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Why go
ball-istic? OLD GAME: Players have been known to tamper with the ball long before Shahid Afridi’s expose Fitness
mantra Smaller workouts suit time-constrained fitness freaks
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There’s nothing new about ball tampering. Only now you get to see it all on camera, writes
K. Datta So what if Shahid Afridi was found guilty of ball tampering. All teams do it. As for Pakistan, well, it is standard operating procedure, as former captain Rameez Raja has gone on record while describing Afridi’s act as indefensible. Pleading guilty after he was caught in the act at the Western Australia Cricket Association ground (WACA) in Perth in the last One-Day International against Australia, the capricious Pakistani captain blurted out a secret which the whole world of cricket was always aware of: that all teams have been guilty of changing the condition of the ball by illegal means. In fact, people had been known to tamper with the state of the ball long before Afridi was born, in times when cameras on cricket grounds were unheard of. They were placed only in busy departmental stores to detect thieving customers.
In these technologically advanced times, you have to be unimaginably stupid to believe all those cameras will not catch you in the act of attempting to dig your teeth into the ball, which is what Afridi actually did, though he later wanted the world to believe he was only smelling it. With 27 cameras placed at vantage points all over the famous WACA ground, he had to be caught. What he did was too brazen to escape notice and inevitable censure. Nothing could have been more crass than actually chewing a dirty cricket ball. What he was seen doing in fact showed the game of cricket itself in squalid light. Watching it all on the TV in her drawing room in Delhi, a horrified elderly lady wondered if the player’s mother had ever taught him basic hygiene. “Hai, hai! kitna ganda kaam kar raha hai ye aadmi,” she could not help remarking. To her, and, I imagine, countless others like her, the use of saliva and sweat to shine the ball was repulsive enough, but to see a man actually biting a filthy little leather spheroid, of all things, was nauseating. All because the man was desperate to win a game of cricket for his country, which, incidentally, he lost. What some people will not hesitate to do to somehow win a match!
Come to think of it, the practice of ball tampering has a long, controversial history. There are several ways, legitimate and illegal, covert and overt, in which the condition of a cricket ball can be tampered with. Polishing the ball on the flannels (who does the washing, the aforementioned elderly lady may well ask) and the use of spit and sweat are legally permissible. But changing the state of the ball by rubbing it on the ground or by any other means like scraping it with bottle tops, razor blades or any other such implement is prohibited by the laws of the game. There have also been cases of cricketers being exposed for covertly using sandpaper or loose dirt carried in the flannel of the pockets to roughen a part of the ball. Then there are those who use their fingernails to lift the seam.
Cricket balls, with one segment shining and another rubbed, when sent down by quick bowlers, can, it is believed, swing to the disadvantage of batsmen facing the missiles at the other end of the pitch. The laws of physics are also believed to play their part. Bowlers like the controversial Sarfraz Nawaz had developed such a mastery of the art that he came to be known as the original “sultan” of swing. Seeing him, others followed. Going by what Raja has to say, ball tampering is seen as no sin by generations of cricketers with a Pakistani upbringing. This is not the first time that Pakistan have figured in a ball-tampering row. The 2006 Oval Test, which resulted in Inzamam-ul-Haq’s team forfeiting the match, still rankles. Recalling John Lever and what came to be known as the “vaseline” affair on the 1976-77 England tour of India, ball tampering must have been cunningly and surreptitiously practised in English county cricket even before the gangling Sarfraz perfected his art. Lever applied vaseline over his eyebrows on the pretext of preventing perspiration running into his eyes. Cleverly, he would use that petroleum product to polish the ball, an unfair practice the then Indian captain Bishan Singh Bedi rightly objected to, even if it was later to jeopardise his own contract in
county cricket. But no act of ball tampering could be more unsavoury than Afridi’s chewing episode at Perth. With the trouble that Pakistan cricket is already facing after the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team at Lahore, it could have done without the kind of dubious history that has been created by Afridi, otherwise a talented all-rounder, an explosive striker of the ball and a useful bowler of
leg-breaks. Meanwhile, the old debate that ball tampering should be legalised has been revived. Those in favour of legalising it say that the game is heavily tilted in the batsman’s favour. Then there is this school of thought that, like it or not, believes it is a batsman’s game. There is a third view that too much is being made of ball tampering. It doesn’t make much of difference, say those who hold this view. So, don’t meddle with the laws of the game. |
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Fitness
mantra
Know your source: Foods in general contain two types of fats — visible and invisible fats. Visible fats are used for frying or adding to foods. These are: (1) vegetable fats/oils such as groundnut, mustard, rice bran, safflower, sunflower, soya bean, coconut, corn, cottonseed, and hydrogenated vegetable oils (vanaspati); (2) animal fats such as butter and ghee; and (3) fish oils. Invisible fats are those fats that are not visible but are part of foods. These are: (1) Plant foods such as cereals, pulses, vegetables, spices, nuts and oilseeds, fruits and coconut. (2) Animal foods such as curd, cheese, cream, mutton chicken, beef, pork, fish and organ meats like brain, liver, kidney. Now, fats and oils can be classified as:
