14 Thursday 6th January, 2011 Paymaster Mazhar running out of credit

azhar Majeed is the man bowlers Aamer and Asif were “rubbish” and “laughable”. city of Faisalabad, where their at the centre of ’s named by the newspaper as the But the International Cricket parents were involved in watch- Mspot-fixing scandal which players involved. Council (ICC) provisionally sus- repair business, the Majeed broth- could end the careers of Pakistan In a video made during the pended the three players and ers set up a marketing company, Test captain , sting operation, Mazhar claimed formed an anti-corruption tribunal TBL, earning professional con- Mohammad Asif and Mohammad he had “several Pakistani players to hear the case. tracts for Pakistan players. Aamer. in his pocket” and that they had The trio face severe punish- Mazhar also claimed he made Mazhar, 35, has been described deliberately bowled no-balls during ment, including life bans at the $US1.3 million from fixing the as a “marketing agent” by the the Test. hearing which takes place in Doha Sydney Test in January last year Tiger Woods Pakistan players he helped secure Scotland Yard raided the from January 6-11. when Pakistan failed to chase a contracts, but was declared “per- Pakistan team hotel and confiscat- Pakistani media have criticised modest 176-run target. sona non grata” by the team’s ed large sums of money with some experienced team manager Yawar He was pictured with Salman embattled management. of the notes allegedly marked by Saeed and security manager and in a Sydney He hit the headlines on August the ’s reporters. Khawaja Najam for not stopping restaurant and was also reported 28 last year when he was arrested Mazhar was released on bail the players from meeting Mazhar. to have provided players and team by Scotland Yard detectives on a but will report to police again on But Saeed, who stepped down management with luxury cars in tip-off from the News of the World. January 11. after the England tour, said the London. Tiger’s tarnished brand The newspaper said it paid him He could face charges of players were warned. Mazhar also partly owns non- 150,000 pounds ($A232,520) in defrauding bookmakers - a crimi- “When we started the England league English football club, return for advance knowledge of nal offence which carries a 10-year tour, I told the players they should Croydon Athletic, whose chairman pre-arranged no-balls which could prison sentence. not be entertaining these two David Le Cluse was found dead receives new boost then be bet upon in Pakistan’s Mazhar’s brother and business (Majeeds) in their hotel rooms,” with gunshot wounds to the head a Lord’s Test against England. partner Azhar have termed the said Saeed. month after the scandal. Tiger Woods, whose brand been removed from adver- Test captain Butt and pace current spot-fixing allegations as Migrating from the Pakistan (SMH) name was tarnished might- tisements by several other ily by the sex scandal that prominent firms. erupted around him last Payne has tried to boost year, has a new partner the visibility of the with a highly regarded Masters in recent years, image - Augusta National allowing extra hours of tel- Golf Club. evision coverage and live The fabled home course video of several holes of the Masters will be fea- available on-line, including tured in a video game for the famed trio of holes the first time in the next known as Amen Corner. edition of the Tiger Woods Putting Augusta series, officials announced. National in a video game is Augusta National chair- a continuation of Payne’s man Billy Payne and desire to boost the sport Electronic Arts and should help uplift n celestial stories, Incorporated officials col- Woods as a brand name in ‘I laborated for three years the process. In folklore, on the project. “Our sincere motivation In cinemas while sitting in the The move shows a re- is to draw an even greater dark, embracing of Woods only audience to this wonderful Thoroughly I searched, nine months after Payne sport and continue to For a hero of my world’ scolded Woods for the scan- inspire its growth by build- - The English translation of dal that embroiled Woods ing off the success seen in the theme song of Asoka last year, the first winless previous versions of the Handagama’s movie ‘Vidhu’ season of his career, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour led to the divorce of Woods franchise,” Payne said. “I used to be a cricket fanatic and Elin Nordegren. “The beauty of Augusta those days. At the time we (Sri Woods ended a five- National and the rich his- Lanka) won the World Cup, I month break from golf at tory of the Masters have used to watch every game which we (Sri Lanka) played. Later I last year’s Masters, where inspired the dreams of found a job at the accounts Payne noted how Woods golfers for generations. department of Sri Lanka Cricket. had “disappointed us all” “Three years of collabo- There I had first-hand experience by admitting infidelity ration with EA Sports has of our (Sri Lankan) cricket heroes’ with multiple mistresses. resulted in a game we feel unrelenting greed for money. How “Our hero did not live presents a truly authentic they rushed to us to collect their up to the expectations of Masters experience.” match fees, etc. the very next the role model we saw for Peter Moore, president morning of every international our children,” Payne said of EA Sports, said the com- match disappointed me thorough- last April. “He forgot in the bination was a “perfect ly. I felt their main concern was nothing but money. Now I don’t process to remember that marriage”. care a cent about our (Sri with fame and fortune “Pairing the number Lankan) cricket matches. I’ve comes responsibility, not one golf video game fran- understood that it’s an utter waste invisibility.” chise with the most presti- of time. Why should I waste my EA Sports and Nike gious golf tournament in time to make others rich?” were the major sponsors the world is a perfect mar- - A 28-year-old male from who stayed with Woods as riage and we’re thrilled to Kalutara who worked in the the scope of the scandal bring our fans this exciting cricket board in the year 2002 became public, the