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Wednesday,
September 26, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Indians
count on practice sessions Flu
prolongs Donald’s stay on sidelines Cronje to
appeal against life ban AAG
“postponed not cancelled” Argentina
scrape past Mali Fate of
Devnath, Govil hangs in balance Games to
attract 7000 athletes |
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SGFI
poll ‘rightly held null & void’ Signals,
N Rly in pre-quarters India
jrs keen to qualify for semis School
swimming results National
camps being disbanded Inter-embassy
tennis Chandigarh
beat Patiala
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Indians count on practice sessions Johannesburg, September 25 Ganguly said: “We’ve come here early to have a good 10-day camp before we play the one-days and obviously we will make adjustments for the game, as you do wherever you go in the world. Some of the boys have already made adjustments.” “Yes, we didn’t play well the last time we were here,” Ganguly conceded to IANS hours after arriving in the country on Monday. “But it’s a different side now. We’ve done well overseas in the last six or seven months so we hope to do well here too.” Ganguly said the absence of some key players due to injury would be felt, but they would rejoin the team as soon as possible. “We don’t have (V.V.S.) Laxman, Zaheer (Khan) and (Ashish) Nehra, who will be here for the Test matches. It’s more of a precautionary measure to leave these guys back and get them fit for the Test matches. The moment we announce a Test call, in about a week or 10-days before the first Test, we will have them here,” said Ganguly. The Indian team will match wits against South Africa and Kenya in a triangular limited overs series, and also play a three-Test series against South Africa. The triangular series runs from October 5 to 27, with the Tests following from November 3 to 27. The teams will play a number of warm-up matches as well. Thirteen of the 15-member Indian cricket team will undergo treatment to supplement weakened and abnormal joints, after being checked at a specialist centre here. Team physiotherapist Andrew Leipus said the 13 would require orthotics. “We’re not saying that they are injured, but what the assessment picked up is that there is dysfunction there - some are minor and some are quite major and they will all be given orthotics to put into their shoes and gradually wear them in,” said Leipus, adding that this would help their performance as well. Leipus, who took the entire team to the sports medicine clinic here barely hours after they landed, said this was necessary to improve their performance. “What we are trying to implement is a totally new strategy after we’ve had a few injuries of late,” Leipus told IANS. “A lot of those were unpreventable, but many others may be through overuse or other factors that we want to prevent to the best of our abilities, so that we do not have such a bad run again.” “What we can’t get in the Indian subcontinent is a biomechanical assessment and podiatry assessment and at the clinic in Rosebank (here) these are provided.” “In a podiatry assessment, the boys are made to run on a treadmill and a computer analysis can determine whether there is any sort of biomechanical functional fault in their foot strike. If there is a dysfunction, it can lead to shin injuries, hip and back injuries.” “If any of these boys are found to have a dysfunction, then they can give us an insert which goes in the shoe to correct that dysfunction.” Leipus said a biokinetic assessment had also been done on all the players. “This is basically muscle function around the shoulder and the knee. Obviously, cricket is a throwing game - bowling puts a lot of stress on the shoulders. The assessment can pick up injured muscles on the front or the back and around the whole shoulder complex itself.” “Around the knee we can pick up hamstring injuries and quadriceps pulls. We want to check that the guys who have had them in the past have rehabilitated properly.” Leipus was confident the Indian team would get the best possible treatment here. He had worked at the centre for a few years before going to India to become the team’s physiotherapist.
IANS |
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Flu prolongs Donald’s stay on sidelines Johannesburg, September 25 The South Africa fast bowler has
been left out of the squad for the remaining one-day internationals against Zimbabwe in Harare on September 29 and 30. “Allan has had a second bout of flu and as a result has had no time to put in any training,” Rushdi Magiet, the convenor of national selectors, said yesterday. “The medical advice is that he should rest for about three to four weeks and we expect him to be fully match fit after that.” Donald is expected to be fit in time for the first match of the triangular series against India on October 5, a tournament which also features Kenya.
