Pramod Thomas is a senior correspondent with Asian Media Group since 2020, bringing 19 years of journalism experience across business, politics, sports, communities, and international relations. His career spans both traditional and digital media platforms, with eight years specifically focused on digital journalism. This blend of experience positions him well to navigate the evolving media landscape and deliver content across various formats. He has worked with national and international media organisations, giving him a broad perspective on global news trends and reporting standards.
AUTHORITIES should stop treating players like "cars" and fix cricket's "jam-packed" schedule to retain multi-format players, England's Ben Stokes said.
Stokes announced his shock retirement from one-day internationals on Monday (18) saying playing all three formats of the game had become "unsustainable" for him.
He elaborated further on his decision ahead of his 105th and final ODI which South Africa won by 62 runs.
"We are not cars," the 31-year-old told BBC Test Match Special.
"You can't just fill us up and we'll go out there and be ready to be fuelled up again.
"We had a test series and then the one-day team had a series going on at the same time - that was a bit silly."
Stokes, who took over as England's test captain in April, has battled injuries in recent times and also took a break from the game last year to focus on his mental well-being.
"I just feel like there is too much cricket rammed in for people to play all three formats now. It is a lot harder than it used to be," said the England talisman.
"I look back to when I used to do all three and it didn't feel like it was as jam-packed and all that."
The governing International Cricket Council wants to stage one global event every year and the proliferation of franchise-based leagues have only added to the players' workload.
"The more cricket that is played, the better for the sport, but you want a product that is of the highest quality," said Stokes, who opted out of this year's Indian Premier League.
"You want the best players to be playing as much as you possibly can, all the time, and it isn't just me or us.
"You see it all around the world now where teams are having to rest some players in a certain series so they feel like they are getting a break."
The Royal Mail logo is seen on the side of a van as the UK government clear a 3.57 billion pound takeover offer by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky in London, December 16, 2024. (Photo: Reuters)
MEDIA regulator Ofcom has set new minimum delivery standards for Royal Mail and revised existing targets in an effort to reduce delays. It also announced a review into pricing and affordability, amid concerns over rising stamp prices.
Royal Mail, which has faced fines of around $20 million over the past two years for not meeting delivery targets, is currently trying to modernise operations and focus more on parcel deliveries.
“Urgent reform is needed for the universal service to survive,” Ofcom said in a statement. The regulator said the revised delivery goals could help Royal Mail save up to £425 million ($578.3 million).
Under the new rules, Royal Mail must ensure that 99 per cent of mail is delivered no more than two days late. Ofcom has also adjusted the targets for next-day and three-day deliveries. The target for First Class mail will now be 90 per cent delivered the next day, down from 93 per cent. For Second Class mail, the target has been lowered from 98.5 per cent to 95 per cent within three days.
From July 28, Royal Mail will be permitted to deliver Second Class letters on alternate weekdays, while still aiming to meet the three-working-day delivery target, Ofcom said.
“Our research suggests that affordability and reliability are more important to people than speed of delivery, but they value having a next-day service available for when they need to send the occasional urgent item,” the regulator said.
Ofcom said it would launch a consultation on its pricing and affordability review next year.
In response to the announcement, Martin Seidenberg, Group CEO of Royal Mail’s parent company International Distribution Services, said the company welcomed the new measures.
“It is good news for customers across the UK as it supports the delivery of a reliable, efficient and financially sustainable universal service,” he said in a statement.
By clicking the 'Subscribe’, you agree to receive our newsletter, marketing communications and industry
partners/sponsors sharing promotional product information via email and print communication from Garavi Gujarat
Publications Ltd and subsidiaries. You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time by clicking the
unsubscribe link in our emails. We will use your email address to personalize our communications and send you
relevant offers. Your data will be stored up to 30 days after unsubscribing.
Contact us at data@amg.biz to see how we manage and store your data.
Hasina left for India at the end of the student-led protests and has not returned to Dhaka, where her trial for alleged crimes against humanity began on June 1. (Photo: Getty Images)
SOME leaked audio recordings suggest Bangladesh’s former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who is currently on trial in absentia, ordered a deadly crackdown on protests last year.
