"It's Just Not Cricket"

For my second post of the day, I thought I'de comment on one of the days biggest news pieces, and a sport very close to my heart.


The sentencing took place today of 3 Pakistani cricketers and a sports agent for match fixing. The 4 men appeared before Mr. Justice Cooke, at the Southwark Crown Court for sentencing following a lengthy trial of 3 of the Defendants which culminated in guilty verdicts being delivered on Tuesday. (The agent having plead guilty at an earlier hearing).


The charges stemmed from match fixing allegations with regards to the 4th Test Match of the summer 2010 series of England v Pakistan. An undercover reporter for the News of the World filmed the sports agent, Mazhar Majeed predicting exactly when 2 Pakistani bowlers would bowl no balls and collecting 150,00 GBP in cash as a result of the prediction.


The bowlers found to be guilty of bowling the no balls were Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif. The trial had heard that the chances of someone correctly predicting when 3 no balls would be bowled was around 1.5 million to 1.  


The team captain at the time, Salman Butt was also found guilty of match fixing, as he was paid to ensure that the correct bowlers were bowling at the right time.


Sentencing all 4 defendant's to immediate custody, Mr. Justice Cooke said:


"The image and integrity of what was once a game but is now a business is damaged in the eyes of all, including the many youngsters who regarded you as heroes and would have given their eye teeth to play at the levels and with the skills that you had."


Salman Butt was sentenced to 30 months in prison, Mohammad Asif 12 months, Mohammad Amir 6 months and Mazhar Majeed 32 months.


As Mr. Justice Cooke remarked "It's not cricket" -  and it's certainly hard to disagree.

Family Justice Review released today - 3/11/11

My first post, and on a day when I can actually post something interesting!!

The final report of the Family Justice Review was released this morning.

Will this be good for Family Law as a whole? My guess is we will have to wait and see.

The key "headline grabbing" points seem to be:

• A recommendation to "bin" residence and contact orders, but replace them with "Child Arrangements Orders."
• A new two track system for family cases should be implemented "simple" and "complex" - and the level of Judge needed for the case will be determined on the cases track allocation.
• A new Family Justice Service will be established which is to be responsible for the budgets of court social work services, mediation, out of Court resolution services and it is thought that in time it will be responsible for budgets in relation to the instruction of experts and solicitors for the children.
• The same Judge should have conduct of the case all the way through.
• A single Family Court system should be set up where all levels of the judiciary sit in the same building (i.e. Magistrates, DJ's and CJ's)
• The High Court will remain for complex cases, but High Court Judges are going to be encouraged to travel to the single Family Court point to hear their cases.
• In all but exceptional caes, Care Proceedings must be concluded within 6 months of them commencing.
• Experts will only be instructed in cases where their involvement is necessary to conclude the case, and the impact of delay to the child (when instructing an expert) should be considered even more than it currently is.
• A new online hub for starting divorce proceedings will be established.
• Parents will be encouraged to resolve disputes regarding their children outside of Court.

 The full report can be found at:

http://www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/publications/policy/moj/family-justice-review-final-report.pdf

My thoughts on the report to follow soon.....