That nice old lady in the big house at Windsor turns 80 today. Happy birthday, Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor.
Despite the fact that I believe it is highly inappropriate for her to be the sovereign head of state of Australia, she is by far the nicest member of her family and I wish her good health and many happy returns.
...they let Jason Gillespie score a double century.
"...the most useful source of inspiration comes from established blogs such as Rick Eyre's"
- Alistair McLellan, "How to be a Cricket Blogger", Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 2006
My copy of the 143rd Wisden arrived by Australia Post courier this morning, having pre-ordered it from Amazon.co.uk when it was on 55% discount. First port of call was the "Cricket on the Internet" feature.
This year, Alistair McLellan did a piece on blogs relating to cricket. I did a phone interview with Alistair last year during one of the Ashes Tests when he was researching his article, and I know that he contacted a few other regular cricket bloggers, including some of you reading this.
The article appears on pages 1569 and 1570 of the hardcover edition. I won't dissect the piece now, but at the end he does give the URLs of eight blogs which he recommends as showing "signs of both permanence and quality". One of these has gone off-line since the time of writing!
The 2006 Wisden is a mere 1600 pages in length and I'll review it over the next few days, probably in instalments. (My one previous review of Wisden, of the 2003 Tim de Lisle edition, can be found here.)
Dizzy!
Jason Gillespie, 102 not out in a Test innings for Australia. Yes, it's against Bangladesh, you've got a problem with that?
He's done what Dennis Lillee, Merv Hughes, Geoff Lawson, Paul Reiffel, Damien Fleming, Brett Lee and other fast bowlers before him have failed to do since Ray Lindwall in 1955... break the 80 barrier and score a Test match ton.
An extraordinary situation in Chittagong on Sunday when police used excessive force to stop a press photographer from entering a cricket arena, followed with a sit-down protest by his colleagues on the pitch, delaying the start of the match between Bangladesh and Australia. This, followed by further clashes between the police and the journalists, putting one reporter in hospital in a coma.
I'm covering this story extensively in my cricket blog. If you're interested in this rather unlikely attack on the working media, I'll see you there.
Those policemen failed to demonstrate any understanding of the journalists' job. The latter have to keep pace with events and, as such, cannot afford to lose time. The job is demanding and it is always expected that those in charge of security will cooperate with the newsmen. But what we observed in Chittagong was the complete abandoning of the age-old practice of controlling a situation with courtesy and tactful persuasion; mind you, journalists were not armed, the police were, calling for sobriety on the part of the latter.
- from the Editorial, The Daily Star, 18.4.06
Plenty of coverage in Bangladesh's leading English-language newspaper today of the aftermath to Sunday's extraordinary clash between police and journalists at the Chittagong Divisional Stadium on the first day of the Second Test against Australia.
In Dhaka there were sit-down protests by members of the various press associations, with a four-hour stoppage planned for Wednesday unless policemen involved in Sunday's altercation are arrested and dismissed. Journalists all round the country took part in protest demonstrations on Monday - here is a roundup.
Meanwhile, the local media's boycott of the Test match continued yesterday, although there was little play to report because of the weather. Late Monday night the journalists decided to continue their boycott into the third day's play on Tuesday. Bangladesh Cricket Board officials and the venue co-ordinator met with the journalists yesterday and agreed to compensate for medical expenses and destroyed cameras.
The BCB delegation did not include Board president Ali Asghar. Rather than be in attendance at a home Test match against the world's number-one side, Asghar is in Abu Dhabi to watch the India v Pakistan series! Priorities, eh?
It looks like the conflict between the Chittagong police and the Bangladesh sports writers may be heading to a speedy and favourable solution.
Reuters are quoting the inspector-general of Bangladesh police as saying that one police officer involved in the fracas at Divisional Stadium on Sunday has been recalled to Dhaka to face an inquiry, while another officer has been suspended.
According to Reuters, the police force regrets the incident and is offering to pay compensation for medical expenses and damaged tools of trade incurred by the journalists.
The Bangladesh Sports Writers Association is yet to declare its response. About three hundred media people protested in the streets of Dhaka today.
Anurup Titu, a reporter from the Daily Purbokon, is said to remain unconscious in hospital as the result of serious head injuries incurred during Sunday's altercation with police.
