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Friday,
April 5, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Indians likely to test youngsters Rain, poor facilities
hamper Indians Ganguly to play
in 3-day tie North inching towards win South secure 1st innings lead AAFI draws up packed calendar Gopi enters quarterfinals |
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Anand in 1-1 deadlock DAVIS CUP Samrita Sekar ousts
Radhika Tulpule SAI fails to appoint coach Punjab cops regain crown
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Indians likely to test youngsters Georgetown (Guyana), April 4 The Indians are most likely to utilise the opportunity to test the skills of the younger members of the team, who are on their first trip to this country. Though skipper Saurav Ganguly, who reached here last night after staying back in India for two days to be with his ailing wife, confirmed that he would lead the team in the match, team management sources said some of the other senior members might give it a skip to provide a chance to the youngsters. Only five of the 16-member team have previously been on a tour to the West Indies, and the Indians are anxious to have the first-timers get a feel of the wickets and conditions in this part of the world. Nevertheless, the Indians are disappointed at getting a second-string team as opponents in the only practice match before they start their quest for their first series victory outside the sub-continent in 16 years. Normally, the opening first class fixture is eagerly looked forward to by a touring party but the importance of this game has been diluted because of the absence of major Guyana players, who are away in Jamaica to play the Busta Shield final. The players missing from the home team’s ranks are the mainstays of West Indian line-up, including captain Carl Hooper and in their absence there is hardly any recognisable face to make up the playing eleven. Besides Hooper, players like Shivnaraine Chanderpaul, Mahendra Nagamoottoo, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Reon King, Colin Stuart and Neil McGarrell are away in Jamaica doing state duty while the Indians rue the robbed opportunity of being given a good dry run for the Test series. The tourists are thus likely to give most senior players a break while testing the nerves and skills of the younger brigade, both in bowling and batting departments. Opener Wasim Jaffer and middle order batsman Dinesh Mongia are almost certain to be included in the playing eleven as are fast bowlers Ashish Nehra and Tinu Yohannan. Team sources indicated that Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Javagal Srinath and Anil Kumble may cool their heels under the shade rather than exert themselves in humid conditions against a none-too-challenging opposition. The home team is led by number four batsman Travis Dowlin, who is averaging 54 in first class cricket but could make only 95 from the first four games this season before being dropped. Narsingh Deonarine is the under-19 captain and a player of promise. He had some good scores in the under-19 World Cup where the West Indies were knocked out in the semifinals by Australia. Andrew Gonsalves opened batting for Guyana in the first two matches this year but didn’t do too well. He is said to be more of a one-day player. Krishna Arjuna is another emerging talent in the middle order, who actually got a hundred against Barbados in his debut first class season this year. Vishal Nagamootoo, brother of Mahendra, is Guyana’s number one wicketkeeper but, because of a motor accident early this year, is actually feeling his way back into bigtime cricket. The team is said to have reasonable strengths in the fast bowling department. Reon Griffith played all through the first five matches of the Busta Cup. He is nippy and genuinely quick. He is likely to share new ball with Reon Thomas, who is rated high by the locals. Teams (from): Guyana President’s XI: Travis Dowlin (captain), Hemchand Pooran, Nersingh Deonarine, Andrew Gonsalves, Krishna Arjune, Damoutar Dasrat, V Nagamootoo, Reon Griffith, Reon Thomas, Hemnaraine Harnarine, Kevin Bazil, Vishal Arjune and Eastern Crandon. Match starts at 7.35 p.m. (IST).
