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Shaker Aamer: Last UK Guantanamo Bay detainee released after 14-year detention

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Shaker Aamer has never been charged with any offences and has maintained his innocence

Shaker Aamer has been kept in Guantanamo Bay for 14 years but has never been charged or tried.

Shaker Aamer has been kept in Guantanamo Bay for 14 years but has never been charged or tried.

by Rose Troup Buchanan, Independent

Shaker Aamer, the last British resident detained in Guantanamo, has been reportedly released and is flying back to his wife and four children in London.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond confirmed to Sky News Mr Aamer had been released. His plane is believed to be due to land in the UK at around midday today.

Co-director of the We Stand With Shaker campaign Andy Worthington also said he had confirmation from Mr Aamer’s lawyer he is due to return.

“We’re delighted to hear that his long and unacceptable ordeal has come to an end,” he told Press Association. 

“We hope he won’t be detained by the British authorities on his return and gets the psychological and medical care that he needs to be able to resume his life with his family in London.”

Cori Crider, Mr Aamer’s US lawyer and strategic director of Reprieve, said in a statement the release was “long, long past time.” “Shaker now needs to see a doctor, and then get to spend time alone with his family as soon as possible.” Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen cautioned: “After so many twists and turns in this appalling case, we won’t really believe that Shaker Aamer is actually being returned to the UK until his plane touches down on British soil.” “We should remember what a terrible travesty of justice this case has been, and that having been held in intolerable circumstances for nearly 14 years Mr Aamer will need time to readjust to his freedom,” Ms Allen said in a statement. The 46-year-old Saudi Arabian citizen has been held in the US dentention centre for 13 years without trial. His case was debated in the House of Commons in March, and MPs have lobbied Washington to urgently address his transfer – which was cleared in 2007. Prime Minister David Cameron has personally lobbied on behalf of Mr Aamer, urging Barack Obama to free the Guantanamo detainee in June of this year.  A Downing Street source claimed Mr Cameron told the US president: “We are very clear we need to find a resolution to the case of Shaker Aamer.” On Friday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn congratulated Mr Aamer’s team on the release, calling it “great news.”

Mr McDonnell told The Mirror he was “breathing a heavy sigh of relief” following Mr Aamer’s release. “Shaker was simply a man in the wrong place at the wrong time, a charity worker building wells in Afghanistan who was kidnapped, ransomed and falsely imprisoned.”

Mr Aamer, whose British wife and four children live in London, has British residency and permission to reside indefinitely in the UK. He has not seen his family in 14 years.

He was imprisoned in Afghanistan after being accused of working with al-Qaeda.

A Reprieve report, published earlier this year, detailed the horrific torture he claims US interrogators meted out in an attempt to make him sign a false confession. Mr Aamer later said he would have told interrogators “he was Bin Laden” to make the torture stop.

Dr Emily Keram, an American doctor who was able to visit him in Guantanamo, diagnosed Mr Aamer with acute post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), migraines, digestive problems, swelling, asthma and tinnitus. She recommended urgent treatment for the “serious medical concerns” in the UK.

Guantanamo Bay detention centre was established in 2002 by the US government. Following a successful Freedom of Information request, the centre admitted to holding 779 men and boys over the course of its use. Mr Obama had promised to close the facility – condemned globally by international human rights organisations – but as of June this year 116 individuals remain imprisoned in the centre. That number will now stand at 115.

JD(U), Congress approach EC, demand ban on Amit Shah’s entry in Bihar

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Amit_Shah

New Delhi: Upping the ante against Amit Shah after his “fireworks in Pakistan” remark, JD(U) and Congress today approached the Election Commission demanding that the BJP chief be barred from entering Bihar for “inciting communal tension” till the election process ends.

Taking strong objection to BJP’s poll advertisements in the state, they accused the party of using “lies and false propaganda” to vitiate the atmosphere and demanded that an FIR be registered against Shah as well Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his quota remarks.

