A day at Razzakabad

From last two weeks, a friend of mine was asking me to join Soar team at razzakabad camp but for some reason or the other I couldn’t join them but on Thursday I actually made it and I am glad that I went there.

The day didn’t start well as I waited for like 20 minutes in a really hot weather waiting for the SOL bus to pick me but as I step in the bus, I really loved the atmosphere; even though I met these people for the first time but there was peace and love and everyone was there with entirely pure intentions of doing something for the flood victims.

When we reached Razzakabad, I saw like around 3 dozen people surrounding our bus and saying Salam to us with great love (shows how well Soar Team have worked there); At that moment I was a bit confused and was trying to figure out what actually am I required to do but somehow soon I found myself working and enjoying with the kids.

We started with kites flying for boys and mehndi (heena) for girls and at that time it was like crazy atmosphere there, they were like 1000 children in those camps and at least at least we had 600 children around us who wanted to fly kites and apply mehndi on their hands but again Soar team did a really good job, we tried making lines and distributing kites to boys and the girls in our team did some excellent job with mehndi thing. Those kids lived every bit of it which I guess was our intention. It wasn’t like a real perfect thing because some children didn’t get to fly kites as after some time, spools were finished but I believe that the job was done pretty good. Oh! I forgot to mention even uncles of all ages, believe me even uncles with age of 50 or 60 joined us to fly the kites; but the best part was the lovely smile on the faces of these children when they saw their kites flying in the air...

As the distribution finished we jumped in the bus and travelled near the entrance to relax but I was surprised to see the team standing up again in just around 10-15 minutes to set up a “Mela” for these people. People were called in the bus one by one and were given stuff (shoes, jewellery, chocolates, and toys) to sell to other IDPs. The stuff was given to them free, however they were required to share half of their revenue with us and keep the other half with them. I really liked this idea as there was no cost to setup a stall and IDPs were earning with pure hard work; also the price for each item was decided by Soar team.

We’ll be going Inshallah again on 2nd day of Eid, I hope we can again bring smile on the faces of these children again...

News of the World are yet to come with something concrete..

NOW reports that they now have a concrete evidence against Majeed and the three players which proves that the video was made before the match. The proof is basically the date of emails which were exchanged between Mahmood the reporter and NOW’s Editor Colin Myler.

The evidence didn’t convince many people especially who have used MS Outlook Express in exchanging emails, but however it was good enough to convince Pakistan High Commissioner (PHC) to change his stance regarding the 3 players. PHC said “Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, the three players at the centre of the controversy, may have been the victims of a set-up.” He said they are innocent until proven guilty. But his recent statement was a little different and so was his stance, Wajid Shamsul Hasan- PHC believes that if the allegations are proved correct, all three should be issued with a "most draconian penalty” – cricinfo

I have on purpose mentioned MS Outlook above because while researching on Google I came up with a very interesting piece of article which shows how one can change the date of an email with just 9 steps, it can be changed to future as well as previous date.

By changing the dates on your computer, you can also most likely change the date and time of your emails in a client-based email software, like Outlook. However, you must ensure that the computer is not connected to an internet time server. Also, this only works if you are using POP and SMTP for accessing and sending emails.

Assuming you use a local email client like Outlook or Outlook Express in Windows, here is how to change your computer’s time, and subsequently the time stamp on your email.

1. At the bottom right corner of your taskbar, right-click on the clock.

2. Click Time and Date Properties.

3. The clock settings tab should be the first tab. If not, then click the tab for adjusting the current time.

4. Set the date that you want your email to indicate.

5. Set the time with which you want your email to appear as being sent.

6. Click Apply.

7. Next, you will need to disable automatic synchronization with an Internet Time server. Look for the Advanced tab, and make sure the box with the synchronization with Internet Time server is unchecked.

8. Double-check the current date and time if has not automatically been synchronized to the Internet Time server.

9. Double-check the time zone. If you intend for the recipient of the email to see a certain date and time, you might want to switch your time zone to a setting similar to your email correspondent. After setting this, re-check your current time settings, as it might change due to time zone changes.

Once you’ve changed the time settings on your operating system, you should now proceed to writing an email message on Outlook or Outlook express. Note that some email services will indicate the time at which a message is received, rather than the “sent” timestamp from the sender’s side. Some examples include Gmail gmail.com. However, most local mail clients like Outlook and Outlook express will display the time according to the sender’s computer.

This is how easily you can change the time/date of your emails, I think NOW are yet to come up with some concrete evidence against the 3 Pakistani players, and I hope that somehow PHC reads this article so he can once again start supporting our players when they need us the most..

Hammad Bawany

Pakistan's match fixing scandal? Maybe its all a drama..

Have you ever wondered maybe it’s all a controversy? Today while reading blogs and article I came up with some really good facts which are not very convincing though but have certainly put me in favor of our team; previously if I was in a situation where I believed that our team players were the culprit in the ratio of 80:20, today I believe its 20:80.

The major question which I have been asking everyone since the start of this controversy and is already mentioned in previous article is that why the video showing Majeed taking the money was delayed? Since the no balls were bowled on 25th August 2010 and if the story is true and not a conspiracy then they must have this video before the start of the first day of the match like maybe by 23rd August 2010 or 24th August 2010; so why wasn’t the video released or why didn’t they arrest the guy Majeed then? How can we believe a video which gets released on 28th August 2010 shows facts about 25th August 2010, we cannot purely rely on this fact but this point should definitely be considered.

