Thursday 25th May, 2006 Oxfam cries foul over sportswear sweatshops ahead of World Cup by Neil Sands such as Indonesia and Sri Lanka, often Connor said the workers who made It said Mizuno, New Balance, Lotto, that closed without warning last year and sure from public campaigns mounted. Sportswear manufacturers received a faced intimidation or even assault if they premium label sportswear retailing for top Kappa and Pentland -- which owns Speedo failed to pay employees their legal entitle- "They try to blame any abuses on the red card from international charity Oxfam demanded better conditions. prices in High Street shops were often paid and Lacoste -- had shown some interest in ments. sub-contractors but only the manufacturers Wednesday for failing to stamp out sweat- Oxfam produced a league table of 12 a basic wage of just 60 US cents a day. improving workers' conditions but failed to It said FILA had done nothing to help can improve conditions by providing the shops in Asia ahead of next month's foot- leading sportswear manufacturers based He said such wages were not enough provide evidence they were actually taking the affected workers or force its contractor factory operators with long-term contracts ball World Cup. on their labor practices but said none met to cover basic needs and many workers action to end sweatshops. to honour its obligations. without the demanding production sched- Oxfam said while sportswear compa- minimum requirements. worked 16 hour shifts to supplement their US-based brand FILA came last in the Connor said sportswear companies ules that lead to these abuses," he said. nies paid millions in sponsorship to the foot- "They would all receive a red card income with overtime. Oxfam rankings, with the charity saying it over the past 20 years had sub-contracted Connor said the highly-paid stars dis- had the poorest record for looking after the their manufacturing to factory operators in playing their skills at the World Cup could ballers who will star at the tournament in if they were on the field," report co- Oxfam rated Reebok as the most people producing its goods and was least Asia to avoid taking responsibility for work- also not escape their moral responsibility to Germany, the workers manufacturing their author Tim Connor told AFP. labour-friendly manufacturer in Asia and interested in improving conditions in its ers' conditions. the people who made their sporting gear. goods remained poorly paid and exploited. "In fact, if there was a world cup for said other big brands such as Nike, Adidas, Asian supply factories. He said until recently the manufactur- "While it's ultimately the companies In a report titled "Offside", Oxfam companies that respect labor rights, the Puma, Umbro and Asics had made some The report cited a FILA sneaker sup- ers had refused to even tell Oxfam where that must act to fix these problems, we said the workers, mainly women living sports brands would not even get improvements, such as stopping anti-union ply factory in Indonesia where workers had their factories were located but they were would certainly welcome in-principle sup- in impoverished areas of Asian nations through the qualifying rounds." discrimination. reported high levels of sexual harassment slowly becoming more transparent as pres- port from footballers," he said. (AFP) Mahanama, Kalu Sanath lingers and Dilhara on exhibition in in dressing-room Saudi Arabia Inzamam-ul-Haq will and five one-day matches. lead a Test-strength Four Sri Lankans and Lasith in, Mubarak out Pakistan XI against an four Bangladeshis join five Asian XI for two exhibi- Indians to form the Asian tion matches in Saudi XI, which will be led by Arabia in an effort to pro- Indian Test batsman mote the game there, Venkatsai Laxman. organisers said Tuesday. The team also includes The matches will be fallen India star Ajay played at Al-Ahli stadium Jadeja, who has served a in Jeddah on artificial five-year ban imposed for turf. Officials said full match fixing in 2000. houses are expected for Rex Clementine reporting Although Jayawardene too had both ties. Pakistan XI: Inzamam-ul-Haq from Edgbaston previously indicated that his for- The matches are sup- (Capt), Imran Farhat, Salman Butt, ported by the Saudi Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Sri Lanka left out their highest mer captain needed to be given a Cricket Center, formed by Abdul Razzaq, Kamran Akmal, run scorer in Test cricket, Sanath go, he would have found it extreme- Jayasuriya for the second Test ly difficult to convince coach Tom expatriates from Pakistan Arshad Khan, Mohammad Sami, match against England which Moody on the issue. and