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| Tuesday, October 24, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Three seamers must,
says Ganguly India ‘played well’
in last 10 overs Zaheer to add more
pace to bowling BCCI team
to examine UT facilities Marsh still in reckoning |
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Splitting of opening pair made no sense Kramnik enjoys
overall lead Foreigners dominate
in ITF tourney
Weightlifting title
for IAF
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Three seamers must, says Ganguly SHARJAH, Oct 23 (PTI) — Indian cricket captain Saurav Ganguly today said playing three fast bowlers in his team gave him greater flexibility and he would continue with them even at the cost of leaving out one specialist spinner. “We play three seamers that’s why we are winning,” Ganguly told PTI today. “Suppose you have two seamers. They would bowl six overs each in the first spell, then you can’t bring them back in the middle,” he said. Ganguly said on flat wickets like the one here in Sharjah, bowling a spinner in the slog overs can prove costly though a bowler of the quality of Muthiah Muralitharan can be successful on any surface. “But on these wickets, a spinner might bowl three good balls and yet the batsman can come down and smash him for sixes,” he said, defending his decision not to include left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi in the earlier matches. Joshi did not get a single match in the ICC knock-out tournament in Nairobi and played his first match here yesterday against Zimbabwe after Anil Kumble was ruled out due to a sore shoulder. He took one wicket conceding 44 runs in his 10 overs. Ganguly conceded it was not Joshi’s fault that he was not being included in the playing eleven, but said he had to balance the team in a proper way and could not pack it with bowlers. “As it is we have at least eight bowling options these days. If I am to have a spin option, I will any day prefer a batsman like Sachin Tendulkar who can bowl five overs of spin.” Ganguly said the fact that all three of his seamers — Venkatesh Prasad, Ajit Agarkar and Zaheer Khan — were bowling very well had given him a lot of options. “Prasad has a great slower ball. Agarkar has Greater pace and has the ability to get the ball in the blockhole. “And Zaheer has been outstanding. He is my man under pressure. Every time I feel the heat, I throw the ball at him, and he has delivered,” he said. Asked about the prospects of Vinod Kambli, the skipper said he felt Kambli was playing well but getting out while trying too hard to prove that he can pull a short ball. “Vinod had a problem with short balls before. There was a lot of criticism about his ability to play short-pitched deliveries. Now he looks only to be waiting to pull a short ball... Which is wrong. “If you can’t pull a short ball, don’t pull. What matters at the end of the day is how much you have scored,” he said. “Fortunately everyone in this team is willing to learn. As a captain, that’s most satisfying for me.” About Yuvraj Singh, Ganguly said he prefers to leave the flamboyant Punjab batsman alone. “He is a fantastic talent and doesn’t need to be told everytime what has to be done.” The left-hander said the good performance of the tailenders yesterday against Zimbabwe gave a lot of confidence to the top order batsmen too. |
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India ‘played well’ in last 10 overs SHARJAH, Oct 23 (PTI) — Indian captain Saurav Ganguly attributed India’s victory last night to good batting and bowling particularly in last 10 overs. “We batted very well today and bowled well particularly in last 10 overs when we stuck to a good line,” Ganguly said after the match. Ganguly said 265 was a safe target considering the wicket. “It was a big total. Once the asking rate got over seven runs an over, it was always going to be tough.” “Our strength have been fast bowling since (the ICC knock-out tournament in) Kenya,” Ganguly said referring to a tight line to which the Indians, particularly Zaheer Khan, bowled in the slog overs. Ganguly said he would have chosen to chase had he won the toss, owing to the due factor. “We would have batted second if we won the toss. But one can’t always depend on the dew.” Ganguly looked forward to the second round of the league stage saying they couldn’t afford to be complacent and they would come back with renewed confidence after two-day break. Zimbabwe captain Heath Streak echoed Ganguly’s words saying the Indian bowlers bowled well in first 15 overs and a couple of good overs towards the end, particularly by Zaheer Khan, took the match away from his team. Streak also blamed poor bowling performance by his side for the defeat. |
