Somerset East

China Railway Seventh Group was awarded the tender at the beginning of this year and when the project commenced, at the beginning of 2013, it was estimated that it would be complete by October 2015.Principal Economic Planner Ethel Mosojane said this at the on-going full council meeting in Francistown when she was presenting the Urban Development Committee report. She said that the project that was supposed to be at 35 percent by now is only at 19 percent owing to a few factors.

She told the council that some things that could be contributing to the delay is the moving of water, power lines, telephone lines and also the relocation of 43 residents from Somerset East to Gerald who are supposed to make way for the development of the road. “As we speak bridges are being attended to and process of relocating the residents of Somerset East to Gerald Estates is also underway as they have been consulted and most of them have signed consent forms,” she said.She added that at the moment what is going on is the evaluation of their homes so that they can be compensated to go and build at their new homes in Gerald Estates. She added that there are a few residents with whom the council is still negotiating but most of them have complied.

Meanwhile she also talked about the Gerald Estates/Shashe Mooke Road that she said was seven percent ahead of schedule and the only issues were that there are plots along the road that had to be moved to make way for the development.”The good thing about this one is that the plots have not been developed yet so the compensation process is not so complicated,” she added.Another project that Mosojane said that was of concern is the Francistown stadium, which started in 2008.

The project stopped last at 93 percent and Mosojane said that the government is now looking to terminate the contract with the company that was awarded the tender to appoint a new company to complete the project.”To terminate the contract is also a long process but that is what is happening. Then a new company will be appointed to complete the stadium,” she said.Tuwana Construction left the stadium that was supposed to be complete ahead of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, hanging and it has been that way since 2011.

Mosojane said that as the council they have also written a letter, whose response they have not yet received, to the ministry to find out what is going on with the stadium, which has become a thorn in the side of Francistown residents. In previous reports it had been stated that though the stadium was left at 93 percent the new contractor would probably have to demolish structures down to 65 percent because of poor workmanship by Tuwana Construction.

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The Obama administration has posted materials online aimed at promoting the new health-care law in schools.

The materials, offered at the Centers for Medicare Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Health Insurance Marketplace website include a resource card directing students to online materials about the Health Insurance Marketplace, as well as “What it means” fact sheets about the Affordable Care Act for school communities, students and parents and teachers, and a document on ways to promote the new health-care options in schools.

Each of the fact sheets, which appear under the “Affordable Care Act series from the Department of Education” category, offer basic information about the new health-care law.

“The US Department of Education is working to make all schools healthier and safe,” the fact sheets explain. “To help states, districts, and schools ensure healthy schools and students, the Department encourages school communities to make use of exciting new provisions of the Affordable Care Act. … To get all of America’s schools covered, the Health Insurance Marketplace begins with YOU.”

The fact sheets in the series were also recently included in the latest Education Department’s bi-weekly newsletter “ED Review.”

In addition to the student, school community, and parent and teacher fact sheets, the Marketplace website also offers a how to guide on promoting the Affordable Care Act in schools, titled “Ten Ways Schools Can Promote New Health Insurance Opportunities” and explaining that “schools can play a vital role in making sure people know how to get coverage.”

The ways the government says schools can “contribute to the outreach effort” include spreading the message about the marketplace through special events, school materials and coaches.

The document also advises schools to help students and their families apply for coverage and make the school’s computer lab available to parents “to sign up for coverage, as well as sharing best practices with statewide training sessions.”

In a June interview with POLITICO, Education Secretary Arne Duncan explained that when it comes to the Affordable Care Act the department would be “[d]oing everything we can to work with schools. I’ve been out doing graduation speeches and talking about young people staying on their parents’ insurance until the age of 26, there are always lots of applause lines around that. So whatever schools can do to be good partners.”

“We actually have a team here that’s sort of helping, obviously more on the margins, but helping on ACA implementation,” he added. “We want to be a good partner and work with schools and universities.”

In response to Duncan’s comments, a group of GOP lawmakers led by South Dakota Sen. John Thune, chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, and Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander, the ranking member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee wrote a letter to Duncan in mid-July demanding to know what the Education Department’s involvement in the promotion and implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

The Department of Education missed the July 30 deadline to respond and has yet to offer the senators an answer to their inquiry.

‘The Department of Education is supporting an administration-wide strategy to provide helpful and accurate information about the implications of the Affordable Care Act for all Americans’

Some 31 Conservative MPs rebelled against the Government on military action in Syria “in principle”, including Sarah Wollaston (Totnes), Anne Marie Morris (Newton Abbot) and Richard Drax (South Dorset).

Nine Liberal Democrats, too, voted against the party and helped inflict defeat on David Cameron and Nick Clegg, including Andrew George (St Ives) and Dan Rogerson (North Cornwall)

1. ?

   Andrew George MP

2. ?

   Rebel: Sarah Wollaston MP

YES – MPs that supported the Government

Jeremy Browne, Taunton Deane, Lib Dem

Oliver Colvile, Plymouth Sutton and Devonport , Cons

George Eustice, Camborne and Redruth, Cons

Stephen Gilbert, St Austell and Newquay, Lib Dem

David Heath, Somerton and Frome, Lib Dem

David Laws, Yeovil, Lib Dems

Oliver Letwin, West Dorset, Cons

Sheryll Murray, South East Cornwall, Cons

Sarah Newton, Truro and Falmouth, Cons

Neil Parish, Tiverton and Honiton, Cons

Gary Streeter, South West Devon, Con

Mel Stride, Central Devon, Cons

Hugo Swire, East Devon, Cons

NO – MPs that against the Government

* Richard Drax, South Dorset, Cons

* Andrew George, St Ives, Lib Dem

* Anne Marie Morris, Newton Abbot, Cons

* Dan Rogerson, North Cornwall, Lib Dem

Alison Seabeck, Plymouth Moor View, Lab

* Dr Sarah Wollaston, Totnes, Cons

* denotes rebelled against party

DID NOT VOTE

Ben Bradshaw, Exeter, Lab (voted for the Labour amendment but abstained on the substantive Government motion)

Geoffrey Cox, Torridge and West Devon, Cons (was abroad when Parliament recalled)

Nick Harvey, North Devon, Lib Dem (was abroad when Parliament recalled)

Ian Liddell-Grainger, Bridgwater, Cons

Adrian Sanders, Torbay, Lib Dem (paired with MP that holds opposite position. Said “would vote against if forced at taxpayer expense to attend”.)

David Gower (left) and Graham Gooch put together a 351-run stand against Australia at The Oval in the 1985 Ashes series © Getty images

On August 29, 1985, Graham Gooch partnered his captain David Gower for a second-wicket partnership of 351 runs that totally blew the life out of the hapless Australians. Jaideep Vaidya revisits the opening day of the sixth, final and deciding Test of the Ashes.

The Oval Test. Traditionally the last of the English season, although it did host the first ever Test match in the country back in 1880 when the Australians came touring. The one-off Test, where 15 players made their Test debut, was dominated by the blades of WG Grace and Billy Murdoch. England won the match easily, but more importantly it kick-started the process of staging a biannual contest between the two teams that would go on to make the grandest rivalry in the sport — the Ashes.

Now, more than 100 years later, after several contests at the venue, the men from Down Under were back in south-east London to battle it out in the final Test of the 1985 Ashes. What spiced the contest up, not that it really needed it, was that it was the first time in 32 years that the destination of the Ashes urn was being decided in the final match. The last time it had happened was in 1953 when Len Hutton led England to an eight-wicket victory to clinch the series 1-0; this was also the first time England had won the Ashes since 1932-33, more famously known as the Bodyline series.

This time, England were playing the home season with memories of the previous summer still fresh in their minds, when the West Indies had ‘Blackwashed’ them 5-0. But a historic success in India had followed in the winter, and Australia’s own form was far from satisfactory. After the disaster that was the 1981 tour, or Botham’s Ashes as it came to be called, Australia had just about won the return rubber in the summer of 1982-83, before succumbing to two consecutive series defeats to the mighty Windies. Kim Hughes had tearfully resigned from captaincy following the Caribbean drubbing and the charge of the Australian team had been thrust upon Allan Border. Add to that, the controversy of the South African rebel tour followed the team wherever they went. The Australians were accused of bringing a “second eleven” to the English shores. The English press was harping over their team’s form and success; the Australian press were not too optimistic either. Not many expected Border and Co. to put up a fight.

However, Border was not one to wave the white flag without a fight to the death. He scored four back-to-back centuries in the warm-up games and led his side to a 2-1 triumph in the one-dayers; and, just like that, the media pressure switched its loyalties to England, more so on David Gower. But the 28-year-old English captain wasn’t willing to let his counterpart run away with anything. Anything you can do, I can do better, he said as he scored a century in the final one-dayer and carried forward his form into the Test series.
 
England won the first match at Headingley due to some poor bowling by the tourists. The second Test at Lord’s saw Border step up and score 196 in the first innings, overshadowing Gower’s 86, as Australia amassed 425 and won the match by six wickets. Australia held the aces for majority of the third Test at Nottingham, where Gower scored a supreme 166 only to be overshadowed by Graeme Wood’s 172, and had to settle for a draw after rain intervened. As the teams travelled to the north-west to Manchester for the fourth, Border and his Australians would have been quite pleased with their performance so far, given the odds that were stacked against them at the beginning of the tour. At Old Trafford, Border scored an unbeaten 146 to get his team a draw. Heading into the fifth Test at Edgbaston Birmingham, the series was tied at 1-1. Richard Ellison grabbed six for 77 to keep Australia to 335 after asking them to bat first. The English batsmen, royally led by Gower’s magnificent double century along with tons from Tim Robinson and Mike Gatting, then took the Australians to task. The hosts declared their innings on 595. In the second innings, Ellison was back in business with four for 27, as Australia were bowled out for 142. England won the game by an innings and 118 runs, and thereby took a 2-1 lead going into the final Test at The Oval.

England just needed to avoid defeat to regain the Ashes, whereas Australia had to win to retain the urn for another 16 months. The tourists decided to haul in the changes in a desperate attempt: Bob Holland, Simon O’Donnell and Jeff Thomson were omitted for Murray Bennett, Dirk Wellham and Dave Gilbert, who made his debut. England, on the other hand, were unchanged, although Botham, who had twisted his knee while fielding for Somerset two days earlier, was declared fit only on the morning of the match.

The home side were given a boost when Gower won his fourth toss in a row on a perfectly sunny day in London with a good Oval wicket to look forward to, loaded with runs on the first couple of days. Robinson fell early to Craig McDermott’s in-swinging yorker with the score on 20, which brought Gower to the crease along with Graham Gooch. The latter had recently made a return to the England squad after being banned for three years by the erstwhile Test and County Cricket Board (TCCB) for taking part in a rebel tour of South Africa. Back in England whites, he had just two half-centuries to show so far in the series and could do with a few runs. Gower, of course, was in imperious form.

Thus, the two batsmen got off to quite uncharacteristic starts, both switching their usual roles with Gower being the aggressor and Gooch providing anchor. The England captain looked uncomfortable against the short ball early on; on 31, he slashed Geoff Lawson straight to gully, but Andrew Hilditch failed to latch on. The extra life somewhat provided Gower with the confidence to impose himself on the bowlers as he went after Lawson and McDermott. He even inside-edged Lawson whiskers away from his off-stump, but once he settled in there was no stopping his flow.

Finally, after just 123 balls, Gower brought up his third century of the series, fifth against Australia and 12th in 76 Tests. He “played as well as I had done for a long, long time,” Gower would go on to write in his book Ashes Match of My Life. “In truth, it was probably the best innings I have ever played. I could be modest and brush over it, but it was a knock when everything came together both technically and mentally. Time and time again, I kept hitting the ball sweetly and finding the gaps. There was one shot when I hit David Gilbert on the up through cover, which was as sweet as it gets. I will play that shot in my mind for the rest of my life.”

Gooch, meanwhile, was following a pragmatic approach. For the majority of the day, he lagged behind Gooch’s scoring rate and was content doing so. He brought up his century — his first against Australia after 22 Tests — in 194 deliveries and over four hours, to the delight of the home crowd who gave him a standing ovation. The duo attacked ruthlessly after lunch, even as Gooch decided to pick up his rate and catch up with his skipper. Gower cut, pulled and glanced elegantly while Gooch, towards the latter part of the day, started essaying his powerful and accurately placed drives. Their 200-partnership came up in just the 46th over, with the Australians having no reply whatsoever to the onslaught. A brief respite was provided by trail of pigeons marching in a line across the pitch, before umpire Dickie Bird intervened and hushed them away with a flutter of his cap. “The bird in the white cap has fixed all that,” remarked Richie Benaud wittily in the commentary box. At 3.30 pm, Border himself decided to roll is arm over, not with hope of breaking though, but more to give his flogged bowlers a breather. Mike Coward, in the Sydney Morning Herald, passed the verdict the next day: “Border’s decision to drastically change personnel and policy was an utter failure…”
 
Finally, in the third session, Gower sliced McDermott straight into the hands of Bennett at gully. Gower was gone for 157, his third score of 150 and above in his last four Tests. It had come off 216 balls and included 20 boundaries, and ended his partnership with Gooch at 351 which even usurped Gower and Robinson’s 331 at Edgbaston in the third Test. It was the sixth-highest stand for any wicket by England and appeared even more emphatic due to the scoring rate: 351 runs in just 75 overs. “As I made my way from the field, we were 371 for two and I just knew we would now win this Test,” wrote Gower. England lost one more wicket before the end of the day’s play after Mike Gatting fell cheaply. But with the score on 376 for three at stumps, and Gooch still batting on 179, Gower would have been a content captain.

“Gooch and Gower lock up the Ashes,” declared the Sydney Morning Herald the following day. “The Ashes are safely back with England,” concurred Scyld Berry in The Glasgow Herald. “The partnership of 351 between Graham Gooch and David Gower, which provoked Border’s throwing-in of the towel, was the greatest scene in these islands since the last Test at Edgbaston, when Robinson and Gower ran amok in the seventh-highest stand in England’s history.”

From what appeared like a definite total of 600 and above, England collapsed to 464 all-out on Day Two, with Gooch falling four runs short of a double century. His 196 took him 310 balls at 63.22, a marked improvement from the rate of 52 with which he crossed into three figures. Except for one shot — a mis-timed sweep that landed just over deep square leg —it was a chanceless innings. Not that it would have mattered or affected the outcome of the match, since he was already on 171 by then. Goochie was back.

In reply, Australia managed just 241 in their first essay and, after being asked to follow on, batted even miserably to be bowled out for 129, with Ellison getting another fifer. England won the match by an innings and 94 runs and regained the urn. Gooch rightly got the Man of the Match award for his comeback effort; whereas Gower, with 732 runs in six matches at 81.33, was declared Man of the Series.

(Jaideep Vaidya is a correspondent at CricketCountry. A diehard Manchester United fan and sports buff, you can follow him on Twitter and Facebook)

Lindsay Hassett © Getty Images

Lindsay Hassett, born on August 28, 1913, was one of the greatest Australian batsmen. Abhishek Mukherjee looks at the career of the man who defied the concept of the archetypical Australian.
 
It would be wrong to think that Arthur Lindsay Hassett did not want to win. Of course he did; everyone playing any sport at any level does; he was as much a professional as any of his colleagues. The War heroes — Denis Compton, Keith Miller, Godfrey Evans, Hassett — had also probably seen death too closely to give a sport a larger-than-life image.
 
Few cricketers have matched Hassett’s skills as a batsman. Despite the fact that he had played in the golden era (well, a golden era) of Australian cricket alongside a few Who’s Who of the sport he managed to create a niche of his own. He was one of those batsmen who made strokeplay look incredibly easy: “his [Hassett’s] superb timing, nimble footwork and strong wrists enabled him to make batting look a simple matter,” wrote Wisden. “A master of nearly every stroke,” added the almanac.
 
There was another Hassett as well – the quintessential team-man. Don Bradman mentioned that Hassett was “capable of taking charge at critical moments and always willing to risk his wicket his wicket in the interests of the match.” The great man was also impressed by Hassett’s technique, mentioning that “a sound defence made him [Hassett] at home under any conditions.”
 
When it came to facing quality spin Hassett has been one of the greatest batsmen Australia has produced, being one of the few men in the history of the sport who could face Bill O’Reilly confidently. The wily leg-spinner had admitted that few batsmen had mastered him the way Hassett had: he could always read O’Reilly’s googlies, and stepped out to hit them over leg. O’Reilly wrote of Hassett: “nobody has kept me out like that little bastard [Hassett].”
 
Ray Robinson wrote in On Top Down Under about the rather amusing spectacle of watching the two great men of contrasting structure pitted against each other. He wrote that the huge O’Reilly “towered nine inches above him [Hassett]; it would have looked more apt for Hassett to sell him a newspaper than contend with his bowling.”
 
It was O’Reilly who brought the best out of Hassett. He was also probably the only batsman to needle the great leg-spinner on a consistent basis. When O’Reilly found Hassett’s edge consistently in a match the leg-spinner asked the batsman whether his bat contained a middle. Hassett’s response was spontaneous: “I don’t need one with you.”
 
Then there was Hassett’s fielding capabilities with equally capable in the outfield and at short-leg (with Sid Barnes, or when the latter wasn’t playing). Additionally, he was a shrewd reader of the match. “His [Hassett’s] knowledge of the game and views on tactics [were] extremely sound,” Bradman mentioned.
 
Of his fielding and (limited) bowling The Canberra Times wrote: “To see [Lindsay] Hassett field was to see balanced crispness; not for him the goalkeeper’s dive with flannels at the end of the day looking like camouflage trousers. He was known to bowl, approaching the wicket with small measured steps, his hands clasping the ball as a mouse grasps a piece of cheese.”
 
Hassett had acted as Bradman’s deputy for three series and eventually succeeded him as the national captain. As a leader he was the complete antithesis; no longer was Australia was led by a man who sent out a message of incessant ruthlessness to the opposition. Hassett was typically expressionless with the faintest hint of smile; the opposition never had any idea of what was going through his mind.
 
He was the perfect ambassador for his country, playing a role more than the average player’s on overseas tour, often emerging as the most knowledgeable one on the tour. His dry sense of humour won him many an admirer overseas. Neville Cardus wrote of him: “Australia has sent to these shores no captain of cricket who shared [Lindsay] Hassett’s secret into our English ways, knowing it without any surrender of Australia’s own related yet not entirely similar ways.” Evan Gray remarked that he “always had a twinkle in his eye, he cast a shadow little longer than his bat, and he was a true sportsman.”
 
With a jovial attitude and commendable diplomatic skills Hassett emerged as an excellent leader of men. Following Bradman at the helm was no mean feat (one must keep in mind that this also meant that the captain would be left without Bradman the batsman), but Hassett did not disgrace himself or his country at any point of time, emerging as one of the most successful Australian captains.

Most successful Australian captains (Qualification: 20 matches):
 

 

In 43 Tests Hassett scored 3,073 runs at 46.56 with 10 hundreds and 11 fifties, which gave him a 47.6 per cent conversion rate. Among Australians with over 10 hundreds he comes next to only Bradman (obviously), Matthew Hayden, and Arthur Morris. In all First-Class cricket, Hassett had 16,890 runs from 216 matches at 58.24 with 59 hundreds.
 
Hassett ranks fourth among all Australians and fifth among all non-Indians in terms of batting average, the other four being Bradman, George Headley, Bill Ponsford, and Bill Woodfull (it is to be noted that with a 50-innings cut-off 11 of the top 16 are Indians, which includes five current cricketers).
 

Early days
 
Lindsay Hassett grew up in a family of enthusiastic budding cricketers at Geelong. Edward, his father, was a competent club cricketer. Lindsay was the youngest of nine children, and had grown up playing three-a-side cricket with his five brothers in their backyard.
 
Lindsay’s brother Richard went on to play for Victoria; another brother VX Hassett played for Victoria County; their nephew John Shaw also played for Victoria as well, while a grandnephew Richard Xavier played for Victoria Second XI. Lindsay was, however, the best of the crop.
 
Hassett studied at Geelong College like his brothers, and was considered a prodigious sportsperson right from his college days: he captained his college in cricket, football, and tennis, and set up a record aggregate for Victoria Schools and won the Victoria Public Schools Combined Tennis Championship. Later he also went on to become, to quote Wisden, “a golfer of considerable ability”.
 
At college he was coached by the grade player PL Williams who had also coached Ross Gregory and Ian Johnson. At 17 he scored a brilliant 147 against the visiting West Indians. The innings, however, went largely unnoticed as Wisden called him Bassett.
 
In the early 1930s, Hassett ran into a terrible run, scoring seven consecutive ducks for South Melbourne. On his eighth outing he was out plumb leg-before (but not given) and was dropped twice on nought; he went on to score 150. When Douglas Jardine’s men were pelting the Australians with the red ball, Hassett made his debut against South Australia at MCG scoring four and nine. He failed against Tasmania as well and was shelved for three years.
 
He exploded a year after his comeback scoring seven consecutive fifties. Despite not scoring a single hundred he scored 503 at 71.85 that season as Victoria won the Sheffield Shield. The elusive century came next year, when Hassett scored 127 not out against the visiting New Zealanders at MCG. He ended the season with 693 runs at 53.30 and was selected for the Ashes tour that summer.
 
 

The first Ashes
 
Hassett startled everybody on his first Ashes tour with a deluge of runs in May. He began the tour with 43 against Worcestershire at New Road; this was followed by 146 against Oxford University, 148 against Leicestershire at Aylestone Road, 220 not out against Cambridge University, 57 against MCC at Lord’s, and 98 against Surrey at The Oval.
 
Suddenly, with two matches to go, Hassett stood on 712 runs — 288 short of reaching a thousand by May. Against Hampshire at Southampton, however, Australia scored 320 for one as rain ruled out the first day’s play (Bradman did reach a thousand that match), but Hassett did not get a chance to bat. In the last match before the turn of the month Hassett scored 27 against Middlesex at Lord’s, once again in a rain-affected match (Bill Edrich reached a thousand here).
 
His stupendous form meant that he could not be kept out of the side for long: he failed on debut, scoring one and two at Trent Bridge as Australia managed to save the Test despite following-on. It helped that Bradman was in extraordinary form (even by his standards) as he would score six hundreds in six Tests (he wouldn’t bat in the seventh, and then score two more in the next two).
 
Bradman kept faith in him, especially after his 118 against Lancashire at Old Trafford, 94 against Yorkshire at Bramall Lane, and 124 against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge. In the next Test at Lord’s, Hassett came to his elements: as Bill Brown famously carried his bat Hassett scored a 99-ball 56 to help him add 124.
 
