Breaking News:
An eight person Grand Jury has unamously voted to indite former President Trump who I'm hearing has been instructed to surrender to authorities in the next few days.
Details to follow.
LOL... finally.. Here comes the indictment. And he deserved every bit of it. Donald Trump was indicted on charges that he paid hush money to one of the porn stars (Stormy Daniels), and the payment was made just before the 2016 POTUS elections. Trump allegedly had sex with Daniels during his stay at Lake Tahoe in 2006, but denied it in front of media. The indictment proceedings were put in to action by Alvin Leonard Bragg Jr., who happens to be the New York County District Attorney (the first African American elected to that office). So as far as I know, Trump is ineligible to run for 2024 POTUS elections. |
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Today is one of the most crucial days as far the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup Super League is concerned. Sri Lanka are playing their last match in the league, against New Zealand. If they win this match, then they will end up with 91 points. But the problem for them is that South Africa has 78 points and they have two matches remaining against Netherlands. So in case they win both these matches, then they will end up with 98 points and qualify ahead of Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka won the toss today and elected to bat first. They are now at 7/0 after 1.2 overs.
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Even if beer was banned from stadiums in Qatar what’s the big deal about that, before the World Cup we had some sort of ideas about the religious laws in the Middle East I don’t think it’s right forcing a country out of their own culture.
Regardless of all the critics Qatar raise the standards in World Cup hosting and I am not going to envy the next host of the World Cup because it would be hard to out do Qatar .
LOL... Alcoholic beverages are readily available in most of the middle-eastern countries, including Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. The problem is not about any existing laws in Qatar. A lot of us were surprised when Qatar imposed a last minute ban on beer, despite assurances given to the FIFA and Budweiser (one of the sponsors of the tournament). And beer was made available for those holding the highest tier ticket. Banning beer was only part of the issue. The way they banned it was the main reason why there were so many complaints. |
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The USA and Canada are among the best countries in the world... I think that neither the crisis nor anything else will prevent the World Cup from being held at the highest level... That's why I am sure the next World Cup will be much better and more interesting than the one in Qatar... By the way, the most negative factor of the previous World Cup for many football fans was probably the lack of alcoholic beer...
LOL.. at least the fans will be able to get beer during the 2026 world cup. And you are not completely correct when you claim that beer was totally banned during Qatar 2022. Those who had the top tier tickets ($25,000 or so per ticket) had the luxury of enjoying beer while watching matches live. Only the ordinary fans with lower tier tickets were denied from enjoying alcoholic beverages and beer. In 2026, there will be all sort of beverages available to the fans. Each of the three countries have their own signature brands of lager beer and other alcoholic beverages. |
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USA got an easy win in the qualifying round, they had beaten UAE easily although UAE gave a good target to chase but USA batting lineup was outstanding today and Saiteja Mukkamalla scored a brilliant century.
They might have won today, but there is no guarantee that they will finish among the top-2, so that they will gain direct entry to the 2023 Cricket World Cup Qualifier. So far the US has won 2 out of the 3 matches. Their two remaining matches are against Papua New Guinea and Jersey. These two are perhaps the weakest teams in the tournament, so they do have a very good chance of qualifying. Namibia also have 2 wins from 3 matches, and their remaining matches are against United Arab Emirates and Canada (relatively tougher opponents). |
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We all know that India is a team that is never afraid to take up challenges. This is a challenge for India to do well in the world cup. India surprisingly performs well in the world cup. I am going to say that we should not underestimate India just because they are not performing at their best right now. Because I believe they are trying out some things for the world cup.
LOL... India performs well in the world cup? When did that happened? Do you know when was the last time when they won a trophy in one of the ICC tournaments? That was long back, when Mahendra Singh Dhoni was the captain. India under Kohli and Rohit has performed extremely poorly in all the ICC tournaments, including the T20 and ODI world cups. Anyway, this year the ODI world cup is being hosted by India and they should be the favorites to win the tournament. But a few days back, they lost the ODI series to Australia by a margin of 2-1. |
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I don't have information about Mexico too, but I think in USA and Canada both have enough good quality stadiums to host the world cup so they won't need to spend lots of money for the world cup that's how it can have more benefits for these three countries comparing to Qatar but even if they want to build or repair stadiums in Canada I'm sure there is a rule to protect the workers even if they come to form other countries so we won't see the drama like Qatar.
