Indian wins Dh 10 million in raffle draw in UAE
Dubai, Nov 4 : An Indian man has hit a jackpot by winning a whopping USD 2.72 million in a monthly raffle in the UAE, a media report said on Sunday.
Britty Markose, who works as a draughtsman in the capital Abu Dhabi, has said that he was expecting to win the jackpot.
Markose, who is from Kerala and has been in Dubai since 2004, takes part in the Big Ticket for a couple of years but is not a regular, Gulf News reported.
"So many are winning (from Kerala) and every time I harbour great expectations. But this time I had a feeling that I will win". He added that this was the fifth time he had purchased a ticket," Markose was quoted as saying by the report.
"My wife and my two sons are both in Kerala. I still have my loans here and I just made a top-up recently. I just have not decided but clearing off the debts will be my top priority, said Markose.
Like any expat, he too has loans to repay and a dream house to build.
Markose won the dirham 10 million (USD 2.72 million) jackpot and like any expat, he too has loans to repay and a dream house to build, the report said.
The winners included nine Indians and one Pakistani. The only person to break that total dominance was Pakistan's Waris Ali Sardar Ali, who walked away with the fifth prize of Dh 70,000.
Last month, another Indian expat Mohammed Kunhi Mayyala, who had purchased ticket at Big Ticket Abu Dhabi, won dirham 7 million.
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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.”