It was in the second innings, however, that Hassett announced himself to the world: Wally Hammond set Australia 315, and they were soon reduced to 111 for three. Hassett walked out to join Bradman. In an exhilarating display of strokeplay, Hassett scored 42 in 45 balls, hitting seven fours and a six, outscoring Bradman heavily in a 64-run partnership. The innings showed the class of Hassett, and prepared the world for many more to come.
 
After the third Test at Old Trafford was washed off, Australia ran into England on a turning track at Headingley. O’Reilly’s 10-wicket haul allowed Australia a target of only 105. The tourists seemed to be cruising at 50 for two when Hammond brought on Doug Wright. The erratic Kent leg-spinner struck almost immediately, removing Bradman and Stan McCabe in quick succession.

It was anybody’s match from there. The ball was turning viciously, and despite Wright striking twice England had in their ranks a champion in Hedley Verity. Bradman described the panic that had set in the Australian dressing-room:
 
“O’Reilly sat with his pads on, hoping and praying he would not be needed, was walking up and down on one side of the centre-table. On the other side I was doing the same, but, to prevent my teeth chattering in the excitement, was consuming copious amounts of bread and jam augmented by a liberal quantity of tea. We relied upon our colleagues to give us a running commentary of the play.”
 
Hassett, however, kept his cool, and used his nimble footwork to counter-attack against Hedley Verity and Wright on a dangerous pitch. Five times the ball reached the boundary, and he eventually scored 33 in 36 balls. Eye-witnesses rank it among the greatest innings played by the Victorian.
 
Bradman wrote of the innings: “The imperturbable Victorian midget, who in a crisis has always been such a masterful player, lofted his drives and threw caution to the winds in a race to beat the weather.”
 
Australia sunk in the last Test at The Oval by an innings and 579 runs. Hassett scored a breezy 41-ball 42 with five fours, but it was a too one-sided a contest as England, despite unable to regain the Ashes, managed to level the series.
 

Lindsay Hasset leads the players off the field at the end of the final Ashes Test in 1953 at The Oval © Getty Images

Hassett finished the series with 199 runs at 24.87 (though he scored heavily in the tour games, finishing with 1,589 runs at 54.79) — but he had showed what he was capable of. It was not the greatest of starts, but he showed he had the talent and that rare ability to win Tests. What he lacked in was patience. That would come with time.
 
Wisden wrote: “He never quite fulfilled the promise of a sensational start… He appeared to make his strokes very late and, although adopting almost a two-eyed stance, had, so far as could be seen, no technical faults… there was a good deal of surprise that he did not come off in the big matches although it must not be forgotten that his second innings at Leeds counted a lot in Australia’s victory.”
 
It was in this tour that Hassett’s image as a prankster first surfaced: Australian camps would never be the same. Hassett somehow managed to acquire a “wet, muddy, and complaining” mountain goat from the Grindleford Hills of Derbyshire and sneaked it into McCabe’s room (some sources suggest that he even put a waistcoat on the goat).
 
Albany Advertiser (Western Australia) wrote: “The goat, with a goat’s extraordinary taste in food, reduced McCabe’s bedroom to a remarkable condition, much to the delight of the rascal Hassett.” Jack Fingleton, in Cricket Crisis, had more to add: “The next night everybody locked their doors, which was just as well because Hassett found a hedgehog.”
 
He was 25 then. Thanks to the warmongers he would not play another Test till he would turn 32.
 

The War and beyond
 
Hassett had three domestic seasons before World War II broke out: in these three seasons he scored 2,248 runs at 70.25 with nine hundreds from 20 matches. It was evident that he was approaching his prime. In January 1940, Hassett scored 122 in each innings against New South Wales at SCG. In the process he became the only batsman to score two hundreds in the same match against O’Reilly, as mentioned by Jack McHarg in Lindsay Hassett – One of a Kind.
 
Hassett joined the Second Australian Imperial Force, and was posted at Haifa in the British Mandate of Palestine (now Israel). His amicable nature meant that he remained a very popular character in the army. He kept on playing cricket, leading AIF teams in Egypt and Palestine before he was sent to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea to fight the Japanese Army.
 
After the War was over the Australian Services visited England for a hard-fought tour. It was a welcome break after the War and the cricket played was also of a more positive nature than the 1938 Ashes. There were survivors of the War on either side. Hassett later wrote: “These games have shown that international cricket can be played as between real friends — so let’s have no more talk of ‘war’ in cricket”.
 
An India tour followed: though Australian Services did not have a great time, Hassett found his old touch with the bat, scoring 187 and 124 not out against Prince’s XI (which was almost the Indian XI) at Delhi. The match against East Zone at Eden Gardens saw a riot break out.
 
As the men approached the pitch Denis Compton pointed them to Hassett, mentioning that the fielding captain controlled proceedings. When the rioters approached him, the calm Hassett asked their leader: “You wouldn’t happen to have a cigarette, would you, old boy?” The match got under way.
 
Though the tourists did not win a single match, Hassett finished the tour with 769 runs at 85.44 with four hundreds and followed it with a 57 against Ceylon at Colombo.
 
Australia resumed post-War international cricket with a one-off Test against New Zealand at Wellington. Hassett was overlooked as captain and Brown led Australia in Bradman’s absence (Hassett was not even vice-captain; the role went to O’Reilly). The tourists romped to an innings victory, bowling out the hosts for 42 and 54.
 

The second Ashes
 
Hassett was appointed the Victorian captain the next season and looked in fine form against MCC at MCG, scoring 57 in each innings. Bradman defied medical advice to return to Test cricket. With Brown injured and O’Reilly having retired, Hassett was named deputy to Bradman for the Ashes.
 
The first Test at The Gabba saw a completely modified Hassett: gone was the carefree strokeplayer of the yesteryears; Hassett’s focus had now shifted to long innings. Coming out at 46 for two he added 276 with Bradman and 106 more with Miller before falling for a 395-minute 128 with ten fours and a six.
 
It was a completely metamorphosed Hassett — the sort the pre-War spectators had never thought of witnessing. Not everyone was impressed with the dismissal of the carefree Hassett; RC Robertson-Glasgow complained that his new approach was a “narcotic prudence begotten of the solemn occasion.”Harvey.
 
He recalled the pace of his innings in a typical Hassett fashion: “It fell on the day that one of my brothers got married. I was at 92 and he was due at the church for the ceremony, but thought he would wait a minute or two for the other eight runs. After 10 minutes I got four runs, so he rushed away and duly got married. When he arrived home he turned on the wireless and heard I was at 97. I can assure you, gentlemen, that I got my century before he went on his honeymoon.”
 
He played another gem at Adelaide after Australia were 18 for two following England’s 460. Coming out after Bradman had been bowled by Alec Bedser for a duck, Hassett and Arthur Morris added 189 for the third wicket, the vice-captain eventually falling for a 227-ball 78. England were duly thrashed 3-0 in the series, and the Ashes was retained.
 
The Indians visited Australia for the first time next season, and Hassett celebrated the occasion with a 198 not out in 305 balls. This would remain his career-best. However, despite India losing by an innings, this Test is generally remembered for Vijay Hazare’s twin hundreds on consecutive days.
 

The third Ashes: The Invincibles
 
Ten years after his debut tour Hassett was back in England as vice-captain. A tight schedule meant that the players were rotated, and Hassett ended up leading the tourists in nine matches. As things turned out, Australia remained unbeaten, but played two of their closest matches on the tour under Hassett — against Yorkshire at Bradford and against Hampshire at Southampton.
 
Of the second match Brown reminisced: “We couldn’t even get 200 and trailed on the first innings. Due to some very fine bowling from Big Bill Johnston we got them out again and went on to make the necessary runs. But it was tight and in the dressing-room, Lindsay [Hassett] sat down and said, ‘Thank you gentlemen, thank you. But why is it always me?’”
 

Lindsay Hassett batting at The Oval. Denis Compton is fielding at first slip and Godfrey Evans is the wicketkeeper © Getty Images

Hassett found form against Surrey at The Oval, scoring 110. Against a strong MCC at Lord’s, he scored a 51. Fingleton was all praise of the innings in Brightly Fades the Don: “It was the prettiest half-century we saw in the whole summer. There was no effort in his [Hassett’s] play. The ball sped quietly and quickly in all directions.”
 
Hassett grew in stature as the Australian juggernaut marched on: he came out to bat at 185 for four in the first Test at Trent Bridge; he scored 137 in 354 minutes with 20 fours — his first Test hundred on English soil — and helped Bradman add 120 and then went on to add 107 more with Ray Lindwall.
 
The Canberra Times wrote that “In that Test he [Hassett] prudently decided to get out one short of Bradman’s score of 138,” thereby pulling off a Sid Barnes in the previous Ashes.
 
Though he did not do too well in the next Test at Lord’s Hassett hammered Northamptonshire for 127 at Northampton and followed it up with another hundred against Surrey at The Oval, this time opening batting and scoring 139.
 
Hassett finished the Test series with 310 runs at 44.28. On the tour he scored 1,563 runs at 74.42 with seven hundreds from 22 matches, scoring three consecutive hundreds — 200 not out against Gentlemen of England at Lord’s, 103 against Somerset at Taunton, and 151 against South at Hastings. He was named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year.
 
His idiosyncrasies were in full flow. As Ian Peebles wrote in Talking of Cricket: “The clearest sidelight on his personality was his diverting behaviour on missing (unaccountably) a couple of ballooners during the Manchester Test match, a reverse which might well embitter and nonplus a man. Lindsay merely turned to the policeman behind him and asked if he might borrow his helmet for the next occasion.”
 
On another occasion, during a night-out (some versions said they bribed and hijacked the team coach) with Miller, Johnson, and Johnston, Hassett entered a random house in London. The window at the top floor opened and a bemused voice was heard.
 
Voice: What the hell are you doing?
 
Hassett: Just thought we’d pop in.
 
Voice: Are you Hassett?
 
Hassett: Indeed I am.
 
Voice: Wait there.
 
The quartet ended up spending two hours at the house. He also brought a toy duck to the dressing room to scare his superstitious teammates and hid the ball in sawdust to stop a tour match.
 
He led his side against Don Bradman’s XI in the latter’s testimonial match at MCG and top-scored with a 141-minute 102 in the second innings as the match ended in a tie (though it should have been recorded a draw as per the law changes earlier that year).
 
He was eventually elected to the post of the Australian captain ahead of Arthur Morris by a 7-6 margin, decided by the casting-vote by the Board Chairman Dr Allen Robertson. In the process he became only the second Catholic to lead Australia since Percy McConnell in 1888.
 

Captain of Australia
 
Hassett’s first assignment was a tour of South Africa. Other than Bradman the side also missed Barnes, Don Tallon, and Ernie Toshack, and Miller was mysteriously left out. However, Miller later joined the squad as Johnson got injured, and both of them ended up playing all five Tests.
 
Hassett kept the Invincibles tag going: Australia won the series 4-0 and won 14 of the 21 matches on tour. Hassett himself scored 112 at Johannesburg and 167 at St George’s Park, finishing the series with 402 runs at 67.00. On the tour he scored 889 runs at 68.38 with four hundreds.
 
The innings at Johannesburg deserves a special mention: with both openers gone without opening their accounts Hassett walked out. After ages the world of cricket witnessed Hassett at his best. He outscored Miller (21) in a partnership of 69 and Neil Harvey (34) in a partnership of 92. The hundred spun the match on its head before Miller and Johnston bowled out the hosts to an innings defeat.
 
Not only did Hassett emerge out of the tour as a champion batsman and a fine captain, he helped enhance the bonding between the two countries. Hassett’s team mixed freely with the local tribals, dancing and singing with them, and reaching out to the children. The Australian High Commission called him the most effective diplomat to have visited South Africa.
 
The sense of humour remained intact, though. When there were rumours that a certain teammate of Hassett’s had spent a night with three women, the captain welcomed him at the breakfast with the words: “Congratulations. You’re the only man ever to achieve a hat-trick with two balls.”
 

The fourth Ashes
 
The home Ashes began with a Test involving the strangest of scorecards at The Gabba: “On the first day at Brisbane, England surprised even themselves by dismissing Australia for 228 on a good pitch,” wrote Wisden. However, when play resumed after two days of rain England found themselves caught on a ‘sticky’.
 
Freddie, Brown declared at 68 for seven the next morning. Australia lost their first three wickets without a run on the board, and Hassett declared at 32 for seven with wickets falling like ninepins to make sure England batted before the conditions improved. A confused Freddie Brown rushed to Hassett.
 
Brown: What’s happening, old boy?
 
Hassett: I’m declaring.
 
Brown: Oh, I see, you want us in on that again.
 
Hassett: It’s your move, old chap!
 
Jack Iverson picked up four wickets Australia won the Test by 70 runs despite England reversing their batting order and Len Hutton scoring a 62 not out from number eight.
 
In the next at MCG, his home ground, Hassett top-scored with 52 in the first innings. Once again it was a Test-defining innings and proved crucial as Australia won by 28 runs. Australia eventually won the series 4-1; England won only the final Test of the series at MCG despite Hassett’s 92 and 48. He eventually finished with 366 runs at 40.66, finishing next to only Hutton in a low-scoring series.
 
It was the first Test Hassett lost as the captain of Australia after winning eight Tests and drawing one. However, the Ashes was retained thanks to Hassett’s “astute captaincy”, and more importantly, as Wisden wrote: “The friendship between the captains, Hassett and Brown, extended throughout both teams. The keenest rivalry on the field was not allowed to interfere with sincere good-fellowship. To cricketers that happy blend is the essence of the game”.
 
On a side note, Hassett was up against a weird experience in the farewell function at the Sydney Harbour as recalled by Eric Hill in Wisden Cricket Monthly of December 1980. Hill was in a conversation with O’Reilly and Hassett when a woman entered the scene.
 
Hill described her: “She was approaching 45, as Groucho once put it, from the wrong side and was dressed outrageously in a bikini and rainbow-coloured half jacket which would have delighted on a slender young gazelle.”
 
Woman: Are you the great Mr Hassett?
 
Hassett: Yes.
 
Woman: My two little boys would love your autograph.
 
Hassett: Have you got a pen?
 
Hill wrote: “All saccharin and treacle she produced the pen, as Hassett invited her to sit alongside him with an interested and growing group gathering round. Timing his moves to absolute perfection, Lindsay signed his autograph twice — one on the inside of each fat, sun-burned, overgenerous thigh of that very surprised Australian lady.”
 

Calypso success
 
The West Indian series at home followed next. With both sides having defeated England this series was declared as the “unofficial cricket championship of the world”.
 
Australia somehow managed to win the first Test at The Gabba by three wickets, followed by an emphatic seven-wicket victory at SCG, Hassett scoring 132 and 46 not out. Hassett missed the third Test at Adelaide due to a strained muscle. Morris led the Test, and in a quirky bureaucratic move Hassett was replaced by a bowler Geff Noblet. Frank Worrell bowled out Australia for 82, a blow from which they never recovered.
 
Hassett was back for the fourth Test at MCG: set to chase 260 Hassett was not aptly supported by his teammates, who followed one another to the pavilion against the wiles of Ramadhin and Alf Valentine. Hassett scored a marathon 323-minute 102 (nobody else scored more than 33) before being eighth out for 218. Gil Langley fell with the score on 222, leaving Doug Ring and Johnston to score 38 off the last wicket.
 
It was a tense 35-minute phase as the pair helped Australia inch towards the target: it is rumoured that Harvey was so transfixed by Ring and Johnston that having taken a shower immediately after his dismissal he watched the rest of the partnership in the nude from the dressing-room. The pair managed to pull it off.
 
An excellent performance by the Australian fast bowlers earned them a 202-run victory at SCG. The hosts won the series 4-1. Hassett finished the series with 407 runs at 57.42 with two hundreds. At this stage Hassett’s record as captain read 14 Tests, 13 won, one lost.
 

The decline begins
 
The South African tour was scheduled to be such a low-profile one against the soaring Australians that South Africa had to offer a guarantee of £10,000 in case of a loss. Things seemed fine when Australia won the first Test at The Gabba by 95 runs. The slide began after that.
 
The low-profile South Africans pulled off an 82-run upset victory under Jack Cheetham at MCG as Hugh Tayfield spun out the hosts with figures of 13 for 165. It was Australia’s first defeat against South Africa since their 38-run loss at Adelaide in 1911-12.
 
The hosts promptly regained control at SCG, Harvey scoring 190 and Lindwall taking eight wickets as Australia won by an innings. After a high-scoring draw at Adelaide (Hassett scored 163) South Africa once again beat Australia at MCG as they chased down 295 in the fourth innings. It was the first time since Bodyline that Australia had failed to win a home series.
 

The fifth Ashes: the surrender and the farewell
 
The 40-year old Hassett had declared before the 1953 Ashes that it was going to be his last series. His genial presence in this series has often been dismissed as “too soft” compared to the ruthless Hutton by contemporaries. Additionally, the squad had only two specialist openers, and following Colin McDonald’s injuries Hassett himself volunteered to open. Too soft? One wonders.
 
The tour set off to a poor start as Johnston broke down with a severe knee injury in Australia’s first tour match at East Molesey. Hassett did not get to the best of starts, and scored his first hundred against Sussex at Hove in his sixth match: he scored 108 not out and added an unbroken 140 with Harvey.
 
The first Test at Trent Bridge is usually remembered for Bedser’s 14 for 99. Hassett scored 115 out of 249 in the first innings and the match was washed off. Opening batting in the second Test at Lord’s Hassett scored 105 in another draw. Of the Lord’s innings, Cardus wrote: “four and a half hours of cricket so fashioned that the watchmaker’s eye was required to detect a loose screw or loose end here or there.”
 
The next two Tests at Old Trafford and Headingley did not produce a result either. In the fourth Test at Headingley, Australia needed to chase down 177 in 105 minutes and were on track from the very beginning. The match seemed to be Australia’s as Graeme Hole and Alan Davidson accelerated at a rapid pace, with only 66 required from the last 45 minutes.
 
Hutton then asked Bailey to bowl outside the leg-stump to cut down the tempo: the umpires did not call wide and the Australian batsmen stood helplessly as time ran out with the score on 147 for four. This led to protests from the cricket fraternity with even English wicket-keeper Evans coming to the support of the Australians.
 
What was more, for once Frank Chester erred in quite a few decisions that went against the Australians. Upon Hassett’s requests, however, the English cricket authorities agreed to replace Chester for the final Test.
 
After two more draws in the series the teams proceeded to The Oval for the final Test. Hassett scored 53, but the hosts took a vital 31-run lead and regained the Ashes for the first time since Bodyline. Hassett had left out Ring and saw helplessly as the two local spinners, Jim Laker and Tony Lock, spun out the tourists for 162 in the second innings with nine wickets between them.
 
Hassett, always circumspect of Lock’s action, tried to put pressure on the Surrey spinner by shouting ‘Strike One’, ‘Strike Two’, etc when Lock bowled to him. Even after the Test was over Hassett said “It wasn’t bad, considering Tony Lock chucked half the side out.”
 
When all seemed over with only nine runs to go, Hassett came on to bowl what turned out to be the second-last over of the Test. He later said, “England deserved to win, if not from the first ball, at least from the second-last over!”
 
Hassett’s post-match reaction was as quirky as things went. Gray recalled: “At the post match celebrations on the Oval balcony [Lindsay] Hassett toasted the English side with champagne, and in a never to be forgotten moment, turned round and smashed his glass on the Oval clock.”
 
Thereafter he was impeccable in his post-series speech. Wisden mentioned in praise: “When he finally lost the Ashes, he made a gracious and humorous speech, having been introduced as ‘The Happy Warrior’.” The Cricketer wrote: “Appropriate little speeches were made and Hassett, the chief theme, which being the excellent spirit which has prevailed between the two rival teams.”
 
As always, Hassett’s tour involved numerous anecdotes – this time involving a hotel. While dining at the Park Royal Hotel in London a waiter spilled Peach Melba on Hassett’s jacket. While taking it off on repeated requests by the waiter Hassett observed a small, unrelated mark on his trousers. He promptly took them off as well, and — an Australian captain went on to complete a dinner in his shirt, tie, and underpants.
 
Hassett signed off with a flourish, scoring 148 against Somerset at Taunton, 65 against Kent at Canterbury, 106 against South at Hastings, and 74 and 25 against TN Pearce’s XI at Scarborough. In all he finished the tour with 1,236 runs at 44.14 with five hundreds.
 
In his benefit match Hassett top-scored in the first innings with 126 against Arthur Morris’ XI, adding 205 with his old mate Miller. He failed in the fourth innings, his side lost by 121 wickets, but he picked up Tallon’s wicket, and more importantly, left MCG £5,503 richer.
 

Later days
 
Hassett had married Tessie Davis in 1942 and had two daughters. He had opened a sports equipments store in Melbourne after the War. After retirement he eased into the ABC commentary box and worked from 1956 to 1981. With his dry, self-deprecating humour Hassett became a very popular name in the commentary box, perhaps most remembered for his “I’m glad I wasn’t up here when I was down there.”
 
The Canberra Times wrote: “Reticence has always been Hassett’s way. It is said that he gave up his ABC radio cricket commentating because he became increasingly appalled at the conduct of the ugly Australians. If it is so, then he gave little indication of his distaste on the air. The listener skilled in interpreting the nuances of Hassett’s oblique comments might have discerned an occasional pursing of the lips at what Australia’s best cricketers of their generation were doing, but compared to Alan McGilvray’s Laudator temporis acti act, (combined with a dash of O tempora, or mores!) Hassett was akin to a mute.”
 
Hassett also worked on the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria with Laurie Nash and lost when he contested for the post of South Melbourne’s delegate to the VCA election in 1953. In his last days, he moved to Batehaven in the New South Wales coast to give in to his lifelong love of fishing.
 
Lindsay Hassett passed away on June 16, 1993.
 
Miller wrote that Harvey made “more genuine friends in all walks of life than any other cricketer.”
 
Richie Benaud wrote in Hassett’s Wisden obituary: “There are others who have made more runs and taken more wickets, but very few have ever got more out of a lifetime.”
 
Hassett was among the few who had realised that.
 
(Abhishek Mukherjee is a cricket historian and Senior Cricket Writer at CricketCountry. He generally looks upon life as a journey involving two components – cricket and literature – though not as disjoint elements. A passionate follower of the history of the sport with an insatiable appetite for trivia and anecdotes, he has also a steady love affair with the incredible assortment of numbers that cricket has to offer. He also thinks he can bowl decent leg-breaks in street cricket, and blogs at http://ovshake.blogspot.in. He can be followed on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ovshake42)

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On his Thursday radio show, conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh suggested that 50^th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speech at the March on Washington was about segregation of the races, not integration.

Limbaugh said that King’s 1963 message conflicts with the message of the modern-day civil rights movement.