The 2026 World Cup is scheduled to be held in a total of 16 stadiums (compared to 8 during Qatar 2022). And none of these 16 stadiums are entirely new. All of them are well established facilities and some have been in use for many decades. For example, the Estadio Azteca is having a capacity of close to 90,000 and it was build in 1966 (however, the stadium underwent extensive renovations in 1986, 1999, 2013 and 2016). And before the 2026 world cup as well, we can expect another round of comprehensive renovations. |
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I have heard about this (2015 FIFA corruption case). In the end, most of the parties involved were indicted and Sepp Blatter was removed from office. Most of the accused entered in to guilty pleas, and only a few (Juan Ángel Napout, Carlos Chávez Landivar.etc) decided to fight their case. But the thing to remember here is that FIFA took strong action against these people. If the same happened in cricket, the accused individuals will most probably continue to hold their office. Anyway, if I want to look for a sports body that has taken strong action against corruption, I understand that FIFA is not the perfect choice. |
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They went into this tour as an underdog, so it was an impressive performance.
They bottled up in the next test tho but hard to give any judgment as it was 2 match series in alien/hostile conditions and it's a small sample size. It would've been great if it was 3 matches series and such a shame that not many teams play long series, mainly because it's a loss making affair.
Well.. I am not sure... Sri Lanka still lost both their matches against New Zealand, and the second one by an innings. And remember that they lost against a very weak New Zealand side where two of the strike bowlers were missing (Trent Boult and Kyle Jamieson). You may assume that the pitch conditions were very hostile. But I watched these matches live on Amazon Prime Video and at no point, I got an idea that the pitches are offering a lot of support for the pace bowlers. I would say that the only ones who got assistance from the pitch are the batsmen. |
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USA is in good position after 36 overs, scoring 188 runs losing the openers wickets. 92 runs from 84 balls will be easily reached by USA. The player who is taking USA towards the win, Saiteja Mukkamalla have scored 69* runs and he's just 18 years of age. The match between USA and UAE can be considered equally, because both the teams were of players with India and Pakistan origin than the natives.
In case of Saiteja Mukkamalla, he was born in Plainsboro, New Jersey. So he is a native born citizen of the United States. But the same can't be said about other players such as Shayan Jahangir, Monank Patel, Gajanand Singh and Jessy Singh. And in case of the United Arab Emirates, none of the players have citizenship of that country, and none of the them were born there. It was a very hard-fought win for the United States. They have two matches remaining, and probably need to win both the matches to qualify for the next round (2023 Cricket World Cup Qualifier). |
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I did see that advertisement not on Start sports but on social media. CSK has aggressively marketed their player, who is none but Dhoni. I also found out that he is now being called Thalanos as in Thanos from Marvel movies on social media as he has the power to conquer the IPL  . This is too much coming out from CSK but in reality, they would lose against GT tomorrow. What do you think @JSRAW @Sithara007? IMO, advantage is with Gujarat Titans. They will have the home advantage as well, as the match is scheduled to take place at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad. Chennai Super Kings is one of the legacy teams.. and they have tons of experience with them, as they have players like Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Moeen Ali, Ravindra Jadeja and Ambati Rayudu. On the other hand, GT is a very young team, led by a very young captain. I checked the odds as well, and in all of the sportsbooks GT are given better odds when compared to CSK. |
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Ball possession means nothing if you don't have someone to score a goal. Defensive players can pass the ball between them and increase the possession but it means absolutely nothing. Span is famous for having the control of the ball, but I guess there wasn't anyone to score a goal. Croatia is similar as they like to have control of the ball, but often when the chance comes, there's no one to score.
Well.. that is the point. Spain is having a very young team, and we can expect this sort of performance from them until they get settled down. But still I would say that Spain is not a dying team (unlike the case with some of the UEFA nations such as Belgium, Germany, Danmark and Netherlands). There is still a lot of talent available in Spain and most of them are of local origin (unlike some of the other countries who are overdependent on foreign-born players). Their next match is scheduled for 8th September, when they will take on Georgia. |
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Well, guys. It seems that the run of De Santis is already losing steam against Trump and he is yet to announce he is officially running for the position. What to say? DeSantis was the perfect GOP candidate for 2024. But if the party members don't approve him, then what is the point. Trump is a failed candidate. He lost the 2020 elections to Biden by a big margin. What the US need right now is some young blood, and not two 80 something guys fighting it out in the 2024 POTUS elections. BTW, why his support is going down like a falling knife? From what I can see, DeSantis has maintained a low profile during the last few months. His rapid decline in popularity is somewhat surprising. |
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Another article on the European dependence on Russian LNG: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-03-28/europe-s-gas-buyers-can-t-quit-russian-lngThe figures show that EU increased its imports of Russian LNG by 30% during 2022. Now they have a very strange situation. Previously, they used to purchase pipeline gas from Russia at $100 to $200 per thousand cubic meters. Now they are purchasing LNG from the same country, at 3x the original price. Russia is not going to complain anyway, as long as they are getting the payments. And winter was mild during 2022. I don't expect the same for 2023. If winter is harsh, then once again the gas prices will touch record levels achieved during August 2022. |
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-cut-
As to Kamala Vs Michelle (Obama)... My money would be on Kamala given her VP credentials.
