Mainstream media is now rejecting Biden. And no one can blame them seeing how unfit the old man is. He was even acknowledging the numerous state secrets he had sold live on TV and everyone besides him had the funniest reaction, no one did the face palm though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVIe3AvvDPUTrump also got the viral audio recording where he discussed classified docs he held on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIDdrFjHh0oBoth parties need a new representative for the 2024 election. But if both of them insist, I think Trump will still win. LOL.. from where do you get the idea that mainstream media is rejecting Biden? From what I can see, the MSM is still solidly behind Biden. Just check the coverage of the recent Hunter Biden scandal and you will understand. And I agree with the argument that both the parties need new candidates in 2024. But looks like that is not going to happen. In all probability, 2024 POTUS elections will be a re-run of 2020. Opinion polls are quite divergent at this point. Some, like Rasmussen Reports, Harvard-Harris and The Messenger/HarrisX puts Trump ahead of Biden by a large margin. While some of the other polls, like those from NBC News, Quinnipiac and Yahoo News have predicted results in the opposite direction. |
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In 2nd Test, England is going with a pace attack and no spinner or spin allrounder, which means Lord's deck should be lively and dark green. Maybe they also took a forecast into consideration?
Aussie might follow the 4 pace +1 spin attack combination, as they never drop Lyon anywhere. I am OK with all-pace attack, but the pitch for first test was not suitable for that. England was really missing a quality spinner on the 5th day. Joe Root did a lot of the work, but he was missing any support from the other end. I really hope that this time the pitch is more conductive to seam bowling. However, if the match ends in 3rd day, then the TV rights holders are not going to be happy about it. Already the ECB is looking at declining revenues from TV rights sales, because of declining popularity of cricket in England. BTW, I don't understand the logic of Nathan Lyon being such an integral member of the Australian team. If they can drop Mitchell Starc, then it is OK to drop Nathan Lyon as well. |
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The son won a large amount of money and he decide to gave a part to the father, you know how fathers usually are, I mean the responsible ones, they will ask where the son get the money from.
I don't think the father took the money and donate to someone else, there is nothing in that story that sounds like this, I believe the father rejected the money and the son too, weird? Well it has happened around me too, someone living very close.
Before the son won this large amount, I believe the father must have been talking against gambling to the son, he must have severally warn him to stay away from gambling because his religion doesn't allow it, but the son thought that he could confuse his father with the money.
Well.. this adds more questions to the story. So the father asked the son to reject the prize? And seems like his son did what was told to him. So in the end who benefits from this? Only the online casino benefits out of all this, as they don't need to do the payout. I am not sure whether this is the right thing to do. The only individual who benefitted from this drama is the millionaire owner of the casino. The father could have just accepted the money and used it to give higher education to his son. Or better, he could have donated a part of it to his friends and relatives. |
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Yes, but their coach Scaloni said he hoped to see Messi playing for their national teams in the next world cup in 2026. However, Messi said he will not play in the next world cup anymore and to be honest, there is not any reason for Messi to play for Argentina in the next world cup because he achieved what we wanted to get and the best he can do is to get retired from the national team.
Agree with this. Messi has given Argentina whatever they asked from him. He won the FIFA World Cup after a gap of almost four decades. At the most 3-4 years is left in his career and he wants to get to a good retirement package before this time expires. The deal with Inter Miami may not be as good as the one offered by Al Hilal, but it should be lucrative enough for Messi. And for the Argentine national team management, they need to think about who all will be defending the title in 2026. You can't depend on one or two players forever. |
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They must convince young players that if they move to Saudi Professional League, they will receive very good salary but will not lose their chances in national teams. It won't be achieved by Saudi Professional League after one or two seasons but maybe 10 years.
I don't agree with this argument. Why should their selection to national teams should be at risk, if they move to clubs within the Saudi Professional League? It is still understandable if the players are from England, Spain and France whose national leagues may get impacted as a result of player inflow to the Arab leagues. But why teams like Croatia bother about this? Anyway, football is just like any other career option. Players will move from one club to another when the latter offers them better compensation and working conditions. There is not much others can do about it. |
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Is it confirmed that West Indies are virtually knocked out of the upcoming ODI world cup race?
