:: REAL VOICE ::

Soon after Cronjegate, Woolmer wanted to put the rotten apple back in the basket. I mean he wanted to help Cronje make a comeback into the game - in some form or the other. That Woolmer was silent through the Cronjegate period - and remained silent for a long time... There are rumours that he was about to end his silence on Match-fixing/Betting... His biographer, Ivo Tennant, wrote in The Times newspaper: "Rumours Bob Woolmer was murdered because he was harbouring information on match-fixing or an association with corrupt bookmakers can be dismissed unequivocally." "As the co-author of his autobiography and its planned sequel, for which a publisher had still to be found, I can state that he had no intention of writing or publicising any such detail in either this or his book on coaching and sports science, which will be published in June." "He had no knowledge of Cronje's involvement in match-fixing during his time as coach of South Africa. If there there h...

If there is one essay that changed the way I saw life, it is this. Lawro, take a bow! Why the Novel Matters by DH Lawrence WE have curious ideas of ourselves. We think of ourselves as a body with a spirit in it, or a body with a soul in it, or a body with a mind in it. Mens sana in corpore sano . The years drink up the wine, and at last throw the bottle away, the body, of course, being the bottle. It is a funny sort of superstition. Why should I look at my hand, as it so cleverly writes these words, and decide that it is a mere nothing compared to the mind that directs it? Is there really any huge difference between my hand and my brain? Or my mind? My hand is alive, it flickers with a life of its own. It meets all the strange universe in touch, and learns a vast number of things, and knows a vast number of things. My hand, as it writes these words, slips gaily along, jumps like a grasshopper to dot an i , feels the...

The presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., was rocked by revelations Wednesday night that one of its contracted employees was the creator of a scathing YouTube video against his opponent Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., despite Obama's insistance that he had nothing to do with it. Phil de Vellis, until Wednesday an employee of the company that handles Obama's Web site, boasted in a posting on the Huffington Post that he made the ad, though he claimed neither the Obama campaign nor his former employer, Blue State Digital — which does software development and hosting for Obama's campaign — was aware that he had. -- ABC News Like it or not, close to Two MILLION views! Go Youtube!

Former Irish Cricket Union president Robert Kerr died of a suspected heart attack on Wednesday (21st March), the second fatality in four days at the World Cup. Bob Woolmer died in hospital on Sunday (18th March) after being found unconscious in his hotel room in Kingston. In the meanwhile, there are reports that Soctland Yard will investigate the death of Bob Woolmer. The Daily Telegraph (AUS) report goes on to say: Woolmer, 58, had been found in a pool of blood with vomit and faeces in his bathroom in room 375 on the 12th floor of the Pegasus Hotel in Kingston. First pictures of the deceased coach appear to show cuts to his ear and eyebrow. Cricketworldcuplatest.com reports: With Jamaican police terming Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer’s death as suspicious, several Pakistani bookies who have gone to the West Indies for the World Cup are likely to come under investigators’ scrutiny. The bookies have been involved in match-fixing in the past. According to cricket circles in Pakistan, the mo...

Jamaican Police on Wednesday confirmed that poison traces have been found in Woolmer’s hotel room. The information lends credence to the apprehensions that the Pakistan coach was murdered. Woolmer`s preliminary post-mortem report on Tuesday had proved inconclusive. Toxicology and other forensic tests were carried out by the medial and police teams. ...[ more ]

Bob Woolmer was the coach of South Africa when Hansie fixer Cronje gambled and shamed the game we love so much. I have always wondered how much did Woolmer know about it all. Now Zee News reports: Fixing angle under scanner, Pak team to stay back for investigation New Delhi, March 20: Speculation is rife about foul play being involved in Bob Woolmer`s death. Reports indicate that some current senior Pakistan team members might have fixed both matches, against West Indies and Ireland. It is being debated in cricketing circles that he could have been killed to cover up match-fixing by the Pakistani team. The Pakistan team would not be allowed to fly back home till the investigations are over. The Pakistan Cricket Board, however, insists that team coach Robert Woolmer died of a massive heart attack. A report in a leading daily quotes former Pakistani fast bowler Sarfraz Nawaz saying that certain top players in the team we...

India beat Bermuda by 257 runs, re-igniting their World Cup hopes. Sehwag smashed a brilliant hundred. Ganguly scored his second fifty in as many games this world cup. Yuvraj Singh reminded the world and himself what he is really capable of (He should watch videos of Michael Hussey's batting more often). Tendulkar, having lost his favourite opening slot, played a key role that fits his stature and expertise. Dravid, the skipper, was brave enough to walk in with a couple of balls to be bowled, and finished the innings in grand style with a massive six! Chappell's dreams came true. Dhoni's magic is not working anymore. Let's face it, bowlers know where to bowl to him. Dhoni has to come up with something new at the crease. There is an interesting story though, which many of the TV channels wouldn't talk about. Neither would Sidhu on NDTV nor the idiots in STAR NEWS channel. Sandeep Patil has to realise one thing, he may have taken Kenyan cricket to new levels... he is ...

Unbelievable - Bangladesh beat India. Unthinkable - Ireland knocked out Pakistan. 17 March 2007 was a bad a day for Indian cricket, a horror day for Pakistan. Even a military intervention would not have stopped Pakistan from losing the game to Ireland; they played poor cricket. Maybe this is some sort of a justice; Pakistan should have been fined/banned for not taking action against two of their players - drug cheats. That Pakistan considered playing the cheats at the World Cup, only to pull 'em out in the last minute (thanks to some miraculous injuries), is a good enough reason why they have been knocked out of the world cup. Cheating has no place in cricket. India's pathetic performance against Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) must have cheered up the Pakistani fans. If India can manufacture a loss against Bermuda or Sri Lanka - this will be a new chapter in cricket diplomacy between the two nuke nations in the Sub-Continent. That no one (other than Aussies) want Ponting...

This is an advertisement posted at the Spinneys supermarket in Dubai. Wonder how having a 'European' driver/owner makes any difference to the car!

Media conglomerate Viacom Inc. is suing YouTube for $1 billion, claiming that the video-sharing site had built a business by using the Internet to "willfully infringe copyrights on a huge scale." The Buggles' hit number Video Killed the Radio Star back (1979) talks about the golden old days of radio. But what is Youtube killing? Has mp3 killed music or musicians? Technology is a funny thing; Big multi-national monopolies use technology to make mo, mo, and mo money. What these big businesses don't want is the ordinary person to be able to use the technology. Imagine you could buy different parts of a car from a giant Chinese mart, assemble it yourself... what will happen to the likes of General Motors and Toyota? Internet simplified technology; it is a social technology revolution. In spite of the fact that companies like Microsoft have been trying to influence and control the way we use our computers, there have been brave young men and women who have come up with dif...

Pakistan board blasts ICC's Speed CricInfo reports: Pakistan board blasts Speed's remarks The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has taken strong objection to the recent remarks of Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, about Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif with regards to the doping issue, calling them "unwarranted" and "irresponsible". The board has sent an official letter of protest to the ICC. Speed, while talking about the ICC's policy of targeted dope tests in the forthcoming World Cup, had called the whole affair of Shoaib and Asif continuing to play cricket after having tested positive for a banned anabolic steroid an "embarrassment" for the game. Nasim Ashraf, the PCB chairman, told Cricinfo, that Speed's comments were uncalled for and inflammatory. "The board takes strong objection to the irresponsible remarks by Malcolm Speed to a case that is subjudice," said Ashraf, referring to the fact that the overturning of the bans on...