Trans-fats: Traditional ghee has been the favourite choice in Indian cooking for its excellent flavour and long shelf life. Trans-fats were first designed to imitate ghee. Vanaspati (dalda) is produced in our country by the hydrogenation of vegetable oils. Trans-fats not only increase Low Density Lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL), which is bad cholesterol but also decrease the High Density Lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) which is good cholesterol. Trans-fats are commonly used in most restaurants, fast food chains, commercial baked foods and Indian sweets and savouries. The food industry uses trans-fats as they are cheaper and known to impart a longer shelf life to the food products. Therefore, eliminating trans-foods from the diet is very important to prevent cardiovascular disease. Read food levels carefully and avoid foods which mention trans-fats. Cholesterol: Cholesterol is a word we come across very often in advertisements of fats and oils in relation to heart disease, vascular disorders and high BP. It is required by the human body for the making of certain hormones and bile salts in our body. Excess intake of foods containing cholesterol is bad. Cholesterol is obtained from ghee, butter, cheese, whole milk, curd, egg, organ meats, fish and prawns. It is synthesised in our body by the liver. The normal blood level of cholesterol is 150 to 175 mg/dl of blood. However, this level is affected by excess dietary intake of cholesterol rich foods. Therefore, it is best to keep the cholesterol intake as low as possible. How much fat do we need? An adult Indian male consuming 2400 kcal require a minimum of 40g fat (15 per cent calories). Our diet, which is cereal-based, about 20g is obtained as invisible fat. Therefore, a daily intake of 20g or 4 tsp of visible fat is needed. If the visible fat intake is more than 10 tsp (50g) per day, it increases the risk of atherosclerosis. Why to avoid fried food items? Some people are very much fond of eating fried foods like samosa, pakodas but never know the type of fat used for frying. It is mostly dalda. Most of the shopkeepers use the same fat repeatedly for frying, which is highly rancid and produces toxic substances that can increase blood cholesterol and promote atherosclerosis. Recent international dietary guidelines: The American Heart Association (AHA) recommended that the ratio of SFA: MUFA: PUFA as per AHA is 1:1:1 Choice of cooking medium: It should be either of the following: Omega-6 content oils like groundnut oil, sesame oil or rice bran oil. Rice bran oil has an additional advantage having balanced fatty acid composition and an ideal Omega-6/Omega-3 ratio and also contains natural anti-oxidants. Soya bean oil (containing both Omega-6 & Omega-3) in combination with mustard oil in approximately equal proportions should be consumed. Mustard oil (Omega-3) or olive oil along with sunflower oil and safflower oil should be consumed. It is strongly recommended that more than one source of cooking oil should be used in every household. Ways to ensure the right quality and quantity of fats:
The use mustard oil or soyabean oil along with rice bran oil will help achieve the 1.1.1 ratio
There are various fat substitutes available in the market nowadays. Read label carefully for trans-fats. Regular exercise can improve lipid transport agents in the blood. It keeps body fat low. The writer is assistant dietician in
the Department of Dietetics, PGI |
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Smaller workouts suit time-constrained fitness freaks Instead of demanding that clients pound the treadmill for an hour at a time, some fitness experts have created short, swift workouts for the busy and the
bored. "People just don't have as much time anymore," says fitness expert and trainer Amy Bento. "More people are trying to survive the economy with multiple jobs." The American Council on Exercise has listed shorter, more intense workouts among the top exercise trends for 2010, as consumers approach fitness with time and money in mind. Taking aim at the time-challenged and the easily bored alike are DVDs offering fitness in 10-minute morsels. Bento's "10 Minute Solution: 5 Day Get Fit Mix" delivers five 10-minute bursts of cardiovascular, resistance training and stretching through a mix of kickboxing, aerobics, light weights
and yoga. "We tried to put together a mix of activities that are necessary for a well-rounded fitness programme in a user-friendly format," says Bento. "You can do whatever fits your needs". Of course, fitness takes more than 10 minutes. The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and the American Heart Association say at least 30 minutes of exercise five to six days a week is required for fitness, and one hour five to six days a week for weight loss".You need to string together the workouts," Bento says. "Say, kickboxing for 10 minutes, and then yoga for 10 for stretching, or abs. We break it up to keep people interested. Also, if you only have 10 minutes in the morning, you can come back at night and do another 20," she adds. To date, there are 25 "10 Minute Solution" DVDs, with workouts ranging from Latin dance mix, to boot camp to pilates. Bento, who has been teaching fitness for more than 20 years, has done four of them.
"Any fitness level can do any of these DVDs," she says. "If you're a beginner you can build your stamina to go through each workout. And it's only 10 minutes." But Dr Philip S. Clifford, an expert with ACSM, questions whether the 10-minute concept is demanding enough. "Exercising in short spurts may be an effective way for some people to fit exercise into their busy schedules," says Clifford, a professor of anaesthesiology and physiology at the Medical College of Wisconsin. "My concern is that it seems easier to skip a 10-minute segment or two in a busy schedule," Clifford explains. "There is no way that 10 minutes of aerobic exercise is adequate for maintaining cardiovascular fitness or aiding in weight loss". He thinks exercise by DVD has its limitations. "The intensity of exercise may vary dramatically from person to person, even using the same video," he says. Clifford says while it doesn't matter whether you work out in a single session or several short ones, the latter might be more difficult to maintain. "Although I have no published data to support this statement, I would contend that an individual is more likely to maintain a regular workout routine if a single workout period is scheduled into their day". But, of course, no workout is effective if you don't do it. "Fitness should be fun or you're not going to do it," says Bento. "Variety is the key, the spice of life. A cliche but it's true".
— Reuters Life! |
There’s nothing new about ball tampering. Only now you get to see it all on camera, writes
K. Datta
Many of us think that fats and oils are harmful components in food but they are an important part of a healthy diet and are needed in a calculated amount. They play vital roles in our body as they provide the maximum energy (1gm of oil provide 9 kcal of energy). They insulate our body and protect our organs, such as the kidneys, from injury. They are also necessary for the absorption of Vitamins A, D, E, and K. 
Long work hours and short attention spans are driving more people to take to exercise in smaller, meatier doses.