Reuters |
Agarkar
departure Mumbai, September 25 |
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Cronje to appeal against life ban London, September 25 “Despite the publicity given to the ban on Hansie Cronje, the sentences handed out to players from Pakistan and India and the formation of the anti-corruption unit, there are indications that some players are still acting dishonestly to the order of bookmakers,’’ the report said. If corruption is still present, despite the international furore over the Cronje affair and the subsequent scandals, the future seems bleak. More immediately, events in a Pretoria court this week may not bring any comfort to cricket lovers. Tomorrow the former South Africa captain, banned for life along with two other former international captains, Salim Malik of Pakistan and Mohammad Azharuddin of India, appeals against the ban. If Cronje wins, he could even be back playing for the Free State when the South African season starts next week. Azharuddin, created a furore in India when he abandoned his wife and children for a Mumbai actress. Much of the corruption report compiled by former London Metropolitan Police chief Paul Condon would provide fertile material for Bollywood scriptwriters. Condon painted an almost melodramatic picture of corrupt cricketers, shady bookmakers, clandestine deals and even a possible murder. For fans through out the world nothing would ever be the same. Since the report was published there has been some relief for the authorities. Internal inquiries decided there was no substance to allegations from Indian bookmaker Mukesh Gupta that several prominent players, including former national captains Alec Stewart (England) and Martin Crowe (New Zealand) had taken money from him. The West Indies’ authorities are still investigating similar allegations against their leading batsman Brian Lara, another former skipper. The scandal still rumbles on. A Pakistan judicial inquiry has now been instigated to investigate allegations that games involving Pakistan in the 1999 World Cup were fixed. Under particular suspicion is the group match against Bangladesh at Northampton. Bangladesh, 33-1 outsiders, won by 62 runs and their victory was instrumental in their admission as the 10th Test playing nation. Nothing about the game mattered in the context of the Cup, with Pakistan already through to the second round. But the manner of their defeat was almost comically inept. When Bangladesh batted, Pakistan bowled 28 wides among the 40 extras. When Pakistan batted they lost three wickets to run outs. The Pakistan inquiry will also investigate the performance of Pakistan umpire Javed Akhtar in the 1998 series between England and South Africa, won 2-1 by England. It was England’s first victory in a five-match series for 11 years. In the deciding match at Leeds, Akhtar awarded nine of the 10 lbw decisions. Eight were against South Africa. Akhtar has denied he was acting under bookmakers’ instructions. “What ever mistakes happened were genuine, not for money,’’ he said. The most corrosive element in the corruption scandal has been not so much the match-fixing allegations as the myriad opportunities cricket offers for bookmakers to corrupt players. Condon detailed some of them, including betting on the result of the pre-match toss, innings’ totals and batsmen and bowlers’ individual performances. According to a seasoned international cricket reporter, who has watched Pakistan play all over the world, corruption on an international scale started on Pakistan’s tour of India in 1979-80.
Reuters |
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AAG “postponed not cancelled” Nagpur, September 25 In an informal chat with reporters after her concluding address at the all-India gathering of Nehru Yuwa Kendra Sanghathan (NYKS) here, Ms Bharati refuted reports, which said she had suggested that the government cancel the games as the cabinet had taken a decision in this regard. She said the Games had been postponed indefinitely in view of the prevailing situation worldwide, following the September 11 terrorist attacks in the USA. Indian Olympic Association (IOA) President Suresh Kalmadi had suggested that the Games be held in March-April next year, Ms Bharati said, and added that, however, she had told him that a decision could not be taken unless there was a change in the world scenario. Regarding the organisation of the Afro-Asian Games, Ms Bharati pointed out that there was tremendous pressure on her to award the travel and accommodation rights to private companies instead of the Air India and the Indian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC). However, she refused to answer repeated questions about whether the pressure on her was from the Sports Ministry officials or from the sports organisations, and added that she did not succumb to the pressures.