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Rain, poor facilities
hamper Indians Georgetown (Guyana), April 4 India’s coach John Wright salvaged an almost ruined day for the Indians with some quick thinking as the tourists finally put bat to ball at a historic club here yesterday. The Indians, who saw inadequate arrangements spoil their opening day in the sun here on Tuesday, watched in horror an almost repeat being enacted yesterday before Wright forced a shift in the venue and Indians could practice, albeit at a solitary wicket in the middle square. The tourists arrived at 9.30 yesterday morning at the scheduled police ground, only to see a fresh spell of rain destroy all the hard work of the ground-staff and were left contemplating their options in a dillapidated wooden structure of a pavilion. The groundstaff had done all the hard-work, with little support literally, but overnight rains made a mess of the inadequate covers and water seeped through to damage the wicket at the police ground. Since early morning the groundsmen tried their best to hammer the pitch into shape, even dousing the middle with gasoline and torching it, but intermittent rains brought their efforts to nought. Wright wasted little time in switching the afternoon session at the historic Demerera Cricket Club, a venue made famous by its affiliation to men like Clive Lloyd, Rohan Kanhai, Roy Fredericks and Lance Gibbs. The new venue was only marginally better but at least one strip was available for the tourists to make good use of which they did with unconcealed glee. Sachin Tendulkar didn’t bat though, preferring to look after the needs of the younger members of the side, be it a matter of their footwork or conducting the nets in the
middle. PTI |
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Ganguly to play
in 3-day tie Georgetown, April 4 Neither the fact that he needs time to recover from the jet lag nor that no players of repute are in the line-up of the local team deterred Ganguly from deciding to turn out for the match which is the only warm-up game before the first Test against West Indies starting on April 11. “I want to play this game and I am sure I would be able to recover from jet lag and be fit for the game,” Ganguly said on his arrival. However, he sounded a bit concerned about the health of his wife Dona which had forced
him to postpone his departure from India by two days. “Though medical check-ups have been done and nothing has come out of it, I am still not aware what kind of treatment she has to undergo,” he said. Dona’s health deteriorated, reportedly due to a niggling issue of gall bladder, just before Ganguly was to leave with the rest of the team. It forced him to reschedule his plans and was detained in Kolkata for two days to be with his wife.
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Laxman among Wisden’s Cricketers of Year New Delhi, April 4 Laxman, who is currently with the Indian team in the West Indies for the five-Test series, told a TV channel on phone that he was elated to have been selected for the honour. “But playing for the country and doing well is an achievement in itself and more important than awards,” Laxman, said.
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North inching towards win
Indore, April 4 Central Zone collapsed for 175 in their second innings, while North Zone scored 26 for one at close on the third day of the three-day match. Akash Chopra (18) and Sangram Singh (3) were at the crease. Earlier, resuming at their overnight score of 288 for six in its first innings, North Zone’s Akash Chopra and Sharandeep Singh batted comfortably and added 150 runs for the seventh wicket, to take the score to 348. But J.P. Yadav then trapped Chopra leg before at his individual score of 143 (4x23). Central Zone (Ist Innings): 368 North Zone (Ist Innings): Chopra lbw J.P. Yadav 143, Rathore run out 33, Sangram lbw J. P. Yadav 10, S. Khan lbw Pande 28, Manhas c Jhalanib b Pande 0, Y Singh b Harvinder 1, Dahiya b Pandey 33, Sharandeep st Jhalani b Parida 94, Sanghvi c Jhalani b J.P. Yadav 4, Shakti lbw J.P. Yadav 23, Vineet not out 0. Extras (nb-22, lb- 8, b-8) 38. Total (all out) 407 Fall of wickets: 1/62, 2/76, 3/127, 4/137, 5/148, 6/198, 7/348, 8/352, 9/399, 10/407. Bowling: Sanjay Pandey 22-1-81-3, Harvinder Singh 11-3-49-1, Narendra Hirwani 23-9-65-0, Kulmani Parida 15.5-0-82-1, J P Yadav 23-3-94-4, Jyoti Yadav 3-0-5-0 D Bundela 4-2-9-0, Yere Gaud 1-0-6-0. Central Zone (2nd innings): J. Yadav b Shakti 1, Khoda b Vineet 28, Sutane c Vineet b Sarandeep 50, Gaud b Sarandeep 19, J.P. Yadav run out 24, D Bundela c Rathore b Vineet 24, Jhalani c Sangram b Sarandeep 6, Harvinder c Sangram b Vineet 6, K. Parida lbw Sarandeep 0, Pande c Sangram b Sarandeep 0, Hirwani not out 4. Extras (nb-8, lb-1, b-4) 13 Total (all out) 175 Fall of wickets 1-1, 2-60, 3-104, 4-106, 5-139, 6-141, 7-160, 8-165, 9-171, 10-175 Bowling: Vineet Sharma 12.2-2-43-3, Shakti Singh 4-1-19-1, Rahul Sanghvi 10-2-47-0, Sarandeep Singh 19-6-49-5, Mithun Manhas 4-1-12-0. NORTH ZONE (2nd innings): Chopra batting 18, Rathore c Jhalani b J.P. Yadav 4, Sarandeep batting 3, Extras (nb-1) 1, Total (for one wicket) 26. Fall of Wicket: 1-4. Bowling: S. Pandey 5-4-2-0, J.P. Yadav 6-2-14-1, D. Bundela 1-0-1-0, N. Hirwani 1-0-1-0. K. Parida 1-0-8-0.
