Injury played huge part in England debacle: Dhoni

CARDIFF: India suffered a humiliating whitewash in both Test and one-day series in their disastrous England tour but captainMahendra Singh Dhoni said that injury to several key team members played a huge part in the debacle.

"I have not seen so many injuries in the last five years. To see 9-11 players get injured in one series has been shocking. In the ODI series we also did not have luck," he said at the press conference after India lost the fifth and final ODI by six wickets.

"If you look at the first two Tests, we were left with three bowlers. If your bowling starts looking weak, the pressure piles up on batsmen. You cannot carry a team consistently on just one department.

"If Zaheer was there in the first Test and we could have pressed advantage in the second innings instead of relying on part-timers. It could have looked different. But it's important what we did. There is no point in sulking," Dhoni said.

Dhoni, however, said that his side would not be thinking for revenge when England tour India next month to play five one-day matches.

"You should not have such a feeling. If you have revenge in your mind, you become desperate and start putting pressure on the whole side. It's better to stick to basics," he said.

"We also would have to see how many of the 9-11 players who are injured are now fit and have played some matches. We have to see who all are available for selection."

Asked if he thought injured players should straightaway be allowed to get back into the side without having a few matches under their belt, he said, "It's tough. We have to exactly see what kind of injury it is.

"It is good if someone has some matches under his belt. But it's difficult because you need experience in a line-up. You try to balance it. You don't want your bowling department to look completely fresh."

Dhoni blamed the conditions and injury to Munaf Patel as the reason for India's six-wicket defeat in the fifth and final match here.

"To have Munaf injured after four overs, broke the rhythm of our bowling. The ball was also getting very wet. This was the fifth time we lost the toss and it became very difficult for spinners," he reasoned.

The Indian captain underlined the point that the practice games should not be an official fixture where only 11 players can play. Flexibility with numbers of players who can play is important for practice games.

"We were not able to use practice games in best possible manner. The first game was official and we could not play more than 11 players. Just before a Test match, the players had to be on the field for 90 overs. The second practice game was the same," he said.

"We will make sure there is a MoU in place that practice games should be just practice games. You should be able to play more than 12 players. If I am asked to play an official game, I would prefer playing a Test match than these practice games," he added.

Dhoni held a high view of the present England side but was not prepared to concede they were the current best side in the world.

"England are a very good side, irrespective of the format they are playing. As they play more and more cricket, they would get only better. But it's difficult to say if they are the best side. The top 3-4 sides are all good. They are among the best sides.
"In sub-continent, it might be different but they can still get the reverse swing to control the batsmen. England's batting line up also looks settled. Broad and Bresnan can not only bowl fast and quick but they can also bat which means England bats very deep," he said.

Despite playing without a break for a long time, Dhoni gave the hint that he could be turning out in the Champions League Twenty20 rather than take a break.

"There are four games to be played at the league stage in 10 days. We will see how I stand before the start of the Champions League Twenty20. Next 3-4 days will be complete rest. Our first game is on 24th. I am hoping my fitness does not get worse." 
Asked about the Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Aamer admitting to spot-fixing, Dhoni said, "It's something seriously wrong. People might talk about forgiveness but for me match-fixing and spot-fixing is going against the nation. It's my personal view."

BRIT CLAIMS: Taxpayer pay £10million bill for prisoner injury claims

BRIT CLAIMS: Taxpayer pay £10million bill for prisoner injury claims

The Governments Personal Injury Proposals Come Under Fire from Campaigners and Lawyers

Research commissioned by the Access to Justice Group and the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers has found that many people who have been able to make a personal injury compensation claim through the No Win No Fee system would have had their access to justice denied if the current Government proposals for changing the legal system had been in force.

Over the past five years there have been over three million personal injury claims which means the result of these changes could be hundreds of thousands of people who will be victims of accidents through no fault of their own will be denied compensation if the current government proposals, largely based upon a report by Lord Jackson, successfully make their way through Parliament.

The Ministry of Justice is looking to completely overhaul the current system amid ongoing fears of a growing ‘compensation culture’. Campaigners against the proposals point out that the ‘compensation culture’ is a myth and use the report by Lord Young, commissioned last year by David Cameron, as evidence.