According to the United Nations, up to 1,400 people were killed between July and August 2024 when Hasina's government cracked down on demonstrators during an attempt to stay in power.
Hasina, 77, left for India at the end of the student-led protests and has not returned to Dhaka, where her trial for alleged crimes against humanity began on June 1.
The BBC Eye Investigations team analysed leaked audio recordings alleged to be of Hasina. The recordings form a key part of the prosecution’s evidence.
In a recording dated July 18, 2024, a voice alleged to be Hasina is heard instructing security forces to "use lethal weapons" against protesters and saying "wherever they find (them), they will shoot".
The BBC reported that forensic audio experts found no evidence that the recordings had been edited or manipulated, and said it was "highly unlikely to have been synthetically generated".
Police in Bangladesh also matched the voice in the recordings to verified samples of Hasina’s voice.
‘Denies the charges’
The protests started on July 1, 2024, when university students called for changes to the public sector job quota system.
At the time, removing Hasina from office appeared unlikely, just months after she won a fourth straight term in an election that lacked genuine opposition.
However, the demonstrations gained momentum and tensions escalated after police carried out a deadly crackdown on 16 July.
Hasina’s state-appointed lawyer, who said they have not had any contact with her, has moved to dismiss the charges.
Her now-banned party, the Awami League, said it "categorically denies the charges that its senior leaders, and the prime minister personally, directed the use of lethal force against crowds during the protests of last summer".
The party said the violence was the result of “breakdowns in discipline among some members of the security forces on the ground in response to instances of violence", which led to a “regrettable loss of life”.
Hasina was also convicted of contempt of court in a separate case on July 2 and sentenced to six months in prison. She remains in India.
Keep ReadingShow less
The doctors had previously accepted a 22 per cent pay rise covering 2023 to 2025, which brought an end to earlier rounds of strikes.
JUNIOR doctors in England will go on strike from 25 to 30 July, their union said on Wednesday, after the British government said it could not meet their demand for an improved pay offer this year.
The doctors, also known as resident doctors, make up a large part of the medical workforce. They were offered an average 5.4 per cent pay rise but are seeking 29 per cent, saying this is needed to reverse years of real-terms pay erosion.
Health minister Wes Streeting described the strike as "completely unreasonable" in a statement after the five-day walk-out was announced. In a letter to the British Medical Association (BMA), the doctors’ union, he said the government could not go any higher on pay this year.
"The NHS recovery is hanging by a thread, and the BMA are threatening to pull it," he said. "The BMA should abandon their rush to strike and work with us to improve resident doctors' working lives instead."
The doctors had previously accepted a 22 per cent pay rise covering 2023 to 2025, which brought an end to earlier rounds of strikes.
The new strike action is likely to cause further disruption to thousands of appointments and procedures at hospitals across Britain, at a time when the government has said it is making progress in improving services at the state-funded National Health Service.
"Without a credible offer to keep us on the path to restore our pay, we have no choice but to call strikes," the co-chairs of the BMA's resident doctors' committee said in a statement.
The BMA said it had met Streeting on Wednesday, but the government wanted to focus on non-pay aspects of doctors' work.
INDIA's prime minister Narendra Modi is likely to travel to the UK by the end of this month for a visit that could see both sides formally sign the landmark India-UK free trade agreement and explore ways to expand bilateral ties in the defence and security sphere, diplomatic sources said.
Both sides are in the process of finalising the dates for Modi's visit to the country by the end of July or the first part of August, they said.
Earlier, there were indications that British prime minister Keir Starmer would visit India first. It is understood that Starmer may visit India later this year.
In May, India and the UK sealed the free trade agreement that is expected to benefit 99 per cent of Indian exports through tariff elimination and will make it easier for British firms to export whisky, cars and other products to India, while boosting the overall trade basket.
Along with the FTA - the biggest the UK has negotiated since leaving the European Union - the two sides also sealed a double taxation convention.