What a drastic downfall if it actually true. First, they missed out last T-20 cup and now the ODI format as well. Who would've thought this scenario to one of the fine white cricket ball team?
Nothing is confirmed, but it looks so. At this point, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka are the two teams in Super-6 who have 4 points each. If they win just 2 of their 3 matches, then they are through. For Zimbabwe the matches are against Scotland, Sri Lanka and Oman. For Sri Lanka, the matches are against Zimbabwe, Netherlands and West Indies. West Indies need to win all of their remaining 3 matches and then hope that their net Run Rate gets a massive boost in the remaining matches. Oman looks like the weakest team in Super-6, while Scotland and Netherlands have so far proven their worth as a result of wins against test nations. |
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Scorecard and Competition grants seem thorough, but flaws lurk beneath. Scorecard Grant, balancing participation and income, is sound. But just 10% for infrastructural elements? It's the lifeblood of sports advancement. Competition Grant is on thin ice. Rewarding ICC tournament champs? Cool. Yet, no financial lifeline for teams failing World Cricket League Division 5? It's a vicious cycle for underdogs!
The Special Grant is a wild card. Bravo ICC for World Cup sweeteners! But, wouldn't nurturing budding teams, even non-finalists, lead to a cricket bloom in those regions?
I don't think that infrastructural facilities should be given weightage in funding. If the member nation doesn't get funds from the ICC, then how they are supposed to get these facilities? IMO, one important metric is missing here. They need to differentiate teams with foreign players and native players. They are not incentivizing teams like Nepal and Namibia which plays with native players, and on the other hand a higher score is given to teams like Oman and UAE as a result of infra facilities and non-ICC funding. |
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Sri Lanka in a bit of trouble against Scotland. They are 223/8 after 43 overs. In the end they may get to 260-270, and that should be enough for them to get 2 points from this match. And points earned from this match can be crucial, because Scotland has qualified for Super-6 and therefore the points are carried forward to that phase. And we have seen West Indies in trouble, because they are starting their Super-6 campaign with 0 points from 2 matches. Sri Lanka has 2 points from the match against Oman, and now they need another 2 points against Scotland.
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Interesting and a lot of information there. Overall, it looks like a shitty deal, no wonder spreading the game narrative is ridiculous in reality and just a lip serving from the ICC.
But I'd like to dig into it and check more details. Mind adding the main source link in your post as well? That would be helpful.
Here you go: https://cutsinfo.com/associate-funding-faq/Tim Cutler is a big supporter of associate cricket and you will find many interesting articles in his website. But he stopped updating the site four years ago. And this is the only article I could find which explains the complexities of ICC fund allocation towards associate members. ICC never publishes anything on this regard, and Culter got this information because he was employed with Cricket Hong Kong sometime back. You can clearly see the bias. There is a lot of weightage being given to infrastructural facilities and funding from other sources. This gives more weightage to teams like UAE and USA, who have better facilities and access to sponsorship deals. On the other hand, less well off boards find themselves with lower allocation, because they can't participate in ICC qualifiers due to fund shortage, and also due to lack of infrastructure. |
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but this could hinder the growth of their local players to compete with quality European players. in terms of business this will be profitable, but in terms of the growth of their athletes, maybe there will be pros and cons.
I don't agree with this. Local Saudi players can only benefit if they continuously play against the best in the world. And if some of these players find it too tough, then they will be replaced with others. Overall, I believe that the infusion of overseas players can only do good to the Saudi football. They still have a long way to go, but I could sense a few glimpses of the improvement that they made recently during their match against Argentina during Qatar 2022. Nothing is going to happen and the Saudis knows that. They are being patient and continuously making investments in the game. |
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The only way that I'm expecting to see Messi in the 2026 World Cup is through an ad And I'm sure he'll make more money from that than actually playing  Playing for the national team is not that rewarding in terms of finances, but most of the players give priority because of a sense of patriotism. You can't ask anything more from Messi, because he has already proved his patriotism by winning the world cup for Argentina after a long gap of three and half decades. Now it is the turn of some of the younger players to take that responsibility. And Argentina has no shortage of talent. Some of the younger players performed exceptionally well during Qatar 2022, including Alexis Mac Allister, Julián Álvarez and Rodrigo De Paul. |
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In general, since the beginning of the year, the ruble has lost about 13% in value. This made the Russian currency one of the worst in terms of stability among the currencies of the emerging markets of the world.