India, it is hoping Umar Gul, Danish Kaneria starts here at Edgbaston, today. Sri Lanka named 12 players for Asia's top cricketers will Asian XI: Venkatsai Laxman Despite leaving the 36-year-old vet- today’s match leaving out only convince the government (Capt), Gautum Gambhir, Ajay eran out of the warm up match, Mubarak from the 11 that played and locals that interest in Jadeja, Shahadat Hossain, the tourists had indicated that the Lord's Test. Apart from Van the sport is growing in the Venkatpathy Raju, Waseem Jaffer, Jayasuriya still had a chance of Dort, who made scores of 44 and kingdom. Shahriar Nafees, Roshan playing. But the former Sri Lankan one in the warm up game, Lasith Pakistan's team is Mahanama, Romesh Kaluwith- captain batted pretty late during Malinga, who got a five wicket haul essentially the first Test arana, Kumar Dharmasena, Sri Lanka's net session yesterday in the practice match was also eleven, with stars like Dilhara Fernando, Mohammad and after a brief team meeting, brought in. Sri Lanka will name Younis Khan, Mohammad Rafique, Aftab Ahmed captain Mahela Jayawardene the final 11 and Malinga will come Yousuf, Imran Farhat, (AFP) into further strengthen the bowl- announced that Sri Lanka will Abdul Razzaq ing department with one of the stick to youth with Michael Van and middle order batsmen, most likely Dort set to fill the opener's berth Mohammad Chamara Kapugedara, going out. leaving Jehan Mubarak out. Sami all set to "We had a lengthy discussion on Sri Lanka decided to persist with Nuwan Kulasekara, who play. Tuesday with the senior guys and Pakistan then we had a management meet- failed to take a wicket in the first Test, but made a match saving half- are currently 84 ing. We are more or less likely to go resting ahead in with the same 11 that played in century and Jayawardene justified of a tour of the last Test except for Jehan the team's decision to persist with Mubarak who'll be replaced by him. "We've got an expert in Trevor England Michael Van Dort. Lastith Malinga Penny, who played for SWITZERLAND: Brazilian footballer Robinho, takes a test during an individual physical examina- starting late is also in the 12 but we can't Warwickshire for 17 years and he tion of the Brazilian national team at the Swiss Paraplegic Center, in Notwill, near Lucerne, 23 May June, which finalise the playing 11 because of says that the wicket will definitely 2006, ahead of the upcoming Germany 2006 World Cup. Brazil will face Australia, Japan and comprises the weather," Jayawardene, who have a little bit of slow seam move- Croatia in Group F as they go in search of a record-breaking sixth title. (AFP) four Tests will celebrate his 29th birthday on ment and Kulasekera is one of Saturday, said. those guys who could take some- "Sanath's issue was there, espe- thing out of that." cially with his experience but what Jayawardene also maintained Ankle problem troubles Tendulkar dismisses talk we thought was that we had one that confidence of the team was game with Mubarak and it's not high after the result at Lord's fair by him. We should either give where Sri Lanka forced a draw Roddick ahead of French Open of retirement him another game or try Michael against all odds. "From the fight we (AFP) Andy Roddick's preparations for shoulder pains but returned to the court Soon after pulling out of the (retirement). I always believe in Van Dort because we haven't given showed in the last Test match, we gained a lot. A lot of players next week's French Open at Roland to face Chile's Nicolas Massu on West Indies tour due to a shoul- putting all my efforts in both forms him the opportunity," he argued. der injury, Sachin Tendulkar has of the game. "His (Van Dort’s) Test record is showed the fighting spirit which Garros suffered a major blow on Wednesday. dismissed all suggestions of One-day games are also not too bad actually. We haven't we haven't seen from a Sri Lankan Wednesday with an ankle injury forcing But with Massu leading 4-2 in the given him a solid run and it's a fair team for quite a while. That's how the big-serving American to retire from opening set Roddick was struggling to retirement and insists that he will equally important as Test match- enough decision we had to make you could win matches for your his match at the ATP World Team cham- move on court and was forced to retire continue playing both forms of the es," he said in an exclusive inter- saying that we had to give him a country." pionship in Dusseldorf. with an ankle injury. game. Tendulkar opted out of a view to PTI. "I like the challenges chance and see how we end up," he Edgbaston is one of the oldest World No.