Gul claims he saw Anderson tamper with ball

Karachi: Pakistan speedster Umar Gul is set to kick up a storm as he has claimed that he saw English pacer James Anderson tamper with the ball last year during a Test match.

The seasoned pacer, who is tipped to make a comeback to the national side for the coming series against Sri Lanka, said ball-tampering was not new in international cricket and it was being done through legal and illegal methods by many bowlers and teams. 
"I saw Anderson do it last year when we went to England. Then in the Ashes series Stuart Broad was seen roughing up the ball with his boots. All these methods are part and parcel of the game to obtain reverse swing with the old ball," Gul said.

"Most of the bowlers tamper with the ball in international cricket," he added.

Gul's comments that are likely to ignite a new debate came when reporters asked him about the remarks made by Shoaib Akhtar in his controversial autobiography recently released in India.

The retired fast bowler, in his book, has admitted to ball-tampering and claims it is common in Pakistan's domestic cricket. Shoaib has called on the ICC to legalise ball-tampering. Gul said if Shoaib was saying he tampered with the ball he must have done it.

"I can't say much on that but yes many bowlers do it. When you use finger nails to scratch the ball it is illegal but when the fielders keep on throwing the ball on rough and dry pitches or the ball hits the advertising boards and sponsors signs, it is not illegal," he said.

Gul said whether the ball was roughed up legally or illegally it remained an art to obtain reverse swing with it.

"Obtaining reverse swing is an art and must be recognized as one."

But Gul didn't agree with Shoaib's suggestion to legalise ball tampering insisting this would spoil the beauty of the game.

"It should not be legalised because laws can't be changed on this and it should remain an art."

Gul, who has taken 125 Test, 134 ODI and 47 wickets in T20 cricket, said Pakistani bowlers had always been accused of ball-tampering and it was nothing new.

"But in the past no match official has come up with any evidence against us nor has any camera caught us. This talk about ball tampering is not new to us. But reverse swing is something that comes naturally to us and it is an art passed down from generation to generation," he explained.

Ball-tampering allegations have always surrounded the Pakistani bowlers and in 2000 match referee John Reid banned and fined Waqar Younis and Azhar Mahmood for tampering with the ball in Sri Lanka.

In 2010 in Australia, former captain Shahid Afridi was also banned by the ICC when he was caught on camera chewing the ball.

Shoaib Akhtar has also been penalised for ball tampering. The pacer also spoke on Shoaib's disparaging remarks against batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar.

"I can't say specifically that I saw Tendulkar running away from Shoaib but no one can deny that when Shoaib was at his fastest and best the world's best batsmen were nervous against him and there is no batsmen who is not nervous or ruffled when facing a pure fast bowler.

"Even Brian Lara who I rate as the world's best batsman admitted to feeling ruffled when he was hit on the helmet by a bouncer from Shoaib," Gul said.

Akhtar could make best batsmen nervous: Gul

Karachi: Pakistan fast bowler Umar Gul said Shoaib Akhtar, when at his best, could ruffle the best batsmen in the world including West Indian great Brian Lara.

Akhtar, who retired after the World Cup earlier this year, had created a stir by claiming in his autobiography that the Indian batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar was scared to face him.

Gul did not directly comment on Akhtar's remarks on Tendulkar but said the former quick with his sheer pace could make even the best in the business nervous.

"I can't say specifically that I saw Tendulkar running away from Shoaib, but no one can deny that when Shoaib was at his fastest and best, the world's best batsmen were nervous against him. There is no batsmen who is not nervous or ruffled when facing a pure fast bowler," Gul was quoted as saying in espncricinfo.com

"Even Brian Lara, who I rate as the world's best batsman, admitted to feeling ruffled when he was hit on the helmet by a bouncer from Shoaib."

Gul said he is opposed to legalising ball tampering as against Akhtar, who in the autobiography suggested to "set rules" for tampering.

He feels if the ball tampering is made legal, it would make it too easy to bowl reverse swing, which is an art, and some of the beauty of the game would be lost.

"I don't think the way is to legalise it. Leave cricket with its traditional ways rather than making changes that would take all the charm out of it," he said.

