T20 world cup: Teams from the subcontinent start favourites

A Going by past record alone, Pakistan are the firm favourites to lift the ICC World Twenty20 (if there can be anything called favourites in a format as fickle as this). They won the tournament last year, were the finalist in 2007, and have a much better overall record in 20-over cricket than any other side.

South Africa come closest to them, and in fact have a better win-loss ratio in the World Twenty20, but they've lost out in crucial games - to India in 2007, and to Pakistan in the 2009 edition. Australia, on the other hand, have a good record overall but a very poor one in World Cups. India, after a closely fought win over Pakistan in the 2007 final, have not had a very good time in the Twenty20 format. They have won just five and lost seven of the 12 games played since their victory. Sri Lanka, the finalists in 2009, are the only other team with a win-loss ratio of more than two in World Cups.

Performance of teams in T20 matches played Matches won Matches lost win-loss ratio T20 World Cup matches played Matches won Matches lost Win-loss ratio
Pakistan 30 22 7 3.14 14 10 3 3.33
South Africa 26 17 9 1.88 11 9 2 4.50
Australia 29 15 12 1.25 8 3 5 0.60
Sri Lanka 25 15 10 1.50 12 9 3 3.00
New Zealand 33 13 17 0.76 11 5 6 0.83
England 25 10 14 0.71 10 3 7 0.42
India 20 10 8 1.25 12 6 4 1.50
West Indies 21 8 11 0.72 8 3 5 0.60
Bangladesh 14 3 11 0.27 7 1 6 0.16
ZImbabwe 8 3 4 0.75 2 1 1 1.00

Madhuri the spy!

Madhuri Gupta, the 53-year-old second secretary at the Indian High Commission in Islamabad who has been arrested on charges of allegedly spying for Pakistan, was hoping for a plum diplomatic posting in either London or Washington.

"I should get London or Washington," a confident Gupta had told PTI a few months ago. Gupta had earlier served in the Indian mission in Baghdad and admitted that she was looking forward to another good posting sometime later this year.

Gupta made friends easily and could make great small talk. She could talk about clothes, hair styles or Pakistan's Urdu press -- 'where the real news was' -- with equal ease.

"English newspapers are boring. They always pick up news a day late. If you want to read real news, real gossip, read Urdu newspapers," she told PTI.

Gupta learnt Urdu in New Delhi shortly before she was posted to Pakistan in late 2007. She hired a Muslim woman as a private tutor to teach her.

"She taught me from scratch. I didn't even know my alif-bays," said Gupta, who had earlier learnt another foreign language at Jawaharlal Nehru [ Images ] University's school of languages.

Gupta spoke perfect Urdu and could have easily passed off as a Pakistani because of her accent. Like locals, she was always well dressed, her make-up was in place and her hair was coloured

"I bought this in Lajpat Nagar on my last trip to India [ Images ]," she said when friends recently praised her stylish new coat.

Gupta sometimes came across as brash and fearless, especially when she regaled friends with tales of driving to India via the Islamabad-Lahore motorway, often at breakneck speed.

"I did the Lahore motorway in three-and-a-half hours," she would tell friends, most of whom admired her guts for driving to and fro alone.

Most Indian diplomats travel in groups or with their families on such drives to the Indian border.

The small Indian community of diplomats and staffers of the High Commission in Islamabad would also bank on Gupta for getting them firecrackers or Holi colours during her trips to India.

"I will get natural colours, they won't harm your skin," she announced before a planned Holi celebration to those who didn't want to play with colours.

On a picnic to the picturesque Pir Sohawa viewpoint overlooking Islamabad sometime ago, she decided to be the spokeswoman for a group of Indian women, when a Pakistani woman entered their bus in the parking lot and asked if they had a cassette of 'bhajans'.

While most of the women were wondering how the Pakistani lady had figured out that they were Indians, Gupta dealt with her politely but firmly, ensuring that she got off the vehicle. "You give us your address and we will send you a cassette," Gupta said, taking the woman's address.