Slamming Shah’s yesterday remarks that if BJP loses in Bihar, there will be fireworks in Pakistan, JD(U) general secretary K C Tyagi said, “Shah’s remarks are inflammatory.

“A case should be registered against him and he should be debarred from entering Bihar till the poll process is over. He is a habitual conspirator. He was earlier also debarred from entering Gujarat by the court.”

A delegation of Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, spokesperson Ajoy Kumar and JD(U) general secretary K C Tyagi met Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi and submitted a memorandum, accusing the BJP of “vitiating” the electoral process by “promoting communal tension” through its advertisements.

It sought action including “complete withdrawal” of these ads and “prosecution” of the perpetrators.

Submitting a list of advertisements issued by the BJP in Bihar including one which accuses Nitish Kumar-led of “snatching the plate of dalits” and accuses it of trying to carve five per cent reservation for a particular community from the quota for SC/ST/OBC, the delegation demanded quick action from the poll watchdog.

The parties complained to the EC on this matter on a day when Prime Minister Narendra raised the pitch on this issue addressing a rally in Lalu Prasad’s home turf Gopalganj and citing a speech of Nitish Kumar in Parliament allegedly favouring sub quota for Muslims.

Tyagi also said that the Election Commission should register a case against Modi for the repeated reference of his belonging to Extremely Backward Castes (EBC) in the same manner as the Election Commission had lodged a case against RJD chief Lalu Prasad for his forward versus back election remark earlier.

They also cited two more ads. While one alleges that Lashkar-e-Toiba and ISI terrorists are “thriving in Bihar due to negligence” of JD-U leaders, the other talks of Bihar government’s role in “delayed” arrest of Yasin Bhatkal from Nepal border.

The delegation alleged that it is a “shameless” attempt by the BJP at spreading “false propaganda” and “creating communal tension”.

The Nitish Kumar-led alliance claimed that one of the ads say that RJD, JD(U) and Congress leaders are “giving sanctuary” to terrorists to appease a particular community for votes.

The name of the particular community becomes clear when seen in context to previous day’s ad, which spoke about Muslim community appeasement by RJD-JD(U) and Congress by ‘robbing the plate of dalits’, the delegation alleged.

On the ad regarding Bhatkal arrest issue, the delegation said that it questions whether the ‘delay’ was to make a particular community feel the “government’s benevolence”.

“The connection between letting Bhatkar escape and a community is done to connect Bhatkal with the Muslim community,” they alleged.

“In the on-going elections in Bihar, the BJP has been promoting lies, false propaganda and communal tensions through its advertisements. This has resulted in vitiating the electoral process by promoting communal tension….

“As you will see from these ads, it is a shameless attempt at spreading false propaganda and creating communal tension by use of misuse of select words in ambiguous contexts that could be interpreted for multiple factions for inciting violence between the two communities,” the delegation said in its memorandum.

Terming these ads as “blatant violation” of the provisions of the Representation of People Act, 1951 and several provisions of the Indian Penal Code, the delegation said, “The EC must demand a complete withdrawal of the advertisement and prosecution should be initiated against the perpetrators at the earliest.”

(Agencies)

Historians join hands protesting against rise in ‘intolerance’

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Romila Thapar

Hyderabad: Hopping on the bandwagon of eminent personalities who have been protesting against the rising intolerance in the nation by returning the honours bestowed on them by the government for their work, are historians including Romila Thapar, Irfan Habib and M G S Narayanan who have come out in protest describing the situation as a “highly vitiated atmosphere of intolerance in the country.”

“Differences of opinion are being sought to be settled by using physical violence. Arguments are met not with counter arguments but with bullets. And, when it is hoped that the head of government will make a statement about improving the prevailing conditions, he chooses to speak only about general poverty; and it takes the head of the state to make the required reassuring statement, not once but twice,” a joint statement issued by the historians stated.