Spot-fixing: Trial of Pak trio to begin on Tuesday

London: Three Pakistan Test players, who are accused of being involved in spot-fixing during a match against England in 2010, will face trial in London on Tuesday. Former skipper Salman Butt, Mohammad Aamer, speedster Mohammad Asif who are charged with conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments and conspiracy to cheat will appear before the Southwark Crown Court.
  
British-based agent Mazhar Majeed will go on trial alongside the cricketers charged with the same offences, which carry maximum sentences of seven years and two years in prison respectively.

The charges relate to allegations of deliberately bowling no-balls during England's fourth Test against Pakistan at Lord's in London in August 2010. The allegations were made by the Rupert Murdoch-owned News of the World tabloid.

Earlier, in February, an independent International Cricket Council (ICC) anti-corruption tribunal had banned the three players for a minimum of five years each. 

‘Ally’ Pakistan ambushed US, Afghan commanders in 2007

New York: In what could widen the gulf between the United States and Pakistan, American and Afghan officials have revealed that Pakistani troops had targeted them during an ambush in 2007.

The attack, which took place in Teri Mangal near the lawless Pakistan-Afghanistan border on May 14, 2007, killed an American major besides injuring three other US officials and an Afghan interpreter. US commandos had also responded to the Pakistani fire before getting away in their Hawk helicopter.

The American and Afghan officials, who revealed the details of the assault, described the ambush as a complex and calculated move by the Pakistani forces, The New York Times reported.

Officials pointed out that the attack was a revenge for Afghan, Pakistani deaths at American hands.

“I saw the American falling and taking positions and firing,” The New York Times quoted Brigadier General Muhammad Akram Same, the then Afghan Army commander in eastern Afghanistan, as saying.

“We were not fired on from one side, but from two, probably three sides,” he added.

Colonel Sher Ahmed Kuchai, the Afghan border guard commander, who also witnessed the ferocious assault by the Pakistani troops said: “It did not last more than 20 seconds, but this was a moment of life and death.”

The latest disclosure suggests that the Obama Administration was aware about Islamabad’s duplicity but even then it maintained a strange silence over it.

Last week, Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was undermining the efforts of the international forces in war ravaged Afghanistan.

Mullen also stressed that the ISI provided support to the militants who targeted the US Embassy in Kabul earlier this month.

China pledges $1 mn for Pakistan security agencies

Islamabad: China will give eight million yaun (about $1.2 million) to Pakistan to help improve the efficiency of its security agencies.

It was announced at a joint press conference by Chinese Vice Prime Minister Meng Jianzhu and Interior Minister Rehman Malik here Tuesday, the official APP news agency reported.

Meng said China will also provide equipments for capacity building of Pakistan's security agencies.

Pakistan lets Osama bin Laden's bodyguard walk free

Pakistan has reportedly freed a senior al-Qaeda commander, who served as a bodyguard to Osama bin Laden.

Amin al-Haq had escaped from Afghanistan with the al-Qaeda leader in 2001. He later became a Osama’s key financial aide. Pakistani intelligence agency (ISI)detained him in Lahore about three years ago.

According to the UK newspaper The Telegraph, a senior security source in the north-western Pakistani town of Peshawar, where he had been held, said the ISI had passed al-Haq on to the police before he was released earlier this month.

"Amin al-Haq had been arrested mistakenly, therefore, the police failed to prove any charge of his association with Osama bin Laden and the court set him free," he told The Daily Telegraph.

This move by Pakistan comes at the time when the country’s commitment to tackle terrorism has come under fire from the US.

Recently, US Adml Mike Mullen had accused the country of having ties with the Haqqani network and waging a proxy war on US troops in Afghanistan via them.  

US has been putting increasing pressure on Pakistan to take action against the terrorist group. However, Pakistan has been defiant in its stand and has refused to act against the network.

Promotional event of Shoaib Akhtar's book called off

Mumbai: Close on the heels of scheduled release of Pakistani pacer Shoaib Akhtar's controversial book being cancelled on Sunday, another function which was supposed to be attended by the cricketer on Monday for promotion of his autobiography has also been called off.

"The event has been cancelled. As of now, he (Shoaib) is not coming to Mumbai," sources said.