Now lets view the picture of Salman Butt standing with fixer and the reporter

Some important points to consider…

• Why would someone take a photograph with a betting syndicate and the fixer? Its only if he wants to get caught, and I dont think Salman Butt is so stupid.

• Even if they are photograph together why is Salman Butt standing infront? Why wouldn’t he stand with them, why a step forward?

• Now see the shoulder of Salman Butt, there are curves there, compare it with Majeed’s shoulder and the reporter’s shoulder they are straight. If I am not wrong jackets shoulders are always straight there are no curves in there? Clearly, showing that the person editing this photograph wasn’t very good in merging 2 pictures together.

• The left arm of the jacket/coat which Salman Butt is wearing is so straight, in real its not look like this. Check the yellow line on the left arm of the Salman Butt in the photograph below:

If you are still don’t believe, let’s believe it is true for a while, this picture can be take on some kind of party, the press ‘reporter’ is there, the so called ‘fixer’ is the agent of several ‘Pakistani players’. Still it is not proving that any kind of fixing here and they are using it as an evidence?

However If you believe that facts I mentioned above are true than just try and understand this too, “If you see one cockroach in a kitchen, there is a possibility that there are dozen others, you don’t have to search entire kitchen to make your judgment” Same way if you believe that the points I mentioned above are correct and the photograph evidence they have used is a piece of crap then you can also understand that the other evidences could also be made up just to affect Pakistan’s image and its great emerging bowlers.

Now let’s move on to videos they showed us on news of the world.

Some important points to consider…

• No time is mentioned, it might be recorded after the overs or after the day.

• Whenever any bookie takes such a big amount, he never counts it & he always receives cash in the form of briefcase.

• What kind of hidden camera is this, which is just fixed in front of the so called ‘fixer’ & table? A CCTV, no because such a hidden camera can’t provide high quality result (color view) with high quality voice.

In the second Video ‘Reporter’ is giving cash to the ‘Fixer’ in the car & after this ‘Fixer’ is giving his jacket to Wahab Riaz:

• Again no date & time is mentioned.

• Majeed the Fixer is seeing in the camera & talking, shows the height of stupidity. Oh wait! More is to come

• Amazingly, reporter is giving cash to the Fixer in the car where there is light & people are walking on the road near the car.

• 3 cameras are in the car according to the video & Majeed the Fixer didn’t see even one? And he’s seeing in them. This is even more stupid

Now something which gives you a signal how corrupt media can become, just a small mistake or they might have completely fooled us.

• In the car Majeed was wearing a light blue shirt but as he walks to Umar Amin and Wahab Riaz we see that he’s now wearing a black shirt. And they have used this video as evidence.

• Also if Majeed can change his shirt, why can’t he put the money somewhere else? How does it prove that Umar Amin and Wahab Riaz are part of this?

I have started believing that it is a complete controversy against Pakistan. Like I said earlier “If you see one cockroach in a kitchen, there is a possibility that there are dozen others, you don’t have to search entire kitchen to make your judgment” think about this when you are judging this event.

If you are still not convinced please don’t blame them as traitors, wait for the final decision. That’s what all I can say to you people..

Please share your views in the comments section

Source: various blogs

Pakistan Cricket till death? A big question mark?

Today is a really sad day; I was crazily waiting to see England team fail in the first innings, hoping our bowlers will restrict them to a score of 100 or at least 150 but they didn’t. Somehow England players were able to score 450+, I argued, criticized our bowlers, criticized the captain for his awful mistakes, wasted hours and minutes just thinking and arguing about our team at the same time praising the best bowler in our line M.Amir for like 3 consecutive days but right now after reading the news, I don’t know whether they deserved all this. I mean what the hell, are we crazy people sticking right in front of the television for hours and hours waiting for England to stumble and what we hear today is there was spot fixing.

I even don’t know what to feel, I am angry as well as sad at the same time, can’t seem to understand that how can someone betray us like this, we are praying for their success, their name and what we get to see that they didn’t even care for all this stuff, what they care is about money. I don’t know if I am being impractical as there was lot of money involved and it would have been really difficult for them to say no but still man this doesn’t justify them to play with our feelings.

It’s sad man how these people shattered their respect and the trust we had in them for money. Every child who used to see M.Amir as his idol would have start hating him after today. If the allegations come out true, I wish PCB bans these players for life, I don’t care how many matches our team looses, I don’t care how desperately we would need them, just don’t want see their faces ever again.

I really wish that these allegations are not true but then there is a video tape in which a guy is telling about the no balls which Amir and Asif will bowl, and they actually do that on that same very delivery which that guy had predicted. I don’t know on what proof they had taken names of Salman Butt and Kamran Akmal but there must be something about that too, also there are 3 more unnamed players part of this controversy but no idea about their allegations was given.

Honestly I don’t know why I love this team so much that as I am progressing in writing all this anger level is deteriorating and now there are doubts coming in my mind, what if it’s a pure controversy to again attack Pakistan’s name? Like it happened in Bob Woolmer’s case, they started blaming Pakistani players for his death and then after months come up with an entirely different story? What if the video was shot after those balls had been bowled? I hope this is what had happened and we can still say “No matter Pakistan looses or wins, Pakistan Cricket till death.” I really hope…