Monty Panesar, the spin-bowler who once ranked among the most recognisable faces in English sport, is plotting his path towards an Ashes return later this year, starting in Dubai tomorrow.
The left-arm spinner last played for England during the opening Test against Australia in Cardiff in July, and his prospects have dwindled during his eight months in the wilderness.
Graeme Swann, Panesar's former club teammate, has risen to No 2 in the world bowling rankings since usurping him as England's first-choice spinner.
James Tredwell and Adil Rashid have also jumped the slow-bowling queue, leaving Panesar so far from the reckoning that the powers-that-be left him to his own devices this winter.
He responded by taking up an invite to play as an overseas player in South Africa, and has since had his zest for the game revived.
To add to the climate of change, he will make his debut for his new county side, Sussex Sharks, in the Emirates Airline Twenty20 at The Sevens tomorrow. And he cannot wait to get started.
"My love for the game has always been there," says Panesar, who became one of the stars of English cricket thanks to a mixture of prolific wicket-taking and enthusiastic celebrations.
"Because I love the game so much, that is why I went to South Africa. If a setback had really knocked me back I could have sat back and said, 'Right, I'm going to stay in England, ride for three or four months and when the season starts, get myself back into it'.
"But I thought to myself, 'No, I really love this game. I want to improve. I am going to go out to South Africa and expose myself to new responsibilities, and commit to the development I need to get myself back in [the England side].'
"Predominantly, I had been in games where I had played a dominant role, then suddenly you hit a brick wall. This was the first time I had experienced it.
"I thought, 'How do I deal with this?' I decided to go out there and work hard on my game."
Panesar's slide down the pecking order has been as sharp as his original ascent.
The last time England went out to Australia, there was a furore when Ashley Giles was granted the spin-bowling berth ahead of him.
When he was finally handed a start, with England already 2-0 down, he responded by taking five wickets on the opening day at the WACA in Perth.
Despite emphasising that his immediate focus is solely on proving his worth to his new county, he admits he has allowed his mind to wander.
"An Ashes winter is a long way ahead, but it is an aspiration," adds the 27-year-old spinner. "I have been there before, played at Perth and took a five-for on debut. I want to expose myself to the best players, on flat wickets where it does test your skill as a spinner."
The Luton-born bowler's lone contact with the full England side this winter was when he acted as a net bowler for them during the Johannesburg Test match.
However, he believes he benefited from the time away from the system, as he adds: "That was part of the reason for my decision to go to South Africa.
"I was privileged to get the opportunity to be an overseas player there.
"It was a new system, new culture, new faces that you meet. You start having to take responsibility for your own development.
"All of that learning goes into making you a better cricketer. I thought it was important that I had to go through that to understand more about myself."
Panesar has confirmed Australia's widespread suspicion that Jimmy Anderson did not, in fact, spill orange juice on his glove, to delay the death throes of last summer's Cardiff Test.
The Australians were livid at what they perceived as time-wasting tactics, as England's last-wicket pair held on to save the crucial first Ashes Test, with a little help from the 12th man. Anderson changed his gloves at the end of consecutive overs, with the captain, Andrew Strauss, later claiming it was because juice had been spilled.
When quizzed on whether the claim was true, Panesar said yesterday: "No, not at all."
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Company name: Jaib
Started: January 2018
Co-founders: Fouad Jeryes and Sinan Taifour
Based: Jordan
Sector: FinTech
Total transactions: over $800,000 since January, 2018
Investors in Jaib's mother company Alpha Apps: Aramex and 500 Startups
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Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup – Sep 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership
Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.
Zones
A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
The biog
Hometown: Cairo
Age: 37
Favourite TV series: The Handmaid’s Tale, Black Mirror
Favourite anime series: Death Note, One Piece and Hellsing
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Gender equality in the workplace still 200 years away
It will take centuries to achieve gender parity in workplaces around the globe, according to a December report from the World Economic Forum.
The WEF study said there had been some improvements in wage equality in 2018 compared to 2017, when the global gender gap widened for the first time in a decade.
But it warned that these were offset by declining representation of women in politics, coupled with greater inequality in their access to health and education.
At current rates, the global gender gap across a range of areas will not close for another 108 years, while it is expected to take 202 years to close the workplace gap, WEF found.
The Geneva-based organisation's annual report tracked disparities between the sexes in 149 countries across four areas: education, health, economic opportunity and political empowerment.
After years of advances in education, health and political representation, women registered setbacks in all three areas this year, WEF said.
Only in the area of economic opportunity did the gender gap narrow somewhat, although there is not much to celebrate, with the global wage gap narrowing to nearly 51 per cent.
And the number of women in leadership roles has risen to 34 per cent globally, WEF said.
At the same time, the report showed there are now proportionately fewer women than men participating in the workforce, suggesting that automation is having a disproportionate impact on jobs traditionally performed by women.
And women are significantly under-represented in growing areas of employment that require science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills, WEF said.
* Agence France Presse
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