Kerala man wins Rs 28 cr lottery in Abu Dhabi
Dubai, Jan 3: An Indian expatriate on Thursday won 15 million dirhams in the Big Ticket raffle at the Abu Dhabi airport.
Sarath Purushothaman, who is based in Dubai, was among the eight Indians, out of 10 winners of the Big Ticket raffle draw, the Khaleej Times reported.
Purushothaman was announced as the winner of a bumper prize of 15 million dirhams, it said, adding that it was the highest prize ever given away by Big Ticket.
According to the report, Purushothaman was contacted on the phone after the winning ticket was announced, but he thought it to be a prank.
The organisers had to call him one again to confirm that the announcement was legitimate, it said.
The second price of 100,000 dirhams was won by another Indian expat Jinachandran Vazhoor Narayanan.
Among the 10 winners, eight were Indians at the Thursday's draw, while the other two winners were from Pakistan and Fiji.
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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.”
