Yuvraj, who was tipped to be included in the Test side alongwith Mohammed Kaif after their impressive performances in the just concluded one-day series, has chipped a bone in the little finger of his left hand which will take at least three weeks to heal, Indian team’s communication manager Amrit Mathur said today.

It was, however, not immediately clear whether the Punjab batsman would join the side after recovering from the injury. Yuvraj, who hurt himself while fielding in the final of the NatWest Trophy at the Lord’s on Saturday, did not let the injury deter him from making a quickfire 69 off 63 balls.

The left-hander did not figure in the 16-member Indian Test squad which will play a four-match series with England starting on July 25. But his splendid performance in the series prompted the cricket board to call an emergency meeting of selection committee in Kolkata tomorrow to consider including him, as well as Kaif, in the Test side.

Kaif and Dinesh Mongia, the third player who was to fly back home after the tri-nation series, will stay back pending the decision of the selection committee.

Obviously unaware of the injury to Yuvraj, selection committee Chairman Chandu Borde said in Pune today that both Yuvraj and Kaif were likely to be included in the Test squad. PTI

The newspapers were full of praise for Mohammad Kaif and Yuvraj Singh, the two architects of India’s incredible victory against England at Lord’s on Saturday, with The Times writing that the two batsmen had shown that young blood need not necessarily boil when the heat was on.

“It was two remarkably cool young batsmen who finally won for India a match comparable to the first of the World Cup finals in 1975 and the famous Warwickshire v Sussex NatWest final of 1993,” The Times said.

The Guardian wrote the Indian camp was probably justified in celebrating as if they had won the World Cup.

“After Mohammad Kaif and Zaheer Khan, vital components in the young new India, had scrambled the winning runs with only three balls and two wickets to spare, and completed one of the most astounding run-chases in cricket’s history, Kaif was able to find an Indian flag, smuggled into the ground, and wrap himself in its embrace.

“Such was India’s joy as they undertook a lap of honour, they might have grabbed the World Cup: on this evidence, that is not such a wild dream,” the paper said.

The Telegraph said India’s achievement in reaching the 326-run target, the second highest successful chase in history, will surely go down as one of the most memorable one-day games.

“Only the sight of the balcony doors to England’s dressing room pulled shut to block out the hubbub, as India’s celebrations raised the roof, revealed there had been a loser,” it said.

“If England had already been given notice of the effectiveness of Yuvraj’s pendulum swings of the bat, nothing had prepared them for Kaif’s power and range of stroke, which when utilised, mocked coach Duncan Fletcher’s mantra that experience is everything at this level,” the daily said.

“At Lord’s on Saturday only Alex Tudor had played fewer games than the youngster from the unfashionable backwaters of Uttar Pradesh.”

“Even more impressive was the way crushing pressure was brushed aside as if it were a pesky fly, and not, as England’s bowlers found it to be, a many-headed monster.”

The Guardian said “England lost because they did not have the wit, skill or nous (commonsense) with the ball to defend 325, their highest total in an innings of fewer than 55 overs and by a single run the second highest losing first innings score ever.”

“It was a great triumph for India, for the captain Saurav Ganguly and coach John Wright, who have turned round a cumbersome ageing side and injected agility and flair, and in particular for the sheer uninhibited play of young cricketers unencumbered by the baggage of past failure.” PTI

“The partnership (Yuvraj and Kaif) showed that India have the emotional resilience to chase a total as big as 325 in a one-day innings. These youngsters have demonstrated to the seniors they could be tough and competitive. It will make them come out of their comfort zone,” Gordon said.

Gordon, who is a senior lecturer in sport and exercise psychology with the University of Western Australia, has been involved with the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) for long and has even visited National Cricket Academy in India from time to time to provide a psychologist’s perspective to Indian cricket issues.

With this victory in the NatWest series final, India have shown the rest of the world they would be an extremely competitive side in the World Cup, scheduled in South Africa next year.

“India has shown it could be very competitive in the next World Cup. Other teams should better watch out for them — it is almost scary,” Gordon said.

The psychologist said there is a huge difference in this side from the one which played in the past and credited coach John Wright with this transformation in attitude in the Indian team.

“The Indian team seems to have realised that talent alone is not enough — it must be backed by bloody hard work,” Gordon said.

The psychologist said for improved performance on a cricket field, the players must make an effort to improve all the time. “A player usually attains a certain standard by talent alone but it is not enough. Something has to change if you have to improve. Doing the same thing over and over again is not going to improve you.”

Players have to be challenged to come out of their comfort zone,” said Gordon, adding he has exchanged notes with Wright on this issue.

After a combined session with the players, Gordon met a set of players separately and then spoke to them individually as they sought the psychologist out for a private session, including captain Saurav Ganguly.