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South secure 1st innings lead
Bangalore, April 4 East Zone had made 398 in the first innings. Resuming at their overnight 243 for two, Prasad, who was on 93, completed his century in Vijay Bharadwaj’s company. Prasad’s 104 runs came in 345 minutes off 228 balls, with the help of 14 fours and two sixes. Bharadwaj added 29 more runs to his overnight score of 19, before being dismissed by L.R. Shukla with the score at 284 for three. South Zone sufferred another quick blow, when Utpal Chatterjee dismissed Prasad who spooned a catch to Zuffri. At one stage, South Zone faced the threat of crumbling when the score read 358 for 7. But Dodda Ganesh and Badani, who resumed play after retiring yesterday following back pain, came to their side’s rescue. Ganesh made 24. East Zone had a shaky start to their second innings, losing opener Parag Das, trapped leg before by Dodda Ganesh off his very first ball. At close, East were 25 for one with Parida on 13 and S Lahiri (11) at the crease. Scoreboard: East Zone (1st innings): 398 South Zone (Ist innings): S Sriram c Zuffri b Shukla 34, M S K Prasad c Zuffri b U Chatterjee 104, V Kumar c Zuffri b Parag Das 23, H Badani c Gandhi b Raul 68, V Bharadwaj c R K Raja b Shukla 48, S Sharath c Raul b Lahiri 49, K Pawar c Zuffri b Ingty 15, H Watekar st Zuffri b Utpal Chatterjee 8, M R Srinivas c U Chaterjee b Lahiri 30, D Ganesh c Raul b U Chatterjee 24, Madhukar not out 0. Extras (b-8, lb-1, nb-7) 16. Total (all out) 419. Fall of wickets: 1-56, 2-92, 3-284, 4-284, 5-311, 6-358, 7-358, 8-396, 9-405. Bowling: Mark Ingty 25-6-87-1, L R Shukla 24-9-57-2, Parag Das 17-4-71-1, Utpal Chatterjee 43-16-87-3, S Lahiri 30.5-10-86-2, Sanjay Raul 7-1-22-1. East Zone (2nd innings): Parag Das lbw b Ganesh 0, R R Parida batting 13, S Lahiri batting 11. Extras (nb-1) 1. Total (for 1 wkt, 7 overs) 25. Fall of wickets: 1/0. Bowling: Dodda Ganesh 4-1-14-1, M R Srinivas 2-1-10-0, H Watekar
1-0-1-0. PTI |
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AAFI draws up packed calendar New Delhi, April 4 AAFI president Suresh Kalmadi, who is also the president of the Indian Olympic Association, said here today, after the Executive Council meeting of the Federation at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, that the inaugural Asian Grand Prix will start from India, as the first meet will be held in Hyderabad on May 18. The second and third Grand Prix events will be held at Bangkok (May 21) and Manila (May 26). He said the Grand Prix events will carry prize money of $ 2000, $ 1000 and $500 for gold, silver and bronze, respectively. Mr Kalmadi informed that the Indian athletes, who are undergoing coaching camps for three major international
competitions at NIS, Patiala, will participate in the Commonwealth Games at Manchester from July 25 to August 4, the Asian Championship in Colombo from August 9 to 12 and the Asian Games in Pusan from September 29 to October 14. The Indian athletes will participate in the Commonwealth Games after a gap of 16 years. The junior athletes will participate in the Asian Junior Championships in Bangkok from October 28 to 31 and the World Junior Athletic Championship in Kingston (Jamaica) from July 16 to 21. The AAFI president said the final selection of the teams will be held during the Federation Cup Athletic Meet to be held in Chennai from June 24 to 27. But he added that confirmatory trials for the Asian Games will be held during the National Open Athletic Championship to be held in New Delhi from September 7 to 8. National Inter-District Athletic Meets for Under-14, Under16 and Under-18 (for boys and girls) will