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Zaheer to add more
pace to bowling SHARJAH, Oct 23 (PTI) — India’s latest pace sensation Zaheer Khan, riding confident after tucking in the man-of-the match award in India’s victory against Zimbabwe yesterday, says he would like to add more pace to his bowling. The 21-year-old left-arm-paceman downplayed the idea of cutting down his pace and asked: “If you can beat a batsman with pace, why should you need to cut down on it?” “I would like to add more pace to my bowling. I think as I play more international cricket and my body gets stronger, I should be able to increase on my pace. Over the next five years, I can concentrate on it,” the south-paw from Baroda told PTI today. Zaheer Khan has been troubling batsman throughout the series with his swinging deliveries and yorkers. His efforts paid off last night when he bottled up the Zimbabweans with his 3 for 37 from 10 overs. The bowler, already a celebrity back home, feels his confidence got a major boost when his captain Saurav Ganguly gave him the ball to bowl the opening over against Kenya in Nairobi. |
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BCCI
team to examine UT facilities CHANDIGARH, Oct 23 — Will the dream of the Union Territory of Chandigarh to get direct affiliation with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) finally fructify after over two decades of waiting and pleading? It is a difficult question to answer at the moment but it seems the BCCI has finally relented and given a positive response to the representations of the UT Cricket Association, which has been waging a relentless fight to get direct affiliation for Chandigarh. The board has decided to send a three-member fact-finding team consisting of former Test cricketer Shivlal
Yadav, Secretary of the Mumbai Cricket Association, Ratnakar Shetty and BCCI Executive Secretary Sharad Diwadkar of the
BCCI, to Chandigarh to examine the cricketing facilities and infrastructure in the Union Territory. Based on the report of the committee the BCCI will decide whether to give affiliation to
Chandigarh. According to sources in the board, a formal letter to the three members of the fact-finding committee will be issued once the BCCI Secretary, Mr
J.Y. Lele, returns from Sharjah where the Indian team is currently playing in the Coca-Cola Cup. Once the letter is issued the delegation will come to Chandigarh and inspect the facilities. The decision to send the committee to Chandigarh was taken at the last annual general body meeting of the BCCI held at Chennai on September 29 last by majority vote. Over the years the BCCI has been turning a blind eye to the representations of the Union Territory. At the Kanpur annual general body meeting of the board in 1985 the issue of Chandigarh’s affiliation with the BCCI was on the agenda, but the matter was deferred to a later date after certain members raised some technical points. Subsequently, however, the issue was not discussed at any board meeting. When Mr Jagmohan Dalmiya was Secretary of the board he said “Chandigarh is a disputed territory and hence no affiliation can be given to the Union Territory” at the annual general body meeting of the BCCI hosted by the aegis of the Punjab Cricket Association in Chandigarh. Direct affiliation with the BCCI will help cricketers from Chandigarh to play in the various tournaments conducted by the board. Currently, players from Chandigarh can play for either Haryana or Punjab in the board tournaments. But with both states developing cricket in various districts, players from Chandigarh find it very difficult to make a place for themselves either in the Punjab team or in the Haryana squad. According to sources the same committee was scheduled to visit both Chandigarh and
Pondicherry, whose application for affiliation with the board is also pending. However, it was later decided to send a different team to
Pondicherry. Along with the applications of Chandigarh and Pondicherry , the applications of
Chattisgarh, Uttaranchal and Jharkhand will also be considered by the
BCCI. It is learnt that once the fact-finding committees of the BCCI submit their reports, the board will convene a special general body meeting and carry out the necessary constitution amendments so that affiliation can be granted to Chandigarh as also the other states. At this meeting, it is reported, the issue of granting affiliation to
Chattisgarh, Uttaranchal and Jharkhand as also Pondicherry will also be
finalised. Chandigarh’s cricketing credentials can never be doubted. The Union Territory is the home of cricketers like Kapil Dev, Chetan Sharma, Ashok
Malhotra, now a member of the national selection committee, and Yog