“Martin Luther King Jr. was interesting,” Limbaugh said. “If you read a lot of what he said or wrote, Martin Luther King did not blame the Constitution. Martin Luther King acknowledged that the Constitution did indeed spell out the right thing for all people. He said that it was just not properly applied at first, but eventually it was and has been. He did not rip the Constitution. He did not think the founding of the country or immoral or unjust.  He thought the implementation, in the early days, was flawed. It’s real simple. The 13 original colonies, in order to rebel, in order to form a union, had to accommodate the southern colonies.”

“In some of them, slavery was the thing for them, and they weren’t going to give it up,” he continued. “A number of the Founders knew it. Jefferson, Adams — they all wrote, ‘This is going to lead to trouble down the road.’ But they had to talk about compromise. They had to make compromise, accommodation, in order to found the country.  Martin Luther King knew all of this, and he said that the founding was proper and actually a blessing, just improperly applied.  He was about integration, not separatism, and not segregation.  But that’s what was on stage yesterday.  Everything about the civil rights movement today is back to segregation.  We’ve gone back to pre-Martin Luther King days, essentially.  It’s about a never-ending race battle.”

Listen:

 

He explained that he and likely many others viewed Obama’s speech at the 50^th anniversary event on Wednesday as a letdown, pointing to the president’s inability to resolve the problems he faces internationally and domestically, and the new message of the civil rights movement.

“It’s about segregation,” he said. “It’s about never wanting to be integrated and then after the integration has taken place, then segregate. It’s a bastardization of what he stood for.  I don’t think there’s any question about it. But regardless, I was driving home yesterday, and I listened to Obama’s speech on the radio, and I know that people don’t attach much credibility to me when I’m commenting on Obama because they think my criticism is only political. That’s not true.  It’s based entirely on substance.  I just have to tell you — based on the expectations of what I know people were expecting — that speech yesterday was a disaster. I mean, it was a disappointment.”

“The media is all talking about seminal moment, greatest speech,” Limbaugh continued. “But I was literally bored driving home, listening to it. Anyway, that’s just a brief aside.  We’ve got discontent.  We had 100,000 people expected. Barely 20,000 showed up. African-Americans in this country are fed up.  White people are fed up and depressed. Hispanics are confused. And Obama the Magnificent, who criticized Bush for not having a coalition in Iraq, seems ready to go help al-Qaida in Syria, but not too much. We’re going to do a limited strike just to show that you can’t cross Obama’s red line, but beyond that we’re not going to do much. The American people are ticked off. There’s high unemployment. There are high oil prices, stagnant wages, growing debt. Obama lives in a vacuum in Washington and Martha’s Vineyard. He’s living the life of Riley.”

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Africa is a land of many large families, but, as in all the world, not everyone is successful in having kids. In some communities in Africa, that can bring shame, and less respect. Some couples are trying fertility treatments, but even with subsidies it’s incredibly expensive.

In a dusty township 30 miles outside of Cape Town, South Africa, kids seem to be everywhere.

Children play inside a large, wooden crate along the side of the road. Two boys chase each other nearby.

Just up the street, inside a small, cement home, things are much quieter. A 31-year-old woman chops onions in the kitchen, while her husband relaxes on the couch.

Thembi and Lloyd (not their real names) say that when they got married a few years ago, they immediately started trying to have kids.

“In (Xhosa) culture, when you are married, you must have children,” Thembi said.

But she and Lloyd didn’t have any luck. After more than two years of trying, they started to worry. They went to a doctor, who told Thembi she had blocked fallopian tubes and couldn’t conceive naturally.

The couple briefly considered adopting, but they didn’t think their families would approve.

“They definitely won’t be happy if you will come with an adopted child,” said Lloyd. “That means that the family name has now stopped in that line.”

That left Thembi and Lloyd facing the possibility of a childless future — something that can be especially hard in Africa.

 

Stigma of Infertility

“Infertility is associated with a lot of suffering,” said Dr. Silke Dyer, an obstetrician and a professor of reproductive medicine at the University of Cape Town.

African couples that don’t have children are often scorned, she explained. At community meetings, they may not be given the respect accorded adults with children.

“If you’re there and you want to raise your opinion, they will say, ‘Sit, sit down, you do not have children — you cannot talk,’” Dyer said.

Many infertile women in Africa are abused or abandoned by their husbands, Dyer adds, and they often end up destitute.

In the U.S. and Europe, couples that cannot conceive will often spend thousands of dollars on fertility treatment, such as in vitro fertilization. IVF is available in some parts of Africa, at private clinics — but the cost is far beyond the reach of most African couples.

Dyer and her colleagues run a public clinic at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town that makes IVF affordable. One of very few clinics of its kind in Africa, it keeps costs down by using a relatively inexpensive combination of drugs. The South African government also provides subsidies. About 250 couples receive IVF treatment each year, and roughly a third end up pregnant.

 

Financial Sacrifices

Thembi and Lloyd — the couple that was unable to conceive — heard about the IVF clinic from their doctor. At first, they were skeptical.

“We heard it’s for white people, not for us,” Thembi said. But after visiting the clinic, they decided to give it a try.

The procedure cost a fraction of what it would elsewhere, but for Thembi and Lloyd it was still tough to afford. The first attempt cost the equivalent of $300 — about as much as they make in a month. It failed. They tried again. It failed, too. Their doctor then recommended a slightly different IVF procedure, which cost about $800. That really put a strain on them financially.

“Now we have to buy just rice and meat, because every (dollar) that we have, we have to save for this (procedure),” Thembi said.

And it wasn’t just the cost of the treatment that was making their lives difficult. Thembi and Lloyd were also keeping their actions a secret. Lloyd says he couldn’t tell anyone in his family what they were doing.

“To them it would look like an insult and we are doing things the Western way,” he said.

The day before Thembi and Lloyd found out if the third IVF attempt had worked, their expectations were low.

“I’m not expecting any good result for tomorrow,” Thembi said, then added: “I’m praying.”

 

Fortunate Few

After that conversation, weeks went by. Thembi and Lloyd didn’t return calls. Finally, they returned my calls and said to stop by.

At their house, Thembi was curled up on the couch with a blanket, watching TV. Lloyd sat beside her, a small heater by his feet.

What had happened at the clinic? Did the doctors say she was pregnant?

She laughed.

“I’m nine weeks, six days,” she said. “I’m always counting.”

Lloyd chimed in: “I feel good.”

Thembi and Lloyd know they are incredibly fortunate. The vast majority of infertile couples in Africa do not have access to treatment, and those who do are often unsuccessful.

Dyer, the director of the IVF clinic in Cape Town, does not expect IVF facilities to start springing up around Africa. She says most doctors and governments are more focused on bringing birth rates down — not up — and on confronting more pressing health issues, like HIV and malaria.

But Dyer says when it comes to family planning in Africa, the goal shouldn’t just be to help couples have fewer children. Remember, she says, some couples need help having more.

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PRI’s The World is a one-hour, weekday radio news magazine offering a mix of news, features, interviews, and music from around the globe. “The World” is a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI and WGBH Boston. More about The World.

It has been said that elephants never forget, but whether they will become only a memory depends in part on the work of an international array of elephant experts meeting in Pittsburgh this week.

A charismatic mega-fauna, elephants are nonetheless under attack and endangered in the wild at the same time that the captive population is aging, according to Deborah Olson, executive director of the International Elephant Foundation, which supports science-based elephant conservation, protection and management programs in managed facilities and in the wild.

Ms. Olson, who was attending the International Elephant and Rhino Conservation and Research Symposium, hosted by the Pittsburgh Zoo PPG Aquarium, said Wednesday that poachers, driven by the Chinese and Japanese demand for tusk ivory, are continuing to decimate elephant populations.

“Thousands of elephants have been killed this year for their ivory, especially in north, east and central Africa where civil wars have made guns and ammunition readily available,” she said. “In the Congo, poachers in a helicopter swooped in earlier this year and killed 30 elephants.”

As bad as the poaching is, increasing habitat loss and other human-elephant conflicts are taking an even greater toll, Ms. Olson said, both in Africa, where the number of elephants has dwindled from 1.3 million 40 years ago to less than 500,000 today, and in Asia, where the population has dipped below 50,000.

In Asia, elephant habitat has been lost to timber cutting, mining, palm oil plantations and expanding human settlement, she said. Elephants that damage plantation plantings or human food crops are often killed.

“If we are to protect the elephant population and its survival long term, elephant and human populations need to learn to coexist. If we can’t do that, the elephant is going to lose,” Ms. Olson said. “We need to support people who live with elephants and provide them with the economic incentive to continue to do so, through tourism or other ways.”

The five-day symposium, which ends today, features more than 70 presentations on human-wildlife co-existence, poaching and illegal trade of ivory, reproduction, veterinary care and conservation. It provides an important opportunity for the 200 conservationists, researchers and keepers in attendance from around the world to share information about elephant and rhinoceros management as well as form partnerships and collaborations, said Barbara Baker, the zoo’s president and chief executive officer.

Ms. Olson said the captive elephant population in the U.S. is also beset by problems. Some small zoos are finding it too expensive to keep elephants, and many animals in the existing captive population are older and no longer of breeding age.

There are an estimated 220 African elephants and 240 Asian elephants in American zoos, circuses and private wildlife parks, she said. Many are older animals in their late 40s and even early 50s.

Pittsburgh’s pachyderms, including seven at the Pittsburgh zoo and five more at the zoo’s 724-acre International Conservation Center in Somerset County, make up the type of large, mixed-age, genetically diverse, herd that many zoos aspire to, but few have or can afford.

The zoo’s acquisition in 2011 of three female elephants from Botswana, all in prime breeding age and now at the Somerset facility, will give the zoo’s breeding program a boost, said Ms. Baker and Willie Theison, the Pittsburgh zoo’s elephant manager.

“The three females introduce new genetics and increase the dynamics of the breeding group we have out there,” Mr. Theison said, adding that the Somerset facility also provides a venue for educating female elephants from other zoos about rearing their calfs and herd behaviors.

But it is the education of those who must coexist with elephants in the wild that will go further in ensuring the continued existence of the animals, said Sean Hensman, manager of Elephants for Africa Forever, a South African organization that educates visitors about elephants’ economic and ecologic value at its two elephant viewing facilities.

“People, even in this country, don’t realize that problem elephants are often [killed],” Mr. Hensman said, adding that all 12 of the elephants in his organization’s facilities were slated to be killed by the government. “The public must be educated that elephants are a keystone species for African conservation.”

Mr. Hensman said the captive elephant breeding facilities may eventually benefit wild elephant populations by restocking areas of Africa where they have become extinct.

“It’s estimated that elephants in Kenya will be extinct in 12 years and they are facing similar fates in other areas of Africa,” he said. “It will be great to have captive elephants available to repopulate those areas once they realize they’ve lost a great thing.”

Ms. Olson, who describes herself as a realist but not a pessimist, said it’s difficult to envision elephant numbers increasing in the wild in the long run.

“I hope the decline in elephant populations is not very bad, but as the human population grows and that places more and more demand on natural resources, elephants will find themselves confined to smaller and smaller islands of habitat,” she said.

“As a species, we don’t share well, but if elephants are to survive we need to do a much, much better job of land use planning.”

The basis of this article is to provide:

1. A brief overview of about Akorn Inc.

2. An analysis of Akorn’s core business

3. Evaluation of sales, market/sector, and financials (2013 Q1 and Q2)

4. Opinionated conclusions and price targets

Akorn Inc. (NASDAQ: AKRX)

Executive Summary:

Akorn Inc. (“Akorn,” “AKRX” or the “Company”) is a generic pharmaceutical company with a market cap of roughly $1.6 billion (at time of writing). A quick analysis of Akorn reveals that the company has experienced substantial revenue growth over the past three years. Subsequently, Akorn has increased its share price from the $1.80 range to the $16 range (a total return of roughly 789%). Despite the significant increase in valuation, Akorn still remains a solid long term investment. Estimated price target for 2013 is $17.72 (8.7% gains) with possible gains of 133% if held to 2015 (under various assumptions of future revenue).

The following attributes make Akorn an attractive investment at its current valuation:

• Strong Revenue Growth: Akorn has shown to be a quick grower. Over the last three years, Akorn has grown its revenue from $86.41 million in 2010 to $256.16 million in 2012 (a CAGR of 43.65%). The current outlook for the year 2013 is expected to be within the $305 million to $315 million range with GAAP net income within the $47 million to $50 million range.
• Akorn’s Advancing the New Vision Plan: The plan has proven to be a successful growth strategy for the company. Simple in its nature, the plan was designed to improve research development, infrastructure, and to develop new business initiatives. Since 2010, results have been observable in all three categories.
• Experienced Management Team: CEO Raj Rai brings over 15 years of experience in healthcare services to Akorn. Since joining Akorn back in 2009, Mr. Rai has transitioned the company from being a heavy bleeder to a highly profitable pharma with great long term prospects. The executive team collectively brings over a century worth of experience to Akorn.
• Growing Product Portfolio: As of 8/18/13, Akorn has roughly 150 USFDA approved products listed on their website (counting various dosages/formulations). These products range from diagnostic and therapeutic ophthalmic pharmaceuticals, OTCs, niche hospital drugs, and a variety of injectables. Currently, there are 57 ANDAs on file with the FDA. The company has also completed another 16 products in which are expected to be filed with the FDA in the near future.

• Global Footprint and continued efforts to pursue global opportunities: Akorn operates pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities in Decatur, Illinois, Somerset, New Jersey, and Paonta Sahib, Himachal Pradesh, India (acquired from Kilitch Drugs India). Akorn’s global footprint reaches through The USA, Canada, some of South America, Russia, Australia, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Ukraine, and many others. Akorn plans to increase sales in various regions around the world where the pharmaceutical spend is projected to grow double digits within the next few years, such as the CIS countries, Middle East, Africa, and Latin America.
• Possible Acquisition Target: Considering the large amount of MA activity seen the last few years (especially in the healthcare sector), the possibility of Akorn becoming a target is probable. The company has experienced significant revenue growth over the past three years and continues to strategically allocate capital to ensure further future growth. Akorn’s strong revenue growth along with its small market cap of only $1.6 billion makes the company a probable buyout target.

Introduction to Akorn Inc:

Akorn Inc. is a generic pharmaceutical company focused on the development, manufacture, and marketing of products in areas of: ophthalmology, antidotes, anti-infectives, pain management, and anesthesia. Akorn Inc. has three main segments of business: ophthalmologic pharmaceuticals, specialty therapeutics/ injectable pharmaceuticals, and contract manufacturing. Akorn’s products are multi-source and branded pharmaceuticals sold in the United States and across the globe. Akorn has a wide range of customers which include physicians, optometrists, hospitals, surgical centers, clinics, long-term care, wholesalers, group purchasing organizations, retail pharmacies, and other pharmaceutical companies.

Manufacturing Facilities:

Decatur, Illinois: Currently, there are two company-owned facilities in Decatur, Illinois. Of the two facilities, only the Grand Avenue facility is used for manufacturing. The Grand Avenue facility is a 65,000 square-foot manufacturing facility in which is used for the following: dye products, liquid injectables, lyophilized injectables and ophthalmic solutions for Akorn’s ophthalmic, hospital drugs injectables, and contract services agreements. The Whyckles Road facility has 76,000 square-feet of building space and is used for packaging, warehousing, distribution and office space.

Somerset, New Jersey: Akorn NJ, a wholly-owned subsidiary leases a 50,000 square-foot facility in Somerset, NJ. This facility is used for drug manufacturing, research development (not the main facility for RD), and administrative activities. This facility manufactures ophthalmic solutions and ointments for Akorn’s ophthalmic and service contract segments; as well as gels for Akorn’s hospital injectables segment. First phase capacity increases and modernization were recently completed at this facility.

Paonta Sahib, Himachal Pradesh, India (acquired from Kilitch Drugs India): In 2012, Akorn completed the acquisition and integration of certain manufacturing facilities from Kilitch Drugs. Through this acquisition, Akorn has increased its capacity six-fold, while also gaining capacities for sterile injectable production. Akorn’s wholly-owned subsidiary, AIPL, owns and operates approximately 245,000 square-feet of pharmaceutical manufacturing, warehousing and distribution facilities situated on approximately 14 acres of land. These manufacturing facilities produce: liquid generic pharmaceutical injectables, oral and injectable cephalosporins, sterile injectable carbapenems, hormones, and oncology products. The Paonta Sahib facility currently manufactures product for Indian contract customers and for export to Africa, Asia, and other unregulated markets. A top priority mentioned in the 2012 annual share letter was for these facilities to implement the USFDA sight approval strategy so that products produced at these facilities can be sourced to the U.S. marketplace. Akorn’s goal is to trigger USFDA inspection in late 2013 or early 2014. Once approved, the Indian facilities are intended to supplement Akorns existing manufacturing capacity and provide opportunity for expansion of product menu as well as provide additional capabilities.

(click to enlarge)

Notes on manufacturing: Recently mentioned in the Q2 conference call was a concern that as more products become approved, “is there a possibility that manufacturing capacities could reach their limits within the coming 12 to 18 months?” The response by CEO Raj Rai was that there is no concern for the next 12 to 18 months in regards to manufacturing capacity, but there could be limitations in the long term should the Akorn India facilities not meet FDA compliance.

*Graph info: Values retrieved from 2012 annual report.

Research Development Facilities:

Vernon Hills, Illinois: Akorn recently relocated to this larger facility during the first quarter of 2013. Previously, Akorn operated a RD facility in Skokie, Illinois. A majority of Akorn’s internal product development will take place at this facility following a stable transition from the Skokie facility. The manufacturing facilities in Decatur, IL and Somerset, NJ will provide support for latter phases of product development. The goal of this new facility is for Akorn to have centralized and dedicated Ramp;D. Akorn believes that this new facility will allow the company to significantly increase the size of their product pipeline as well as shorten the time between the starting of a project to filing for approval with the FDA. The facility was designed to accommodate 35 to 40 ANDA fillings per year and to expand into the development of specialty formulations such as carbapenems (beta-lactam antibiotics), hormones, and oncolytics (cancer fighters).

Somerset, New Jersey: This facility is more of a supplementary/old facility for RD activity. Following the transition to the Vernon Hills facility, it is assumed that Akorn will discontinue any RD activity at the Somerset facility.

Merger Acquisition Activity:

On May 3, 2011, Akorn acquired AVR Business Trust and its subsidiaries for $26 million in cash. The subsidiaries include Advanced Vision Research, Incorporated and Advanced Vision Pharmaceuticals, LLC (collectively referred to as “AVR”). AVR develops and markets a line of OTC eye care products which are primarily marketed under the TheraTears® brand name. These products are carried by major drug retailers throughout the United States and are being marketed in various foreign countries.

On December 22, 2011, Akorn acquired three NDAs from H. Lundbeck A/S (referred to as “Lundbeck”). For an initial payment of $45 million and a likely $15 million payment on the third anniversary of the closing date, Akorn acquired Nembutal®, a Schedule II controlled drug, Diuril® and Cogentin®. Another $4.6 million was paid for Lundbeck’s existing inventory of the three acquired products.

On February 28, 2012, Akorn acquired selected assets of Kilitch Drugs (India) Limited for Akorn’s subsidiary, Akorn India Private Limited (“AIPL”). Akorn paid approximately $60.1 million in cash at closing, which included acquisition related costs of $4.9 million. The primary assets acquired were Kilitch’s pharmaceutical manufacturing complex in Paonta Sahib, Himachal Pradesh, India and its ongoing book of business. Through the agreement, Akorn also acquired selected assets of NBZ Pharma Limited, a company affiliated with Kilitch, from which Akorn acquired rights to manufacture and distribute certain pharmaceutical products. These facilities currently manufacture products for contract services in India and for export to unregulated countries. Akorn plans to obtain USFDA and international certification in order to manufacture products for export to the U.S. and other regulated markets.

Minority Stakes:

On August 2, 2011, Akorn entered into an agreement to acquire a minority ownership in Westborough, MA, based Aciex Therapeutics Incorporated (“Aciex”). Akorn paid $8 million in cash for the Minority interest and an additional $2 million for Series A-2 preferred stock. Akorn’s total ownership of Aciex is below 20%. Aciex is an ophthalmic drug development company with a focus in developing novel therapeutics to treat ocular diseases. Aciex’s pipeline consists of both clinical stage assets and pre-IND assets. In addition to Akorn’s stake in Aciex, Akorn signed a global licensing agreement for a single novel over-the-counter eye care product and a manufacturing agreement for one of Aciex’s lead prescription products. Based on information retrieved from Aciex’s website, both their clinical and pre-IND staged assets are designed to fill significantly unmet therapeutic needs.

Executive Management:

CEO Raj Rai:Joining the Akorn team in 2009, Mr. Rai has since transformed Akorn into a very productive and profitable company. Prior to joining Akorn, Raj Rai was president and CEO of Option Care, incorporated a leading pharmacy services provider of home infusion therapies and specialty pharmaceuticals. During his time at Akorn, the company has drastically improved its pipeline/RD, increased manufacturing capacities, and increased its revenue from $75.9 million in 2009 to $256.1 million in 2012. CEO Raj Rai holds a B. Tech degree in Mechanical Engineering from REC Warangal (India) and an MBA in Finance from Wayne State University.

CFO Timothy Dick: Prior to joining Akorn, Timothy Dick worked for Walgreens-Option Care Inc, where he served as Vice President, operations improvement analysis with responsibility for finance, pricing, and process improvement. He also held leadership/ management positions for Option Care, Inc., Johnson Johnson and Peace Health. Mr. Dick holds a BBA in accounting from University of Texas at Tyler and an MBA in Finance from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.

COO Bruce Kutinsky, Doctor of Pharmacy: Chief Operating Officer, Dr. Kutinsky is an entrepreneurial executive with over 20 years of healthcare experience. He is well known for his ability to develop, communicate, and align a corporate vision to investor financial commitments. Prior to joining Akorn, Dr. Kutinsky was the Vice President of Strategic Solutions for Walgreens businesses. During his time at Walgreens, Dr. Kutinsky was responsible for supporting the strategic process and the development of long range plans to achieve goals established in synch with the enterprise-wide corporate strategy. Dr. Kutinsky also held Vice Presidency and Presidency positions at Specialty Pharmacy for Option Care and Specialized Alternative Care. Dr. Kutinsky holds a Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Michigan.

Collectively bringing well over a century worth of experience (or an average of 18+ years of experience for each member), the overall executive team has the experience and talent necessary to continue to generate future revenue and shareholder value. The team has proven their ability to produce; especially when under the proper leadership of CEO Raj Rai.

Largest Shareholder: Dr. John Kapoor has served as Chairman of the Board since October 1990. Dr. Kapoor is also the president of EJ Financial Enterprises, Inc (a healthcare consulting and investment company). Between personal holdings and the John Kapoor Trust holdings, Dr. Kapoor controls roughly 30 million of the 96.2 million shares outstanding (31% ownership).