“I spoke to all of them individually. But apparently, it is confidential and I can’t comment on what we discussed. But generally, the players discussed the matter of attitude on a cricket field. They all wanted to know how they could get better,” said Gordon.

Amrit Mathur, team’s communication manager, said Gordon’s special emphasis was that cricketers must try to improve each other’s quality. “It is a team game and like in any team game, a fellow cricketer must try to help another in maximising his potential.”

Several cricketers have retired from one form or other of the international game in recent years citing fatigue or withdrawn from tours for personal reasons.

England batsman Graham Thorpe was the latest player to retire from international one-day cricket at the weekend, saying he could not continue playing both versions of the game.

“In terms of keeping my body fit it is becoming harder to do so...I have decided to concentrate on playing Test matches,’’ Thorpe said after India beat England by two wickets in the final of a one-day triangular series.

The Surrey lefthander also said he wanted to spend more time with his children after his marriage had broken up.

England captain Nasser Hussain, who will attend the meeting along with India’s Saurav Ganguly, Pakistan’s Waqar Younis and South Africa’s Shaun Pollock, said he was sorry to see Thorpe retire.

“To lose Thorpey is a huge blow. He’s the first casualty of the amount of cricket we have to play,’’ Hussain said. “My body aches, I know how he feels.’’

England coach Duncan Fletcher was widely quoted on Monday advocating the national side touring during their domestic season to help international players receive a longer break during the European winter.

“I am sure that down the line there will be more problems for some people with the amount of cricket played,” Fletcher was quoted as saying in The Guardian newspaper.

“(But) It is important when we play, not how much. Why are we not playing Test cricket overseas in April and May or September and October? Then we can have time off in the winter.’’

Fletcher said he had forwarded his plan to the England Cricket Board for their consideration.

Player burn-out was openly debated during soccer’s recent World Cup in South Korea and Japan and is becoming an increasingly prickly issue in rugby union.

ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed said Monday’s meeting, which would also discuss the image of the game, illegal bowling actions, playing conditions and the implementation of anti-corruption measures, was an opportunity for the players to have direct input to the running of the game. “Over the past 12 months the ICC has regularly sought the views of the captains on matters such as standards of on-field behaviour, the new umpires and referees panels and...proposals to combat corruption,’’ Speed said in a statement.

Other captains attending the meeting with Sunil Gavaskar, Speed, ICC cricket manager David Richardson and anti-corruption head Paul Condon are Stuart Carlisle (Zimbabwe), Sanath Jayasuriya (Sri Lanka), Khaled Mashud (Bangladesh) and Stephen Fleming (New Zealand). Reuters

Losing out in the race to stage the 2000 and 2004 Olympics could have prompted fears that the event may turn into a consolation Games, but organisers of the fourth largest sports event in the world are confident their multi-million dollar investment will put the doubters in their place.

The capital costs of staging the Games are expected to total approximately $ 750 million, a large part of which has gone into the building of Sportcity, the main venue for the event built as part of a major rejuvenation of the city’s run down eastern boroughs.

Mr Charles Allen, chairman of the Games, said the event would provide a massive boost to the sporting reputation of Britain.

“The Commonwealth Games will be a tremendous opportunity for Britain to host a truly prestigious international event and the people of Manchester are looking forward to welcoming athletes and visitors alike to their city,” said Allen.

“My vision is for a Games that are for everyone, bringing world class sports to our doorstep and a celebration of the Commonwealth in Her Majesty the Queen’s jubilee year.” However, the build-up to the Games has not been without its problems — both sporting and political.

Olympic 400 metres champion Cathy Freeman of Australia, regarded as one of the biggest draws, pulled out to look after her husband who has cancer.

Freeman said American sportswear executive Alexander (Sandy) Bodecker, has a tumour in the back of his mouth and needs chemotherapy and radiation treatment.

Freeman had already been dogged by a stress reaction in her left thigh which had ruled her out of the Commonwealth Games trials in March.

Elsewhere, the thorny question of Zimbabwe has caused consternation.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard raised the prospect of the African nation, which won two golds at the last Games in 1998, being banned from Manchester.

Zimbabwe has already been suspended from the Commonwealth councils for 12 months following the re-election of President Robert Mugabe.

But the chief executive of the Commonwealth Games Federation, Mr Mike Hooper, said as long as Zimbabwe remained a member of the Commonwealth they had a right to compete in Manchester.

Zimbabwe was suspended only from the councils of the Commonwealth and not from the Commonwealth itself.

There will be 72 nations represented from the giants of Australia, England and Canada to tiny outposts like the South Sea island Nauru and the Caribbean state of St Vincent and the Grenadines.

They will be taking part in 16 individual sports and three team sports.