Oh, and there was a game of cricket on today, in between the rain. Australia is 151 for 2 at stumps on Day Two in reply to Bangladesh's first innings of 197, and Ricky Ponting has been fined 25 per cent of the mythical "match fee" for a Level One breach of the ICC Code of Conduct on Sunday.
So now we know. Sunday's altercation between police and journalists at the Chittagong Divisional Stadium was the fault of the Bangladesh Government, according to opposition leader Sheikh Hasina.
Hasina, leader of the Awami League and former Prime Minister of Bangladesh, issued a statement on Monday remarking that "the BNP-Jamaat alliance government have revealed their true ugly face before the world as a torturer of journalists."
Hasina's complete statement, as posted on the Awami League website, reads:
Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament and Awami League president Sheikh Hasina has sternly denounced the barbaric police attack on the journalists who were covering the test match between Bangladesh and Australia cricket teams Sunday.
In a statement on Sunday, she said the BNP-Jamaat alliance government have revealed their true ugly face before the world as a torturer of journalists.
Sheikh Hasina said our journalists have a bright and appreciable role in shaping the current glorious image of our cricket before the world.
Specially, they played a key role in forming public opinion in favour of achieving the test status.
But the present government do not recognize the least of the journalists' contribution in the game rather have insulted them before the foreign guests with clubbing.
Government have harmed the image of our country by this brutality, Sheikh Hasina remarked recounting that 14 journalists have been killed and about 2,500 others injured in the tenure of the present government.
She expressed her condolences to the injured journalists and sought their quick recovery.
More reports on Sunday's fracas from the New Nation and CricBD.com, which has a series of photographs of the second incident.
Agency reports quote match referee Jeff Crowe as saying that the ICC will be "doing its best to ensure the safety of the Australian team". Err hello, how were the players in danger from this fracas? And does the ICC have any plans to do its best to ensure the safety of the Bangladesh team?
Not to mention ensuring a safe working envirionment for journalists and other members of the workforce at the Divisional Stadium...
For the record, here is Reporters sans Frontieres' profile for Bangladesh, which was ranked 151st out of 167 countries listed on the RSF Worldwide Press Freedom Index for 2005.
Local journalists stage a protest sit-in on the Divisional Stadium pitch, Day One of the Chittagong Test v Australia, 16.4.06
Today's Daily Star publishes a press release, translated from Bengali to English, issued by the Chittagong Police Commissioner's office regarding yesterday's fracas at the Test. I present the translated release here as published:
It is for everybody's information that on the 16th of April, 2006 just before the start (9.45am) of the second Test between Bangladesh and Australia at the Divisional Stadium a person travelling on a CNG-driven three-wheeler and claiming himself a journalist without presenting any valid identity card tried to forcefully enter through the main gate where security personnel were carrying out vehicle checking and ensuring entry control. When the on-duty force requested him not to enter with the CNG taxi the person claiming to be journalist called the police names and at one stage he tried to pull the on-duty sergeant by his uniform towards the media box. This created an altercation between both parties. It was later found that the claimed to be journalist's name was Tinku. He claimed himself to be the photographer of Prothom Alo. That journalist without bringing this matter to the higher officials' notice entered the playing field along with a few journalists and threatened to spoil the international match and forcefully sat on the cricket pitch.
At this stage the high officials of police and BCB leaders tried to quell them and requested them to leave the field. The officials assured them that the matter would be solved with the presence of all parties during the lunch break. For that the international cricket match started 12 minutes late.
During the lunch break (12.45) the higher authority and BCB officials went near the media centre. Then that journalist along with other journalists misbehaved with police and BCB officials and reentered the ground from the media centre. After police high-ups and BCB officials requested them not to spoil the match by entering the ground those journalists physically assaulted them. When they again entered the playing field to spoil the match on-duty police compelled them to leave the ground for the sake of restoring law and order.
At that time when they scrambled out of the ground a couple of journalists got slightly injured.
Then they illegally entered the rooms of match referee and ESPN to create pressure to stop the match. The match referee ignoring them started the match. By the grace of the Almighty and with everyone's cooperation the match could be resumed despite delay. Such activities by a handful of people severely damaged the country's image. Everybody is requested to shun such unwanted activities for the smooth holding of the match and security of the players.
- Source: The Daily Star, 17.4.06