Former India skipper Dilip Vengsarkar was to release Akhtar's autobiography "Controversially Yours" at the Cricket Club of India (CCI) premises on Sunday.

According to speculations, the cancellation of the event could be due to less-than-flattering remarks in his autobiography about iconic batsman Sachin Tendulkar and another senior player Rahul Dravid

In his tell-all autobiography, Akhtar has made many controversial claims.
Akhtar has written that Sachin lacked the ability to finish matches in the initial stages of his career.

He drew flak for his comments from several quarters, including former Pakistan skipper Wasim Akram, under whom he made his debut and senior BCCI functionary Rajiv Shukla.

Meanwhile, earlier in the day, 15 NCP activists were detained in Thane for allegedly trying to burn an effigy of Akhtar before the Municipal Corporation office.

A protest was held in suburban Dahisar against Akhtar yesterday in which demonstrators carried his posters on backs of donkeys.

Sachin may be your God, not mine, says an unapologetic Shoaib Akhtar

Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Akhtar, refusing to apologize for his controversial remarks on Indian cricketers Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, said on Wednesday, "Why should I apologize for speaking the truth?" 

Akhtar seemed to be unashamed of the controversial remark in his book --"Controversially Yours” released in New Delhi on Saturday— on cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid. Despite a mass disapproval of people, in his book, Akhtar claimed that they do not have the ability to finish matches and to be match winners.

A defiant Akhtar said, "He may be your God but he’s not mine,” Akhtar said of Sachin Tendulkar.”

He also added saying, "If your God gets hit on the head there’s nothing to feel bad about. It’s a game of cricket and things happen,”.

"Every player has a bad day and bad times. If he was scared or didn’t perform in one series and I said it — why do you have such a fragile ego?"

Shah Rukh Khan and Lalit Modi 'a cheater'?

Akhtar is also said to have called Shah Rukh Khan and Lalit Modi “a cheater”. King Khan termed Akhtar’s comment as a publicity stunt. “I have heard that he has said something about me. I think whatever he has said is a ploy to sell his book. We should not be falling into the trap,” said Shah Rukh during a recent media interaction.

Akhtar, who has admitted to the charges of ball tampering previously, is controversy’s favourite child. In 2003 he and then captain Waqar Younis were involved in a verbal spat for which both were suspended. In the same year, during a series against Sri Lanka, Akhtar was banned for tampering with the ball — only the second player in the history of cricket. In 2006, Akhtar and teammate Mohammed Asif tested positive for a performance-enhancing substance called nandrolone.

US-Pak face-off: Gilani calls back Hina Rabbani Khar from UN summit

Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Sunday called back Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar from the US amid strained ties with Washington following an accusation that Pakistan was supporting the Haqqani terror network.

Khar was called back for consultations over the strained relationship between Pakistan and the US, Online news agency quoted sources as saying.

US military commanders have accused Pakistan's spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, of supporting the Haqqani network for carrying out two attacks on the US embassy in Kabul and US military base in Afghanistan's Wadak province this month.

Gilani also called an all-party conference to build consensus on Pakistan's stance over the US threats. Khar will attend the conference to brief the political parties over Islamabad's ties with Washington.

The prime minister also called up President Asif Ali Zardari and took him into confidence regarding the developments.

He also telephonically discussed with different political parties the situation arising out of US accusing Pakistan of supporting Haqqani network.

Gilani spoke to Sheikh Rasheed of the Awami Muslim League, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid, Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Altaf Hussain of the Muttahid Quami Movement, the Nation qouted sources as saying.

Ties between Washington and Islamabad have been strained after the May 2 killing of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad.

They dipped further when the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, on Thursday accused the Pakistani government of supporting the Al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network.

Mullen called the Haqqani network a "veritable arm" of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the country's spy agency, as he testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on the US strategy in Afghanistan and Iraq.

He said the ISI-supported Haqqani network was behind recent attacks in Afghanistan including the September 11 truck bomb attack and the Sep 13 assault on the US embassy in Kabul.

Mullen said the Pakistani government's link to the extremist group would undermine the already troubled US-Pakistani relationship as well as the US-led counterterrorism campaign in Afghanistan.