Amongst the better known British names on show will be Sydney Olympic 2000 medallists such as Jonathan Edwards, Steve Backley and Darren Campbell.

There are other household names — in athletics Ato Boldon of Trinidad and Tobago, Maria Mutola of Mozambique and Obadele Thompson from Barbados will be going for gold in the stadium too.

Canada’s Simon Whitfield, who won an Olympic gold in the triathlon, will also be competing as will Australian swimming sensation Ian Thorpe.

Three events at the Commonwealth Games will be virtual world championships — netball, lawn bowls and squash are largely exclusive to Commonwealth countries.

The events will take place at 15 different venues in Manchester and the northwest as well as the national shooting centre at Bisley in the southern county of Surrey.

Sportcity, a state-of-the-art complex built around the 38,000 capacity city of Manchester stadium, features the National Squash Centre, the National Cycling Centre and the Indoor Tennis Centre.

The stadium, which will become Manchester City football club’s new home from 2003, will host the opening and closing ceremonies, all athletics events and rugby sevens.

The Manchester Aquatics Centre, a 40 million dollar complex and which has been open to the public since July 2000, features two international class pools and a diving area.

Gymnastics, judo and wrestling will be held at Manchester’s G-Mex conference and exhibition centre while the later stages of the boxing and netball competitions will be based at the Manchester Evening News Arena; weightlifting at the International Convention Centre and hockey at the Belle Vue Regional Hockey Centre.

Triathlon will be held at Salford Quays; badminton at Bolton Arena and lawn bowls at Heaton Park.

Road cycling and mountain biking will be staged in Rivington, near Bolton.

At the last Games in Kuala Lumpur in 1998, 70 countries sent a total of 5,250 athletes and officials to Malaysia and the top five medal winners were Australia, England, Canada, Malaysia and South Africa.

And in the true spirit of the Games, little Nauru got its name on the medals board with an impressive haul of three golds. AFP

Midfielder Kim Nam-Il, who has become the focus of the country’s soccer fervour after the departure of coach Guus Hiddink, disappeared last week and was later reported to be in a hospital in a secret location, being treated for injuries sustained during the World Cup.

The tough-tackling 25-year-old has taken on pop star status in the country with hordes of teenaged girls following him wherever he goes since South Korea became the most successful Asian team yet at the World Cup finals.

Kim is known as the “Vacuum Cleaner” because of the way he handles opposing forwards and fans say they worship him because his blunt style epitomised South Korea’s fearless approach which got them to the semi-finals.

When the squad were feted before hundreds of thousands and given top honours by President Kim Dae-Jung in Seoul after the tournament, each member was asked by television presenters to make a comment.

Kim said “I just want to go to a night club”. And he did for four days.

When he was given a 300-million-won ($ 250,000) reward by the Korean Football Association he immediately gave it to his father and later told reporters he was “broke”. Kim has turned down lucrative advertising offers.

But nearly every day last week, he featured on the front page of the main sports dailies who told tales of young girls following him around the country.

One group of 1,000 girls organised their own special train to go and see a match by his Korean league club Cheonam Dragons, even though he did not play and only appeared to sign autographs. AFP

Indian Oil Corporation qualified as the second team with three points behind IA, who led 4-2 at half time.

Dhanraj Pillay opened the account for IA in the 17th minute, while Virender Singh increased the tally three minutes later. Dhanraj again scored twice in quick succession (25th and 27th minutes) taking the tally to 4-0.

For Postal-XI, Prakash Chalke scored in the 31st minute, with Mumtaz reducing the margin in the next minute converting a penalty corner.

In the second session, Muzib-ul-Ghani scored the third goal for the losers in the 59th minute through a penalty corner conversion. IA coasted to a facile victory as Mukesh Kumar (62nd), Virender Singh (63rd) and Dilip Tirkey (65th) converted penalty corners. UNI

Jeev is playing at Gullane No.1, one of the four courses hosting the final qualifiers.

As many as 384 players are chasing as few as 24 spots on the first round draw of the Open.

Meanwhile, Fredrik Andersson of Sweden was nine under par in setting a record 62 at Gullane No 1, but lowest score of the day was the 61 by Andrew Coltart, eight under par just over the fence at Luffness New. PTI

CORRETJA WINS
GSTAAD: Tittle-hungry Alex Corretja snapped a trophy drought lasting for nearly a year as he claimed his third Swiss Open title here on Sunday beating Argentine Gaston Gaudio 6-3, 7-6 (7/3) 7-6 (7/3). Corretja, who has played in three French Open finals, won the Gstaad title in 1998 and 2000 but his last tournament triumph came 51 weeks ago in Amsterdam, also in clay. The victory continued the long-time Spanish domination of this high-altitude event. AFP