billion- opportunity,” he said. dollar pitchman having (SMH) After ’96 Wills WC win – Sri Lanka is the hottest favourite for the 2011 ICC Cricket Cricketers becoming as rich as Aristo World Cup, to be played in the Onassis, the highly influential yet sub-continent from next month. behind-the-door intrusion of sexy Even the oft critical Sri Lanka females into cricketers’ lives, the domi- Singer Premier League 2011 World Cup winning captain Arjuna nant participation of shallow followers Ranatunga says so. Now we can of the game who crave for mere fun analyse what really happened in not spirit of sport, the emergence of cricket during the last 15 years! Unichela record third win cricketer politicians; all these strange Going by such observation we phenomena could clearly be consid- Sahan Boralessa of Mas at P. Sara Oval yesterday. may ask: Does one need yet another World Cup win? ered the post-1996 ailments in cricket. Unichela took six wickets for Brief Scores: The sub-continent last held a try quite decisively after the 1996 Pakistani cricket going in com- nine runs, naturally the best HNB 298/6 in 50 Overs World Cup in 1996 when the ‘min- sub-continent World Cup. plete disarray, cricketers becom- figures of the tournament to (Chinthaka Jayasinghe 82, nowy’ islanders won it to stun the The reasons are manifold. By ing as rich as Aristo Onassis, the politician, but for Arjuna Ranatunga, restrict Seylan Bank to a pal- Saman Jayantha 70) whole world. But without much the mid 1990s, unlike in 1987 highly influential yet behind-the- talk about the deteriorating stan- try 121 runs in 26.5 as they Mas Active 220 all out in notice, the ’96 World Cup marked when the region first (India and door intrusion of sexy females dards objectively in the political cen- went onto win by six wickets 34.1 overs (T. M. Sampath 71, tre stage. Nobody apparently sees a beginning of certain destruction Pakistan) hosted a World Cup, into cricketers’ lives, the predom- in the ongoing 18th Singer Angelo Perera 36, Ranil any realistic connection between the of the game. the Asian society has changed inant participation of shallow fol- MCA Centenary year 2011 Dhammika 4/25) ’96 World Cup win and the emer- The triumphant Lankans are vastly. The satellite TV, the com- lowers of the game who crave Tournament yesterday at the not to be blamed anyway yet the for mere fun not spirit of sport, gence of someone like Suraj puter and the internet, the mobile BRC Grounds. Sampath record fourth suc- game of cricket, which was expe- phone and the media industry the emergence of cricket-related Dandeniya in ‘our’ cricket scene. T. M. Dilshan and Malinda cessive win riencing some popularity slide in and the commercial sector as a politicians; all these strange phe- Sadly, nobody is bothered to find out its native England, looked to have whole had had reached the nomena could clearly be consid- how the ordinary people’s passion Warnapura scored 48 and 41 Defending Champions found a new haven in Asia with masses in the rural parts of the ered the post-1996 ailments in for the game is indirectly exploited to runs respectively in the run Sampath Bank scored 207 runs the staging of the 1996 Wills region. cricket. make nobodies somebody in this chase for Mas Unichela to end in 44.3 overs and restricted World Cup. It marked a beginning The superior control of the The 2011 episode – society. We see evidently the sur- the game by lunch time. Janashakthi for 114 in 27.5 of a new era; a period where television on cricket, the over- The 2011 version is a revisit face picture where, in Sri Lanka’s Brief Scores: overs to record their fourth case in particular, a bunch of rogues cricket got submerged in an whelming world of advertise- of the World Cup to ‘our’ shores. Seylan Bank 121 all out in consecutive win of the tourna- control a set of weak, irresponsible extensive flow of commercialism ments and endorsements, the ‘We’ were happy after Arjuna 26.5 overs (T. Paranavithana ment at Colts Cricket Ground players who think they are the num- to an extent where its pure, age emergence of business tycoons and co. brought the ‘snooty’ 51; Sahan Wijeratne 21, Sahan yesterday. old spirit went for a six in an Aussies to their feet in Lahore ber one heroes. But the real picture entering into the cricket adminis- Boralessa 6/9) The match was reduced to unprecedented manner. The tration, the fast growth of cricket that night. But can any cricket is more complicated and sad. Mas Unichela 126/4 in 11.1 45 overs a side due to bad cricket that we now have could be betting and resultant Cronje case lover be happy in the same vein Another World Cup will not get crick- taken as a ‘new’ cricket which is of match-fixing, Bangladesh’s with what followed next? The et out of its mess but further plunge overs (T. M. Dilshan 48, weather. not really a sport but a business, premature entry into the Test decade-and-half that followed in it. Malinda Warnapura 41, Brief Scores: an industry of its own where we, arena, the decisive downfall of saw the real cricket surrender to ‘Through universal search Shamil Sumathipala 3/42) Sampath Bank 207 all out the fans, too are mere stakehold- West Indies cricket, the emer- all unhealthy, destructive socio- Did not result in meeting, in 44.3 overs (Kaushal Silva 70, ers. Like many other global gence of IPL and the introduction economic forces of the day. Only Hero of one’s own world, HNB win comfortably Rangana Herath 39, Muditha Is discovered within one’s own sports, like soccer, tennis, motor of the bizarre player auction sys- the insensitive can close their Having won the toss and Maduwantha 4/22) self.’ racing and golf, cricket too tem, the interesting intermingle of eyes and hope to witness how opted to bat first HNB piled up Janashakthi 114 all out in - The last lines of the ‘Vidhu’ reached its transition from the the commercial cinema and the history repeats. 298 runs for six wickets in 27.5 overs (Sachitra sport-tradition to the sport-indus- It is pathetic that not a single theme song cricket evident mainly in India, their allotted 50 over and Serasinghe 20, Hasantha restricted Mas Active for 220 Fernando 3/17 Jeewan Mendis runs in another fixture played 2/19). MP