane collapsed on Wednesday in Nakhon Ratchasima province, northeast of Bangkok.
Local media reported that Thursday’s incident occurred in front of the Paris Inn Garden Hotel. Footage showed clouds of dust and rubble scattered across the site after the crane collapsed.
The Rama II Expressway, the site of the latest accident, hosts several major infrastructure projects, including tollway construction, and has seen several deadly accidents in recent years, earning it the nickname “Death Road”.
On Wednesday, the crane involved was being used to build an elevated track as part of a joint Thai-Chinese high-speed rail project, according to reports. The crane fell onto a moving train below, causing it to derail and briefly catch fire.
[Aljazeera]
India has shut down a medical college in Indian-administered Kashmir in an apparent capitulation to protests by right-wing Hindu groups over the admission of an overwhelming number of Muslim students into the prestigious course.
The National Medical Commission (NMC), a federal regulatory authority for medical education and practices, on January 6 revoked the recognition of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Medical Institute (SMVDMI), located in Reasi, a mountainous district overlooking the Pir Panjal range in the Himalayas, which separates the plains of Jammu from the Kashmir valley.
Of the 50 pupils who joined the five-year bachelor’s in medicine (MBBS) programme in November, 42 were Muslims, most of them residents of Kashmir, while seven were Hindus and one was a Sikh. It was the first MBBS batch that the private college, founded by a Hindu religious charity and partly funded by the government, had launched.
Admissions to medical colleges across India, whether public or private, follow a centralised entrance examination, called the National Entrance Examination Test (NEET), conducted by the federal Ministry of Education’s National Testing Agency (NTA).
More than two million Indian students appear for NEET every year, hoping to secure one of approximately 120,000 MBBS seats. Aspirants usually prefer public colleges, where fees are lower but cutoffs for admission are high. Those who fail to meet the cutoff but meet a minimum NTA threshold join a private college.
Like Saniya Jan*, an 18-year-old resident of Kashmir’s Baramulla district, who recalls being overwhelmed with euphoria when she passed the NEET, making her eligible to study medicine. “It was a dream come true – to be a doctor,” Saniya told Al Jazeera.
When she joined a counselling session that determines which college a NEET qualifier joins, she chose SMVDMI since it was about 316km (196 miles) from her home – relatively close for students in Kashmir, who often otherwise have to travel much farther to go to college.
Saniya’s thrilled parents drove to Reasi to drop her off at the college when the academic session started in November. “My daughter has been a topper since childhood. I have three daughters, and she is the brightest. She really worked hard to get a medical seat,” Saniya’s father, Gazanfar Ahmad*, told Al Jazeera.
But things did not go as planned.
As soon as local Hindu groups found out about the religious composition of the college’s inaugural batch in November, they launched demonstrations demanding that the admission of Muslim students be scrapped. They argued that since the college was chiefly funded from the offerings of devotees at Mata Vaishno Devi Temple, a prominent Hindu shrine in Kashmir, Muslim students had “no business being there”.
The agitations continued for weeks, with demonstrators amassing every day outside the iron gates of the college and raising slogans.
Meanwhile, legislators belonging to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – which has been accused of pursuing anti-Muslim policies since coming to power in 2014 – even wrote petitions to Kashmir’s lieutenant governor, urging him to reserve admissions in SMVDMI only for Hindu students. The lieutenant governor is the federally appointed administrator of the disputed region.
In the days that followed, their demands escalated to seeking the closure of the college itself.
As the protests intensified, the National Medical Commission on January 6 announced that it had rescinded the college’s authorisation because it had failed to “meet the minimum standard requirements” specified by the government for medical education. The NMC claimed the college suffered from critical deficiencies in its teaching faculty, bed occupancy, patient flow in outpatient departments, libraries and operating theatres. The next day, a “letter of permission”, which authorised the college to function and run courses, was withdrawn.
But most students Al Jazeera talked to said they did not see any shortcomings in the college and that it was well-equipped to run the medical course. “I don’t think the college lacked resources,” Jahan*, a student who only gave her second name, said. “We have seen other colleges. Some of them only have one cadaver per batch, while this college has four of them. Every student got an opportunity to dissect that cadaver individually.”
Rafiq, a student who only gave his second name, said that he had cousins in sought-after government medical colleges in Srinagar, the biggest city in Indian-administered Kashmir. “Even they don’t have the kind of facilities that we had here,” he said.
Saniya’s father, Ahmad, also told Al Jazeera that when he dropped her off at the college, “everything seemed normal”.
“The college was good. The faculty was supportive. It looked like no one cared about religion inside the campus,” he said.
Zafar Choudhary, a political analyst based in Jammu, questioned how the medical regulatory body had sanctioned the college’s authorisation if there was an infrastructural deficit. “Logic dictates that their infrastructure would have only improved since the classes started. So we don’t know how these deficiencies arose all of a sudden,” he told Al Jazeera.