Akorn’s Core Business and Products:

Akorn has three man segments of business; ophthalmics, hospital drugs injectables and contract manufacturing. Akorn also recently brought back a vaccine biologics segment that is now included in the hospital drugs injectables segment. Akorn markets and distributes select vaccines in response to drug shortages.

The Three Core Business Segments:

Ophthalmic Segment: Sales of diagnostic and therapeutic ophthalmic drugs and over-the-counter eye care products.

There are approximately 68 ophthalmic USFDA approved products on Akorn’s website (as of 8/18/13). Diagnostic products, primarily used in the office setting; include mydriatics cycloplegics (dilators), anesthetics, topical stains, gonoscopic solutions, angiograph dyes and others. Therapeutic products, sold primarily to wholesalers, chain drug stores and other national account customers, include antibiotics, steroids, steroid combinations, glaucoma medications, decongestants/antihistamines and anti-edema medications. Non-pharmaceutical products include various artificial tear solutions, preservative-free lubricating ointments and eyelid cleansers (10 products listed on Akorn’s website). For the year 2012, revenues from ophthalmic products represented 50.64% of total revenue; making ophthalmics Akorn’s largest business segment. Akorn’s goal is to be in a leadership position in ophthalmics within the next five years. In 2012, Akorn filled a total of 55 ANDAs; 25 of which were for ophthalmic products (market value of $2.236 billion).

“New” Products:

1) AK-Fluor® (fluorescein injection, USP): Indicated in diagnostic fluorescein angiography or angioscopy of the retina and iris vasculature. In other words: A special dye used to map/observe vascular tissue in the retina and iris.

2) Akten® (lidocaine hydrochloride ophthalmic gel): Akten® is a local anesthetic indicated for ocular surface anesthesia during ophthalmological procedures. In other words: A solution to prevent pain/sensation during eye procedures.

3) Latanoprost Ophthalmic Solution: Used to treat high pressure inside the eye due to glaucoma (open angle type) or other eye diseases like ocular hypertension. Latanoprost is a generic of Pfizer’s Xalatan®. The annual sales of Xalatan® were about $1.6 billion. Mylan Inc. also produces a similar generic.

Thereatears®:

Acquired from Advanced Vision Research, the Thereatears® brand name allowed Akorn to penetrate the OTC consumer product category of the world wide ophthalmology market. Akorn introduced ten private-label eye care products that compare to leading brands in the dry-eye and eye-allergy category. Additionally, Akorn introduced a new allergy product called Thereatears® Eye Itch Relief. Since the spring of 2012, Akorn has leveraged its existing relationships with food, drug, and mass merchandise retailers in order to expand the companies store brand business. These OTC products are sold through major chain drug stores, big box retailers, as well as directly to optometrists, ophthalmologists, and other eye care practitioners/clinics.

Hospital Drugs Injectables: Sales of diagnostic and therapeutic injectables and other hospital drugs, as well as biologics vaccines.

Akorn Inc. markets a line of niche hospital drugs and injectable pharmaceutical products, including antibiotics, anti-infectives, controlled substances for pain management, anesthesia, and other selected pharmaceutical products. Akorn also markets Td vaccine (Tetanus) from time to time (due to the profitability of vaccines during drug shortages). This segment of products is predominantly sold to hospitals through the wholesale distribution channel. For the year 2012, hospital drugs injectables represented 40.51% of Akorn’s total revenue. Nembutal® is one of the top selling products in this segment.

Nembutal®: Part of a drug group known as barbiturates, Nembutal® is used as a parenteral sedative, short-term hypnotic (treatment of insomnia), preanesthetic and anticonvulsant (for emergency control of certain acute convulsive episodes).

“New” Products:

1) Adenosine Injection, USP: Generic form of Adenocard® (Astellas Inc.). This product is indicated for the treatment of irregular/rapid heartbeat (restores normal sinus rhythm in patients with paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia “PSVT”). An example of use: Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. Adenocard® (the branded equivalent) has shown to restore normal sinus rhythm in 93.4 % of cases (Astellas website).

2) Clindamycin in 5% Dextrose Injection (in 3 different doses): Clindamycin is a generic equivalent to Pfizer’s Cleocin Phosphate®. Clindamycin is indicated for the treatment of serious infections caused by susceptible strains of bacteria. “According to IMS Health, US sales for the branded version of clindamycin in 5% dextrose were USD 52.2 million for the 12 months ending in December 2012” (Sandoz Inc. Website).

3) Dehydrated Alcohol Injection, USP: Indicated for therapeutic neurolysis of nerves or ganglia for often temporary relief of chronic pain. Such conditions include: inoperable cancer and trigeminal neuralgia (a condition which causes intense pain in the face).

4) HydrALAZINE Hydrochloride Injection, USP: Used to reduce hypertension (high blood pressure) when 1) cannot be given orally or 2) when there is an urgent need; examples include: a hypertensive crisis, pre-eclampsia, and eclampsia (seizures and coma during pregnancy that are not preexisting or organic brain disorders).

5) Levofloxacin Injection, for Intravenous Use (20 mL 30 mL): Levofloxacin is a generic form of Levaquin® by Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Indicated for the treatment of serious infections caused by susceptible strains of bacteria. “Levaquin® (the branded equivalent) is used to treat bacterial infections of the skin, sinuses, kidneys, bladder, or prostate. It is also used to treat bacterial infections that cause bronchitis or pneumonia, and to treat people who have been exposed to anthrax or plague” (drugs.com).

6) Pantoprazole Sodium for Injection: (Drug class: Proton Pump Inhibitor) A generic equivalent to Protonix IV. Indicated for the short term treatment (7-10 days) of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease associated with a history of Erosive Esophagitis. In other words: A treatment for people who have had chronic acid reflux and now have significant damage to their esophagi. Other indications include: pathological hypersecretion including Zollinger-Ellison’s syndrome, a rare condition where a tumor (often in the pancreas) causes increased production of gastric acid, eventually causing damage to the esophagus. Pfizer’s Wyeth was producer of Protonix, in which achieved sales of $1.9 billion in 2007.

Contract Services: Sales of various drugs that are manufactured by Akorn for others to sell under their own brand names.

Contract manufacturing services only accounted for 8.85% of Akorn’s total revenue for the year 2012. Akorn currently has some manufacturing contracts with NBZ Pharma Limited (India) in which sell Akorn manufactured products to India and other unregulated markets.

Financials, Sales and the Healthcare sector:

Selected Financial Information:

* Info from 2013 Q1 Q2 Reports

(click to enlarge)*Information retrieved from Akorn’s annual share letters and recent Q2 announcement. (Values are GAAP)

Overview of Business Segments:

(click to enlarge)

(click to enlarge)

* Info retrieved from Akorn’s 2012 annual report

Discussion: Over the years, the general trend not only indicates Akorn’s total revenues significantly increasing, but their ophthalmic segment has grown to be Akorn’s dominant business segment. One can assume that this will remain the general trend since Akorn wants ophthalmics to be their primary niche.

More Financials:

* Obtained from 2013 Q2 report

Sales Notes Markets:

Latanoprost Ophthalmic Solution: Launched in third quarter of 2012, sales of Latanoprost were dismal due to manufacturing issues by third parties; resulting in a temporary delay of sales. Since then, Akorn has received the FDA ok to manufacture the drug themselves at their Somerset facility. Based on data obtained from IMS, Akorn reported to have 12% of the unit market share (at Q1).

Nembutal®: Sales of Nembutal increased by 14% for second quarter of 2013.

Key Distributors of Akorn’s Products:

(From 2012 annual report)

 

In 2012, 2011, and 2010 (not shown), a high percentage of Akorn’s sales were to large wholesale drug distributors. None of these distributors are an end user of Akorn’s products. Akorn reported in the 2012 annual report “that should sales of any one of these distributors diminish or cease, we believe that the end users would likely find little difficulty obtaining our products either directly from us or from another distributor. However, the loss of one or more distributors, together with a delay or inability to secure alternative distribution source for end users, could have material negative impact on revenue, business, financial condition, and results of operation.” Akorn last reported that they considered their business relationships with these three distributors to be in good standing and that they have fee for services contracts with each of them.

ANDAs On file at FDA as of 2012 (has increased to 57 ANDAs since).

Below shows market sizes of ANDAs based on data from IMS;

(click to enlarge)

The above does not show future sales but it does show the size of the markets Akorn intends to enter.

Healthcare sector outlook:

In the last few years, the healthcare sector has been pressured to produce cheaper and more efficient products/services. The general trend is that generics drugs and biosimilars are gaining more and more ground due to their significantly cheaper costs. With an aging population and relatively recent political pressure, generic drugs and more efficient therapies will have the advantage in this transforming market. Overall, with many drugs going off patent and the pressure to reduce costs, the opportunities for generics and specialty drug companies are favorable.

The following table shows, by segment and current product status, the number and total IMS market size of products/ANDAs expected to launch each year for Akorn.

 

 

Notes: Data aids in projecting sales based on overall market sizes. This chart is used in models in this report. The models assume a 10% revenue capture from overall IMS market value for each segment.

Models and Price Targets:

 

 

Explanation:

1) The top chart assumes Akorn’s “core” segments grow at a 19%, 21% or 23% CAGR (low, mid, or high) for the next two years. These “cores” imply Akorn’s current business with ophthalmics, injectables, and contract manufacturing and excludes new future products (Top Chart).

2) The second chart is a model based on the chart obtained from Businesswire.com. The data obtained from Businesswire provides a range of the overall market size for various drugs. The chart above assumes that Akorn obtains all the applied ANDAs and captures 10% of the markets for each drug. Example: Based on the chart from Businesswire, the total expected IMS market size for the year 2014 is about $1.67 billion (model above assumes 10% market share of that total — $167million total of new business for the year 2014). Following the year 2014, the New Business revenues grow at 8% CAGR (since “new business” implies added ANDAs revenue after FDA approval).

3) The final chart is the addition of the company’s Core Business Revenue and New Business Revenue (Estimated).

Net Income Estimates:

* Net Incomes found by applying the 15.9 % ratio to the total revenues.

Price Targets:

Based on Price to Sales

Discussion:

Akorn currently trades near a Price to Sales ratio of 5.5x. If Akorn trades with a 5.5 p/s till year end 2013, the price target/range would be near $17.72 per share ($310 million revenue for 2013). Akorn trades at roughly a Price to Earnings ratio of 39x TTM.

Akorn Share Price as of 8/18/13: $16.30

2013 Price target = $17.72 (8.7% Gain)

2014 Price Target = $27 (65.6% Gain)

2015 Price Target = $38 (133% Gain)

NOTE TO INVESTORS: 2013 is a relatively slow year for Akorn, the larger gains are estimated in/after 2014.

RISKS TO MODEL:

1) Model assumes approval of ALL ANDAs, should some of the ANDAs be denied, this will adversely affect the projected revenue.

2) Nembutal® sales are expected to increase, the recent 2013 Q2 report indicated increased sales of Nembutal®, should sales diminish (due to possible competition), this would cause projected revenue to decrease.

3) Akorn trades at both a relatively high Price to Sales and Price to Earnings ratio, these ratios were used to get an idea of future price targets for the stock price. Should Akorn be deemed overvalued to investors, this will reduce price targets.

4) Failure to manufacture products. The expected date for FDA decision for the India manufacturing facility is late 2015 or early 2016, should this facility be denied approval, the future beyond this point could be compromised (sell off probable due to manufacturing constraints expected by this time).

5) Litigation and the FDA. The model doesn’t assume lawsuit or possible payoff to other parties nor does it assume the FDA pulling a significant number of drugs from Akorn’s portfolio. The possibility of a “grandfathered” drug being pulled is high (non detrimental), but a major drug like Nembutal or another high revenue drug would reduce revenue projections.

6) The model does not assume a buyout.

Notes: Revenue past 2013 are estimates based on the information obtained from Businesswire, should ANDAs be responded to later than expected, this would change the predicted revenue for each year.

General Trends:

AKRX and SP 500 (Yellow line) 1 Year(click to enlarge)

Notes: Over the last year, Akorn has shown to follow some general trends in the market. The long term trend is very different as seen below. The conclusion is that over the last year (since the stock has slowed down), the stock has followed relatively with the overall market. Once Akorn experiences further growth, the idea is that the stock will outperform by a larger margin. Should problems arise in the overall markets, this could influence Akorn’s stock negatively.

AKRX and SP 500 (Yellow line) 5 Years

(click to enlarge)

*Above stock charts taken from Etrade

Conclusions/Discussion:

Akorn, undoubtedly trades at a large P/E ratio, but the company is expected to grow significantly over the next few years. Since there is so much pressure to reduce healthcare costs, generics, and lower cost alternatives continue to experience growth. The generic pharmaceutical business is very competitive. Akorn competes with companies like Mylan, Allergan Pharmaceuticals, Novartis, Bausch Lomb, and Apotex (to name a few). Despite the competition, Akorn has shown itself able to successfully grow its business and pipeline. With the help of highly experienced management, Akorn has grown into very profitable niche pharmaceutical company. Akorn has a healthy balance sheet with roughly more than $58 million in cash/cash equivalents and only $124 million in long term liabilities (2013 Q2). Along with a healthy balance sheet, Akorn has grown its revenue from $86 million in 2010 to more than $256 million in 2012 and is estimated to achieve $305 million to $315 million for 2013. Furthermore, with 57 ANDAs on file with the FDA and recently completed RD facility in Vernon Hills (which was designed to accommodate 35-40 ANDA fillings per year), Akorn has positioned itself for continued revenue growth. Aside from future revenue growth, the India facilities are expected to receive USFDA approval in 2015/2016. The India facilities, with their increased production capacities and international ties, will further expand Akorn’s global footprint and grow Akorn’s business for 2016 and beyond. Subsequently, Akorn plans to increase sales in various regions around the world where the pharmaceutical spend is projected to grow double digits within the next few years, such as; the CIS countries, Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. If successful, these global expansions would provide further probability of significant revenue growth. Overall, Akorn, with its strong balance sheet, increasing revenues, dedicated RD, competent leaders, healthy business relationships, and growing global footprint, is well positioned for growth for years to come.

Rating: BUY with a price target of $17.72 for 2013*

*As long as the overall markets hold up, the stock should reach this price target. This is because of the influence the overall market has on Akorn’s stock over the past year. Furthermore, should the company report exceptionally high earnings, the overall market will have less and less influence on Akorn’s stock going forward (assuming no major market fluctuations).

Personal Opinion:

Since Akorn’s stock sometimes experiences volatility, buying with on a dollar cost averaging method might be the best way to maximize long term gains.

Final Note:

I address my opinions in this article and encourage readers to forge their own opinions before trading/investing. Price targets addressed in this article are estimates and nothing more. Readers should do their own research and estimates before executing any transactions. I do not receive compensation from any other party, except seeking alpha.

Disclosure: I am long AKRX. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. (More…)

England Under-21 squad for European Championship qualifier against Moldova on 5 September at Reading and away to Finland on 9 September:

Goalkeepers: Jonathan Bond (Watford), Jack Butland (Stoke City), George Long (Sheffield United).

Defenders: Eric Dier (Sporting Lisbon), Ezekiel Fryers (Tottenham Hotspur), Todd Kane (Blackburn Rovers, loan from Chelsea), Michael Keane (Manchester United), Jack Robinson (Blackpool, loan from Liverpool), Luke Shaw (Southampton), John Stones (Everton), Tom Thorpe (Manchester United), Andre Wisdom (Liverpool).

Midfielders: Tom Carroll (Tottenham Hotspur), Nathaniel Chalobah (Chelsea), Will Hughes (Derby County), Nick Powell (Manchester United), Jonjo Shelvey (Swansea City), James Ward-Prowse (Southampton). Sammy Ameobi (Newcastle United), Jesse Lingaard (Manchester United), Nathan Redmond (Norwich City), Wilfried Zaha (Manchester United).

Forwards: Saido Berahino (West Bromwich Albion), Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur), Connor Wickham (Sunderland).

DAWSON CITY, Yn – A man has left a Dawson City, Yukon, hotel in a bit of a toe jam.

The man was at the Downtown Hotel Saturday night drinking the infamous Sourtoe Cocktail, which involves swigging a shot of whiskey with a human toe in the glass and allowing the toe to touch the drinker’s lips.

This time, the patron swallowed the digit — on purpose.

The hotel’s so-called toe captain, Terry Lee, performed the drink ceremony, and said the man took the shot, gulped down the toe and then slapped $500 dollars on the counter, the fine for swallowing the appendage.

“He stands up, reaches in his pocket, and takes five $100 bills and slams it on the table and starts walking away. And I said ‘Where’s the toe?’ And he said, ‘I swallowed it,'” Lee said, describing the event.

Lee said the fine has since been increased to $2,500, to provide more of a deterrent because now the hotel only has one toe left.

The two shrivelled brown toes have rotated, with one in use and the other stored in coarse salt.

“Right now the toe we are using, we are going to be using it continuously, and it’s going to deteriorate. We’re going to have to get rid of that toe once it starts falling apart,” Lee said.

The tradition started in 1973 after a toe believed to belong to a prohibition-era rum runner was found in a cabin by boat captain Dick Stevenson, prompting him to start the “Sourtoe Cocktail Club”.

According to the Sourtoe Cocktail Club website, the toe was originally placed in a beer glass full of champagne. But the rules have changed over the decades and the Sourtoe can now be had with any drink, even non-alcoholic ones.

One rule remains the same, however: “You can drink it fast, you can drink it slow — but the lips have gotta touch the toe.”

The website also suggests not swallowing the toe.

(CKRW)

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version referred to the Sourdough Cocktail Club

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• Penis Strawberry

  A mother has revealed that she celebrated Andy Murray’s Wimbledon victory with a freshly picked strawberry – shaped like a PENIS. Carole Collen, 52, was pottering about in her garden in Dartford, Kent, this Sunday (7/7) when she spotted the cheekily shaped berry dangling amid her fruit and veg patch. Holding back the laughter she went inside to show her family before taking a quick snap to show her friends. Now the mother-of-two is planning to entering the strawberry into a raffle in a bid to raise money for charity.

• This photo released by the Glendale Police Department shows a black Cadillac that lost control and careened onto the roof of a neighbor’s home on Saturday, March 23, 2013 in Glendale, Calif. The Cadillac driver lost control before leaving his driveway, plunging off a hill “onto the roof of his neighbor’s house directly below his driveway. (Photo courtesy of Glendale Police Department)

• Third Eye Blind

  Tilde Nörgaard, a Swedish sixth grader, is still trying to figure out how she got a third eye in her class photo.

• 150-lb Boulder Crashes Through Car Windshield

  This 150-lb boulder crashed through the windshield of a rental car in Sedona, Az. The passengers, Bob Jaczko and Peter Wilson suffered minor cuts.

• Kid Has LEGO stuck in nose for three years.

  Isaak Lasson can finally breathe easy after three years of sinus problem caused by a single wheel-shaped LEGO that he got stuck up his nose back when he was three.

• Scrapyard Destroys Wrong Car

  Ben Forrer outside Sita UK, a scrap yard in Coventry, today, 25, 2012. Refer to NTI story NTICRUSH. Ben Forrer looked on in horror as a Coventry scrapyard crushed his van by mistake. Ben Forrer had only left his Citroen Relay for a few minutes as he dropped off an old cooker at the Sita yard, in Longford. But workers mistook the van for scrap and began crushing it in the jaws of a mechanical grabber

• Middle Finger Bush

  A bush carved into the shape of a middle-finger has landed a gardener into trouble after somebody failed to share his humour over the shrub. The council received a complaint about the shaped bush eight years after it was carved by Richard Jackson, 53, in his front garden. Despite only receiving one complaint, the council have since contacted Richard to alter the bush as it is considered a public offence. But Richard, from Tamworth, Staffs, said his neighbours are backing his pledge to keep the bush and they have even began a Save the Bush campaign to support him. Credit: Caters News

• Cathedral Licker

  A man has made a 5,000 mile pilgrimage to every Anglican cathedral in England so he can give them a good LICKING. Lawrence Edmonds has staked his claim as Britains first every cathedral licker by tongue tickling an incredible 42 in less than two years. Christian approval, Polish condemnation, and looks of confusion from a flock of Dutch tourists have all been experienced by Lawrence on his epic journey Back in January 2011, Lawrences friend Adam challenged him to a bet- that he couldnt lick every Anglican cathedral in the UK within five years. Credit: Caters News

• Baobab Tree Sculpture

  Mike De Butts adds the finishing touches to a giant Baobab Tree sculpture entitled ‘Under the Baobab’, outside the Southbank Centre on May 24, 2012 in London, England. The Pirate Technics’ installation is made from a selection of brightly coloured fabrics from around the world, and is part of the Southbank Centre’s ‘Festival of the World’ exhibition, which includes a series of large scale pieces of art that will be in place around the Southbank centre over the Summer.

• My Little Ponies

  Some of Sarah’s ponies. Sarah Butler, 28 from Barnsley, Yorkshire has been collecting 1980’s My Little Ponies for 24 years and now has over 1,000 of them as well as having a themed room in her house including My Little Pony curtains, bedspread and other collectables.

• Rapunzel Hair

  Natasha Moraes de Andrade, 12, is nicknamed Rapunzel because her hair is more than 5 feet long — just one and a half inches shorter than her height. In March, she planned to cut and sell the locks for some $2,600 to help get her family in Rio De Janeiro out of poverty.

• Moscow City Lights

  Swirling colors of city lights from a 900ft crane fill the Moscow skyline. Photographer D. Chistoprudov boards the crane, which is being used to build a skyscraper called Federation, and takes pictures over a period of two hours. Chistoprudov, 28, starts taking the swirling snaps around 1am and battles freezing weather to remain completely still so not to ruin the careful process. (Caters News / ZUMA Press)

• iPoo

  The sleek design, the impressive functionality, the distinctive logo – was it only a matter of time before Apple redesigned the humble toilet with the iPoo? The iPoo is literally a case of toilet humour and Belgrade designer Milos Paripovic makes the tongue-in-cheek claim his work isn’t intentionally related to the Apple brand.

• Tamaseseri Festival

  Naked men wearing only loincloths vie for a wooden treasure ball weighing eight kilos to bring good fortune, during the Tamaseseri festival at Hakozaki shrine in Fukuoka, on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu on Jan. 3, 2012. Two teams of farmers and fishermen competed for the rich harvest or largest catch at a festival that dates back some 500 years.