be introduced from the 2003-2004 season. The AAFI Executive Council decided to form two selection committees—for seniors and juniors. Mr Kalmadi said the federation has intensified its efforts to tackle the problem of overage participation, and so far 28 athletes have been suspended for falsifying their age certificates. The senior selection committee will be headed by Mr Kalmadi with former international athletes like Gurbachan Singh Randhawa, P T Usha, Charles Borromeo, Parveen Kumar, Sri Ram Singh, Shiny Wilson, Adile Sumariwala and Iswar Singh as members. AAFI secretary Lalit K Bhanot will be the convenor while chief athletic coaches Bahadur Singh (seniors) and Joginder Singh Saini (juniors) will be permanent invitees. The Junior selection committee will also be headed by Mr Kalmadi. Other members of the
committee are former international athletes Gurbachan Singh Randhawa, S K Eshan, Bahadur Prasad, Mercy Kuttan, Parveen Jolly, Vandana Rao and Srirupa Banerjee. Mr Lalit Bhanot will be the convenor and Bahadur Singh and J S Saini permanent invitees. |
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Gopi enters quarterfinals Tokyo, April 4 The ninth seed from India, who beat world champion Hendrawan of Indonesia in five games yesterday, again came back from a game down twice to score a 3-7, 7-3, 5-7, 7-4, 7-3 victory in 59 minutes. China suffered another major set-back when All-England winner Chen Hong, the second seed, fractured his right leg and had to abandon his match against Muhammad Hafiz Hashim of Malaysia. Chen was 4-6 down in the final game. But current Asian champion and top seed Xia Xuanze went through comfortably, beating defending champion Muhammad Roslin Hashim, Hafiz’s elder brother, 7-4 7-0, 7-4 to set up an all-Chinese encounter against Chen Yu. China dominated the women’s singles with defending champion Zhou Mi, world champion Gong Ruina, Asian champion Zhang Ning, former Asian junior champion Hu Ting, 2000 Asian champion Xie Xingfang and Dai Yun all reaching the quarterfinals. The 1998 Asian Games gold medallist, Kanako Yonekura of Japan, and Chen Wang of Hong Kong are the only non-Chinese challengers. “I played my defence very well,” said Gopichand, who won several rallies by parrying Lin’s jump smashes to the front of his opponent’s court. “It was tough and intense, but it was a good match. I think he (Lin) played well. It was close, close, close all the time, all the way to the fifth game, so I’m happy about it,” said Gopichand. Gopichand was playing on the same court yesterday, where he found a strong draft from airconditioners was helping him win all his games from one end of the court and lose them from the other. It was the same story today. Although Gopichand was down in the fourth game, he looked confident on his “winning side” and fired an array of unstoppable smashes combined with overhead drops to tie it at 2-2. He was leading 4-2 in the decider when the players changed sides, leaving him to see out the match from his favourite end. “It was a big element, because I was moving from the bad end, from the end I was not making points. It was a very big advantage,” Gopichand said. “I think it was a little bit difficult to play from the other side. It was important that I saved a little bit of energy and tried to win all of my games here (the other side). I think it worked pretty well,” he added. Gopichand will meet China’s Wu Yunyong, who outclassed Fung Permadi of Taiwan 7-2, 7-0, 8-7, in the quarterfinals tomorrow. Indonesian star Taufik Hidayat, who is in action after a break of almost seven months, was knocked out by joint fifth seed Bao Chunlai of China, losing 2-7, 5-7, 4-7.