Raj, who all have played for the country. Also, a number of first class players (some say over 100 ) have represented either
Haryana, Punjab and even Himachal Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy Cricket Championship. The latest cricketer who has emerged from Chandigarh is Yuvraj Singh, who has already sent ripples with his display both in the ICC Knockout Championship in Sharjah as well as the desert venue of
Sharjah. And speaking of facilities and infrastructure is the fact that not only has Chandigarh hosted a number of one-day internationals but also a Test match. |
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CHENNAI, Oct 23 (PTI) — The Indian cricket board today interviewed Australia’s former skipper Greg Chappell and New Zealand’s John Wright for appointment as coach of the Indian cricket team and said Geoff Marsh of Australia was also in the reckoning. Board president A.C. Muthiah told media persons before his discussions with Chappell and Wright that Marsh had offered his services again and he would be coming here for a discussion in a couple of days. A panel comprising the Muthiah, board secretary J.Y. Lele, National Cricket Academy Chairman, Rajsingh Dungarpur, academy’s director Hanumant Singh and ICC panel umpire S. Venkataraghavan, held separate discussions with Chappell and Wright at a city hotel here this afternoon. Mr Muthiah said a final decision would be arrived at only after details of the discussions with the former players were conveyed to the working committee and financial committee of the board. |
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Expert comments THE scare that Zimbabwe gave India might just be the wake up call that they need. The kind of experimentation that is going on gives the impression that the Indians think this tournament in Sharjah is as good as won by them and so they can take it casually. The attitude change that has come about after doing so well in Nairobi should have been positive and forward looking. Instead we have senior players taking a day off from practice before a crucial match after having lost the previous day and thus ensuring that those out of form players who badly needed the practice also could not get a good work out. Any rest could well have been taken during the three-day break before the second phase of the round robin matches start but if the skipper himself is going to skip the nets then not much else can be said. It is not as if the season has been tiring for it has just begun and therefore taking a break from nets is hard to understand. The coach knows that he is temporary so he will not force anybody to come for nets and it would be interesting to see if the players adopt the same attitude if an overseas coach takes over. The splitting of a successful opening pair of Ganguly and Tendulkar made no tactical sense and though Dravid got runs they did not come at the pace at which Ganguly or Tendulkar score and but for the bold batting by Dahiya, Sunil Joshi and Agarkar towards the end the Indians may well have scored less than 250. As the captain Ganguly has to lead from the front and not shirk the responsibility. One can understand him trying to bolster the middle order but that can only be done if he has a regular opener to replace him at the top slot. It was left to Yuvraj Singh to break the shackles that Zimbabwe had imposed on the team and his aggressive batting after playing himself in was what lifted the scoring rate. Vijay Dahiya then played a lovely little innings and with Joshi and Agarkar showing the full face of their bats and not trying wild cross - batted swipes, the Indians finally made the most of the last ten overs. The pace that Zaheer Khan generated surprised the Zimbabwe openers and this pitch in Sharjah was one that encouraged the quicker bowlers as could be seen by the success of Friend for Zimbabwe. Zaheer mixed his deliveries well and was thus able to keep the batsmen guessing but if he is going to only concentrate on the yorkers at the death then he will need to practice a lot for as we saw in Kenya the slightest over-pitching will result in boundaries. Once again it was Tendulkar who provided the breakthrough when the in-form Andy Flower was looking threatening. The runs that the Indians got in the last two overs of their innings is what saved them from the blushes for Zimbabwe put up a spirited fight till the end. Apart from Zaheer Venkatesh Prasad had the best figures but like in the finals at Nairobi he had three more overs left. Maybe Ganguly should carry a little card with him in his pocket that tells him how many overs his bowlers have bowled for India cannot afford such miscalculations in the matches to come.