In his report of October 2010, Common Sense, Common Safety, Lord Young stated ‘The problem of the compensation culture prevalent in society today is one of perception rather than reality,’ 

The new proposals include making claimants responsible for their solicitors’ success fee as opposed to the current system where the defendant picks up the cost of the claimants legal success fees. They believe this will encourage competition and drive down costs however many people involved with the current process believe this will be at the expense of justice, especially for those on low and medium incomes who may be put off launching a compensation claim.

Former Labour MP Andrew Dismore who has been leading the Access to Justice Group said: ‘The government must think again and not give in to the special pleading of the fat cat multinational insurance companies, who are the sole beneficiaries of their plans.

‘They will save millions of pounds at the expense of ordinary people who have been hurt on the roads or at work. The government’s plans are Draconian and will end access to justice for the less well off.

‘The system we have now works well and has huge satisfaction rates from those who use it.’

Personal injury costs to approach £10bn

Costs faced by the personal injury insurance industry are likely to rise from £8.4bn in 2010 to £9.7bn by 2014 driven by the growth in the number of motor personal injury claims according to a report by Datamonitor.

The market analysts added the rise would continue despite new regulations being brought in to tackle the problem.

The report revealed that it is motor claims that continued to dominate the personal injury market as a whole accounting for just under 80% of the total despite a fall in the number of road traffic accidents. It added that employers' liability, public liability, and clinical negligence all contributed to the market, but to a lesser degree.

Barbara Kubis-Labiak, analyst at Datamonitor, said: "The rising costs of motor personal injury claims were one of the key reasons for the review of civil litigation costs by Lord Justice Jackson.

"With the continued aggressive TV and marketing campaigns by solicitors and claims management companies, there has been a rise in disproportionate claims, with exaggerated claim sizes and unnecessary costs, making regulatory changes essential."

However, according to some solicitors and insurers who spoke to Datamonitor for their report, even if all the changes suggested by the Jackson review were implemented, personal injury claims costs would continue to rise until 2014 at least, albeit at a slower rate.

Referral fees
The report suggested that insurers largely agreed that banning referral fees would not result in driving down costs, as it would not do anything to address the issue of high solicitors' costs. Datamonitor claimed that according to the insurers and solicitors interviewed for the report, neither industry will start reducing fees.

Ms Kubis-Labiak continued: "Although we believe that changes to regulations over the next few years will do something to tackle rising costs, this will only result in a marginal slowdown."

She concluded: "In fact, after taking into consideration all of the expected changes, we have only revised our long-term forecast for the 2010-14 growth of claims costs down from 5.4% to 3.7%. Therefore costs will remain a problem and time as well as further changes will be needed to finally bring costs under control."

‘No win, no fee’ change could be big deal for travel

Agents and operators could face fewer personal injury claims as a result of legal reform proposed last week.

The changes to the “no win, no fee” systemproposed by appeal court judge Lord Justice Jackson could “change the landscape” of claims against travel companies, some lawyers believe.

Under the existing system, which has been criticised for encouraging speculative claims, losing claimants do not have to pay legal costs.

The reforms propose claimants should foot the legal bill themselves if they lose. The potential costs of claiming are also set to increase under plans to scrap insurance covering lost cases.

Defendants would largely have to pay their own legal costs, whether they win or lose, and will have to pay the claimant’s legal costs should the claimant win.

Abdulanesh Alaraqu director of Brit Claims said the reforms would discourage speculative cases.

“At the moment, there is an ethos of ‘we might as well have a go’, but if the costs to pay should people lose increase, they may not be so willing to take action,” he said.

“It means lawyers will only want to take on strong cases. This will change the legal landscape of claims against travel companies.”

Claimants who win will be eligible for compensation payments that are 10% higher than now.

However, travel firms could still pay less if they lose, because a cap would be introduced on what a claimant’s lawyer can claim as a success fee.

The reforms are due to start in 2012.

Patrick Snowball: Dealing with the claims influx down under

Suncorp CEO Patrick Snowball speaks to Jonathan Swift about his recent experiences in Australia and New Zealand dealing with the large volumes of claims, and how the business managed.

Suncorp CEO Patrick Snowball admits he never saw anything like the volume of claims he has experienced in the last 12 months in Australia and New Zealand, during his two decades at Aviva.