The statement comes in the backdrop of octogenarian biologist P M Bhargava’s decision to return his Padma Bhushan award in solidarity with the protesting writers and filmmakers as he accused the Narendra Modi government of trying to turn India to a “Hindu religious autocracy.”

“The ruling party today, is deviating from the path of democracy and is on its way making India a Hindu religious autocracy and I object to it,”  Bhargava told Deccan Herald.

He received the Padma Bhushan in 1986. Bhargava, founder-director of Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), is one of the signatories of another statement from scientists in which they asserted that “India will not accept attacks on reason, science and our plural culture. We reject the destructive narrow view that seeks to dictate what people will wear, think, eat and who they will love.”

Over a 100 senior scientists from across the country have signed a petition addressed to President Pranab Mukherjee against growing religious intolerance. The infamous Tandoor murder case brought CCMB into limelight for matching victim Naina Sahni’s DNA.

Union Minister Arun Jaitley described the surge in protests as “manufactured rebellion”, while he dubbed the scholars and intellectuals returning their awards as “rabid anti-BJP elements”.

The finance minister wondered if the conscience of protesting scholars and intellectuals had pricked when corruption and scams to the tune of lakhs and crores of rupees were taking place in the UPA era.

The historians, however, took on the Modi government, saying, when writers were returning their awards in protest, no comment was made about the conditions that caused the protest.

“Instead the ministers call it a paper revolution and advise writers to stop writing. This is as good as saying that intellectuals will be silenced if they protest. This is particularly worrying for us as historians as we have already experienced attempts to ban books and expunge statements of history despite the fact that they are supported by sources and the interpretation is transparent,” they said.

(Agencies)

Chandrabhan Sanap gets death in TCS techie rape-n-murder case

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Chandrabhan Sanap (right) is seen with Esther Anuhya in the CCTV footage at the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus on January 5. (File photo)

Chandrabhan Sanap (right) is seen with Esther Anuhya in the CCTV footage at the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus on January 5. (File photo)

Mumbai: A special women’s court here today awarded death sentence to Chandrabhan Sanap, prime accused in the rape and murder of a Andhra Pradesh-based software engineer in suburban Kurla here last year.

“The case falls under the category of the rarest of rare, hence the accused is awarded death sentence…he must be hanged by his neck till he is dead,” said Special Women’s court judge Vrushali Joshi pronouncing the verdict.

The prosecution demanded death for Sanap, saying that sympathy to him would send a wrong signal and neither the victim’s parents nor the society would feel that justice has been delivered.

On the other hand, pleading for mercy, the defense lawyers had argued that the convict had undergone reformation while in prison.

On October 27, the 29-year-old driver was convicted under IPC Section 302 (murder), Section 376 (rape) and Section 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) for raping and killing the 23-year-old techie, after the court agreed with the prosecution, which had examined 39 witnesses in the case.

Mumbai Police’s crime branch had arrested Sanap in early March last year about two months after the murder of the young techie, who was a native of Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh and was employed as assistant system engineer with IT major TCS at its office in suburban Goregaon.

Investigators caught Sanap after an exhaustive scrutiny of 36 CCTV footages at the railway station and grilling of about 2,500 people. The victim went missing from Lokmanya Tilak terminus near Kurla after arriving by train from Andhra Pradesh in the early hours of January 5, 2014.

According to police, Sanap spotted her sitting alone at the railway station and offered to drop her off at Andheri on his two-wheeler. Subsequently, he took her to an isolated spot and strangled her when she resisted his attempt to rob her.

The decomposed body of the techie was found off the Eastern Express Highway in suburban Bhandup on January 16, 2014. Sanap, who worked as a porter here and then as a driver in Nashik, is a history-sheeter.

