Hair's days are so over!

What a horrible mess. Darrell Hair must have known what he was getting into this afternoon. He must have. This is a man who has allowed controversy to stalk his every waking hour, from the no-ballings of Muttiah Muralitharan and Shoaib Akhtar to the run-out decision he gave against Inzamam at Faisalabad this winter.

Andrew Miller
http://wwwc4.cricinfo.com/engvpak/content/current/story/257299.html

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Did Darrell Hair actually see a member of the Pakistan team tampering with a cricket ball? Has he got proof?

If he hasn't then he has made a massive mistake.

If I had been accused of cheating in this way then, as long as I was sure of our innocence, I would have done exactly the same thing as Pakistan.

I wouldn't have come out after tea, either.

People have said that Pakistan should have waited until the close of play and then gone down the right channels, but they wouldn't have seen it that way.

To Pakistan, if they had carried on playing, they would have been admitting their guilt.

Nasser Hussain
Former England captain

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/5270038.stm

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International Cricket Council chief executive Malcolm Speed says Pakistan could face additional charges after forfeiting The Oval Test.

Pakistan refused to take to the field for the final session in protest at being penalised for ball-tampering.

It was the first time in 129 years, and 1,814 matches, that a Test had been conceded by forfeit.

"The umpires are meeting this morning to consider whether there should be any further charges," Speed told BBC Radio.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/5269906.stm

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Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has reportedly entered the debate over the controversial final cricket Test match with England.

He called captain Inzamam-ul-Haq to back the team after Pakistan was deemed to have forfeited the match in London on Sunday, Pakistani media reported.

Pakistan refused to resume play after the team was accused by umpires of tampering with the ball.

The accusation has provoked widespread anger in Pakistan.

Mr Musharraf is also reported to have said Australian umpire Darrell Hair had insulted Pakistan.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5270176.stm

Karachi [not Venice;)]

Heat index raised to 50 degree Celcius in Islamabad

Few days ago, heat index in Islamabad was raised to 50 degrees Celcius, as reported by a news item in The News, a local daily:

The severity of the heat wave that resulted in the ‘heat index’ soaring to record-breaking 50 degrees in most parts of the Punjab, including Islamabad.

So what exactly is "Heat Index"??

The heat index (HI) or humidex and carries is an index that combines air temperature and relative humidity to determine an apparent temperature — how hot it actually feels. The human body normally cools itself by perspiration, or sweating, in which the water in the sweat evaporates heat away from the body. However, when the relative humidity is high, the evaporation rate of the water is reduced. This means heat is removed from the body at a lower rate, causing it to retain more heat than it would in dry air. Measurements have been taken based on subjective descriptions of how hot subjects feel for a given temperature and humidity, allowing an index to be made which corresponds a temperature and humidity combination to a higher temperature in dry air.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_index

The Fast and The Furious

From 'Google' to just plain google

One of Google's worst fears may have been realised. The latest edition of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary includes the word "google" which means to use the well-known search engine to look for information on the web.

The entry means that in addition to being a proper noun, the word "google" - without capitalisation of the "g" - is now a common transitive verb.

In the latest publicly available filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission made available earlier this week, Google identified the key risks it faced in seeking to to maintain its dominance in the search market and preserving its revenue growth rate.

Among the risks listed by Google in its what is called the Q-10 filing was a concern that there may be a downside to too much success.

To quote Google: "We also face risks associated with our trademarks. For example, there is a risk that the word 'Google' could become so commonly used that it becomes synonymous with the word 'search'. If this happens, we could lose protection for this trademark, which could result in other people using the word 'Google' to refer to their own products, thus diminishing our brand."

Full Story

"Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is it vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished, as the once vital voice of the verisimilitude now venerates what they once vilified. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin van-guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose vis-à-vis an introduction, and so it is my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V."

View of a nearby jogging trail.

Why the West is Losing the War on Terror

شاہ گیانندرا اسوقت شاید اپنے محل میں محصور یہ سوچ سوچ کر ہاتھ مل رہے ہوں کہ کاش انکے پاس آئی ایس آئی جیسا ادارہ اور قاضی حسین احمد، مولانا فضل الرحمن، بے نظیر بھٹو اور نواز شریف جیسی حزبِ اختلاف ہوتی تو شاید یہ دن نہ دیکھنا پڑتا۔

(Shah Gyanendra in his palace would be rubbing his hands right now thinking only if he could have an organization like ISI and an opposition like Qazi Hussain Ahmad, Maulana Fazl ur Rehman, Beynazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, he woudn't have been seeing these days.)

Source: BBCUrdu

A packed-up stadium

England's tour of Pakistan 2005, second last one day. With no substantial fireworks from Afridi, a low scoring match which Pakistan 'just' won at the end. (And no media coverage for me :@)

A tale of two bowling attacks

And though Asif and Razzaq took most of the plaudits with seven wickets each, the bowler who troubled the batsmen the most was Shoaib. He ended the match with modest figures of 3 for 107, but nearly 27% of his deliveries drew false strokes from the Indian batsmen, a much higher figure than what Asif (19%) or Razzaq (17%) managed.


Source: Cricinfo

Fresh Air...

It was a good expereince overall.. Hanging around with guys I've been working for the past four months, in a pretty informal environment. Though it was really cold out there and I had to shiver before getting my hands onto Chikken tikka and Kababs. Loved the view from Daman-e-Koh, beautiful .. as always!

How a Flintoff put-down fired up reborn Shoaib

He has not always been a thinking bowler, his bowling brain being entirely programmed in his early days by that mighty Pakistani fast bowling pair, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. "They were both there at mid-on and mid-off. Every ball I bowled, they would say, 'bowl this one, bowl bouncer'. I never used my own brain. They left and I struggled for a year. Finally I managed to pull myself up, to be a thinking bowler.

Source: Guardian

A moment of embarrassment

I'm highly embarrassed for having a leadership that is itself a victim of identity crisis. The above link shows an article from Mubashar Zaidi at BBCUrdu.com, which is about a poem "Leader", written on Mr. George W. Bush and has been included in the text book taught in local colleges. The picture clearly shows that by combining the first alphabet of each line makes it "President George W Bush". Do the overly enlightened officials in the government of Pakistan have the rights to play such games with the minds of young generations? I am totally amazed that why it was felt necessary to include a poem that apparently has an un-known poet and has no sense of poetry with it.

Source: BBCUrdu