— PMG |
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US golfers capture Presidents Cup GAINSVILLE (VIRGINIA), Oct 23 (AFP) —
US golfers recaptured the Presidents Cup from their International rivals here yesterday, winning seven of 12 singles matches to complete the biggest blowout in the event’s history. The Americans defeated their non-European foes 21 1/2-10 1/2 in the fourth biennial Cup matches, surpassing the prior record rout from 1998 when the Internationals romped 20 1/2-11 1/2. “I’m so proud of my team,” US captain Ken Venturi said. “It was nice to have it end so early. They all came together as a team for a common goal.” Davis Love defeated world number two Ernie Els of South Africa 4 and 3 in the fifth and clinching match after David Duval had beaten Zimbabwe’s Nick Price 2 and 1 and Loren Roberts downed Australia’s Stuart Applby 3 and 2. “It’s a thrill,” Love said. “It’s nice to be one of the 12 who won it. I got better every day. I missed a few putts but I did what I had to do.” Love was only 1-up after 11 but birdied the par-5 12th while Els lost the 12th and par-5 14th with bogeys. When Els missed a par putt on the 15th, Love had three putts for the Cup. He rolled a 10-footer inches from the hole. Els surrendered the tap-in and trophy. “I bow to the superiority of the us team. They played impressively,” said International captain Peter Thomson. “We’ve had the taste of victory, not so long ago we can’t still taste it.” The Americans began the final day needing only two triumphs and a halve from 12 concluding singles matches to reclaim the Cup, having built a 14-6 edge in three days of alternate-stroke and best-ball play. The Internationals could not overcome the horrid showing of two-time us open champion Els and No 9 Vijay Singh of Fiji. Els went 0-5 after 3-1 with one halved showings in the past two Cups. “It just happens,” Venturi said. “You get on a roll and you can’t stop it.” Masters champion
Singh finished 1-4 after losing 2 and 1 to Tiger Woods, who won 2000’s other three majors and his first Presidents Cup. “It’s special,” Woods said. “We have worked hard and come together as a team. A lot of things we have done behind closed doors have bonded us. This is something I will remember for a lifetime.” A squawking duck disturbed Woods as he prepared for a birdie put at the lakeside 17th. Woods turned to look at the bird, returned to the ball and banged in the 10-footer to finish off Singh and complete the week 3-2. Long after the Cup’s fate was settled, Woods took inspiration from a loss to Singh in best-ball on Saturday and the “Tiger who?” cap worn by Singh’s caddie. “He said, ‘congratulations,’ and I said, ‘don’t forget our match. We have still got to take care of business,’” Woods said. “Oh yeah, I wanted him and I know he wanted me. Yesterday left a bad taste in my mouth.” Duval rallied from 3-down after five holes to defeat Price. Duval ended the skid with a birdie at six to open a run of four wins in six holes, then birdied the 13th and par-5 14th to seize the lead for good. Duval sank a five-foot birdie on 17, his seventh of the day, to seal the victory. Roberts had the second US triumph, downing Australia’s Stuart Appleby 3 and 2. Appleby hit a birdie at seven, rising to 1-down, but lost three of the next six holes with bogeys. Two late birdies only made the final score closer. The Internationals stayed alive early when Canada’s Mike Weir beat Phil Mickelson 4 and 3 while Aussie Robert
Allen by, 2-down at the turn, birdied four of the first five holes on the back side to defeat Paul Azinger 2 and 1. Weir, 3-2, had the only winning record here for the Internationals by winning a battle of left-handers. “I played really well this week,” Weir said. “We had great spirit even though we were down all week.” Paraguay’s Carlos Franco had the most lopsided victory routing Hal Sutton 6 and 5. Franco had an albatross at the par-5 12th, rolling in a 5-iron fairway shot, and added five birdies. Australia’s Steve Elkington went 5-up on Tom Lehman with five holes to play, then lost four in a row with bogeys before escaping with a 1-up victory. Jim Furyk never trailed in dumping Japan’s Shigeki Maruyama 5 and 4 while Stewart Cink beat Aussie Greg Norman 2 and 1, Kirk Triplett halved with New Zealand’s Michael Campbell and Notah Begay beat South African Retief Goosen 1up. |