UNI |
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Argentina scrape past Mali Marabella (Trinidad), September 25 Burkina Faso’s victory yesterday means they will play Nigeria on Thursday. Argentina play France the same day. Substitute Mauro Fanari was Argentina’s hero, scoring the golden goal in the sixth minute of sudden-death overtime. "I haven’t had the chance to play for most of the tournament, and today it was just my luck to have the winning goal," Fanari said after the game. In the first half, a penalty was called in the 32nd minute when Argentine striker Maximiliano Lopez was brought down in the goal area by Mali captain Daouda Bagayoko. Lopez missed the penalty, however, with a low shot to the right that caught the post, bounced back and was cleared by Mali’s defenders. In the 35th minute, Mali opened the scoring when striker Drissa Diarra headed in a high cross. Argentina answered in the 38th, when Lucas Correa served up a free kick to Gonzalo Rodriguez, who ran in toward the goal and connected with a header to tie the game.
AP |
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Fate of Devnath, Govil hangs in
balance New Delhi, September 25 However, the fate of Rachna Govil and Kalpana Devnath, whose selection for the Arjuna Award in the ‘lifetime achievement’ category, has invited lots of criticism and court cases, will be decided when the High Court here announces its verdict on Thursday. Sources in the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports said here today that the government had no intention of deleting the names of Rachana and Kalpana from the honours’ list on its own. Only a court ruling can undo the awards to them. Similarly, the name of Flying Sikh Milkha Singh is likely to stay put in the Arjuna awardees’ roll of honour, though Milkha has already announced that he would not accept the award. Meanwhile, there was a lot of confusion regarding the fate of the inaugural Afro-Asian Games as the Union Cabinet is reported to have taken an informal decision to cancel the games, but sources said no final decision to cancel the games has been taken. “As far as we understand, the games stand postponed, but in the prevailing security scenario, with the USA and allies getting geared up to strike terrorist hideouts in Afghanistan, anything can happen”. Though the possibility of the Afro-Asian Games being held in March-April 2002 is not very certain, the games happening cannot be ruled out either. |
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Games to attract 7000
athletes Chandigarh, September 25 The National Games being hosted by Punjab will attract an estimated 7000 athletes and 2000 officials and offer a rich feast to sports lovers in 27 sports disciplines. According to the revised dates, as approved by the Indian Olympic Association, the National Games will now be held from November 19 to December 1. Mr Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, Union Minister, and president of the Punjab Olympic Association, presided over a meeting of the Steering Committee for reviewing the preparations on September 21. He also chaired a meeting of the Administrative Committee the next day. Appropriate staff has been sanctioned to the Administrative Committee, which will act as the nucleus and provide secretarial support to all other committees. The headquarters of the National Games Organising Committee is being shifted to the PCA Stadium at SAS Nagar for better coordination. The office of the Punjab Olympic Association would continue to function from the Sector 42, Hockey Stadium. Mr I.S. Bindra, Secretary-General of the Organising Committee, had a useful meeting with the Additional Director-General, Doordarshan, Mrs Amita Paul, who visited the city for a special meeting in connection with the National Games. Doordarshan has agreed to devote the entire sport channel to telecast the proceedings for all the 13 days. In addition, a two-hour telecast will be available on the national hook-up (DD-I) in the morning and evening, reaching out to 70 million households and one-and-a-half hours will be devoted by DD2 (Metro Channel). Live telecast of all semifinals and finals and the opening and closing ceremonies has also been planned. A number of OB Vans for this purpose will be stationed at all the five venues — Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Patiala, Anandpur Sahib and Chandigarh. The highlights of the day's proceedings will also be covered in all the news bulletins. Arrangements for the print media are being given final touches. According to Mr T.C. Gupta, chairman of the media committee of the National Games, exclusive media centres with state-of-the-art facilities are being set up in all the five venues where the games are being staged. These centres will be equipped with computer terminals with internet facilities, photofax machines and photocopiers. |
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SGFI poll ‘rightly
