Bookies approaching players on Facebook: Anderson

London, July 25: England fast bowler James Anderson has claimed that social networking site Facebook is being used by bookmakers to approach players, a dangerous trend that the ICC is scrutinising.

Anderson’s claim came close on the heels of a statement by former Australian captain Steve Waugh that as many as 56 cricketers have been contacted by illegal bookies in the last year alone.

“We are regularly briefed by the ICC, told what to look out for and what constitutes an approach. There are strict ICC regulations about what to do if you are approached and we are all aware that it’s an offence if you don’t inform the right people if it does happen,” Anderson was quoted as saying by a leading UK newspaper.

Anderson went on to mention the process of ensnaring players.
“People approach players on the net asking to be friends, things progress from there over a period of time and the player is trapped,” he added.

Anderson, however, denied being approached by bookies himself.
“I have not come across anything like that personally but we’ve been told that players have been approached in this way in the past,” Anderson said.

“When the Anti-Corruption Security Unit (ACSU) people speak to us and tell us how big the underground betting is in India and elsewhere, it does make you realise what is actually happening out there,” he said.

The English Cricket Board confirmed that social networking sites are being monitered. “The ACSU provides players with ongoing briefings, including guidance in relation to social networking,” a release said.

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Tips to improve English pronunciation

Ponouncing every word correctly leads to poor pronunciation.

Good pronunciation comes from stressing the right words – this is because English is a time-stressed language. English is considered a stressed language while many other languages are considered syllabic.

In other languages, such as French or Italian, each syllable receives equal importance (there is stress, but each syllable has its own length). English pronunciation focuses on specific stressed words while quickly gliding over the other, nonstressed, words.

When you are developing English and communication skills, pronunciation plays a very important role.

A wrong pronunciation can communicate something that you never intended to or may confuse the listener or at times not provide the message with clarity.

The biggest reason for this is that many words of the language are not pronounced the same way as they are spelt. Hence, you may have to concentrate on learning the correct pronunciation of words while learning English.

Here are some tips that could help one pronounce English words correctly.

■ Choose a paragraph and read aloud.

■ Choose a paragraph and mark each sentence with a sound script (helpful pronunciation markup).

This will help you read more naturally, and thus pronounce correctly.

■ Choose a few sentences from your reading material and highlight content words. Read these sentences focusing on accenting these content words, while quickly speaking over the structure words.

■ Once you become comfortable reading a single paragraph aloud, read an entire page by reading a paragraph aloud and then reading one silently.

■ Choose some nursery rhymes to practice. They will help you with pronunciation through rhythm.

■ Read a short story or a few paragraphs to a friend who is also studying English.

Compare the differences and discuss what might be the reasons for the differences.

■ Choose a paragraph, short article or newspaper story with new vocabulary. Use the Babylon dictionary or other online pronunciation resource to help you learn the correct pronunciation of these words.

■ Read a play with some friends. Each friend takes a different part. Start with short scenes. Once you are comfortable, read longer pieces together.

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