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Kramnik enjoys
overall lead LONDON, Oct 23 (AFP) — World chess number one Garry Kasparov and his young challenger Vladimir Kramnik ended their ninth game in the Brain Games World Chess Championship in another draw here yesterday. The game ended after 30 moves and three hours of play, leaving Kramnik in an overall lead in the 16-match series, by 5-4. |
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Foreigners dominate
in ITF tourney NEW DELHI, Oct 23 — Fourth-seeded Urska Vesenjak of Slovakia trounced qualifier Harsimran Bedi of India 4-0, 4-0, 5-3 on the opening day of the $ 10,000 prize money ITF Women’s Tennis Tournament in which foreign players dominated the show at the Delhi Tennis Association courts here today. But Sonal Phadke, Karishma Patel and Aarthi Venkataraman kept the Indian hopes alive by winning their matches. Sonal Phadke downed compatriot Geeta Manohar 2-4, 4-1, 4-0, 5-3, Karishma Patel made short work of qualifier Nandita Chandrasekhar 5-3, 5-3, 4-2 while Aarthi posted a 4-1, 5-3, 5-3 victory over Nikita Bhardwaj. Indian girls were at the receiving end when Anna-Eugenia Nefedova of Russia crushed Preeti Rao 4-1, 4-1, 4-1, sixth-seeded Masa Vesenjak of Slovakia toyed with Sheethal Goutham 4-0, 4-0, 4-2, and Dominika Luzarova of Czech Republic beat Samrita Sekar 4-1, 5-4 (3), 5-3. In another match, Olga Kaliojnaia of Russia beat Patryoja Bandurowska of Poland 4-0, 4-2, 4-0. |
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Goal glut in
Nehru hockey NEW DELHI, Oct 23 (UNI) — It rained goals in the 29th Nehru Junior Hockey Tournament with schools from Ludhiana, Bhopal and Delhi winning in high scoring games here today. Hardyal Singh scored five goals as Sat Guru Pratap Singh Academy (Ludhiana) trounced Sainik School, Bijapur (Karnataka) 11-0 after leading 6-0 at half time. Sunil Kumar pumped in six goals, including a hat-trick, to enable the local challanger Union Academy thrash S.M.D Academy, Ajmer 14-1. The winners were ahead 9-0 at lemon break. T.M.
Convent School, Bhopal scored three goals in each half to outplay St.Xavier’s School, Mapusa 6-0. Sat Guru Pratap Singh Academy (Ludhiana) who had beaten Haryana School 8-1 in their first outing, notched up yet another huge win with Karnataka boys failing to offer any resistance. Gurcharan Singh (3), Manjit Singh, Avtar Singh and Sher Singh (one each) were the other goal getters for the Ludhiana academy. |
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Rohtak win overall championship ROHTAK, Oct 23 — Rohtak won the overall championship in the 16th Haryana State Sports Festival which concluded here today at C.R. Stadium Rohtak while the Hisar were in second position with 30 points and Sonepat finished third with 28 points. Satish (Sonepat) and Bhupender (Faridabad) were adjudged as best athletes (men’s) section while Sunil Joon of Jhajjar was adjudged as best athlete in woman’s section. Hisar clinched the title in men and women in judo, winning 8 gold, 5 silver and 1 bronze medals. Aruna in women and Satish Badsar in men of Hisar won the best judokas title. In boxing, Bhiwani won the title with 44 points while Rohtak were second with 17 points and Hisar remained third with 12 points. Akhil of Bhiwani was adjudged the best boxer. Gurgaon won archery championship in men section while Narnaul and Bhiwani got second and third places, respectively, whereas in women section Narnaul won the first place and Faridabad and Sirsa remain second and third, respectively. Dushyant of Gurgaon in men’s section and Pinki Yadav of Narnaul in women’s