In the UK he was involved with the 1991 windstorms and the 2000/01 floods. However, speaking exclusively to Post Online, he notes that although one recent downpour in Australia resulted in "flooding equivalent to the size of the whole of France and half of Germany," it only cost A$130m (£83.4m), just under a third of the 18 minute hailstorm in March last year, which brought about insured damage worth A$350m.

Huge weather extremes
"That cost was huge. We would usually get 65 000 claims a month that time of year, but that March we got an additional 67 000 claims, because we also had Perth floods. But you do get these huge extremes linked to micro weather patterns," he adds.

Reflecting on the more recent incidents of flooding at the tail end of 2010, and the response of the Australian Stock Exchange to his two and a half year year tenure, he continues: "The general consensus at the 2010/11 half year is that we are on track, or ahead of, the re-engineering plan we set out at the beginning.

"We always said it would take 18 months to turn the general insurance business around, two years for the bank and three years for the life group. And we are exactly on track with each of them.

"So we had a very good reception from the shareholders. Obviously everyone would have liked to see more of a dividend, but usually we would have expected A$230m of adverse weather, and we had A$182m on top of that."

Reinsurance programme full
Since the turn of the year, Mr Snowball's business has also seen the Brisbane floods, another earthquake in New Zealand, Cyclone Yasi and the floods in Melbourne.

"So we are indicating that our [reinsurance] cat programme is absolutely full. We do have aggregate cover, which acts as a shock absorber on the profit and loss account, and that has gone too. Last year we had $150m left at the end of the year," Mr Snowball comments.

"So it has been the most abnormal year. But it has also been amazing to see how well this business works under pressure. Because last year we had six insurance companies, six claims teams, and we would sprint all over the place. But in October - for instance - we unveiled a single assessor brand, combining all of our loss adjusting and vehicle assessment teams. So wherever we have been since then, we have been able to act as one company, with many brands."

Staggered by staff response
Mr Snowball admits that he is "staggered" by how people have coped during the recent hard times, but adds that the business has been able to gain some collateral out of the adverse weather because, for instance, in Queensland, it is the only company that gives flood cover. As a result of this - and the fact he claims Suncorp insures 41% of Australian households - it has been "front of mind for everybody".

Although Mr Snowball may have never seen so many costly incidents in such a short space of time while at Aviva, one thing he has been used to is insurance coming under the political microscope in the wake of major claims events in the UK.

"There is going to be a huge debate about whether earthquake cover is going to continue," he says. "The principle of insurance is like the isosceles triangle, so your breadth is cover is basically your depth of exposure. But the problem in New Zealand is that on the surface, there is an isosceles triangle, but what is emerging is that the breadth is too narrow for the depth.

"We have got some very significant losses, and reinsurers are more worried about this than they are about Japan, because my sense is that the exposure to that event is not so great."

Top three nat cat programme
Suncorp is set to renew its reinsurance programme on the 30 June, and Mr Snowball notes that the group has "one of the three largest cat programmes in the world", with 75 reinsurers on the panel, despite the fact - in percentage terms - Australia only represents one percent of the global insurance premium.

Returning to flooding, Mr Snowball notes in 2008 the Australian insurance market looked at introducing a single wording, but that it was turned down by consumer bodies as anti-competitive.

"Out of [the recent adverse weather] will come more attention to flood cover, and there will be more transparency with the wording, and there will be more insurers writing this business."

No government intervention needed
Mr Snowball mentions that 31% of the population have flood cover, and only a third of people had flood insurance in Brisbane. He adds that rival Insurance Australia Group, which offers this cover in New South Wales, may "step up to the plate" in more territories, adding: "What we are saying to the Australian government is it should not step in, because there is a commercial solution, and it is already carrying huge reserves going forward."

However, in the short term Mr Snowball has fears it may become a political football, commenting: "My only concern is that some politicians are being a little bit vocal in saying it does not matter if people have not got insurance, you should pay the claim anyway. And that is a serious thing, and the moral hazard is huge. But I think that has [after some initial noise this has] virtually gone."

Mr Snowball reflects: "The halo effect [of the recent events] on the Suncorp brand has been great. It has cost a lot of money and we have had to put up our rates, but it has had a halo effect."

Flat out for six months
He concludes household rates were put up 10% after last year's Melbourne floods, and he expects them to go up 10% again.

As for Mr Snowball and his staff, he notes that the business has been "flat out for six months", quipping: "We have travelled such a long way, so quickly and we just need a breather."

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