(Agencies)

I will eat beef, who are you to question, asks CM Siddaramaiah

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siddaramaiah

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has joined the beef row contending that unnecessary issues are being raked under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“I haven’t had beef. But I will eat. Who are you to question? Whatever is comfortable for me, I will eat.” he said referring to the BJP leaders’ objection to beef consumption while interacting with the media in Bengaluru on Thursday.

Admitting that the situation across the country had turned “insecure” with the kind of issues taking centre stage, Siddaramaiah said the focus of the Union government should be on the development of the nation.

(Agencies)

Our issues can be only solved through dialogue: Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit

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Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit with Nasheman.in editor Rizwan Asad at a dinner hosted by Press club of Bangalore during his visit to Bengaluru on Wednesday

Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit with Nasheman.in editor Rizwan Asad at a dinner hosted by Press club of Bangalore during his visit to Bengaluru on Wednesday

Abdul Basit

Bengaluru: Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit on Wednesday asserted that the issues between India and Pakistan can be only solved through dialogue.

Speaking to Nasheman.in Mr. Basit said that there definitely are issues between both the countries, primarily being the issue of Jammu & Kashmir. He said, there is no other way to establish lasting peace without holding talks and resolving issues.

On the question of his country allegedly hiding fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, he asserted that “he is not in Pakistan. Even your government is not sure about his whereabouts.”

“Do share information on Dawood if you have any,” he said.

Earlier in his talk, Basit said since India is a big country it has more responsibilities on its shoulders to put an end to violence and Pakistan is ready to engage with India with sincerity and seriousness of purpose.

“After 35 years of violence in Pakistan, a fatigue factor has set in after having suffered at the hands of terrorism. We genuinely want violence to come to an end and we are ready to engage with India with sincerity and seriousness of purpose, but India as a big country has more responsibilities on its shoulders,” he said.

On the allegation that Army controls the politics and judiciary of the country, Mr. Basit rubbished it saying one should not give credence to propaganda. He assured that Pakistan is a democracy and a relatively conducive environment flourishes in his country.

Role of Urdu writers in Indo-Pak relationship

He said people of both the countries, have a common culture and language. Urdu, he contended has been a common thread of unity and writers of the language from both end of the border have encouraged bilateral relations between India and Pakistan.”

Mr. Basit also expressed great pleasure announcing that his country has recently passed an ordinance to make Urdu the official language of Pakistan. Acknowledging that Pakistan’s earlier leaders hailed from an elite class, who preferred English over Urdu, he said Urdu will finally get its due credit, after suffering for long.

Why I am returning my national film award: Anand Patwardhan

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Anand Patwardhan

by Anand Patwardhan

National awards have always meant a lot to me. They were more precious than International awards and awards from private institutions precisely they represented those rare moments when the government of India became willing to uphold the spirit of our secular, socialist and democratic Constitution.

Today this spirit is evaporating. Our nation is at a crossroads. On one side is the secular path that our freedom fighters laid out for us and on the other, the path towards majoritarian fascism that the present regime seems bent upon. I am not saying we are already a fascist state. I am saying that the early warning signs are unmistakable.

It is the duty of all thinking citizens to speak out before it becomes too late. Filmmakers are thinking citizens who cannot look away. When the government attempted to foist unqualified saffron administrators on the FTII, students there went on strike. The strike has lasted an unprecedented four months. In this period people from all walks of life began to wake up to the unmistakable reality that the India they knew was on a dangerous new path. The killing of rationalists, the hounding of whistleblowers like Teesta Setalvad and Sanjiv Bhatt, the denial of justice to victims of religious pogroms and caste based massacres, the emboldening of the religio-lunatic fringe and the impunity of those who kill or advocate killing in the name of religion is accompanied by the wholesale rewriting of history, the denial of scientific enquiry and the consequent production of a generation of dumbed down consumers for whom having an enemy to hate replaces their thirst for knowledge.