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Anand in 1-1 deadlock Dubai, April 4 The first two games were played under Rapid time control but their next set of games will be played under the Blitz Chess rules and Anand will have to hold his nerves in the testing tiebreak battle ahead. Meanwhile, another former world champion Anatoly Karpov of Russia ended Chinese women’s world champion Zhu Chen’s party with a 2-0 whitewash. Trying to carve a niche for himself in the rapid chess, GM Peter Leko of Hungary downed GM Joel Lautier of France by a 1.5-0.5 margin. Leko played a fine positional game in the second game to win the match after drawing the first game. Anand blundered away his one point lead over Azmaiparashvili after comprehensively outplaying his opponent in the first game. It was an English opening game where nothing went right for Azmaiparashvili. Anand slowly seized the initiative in the later stages in the middlegame and obtained a passed pawn on the queen side to win a rook by force. The rest was child’s play and Anand won after 42 moves. However, in the second game Anand squandered away an equal position arising out of a Pirc defence and allowed Azmaiparashili to finish the game in style with a piece sacrifice in the queenless middlegame. This game lasted a mere 32 moves. Karpov was at his technical best in outclassing Zhu Chen in both the games. Playing black in the first, Karpov stuck to his pet Queens Indian and caught Zhu off-guard in middle game complications. The Chinese sacrificed a piece hoping for some counterplay but Karpov was quite up to the task and won the game in just 26 moves. In the second game, Zhu went off track early on in one of the less played openings and handed the advantage to Karpov in a platter. With perfect deployment of his pieces Karpov left Zhus King stranded in the centre and won in 37 moves. Results after 2nd round: Zhu Chen (Chn) lost to Anatoly Karpov (Rus) 0-2; Peter Leko (Hun) b Joel Lautier (Fra) 1.5-0.5; Alexander Khalifman (Rus) lost to Veselin Topalov (Bul) 0.5-1.5; Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr) lost to Etienne Bacrot (Fra) 0.5 1.5.
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DAVIS CUP Wellington, April 4 According to the draw for the contest today, India’s No. 1 Leander Paes will play Alistair Hunt in the second singles. The estranged doubles pair of Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi will take on the inexperienced New Zealand combination of Daniel Willman and James Shortall on Saturday while the reverse singles will be played on Sunday. Mankad, who registered his first Davis Cup singles victory in the first round tie against Lebanon earlier this year, has been pitted against New Zealand’s No. 1 player in the first singles but India’s non-playing captain Ramesh Krishnan was not too perturbed. “In a way, it is good that Mankad is playing the first singles. He should also have a feel of the pressure,” Krishnan told PTI while praising the youngster for the improvement he has shown. “This will be a better test for him. The players here (in New Zealand) are a bit more competitive and Mankad also has gained some experience having spent two years on the Davis Cup circuit now,” he said. Krishnan asserted that Paes and Bhupathi, who split as regular doubles partners for the second time last month, were in the right frame of mind and concentrating on the task ahead.