• Snow Church

  Visitors stand around a snow church just after its inauguration on Dec. 28, 2011 in Mitterfirmiansreut, Germany. The circa 25 meters long church was made of 1,400 cubic meters of snow and aims to commemorate the winter of the years 1910/1911, when so much snow fell that believers of Mitterfirmiansreut were no more able to go to church in the neighboring community of Mauth. So they decided to build their own church, made of snow. (Armin Weigel, AFP / Getty Images)

• Snow Church

  Visitors stand around a snow church just after its inauguration on Dec. 28, 2011 in Mitterfirmiansreut, Germany. The circa 25 meters long church was made of 1,400 cubic meters of snow and aims to commemorate the winter of the years 1910/1911, when so much snow fell that believers of Mitterfirmiansreut were no more able to go to church in the neighboring community of Mauth. So they decided to build their own church, made of snow. (Armin Weigel, AFP / Getty Images)

• Heine Braeck, 33, from Sarpsborg, Norway, has been without an right arm since he lost it during a freak accident when he was 13. Now he has decided to make the stump look like a dolpin’s head with the help of Bulgarian tattooist Valio Ska.

• Giant Slipper

  A man who ordered a special slipper to fit his oversized foot was sent a size 1,450 – after manufacturers failed to spot a decimal point in his order. Tom Boddingham, 27, has a size 13 right foot while his left is slightly bigger and measures a size 14-and-a-half. But when he ordered his custom-fit slipper manufacturers in China misread size 14.5 and accidently made a whopping 7ft long size 1,450

• Eight-year-old girl is world’s youngest drag racer

  Eight-year-old girl Belle Wheeler has become the youngest drag racer in the world — just two days after her eighth birthday. The pint-sized dragster then went onto compete against youngsters more than twice her age and qualified for the UK National Finals.

• Lawn Mower Endurance Race

  Competitors race in the 12-hour Lawn Mower Endurance Race on September 24, 2011 in Billingshurst, England. First started in 1973 as a motorsport that would be accessible to as many as possible, this year’s competition included more than 30 teams including some from South Africa, America and Luxembourg.

• Pumpkin Art

  An employee arranges pumpkins to form a fish at the pumkin exhibition of the asparagus and experience farm Buschmann and Winkelmann in Klaistow near Beelitz, northeastern Germany on August 31, 2011. The exhibition will start on September 1 , 2011, with over 100,000 pumkins in 400 different varieties.

• Cable Car High Wire

  High wire artist Freddy Nock balances as he walks up on the rope of a Zugspitze cable car in Grainau near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, southern Germany, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2011. Nock walked up the 995 meters long rope with an altitude difference of 348 meters aiming at collecting money for the UNESCO. He is attempting to set a new world record by doing seven summits in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in seven days. It took him about 90 minutes to arrive on top of Zugspitze, the highest mountain in Germany.

• Third Story Exit

  A 16-ton salt spreader blasted through the fifth-floor wall of a Queens Sanitation Department garage and came within inches of plummeting 50 feet to the street. The driver survived the spectacular 9:30 am crash, which sent bricks and debris raining down on cars parked outside the Maspeth repair facility, but spent 15 terrified minutes dangling in the cab of the bright orange vehicle. It’s unclear how driver Robert Legall, a 10-year Sanitation veteran with a clean record, lost control of the big rig. “There are signs up there warning drivers to slow down,” Commissioner John Doherty told the New York Post. “He’s familiar with the rules. We think it was just an unfortunate accident.”

• Speed Record Spins Out

  Driver Joe Wales crashes through the surf after veering off course during an attempt on the British land speed record for battery-powered vehicles in the Bluebird Electric on Pendine Sands on August 14, 2011 in Pendine, Wales. Driver Joe Wales and his father, fellow driver Don Wales, come from a famous family who have been setting land and water speed records since 1924. Don holds the current UK record of 137 miles an hour in an electric vehicle.

• Giant Cabbage

  Harrogate Autumn Flower show Director Martin Fish with a giant cabbage, as he introduced a series of new classes for Giant Vegetables to mark the 100th Anniversary of the Show. Giant onions, tomatoes and many others will all compete for the top prize of the biggest vegetable.

• Keep Claer

  An incorrectly spelled “Keep Clear” road marking is pictured in Kingswinford, on August 3, 2011 in West Midlands, England.

• Etna Volcano lava

  Lava spewed from a crater of the giant Etna volcano in the southern Italy island of Sicily on July 30, 2011 in Catania. The lava flown into a valley overnight and did not represent a danger to inhabited areas. Etna is the highest active volcano in Europe at 3,295 metres (10,810 feet) which last eruption was in May.

• Killer Plant Eats Bird

  An exotic plant expert was stunned when he inspected one of his garden
  pitcher plants and discovered it had eaten a blue tit.
  Prize winning Nigel Hewitt Cooper one of Britain’s leading carnivorous plant
  growers, from West Pennard, Somerset, couldn’t believe his eyes when he
  checked the Nepenthes x mixta or Monkey Cup pitcher and found the dead bird
  inside.
  Normally the plants which are native to south east Asia consume insects
  which thy attract by secreting a sticky, sweet fluid at the bottom of the
  pitcher.
  Sometimes in the wild they have been known to kill small mammals like mice
  but Mr Hewitt Cooper who regularly wins prizes at the Chelsea flower show
  says for a cultivate plant to capture a bird is incredible.

• Giant Mermaid

  A man adjusts a sculpture “Giant Mermaid” on the Alster lake in the northern German city of Hamburg on August 1, 2011. The sculpture is created by art and advertising agency headed by Oliver Voss.

• Huge Pastry

  People look at a huge khachapuri (Georgian cheese pastry) in central Batumi on July 28, 2011. The cake was baked using 100 eggs, 90 kilograms of cheese, 150 kilograms of flour, has 8 meters length and was eaten within 1minute 32 seconds by people at a street.

• Velomobiles

  Velomobiles, recumbent bicycles with sleek, colorful outer shells, head for the open road in Portland, Ore., Thursday, July 28, 2011. Twenty five riders from Europe and twenty five riders from North America are on a cross-country trip which will finish on the U.S. Capitol steps in Washington D.C. on August 26. The bikers are trying to spread the message that sustainable, clean transportation can be fun.

• Bobblehead Bishop

  Erie Catholic Bishop Donald W. Trautman has been immortalized in miniature with a bobblehead doll made in his likeness. The bobblehead comes as Trautman prepares to end his tenure as bishop of Erie.

• Canadian bubble artist

  Canadian bubble artist Yang Fan, who has set world record by packing 118 people inside a soap bubble, performs at the Gazillion bubble show in Beijing on July 19, 2011. Yang has earned international acclaim as a result of his complex displays of “bubble theater”. In addition to performing he has developed his own bubble solution formulas and equipment to create bubbles.

• Giant Marilyn

  Newly-wed bride Magda Villasenor looks at “Forever Marilyn”, a sculpture by Seward Johnson, on July 15, 2011 in Chicago, Illinois. The stainless steel and aluminum sculpture, which stands 26 feet tall and weighs 34,000 pounds, will be on display in Chicago through the spring of 2012. The sculpture was inspired by Marilyn Monroe’s iconic scene in the 1955 movie “Seven Year Itch”.

• Hot Dog Hot Rod

  The iconic Oscar Mayer Wienermobile vehicle is seen outside of the New York Stock Exchange as part of its day-long 75th birthday celebration, Monday, July 18, 2011. To commemorate the milestone, the Oscar Mayer brand rang the closing bell at NYSE. (Diane Bondareff/AP Images for Oscar Mayer)

• Harry Potter Corn Maze

  An aerial view of Top Pearsy’s Maize Maze in the shape of Harry Potter, on July 11, 2011 in York, England. Farmer Tom Pearcy has cut two portraits of Harry Potter in his crop of maize plants. With some subtle differences the two images create the world’s largest spot the difference competition. At over 50m in diameter, and cut out of over 1 million living maize plants, the York Maze is the largest ‘Maize Maze’ in Europe and one of the largest in the world.

• Recycled Sailboat

  A sail boat made of recycled material makes its maiden voyage to mark World Oceans Day in Taipei, Taiwan, Wednesday, June 8, 2011.

• Pontiac Deluxe Six ‘Ghost Car’

  An extraordinary transparent car could fetch as much as GBP 295,000 when it goes up for auction.The motor, dubbed the ‘Ghost Car’, is a Pontiac Deluxe Six which has been covered in Plexiglas. The first transparent full-sized car to be made in America, it was built in 1939 by General Motors and chemical company Rohm and Haas. Billed as a vision of the future, it was a sensation at the 1939-40 New York World’s Fair and continues to cause a stir today. Just two were ever made and this model, which has a three-speed manual transmission, is thought to be the last of its kind. It has clocked up just 86 miles in its lifetime; and now its set to go on sale for the first time since the early 1980s. It last sold for an undisclosed amount. American auctioneers RM expect it to sell for between $275,000 and $475,000.

• Serbian Brides Race

  Serbian women take part in a wedding dress race in downtown Belgrade on June 19, 2011. More than fifty “brides” took part in an annual wedding dress race in the Serbian capital, competing for numerous prizes. (Andrej Isakovic, AFP/Getty Images)

• World Naked Bike Ride

  People take part in the annual “London World Naked Bike Ride” event in central London on June 11, 2011. Now in it’s eighth year, the event has seen participation grow from 58 in 2004 to 1,200 in 2009. Taking a route that passes many of London’s most famous landmarks, the ride allows those participating to decorate their body with messages of protest against oil dependancy and motor vehicle usage.

• Hanging Around

  British artist Alice Newstead hangs by shark hooks during her demonstration to protest against shark slaughter in Hong Kong on June 14. The protest was organized by marine conservation group Shark Savers, and supported by Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics who are launching a global campaign to protect the sharks.

• Reptile House

  Diska Putra, holds one of his snakes in bed at home on June 10, 2011 in Bintan, Indonesia. Putra, 24, cohabitates in Indonesian with a collection of 30 snakes, some of which are deadly poisonous.

• Monkey God

  An Indian priest walks outside the temple of Hindu monkey God Hanuman in New Delhi early June 12, 2011. The highly popular monkey-god Hanuman known for his strength is worshipped for his unyielding devotion and selfless dedication to the Lord Rama.

• Big Baby

  Ron Mueck’s ‘Big Baby’ sculpture is displayed in front of Jenny Saville’s painting ‘Interfacing’ at the Masterpieces Exhibition at Christie’s on June 13, 2011 in London, England.

• Drunken Knight

  A would-be knight who tried to woo a maiden by riding into her home on a horse is facing five years behind bars for aggravated burglary. Lovelorn Jan Rudnicki, 40, hatched the scheme to bowl over divorcee Gosia Domoslawska after a night’s drinking down his local bar in Jarnoltowka, Poland. But terrified Gosia, 36, dialed 999 when her drunken suitor – stripped to the waist – galloped up her garden path and smashed his way through the front door like a battering ram.

• Sideshow Fat Man Dies

  Bruce Snowdon, the last sideshow fat man, was honored in a memorial service on Jan. 30, 2010. Snowdon performed as “Harold Huge,” and weighed 607 pounds (though by some billing he tipped the scale at 712 pounds). Here he is with fellow sideshow star Peter Terhurne, a fire-eating dwarf.

• So, What Do You Do For a Living?

  Mexican tattoo artist and trained lawyer Maria Jose Cristerna, known as “Vampire Woman”, attends the Fifth International Tattoo Convention in Bogota, Colombia, on June 4, 2011.

• It’s All Fun And Games…

  A Sufi Kalandar (wandering ascetic) performs an act of self torture during devotion at the annual death anniversary of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer, India on June 2.

• Indian spiritual guru Swami Baba Ramdev

  Indian spiritual guru Swami Baba Ramdev performs yoga during his hunger strike at the Pitanjali Yogpeeth in Haridwar, some 240kms from New Delhi, on June 7, 2011. India’s embattled prime minister on June 7 defended a police crackdown on a peaceful anti-graft demonstration led by a famous yoga guru, saying authorities had been left with no choice.

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When Somerset opens the football season Friday night at home against Pulaski County in the Ray Correll Bowl, nobody will appreciate the lights, the action, the atmosphere more than Briar Jumpers’ junior tight end/defensive end Jacobi Gilmore.

On Oct. 4 last year, Gilmore and teammate Will Hinton were involved in an automobile accident that Somerset Coach Robbie Lucas described as “horrific.” Hinton suffered a broken pelvis. Gilmore had a concussion, bleeding on the brain, a collapsed lung, separated shoulder and broken jaw.

For Hinton, it was the end of his senior year of football. He was in a wheelchair for two months, and out of school for almost four while recovering and rehabilitating. “Missing football was one thing, but people don’t realize how tough it was to miss so much school, being away from my classmates,” Hinton said this week.

Gilmore was hospitalized in Lexington for a couple weeks, and didn’t return to school until January. He lost more than 40 pounds after the accident, but he was committed to regaining his strength and playing football again. He rehabbed quickly enough that he played in a few basketball games for Somerset late in the season. He’s worked tirelessly since, bulking up for football. He now has 235 pounds on his 6-foot-4 frame. “It felt really good to get back out on the field with everybody,” Gilmore said of the pre-season. “I’m still a little rusty at everything, but it’ll come back.”

Lucas was happy, and nervous, to have Gilmore back. Lucas knows concussions are a serious issue in football. “I never took my cellphone out on the field before, but I did for Jacobi’s first two or three practices with contact this pre-season. It was a scary thing. I was concerned. But we’ve read everything we could about concussions, and researched all the helmets and safety devices.”

Gilmore admitted he’s wary about suffering another concussion. That’s why he spent so much time in the weight room getting stronger “so I don’t have to use my head to tackle people.”

Lucas said both Gilmore and Hinton “came really close to losing more than football. Now they cherish everything in life a little more.”

Hinton, who’s ready to start his freshman year at UK, is fully active again, lifting weights, running, playing pickup basketball. He’ll be back in Somerset on Friday night to watch his former teammates play archrival Pulaski County, and appreciate all that he’s been through. “I’m about as lucky as a person can get,” he said.

? Trinity and St. Xavier have combined to win 16 of the last 20 big-school state football titles. Trinity has been champ 10 of the last 12 years, but Scott County gave them a serious scare in the state semifinals last fall. Scott County led 14-0 in the fourth quarter before the Shamrocks rallied for a 21-14 victory. Does Cardinals Coach Jim McKee think Trinity or St. X can be beat this year? “They won’t win forever. They’ll just win 95 percent of the time,” McKee said. “History tells us somebody will rise up and beat them again. I watched Clark County do it in 1991, Nelson County do it in 1996 and Male do it in 2000. I hope it’s us this year, I hope it’s us next year, But history tells us it’s not going to happen very often.”

In the meantime, McKee wants to keep Scott County contending. “We want to make each team we have the very best it can be, and what I think that has proven over the last four to six years is that we have the best public school 6A football program in the state. I think (last year’s playoff game against Trinity) put a stamp on that.”

? Most coaches respond to pre-season questionnaires with just the facts. Grayson County football coach Ed Smart answered with a sense of humor. Asked about his team’s strengths, Smart listed “school colors, nice fieldhouse, awesome superintendent, nice kids.” As for the Cougars’ weaknesses, he had “size, depth, strength, speed and head coach.” Smart rated Bowling Green No. 1 in 5A, and Bowling Green’s junior varsity No. 2.

? Back home after spending nine months in Africa with the Kentucky National Guard, Steve Tressler is ready for some football. Tressler, the play-by-play man for Lexington Catholic on Real Life radio (AM-1380 and FM-94.9) the last four years, will be in Bowling Green on Saturday night for the Knights’ season opener against the two-time defending 5A champ Purples. While in Africa, Tressler still managed to do his blog, The Armchair Quarterback for Kentucky.com. The only live football he saw was the Super Bowl broadcast. Having served in Iraq and Africa before, Tressler said his latest stint overseas “again reminded me how blessed we are as citizens of the United States. Our lives are so much more comfortable and our opportunities are so much greater here than anyplace else in the world.”

? West Jessamine’s Devin Taylor will be one of the star attractions of the third annual VisitNich.com Bowl at East Jessamine on Friday night. East Jessamine plays South Oldham in the 6:45 p.m. opener, followed by West Jessamine facing Scott. Taylor, a 5-foot-10, 210-pound senior, rushed for 2,442 yards and 23 touchdowns last year. Among colleges showing interest in him are Morehead State and Eastern Illinois.

? The 66th Recreation Bowl is Saturday at Montgomery County. Clark County and Rowan County meet in the 5 p.m. opener, followed by Bourbon County taking on the host Indians. Montgomery County will be looking for its fifth consecutive win in the Rec Bowl. Bourbon County sports a 13-game regular-season winning streak.

? Marvin Meredith, one of the winningest coaches in Kentucky high school basketball history, passed away in early July when I was on vacation. He was 85. Mr. Meredith coached Russell for 30 years (1955-76 and 1981-89) and led the Red Devils to 677 victories, including three regional titles. In his very first game as head coach, Russell scored 117 points in a victory over Ironton (Ohio) St. Joe. “Right from the start I believed that basketball is entertainment, and that people come to the games to see you get up and down the court,” Mr. Meredith said in a 1989 interview. Mr. Meredith’s love for the fast break may have dated to when he was a star sprinter at Catlettsburg High School and Marshall University. In college, he once ran against a UK speedster named C.M. Newton. Mr. Meredith joked that his job as a driver’s education teacher helped him handle the pressures of basketball: “I take 50 kids who can’t drive out in a car every day. So when I have 3,000 fans watching me coach every week, it doesn’t seem so bad.”

? Dixie Heights basketball standout Brandon Hatton has committed to Vermont, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. Hatton, a 6-2 senior guard who averaged 23 points last season, is already the Colonels’ all-time leading scorer with 2,365 points. He also had offers from Tennessee Tech, Winthrop, Gardner-Webb, Montana State, Samford and Jacksonville.

? Defending boys’ state golf champ West Jessamine won the Kentucky Invitational Tournament for the third year in a row last Saturday. Colts senior Fred Allen Meyer, who won the KIT as a freshman, was medalist again with a 4-under par 68 at Nevel Meade. Byron Speach had a 74 for West Jessamine, followed by Connor Haas with a 76. Austin Swentzel and Landon Adkins added 80s for the Colts, who beat St. Xavier by six shots.

? Andrew McKinney of Danville birdied his last two holes and shot a 1-under par 70 to win medalist honors at the Garrard County Invitational at Dix River Country Club last weekend. McKinney beat his brother Spencer by one shot. Lexington Catholic, coached by Danville native and former UK player Ben Fuqua, took the team title. The Knights were led by Chase Thornhill and Justin Baker, who shot 75s. Paul Mitchell and Cooper Collins had 77s, and Spencer Carrico shot 80.

Mike Fields: (859) 231-3337.Email: mfields@herald-leader.com Twitter: @MikeFieldsNotes. Blog: fieldsnotes.bloginky.com.

Doug Wright © Getty Images

The prodigious Doug Wright was born on August 21, 1914. Abhishek Mukherjee looks at a Kent giant who did not quite make it big at the next level.

Don Bradman had called him the greatest leg-spinner to tour Australia since Sydney Barnes.

Keith Miller thought he was the greatest leg-spinner since Bill O’Reilly.

EW Swanton called him “the unluckiest bowler in the world.”

And yet, Douglas Vivian Parson Wright picked up 108 wickets from 34 Tests at a way below-par average of 39.11 with six five-fors and a ten-for. It was not that he was an all-rounder — he never even scored a First-Class fifty. And yet, despite his ordinary show he was retained for a career that extended to either side of World War II.

Ray Robinson said that Wright’s run-up “looked like a cross between a barn dance and a delivery stride.” With an unusual run-up that involved five small and five long steps; then, to quote Derek Hodgson in The Independent, Wright “leapt for the bowling crease, ending by spreading his arms wide then lifting both overhead before a full-circle delivery.”

Wright used to bowl a lot faster towards the beginning of his career, alternating between medium-pace and leg-breaks. He concentrated more on leg-breaks as he matured, finding supreme control over turn. Accuracy was never his forte, which probably explained the poor average.

David Frith explained why: “With his [Wright’s] technique running in from over 15 yards, hopping and skipping as he went, and whipping over a wristy and finger-spun ball that would dip, bounce and deviate crazily off the pitch, to expect long-term accuracy was to display a dismal ignorance of physics.”

His shock ball was a brute of a delivery that sped through, often taking Godfrey Evans — his Kent and England teammate — by surprise: Evans often had to gesture to the slips to go backwards. In between these came the additional full-toss and long-hop that would undo all the good work; there was also the persistent no-ball problem.

Johnny Moyes wrote: “Why a bowler of his [Wright’s] skill failed to get more test-match wickets always mystified me; there was of course the marked tendency to bowl no-balls, but he sent down so many good ones, and worried and beat the batsmen so often, that he should have had better results. He seemed always likely to get wickets. It is one of the toughest problems of captaincy to know when to remove a man like that from the firing-line.”

Wisden wrote: “Everyone agreed — and [Don] Bradman and [Wally] Hammond were among his chief admirers — that on his day [Doug] Wright was unplayable. But he gave the batsmen a chance to score too.”

Hodgson, however, wrote: “[Doug] Wright is best remembered for bowling more unplayable balls – fast leg-breaks and googlies that would fizz off a hard surface — than anyone in history.” Every now and then he produced an unplayable delivery, only to ruin it by his inconsistency.

He made up for his lack of accuracy with his aggression, and thrived under the most hostile of conditions. Wrote Arthur Mailey: “There was a touch of the south wind hostility about him [Wright]. The more he was attacked, the harder he blew, the longer and faster he ran.” Colin Cowdrey added: “He [Wright] never ever bowled a ball defensively. Every ball was bowled to take a wicket,” and also mentioned that his epitaph should read: “he [Wright] never wanted to bowl a dot ball”

From 497 First-Class matches Wright had picked up 2,056 wickets at 23.98 with 150 five-fors and 42 ten-fors. The wicket count would have been more had the early days of his career not coincided with ‘Tich’ Freeman, the Kent legend. Still, he did a commendable job over a career that spanned from 1932 to 1957; he picked up over a hundred wickets in a season ten times; and he remains the only bowler to take seven First-Class hat-tricks.

Early days

A student of St Nicholas Parish School, Wright was a quiet student who participated in all kinds of sporting activities. On leaving school he was employed as a clerk at a legal firm in Temple (London), where he played for the Chislehurst Club in summer. Here he drew the attention of Gerald Simpson, the captain of Kent County Second XI.

Wright was originally a medium-pacer who attended the Walham Green School of Cricket run by Aubrey Faulkner on Simpson’s recommendation. It was Faulkner who taught him the nuances of the leg-break and the googly. Wright was never hesitant to confess: “I owe Aubrey Faulkner everything.”

Wright eventually made his First-Class debut against Warwickshire at Birmingham, finishing without a run or a wicket. The match against Gloucestershire at Bristol next season earned him his first wicket. Bowling in tandem with Freeman at Taunton he picked up four for 26 to guide Kent to a 52-run victory over Somerset.