held null & void’ Chandigarh, September 25 Pronouncing the orders, Mr Justice Gill also held that the "lower appellate court has now rightly appointed retired District and Sessions Judge H.L. Randev as observer, who has been directed to hold elections in accordance with the constitution of the SGFI”. The Judge concluded: “The lower appellate court has also rightly held that the elections would be conducted under the direct supervision of the observer and date and place of the elections would be fixed by the administrative committee”. In his detailed order, the Judge observed: “The only question to be decided in this case is whether the election held at Kullu on February 8, 1999 is valid as per the constitution of the SGFI. Article 7 of the SGFI constitution says that a person who has not met the financial obligations shall have no right to vote at the meetings. The observer was duty bound to see if any objection was raised as to the financial obligations, that objection has got to be looked into by him”. The Judge added: “As some members were in arrears, the elections held on February 8, 1999 at Kullu were rightly held to be null and void.... I do not find any infirmity with the judgements and decrees passed by both the trial court and the lower appellate court.” |
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Signals, N Rly in pre-quarters Chandigarh, September 25 The battle between the two Army outfits produced exciting hockey with Signals enjoying a slight edge over SRC. Having finished runners-up in the recently concluded Baba Farid Gold Cup where they lost the race for the title to BSF, Signals seemed determined to put up an improved show. However, SRC made them fight for victory and kept them on tenterhooks till the end. If the performance of the Army teams is any indicator, it shows a marked
improvement over the previous years. Perhaps the days of glory are not far for the Army men, who once shone on the hockey
horizon and excelled in every nook and corner. In the fast-paced encounter, Signals carried out frequent raids which were evenly matched by Sikh Regimental Centre but it was only in the 26th minute that the deadlock was broken. A penalty corner push by G. Dass was followed up by a hard hit by the promising Nabin Lakra but Gurnam Singh under the SRC bar managed to pad the ball away. However, the ball landed near the feet of Nabin again and his full-blooded hit off the rebound gave the SRC custodian absolutely no chance with the ball landing in the roof of the net (1-0). SRC’s counter attacks spearheaded by M. Minz, Harvinder and Rajpal gave Signals several anxious moments but the moves fizzled out. Signals got some more gilt-edged chances in the second half and on one occasion they forced three short corners in quick succession. Off the third penalty corner G. Dass missed a sitter as he failed to tap the ball home from hand-shaking distance following a well-directed hit. Towards the end, SRC mounted intense pressure to snatch the equaliser but the stout Signals defence coupled with some fine goal-keeping by Imran Khan thwarted their designs. Northern Railway, who also moved into the pre-quarterfinals by virtue of a second-half goal, owed their success to Daud whose lightning strike in the 59th minute dashed the hopes of Chandigarh XI. Prior to this goal, Chandigarh XI fought tooth and nail with Saurabh Bishnoi, RS Grewal and skipper Jatinder Kumar orchestrating several intelligent moves which, however, proved abortive. Northern Railway will now clash with former champions Central Reserve Police Force for a berth in the quarterfinals. For Bhaini Sahib XI, it was an unceremonious exit as Western Railway cut short their dream of making further progress through the tie breaker. Both the teams failed to score in regulation time although they did get some good chances. The tie-breaker which spelt doom for the boys in white finally put the score at 3-0 with Gurdev Singh, Inder Singh and Mukhtiar Singh converting their strokes for Northern Railway. The Namdharis failed miserably as none of the strokes could be converted thus enabling Northern Railway to stay in contention in the ‘A’ grade tournament. Wednesday’s fixtures: Western Railway v Indian Air Force — 1 p. m.; CRPF v Northern Railway — 2. 30 p. m.; Shivalik Academy v PSB Academy — 4 p. m. |
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India jrs keen to qualify for semis Hyderabad, September 25 The Indian hockey team finished runners-up to Australia in the last edition held at Milton Keynes in England. Team manager G Satyanarayana said “This is the one of the best teams to take part in world championship. We are confident of India qualifying for the last four grade”. The present team boasts of 10 players who have represented India in the seniors and are laced with three Olympians — skipper Gagan Ajit Singh, Deepak Thakur and Devesh Chowhan. Indians are in group ‘C’ along with Canada, Scotland and Spain. They take on Canada on October 9, and play Scotland on October 11.