When she returned from her last trip to India, she told friends, "I am so tired. There is so much to do when you are in India. There is no time to relax. I feel I am back home now."

Gupta was quick to notice the expression on her friends' faces following her remark. "Home is where you live. Good or bad, this is home," she laughed out loud.

The new tobacco

Remember the Gold Leaf man? Suavely strolling through museum exhibits in his fine suit and riding thoroughbreds in his jodhpurs, as if a cigarette bestowed the gift of dandyism. Unfortunately for Mr. Dandy Cigarette-Smoking Man, cigarette ads in Pakistan went the way of the British and were kicked off the airwaves in 2003. I hear he’s currently looking for a job as Bilawal Zardari’s butler.

But a ‘new tobacco’ is on the block. It’s called junk food and its suffusing children’s programming like the second-hand smoke of four-pack-a-dayers in a small room. According to a consumer protection NGO, 50 to 70 per cent of ads on channels for children in Pakistan are about food – candies, toffees, jellies, ready-made cakes, cookies, noodles, juices and flavoured milk. It’s a cocktail high on salt, sugar, fats, artificial flavours, colours and preservatives.

You could argue that it’s the parents’ job to give their children the healthier option. I’ve seen a six-year-old sucking coke out of a milk bottle and a toddler wailing for his Fanta-filled sippy cup, and I’ve been properly horrified each time. In fact, 73 per cent of Pakistani children perceive soft drinks to be healthy for frequent consumption. But as every parent knows all too well to their dismay, beyond a certain point, the media, peers and society can easily override years of training. What do you do when all the kids are drinking soft drinks at a birthday party and you insist your little angel has the milk? That’s just uncool.

My daughter was not allowed to watch television until she turned two. Her intake of soft drinks is limited to the occasional Fanta or Seven-Up as a treat perhaps twice a month. Even then, if she insists on market-bought drinks, my husband and I prefer to give her the flavoured milk over the fizzy drink. I did not allow her chocolates or candies either until she turned two, and lollipops were proscribed until she was three. Even now, she watches about two hours of television a day, more on weekends and when she’s sick.

But like jihadi outfits that refuse to go away, junk food has better propaganda than evil, draconian mommy. The irresistible tug of advertising with its annoyingly catchy jingles, elaborate story lines lifted from animated movies and cute cartoon characters gets them like years of a controlling diet never be able to. It’s Willy Wonka’s world of chocolate rivers and never-ending gobstoppers, a hallucinogenic world of rainbow colours and sugar highs.

Take an ad for flavoured milk: plain white milk morphs into a lumbering monster which is eventually conquered by sipping packaged milk full of artificial flavours and sugar. Another shows that sucking lollipops is a substitute for thumb-sucking – candy triumphs over queer oral fixation! This particular one should be banned on more than one ground.

Only there is no regulation in Pakistan. Guidelines for advertising tend to look at vulgarity rather than nutritional claims or benefits. Studies have shown a correlation between increased consumption of junk food and media messages on television. The World Health Organisation (WHO) – which has collaborated with the Pakistani government on regulating tobacco – has “issued white papers in several … countries documenting the relationship between food advertising and childhood obesity.” Several EU countries have as a result placed restrictions on food advertising. The answer is not regulation, but self-regulation, as several advertising associations and food companies have done in the US, Canada and the UK. Pakistan needs to have the equivalent of an Advertising Standards Authority, an international watchdog body, whose functions include the monitoring of ethical advertising. Junk food advertising – with its dubious nutritional claims and free toys – needs to be curtailed. Bad food habits lead to obesity, certain forms of diabetes, malnutrition and rotting teeth.

