2011 WC | Pakistan forsakes host status

Pakistan has forsaken the right to be a host nation of the ICC Cricket World Cup (CWC) 2011.

At the meeting of the Central Organising Committee (COC) of the CWC here on July 14, Chairman Sharad Pawar had told the committee that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) would continue to be the host and he would request the PCB to nominate three representatives to the COC.

The PCB had acceded to the request and nominated its Chairman Ijaz Butt, Wasim Bari, Director, Human Resources, PCB and Subhan Ahmad, Manager International, PCB to attend the COC meeting here on Wednesday.

However, the outcome of the meeting between David Morgan, President, ICC and Mr. Butt at Dubai last Thursday (August 27) has confirmed that only India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh will remain the host for the quadrennial event.

“The ICC has bought the host rights from the PCB at the meeting in Dubai and Pakistan will not be a host nation. The PCB representatives will not be here for the meeting,” said a functionary of the COC-CWC 2011.

An official release from the ICC last week said: “The ICC and PCB have reached a settlement to the dispute relating to the staging of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011.

In an agreement with the commercial arm of the ICC, the PCB will retain its host fees and also receive an additional payment as reasonable compensation for the loss of hosting rights that it would have enjoyed had it hosted the matches on Pakistan soil.

“It was further agreed that the PCB would be free of its liabilities and obligations associated with hosting matches during the tournament, including the location of the tournament secretariat which had originally been set for Lahore.

It is anticipated that the settlement will be signed by both parties at which point the PCB has agreed to withdraw its legal proceedings against the ICC.”

After relocating 14 matches (that was allotted to Pakistan) to India (8), Sri Lanka (3) and Bangladesh (3), the ICC Executive Board maintained that the PCB would receive $ 750,000 per match, totalling $ 10.5 million.

Sizeable compensation
Mr. Butt made a public statement that the PCB (after the settlement with the ICC) may receive an additional sum of $1.5 million with a potential increase of another $6 million before the start of the event in 2011.

“At the moment the figure is around $12 million, but I hope it could go up to $ 18 million by the time World Cup begins in 2011,” Butt told reporters at Lahore. Last month Shashank Manohar, President, BCCI said that the three boards of India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh agreed to host 14 extra matches together without extra compensation.

India will now stage 29 matches including a quarterfinal, semifinal and final, Sri Lanka 12 (including a quarterfinal and semifinal) and Bangladesh 8 (including the opening ceremony at Dhaka (likely to be on February 21) and two quarterfinals).

The nearly three-month long impasse has ended with the PCB extracting enough concessions from the ICC.

COC meeting
The COC members at the meeting here on Wednesday would be free to deliberate on the operational planning and logistics aspect, including inspection of venues, schedule, guarantees to be submitted by the three boards and the budgeted sum of $ 115 million.

Designer | Anand Jon sentenced for ‘preying on’ teen models

Anand Jon Alexander, an Indian fashion designer who once seemed destined for fame and fortune on celebrity-dotted Beverly Hills, was yesterday sentenced to a minimum of 59 years in jail for sexual assaults on seven young women and minor girls whom he trapped with promises of high-flying jobs as models.

Anand Jon, as he is known in the fashion world, is defending himself against similar allegations in two other states and faces additional jail time in New York and Texas if courts in these states hand down similar sentences.

The designer, who once dressed up Queen Noor of Jordan, billionaire builder Donald Trump and former New York mayor Rudy Guiliani, is only 35.

He was on the path to greater success when the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office received complaints two years ago of rape.

One of his victims was a 14-year-old.

Anand Jon, who was born in Thiruvananthapuram, went to school in Chennai and later acquired a bachelor’s degree from New York’s prestigious Parsons School of Design, has a history of being under the strobe lights of sex-crime detectives in the US.

In 2004, they investigated him in a case of sexual assault, but prosecutors eventually declined to charge him.

The designer wore a blank look when Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Wesley read out the sentence, according to local reporters who were present in court.

Anand Jon’s victims, who were seated nearby in the court, wept as they heard the sentence.

The designer’s family has been engaged in a high-decibel campaign within and outside India against the US criminal justice system, alleging racist bias against Anand Jon in the case and unsubstantiated attempts by Americans to stall his professional rise on account of his brown skin.

The family co-opted powerful Indians and sections of the Indian media into their ill-advised campaign. In the end, the family’s campaign may have done Anand Jon more harm than good.

This was obvious when Wesley said Anand Jon should remain behind bars as long as possible for sexually exploiting minor girls. “Mr Alexander has showed no remorse for his actions,” the judge said.

Anand Jon dismissed his attorneys for incompetence in July and argued in court yesterday on his own, pleading for a new trial.

But the judge denied the request, saying: “You have not convinced me that there is a conspiracy, all right? There is nothing before me right now that substantiates that.”

Those remarks are being interpreted as further reference to the family’s campaign alleging racial motivation behind the prosecution. Wesley has, however, cited misconduct in the case because of contacts between a member of the jury and Anand Jon’s sister Sanjana before the verdict.

Both the juror and Sanjana have been accused of contempt of court and are scheduled to appear in court this month.

According to PTI, Sanjana continued to harp on conspiracy theories with a statement in New Delhi today that “Anand is a victim of complete racism and bias in the court. I need help. Being an Indian, being a brown, I think we are just guilty by colour out there today and for justice, I need somebody strong to step in otherwise we are not going to get justice.”

Tata Indicom's offer | Talk endlessly for Re.1

Telecom operator Tata Teleservices Tuesday launched a scheme that will enable its CDMA subscribers to talk endlessly for just Re.1.

Breaking away from the usual practice of charging subscribers on a one minute-pulse basis, Tata Teleservices CDMA callers will be charged Re.1 for all local calls and Rs.3 for long distance calls, regardless of the duration of the call.

The pay-per-call product has been launched on the prepaid platform, and subscribers opting for it will be charged a daily fee of Re.1.

The company is also offering short messages service (SMS) at Re.0.50, for both local and national SMS.

The pay-per-call service will be offered by Tata Indicom, the CDMA arm of Tata Teleservices.

'Pay-per-call will change the pricing paradigm in the telecom space,' said Tata Teleservices managing director Anil Sardana.

Added Vineet Bhatia, the company's chief operating officer for Delhi and head of the northern region: 'The service gives consumers freedom to talk to their hearts' content without any of the hassles they face on the charging front.'