He eventually earned his Kent cap in 1936 — a season where he eventually started to emerge out of Freeman’s shadow. He destroyed Glamorgan with five for 41 at Cardiff, Derbyshire with five for 31 at Gravesend, and Nottinghamshire with four for 88 and six for 72 at Trent Bridge. He finished that season with 59 wickets at 23.49.

Freeman retired at the end of that season, leaving Wright as the leader of Kent’s spin attack. It would be the first time that Wright would play a full season for Kent. Wright thrived under the new responsibilities: he kept on taking five-fors on a regular basis, and won the match against Leicestershire at Aylestone Road single-handedly with figures of five for 90 and five for 93.

Then, against Worcestershire at New Road, Wright removed the alliteratively named Harold Harry Haywood Gibbons, Joseph Horton, and Bernard Quaife in successive deliveries to register his first First-Class hat-trick. He picked up seven for 27 in that innings.

He was at it again later that month against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge: this time it was Joseph Knowles, Joe Hardstaff, and George Gunn to register two First-Class hat-tricks in the space of 25 days. This time he picked up six for 47. He finished the season with 111 wickets, but his erratic bowling meant that he went for 27.19.

He began 1938 with an encore — this time against Gloucestershire at Gillingham: the wickets in his third hat-trick were Reg Sinfield, Bill Haynes, and Monty Cranfield. Despite his figures of seven for 77 and four for 97 Kent lost the match, but Wright had done enough to earn a Test call-up.

Test debut

Wright made his debut at Trent Bridge in 1938 and impressed everyone on first appearance. The marathon spell resulted in four for 153: he was not hesitant in bowling aggressively — but Stan McCabe’s 232 in the Test achieved such cult status that nobody noticed Wright’s performance.

With the series levelled 0-0 going into the fourth Test Wright came into his elements at Headingley, picking up two for 38 to restrict Australia to a 19-run lead. Then, as Australia chased 105, Hammond gave Wright a bowl as late as on 50 for two. Wright almost won the Test by dismissing Bradman, McCabe, and Lindsay Hassett in five overs. He finished with three for 26 as Australia won by five wickets.

Back to domestic cricket he carried on with his fine form, finishing the season with 110 wickets at 23.44 with nine five-fors and a ten-for.

He had little success in the South Africa tour (though he picked up two for 142 and three for 146 in the ten-day yawnathon at Kingsmead). His best performance of the tour came against Natal at Pietermaritzburg where he picked up six for 55. Against Border at East London, however, he picked up his fourth hat-trick when he dismissed Stanley White, Harold Whitfield, and Dereck Dowling.

1939 was by far Wright’s best Pre-World War II season: he picked up 141 wickets at a more-than-impressive 16.81 with 11 five-fors and three ten-fors. After a flurry of wickets towards the beginning of the season he reached his peak against Somerset at Bath, picking up eight for 35 and eight for 45. Earlier in the season he had also picked up eight for 84 against Sussex at Tonbridge.

Then came his career-best haul — against Gloucestershire at Bristol — where he picked up nine for 47. It also contained his customary hat-trick — his fifth — that involved Jack Crapp, George Emmett, and Bill Neale. Despite that Kent lost by an innings. In the return match against Gloucestershire at Maitland Kent had their revenge: Wright led the way with six for 20.

For once Pelham Warner was impressed: “I have not, admittedly from the ring, seen more difficult bowling than his [Wright’s] against Gloucestershire at Maidstone since the days of SF Barnes.”

The Wright juggernaut carried on: he picked up six for 69 and four for 125 against Sussex at Hastings and in the next match he followed it with seven for 46 and six for 77 against Worcestershire at New Road.

In between all this he picked up five for 132 (albeit from 30 overs) at Lord’s to help England beat West Indies by eight wickets, but picked up only a solitary wicket from his next two outings at Old Trafford and The Oval. His amazing Championship record, however, was good enough for him to become a Wisden Cricketer of the Year.

The War commenced after that and Wright served in the Fifth Anti-Aircraft Battery of the Royal Artillery. He was eventually promoted to Second Lieutenant. He played cricket whenever he could in between. In between all this Wright found time to get married to Daphne Dolson in June 1941.

Post-war

World War II took away a crucial six years Wright’s career — and he could play again only when he was close to his 31st birthday. Playing against Australian Services he impressed on his comeback with three wickets and then picked up five for 90 and five for 105 against a strong Dominions outfit at Lord’s as England went down by 45 runs.

He picked up five for 89 in his Championship comeback against Yorkshire at Canterbury, and once again had an excellent season. He seemed to have taken off from where he had left bowling leg-breaks before The War. He finished the season with 125 wickets at 18.08 with 12 five-fors and four ten-fors. These included two innocuous Tests against India where he managed to pick up four wickets.

His first Australia tour

Wright was considered one of the trump-cards of Hammond’s team when they left the English shores to play the antipodeans. His unusual action took the Australian crowd by surprise. O’Reilly wrote: “He [Wright] waves his arms widely, and rocks on his legs like a small ship pitching and tossing in a fairly heavy sea. Whenever he bowls in Australia there are people who whistle and cat-call as he goes through his strange approach to the stumps.”

Wright ended up having a mixed bag that series. He picked up five for 167 from 43.6 eight-ball overs (58.2 six-ball overs) at The Gabba; and in the last Test at SCG he returned career-best figures of seven for 105. However, Australia won both Tests and claimed the series 3-0.

With 23 wickets Wright easily topped the bowling chart from either side — finishing five wickets clear of both Ray Lindwall and Colin McCool’s 18. However, these wickets came at an appalling 43.04. He was also over-bowled: he bowled 1,922 balls that Ashes — a whopping 28.82% bowled by the side, while Alec Bedser bowled 1,971 (29.56%). As a result Bedser fared even worse, with 16 wickets at 54.75.

However, the figures do not reflect how well Wright bowled on that tour: the no-ball problem followed him more than before. Jack Fingleton called no-balls “Wright’s curse” and added that “He’s [Wright has] probably bowled more of these [no-balls] than any other spinner in history.”

Fingleton added: “On at least four occasions he [Wright] was convinced he had [Don] Bradman in his bag but it was not to be. Wright, I believe was very keen to secure such a verdict over Bradman, who only once has been dismissed LBW during his Anglo-Australian Test career.”

Even if one undermines Fingleton’s quote based on the fact that the cricketer-turned-journalist had a slightly anti-Bradman outlook one can refer to Cary’s Cricket Controversy: Test Matches in Australia 1946-47: “He [Wright] continually rapped the pads with his straight one, and when the decision went against him, his face clouded with puzzled dismay.”

Cary added: “On four occasions [Wally] Hammond, usually most undemonstrative, threw his hands in the air as the ball beat [Don] Bradman and shaved the stumps, and in between these near dismissals there was a confident appeal for leg before wicket.”

In the MCG Test Bradman tried to play across the line and was trapped plumb in front of the wicket, but was ruled not out despite a ferocious appeal. Cary, however, mentions that “the camera appears to give a different verdict.” It should be noted that though Cary was generally a critic of The Don as a person he was an ardent fan of the legend’s batting.

Swanton added that on that tour “no Australian batsman was his [Wright’s] master.” He added: “In [1928-] 1929 and [1932-] 1933 England had won two rubbers, missing only one catch in all. This time they certainly missed ten chances of one kind or another off [Doug] Wright alone.”

To crown everything Bradman himself complimented him with the words: “There was one [bowler] who caused me more problems than anyone else – Douglas Wright of Kent.” No, it was not Harold Larwood.

Back home

He found the conditions to his liking in the dry summer of 1947 and picked up 177 wickets at 21.12 with 18 five-fors and eight ten-fors. This included a career-best Test haul against South Africa at Lord’s where he demolished the tourists with five for 95 and five for 80. This would remain his only ten-wicket haul.

He also claimed his sixth hat-trick this season — against Sussex at Hastings; he removed George Cox, John Nye, and James Cornford in successive deliveries. He single-handedly demolished Sussex with figures of seven for 59 and eight for 119 in the match.

He got selected for a single Test at Lord’s against the Invincibles in 1948. He picked up only two wickets, but by his own admission, bowled the best over of his life in that Test — to Bradman: “Every ball came out of my hand the way I wanted and pitched where I wanted. I beat him [Bradman] twice. It went for 16.”

After retirement Bradman wrote: “I scored a lot of runs against him [Wright], yet I could never settle down comfortably. However well set I was and on the best batting wickets, I knew he was capable of producing the unplayable ball — and no other bowler had quite the same power.”

Later years

As his age went past the other side of 35 Wright was picked only sporadically for the Tests. He still remained a giant at First-Class level, though, as he picked up 129 wickets at 21.93 with 12 five-fors and five ten-fors in 1949 and 151 more at 20.79 with 15 five-fors and three ten-fors in 1950.

Playing against Hampshire at Canterbury Wright picked up the seventh and final hat-trick of his career when he dismissed Desmond Eager, Clifford Walker, and Derek Shackleton. He picked up five for 81 and six for 89 in the match and Kent won by an innings.

Wright eventually earned a Test selection against West Indies at The Oval. Unfortunately for Wright, Freddie Brown lost the toss, and Wright’s five wickets cost him 141 runs as the tourists amassed 503 and won the Test by an innings, thereby sealing the series by a 3-1 margin. Despite the defeat Wright became the first bowler in history to have dismissed the three Ws — Everton Weekes, Clyde Walcott, and Frank Worrell — in the same Test innings (Trevor Bailey became the only other one, six years later).

He was selected for the subsequent Ashes tour but disappointed once again. He pulled a muscle at SCG and could not bowl in the entire Test. His only decent show came at Adelaide where he picked up four for 99 and was engaged in an epic contest against Arthur Morris, who scored 206.

He went on to play the subsequent tour of New Zealand, and shone for one last time at Wellington when he picked up five for 48 in the first innings to bowl out the hosts for 125. Though England won by six wickets it turned out to be Wright’s last Test.

Final years for Kent

In the next five seasons Wright’s wickets tally read 99, 119, 98, 109, and 127. Had he picked up those three wickets (one in 1951 and two in 1953) he would have gone past the 100-mark in seven consecutive seasons.

He was made the first professional captain of Kent in 1954 — a post he held till 1956. These were not very good years for Kent as they slid lower and lower down the Championship ladder. As age took toll of him a common sight was to find Wright at taking off his shoes and socks and uttering the words “Sorry, boys, but you’re going to be needed again tomorrow.” He was apologising to his feet.

He played less and less matches as his age went past forty. Even then, he had it in him to run through Middlesex at Maitland in 1956 as he returned figures of 17.4-9-30-8. Middlesex were bowled out for 64 in 44.4 overs and lost by nine wickets as Wright snared three more. Wisden wrote: “Most of his [Wright’s] eight victims had not been born when Wright entered First-Class cricket twenty-four years ago and they had no answer to his whipping leg-breaks and googlies.”

He did not prove to be the best of captains. Ian Phipps explained why: “As a quietly spoken man, Doug [Wright] was rarely able to deliver rousing dressing-room speeches that might have served to lift the spirit of his side and spur them to greater things. Similarly, being of a very sensitive and caring nature, he found it difficult to criticise any of his colleagues for a misdemeanour or to omit someone from the side if their form had escaped them for he shared their disappointment.”

He resigned in 1957 and was replaced by Cowdrey as Kent captain. He decided to hang up his boots the same year (which was also his benefit season) – almost at an age of 43: even in his last season Wright picked up 38 wickets at 22.92. His last match – against Gloucestershire at Maidstone – saw him pick up four for 39.

Below is a table containing a comprehensive list of Wright’s seven First-Class hat-tricks.
 

 

Post-retirement

The unassuming Wright served as a coach at Charterhouse School till 1971 and led a quiet life afterwards. He suffered from a number of ailments in his final years and passed away at Canterbury on November 13, 1998.

(Abhishek Mukherjee is a cricket historian and Senior Cricket Writer at CricketCountry. He generally looks upon life as a journey involving two components – cricket and literature – though not as disjoint elements. A passionate follower of the history of the sport with an insatiable appetite for trivia and anecdotes, he has also a steady love affair with the incredible assortment of numbers that cricket has to offer. He also thinks he can bowl decent leg-breaks in street cricket, and blogs at http://ovshake.blogspot.in. He can be followed on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ovshake and on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ovshake42.)

When Did We Suffer The Most?

We’ve had sort of a slow summer for hurricanes. It’s not like New England gets them very often, and we certainly are not a hotspot… but we at least get Threatened with one now and then. This summer? Nada.

There are good, valid, known reasons for this as-it-stands-now lack of tropical action. For one, we have seen tons of Sahara Desert dust being blown offshore. They’ve had a dry summer over there, and the Sahara dust interferes with water heating and surface-to-air evaporation… both of which are crucial to hurricane formation

We’ve also had a gorgeous summer. We get these summers because a big area of high pressure sets up near us. High pressure circulates clockwise. Low pressure circulates counter-clockwise. When they meet, the low pressure system gets sheared. When that happens, it’s pretty much all she wrote for Tropical Storm Whoever.

So, to summarize, you’ve had a dry summer in Africa, and any tropical waves which come off the Dark Continent that aren’t smothered by dust are then stopped by shear. Hence, the lack of hurricane reporting going on in these parts.

Conditions do look favorable for development in the eastern Atlantic in the upcoming weeks, so things could yet pick up. However, we are not here today to talk about the future… we’re here to talk about the past.

New England, despite not being Florida or Louisiana, does have an impressive hurricane history. We’ve been hit by some doozies. Cape Cod, which is sort of the chin of New England, usually bears the brunt of our hurricanes, although the body shot that is a Connecticut landfall also has an impressive history.

Since we’re a Cape Cod news site, we’ll use Cape impact as the deal-breaker when assembling this list of storms. We’ll use impact on population as well, so many pre-Columbian monster storms will miss the list despite their power still being apparent 1000 years after the fact.

Conversely, many storms which are merely overgrown nor’easters will appear on this list merely because Cape Cod had more people living there when ranked Tropical Storm Irene hit in 2011 than when the meteorologically similar but unranked 1683 tropical storm arrived and disturbed 400 Pilgrims.

So, let’s review some history, and set a benchmark for historic storms. If I have to re-write this list soon, you’ll most likely have lost your roof.

We’ll go by date, rather than ranking. If I skip your favorite storm, I guess it just wasn’t a True Player.

Pre-Pilgrim

Recent innovations allow researchers to guess when big storms hit before recorded history.

I’ve seen them doing it at the Great Salt Marsh in Duxbury. They drill for soil samples, get a ten foot tube full of soil, then analyze layers of mud to see when some sand unexpectedly appears over marsh mud. This sand could only be put there by a storm big enough to wash beach sand over the dunes and into the marsh. Once they find sand, they do some Science/Math stuff (it is unbecoming to the sportswriter, all this Book Learning that you speak of…), and can determine when big hurricanes struck the area.

Thusly, we know that major storms hit the region in roughly 1100 AD, 1300 AD, and 1450 AD. Given the fact that recorded history shows dozens of hurricanes each century, we can assume that these storms really stood out, and were probably Katrina-style events.

I’m not sure if the soil method is valid for pre-Ice Age storms, but it is handy for any time post-Jesus… and, to be fair, if your hurricane research really needs to pre-date the Big Man, this column is probably several PhD’s beneath you. I’m generally the Sports Editor here.

The Great Colonial Hurricane

1635 was a good year to be a Pilgrim, but August 25th of 1635 was a very bad day to be one. On this day, with absolutely no warning at all, what scientists say was a Category 3 hurricane dropped out of the skies onto the early Pilgrims and their Wampanoag friends.

Scientists and historians can actually piece together a pretty good idea of what this storm was like by primary source documents and computer storm surge models. These things speak of a 15 foot storm surge, a mile-wide swath of trees blown down, dozens of drowned Wampanoags, 125 mph winds and a reading of 27.7 inches on John Alden’s barometer.

It was “the most intense hurricane in New England history” and would have done “a bazillion” dollars damage in 2013 dollars on 2013 Massachusetts. The first quote is from Brian Jarvenin, a National Hurricane Center expert and a noted authority in the field, and the latter one is from Stephen Bowden, about whom such things are not said.

A few funny things to ponder with this storm…

– The Pilgrims left Europe- where storms like this don’t happen- in 1620. It is fairly safe to say that they saw a few nor’easters before 1635, but nothing like the GCH. I grew up in northern France, with a similar climate to the Dutch/English one they were used to… this storm must have seemed like the wrath of God.

One of my neighbors on Duxbury Beach had a nanny from the Gold Coast of Australia, where they also don’t get things like hurricanes and blizzards. She was home alone when the April Fool’s blizzard struck Massachusetts, and she was in a panic when I spoke to her on the phone.

It was a very English sort of panic, though… “When do the send the Army for us? And who makes all of this snow go away?”

– Duxbury was founded in 1637, by Myles Standish. Where he settled would be very much uphill from the Plymouth colony. I never really put together the 1637 founding date with the 1635 hurricane. Myles probably lost his house in the GCH, and rebuilt on higher ground. Duxbury also has a very effective barrier beach.

It’s a shame that I found this out, because I liked the previous idea I held on Duxbury’s founding… that Duxbury, which- depending on how you view Weymouth and Bourne- was America’s first suburb, was founded by a guy for whom 1637 Plymouth had gotten just a little bit too crowded…. to the point where he decided to hack his own town out of the forest.

– If the Pilgrims had a National Hurricane Center and named each hurricane, this would have been named something like “Mercy” or “Prudence” or “Goody.” “Headeth for yonder hills, ‘ere cometh Hurricane Faith.”

1778 Hurricane Season

Two storms of note struck Cape Cod during this Summer Of War.

The first storm hit in August as a weakening hurricane, and is notable only for cancelling a Revolutionary War naval battle between France and England off Rhode Island. Had the Brisith won that battle, it would have only been a short march and a bit of shooting before they conquered Cape Cod.

Since, before the Canal, there was only one way to Boston from the southern colonies, British possession of Cape Cod would have essentially taken Boston out of the war effort. With the British holding both New York and Canada as well, it would have taken New England out of the war… and we’d probably be Old England still.

Another storm- possibly a nor’easter, possibly not- struck on November 1st. This direct-hit Cape Cod, and killed 70 people. 23 of those dead were British sailors from the HMS Somerset III, which ran aground off Cape Cod. This is generally known as the 1778 New England Hurricane.

October 17th, 1782

This mild one is listed only because it was a rare Snow Hurricane, although it probably rained on Cape Cod. We’d have been too close to the warm creamy center for any snow.

“Snow hurricane” makes me think “nor’easter,” as a hurricane is more of a heat engine. Hurricanes draw their energy from warm ocean waters, while nor’easters draw theirs from areas of contrasting temperatures.

New England isn’t that big, and if it’s cold enough to snow in one part while warm enough for a hurricane-strength ocean storm not too far away, that sounds like contrasting temperatures.

Either way… Snow Hurricanes make the list, even if they were nor’easters.

The Storm of October 1804

This monster was/is also known as The New England Hurricane of 1804.

This was the second Snow Hurricane on the list, but it was definitely not a nor’easter. It left a path of destruction from Virginia (descrbed in one ship’s log as “a dreadful squall”) up to here. Experts estimate it as a Category 3, which is Bob-sized. Top winds were 115 mph.
It dropped 3 feet of snow on Massachusetts, and was the first Snow Hurricane to gain national attention.

Cape Cod most definitely got rain from this. Salem, much further than the Cape from the storm’s warm center, is recorded as getting 7 inches of rain.

If you knew that a storm blew the steeple off the Old North Church in Boston, now you know which one did it…. the New England Hurricane of 1804.

The Great September Gale of 1815

This storm was the worst to hit New England since that Pilgrim Hurricane 180 years before.

This is considered to be one of the 5 worst hurricanes to hit New England. Winds reached 135 mph, and Providence had a 17 foot storm surge.

 

The October Gale of 1841

This one, which actually passed off-Cape enough that it snowed in Connecticut, exacted a high cost on the coast.

81 fishermen were lost, as the storm wrecked the Georges Bank fishing fleet. It is also notable for destroying salt works on Cape Cod… an event which led to a profound economic slump for the region. Cape Cod was highly dependent on salt, and, when the British attacked Wareham during the War of 1812, the first thing they set on fire was Wareham’s salt works.

Note that the word “hurricane” had not entered into common American English at the time (it’s either a Carib word Juaracan, who is their storm god… or it’s the Mayan creator god, Huracan), hence the use of the word “Gale” so often.

October, 1849

A late season storm hits Massachusetts, killing 143 people. It is the second deadliest hurricane to ever hit New England.

The Saxby Gale

This storm hit in October 1869, and was the last notable storm for some time.

It was a category 2 storm, and- amazingly- wasn’t even the biggest storm of the year.

A category 3 storm struck SE Massachusetts in September 1869. This, and the cooler-named Saxby Gale, would have killed more people if SE Massachusetts at the time wasn’t a series of small, far-apart farms.

After those hit, we enter into a down period. We still get storms, and some even come ashore as hurricanes (several in 1870s, 80s, and 90s) but nothing really makes big news for 50 years.

Even then, we only get a pair of storms that hammer Buzzards Bay in 1904 and 1916. Then, things get hectic.

August 1924

This was a category 2 or 3 storm, and the worst thing to hit Massachusetts since the Saxby Gale. It cut a line from New Bedford to Plymouth, through sparsely-populated areas.

The old-timers will tell you that damage from this storm to the Cape and Islands was worse than the damage inflicted in 1938. It was followed by another hurricane which killed an impressive 84 Vermonters in 1927.

Storms really do need names, because if this were Hurricane Vito or something, you’d have heard of it.

The Long Island Express

This is the biggest of them all. The 1635 hurricane was more intense, but it struck probably 400 people. This storm struck during September of 1938.

It started near the Cape Verde Islands, gained strength, and slammed into Long Island with 125 mph winds. SE Massachusetts, on the deadly northeast side of the storm, suffered terrific damage. If you ever hear about Blue Hills getting a hurricane-record 186 mph wind gust (and probably worse, as a different, stronger gust broke their anemometer), that was from this storm.

This storm owns the deaths record, at 600-800. The storm hit Cape Cod with 18-25 foot tides. Falmouth and Bourne were under 8 feet of water. New Bedford lost about 70% of their fishing fleet. The fire station in Buzzards Bay was under 5 feet of water, and that’s inland a fair bit.
One old-timer I know said that he saw a house wash down the Canal and finally get caught up on the Bourne Bridge. When they got out to it, it was full of water. Inside, they found a mother and her two daughters… dead. They also found the body of a guy who swam out to try to rescue them. All of them perished while trying to claw through the roof of the rapidly-flooding house with their bare hands.

Between the Saxby Gale and this storm, the USA had gained many immigrants from Europe. These people, like the Pilgrims who I mentioned earlier, had no idea how storms get. Only the oldest of old-timers remembered the Saxby Gale, and the 1924 storm wasn’t all over the Internet or anything, seeing as Al Gore hadn’t invented it yet.