Ruble has performed poorly so far in 2023, partly due to the embargo on Russian crude and refined products. But at the same time, don't forget the fact that it was one of the best performing currencies in 2022, despite the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war. Before the war started on February 2022, Ruble was trading at around 77.50 to the US Dollar. Now the exchange rate is 84.70. It has got devalued, but not to the extend that a lot many of the experts predicted. And one reason for that is the large gold reserves that Russian central bank holds. |
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I wonder if presidents like Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, or Theodore Roosevelt would be popular in 2024.
The United States is a completely different place these days compared to when they were presidents.
Franklin D. Roosevelt was the president of the United States during 1930s to 1940s. He was the one who commanded USA during World War 2. On the other hand, Theodore Roosevelt started his presidency more than a hundred years ago, in 1901. I am not even going to mention about Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. Back then, the priorities for voters were quite different. And USA was not even the no.1 economy in the world. A lot has changed in the last 100 years... and according to that the profile of candidates have also changed. |
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It is rumored that Marcelo Brozovic is indeed closer to Al Nassr and negotiations should have started on Monday, if an agreement is reached then in the next few days this player will be announced. Inter and Al Nassr have agreed and now that negotiations refer to salaries reportedly he wants more than 20 million per season, I think this makes sense because the other players got more.
I don't want Marcelo Brozovic to lose this opportunity just because he bargains too hard. The amount being offered by Al Nassr (£20 million per year) is not that bad, given his current salary (€11,110,000 per year with Inter Milan). And I don't have a very good opinion about Barcelona. I don't like the way they treat their payers. Al Nassr on the other hand takes care of their players very well. The only issue for Brozovic is that he needs to reside in Saudi Arabia, where there are no night clubs and need to stay away from alcoholic drinks. |
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Sri Lanka vs Scotland
Today's match is going to start after a very short time. I am a bit worried about which team will win today's match because both teams are very strong. But yes I agree with you if Sri Lanka team can perform well in bowling and batting line then Sri Lanka will win. The team has a big chance to win. I hope the players of both teams will try hard to win today's match and the team that will do well will win.
Sri Lanka will be the clear favorites for today. Unlike the other full member nations, the Lankans won all of their matches so far very comfortably, with big margins. Scotland is perhaps the second strongest team in Group B, and they won against Ireland and Oman so far. But repeating that performance against Sri Lanka will be very difficult. A win would be earth-shattering for Scotland as it would put them in contention for qualification to the 2023 ODI World Cup. Yesterday Netherlands won against all odds. If Scotland can do something like that today, then it will set the tournament on fire. |
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Your example once again proves that it is very difficult to get rid of generally recognized currencies for international trade. But Russia simply has no other choice than to try to trade with other countries using their national money. After all, international sanctions have cut Russia off from the dollar and the euro. At this forum, there were suggestions that Russia could switch to the use of cryptocurrencies, in particular, bitcoin. But for this, it is necessary that the partner state also agrees to trade in cryptocurrency. And this seems to be a big problem. Probably, in Russia now there is hope for the currency of the BRICS countries, time will tell how this issue will be resolved.