UNI |
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School
swimming results Ropar, September 25 The results are: boys under 19: 1500m free style swimming, 1 Manraj Singh (Sangrur), 2 Dharminder Singh (Sangrur), 3 Ropesh Sharma (Patiala). In 800m under 19 free style girls: 1 Prabdeep (Ropar), 2 Kiran (Amritsar), 3 Pyarnka (Ludhiana). 800m free style under 17 boys: 1 Rajbinder Singh (Sangrur), 2 Ravinder (Sangrur), 3 Navjot Singh (Patiala). 400m free style girl under 17: 1 Harpreet Kaur (Hoshiarpur), 2 Kamal Preet Kaur (Hoshiarpur), 3 Satwir Kaur (Amritsar). 400m free style under 14 boys: 1 Amandeep Singh (Hoshiarpur), 2 Amit Singh (Ludhiana), 3 Vibhor (Ludhiana). 400 metres free style girls under 14: 1 Komal Avtar (Amritsar), 2 Ranvir Kaur (Hoshiarpur), 3 Bindiya Sood (Ludhiana). 50 metre free style under 19 boys: 1 Amitinder Singh (Patiala), 2 Sham Singh (Sangrur), 3 Sartaj (Amritsar). 50 metre free style under 19 girls: 1, Monika Ved (Ludhiana), 2 Prayanka Shah (Patiala), 3 Prayanka (Ludhiana). 50 metre free style under 17 boys: 1 Navpreet Singh (Patiala), 2 Gagandeep Bhangu (Patiala), 3 Ravneet Singh (Amritsar). 50m free style girls under 17: 1 Vibha (Ludhiana), 2 Harpreet Kaur (Hoshiarpur), 3 Shilpa Narang (Patiala). 50 metre free style under 14 boys: 1 Harsidh Narang (Patiala), 2 Saravjeet Singh (Ropar), 3 Amandeep Sharma (Sangrur). Mr Grewal also announced a grant of Rs 1 lakh for the maintenance of sports facilities at Ropar. |
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National
camps being disbanded Patiala, September 25 As many as 35 pugilists were undergoing a training-cum-preparatory camp under chief coach Mr G.S. Sandhu for both the SAF Games and the Afro-Asian Games. Earlier, the national football camp which also was being held here was abandoned under controversial circumstances. The All India Football Federation (AIFF) Technical Director, Mr P.K. Banerjee, took the decision to disband the camp without receiving any instructions from the AIFF. On the plea that since the domestic football season was in full swing the players were under tremendous pressure to discontinue training and report to their respective clubs. It was only later when the players had reached their respective destinations that the AIFF formally recommended to the SAI to end the camp. Earlier due to the postponement of the World Wrestling Championships which were to be held at New York from September 28 to 30, the national freestyle and greco roman camps being held at the NIS were disbanded. Now the camps being held at Patiala are the senior weightlifting camp for both men and women. These camps, which were on for the Afro-Asian Games and the SAF Games, have been saved from the axe since the World weightlifting championships are to be held from November 3 to 13 at Turkey. |
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Inter-embassy
tennis New Delhi, September 25 Three titles will be at stake — men’s and women’s singles, and mixed doubles. This is the first time that such a tournament at a competitive level is being organised for diplomatic missions. Mr U.K. Bose, CEO of Air Sahara, said his company had adopted tennis as a sport to promote with the objective of making tennis as the most lovable and sought after sport in the country and Inter-Embassy Tennis Tournament is the first stepping stone in this direction". Mr Rajender Jaiswal, director of Ace Sports Syndicate, the promoters of the event, said this is the first among a series of other tennis tournaments like inter-college, under-14 and under-16 which are being planned to identify and harness talent through the Ace Tennis Academy. |
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Chandigarh
beat Patiala Patiala, September 25 Unlike the visitors, the host bowlers showed total lack of penetration despite the pitch showing
enough signs of spin, enabling Chandigarh to amass 274 for six in reply tot he hosts first inning score of 137 all out. |
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Marabella
(Trinidad), September 25