Throw in some piddle-poor forecasting (a rookie at the National Weather Forecast center actually called the storm and the New England landfall, but was overruled by his superiors, who issued gale warnings and mentioned nothing at all of a killer hurricane flying up at New England), and people died by the bushel-friggin’-basket.

Damages were around $5 billion in 2013 money. 35% of New England’s trees died. 25000 cars, 50000 homes, and 25000 telephone/electric poles were destroyed by the storm. Power was out for 2 weeks after the storm, and it was out for months in isolated places.

Things stayed active after this storm, which was also known as the Great New England Hurricane.

The Great Atlantic Hurricane

1944 was a bad year to be at sea. If some U-Boat didn’t kill you, the Great Atlantic Hurricane would.

This storm was a monster, in both size and intensity. As such, it was given that name in the title by the NHC (then the Miami Hurricane Warning Office). Thusly, it was the first storm to get a name.

Peaking at 145 mph, it came ashore in Long Island and Rhode Island as a category 2 storm. It is famous in these parts for sinking the lightship LV Vineyard Sound, killing all 12 men on board.

Hurricane Carol

This is the 1954 Carol, not the 1953 Carol. If a named storm wasn’t too bad, they kept the old name in circulation, so you’d get 2 or 3 Carols in a row if they all stayed out at sea. This one didn’t.

Carol made landfall in Saybrook, CT as a category 3 storm. This makes Carol one of the Big 5… storms which were Category 3 or greater upon their New England landfall. The others were 1635, 1815, 1938, and and either, depending on which stats you believe, 1869 or Hurricane Bob.

Carol was the first storm where Cape Cod was evacuated, with 20,000 people bugging out. 1500 Wareham residents were left homeless, and a 20 foot storm tide inundated New Bedford. 65 people died, and about 1000 were injured. 1/3 of all New England lost power.
2 weeks later, Hurricane Edna arrived, doing even more damage. Edna passed right over Cape Cod as a Category 2, and killed 28 people.

After these storms, you started seeing seawalls go up along the Massachusetts shoreline. The seawall in front of my house in Duxbuy has “Tony, 9/54” carved into it. This was also the storm which made them try dumping silver iodide into hurricanes to cool and kill them, something called Operation Stormfury.

Carol was the first Atlantic hurricane name to be retired.

Hurricane Donna

This 1960 storm put a 140 mph wind gust onto Blue Hills, a 135 mph gust on Block Island, and a partially shaded 110 mph gust at New Bedford airport. Donna, a Cape Verdean storm, reached a peak of 160 mph while moving across the Atlantic towards us.

This was sort of the Storm before the Calm, as about 25-30 years passed before another major hurricane hammered Cape Cod. Gloria skimmed us in the 1980s, Belle drew a lot of attention in 1976, and Carrie put 90 mph winds on Plymouth in 1972, but Cape Cod was essentially off the hook until 1990.

Hurricane Bob

This gale is the benchmark that modern Cape Codders use when referencing storms. Bob whupped up on Cape Cod like we owed him money and were talking about his mother concurrently. Bob came in August, 1991.

The head of Buzzards Bay (Onset, Buzzards Bay, Cataumet, etc…) bore the brunt of this storm. Most of these areas were under 5-10 feet of water. The Massachusetts Maritime Academyy in Buzzards Bay recorded a 120 mph wind gust. Private anemometers in Falmouth recorded unofficial 150 mph gusts, and a fishing boat off Cuttyhunk reported a 162 mph gust.

Cape Cod evacuated, and an 11 mile backup gridlocked the Sagamoe Bridge. It was even worse in Maine, where an evacuating President Bush closed Route 95 so he could have direct access to the Air Force base he was bugging out of Kennebunkport to. Thousands of evacuees were delayed.

The storm hit during the height of Tourist Season, during yet another Bush-led recession. Cape Cod essentially shut down until the summer of 1992, and they were still resolving issues from it when I moved here in 2005.

500,000 people were left without power, including all of Cape Cod. Many places on Cape Cod were just getting it back by October, just in time to watch Perfect Storm highlights.

 

The Halloween Gale

I lived in Duxbury in 1991, and nothing happened to us at all during Bob… the water didn’t even reach the seawall.

We paid for it in October, though.

A fading hurricane merged with a low pressure system to form a new hurricane. The fading one was Grace, the new one was eventually named Henri.
Henri actually wasn’t named at first, and has only gained a title after the fact. The NHC felt that naming Henri would create a panic. Henri later inspired a novel and a George Clooney/Marky Mark film about some doomed fishermen.

Where Bob hammered south-facing beaches, Henri (aka the Halloween Gale, the No Name Storm, or/and the Perfect Storm, although locals use “Halloween Gale” or “No Name Storm” among each other, and only use “Perfect Storm” when talking to tourists) gave it to the eastern ones. My house in Duxbury was destroyed by this storm, which hung around for 6-8 tides.

This, and the more nor’easterish Blizzard of ’78, were the ones where Boston TV weathermen acquired their reputation for uselessness. I can recall watching Dick Albert say “Hurricane Grace, way offshore, not an issue for us, may get windy at the coast for a while,” about 16 hours before I was trapped in my house on some Andrea Gail sh*t.

After this series of beatings, we again entered another dormant stage where the best we could do were nor’easters and remnant storms from other states. We’re still sort of in that dormant state, although the fringe storms are hitting us more frequently now.

Hurricane Earl

New England was fearing the worst in 2010 as Hurricane Earl made his way towards us. All indications pointed to another Bob. I think I wrote 20 articles chronicling Earl’s approach. When I went to bed, Earl was heading straight towards us. By the time I woke up, he had veered out to sea. You could golf that day.

Earl did kick up tropical storm winds, and much of Cape Cod lost power to a not-that-bad storm. Due to inefficient asset allocation by NSTAR, power was out for more than a week in some spots.

Hurricane Irene

Much like Earl, 2011’s Irene was a wimp that staggered no one but NSTAR. Power was out for almost 2 weeks for some people.

Hurricane Sandy

2012’s heavy hitter whaled on Noo Yawk, but it wasn’t that bad up here. More damage was done by a Wareham microburst a week later than was done during Sandy, and a series of blizzards and nor’easters also did greater damage than Sandy. Some Cape Codders lost power, but it was nothing like the power loss during the 2013 blizzard.

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Like I said before…. if we have to update his, you probably have 5 feet of water in your basement.
 

RHODES University complained last week that it was “on the brink of having to close” after a water pump broke, leaving 11 residences and about 1,000 people without water for 10 days. It is the latest victim of South Africa’s failing hard infrastructure. Causes vary between poor upkeep, unchecked decay, theft and damage. That is discounting for sheer incompetence or a combination of those factors. The result is that our state is locked in an endless war of attrition with mismanagement and vandalism just to keep basic services running properly. And it’s a war we are losing, badly.

The problem is so acute, the numbers so big and the scale so enormous it defies comprehension. Any one of the key indicators — electricity, water, roads — now boast such monumental maintenance backlogs that the big gap between maintaining the status quo and addressing the backlog itself shows we are in a constant state of regression. And, as with all spiralling debt, it is a vicious cycle. Once trapped in it, the ability just to make a repayment becomes impossible. We no longer service an infrastructure debt in South Africa; we service the interest on a loan, on a debt taken out partially to address a substantial shortfall. We are so far behind the curve we need a new set of axes.

Here are some top-line figures from the media, over the past year:

• Water: In February, the Water Research Commission reported that approximately half of all South African water was stolen, wasted or leaking away each year. To give that some quantifiable value, Gauteng MEC for local government and housing Ntombi Mekgwe estimated in May this year that Gauteng municipalities alone collectively had lost about 481-million kilolitres of water in 2012, roughly R7.8bn in financial losses.

• Roads: South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) CEO Nazir Ali said last year the backlog for maintenance alone was R149bn. In September last year, the director-general for transport, George Mahlalela, told Parliament: “We require about R80bn annually to sustain what we have. We are only getting R36bn a year.” He estimated that 80% of our road network was older than its designed life of 20 years.

• Electricity: The distribution, maintenance and rehabilitation backlog increased by at least R2.5bn annually and in 2012 stood at R35bn, Thabang Audat, the chief director of electricity in the Department of Energy, told Parliament last year.

But there are hidden costs within those costs. Cable theft, for example, affects not just the supply of electricity but also everything from telephone connections to train signalling.

The South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry runs a “Copper Theft Barometer” (that we should even have such a thing speaks volumes). For June, it estimated that R11.1m in copper cabling had been stolen. In the past six years, at least R3.2bn worth of cabling has been stolen from Eskom, Telkom, Transnet and the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa. It is estimated to cost the economy R7bn a year.

A great many other, more minor, hard infrastructure indicators are damaged or neglected to the point of collapse: traffic lights, manhole covers, equipment (from hospitals to schools), public buildings (libraries being a good example) and vehicles (ambulances to police cars, although executive VIP transport seems to be thriving).

Here is a lateral thought: has anyone ever done an analysis of the state of South Africa’s pavements? In Johannesburg, the municipality has essentially abandoned them. Private citizens maintain them, when they have the means or the inclination, to the extent that many must now violate several by-laws. They have become gardens and pedestrians cannot walk through them; they must take to the road.

The implications have become part and parcel of South African life. We joke about electricity blackouts and load-shedding forecasts as being as common as weather predictions. Potholes and broken traffic lights have their own reports on radio news shows. Train delays are more prevalent than doctors’ notes at businesses across the country and we drive through more water puddles when it’s dry than when it’s raining, as broken mains everywhere gush a human right onto the streets. Coping with our failing infrastructure has become a way of life.

When the implications are more profound, we read about them in the papers, but only as a passing nod in chaos’s direction. Rhodes, for example, is by no means unique.

In November last year, newborn babies were discharged from Nkhensani Hospital in Giyani, Limpopo, covered in blood. They were sent home to bath because the hospital had not had water in three months. The necessary equipment to pump water had been stolen or broken. In Vhembe, residents were without water after R700,000 worth of damage was done to the Madombidzha pump station. Every cable between the control box and the main pump, as well as the stand-by pump, was destroyed. In January, Tekwane, outside Mbombela in Mpumalanga, went without water for five days. A water pump broke after illegal connections had damaged it. This month communities in Lusikisiki, also in the Eastern Cape, went without water for two weeks as the municipality battled to fix leaking water pipes.

The Gautrain — the very metaphor for Johannesburg as a “world-class African city” — has, on numerous occasions, been forced to shut down due to cable theft. An average delay of this sort prevents about 50 trains from running and the consequences can be deadly. When a passenger train had an accident near Saulsville earlier this year, leaving roughly 200 people injured, copper cable theft was sited as the cause. In other train accidents, caused by a similar problem, people have lost their lives.

When electricity supply is not being prevented through such theft, our dilapidated infrastructure has caused blackouts and load shedding. Hospitals have often suffered as a result. In March, generators failed to kick in at Charlotte Maxeke Hospital in Gauteng, leaving its intensive-care unit without electricity for four hours. In June, a three-and-a-half-day power outage shut down Somerset Hospital in Cape Town. The hospital does not have a back-up generator. Section27, which has made an issue out of this particular problem, reports that, elsewhere, “the power outages have led to instances in which surgeons operated using headlights and cellphone light”.

The effects often reach far beyond standard public services; they are undermining national security too. Earlier this year, it was reported that Silvermine Military Command, the naval base in Cape Town, had its communications compromised when more than 5km of copper cabling was stolen over the course of a year.

And there is a profound cost to all of this, one increasingly born by a tiny section of the South African population able to pay rates and taxes. Where they cannot cover the collective cost of supplying services, huge debts follow. The South African water boards are owed more than R1bn by municipalities unable to collect revenue. Eskom has been forced to hike its rates to astronomical levels in a desperate attempt to cover a maintenance backlog long out of control, as well to counter the same problems the water boards face. In November last year, Eskom revealed it was owed R3.3bn by Soweto residents alone.

And collecting revenue is itself badly managed. By way of illustration, the Johannesburg billing crisis has become a tragic comedy. It might be funny to receive a bill for R1m; it is less funny when the municipality demands payment, unless you are the African National Congress (ANC) itself, in which case these sorts of things are sorted out in double-quick time, as happened when Luthuli House received an erroneous bill recently.

Were someone with enough time and energy to compose a composite picture of the state of South Africa’s infrastructure, it would beggar belief. But, then, this is South Africa. It is our reality. We live in chaos and we have become quite good at it. Acknowledging it without acting on it allows us to live in harmony with it, and, in an act of real self-inflicted harm, because we don’t truly recognise it, we can add to its intensity by stripping the state bare of its assets.

Over the past few years, as the various imploding state entities have reached the point of collapse, the ANC government has responded with a huge increase in infrastructure spend. But it has a loan-shark-like relationship with citizens. It cannot pay back its debt fast enough, and as much as it demands more rates, tariffs and taxes, it cannot generate enough revenue to service its constitutional obligations.

Luckily, it has a forgiving client or one disinterested in the implications. Disorder is now accepted as the norm. We can live with it as long as it does not fundamentally compromise our day-to-day lives. And we have lost the ability to express the appropriate outrage at the extent of the problem. Millions, billions and trillions have become numbers without meaning. It’s all too much.

In the long term, there are obvious consequences for excellence (the benchmark has become stability). Identifying crises honestly and bluntly becomes a cause for celebration, never mind actually engaging with them. And, of course, accountability is affected, for a crisis lends itself to forgiveness — supposedly, everyone is doing their best under difficult circumstances — but there is much to be said about our collective psyche too.

Live in a constant state of turmoil, decay and neglect and, soon enough, even the garbage can begin to smell like roses, depending on when it was thrown out.

Nelson Mandela has quietly disappeared from the front pages. No more tribute walls, people crying on television or media frenzy, but his condition has not changed. He remains, we are told, “critical but stable”. That can only mean future despair and pain but, much like South Africa, now that we have digested the extent of the problem, we have other things to worry about for the moment. It’s how we cope.

On the park’s Chimpanzee Habituation Experience (CHEX), visitors hike with a researcher to watch chimps descend from their overnight nests between 6 and 6:30 a.m. You stay with the group all day, observing and photographing the chimps as they forage for fruit, copulate, hunt, breastfeed, rest, patrol, and display until it is time to build new nests in the canopy above the forest floor around 7 p.m. The fee is $220, and the program, available to just four visitors per day who book ahead, runs November, and March through May. The hiking is arduous, because chimps can move quickly over uneven, densely vegetated terrain and steep muddy slopes. In addition to waterproof shoes with good traction, bring rain gear, insect repellent, hiking gaiters to keep biting ants from crawling up your pants, and a walking stick. Apart from the chance to spend much more time with the chimps than on a conventional trek, the day affords better opportunities to glimpse other primate species, such as the endangered red colobus and I’Hoest’s monkey. Volcanoes Safaris, a Uganda-based outfitter specializing in primate-specific safaris, can arrange park permits and accommodation. In the months of April, May, and November, travelers can also take advantage of Uganda government discounts on mountain gorilla trekking permits.

Murali Kartik © Getty Images

Murali Kartik was born on September 11, 1976. Had he been born a decade earlier or later he could have ended up playing at least 50 Tests instead of the eight he eventually played. Despite being one of the finest left-arm spinners in the world in the early 2000s, it was unfortunate he had to compete with two of the top 10 highest wicket-takers in the history of the sport —Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh — for a place in the national side.

A master of loop and control (and, of course, the famous arm-ball), he scalped 24 wickets from eight Tests at 34.16 and 37 wickets from 37 One-Day Internationals (ODIs), conceding only 5.07 runs an over in an era where ODIs were played on the most placid of tracks. In a way he was the bridge between the classical left-arm spinners like Bishan Bedi and the modern-day spinners who rely more on relentless accuracy: he specialised in both.

Kartik was one of the masterminds in the rise of the Railways Ranji Trophy team in the early 2000s. He has thus far picked up 640 First-Class wickets at 26.55, with 36 five-fors and five 10-fors, setting quite a few records in the process.

Abhishek Mukherjee met up with Murali Kartik for a wide-ranging chat on his life and times in cricket.

Excerpts from an interview:

CricketCountry (CC): You had started as a Delhi Under-16 player, but shifted to the less fancied Railways Under-19 squad. What prompted you to make the change? Why did you not consider moving to another North Indian state like Punjab or Haryana?

Murali Kartik (MK): I wanted to play for Delhi Under-19, but unfortunately that didn’t happen. But I got picked in the Delhi Ranji Trophy team! Both Maninder Singh and Manoj Prabhakar [the captain] had saw something in me and I was in the squad for two games; I did not play a match, and was dropped. At that time Maninder Singh wanted to make a comeback to the Test side, so he told me to go and try somewhere else.

At that point of time Abhay Sharma of Railways asked me to join Railways. So I made the shift to the Railways Under-19 team and after two years made it to their Ranji Trophy team.

As for not moving to another North Indian state, I guess I was too young. Abhay was my senior at school; we had played at the same National Stadium, so I was comfortable joining the Railways side.

CC: You were a medium-pacer to begin with: what triggered a move to spin?

MK: I used to bowl seam-up with the new ball and batted at No 4, and also bowled left-arm darts (left-arm goes up instinctively to imitate action). The reason behind this was the fact that while growing up I had always modelled myself on Sir Garfield Sobers, and like him I wanted to do everything. That was the reason why I switched to left-arm slow once the ball stopped seaming. Left-arm slow darts (smiles). I was 5’2” then, after finishing my 10th standard. To be a seamer you obviously need to be strong and tall. What you see me now (six feet tall) is not what I was then; I was really skinny, thin and short.

MP Singh was the coach at National Stadium at that time. He told me “if you want to go higher up in cricket you have to give up bowling your left-arm dobblers. They’re not going to take you anywhere.” MP Singh sir changed my grip and the ball started spinning even with my darts.
 
It also had a lot to do with being at the right place at the right time. Maninder Singh used to train at the National Stadium those days. As I said, he was trying to make a comeback into the national side, and Bishan Bedi used to be around to sort out the technical problems of his bowling. Bishan-paaji and Maninder both took an interest in me and I learnt a lot from them about the nuances of spin bowling.

CC: What about the arm-ball?

MK: Oh, that’s nothing special.

CC: It can’t be that. The first thought that comes to mind when one thinks of Murali Kartik is the arm-ball!

MK: Spin bowling involves a lot of individual ‘feel’. The ‘feel’ is not something that you can explain to everybody. These are things you understand when you bowl, trying to figure out what your strengths and weaknesses are. For me, having played with two of the best exponents of left-arm spinners made me understand the nuances of the art. Thankfully I was very young then; I was 16, and could still be modified. That helped.

CC: What about the stamina? You’re one of those bowlers who is known for bowling throughout the day — something Indian spinners often have to do a lot on the placid pitches in domestic cricket. But you have thrived under such challenges.

MK: I had started as an empty slate, and all I had was a natural action. I had to change my style from a seamer to a spinner. I had no idea about what left arm spin was. There is a difference between walking four steps, bowling slow and trying to spin the ball, and actually bowling left-arm spin.

I had to work really hard to develop that instinct, which may have been a reason for me being able to bowl long spells. People have seen me on the field and off the field: on the field I am very competitive. It also helped that from an early age I was looked upon as a frontline match-winning bowler; that also fuelled my urge to go on.

CC: So what triggered the switch from being good in academics to playing cricket?

MK: When I was young I originally wanted to be a genetic engineer, but my dad kept saying that if I should pursue cricket and take it up more seriously. At that point I knew that I would not be able to pursue with genetics if I wanted to have a career in cricket.

CC: Despite the fact that you were from an academic family, nobody in your family objected to your being a cricketer?

MK: My mom did. When I was in school I always stood first in my class till the ninth standard. When cricket took on my rank went down to five or six; my Mom wasn’t happy with that.

CC: By that time you were already in Delhi Under-16…

MK: Yes. But mom wanted me to study and improve my ranks, while dad encouraged me to play.

As for commerce, I could have done a BA, but I didn’t think I was cut out for BA. Commerce was convenient. I liked things like taxation; even now all I know is that debit is this side (gestures) and credit is this side (gestures again).

CC: But the academic traits remained: on the Pakistan team you and [Rahul] Dravid took out time to visit Taxila…?

MK: Oh, it was nothing academic. I have always loved travelling and have been interested in wildlife and photography. These are matters of interest for me, just like golf.

CC: So you are not into serious golfing?

MK: I do take golf seriously, but it takes a lot of your time. When you’re much younger and don’t have a career in front of you have that kind of time. But right now, when you’ve reached this age it’s not really easy to take up something that involves that amount of time.

Cricket involves a lot of sacrifices. I have sacrificed a lot of family time for cricket. We haven’t had a proper vacation together, no holidays — we didn’t even have a honeymoon! Whatever travel has been there in the past years it has almost always been about cricket.

Now, for me to do that again, if I embark on another career, it won’t be right: it won’t be fair to my family. I do not want to play it professionally — I just want to be good at it.

CC: Coming back to your early days, Kulamani Parida was all along there with you, right from the Under-19 days. The two of you had formed a formidable pair for Railways for a long period of time. How did you work as a pair? Did you plan strategies together for the opposition batsmen?

MK: No, we did not build up strategies. However, both of us were hungry for wickets and did well together. We have shared rooms all along, and we can do
anything for each other. It is that kind of a friendship: when one of us took wickets the other was the first to come up and congratulate him. Feelings like that cannot be expressed in words. We were willing to do any sacrifice for the sake of the other.

CC: The Railways players have made their ways through various levels of struggle over the years. Has that changed in the last decade?

MK: There are 32 disciplines under the Railways Sports Committee. You cannot give preferential treatment to any of them. The other state boards have bodies of their own. These days we still get match fees and flights; otherwise, for a long time, we had to travel by train.

Imagine, if we had to play in Guwahati in Assam, and then had to play Kerala, we had to travel by train while the others were flying! Whatever money we earned from playing was not enough. Whatever money was required from our travelling, lodging, meals came from the Railway Budget.

CC: There have also been complaints about the facilities at the Karnail Singh Stadium…

MK: We have never got any grant from the BCCI [Board of Control for Cricket in India] for that. Railways had to pay for everything. All this still remained after we won the Ranji Trophy twice, beat Rest of India twice, and also won a One-Day cup!

CC: Given all that, how did the Railways side manage to pull off such amazing results last decade?

MK: I think we had a batch of very good players, but the biggest thing was that everyone considered team success to be of paramount importance. All of us were the happiest when the team achieved something. That’s what kept us going. We had excellent batsmen like Yere Goud, Sanjay Bangar, JP Yadav, a strong seam attack…

CC: Your debut came in a humdinger against Madhya Pradesh. Do you have any special memories of the match?

