Indian wins 7 mn dirhams in Abu Dhabi raffle
Abu Dhabi, May 3: An Indian has hit the jackpot by winning 7 million dirhams in a Big Ticket raffle in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) capital.
Anil Varghese Theveril, 50, won the amount in the Big Ticket millionaire draw held at Abu Dhabi International Airport on Thursday.
"I believe that in order to hit the jackpot, you don't just pick random numbers. And for me, my son's birthday is my lucky number," Theveril told Gulf News.
He is based in Kuwait and works as an executive assistant. "I noticed that most of the winners were Indians, so I thought maybe I should try and hope that one day I will get lucky. I bought the tickets online," he said.
Theveril said he hadn't decided what he would do with the money, but said he will "definitely set aside some money for charity and for my son's education".
Seven other winners were announced, each of whom took home 100,000 dirhams from Big Ticket. One of the winners was a Bangladeshi and another was a Moroccan. The rest were Indians, identified as George Kallarackal Mathew, Satish Thoghota, Baiju Pookottu Kuttappan, Irshad patel and Saidalavi Modeen Kutty Thottunkal.
According to data from two of the biggest raffle draws in the UAE (Abu Dhabi's Big Ticket raffle to Dubai Duty Free's Millionaire Draw), Indian nationals prove to be the most lucky.
In early April, a Dubai-based Indian driver hit a jackpot by winning 12 million Dirhams in Abu Dhabi. Another Indian had won a lottery worth 10 million dirhams also in Abu Dhabi in February 2018.
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England sticking with Key, McCullum and Stokes despite Ashes humbling
London (AP): England is not sacking anybody following the 4-1 Ashes loss in Australia.
A review of the tour by the England and Wales Cricket Board, announced within hours of the final match in January, was concluded on Monday. Firing people would “be the easy thing to do,” ECB chief executive Richard Gould said but he insisted, "This is not the time to throw everything out."
Managing director Rob Key, coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes kept their jobs after the best England side to go to Australia in 14 years lost the Ashes in 11 days with two games to spare.
“Moving people on can sometimes be the easy thing to do. That's not the route that we're going to take,” Gould said. “I've seen the driving ambition and determination that we're lucky enough to have within our leadership group to take the lessons from the Ashes and move forward.”
Gould previously was the chief executive of Bristol City soccer club and said the ECB would not follow the same route as soccer's hire-and-fire culture.
“Cricket is a very unique sport in that it takes a team of leadership ... it's not like football where there's a single point of failure or success with a manager," he said. He added the ECB would not “select or deselect management based on a popularity campaign.”
The main criticisms of England's tour were poor preparation, player misbehavior, and selection mistakes.
At a press conference at Lord's, Gould and Key said McCullum and Stokes have not had a “bust up,” they did not want McCullum to “completely change” but “to evolve,” the behavior of some players was “unprofessional,” there will be more consequences for underperforming, and a commitment to “better long-term planning” ahead of major test series.
Some changes were already implemented for the Twenty20 World Cup, where England reached the semifinals. Gould implied that performance saved McCullum.
Key acknowledged that England supporters would be disappointed to see the management team go unpunished.
“I know people want punishment and that people then should be sacked for that,” Key said. “That doesn't mean we don't feel like we've gone through some serious pain: Brendon, myself, Ben. It's been as tough a time as I think I've had.”