Choudhary said the demand of the Hindu groups was “absurd” given that selections into medical colleges in India are based on religion-neutral terms. “There is a system in place that determines it. A student is supposed to give preference, and a lot of parameters are factored in before the admission lists are announced. When students are asked for their choices, they give multiple selections rather than one. So how is it their fault?” he asked.
Al Jazeera reached out to SMVDMI’s executive head, Yashpal Sharma, via telephone for comments. He did not respond to calls or text messages. The college has issued no public statement since the revocation of its authorisation to offer medical courses.
Meanwhile, students at SMVDMI have packed their belongings and returned home.
Salim Manzoor*, another student, pointed out that Indian-administered Kashmir, a Muslim-majority region, also had a medical college where Hindu candidates are enrolled under a quota reserved for them and other communities that represent a minority in the region.
The BJP insists it never claimed that Muslim students were unwelcome at SMVDMI, but encouraged people to recognise the “legitimate sentiments” that millions of Hindu devotees felt towards the temple trust that founded it. “This college is named after Mata Vaishno Devi, and there are millions of devotees whose religious emotions are strongly attached to this shrine,” BJP’s spokesman in Kashmir, Altaf Thakur, told Al Jazeera. “The college recognition was withdrawn because NMC found several shortcomings. There’s no question of the issue being about Hindus and Muslims.”
Last week, Omar Abdullah, chief minister of Indian-administered Kashmir, announced that SMVDMI students would not be made to “suffer due to NMC’s decision” and they would be offered admissions in other colleges in the region. “These children cleared the National Entrance Examination Test, and it is our legal responsibility to adjust them. We will have supernumerary seats, so their education is not affected. It is not difficult for us to adjust all 50 students, and we will do it,” he said.
Abdullah condemned the BJP and its allied Hindu groups for their campaign against Muslims joining the college. “People generally fight for having a medical college in their midst. But here, the fight was put up to have the medical college shut. You have played with the future of the medical students of [Kashmir]. If ruining the future of students brings you happiness, then celebrate it.”
Tanvir Sadiq, a regional legislator belonging to Abdullah’s National Conference party, said that the university that the medical college is part of received more than $13m in government aid since 2017 – making all Kashmiris, and not donors to the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine – stakeholders. “This means that anyone who is lawfully domiciled in [Indian-administered Kashmir] can go and study there. In a few decades, the college would have churned out thousands of fresh medical graduates. If a lot of them are Muslims today, tomorrow they would have been Hindus as well,” he told Al Jazeera.
Nasir Khuehami, who heads the Jammu and Kashmir Students’ Association, told Al Jazeera the Hindu versus Muslim narrative threatened to “communalise” the region’s education sector. “The narrative that because the college is run by one particular community, only students from that community alone will study there, is dangerous,” he said.
He pointed out that Muslim-run universities, not just in Kashmir but across India, that were recognised as minority institutions did not “have an official policy of excluding Hindus”.
Back at her home in Baramulla, Saniya is worried about her future. “I appeared for a competitive exam, which is one of the hardest in India, and was able to get a seat at a medical college,” she told Al Jazeera.
“Now everything seems to have crashed. I came back home waiting for what decision the government will take for our future. All this happened because of our identity. They turned our merit into religion’
[Aljazeera]
BCB removes Nazmul Islam as head of finance committee
Another crane collapses in Thailand, killing two, after 32 die previous day
India shuts Kashmir medical college – after Muslims earned most admissions
Singapore’s opposition leader stripped of title after conviction for lying
BCB issues show cause notice to Nazmul Islam but Bangladesh players firm on boycott
From behind bars, Aung San Suu Kyi casts a long shadow over Myanmar
‘Dates have the highest sugar content to fight Coronavirus’
Sunday Island 27 December – Headlines
#SundayIsland 17th December – Headlines
Sunday Island – 28th March
Sunday Island Headlines – 21 March
Sunday Island – 21st February – Headlines
-
Business5 days agoDialog and UnionPay International Join Forces to Elevate Sri Lanka’s Digital Payment Landscape
-
Business17 hours agoKoaloo.Fi and Stredge forge strategic partnership to offer businesses sustainable supply chain solutions
-
News5 days agoSajith: Ashoka Chakra replaces Dharmachakra in Buddhism textbook
-
Features5 days agoThe Paradox of Trump Power: Contested Authoritarian at Home, Uncontested Bully Abroad
-
Features5 days agoSubject:Whatever happened to (my) three million dollars?
-
News5 days agoLevel I landslide early warnings issued to the Districts of Badulla, Kandy, Matale and Nuwara-Eliya extended
-
Business2 days agoNew policy framework for stock market deposits seen as a boon for companies
-
Opinion7 days agoThe minstrel monk and Rafiki, the old mandrill in The Lion King – II