Will Australia blink at Cricket World Cup this week?: The Cricket Pod

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This week on The Cricket Pod, journalist and broadcaster Brian Murgatroyd talks in depth about Australia's upcoming Cricket World Cup matches against England and New Zealand.

With the sport's flagship tournament past the halfway mark and semi-final spots still far from guaranteed, this week's key clashes will almost certainly give the winners a big boost while setting back the losers.

Data analysis continues to make inroads but still a 'long way' to go

The defending champions will be severely tested. But Murgatroyd, who previously worked as media manager with Cricket Australia, has little doubt they are being well prepared by two of the toughest characters in the game - head coach Justin Langer and batting coach Ricky Ponting, former batting stalwarts he was associated with at a time when Australia were dominating the cricket landscape.

Meanwhile, Murgatroyd predicts who will reach the last four at the tournament.

Also in this episode:

Co-hosts Paul Radley and Chitrabhanu Kadalayil discuss the best of the rest: what next for South Africa; has Sri Lanka fast bowler Lasith Malinga proved skills indeed trump his "six pack"; and what to make of the latest heated debate over the contraction of the 2019 World Cup?
Kadalayil provides his take on why low-scoring matches make for more exciting cricket.

Aaron Finch and his Australian teammates are preparing for tough fixtures this week. Paul Childs / Reuters

Sole survivors

Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.

Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.

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Living in...

This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.

Electric scooters: some rules to remember

Riders must be 14-years-old or over
Wear a protective helmet
Park the electric scooter in designated parking lots (if any)
Do not leave electric scooter in locations that obstruct traffic or pedestrians
Solo riders only, no passengers allowed
Do not drive outside designated lanes

ELIO

Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett

Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina

Rating: 4/5