So it is with a heavy heart I am returning my very first National award for Bombay Our City. Back in 1985 even as we won this award the homes of people I had filmed were demolished. I did not go to receive the award. Instead Vimal Dinkar Hedau whose home in Bandra had just been demolished went to Delhi to receive this award and distributed leaflets about the cause of the homeless. The prize money went to the slumdwellers movement. Today I am returning the medal.

What do we want from this government? Not much. Just its resignation. Will that happen any time soon? Not likely. What do we want from the people of India? Not much. Just eternal vigilance.

Israeli rightists push for takeover of Al-Aqsa compound

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Right-wing Jewish organisations are advocating for an increased Israeli presence at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

Protests across occupied Palestinian territories have been triggered by increased Israeli incursions Al-Aqsa Mosque compound [Ammar Awad/Reuters]

Protests across occupied Palestinian territories have been triggered by increased Israeli incursions Al-Aqsa Mosque compound [Ammar Awad/Reuters]

by Patrick Strickland, Al Jazeera

Right-wing political leaders and groups have called for Israel to exercise control over the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound as the Israeli government takes harsh measures to quell ongoing Palestinian unrest.

Returning to the Mount, a hardline right-wing Zionist organisation, announced this week that it would pay 2,000 shekels ($516) to Jewish-Israelis detained while praying at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, the third holiest site for Muslims.

Jewish groups refer to the site as the Temple Mount and their increased incursions into the mosque compound have triggered Palestinian protests across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.

Although formally banned from praying there, Israeli activists enjoy police escort when they venture into the compound.

Speaking to Israel’s Channel 2 on Tuesday, Raphael Morris, head of Returning to the Mount, accused the Israeli government of imposing “ruthless restrictions” on Jewish Israelis.

“We are not prepared [to let] the situation deteriorate.”

“We must act not only to end the slide, but moreover for the addition of rights for Jews on the mount, the first of which is prayer,” Morris said, as reported by the Times of Israel website.

The group’s Facebook is full of posts calling for Israel to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque and raise a Jewish temple in its place.

These fever-pitch calls come at a time when Palestinian protests against Israel’s ongoing occupation and harsh policies are growing in frequency in Palestinian communities in Israel and in the West Bank and Gaza.

Triggered by Israeli incursions into the mosque last month, protests have met Israeli force, including the use of live ammunition, rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas and stun grenades.

Since October 1, Israeli forces or settlers have killed 66 Palestinians, including unarmed protesters, bystanders and alleged attackers.

More than 1,000 Palestinians, among them children, have been arrested this month, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club.

During that same period, nine Israelis were killed by Palestinians in stabbing or shooting attacks.

Also on Tuesday, Israeli Deputy Minister Tzipi Hotovely – a member of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ultra-nationalist Likud party – referred to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound as “the centre of Israeli sovereignty, the capital of Israel”.

“It is my dream to see the Israeli flag flying” over Al-Aqsa, she told Knesset TV, the Israeli parliament’s television channel in an interview.

In response, Netanyahu’s office later that night put out a statement saying that “non-Muslims visit the Temple Mount [Al-Aqsa compound]” but are not permitted to pray there.

Biblical claims

Hotovely was criticised back in May when she cited religious texts as justification for Israeli settlement expansion. Citing medieval Jewish scholar Rabbi Shlomo Ben Yitzhaki, she said that “the creator of the world” took the land from Palestinians “and gave it to us”.

More than 530,000 Israelis live in Jewish-only settlements – considered illegal by international law – across the West Bank, according to the Israeli rights group B’Tselem.

Last month, the Temple Mount and Eretz Yisrael Faithful Movement, a hardline Israeli organisation that advocates removing the Al-Aqsa Mosque, organised a march as tensions soared.

The group published a statement calling on Jews to protect the Temple Mount, which is “in the hands of Israel’s enemies”.

“We will stop the Islamisation of the Temple Mount and the construction of more mosques,” it read, adding that Israeli police forces will provide the marchers with protection.