Pakistan, however, dismissed US accusations that the ISI is using the Haqqani network for a proxy war in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Pak: President Asif Ali Zardari an impotent puppet, says Imran Khan

London: Calling President Asif Ali Zardari an impotent puppet, cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan has said that Islamabad needs to move away from the US as Pakistan was using its own army to kill citizens with American money.

He said the war on terror was 'unwinnable' and that the American aid to Islamabad was destroying Pakistan.

"The aid to our puppet government from the US is destroying our country. We're basically using our army to kill our own people with American money. We have to separate from the US," Khan told The Guardian' daily.

Arguing that the war on terror was unwinnable, Khan said, "The Soviets killed more than a million people in Afghanistan. They were fighting more at the end than the beginning. So clearly a population of 15 million could take a million dead and still keep fighting."

"They (the Americans) are going to have to kill a lot of people to make any impact and they also have in Zardari an impotent puppet as Pakistani president who has not delivered anything to the Americans."

He added: "The Americans also don't realise that this whole Arab spring was against puppets or dictators. People want democracy. So this whole idea of planting your own man there, a dictator? neocolonialism is what it's called ? is not going to work any more."

Khan bristled with anger on the charge that Pakistan was allegedly complicit in harbouring Osama bin Laden.

Petrol costlier in India than in US, Pakistan

New Delhi: Petrol prices in India are costlier than the US but cheaper than European countries, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas R P N Singh said.     

Petrol in Delhi is priced at Rs 63.70 a litre, while the same in USA is priced at Rs 42.82 per litre. The price in India is more than any of its neighbours -- Pakistan (Rs 41.81 a litre), Sri Lanka (Rs 50.30 per litre), Bangladesh (Rs 44.80 a litre) and Nepal (Rs 63.24 per litre). 

But the rate in Delhi is cheaper than France (Rs 94.97 per litre), Germany (Rs 95.99 a litre), the United Kingdom (Rs 96.39 per litre) and Italy (Rs 96.79 a litre), he said in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha here.

Higher rates for petrol in India are due to higher incidence of taxes. Without taxes, petrol would cost Rs 23.37 per litre in Delhi.

The diesel price in Delhi, at Rs 41.29 per litre, is cheaper than in the US and European nations, but costlier than Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Without taxes, diesel would cost Rs 24.9 a litre.

The current price of diesel in Delhi is Rs 4.97 a litre below its actual cost. 

In the US, diesel is priced at Rs 45.84 a litre, while in France, it costs Rs 69.87 per litre.

In Germany, diesel costs Rs 72.54 a litre, while it is priced at Rs 82.93 a litre in the UK and Rs 74 per litre in Italy.

In the neighbourhood, diesel is priced at Rs 46.70 a litre in Pakistan, Rs 45.38 a litre in Nepal, Rs 34.37 a litre in Sri Lanka and Rs 27.32 per litre in Bangladesh.

Singh said the PDS kerosene price of Rs 14.83 a litre in Delhi was the lowest in the region, with the cooking fuel priced at Rs 44.06 per litre in Pakistan, Rs 24.67 in Sri Lanka, Rs 27.32 in Bangladesh and Rs 45.38 a litre in Nepal.

Similarly, the domestic LPG rate of Rs 399 per 14.2-kg cylinder is lower than the price tag of Rs 757.04 in Pakistan, Rs 863.40 in Sri Lanka, Rs 469.24 in Bangladesh and Rs 819.60 in Nepal.

The price of kerosene is subsidised by Rs 23.74 a litre and LPG by Rs 247 per cylinder in India.    

Singh said oil marketing companies pay a Trade Parity Price (TPP) for the purchase of petrol/diesel and Import Parity Price (IPP) for the purchase of PDS kerosene and domestic LPG.     

"The IPP/TPP are determined based on prices prevailing in the international market," he said. "Further, the retail selling prices of sensitive petroleum products for the consumers is calculated by adding the inland freight, marketing margins and duties and taxes to the price paid to refinery."

The government controls prices of diesel, PDS kerosene and domestic LPG to insulate the common man from the impact of rising oil prices in international markets, he added.