Smith"s century pushes Aussies past England

HOBART, Australia (AFP) — Steve Smith’s incredible summer continued when he produced an unbeaten century to guide Australia to a three-wicket victory over England in a tri-series One-Day International in Hobart yesterday.

Promoted to the captaincy with regular skipper George Bailey suspended for a second slow over rate breach in 12 months, Smith’s unbeaten 102 enabled Australia to chase down England’s imposing total of 303 for eight.

Australia, also missing the rested David Warner and Shane Watson, made 304 for seven to win with just one ball to spare and remain undefeated in the competition, guaranteeing themselves a berth in tomorrow’s final.

Ian Bell’s brilliant 141 set up the England total, which appeared to be enough for much of the game.

England were still in pole position when Brad Haddin strode to the wicket for Australia with the home side at 216 for five.

Another 88 runs were needed from 76 balls, but Haddin’s 42 off 29 balls as part of a quickfire 71-run stand turned the game.

Smith, who hit four centuries in Australia’s four-Test series against India that finished earlier in the month, faced 95 balls, hitting six fours and one six.

He paid tribute to the efforts of Haddin and conceded his own confidence was sky-high.

“It’s nice to get a few runs again tonight and get the boys over the line,” Smith said.

“I’ll never forget this summer.

“I’ve really enjoyed it, I’ve just got to try and keep going and score runs while I’m going well.

“I thought Haddin really took the pressure off me in the end today.”

England captain Eoin Morgan said his team didn’t make enough in the latter stages of their innings.

“We played good cricket in stages,” he said.

“Ian Bell was magnificent but the last 10 overs let us down a little bit.

“Credit to Australia for how they bowled at the death.”

When the two sides previously met earlier in the tournament, England were beaten by four wickets with more than 10 overs remaining.

However, England bounced back with an impressive nine-wicket win over India in Brisbane on Tuesday and carried that form into yesterday’s innings.

After being sent in to bat, England got off to a great start through Bell and fellow opener Moeen Ali.

Bell, who was unbeaten on 88 against India, made his fourth One-Day International century before being caught by Starc from the bowling of rookie paceman Gurinder Sandhu, who finished with figures of 2-49.

He faced 125 balls, hitting 15 fours and one six, and passed two significant milestones during the innings.

Bell started the innings just five runs shy of becoming only the second Englishman to pass 5,000 One-Day International runs.

In his 153rd One-Day Iternational, he passed that mark in the third over, and later went on to overtake Paul Collingwood as England’s highest-ever runs scorer in the format as he neared his century.

His opening partnership of 113 with Ali, who scored 46, set up the English innings.

It ended in bizarre fashion, however, with Australia completing a team hat-trick in the last three balls.

Two batsmen, Chris Woakes and Jos Buttler, were run out, while Ravi Bopara was bowled by Mitchell Starc.

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Smith"s century pushes Aussies past England

PARENTAL PRIORITIES Daughter"s heartfelt note pushes CEO dad to quit job

Former PIMCO Chief Executive Officer and Co-Chief Investment Officer Mohamed El-Erian speaks during an interview at Thomson Reuters. (Reuters)

The CEO of a $2 trillion investment fund said he made the decision to resign from his post after his young daughter wrote him a note listing 22 milestones he had missed in her life.

California-based Mohamed El-Erian left his job as chief executive of PIMCO in mid-March. The 56-year-old El-Erian, who made $100 million in 2011 alone, chose to leave his post after his 10-year-old daughter wrote about all the special moments he was absent for in her life.

Months before announcing his resignation, El-Erian’s daughter handed him a note that made him realize he needed to change his work-life balance, according to an essay he wrote in Worth Magazine’s June-July issue. 

“It was a list that she had compiled of her important events and activities that I had missed due to work commitments,” El-Erian wrote, adding that the note was a “wake-up call” for him.  

“The list contained 22 items, from her first day at school and first soccer match of the season to a parent-teacher meeting and a Halloween parade,” he wrote. 

“I felt awful and got defensive: I had a good excuse for each missed event! Travel, important meetings, an urgent phone call, sudden to-do,” he said. “But it dawned on me that I was missing an infinitely more important point … I was not making nearly enough time for her.

El-Erian is now chief economic adviser with financial services company, Allianz, where he told Reuters he spends “50 percent of my time and I love it.”

Click for more on this from Worth Magazine

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PARENTAL PRIORITIES Daughter"s heartfelt note pushes CEO dad to quit job

Chamber pushes for IMF deal for Barbados

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados — THE Barbados Chamber of Industry and Commerce (BCCI) Wednesday said it had urged the Freundel Stuart government to consider entering into a standby agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as the island grapples to turn around an ailing economy.

BCCI president Tracey Shuffle, addressing a business breakfast meeting here, said that the private sector had suggested that once a reasonable portion of the present fiscal deficit had been reduced, “the government of Barbados could then consider the feasibility of engaging the IMF to enter into a standby arrangement.

“We believed that would have allowed government to avoid any further erosion to the balance of payments while gaining access to funding to help fuel growth through critical project activations.

“We also believed that would have given Barbados the flexibility to determine its level of engagement with the IMF while meeting agreed fiscal targets and having access to lower cost funding for capital projects to feed major sectors of the economy.”

She said that it would appear that a permutation of the first part of our suggestion has been undertaken while the second part has so far been roundly rejected.

“What is clear is that the 19 -month adjustment programme undertaken by government has been sluggish and well behind targeted pace in both revenue generation and expenditure cutting.

“Reserves have been shored up by borrowings and seem to have stabilised for the last several months. So has this 19-month adjustment programme brought with it the confidence that our economy will be fuelled up and ready for growth over the next three to five years? Clearly not,” she noted.

Shuffle told the breakfast meeting discussing the “Merits and Demerits of a Formal IMF Programme”

“We all know that a formal IMF engagement can only be established by government invitation but we believe that whether or not such a decision is taken in coming months, the business community must be adequately informed about what that is likely to mean.”

She said as a result it was important to have a “well researched, experiential and balanced discussion about such an important topic”.

The private sector leader said that there is a belief in the country that when the IMF is formally engaged by a government, that government has completely “failed” to adequately manage its financial affairs.

“In fact, many countries wait until they are in absolutely dire financial straits to engage the IMF as the Fund is often seen as a rescue of last resort, a time when financial power is handed over to outside interests.

“Others believe that a formal programme is one of the most effective ways to access lower cost loans and to signal that the hardest structural decisions are more likely to be successfully implemented, giving an overall confidence boost to the economy. “

Shuffle said that as always, there are shades and nuances not captured in either of these two positions, noting that there are some Barbadians who believe “our only hope is the IMF, because government can’t properly execute a home grown programme quickly enough for us to move into growth in the next few years.

“Others believe the IMF is insensitive to small, open economies like Barbados and they will essentially imperil the foundations of the economy we have collectively worked to build, even if the fiscal deficit is markedly improved.”

But she told the breakfast meeting that IMF programmes have traditionally consisted of reforming the tax system, making the exchange rate more competitive or allowing devaluation to occur, liberalising trade regimes, increasing privatisation and reducing fiscal deficits.

“While it is clear that some of the traditional IMF approaches have become more member-sensitive in their recent Caribbean engagements, devaluation is usually placed firmly on the table as part of the standard toolkit along with removal of a number of concessions and comprehensive tax reforms.”

– CMC

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Chamber pushes for IMF deal for Barbados