According to Al-Shabaka Policy Network, a Palestinian research group, Israeli leaders intentionally attempt to portray the ongoing unrest as a religious conflict in order to justify using force against anti-occupation protests and to deflect criticism of harsh policies.

“Israel’s framing of the conflict along religious lines is an attempt to decontextualise the clashes that have been happening between Palestinians and Israeli settlers,” Nur Arafeh, a policy fellow at Al-Shabaka, told Al Jazeera.

Arafeh said that Palestinian “resistance to a settler-colonial and apartheid” are time and again “distortedly linked to religious fervor”.

“While Netanyahu claims that he has no intention to change the status quo, Israeli settlers have strong and deepening ties with Israeli authorities that have been providing them with financial, political, and legal assistance and coverage.”

Several senior officials of the Israeli government and high-ranking members of Netanyahu’s Likud party are committed supporters of Temple Mount movements and have attempted to advance their program in the Knesset, according to a December 2014 report by the Jerusalem based group Ir Amim.

The report found that Netanyahu has “refrained from confronting them publicly or from commenting on the destructive impact of their actions”.

Between May 2013 and October 2014, the Knesset Interior Committee held 14 discussions about Jewish access to the mosque compound, as compared to four meetings in the decade prior.

Ir Amim describes these discussions “as a central stage for backing extreme right Temple movement activists” and “a platform for right-wing Knesset members to level criticism at authorities responsible for security” at the holy site.

Some 27 right-wing Jewish movements advocate for an expansion of Israel’s presence at the compound, according to the United Temple Mount Movement, an umbrella group that represents the organisations.

While many only publicly focus on increasing Jewish prayer at the site, they all maintain the messianic view that the mosque will be replaced with a Jewish temple, according to another Ir Amim report published in October 2014.

‘Intense incitement’

In recent months, however, security forces have imposed tighter entry restrictions to the Al-Aqsa area on Palestinians, often placing arbitrary age restrictions on male worshippers.

Earlier this month, Netanyahu banned all Knesset members from visiting the holy site, including Palestinian legislators in the Israeli parliament.

While Netanyahu has been mostly quiet about right-wing Jewish groups pushing for an Israeli takeover of the holy site, he has lashed out at Palestinian legislators who defy his order.

Most recently, Bassel Ghattas, a legislator in the Knesset and member of the Balad political party, defied the ban and visited the mosque to show solidarity with worshippers on Wednesday.

Emphasising that Ghattas is a Christian, Netanyahu accused him of attempting to “provoke” an escalation and “inflame the situation”.

Yousef Jabareen, a Knesset member from the Arab-majority Joint List electoral coalition, said that Netanyahu and his political allies “are the ones who have been inciting”.

“We have been witnessing intense incitement by Netanyahu and his allies against Palestinian Knesset members,” he told Al Jazeera.

“The idea is to delegitimise our role in Israeli politics,” he said. “I believe that this incitement serves Netanyahu to go ahead with his discriminatory policies” against Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories.

China to abolish decades-old one-child policy

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State news agency says restriction introduced in 1980 will be lifted, allowing all couples to have two children.

The restriction was introduced in 1980 as a way to curb the population and limit demands for resources [Frederic J Brown/AFP]

The restriction was introduced in 1980 as a way to curb the population and limit demands for resources [Frederic J Brown/AFP]

by Al Jazeera

The official Xinhua News Agency says China’s ruling Communist Party has decided to abolish the country’s one-child policy and allow all couples to have two children.

It cited a communique issued by the ruling Communist Party on Thursday after a four-day meeting in Beijing to chart the course of the nation over the next five years.

China is “abandoning its decades-long one-child policy”, Xinhua reported.

The restriction was introduced in 1980 as a way to curb the population and limit demands for water and other resources.

The controversial policy restricted most couples to only a single offspring, and for years authorities argued that it was a key contributor to China’s economic boom.

