To walk or not in era of video technology is talk of fans

NEW DELHI // To walk or not to walk? The big question at the World Cup has been debated since the contrasting attitudes involving cricket's two most prolific batsmen emerged at the weekend.

There has been nothing pedestrian about the criticism of Ricky Ponting, the Australia captain who stood his ground until he was given out on a television umpire's review despite knowing he had got a thick edge to Kamran Akmal, the Pakistan wicketkeeper, in Colombo on Saturday.

Commentators and fans rushed to praise Sachin Tendulkar for deciding to walk in a caught-behind situation even when an umpire had ruled him not out six balls into his 450th limited-overs international. Headlines in Monday's Times of India newspaper read: "Sachin Tendulkar puts integrity above quest for 100th ton."

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More

• World Cup may be most dramatic ever: ICC chief
• World Cup chagrin can be making of Shakib Al Hasan
• How the teams fared
• Sachin Tendulkar walking is a stark contrast to Ricky Ponting
• Kamran Akmal, best friend of every batsman and rival of Pakistan
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The Deccan Herald described Tendulkar as a true gentleman and described his decision as "Walking tall on the cricketing pitch."

India ultimately won comfortably against the West Indies at Chennai. That set up a quarter-final between Tendulkar's India and Ponting's Australia, the three-time defending champions, sharpening the focus on the senior statesmen of each team.

Tendulkar is admired for his sublime skill and unwaveringly calm demeanour.

Ponting has earned grudging respect for a hard-nosed approach that has made him one of Australia's most successful players and captains.

Ponting has never been what is known in cricket parlance as a "walker". He believes that the lucky reprieves batsmen get when umpires err make up for the bad decisions they get at other times.

The problem is, the bad decisions are magnified these days with teams allowed to challenge calls and have them reviewed by a television umpire.

The purists uphold the values of a bygone era when players of the "gentlemen's game" adhered to unwritten rules of engagement and integrity. The hardened professionals in an increasingly cash-driven era point to the fact that not even the sport's most sacred underpinning - that the umpire's decision is final - carries weight any more.

After all, the umpire decision referral system in play at the World Cup, and in many international series these days, gives each team two chances per innings to question an umpire's call and send it for review by an official who has the benefit of video replay technology.

"It's nice to see people walking but that doesn't happen now I guess," Waqar Younis, the Pakistan coach and ex-fast bowler, said at the weekend. "There is a system in place now so that you can't get away with it. I mean people still take chances and why not?"

What the law says

Micro-retirement is not a recognised concept or employment status under Federal Decree Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Labour Relations (as amended) (UAE Labour Law). As such, it reflects a voluntary work-life balance practice, rather than a recognised legal employment category, according to Dilini Loku, senior associate for law firm Gateley Middle East.

“Some companies may offer formal sabbatical policies or career break programmes; however, beyond such arrangements, there is no automatic right or statutory entitlement to extended breaks,” she explains.

“Any leave taken beyond statutory entitlements, such as annual leave, is typically regarded as unpaid leave in accordance with Article 33 of the UAE Labour Law. While employees may legally take unpaid leave, such requests are subject to the employer’s discretion and require approval.”

If an employee resigns to pursue micro-retirement, the employment contract is terminated, and the employer is under no legal obligation to rehire the employee in the future unless specific contractual agreements are in place (such as return-to-work arrangements), which are generally uncommon, Ms Loku adds.

Key changes

Commission caps

For life insurance products with a savings component, Peter Hodgins of Clyde & Co said different caps apply to the saving and protection elements:

• For the saving component, a cap of 4.5 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 90 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).

• On the protection component, there is a cap of 10 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 160 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).

• Indemnity commission, the amount of commission that can be advanced to a product salesperson, can be 50 per cent of the annualised premium for the first year or 50 per cent of the total commissions on the policy calculated.

• The remaining commission after deduction of the indemnity commission is paid equally over the premium payment term.

• For pure protection products, which only offer a life insurance component, the maximum commission will be 10 per cent of the annualised premium multiplied by the length of the policy in years.

Disclosure

Customers must now be provided with a full illustration of the product they are buying to ensure they understand the potential returns on savings products as well as the effects of any charges. There is also a “free-look” period of 30 days, where insurers must provide a full refund if the buyer wishes to cancel the policy.

“The illustration should provide for at least two scenarios to illustrate the performance of the product,” said Mr Hodgins. “All illustrations are required to be signed by the customer.”

Another illustration must outline surrender charges to ensure they understand the costs of exiting a fixed-term product early.

Illustrations must also be kept updatedand insurers must provide information on the top five investment funds available annually, including at least five years' performance data.

“This may be segregated based on the risk appetite of the customer (in which case, the top five funds for each segment must be provided),” said Mr Hodgins.

Product providers must also disclose the ratio of protection benefit to savings benefits. If a protection benefit ratio is less than 10 per cent "the product must carry a warning stating that it has limited or no protection benefit" Mr Hodgins added.

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Our legal advisor

Ahmad El Sayed is Senior Associate at Charles Russell Speechlys, a law firm headquartered in London with offices in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Hong Kong.

Experience: Commercial litigator who has assisted clients with overseas judgments before UAE courts. His specialties are cases related to banking, real estate, shareholder disputes, company liquidations and criminal matters as well as employment related litigation.

Education: Sagesse University, Beirut, Lebanon, in 2005.

Company profile

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