As far as I know, Russia has stopped using western currencies such as USD, EUR, GBP and JPY. Most of the trade is now being conducted using Chinese Yuan. And trade with countries that are opposed to the usage of CNY is conducted using neutral currencies such as the United Arab Emirates Dirham (AED) and Swiss Franc (CHF). But I agree that in the end, it is near impossible to get rid of USD. Even while using CNY, AED and CNF, the traders are calculating the invoice first in United States Dollar, and then converting them to the neutral currencies. |
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Getting back to the main topic - I want to thank the people of India who have given up their "neutral status" and stand, represented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for respecting international law, agreements and sovereignty ! India has realized that any support for an international terrorist is not her choice, her choice is development, progress and full partnership with an adequate world ! And in the meantime a new story about how "russia has switched to trade in local currencies" and does not see the Indian rupee as...a currency ! That's the kind of partner Russia is !  "Russia wants to be paid in Chinese yuan or any other currency, but not in rupees. Russia has failed to agree on a currency for which India could buy cheap oil from the aggressor. According to Reuters, Moscow has refused to accept payment in rupees. For now, India and Russia have suspended efforts to resolve the situation. Indian importers of cheap oil and coal from Russia had expected a permanent payment mechanism in rupees to reduce currency conversion costs." Would you like to pay in rubles? The payment will be made neither in INR nor in RUR. It has been decided sometime back that Indian importers will make the payments in AED (United Arab Emirates Dirham). Some of the state-run oil companies wanted the payments to be made in Indian Rupees, but after a few weeks Russians rejected this option because INR is not fully comfortable. Now the Indian government is OK with the option of AED as the trade currency. USD can't be used for this purpose because the payments can't be processed as a result of sanctions and embargoes against Russia. |
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Women's Ashes being played between Australia Women and England Women. Both the teams are at their best. It resembles same as the first test match that took place between Australia and England men's team. End of day 3, Australia with 92 runs lead and 10 wickets in hand means there is more chance for a draw. If there happens consecutive wicket fall we can see thrilled match. The performance from both the teams were really impressive, because if it was other teams surely they could've never crossed 200 runs. Australia have scored 473 runs in the first innings with the top performance coming from Annabel Sutherland scoring 137* runs. Following the performance, England have scored 463 runs with the top performance coming from Tamsin Beaumont scoring 208 runs.
Australia managed to win the match by 89 runs, after setting England a target of 267 runs. None among the England won managed to put up any resistance, apart from Danni Wyatt (who made 54). Ashleigh Gardner took 8 wickets with her spin and the pitch also offered a lot of support for the spinners. This was the only test match in the series, so Australia has won the series 1-0. Now there is a set of 3 T20Is and 3 ODIs to be played by these two teams. The first T20I match will be played at Edgbaston on 1st July. |
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There has been a lot of questions on how ICC distributes its revenue among the Associate member nations. So I thought that I would try to explain it as much as I can understand.
ICC divides the associate funding to two branches - Scorecard Grant and Competition Grant. Teams are divided based on scoring on these two branches and allotted funding based on the scoring.
Scorecard Grant: ICC divides associate nations to 8 categories (Group A to Group N). Scoring is made on the basis of three parameters - 70% for participation (6 separate criteria), 20% for income other than that derived from the ICC and 10% for Infra and others (five separate criteria). For the 2015-23 cycle, funding allotted from this branch ranged from $12,500 per year for 20 teams in Group N, to $510,000 for the 4 teams in Group A. The 4 teams ranked in Group A during 2015 were Afghanistan, Ireland, Scotland and UAE.
Competition Grant: This branch measures the performance from associate teams in ICC tournaments. Under this branch, the top teams received around $700,000 per year. Those teams that are not capable of qualifying to World Cricket League Division 5 receive nothing from this branch.
Special Grant: In addition to the above two branches, the ICC sometimes provide special funding for some of the teams. These are: A. For qualifying to the ODI World Cup - $1 million each (provided to Afghanistan, Ireland, Scotland and UAE in 2015, and to none in 2019). B. $425,000 each is provided to teams that qualify for the T20 World Cup (in 2016 - Ireland, Afghanistan, Scotland, Oman, Hong Kong and Netherlands). C. Special grants to teams with ODI status - In 2016 $500,000 each to Ireland and Afghanistan, and $250,000 each to Scotland, Oman, Hong Kong, UAE, PNG and Netherlands.
Note: Taken from the article by Tim Cutler.
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