But after years of strict, sometimes brutal enforcement by a dedicated government commission, China’s population – the world’s largest – is now ageing rapidly, gender imbalances are severe, and its workforce is shrinking.

The concerns led to limited reforms in 2013, including allowing a second child for some couples in urban areas, but relatively few have taken up the opportunity.

Al Jazeera’s Rob McBride, reporting from Beijing, said the one-child policy was no longer viable for the country.

“China needs more people joining the workforce, so there is the economic aspect looking further ahead that China needs to have larger families.

“This was one of the widely anticipated measures that was expected from the five-year plan and I think it will be broadly welcomed. The one-child policy is an unpopular measure here in china. We have seen children growing up in isolation because of it,” our correspondent said.

Sachin did not know how to make double, triple tons: Kapil Dev

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Kapil Dev

Dubai: Former India captain Kapil Dev says the iconic Sachin Tendulkar “did not know how to make double hundreds, triple hundreds and 400 though he had the ability” to scale such peaks and was “stuck in the Mumbai school of cricket”.

“Don’t get me wrong, but I think Sachin didn’t do justice to his talent. I always thought he could have done much more than what he did,” Dev was quoted as saying by the ‘Khaleej Times’.

“He (Sachin) got stuck with Bombay cricket. He didn’t apply himself to the ruthless international cricket. I think he should have spent more time with Vivian Richards than some of the Bombay guys who played just neat and straight cricket.

“Sachin was a much better cricketer but somewhere along the line he just knew how to score hundreds. He didn’t know how to make it a double hundred, or a triple or even 400s,” added the 1983 World Cup winning India captain.

The great all-rounder, under whose captaincy India won its maiden World Cup in 1983, said he would have advised Tendulkar to play like Virender Sehwag.

“He (Sachin) had the ability. He was technically sound but I felt he was there to get his hundred and that’s it. Unlike Richards, Sachin wasn’t ruthless, he was more of a perfect, or rather correct cricketer. Had I spent more time with him I would have told him ‘go enjoy yourself, play like Virender Sehwag’. You will be a much better cricketer.”

The 56-year-old Dev made these remarks before a select crowd at the Cove Beach Club at Jumeirah Hotel in Dubai alongside three other cricketing icons — Shane Warne, Wasim Akram and Ian Botham.

Spin legend Warne remarked that Tendulkar was special.

“He is a wonderful player and in my 20-odd years of playing, he is the best batsman that I played against. The expectations he was under and the skill he had against fast and spin. The way he judged the balls. He was great for the game of cricket and he was a fantastic and wonderful player. He dominated bowlers in the mid-90s and he was just outstanding against any bowler. He also played exceptionally well against Australia,” said Warne.

“I now see Sachin’s different side as I am now doing business with him. He is a wonderful friend,” he added.

Pace bowling great Akram regretted for having played much against Tendulkar.

“One of the regrets Waqar Younis and I had as a bowler is that we never played Test cricket against Tendulkar for nearly 10 years,” he said.

“We played against Sachin when he made his debut in 1989 when he was 16 and then, we played Tests against Sachin in 1999 in India. As Warne said, he was the best in the game and 100 international hundreds speaks volumes of his talent.”

When the former greats were asked to name the best they had played against, Kapil said: “I think Viv in my time is the best I have seen. More than his cricket, it was the way he played the game and his attitude. I loved to take his wicket all the time.”

Botham echoed similar sentiments: “Viv Richards is certainly the best player I have seen in all formats of the game. I don’t think there has been anyone better. I remember in Old Trafford we left him in the raps and Michael Holding came out to bat and 200 runs later, Richards was 189 not out — which was obscene. You bowl him outside the off stump with a packed field, and he will flick you into the grandstand on the leg side. He never read the MCC coaching annual.”

Akram added: “When I started out, it was the great Viv Richards and the Little Master Sunil Gavaskar. I got out him out only once. In the 90s, it was (Brian) Lara and Tendulkar.”

(Agencies)

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