Huh? If that would be true and Michelle Obama ran for precidency, Michelle would win by a landslide. In fact she could have even more votes then Barack Obama, but she won't be running. Fox news is just making stuff up as they always do. I would definitely like to see her running, but being a president is a consuming job if taken seriously. And i totally understand why she wouldn't want to take the job. I wouldn't want that job if i could just live comfortably instead without being in under constant pressure and every move being under a microscope. That sounds like hell to me. LOL... are you sure about this? There is no doubt that Barack Obama was one of the most popular presidents in the history of the United States. And he was very much qualified for that job. But what about Michelle Obama? What are her qualifications? If we take experience in to account, then Kamala Harris is ahead by a big margin. And if you are assuming that Michelle will mobilize the colored voters, then don't forget the fact that she and Kamala belong to the same racial category. The probability of Michelle Obama becoming the Democrat nominee is as large as Elon Musk becoming the nominee of the GOP. |
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To be honest Qatar World Cup was a bad experience in letting a rich country without stadiums host the world cup. They spend lots of money and invested to earn more from it but still, many workers died and many people were unhappy there because of their hosting, however, I guess this time the countries where they host the world cup will not have the same problems as Qatar in 2022.
I don't know much about Mexico, but both the United States and Canada have strict labor laws, which protects the rights of laborers. And I mentioned this before. There are a huge number of sports stadiums in these countries, and at the most they need to be renovated/refitted (but converting NFL stadiums to football is going to take a lot of time and effort). But what worries me is the worsening economic situation in the United States. The inflation is already touching double digits and a number of companies are laying off the workers. If something really bad happens, then the world cup may get impacted. |
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The Zelensky junta has asked Ukraine's Orthodox Church (UOC) to vacate the premises of their headquarters (Pechersk Lavra). Now with every passing day, the actions of the junta is looking more like a genocide and ethnocide. First they banned a language that is used as a home language by more than 80% of the population. And now they are forcibly converting the Ukrainians to foreign faiths such as Catholicism and Evangelism. At the end of this war, both the sides will be tried for war crimes. And for Ukraine, the trial is going to be a lot more problematic than it is for Russia. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65117269 |
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Rambo did follow the new policy but it was the previous administrator Wasim Khan, who did the heavy lifting and laid the groundwork in 2018-19.
Despite that, I feel Rambo messed up pretty big in a red ball and because of him, their home season (3 historical tours) tanked royally.
Well.. at least he tried. And we should acknowledge the contribution from Wasim Khan as well. Previously their 4-day competition used to be played between a mix of departmental sides (Habib Bank, WAPDA, Sui Northern Gas Pipelines.etc) and city-province based sides such as Sialkot, Karachi Blues and Rawalpindi. This If I remember it correctly, more than a dozen teams used to participate. This format was changed to a purely region-based competition, and the number of participants came down to just 6 (Balochistan, Central Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Northern, Sindh and Southern Punjab). |
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As the target is down to the average scoring, the team might've planned to score runs slowly avoiding the fall of unwanted wickets which could build pressure situation at the end overs. Maybe for that reason Harmanpreet Kaur might've wasted lots of balls. Good bowling came from the Delhi Capitals with the best economy, but they weren't able to convert the low scoring into wickets. If two more wickets have fallen Mumbai Indians Women team might've struggled more to reach the target.
Harmanpreet Kaur actually put her own team in trouble. By the time she got out, 36 runs were needed from 3.5 overs. It was left to Amelia Kerr and Nat Sciver-Brunt to score the winning runs at more than 9 runs per over. But we can say that she helped in re-building the innings after Yastika Bhatia and Hayley Matthews got out. Anyway, in the end Mumbai Indians won the match and therefore no one is going to complain about it. And Harmanpreet Kaur becomes the first captain to win the WPL. Hard luck for Delhi Capitals Women. For them, it was so close yet so far. |
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This is just absolutely uninteresting for a lot of people. Because both of the teams are absolutely made out of foreign players. Basically no native players in the team for both of them. It would have been interesting if this was a close match. But the match was not even that close. I know that ICC is expecting a lot from the USA. But the performance of the USA team basically reassures that they are not going to be having too much success. I know that Canada is a better team compared to the USA. But this was a good chance for the USA to prove themselves. Teams such as the United States of America and United Arab Emirates are given preferential treatment by the ICC. The global body tries hard to get them included in the ICC tournaments. For the 2024 T20 World Cup, the ICC has provided USA with direct qualification. But all this bias in their favor hasn't done them any good. Cricket remains almost unknown among the natives, and the performance of these two teams hasn't improved despite additional funds from the ICC and a massive influx of foreign players. |
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