section were adjudged the best archers. In swimming men section, Jind clinched the title with 73 points while Hisar got second place with 27 points MNSS Rai remained third with 20 points. The results: Badminton: Men singles: 1 Ajay (Sonepat), 2 Surinder (Bhiwani), 3 Sukhvinder (Bhiwani). Doubles: Sukhvinder and Satvinder (Bhiwani), 2 Surinder and Virender (Bhiwani), 3 Kapil and Chetan (Rohtak). Women Singles: 1 Roma (Faridabad), 2 Himakashi Kapoor (Ambala), 3 Pritika (Panchkula), Doubles: 1 Samritika and Pritika (Panchkula), 2 Anita and Meenu (Bhiwani), 3 Roma and Himakashi (Faridabad). Kabaddi National Style Men: Haryana Police defeated Rohtak and got first place while Sonepat got third place after beating Hisar. Women: Rohtak got the first place after beating Panipat by 38-30 and Sonepat remained third beating Bhiwani by 52-50. Boxing Light Flyweights:
1 Akhil (Bhiwani), 2 Satyapal (Hisar), 3 Arun (Gurgaon) and Sanjiv (Yamunanagar). Flyweight: 1 Rajesh (Kaithal), 2 Naveen (Hisar), 3 Mahesh (Rohtak) and Ashok Yamuna Nagar). Banten weight: 1 Dharamvir (Bhiwani), 2 Sunil (Rohtak), 3 Pardeep (Gurgaon) and Satish (Kaithal). Feather weight: 1 Rajnesh (Bhiwani), 2 Surender (Rohtak), 3 Rajesh (Fatehabad) and Pankaj (Hisar). Lightweight: 1 Ravinder (Bhiwani), 2 Jaswinder (Fatehabad), 3 Ashok (Yamunanagar) and Naveen (Rohtak. Lightwelter wt: 1 Sashi Kant (Bhiwani), 2 Ravinder (Yamunanagar), 3 Surjit (Rohtak), and Deepak (Faridabad). Welter wt: 1 Subodh (Bhiwani), 2 Tara Chand (Faridabad), 3 Surinder (Jind) and Vikram (Hisar). Light Middle Wt: 1 Durjey (Bhiwani, 2 Ajay (Panchkula), 3 Surinder (Hisar) and Naresh (Ambala). Light Heavy Wt: Suraj Mal (Bhiwani), 2 Surinder (Kaithal), 3 Baljeet (Faridabad). Heavy Wt: 1 Ravinder (Bhiwani), 2 Ravinder (Hisar), 3 Shiv Kumar (Fatehabad) and Hetesh (Rohtak). Super Heavy Wt. 1 Sanjay (Bhiwani), 2 Ajit Pal (Panchkula), 3 Sandeep (Rohtak). Karnam Malleshwari was presented a cheque of Rs 25 lakh by the Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om Parkash Chautala, for winning a bronze medal in the Sydney Olympics. The Chief Minister also announced that a house will be given to Malleshwari and she will also be given land for setting up weightlifting academy at the place of her choice in
Haryana. |
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Weightlifting title for IAF CHANDIGARH, Oct 23—The Indian Air Force weightlifting team won the overall team championship in the Indian Air Force- Sri Lankan Air Force Weightlifting Championship which concluded today at Lecma Auditorium, 3 BRD here. The home side prevailed over the visiting team by comfortable margins in three categories — below 94 kg, 105 kg and above 105 kg. Air Force in charge, administration, Air Headquarters, Air Marshal D.C. Dhyani, gave away the prizes to the winners. Declaring the meet closed, Air Marshal Dhyani said besides promoting the spirit of healthy competition and sportsmanship, such international events also forge cultural and friendly bonds between the nations. Chief de-Mission of the visiting team, Air Commodre LH Peiris, thanked the hosts and said Sri Lanka will reciprocate by hosting the next meet. Results — below 94 kg:snatch: Sgt Jatinder Singh ( IAF) 130 kg 1, LAC Jaldusmantha (SLAF)2, 90 kg. Clean jerk: Sgt Jatinder Singh (IAF)1, 160 kg; LAC Jal Dusmantha (SLAF) 2, (110 kg).Total:Sgt Jatinder Singh( IAF) 1, 290 kg; LAC Jaldusmantha (SLAF) 2, 200 kg. Below 105 kg — snatch: CPL SK Movai (IAF) 1, (120 kg); LAC Hparbhandhara (SLAF) 2,(100 kg). Clean &
jerk: CPL Hparbhandhara (SLAF) 2 (100 kg). Clean & jerk: CPL SK Movai (IAF) 1, 145 kg; LAC Hparbhandhara (SLAF)2, 140 kg .Total: SK Movai (IAF) 1, 265 kg; LAC Hparbandhara( SLAF) 2,( 240 kg). Above 105 kg — snatch: CPL AK Das( IAF) 1, 135 kg; CPL Ahmyaseen (SLAF) 2, (90 kg). Clean & jerk: CPL AK Das (IAF) 1, 170 kg; Ahmyaseen (SLAF) 2, 130 kg. Total: CPL AK Das (IAF) 1, 305 kg; CPL Ahmyaeen (SLAF) 2, 220 kg. |
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