MK: Yes, we had almost won the match after following on [Madhya Pradesh 329 and 89 for eight, Railways 122 and 313]. I batted at three in the match and
got forty-odd [47]; then I missed one from Rajesh Chauhan, Chandubhai [Chandrakant Pandit] appealed and the umpire gave me out.

CC: Your family shifted to Madras in 1996, but you stayed back. You played Club Cricket in Madras, mostly for Vijay Cricket Club…

MK: Yes. My mother passed away in 1996; I stayed back with some family friends. I have played for Vijay CC (one of India Cements team in the Madras 1st Division League) for six to seven years.

CC: You really came into limelight after the West Indies tour with India A [18 wickets]. It was a strong outfit consisting of Jimmy Adams, Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Darren Ganga… at that time did you consider yourself as a potential Test player?

MK: No, I had never considered myself as a potential India player. When I started playing cricket I never thought I would ever play for India. It was always a hobby. I had been brought up on cricket stories: that’s all.

Actually, we had a big house in Madras. I was born bang opposite Chidambaram Stadium. I had lived there for the first six to seven years of my life and played cricket on the narrow aisle that led to the stadium.

From a very young age all I have been doing is just watch cricket. I had never, at any stage, thought that I will play for my country.

CC: Then the Test call-up happened. You bowled really well in the first innings [18-6-28-2], but in the second innings [Mark] Boucher took away…

MK: Oh, I don’t know why people say why Boucher took it away. They were chasing 164, and by the time we came on the seamers had already given away 40. Early in his innings, Boucher top-edged me, and the man that was supposed to be at 45° was moved to 15°. The fielder was moved to stop easy runs from being scored, and the ball flew to exactly the same spot where he was earlier. Once that chance went amiss, South Africa took it away from us.

CC: You bowled quite well in the next Test too, bowling a marathon spell [50-11-123-3] but India conceded a big lead…

MK: Nicky Boje was sent in as night-watchman in the match; both he and Gary Kirsten were dropped off me at short-leg when they had scored nothing at all; they got a big partnership [added 161 for the second wicket]. Then I found Jacques Kallis’ edge, Nayan Mongia took the catch, but Russell Tiffin ruled him not out.

Now, if two different batsmen get dropped off your bowling, and a batsman of the quality of Kallis is given not out, your figures become completely different from what they should have been.

CC: It was roughly around this period that you had started bowling round the wicket to the left-handers. This is something that we had seldom seen in Indian left-arm spinners of the 1990s. What made you start bowling that?

MK: It was another thing that Bishan Bedi, being my mentor, had helped me with. There were other aspects as well. If you have noticed, I have seldom bowled with a point [for the left-hander] even on flat wickets. A ball only goes to point only if you bowl a bad ball. If somebody reverse-sweeps a good ball and gets a four it’s fine. Of course, you can’t take a point out for the right-hander because the ball naturally goes that way.

Likewise, I had always bowled to my strengths, and had tried to get the batsmen out instead of trying to save runs. This is also a reason for me often bowling round the wicket to left-hand batsmen. If you bowl over the wicket you’d almost never get an LBW: the umpire would almost always say that it has struck outside the off-stump or has been missing the leg-stump.

But if you come round the wicket you always give yourself a fair chance to get him out LBW. Not only that, the slip, the short-leg, they all come into play.

CC: How big a role did Anil Kumble use to play in the mentoring of young spinners like you?

MK: He was my first roommate. He is a man of few words, and believed a lot in leading by example. He has been a different bowler. He was not a man whob would give you technical advice like how you should keep your arm while bowling; his bits of advice were always about how to attack a batsman, about finding his weaknesses…

CC: Then the Irani Trophy match happened. Talk us through that record spell at Wankhede [Kartik had picked up four for 73 and nine for 70 in the match; the second innings haul still remains an Irani Trophy record]. How big was that?

MK: We had a very strong side. There was [VVS] Laxman, [Sadagoppan] Ramesh, [SS] Das, Jacob Martin — I remember Virender Sehwag had to sit out for the match. I thought Ashish Nehra, Dodda Ganesh, and Laxmi Ratan Shukla would run away. The ball was seaming all over the place at Wankhede. And then I just came on and picked up 13 wickets on that track. And all that happened within two months after a funny fiasco at the NCA.

CC: Do tell us more about the National Cricket Academy (NCA) incident.

MK: I had broken my wrist on the first day at the NCA. I was struggling. Even at the Asia Cup I could not bowl much with that injury. Then Mr Hanumant Singh asked me to go back; he said “if I allow you to be here, people will think that I’m giving you preferential treatment.”

If I had indeed been chucked out, why would Harbhajan Singh and Nikhil Haldipur not get picked in the same Irani Trophy match that I was? It took Harbhajan some time to get out of that situation and to play any match. But the media clubbed me with the other two [Harbhajan and Haldipur] and claimed that all three of us were chucked out on disciplinary grounds.

CC: Once back you were under-bowled by Sourav Ganguly in the two Tests against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe where Sunil Joshi got a lot more overs. Your numbers under Ganguly were also significantly inferior to those under other captains. Do you really feel that Ganguly did not have enough faith in you?

MK: (smiles) You should ask Sourav. Look, there are really two ways to look at this: In those two Tests I hardly bowled. But in 2002, when we had the tri-series against Australia and New Zealand, I played ahead of Anil and Harbhajan. On the Australia tour I was flown in immediately after Harbhajan was injured and had landed just before the Adelaide Test. But I didn’t play the Adelaide Test match because Andrew Leipus felt i would be jetlagged.

CC: In that seasons Ranji Trophy final defeat against Baroda you lost despite a 151-run lead [Baroda 243 and 373, Railways 394 and 201]. How disappointing was that?

MK: Oh, it was a brilliant game. I had hardly played in that tournament and forced myself to play in the final despite back spasms. It was well-contested, we played really well, but unfortunately some incidents took the match away from us.

CC: Umpiring?

MK: Everybody saw that. It was live on TV. In the first innings I came out to bat when we didn’t even had a lead. I had a 113-run partnership with Parida. I got 79 and Parida scored 47, and we got a substantial lead. But in the second innings several bad decisions went against us.

CC: Were you charged up more than usual when you turned up against Baroda yet again in next season’s final?

MK: No, we just thought that God had given us a chance to rectify ourselves and we should grab the chance with both hands. And we did exactly that!

CC: You won by a huge margin. It was also Railways’ first Ranji Title…

MK: They were batting well [87 for one after Railways had scored 253]. Then Shreyas Khanolkar took an outstanding catch off my bowling to dismiss Nayan Mongia, and then they collapsed [for 167]. I was batting well before I was stumped off Atul Bedade, and then the bowlers did their job.

CC: You did a wonderful job in the ODI series against West Indies [was the most economic bowler of the series conceding 4.84 runs per over]. Almost every match saw scores in excess of 300 being scored, and all seven West Indian batsmen [Carl Hooper, Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Wavell Hinds, Sarwan, Marlon Samuels, and Ricardo Powell] had strike rates in excess of 80. How did you manage keep such a formidable line-up in check?

MK: I really don’t know how I did it. I had to bowl in the Powerplays and Gayle and Hinds were really going after our bowlers. The wickets were very flat. I just knew what I had to do and I did that.

CC: And then, after all that, even after that debacle in New Zealand, you were not considered for the World Cup squad…

MK: Well, when you do well, and the others haven’t done as well, you feel that you have a chance. The World Cup is everyone’s dream, but that didn’t
happen…

CC: Then Railways made it to the final once again. There was an amazing contrast in the way the two semifinal-winning teams were treated: while the Punjab team was awarded 1.5 million rupees the Railways Coach Vinod Sharma’s salary was 11 months overdue. Did the victory improve this situation at all?

MK: At least now we get to fly from one place to another (smiles wryly). See, BCCI never gives ODIs to Railways or Services the way it does to other state teams, so we have to run on our own budgets.

CC: You were away for the final, but more than made up for it in the Irani Trophy match that followed [96 runs and five for 62]. It was Railways’ second Irani Trophy win in four seasons —no team other than Bombay has done it after a gap this small. How big was that?

MK: it was huge. The Rest of India side is hardly every beaten in the Irani Trophy, and it was a very a very strong Indian side. We all felt a great sense of achievement in achieving that after all this hard work.

CC: You also scored a 96 in that match…

MK: Yes, that is one regret that I have — not being able to score a First-Class hundred. I tried to hit Ramesh Powar for a six, but was caught by Ranadeb Bose.

CC: You were then recalled for the Nagpur Test at virtually the last moment. Against a rampant Australian batting line up that went for a kill on a green pitch you were once again the best bowler for the side [20-1-57-3 out of 398 and 23-8-47-2 out of 329 for five declared]. Once again you not only picked up wickets but had also managed to keep the batsmen in check.

MK: It was not only that; unlike the Sydney Test where we had scored over 700 and had a tight field, we had an in-and-out field here. Even if the ball found edges they would fall safe. It was very difficult bowling to them on that track.

Murali Kartik played for Middlesex from 2007-2009 © Getty Images

CC: How did you manage to do this? How do you manage to do it against some of the best hitters of the sport? You had done it against West Indies two years back…

MK: I really don’t know. It just happened. (smiles) No, really, it just happened.

CC: On a turning Bombay track you were the best of the three Indian spinners that played…

[After India were bowled out for 104 on a pitch that turned square from Day One Kartik bowled splendidly with four for 44 to restrict Australia to a 99-run lead. Then, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman gave India a fighting target before Michael Clarke ran through the tail to finish with six for nine.

Chasing only 107 for victory Australia were bowled out for 93 by the Indian spinners. Though Kumble picked up six wickets in the Test and Harbhajan five, it was Kartik with seven for 76 who emerged as the best of the lot, winning the Man of the Match award.]

MK: Oh, the pitch was doing a lot of things in that match. It was turning, bouncing, and was even seaming a bit. Zaheer [Khan] got a couple of wickets as well. I just bowled on the spot and that did it all. Even in that Test, even after that Nagpur performance, I was told only half an hour before the Test that I was playing.

CC: … and yet you played in just one more Test…

MK: Yes, I was dropped the very next Test. I was brought back for one last time at Kanpur against South Africa on a flat track, but was dropped for the
next Test at Eden Gardens where the ball turned square. I never played another Test.

CC: How did the Lancashire call happen? You have never played in England before.

MK: I always wanted to play in England: that was the one thing missing from my CV (curriculum vitae). I wanted to play County cricket. Even Mr Bedi emphasised on the importance of County cricket.

We were playing the tri-series in Zimbabwe [2005-06]. My Indian cell-phone was with my wife. There was a call from Mike Watkinson from Lancashire asking me whether I wanted to play for Lancashire. When I got to know this, I almost jumped up and agreed. I didn’t even ask how much they would pay me or anything.

They sent me the tickets and I took the flight from Harare to Johannesburg to London, and there was this limousine waiting for me outside the airport. I thought, “so this is how they do it in County cricket!” I reached my hotel in Chelmsford and the next day I got to talk to Mike Watkinson to decide on the terms.

CC: Your first Championship match was special…

MK: Yes. While we had the likes of Stuart Law, Jimmy Anderson, Andrew Symonds, Glen Chapple, Mal Loye, and Sajid Mahmood they [Essex] had Alastair Cook, Andy and Grant Flower, Ravi Bopara, Darren Gough, Danish Kaneria, Ronnie Irani, and Andre Adams in their side. Before that match they could not arrange for a County cap for me. Dominic Cork had to lend me his own County cap for the match.

I remember getting Andy Flower bowled in the first innings and getting him in the second innings as well. I was the first overseas player to take 10
wickets [five for 93 and five for 75] on his Lancashire debut. So, yes, that was special.

CC: You had an excellent season for Lancashire [16 wickets at 16.25] and did consistently well in England. Even then you were not considered for the Tests or ODIs, and when India toured England in 2007 they picked [Piyush] Chawla and [Romesh] Powar as the two spinners. Why do you think that happened?

MK: Well, that has more or less been the story of my life. On several occasions I never got to know why I was dropped. From time to time these things kept happening and I had learnt to come to terms with it. These are things which you simply could not fight.

CC: Let us turn to that Australia ODI at Bombay. It was arguably the greatest all-round performance by an Indian in the history of ODIs. Talk us
through that match.

[Australia were cruising along at 117 for two in 19.4 overs. Kartik then triggered a collapse and finished with figures 10-3-27-6 — still the best ODI bowling figures by any left-arm spinner. Australia collapsed to 193 in 41.3 overs.

Kartik’s job was far from over, though. He found himself out at the middle at 143 for eight in 35.4 overs. He added 52 with Zaheer Khan for the ninth wicket to pull off a heist with four overs remaining in the match. It definitely classifies as one of the greatest all-round performances in the history of ODIs.]

MK: Once again, I was not scheduled to play because of an injured thumb. Then I was twice on a hat-trick [Brad Hodge and Symonds in the 20th over and Brad Hogg and Brett Lee in the 32nd over; in the same over he had also picked up Brad Haddin]. Once again I just put the ball on the spot and the wickets kept coming.

CC: You also played a match-winning innings that day…

MK: Yes, it was one of days when possibly everything had to be possibly done by me (smiles). God gives you such opportunities. I edged one that was not given, then I nicked another and they didn’t catch it. After that there were no issues and Zaheer and I scored the remaining runs.

CC: Bombay seems to have an effect on you. Not only in Tests and ODIs, your greatest performances at all levels have mostly been in Bombay. What is it about the pitch that brings out the best in you?

MK: I guess some pitches work better for you than the others: they provide more bounce and suit your style more than any other pitch. I have also done very well in the Vidarbha Stadium. I have also enjoyed bowling at Lord’s, Old Trafford, Chelmsford, even the flat track in the small ground at Taunton for that matter. Then, The Oval…

CC: You were doing really well for Lancashire. Why did you move to Middlesex?

MK: See, at that time a side was allowed only two overseas players. The two overseas players for Lancashire were [Muttiah] Muralitharan and Nathan Astle, and I only got to play at most three months a season. I needed to Test myself for the full six months.

So once I got the Middlesex offer I went to Mike Watkinson and told him that I want to leave in order to play a full season. He asked me to go ahead.

CC: You were always devoted to Railways. I remember that you came back immediately after the Stanford Super Series [Kartik was the only Indian to play the tournament] to turn up for Railways in the 2008-09 season. What made you go on for Railways even after playing international cricket, in England, and in the IPL?

MK: I have always enjoyed playing for Railways. Not only that match, even after I came back from New Zealand in 2002-03 I went directly to play the Ranji Trophy match against Hyderabad. Laxman also came with me, and one match later, we were both headed off for West Indies to play for India A as the team left for the World Cup.

When Sri Lanka toured India in end-2005 I knew that India would play Anil and Harbhajan and I’d be dropped for the Ahmedabad Test. So I sought permission from Greg [Chappell], played a full Ranji Trophy match in Mumbai, was back by the fourth day of the Test!

CC: You played a crucial role in Middlesex’s victory in the England Twenty20 Cup. Yet they dropped you when they appointed Shaun Udal as captain citing the reason that they won’t need a second spinner at Lord’s. Were you taken aback?

MK: After having played for Middlesex for three years, their dynamics changed when they appointed Shaun Udal as captain. So I was told that my fourth year would not be possible despite having done well for them across all three formats, because only oney overseas player is allowed — and that couldn’t have been me. Also, apart from Lord’s, every time we played away at other venues all the opposition produced green seamers as they knew Middlesex had two spinners out of which one was their overseas player. So it caused problems with the balance. The choice was between the captain and the overseas player. There was no question of who had to be picked between the two. I then moved to Somerset.

CC: And you did well once again with Somerset. You have been one of the most economic bowlers in IPL to boot. Do you think you were still left out of the side, especially in the shorter versions?

MK: I did try my level-best, but I guess some things are not in your hands.

Murali Kartik during his Somerset days © Getty Images

CC: It was like two different worlds: you were picking up wickets by the dozen in England, and yet in India everyone seemed to have forgotten you completely. It was like two different players with the same name. Why do you think you were left out despite all those wickets?

MK

: Yes, I guess I suppose I never got any answer to my questions and I realised I cannot fight destiny.

CC: India were being trounced in England in 2011, and when Harbhajan was nowhere close to his best the selectors brought in [Amit] Mishra. There have been precedence like [Vinoo] Mankad in 1952 or Madan Lal in 1986 when a player playing in England had been roped in; however, that was not the case this time, despite the fact that you were bowling quite well in the Championship. Did you expect a call-up?

MK: The people you mentioned were playing League cricket. I guess doing well at County Cricket isn’t good enough (smiles). I guess I could rarely fathom why I was picked, dropped, or not picked. Commentators like Nasser Hussain had asked during the series why I was not even considered. Nobody answered.

CC: Playing for Surrey you Mankaded Alex Barrow last year giving rise to a lot of controversy. What had exactly happened?

MK: Barrow was standing outside the crease, and I had warned him twice. I don’t think it was unsporting at all. I mean, if anyone is unsporting is the batsman. If a bowler oversteps by a fraction he is penalised; on the other hand a batsman gets away when we know that that extra step might result in him from not getting run out.

CC: Did [Gareth] Batty try to recall Barrow?

MK: Oh, no, that’s another misconception. Batty asked me, “Did you warn him?”

I replied, “Yes, twice before I had delivered.”

He asked the umpire: “Did you hear him warn the batsman twice?”

The umpire said, “Yes.”

Batty then asked Barrow: “Did Kartik warn you twice?”

Barrow said: “Yes.”

CC: The Fake IPL Player…

MK: I know everyone thought it was me. Some people even thought it was a joint effort from {cricket writer] Anand Vasu and me. My wife followed the blog regularly thought it could have been me. But she later realised it wasn’t me. [The Fake IPL player who wrote the blog was Anupam Mukerji, who later went public about his real identity]

CC: Er, what I wanted to ask was that the Fake IPL Player called you Stylebhai on his blog. Where did that come from?

MK: I have no idea. Maybe it was my shades… maybe this (points at the black-and-white Iskcon Temple beads on his throat)…

CC: What are your views on the current crop of left-arm spinners?

MK: Shakib [Al-Hasan] is very underrated. Not only does to have to curb the runs but he also needs to take wickets; he also has to take the extra responsibility as a batsman.

[Rangana] Herath is another one. He has been an understudy to Muralitharan, which has always helped. But now that he has the extra responsibility thrust upon him he has met the expectations.

CC: A message for the young spinners…?

MK: Self-belief. It’s all about self-belief. You need to believe in what you can do and work as hard as possible. The rest will follow.

CC: Thank you, Murali. It was nice talking to you.

MK: You’re welcome.

(Abhishek Mukherjee is a cricket historian and Senior Cricket Writer at CricketCountry. He generally looks upon life as a journey involving two components – cricket and literature – though not as disjoint elements. A passionate follower of the history of the sport with an insatiable appetite for trivia and anecdotes, he has also a steady love affair with the incredible assortment of numbers that cricket has to offer. He also thinks he can bowl decent leg-breaks in street cricket, and blogs at http://ovshake.blogspot.in. He can be followed on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ovshake42)


This article was distributed through the NewsCred Smartwire.

Original article © India.com 2013

8th August 2013

Local writer, Louisa Adjoa Parker, has produced a new book which explores stories of African American soldiers in Dorset during Second World War.

Most of the GIs came to the county to train for D-Day and were based across Dorset.

The book, entitled “1944 We Were Here: African American GIs in Dorset” is part of a project run by Development Education in Dorset (DEED) in partnership with Walford Mill Crafts and the Priest House museum. It was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and JP Morgan.

The aim of the project was to gather stories about the black servicemen’s time in Dorset to share with the community. It was also to celebrate their presence here, as well as their contribution to World War II, which has historically been largely ignored.

Louisa Adjoa Parker, who is of British and Ghanaian heritage, carried out the research into the subject following on from previous publications, “Dorset’s Hidden Histories” and “All Different, All Dorset”.

Louisa said: “This local history has not been explored in great detail until recently, and is arguably an important part of Dorset’s heritage. It is highly likely that this is the only time in history that Dorset has had a large African Caribbean population. When other people from this ethnic background were here, including today, there would have been much smaller numbers. It is estimated that there were around 8,000 black GIs here in this period.

“It was important to gather the stories now, as the GIs’ children and the local people who remembered the GIs are getting older. The African Americans’ presence here left behind a lasting legacy – cultural influences; memories and stories that have been passed down in families and become part of local folklore; and a number of their children as a result of relationships with local women.”

The book is a collection of stories about the young men, as told through the eyes of the local people who remember them, and the GIs’ descendants. There are first and second-hand accounts of local people, who were children at the time, seeing and spending time with the African American men.

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14th August 2013

by Harry Walton

PROMINENT local Jewish community member Lord Morris Mendoza has reacted with “deep sadness” to a council decision not to grant Portland Cemetery space for Jewish faith burials.

Members of Weymouth and Portland’s management committee felt so strongly that cemeteries should not have areas specifically relating to religion or a religious body that they voted 7-1 against their own officers’ advice recommending approval for the idea.

Lord Mendoza, of Dorchester Road, Weymouth, said: “I have never heard of a group of people with such a misunderstanding of a situation.

“Our whole Jewish community is shocked at the decision and so are outsiders including a bishop. It was very strange bearing in mind the council’s own officers supported the idea and I query the true nature of the refusal.

“I certainly don’t accept the generalisation that a Jewish cemetery for a Jewish community could be devisive.”

Lord Mendoza had asked the council for a separate burial area because their faith requires that they are buried in faith grouping and council officers said an area sufficient for 23 plots had been identified at Portland cemetery. The nearest current location for Jewish faith burials is Bournemouth.

Community facilities spokesman Councillor Andy Blackwood, who supported the request, told management committee colleagues that the issue had come forward after Lord Mendoza asked that “urgent attention” be given for such a burial facility for the Weymouth and Portland Jewish community because of concerns over several elderly members.

But committee vice-chairman Councillor Peter Chapman said Weymouth and Portland cemeteries “should remain strictly secular” while chairman, Councillor Mike Goodman, said he had personal experience of apartheid in South Africa and he was “vehemently opposed” to any form of segregation.

He added: “I do believe that our burial grounds should remain unconsecrated, unblessed and open to all. I don’t believe they should have segregated areas.”

Councillor Ian Bruce said he was reminded of war cemeteries where all graves were laid out side by side.

He added: “If the Jewish faith wants something different it should make its own arrangements. I just don’t feel we should offer separate sections within a municipal cemetery.”

But Lord Mendoza said military graves had tombstones but not necessarily a body and having a Jewish cemetery on Portland had nothing to with exclusivity “but it is an important part of our religion.”

He added that the decision had already cost the area dear because a Jewish businessman planning to bring a factory to the area because its facilities would now have included a Jewish cemetery has changed his mind because of the council’s decision and elected to go to Romsey instead which has two such cemeteries.

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