COOLUM, AUSTRALIA // With all the usual hype of the forthcoming Ashes series with England, the Australia captain Ricky Ponting and vice captain Michael Clarke are careful not to diminish the importance of a two-Test series in India.
"We have to make sure we don't get too Ashes-focused," Ponting said Monday at a team camp north of Brisbane.
Australia plays on the subcontinent in Mohali beginning October 1 and Bangalore from October 9, along with three limited-overs matches later in the month at Kochi, Vishakapatnam and Goa.
"It's important to beat them, a rivalry is a rivalry, and they are the No 1 team in the world," Ponting added. "You have to judge yourself by them."
Clarke also said it was important that his side stay focused on the India series.
"I know it's the old cliche, but my experience from Test cricket is as soon as you take your eye off the ball, that rusty gate comes back and hits you in the face.
"I think it's really crucial ... playing India anywhere in the world is very tough, let alone playing them in their own conditions."
Ponting admitted there has been animosity between the sides in the past.
"They've got a few prickly characters that have sort of got under our skin a little bit, but we have to get over all that stuff," he said. "When things like that happen, it makes everyone else just want to beat them, there is more motivation. But really, it's all buried, done and dusted."
Ponting said any security concerns over playing in India will be handled by Cricket Australia and its staff.
"We will rely on what the experts have to say and trust their judgment," Ponting said, adding that a pre-tour visit will be conducted by security staff to check out hotels and venues.
The Commonwealth Games will be held in New Delhi from October 3-14. There have been heightened security concerns in India since terror attacks in 2008 left 166 people dead in Mumbai.
Clarke has mostly pleasant recollections of India, particularly Bangalore, where he played his first Test for Australia on October 6, 2004.
"Good memories ... scored 151," Clarke said. "Not bad, I'll take it."
Clarke went on to play a major part in his team's 2-1 series victory, Australia's first in India in over 30 years.
He remembers Bangalore as "one of the loudest places" he has toured.
"We had a one-day match there and Ricky (Ponting) was five metres away, screaming at the top of his lungs," Clarke said. "I couldn't hear a word he was saying."
Meanwhile Australia have appointed former skipper Greg Chappell as its first full-time national selector following criticism of the selection panel's part-time devotion to their roles.
Calls for Cricket Australia (CA) to make at least one selector full-time escalated in the wake of Australia's Ashes loss to England last year, when the panel was derided for failing to pick a spin bowler in the decisive fifth Test at The Oval.
Local media have long perceived conflicts of interest in the panel, which is chaired by lawyer Andrew Hilditch and includes Jamie Cox and David Boon, both of whom retain cricket roles at state level.
The panel's other member, former fast bowler Merv Hughes, has been ridiculed for running overseas tour groups while acting as a selector.
* Agencies
if you go
The flights
Flydubai offers three daily direct flights to Sarajevo and, from June, a daily flight from Thessaloniki from Dubai. A return flight costs from Dhs1,905 including taxes.
The trip
The Travel Scientists are the organisers of the Balkan Ride and several other rallies around the world. The 2018 running of this particular adventure will take place from August 3-11, once again starting in Sarajevo and ending a week later in Thessaloniki. If you’re driving your own vehicle, then entry start from €880 (Dhs 3,900) per person including all accommodation along the route. Contact the Travel Scientists if you wish to hire one of their vehicles.
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Starring: Taron Egerton, Richard Madden, Jamie Bell
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Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
if you go
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
Start-up hopes to end Japan's love affair with cash
Across most of Asia, people pay for taxi rides, restaurant meals and merchandise with smartphone-readable barcodes — except in Japan, where cash still rules. Now, as the country’s biggest web companies race to dominate the payments market, one Tokyo-based startup says it has a fighting chance to win with its QR app.
Origami had a head start when it introduced a QR-code payment service in late 2015 and has since signed up fast-food chain KFC, Tokyo’s largest cab company Nihon Kotsu and convenience store operator Lawson. The company raised $66 million in September to expand nationwide and plans to more than double its staff of about 100 employees, says founder Yoshiki Yasui.
Origami is betting that stores, which until now relied on direct mail and email newsletters, will pay for the ability to reach customers on their smartphones. For example, a hair salon using Origami’s payment app would be able to send a message to past customers with a coupon for their next haircut.
Quick Response codes, the dotted squares that can be read by smartphone cameras, were invented in the 1990s by a unit of Toyota Motor to track automotive parts. But when the Japanese pioneered digital payments almost two decades ago with contactless cards for train fares, they chose the so-called near-field communications technology. The high cost of rolling out NFC payments, convenient ATMs and a culture where lost wallets are often returned have all been cited as reasons why cash remains king in the archipelago. In China, however, QR codes dominate.
Cashless payments, which includes credit cards, accounted for just 20 per cent of total consumer spending in Japan during 2016, compared with 60 per cent in China and 89 per cent in South Korea, according to a report by the Bank of Japan.
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
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Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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