Meanwhile, what can parents do? They could write to consumer rights groups like The Network or WHO in Pakistan so they can campaign about this issue. They can control what their children watch and eat. They can contact their children’s schools and volunteer time for a media literacy workshop so that children become responsible and informed consumers. There’s a great The Network or WHO in Pakistan so they can campaign about this issue. They can control what their children watch and eat. They can contact their children’s schools and volunteer time for a media literacy workshop so that children become responsible and informed consumers. There’s a great website that provides games and ready-made tools for kids, parents and teachers on media literacy.

Consumer rights groups, elected representatives and parents groups have managed to make a difference in other countries, why not in Pakistan?

AFRIDI

Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi’s roller-coaster international career has reflected the fortunes of his team — brilliant, baffling and controversial.

From the time in 1996 when he hit the fastest one-day century off 37 balls against Sri Lanka in Nairobi, Afridi has never been far from the headlines.

A big-match player, the 30-year-old was the player of the tournament for the inaugural edition of the World Twenty20 in 2007 and last year led Pakistan to the title with match-winning performances in the semi-final and final.

“Pakistan are a team in the making at the moment and Shahid Afridi is quite a force in the shorter form of cricket,” said Pakistan Test legend Mushtaq Mohammad.

“He won us the Twenty20 last summer. He is a very positive cricketer and we need somebody to lead Pakistan from the front.”

Afridi, who gave up Test cricket in 2006, inherited the T20 captaincy after former skippers, and star batsmen, Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf were banned by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) after the disastrous tour of Australia ended without a single international win for the visitors.

Even Afridi didn’t escape censure.

He was fined 35,000 dollars by the PCB for ball-tampering in a one-day match against Australia in Perth in February, although he appealed saying it was unfair to punish him twice after he was hit with a two-game ban by the International Cricket Council.

Afridi has played 27 Twenty20 internationals, scoring 475 runs with a highest score of 54 not out. He has also taken 37 wickets with a best of 4-11 and a miserly average of 16.32.

Afridi believes his team, who are in Group A for the first round with Bangladesh as well as old rivals Australia in the Caribbean, have the right balance to retain their title.

“I have a well balanced team in batting and bowling, and we have to further lift the standard of fielding. Fielding is crucial in this fastest version of the game and a lot of hard work was done to raise the standard,” said the captain.

“But we have got a lot of firepower in our batting — Misbah-ul-Haq, Abdul Razzaq, Umar Akmal, Khalid Latif and Salman Butt. As we expect spinning tracks, we have good options in Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Hafeez and myself. In the pace department we have Mohammad Aamer, Mohammad Sami, Mohammad Asif and Abdul Razzaq.”

Pakistan enters the world of alternative sports

Red Bull Street Style, an alternative sports world cup featuring soccer tricks mixed with freestyle dance moves, recently held its national finals in Karachi. Showcasing the best of freestyle soccer tricks from Lahore, Karachi & Islamabad. Co-sponsored for Pakistan by Djuice, the national finals included 16 of the top freestylers selected from regional qualifiers. 18 year old Areeb Iqbal, from Karachi, won the competition by consistently displaying his talent through multiple knock-out rounds and will go on to represent Pakistan at the World Finals of Red Bull Street Style in Cape Town, South Africa.

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Bad habits that can age you by 12 years!

Four common bad habits combined — smoking, drinking too much, inactivity and poor diet — can age you by 12 years, sobering new research suggests.The findings are from a study that tracked nearly 5,000 British adults for 20 years, and they highlight yet another reason to adopt a healthier lifestyle.

Overall, 314 people studied had all four unhealthy behaviors. Among them, 91 died during the study, or 29 percent. Among the 387 healthiest people with none of the four habits, only 32 died, or about 8 percent.

The risky behaviors were: smoking tobacco; downing more than three alcoholic drinks per day for men and more than two daily for women; getting less than two hours of physical activity per week; and eating fruits and vegetables fewer than three times daily.

These habits combined substantially increased the risk of death and made people who engaged in them seem 12 years older than people in the healthiest group, said lead researcher Elisabeth Kvaavik of the University of Oslo.