Modi had described the two pacts as a "historic milestone" to catalyse trade, investment, growth and job creation in both economies and further deepen the India-UK comprehensive strategic partnership.
The trade deal, finalised after three years of negotiations, is expected to ensure comprehensive market access for Indian goods across all sectors, and India will gain from tariff elimination on about 99 per cent of tariff lines (product categories) covering almost 100 per cent of the trade values, according to officials.
A British readout had said Indian tariffs would be slashed, locking in reductions on 90 per cent of tariff lines, with 85 per cent of these becoming fully tariff-free within a decade.
In 2023-24, India was the UK's second-largest source of investments in terms of the number of projects for the fifth consecutive year.
During Modi's visit, both sides are also expected to explore ways to expand defence and security cooperation. The two sides may also deliberate on the implementation of the Technology Security Initiative (TSI).
In July last year, India and the UK finalised the Technology Security Initiative that set out a new approach for collaboration in a range of priority sectors, including telecommunications, critical minerals, semiconductors and artificial intelligence, with a broader aim to elevate their strategic partnership to the next level.
The TSI would also provide a framework for building a broad UK-India semiconductor partnership that will leverage each other's strengths and incentives and explore mutually beneficial research and development as well as supply chain resilience, according to a statement.
It also seeks to build upon the ambitious cooperation agenda set out in the India-UK Roadmap 2030.
FORMER prime minister Rishi Sunak has returned to the banking world as senior adviser at Goldman Sachs group, with plans to donate his salary to the education charity he recently established with his wife Akshata Murty.
The US-headquartered multinational investment bank, where Sunak worked before entering politics, made the announcement on Tuesday (8) after the requisite 12-month period elapsed since the British Indian leader's ministerial term concluded following defeat in the general election on July 4 last year.
The UK Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, which must approve jobs taken by former ministers for at least two years after leaving office, gave its approval with conditions "to mitigate the potential risks to the government" regarding privileged information Sunak would have as a former prime minister.
The committee noted that the salary from his new role would go towards the Richmond Project, a charity announced earlier this year as a joint initiative with Murty focused on improving mathematics and numeracy skills among children and young people in England.
"Goldman Sachs has a significant interest in UK government policy. As the former Prime Minister, there is reasonable concern that your appointment could be seen to offer unfair access and influence within the UK government," the committee stated in its advice published this week.
"You and Goldman Sachs have confirmed to the committee that the role will not involve lobbying the government, which all former ministers are prevented from doing for two years after leaving office. The committee considered that it would be difficult to mitigate the risk of perceived lobbying if you initiated engagement of any kind with the UK government in this role, noting this is not your stated intention."
Under the stipulations, Sunak must not draw on any privileged information available to him from his time in ministerial office.
Rishi Sunak and Akshata Murty. (Photo by HENRY NICHOLLS/AFP via Getty Images)
"For two years from your last day in ministerial office, your role with Goldman Sachs Group Inc should be limited to providing advice on strategy, macroeconomic and geopolitical matters that do not conflict with your time as prime minister (including where you are working with parent companies, subsidiaries, partners and clients of Goldman Sachs)," the committee added.
It also stressed that the advice was not an "endorsement" of Sunak's new role but aimed at protecting the integrity of government.
The publication of the committee's decision coincided with Goldman Sachs issuing a statement welcoming the British Indian politician, who continues as a backbench Tory MP for Richmond and Northallerton.
"In his role, he will work with leaders across the firm to advise our clients globally on a range of important topics, sharing his unique perspectives and insights on the macroeconomic and geopolitical landscape. He will also spend time with our people around the world, contributing to our culture of ongoing learning and development," said Goldman Sachs chairman and CEO David Solomon.
Sunak previously worked at Goldman Sachs as a summer intern in Investment Banking in 2000 and later as an analyst between 2001 and 2004.
His political career began when he was elected Tory MP in 2015 and went on to be appointed a junior minister, then chancellor before becoming Britain's first prime minister of Indian heritage in October 2022.