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Samrita Sekar ousts Radhika Tulpule Mumbai, April 4 Samrita, playing an attacking game, subdued the Mumbai girl in one hour 12 minutes. In the first set, Samrita dropped her serve in the second game but came back strongly to break her opponent in very next game. She got a crucial break in the ninth game to win the set 6-4. In the second set Tulpule dropped her serve in the fifth game but fought back well to break her rival in the sixth game to level the score 3-all. The Mumbai girl showed her fighting qualities again and broke Samrita in the 10th game after failing to hold her own in the ninth to level the scores at 5-all. However, Samrita, played some incredible passing shots to break Tulpule in the 11th game and then served out the match at 7-5. In other quarterfinal matches, third seed Sai Jayalakshmy rallied well, after dropping the first set to pip sixth seed Archana Vekatraman 0-6, 6-2, 6-2 in one hour 37 minutes. Fifth seed Goutam Sheetal took just 53 minutes to beat wild card Krushmi Chhedha 6-4, 6-1 while fourth seed Sonal Phadke needed a minute more to beat seventh seed Liza Pereira 6-3, 6-1 to book the last semifinal berth. In the semifinals tomorrow Samrita will play Phadke while Sai will take on Goutam Sheetal. In the Sai-Archana match, the former was totally off colour and failed to win even a single game in the first set. However, she pulled up her socks in the second game and despite dropping her own serve in the fifth game, managed to take the set with breaks in the fourth, sixth and eighth games.
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SAI fails to appoint coach Patiala, April 4 The paddlers practising at the centre have won more than several titles in various editions of Punjab state ranking table tennis championship held over the past few years. Twelve players of the centre have played for Punjab in the junior and sub junior national table tennis championship, with Kamaljit Singh even marking it to the quarterfinal state in the last edition of the junior nationals. Manisha Sharma of the same school annexed the singles titles in the previous edition of the Punjab ranking championship in the junior and sub-junior categories. SAI coach V.K. Gulati was transferred to Hissar about nine months ago. The SAI authorities have yet to post a fresh coach. This dilly dallying on the part of SAI is proving to be detrimental to the paddlers practising at the centre. Mr H.L. Verma, Principal of KV-2, disclosed that the school authorities had repeatedly requested the SAI North Zone Centre at Chandigarh to post a coach so that coaching activities should not be hit. However, there has been no response from the authorities. Mr P.C. Kashyap, Regional Director of the North Zone Centre at Chandigarh, admitted that he was aware of the problem and confirmed that the department was trying to post a coach at the centre at the earliest. |
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Punjab cops regain crown Kolkata, April 4 Determined to claim the title in the 107th edition of the tournament, the policemen slammed the goals through Sarabjit Singh, Gabbar Singh and captain Daljit Singh in what turned out to be a rather one-sided summit showdown. CRPF’s hopes of laying their hands on the cup were shattered as they failed to counter their much stronger opponents. Captain S.K. Vashisht scored a consolation goal in the dying minutes of the match, but the effort came much too late. The policemen shot into the lead in the 19th minute of the contest through a brilliant field goal by the speedy Sarabjit Singh while Gabbar Singh (56th) and Daljit Singh (58th) struck in quick succession to seal the fate of their opponents. Apart from winning the Beighton Cup, Punjab Police also took home the winner’s purse of Rs 1 lakh. Displaying an attacking brand of hockey, the policemen relied on a combination of short and long passes to break through the rival defence and could have won by a bigger margin had they not squandered a few scoring opportunities. The first goal by Sarabjit Singh served as a tonic for the team from Punjab as it looked much more sharp and dangerous after opening their account. Sarabjit Singh outwitted a couple of defenders with deft stickwork and neatly placed the ball into the goal, giving no chance at all to the CRPF custodian X Ravidro. Leading by a solitary goal at the interval, the policemen stepped up the pace of the game after the breather and the strategy seemed to pay dividends as they pumped in two goals in the span of two minutes to take the game under control. The hard-working Gabbar Singh produced a superb field goal midway through the second session, capitalising on a defensive lapse, to consolidate the position for Punjab Police. Two minutes later, it was captain Daljit Singh’s turn to steal the limelight finding the target with a crisp along-the-carpet hit from the edge of the striking circle. With a comfortable 3-0 lead, CRPF seemed to have no chance of staging a fightback as the minutes ticked away. But a consolation goal from the stick of S.K. Vashist just at the stroke of the hooter was all they could manage. PTI |
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