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Thursday,
September 12, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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ICC Champions Trophy starts today
Graphic: ICC Champions Trophy Schedule Chetan Sharma writes
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Marit Safin, Tommy Haas in second round of President’s Cup
Deepak sets new record
Pursuing two courses simultaneously? Islam snatches lead Indian eves record
sensational win Kapil
hot on Sidhu’s trail Top teams for Mandi hockey
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ICC Champions Trophy starts today
Colombo, September 11 Saurav Ganguly’s India, fresh from levelling a Test series and a pulsating victory in the three-nation NatWest one-day series in England, will be counted as one of the favourites, and will be eager to make up for a defeat at the hands of New Zealand in the last ICC Trophy final in Nairobi in 2000. India play Zimbabwe on September 14 and England on September 22. Front-runners Australia have to live down memories of being knocked out in the first round in both the previous editions by India in Dhaka and Nairobi, while Sri Lanka, with home-ground advantage, are keen to extend their resurgent fortunes after winning a tri-series against South Africa and Pakistan at Tangiers, Morocco recently. The tournament, with a total prize money of $ 1.15 million, is largely seen as a prelude to next year’s World Cup in South Africa. It seemed set until two days ago to be mired in controversy over contracts that the International Cricket Council wanted participating players to sign, but was salvaged by a belated agreement on players’ terms. The Kiwis, without star all-rounder Chris Cairns, who won them the final in Nairobi last time, say they are under no pressure despite being the defending champions. “It is an honour to play as defending champions,” captain Stephen Fleming said, after arriving nearly a week ahead of their first encounter with Australia on September 15. The tournament has been changed from a straight knock-out to a league format under which the 10 Test playing nations and associates Kenya and Holland are clubbed in four groups of three sides each. This will give each team two matches, and the four winners qualify for the two semifinals. The tournament will also make history as a trial begins on the expanded use of technology for more umpiring decisions. The television umpire can now assist the on-field officials with opinions on leg before wicket and bat-pad catch decisions too. However, most captains are wary that the measure may delay the proceedings, especially when the bowling team is required to complete its quota of 50 overs within a stipulated time. India are in the toughest group, pitted against England and Zimbabwe. All three teams have beaten one another in the past, and it is the only pool in which there is no ‘weak’ side. The other three pools have Test cricket babes Bangladesh, and non-Test teams Kenya and Holland. Zimbabwe captain Heath Streak said they fancied their chances of making it to the semifinals despite not starting as favourites to top the pool. “Both England and India are playing good cricket at the moment,” added star batsman Andy Flower, “but we have beaten both of them.” Australian captain Ricky Ponting said his side was the same as the one that did duty in Nairobi, where they had to share the trophy with Pakistan after a rain-marred final. “This time we are facing New Zealand and look forward to putting up a good performance,” he said. “If we cross the first hurdle, we have a game against Bangladesh, and the semifinal from there on,” he said, indicating a determination to turn around Australia’s record in the tournament. Pakistan will be relying on their fast bowling battery spearheaded by Shoaib Akhtar and performances by veterans Saeed Anwar, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, as they seek to shed the tag of being ‘unpredictable’. “We haven’t been unpredictable, but we have struggled with the batting,” captain Waqar admitted yesterday, but his first opponents have a greater worry than whether Pakistan is unpredictable or otherwise. Captain Sanath Jayasuriya is yet to be cleared for playing, as he recovers from a shoulder injury. He said a few days ago that he had started batting a little and would decide only at the last minute if he would play. He is clear in his mind that he will play only if he is fully fit. With Sri Lanka’s fortunes hinging on their opening game, the third team in their pool being Holland, Jayasuriya’s fitness will be the biggest question weighing on their minds on the eve of the opener. South Africa and the West Indies will be playing the second match, a day game at the Sinhalese Sports Club Stadium. Teams: Pakistan: Waqar Younis (capt), Inzamam-ul-Haq, Abdur Razzaq, Imran Nazir, Misbah-ul-Haq, Mohammad Sami, Rashid Latif, Saeed Anwar, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Akhtar, Shoaib Malik, Wasim Akram, Younis Khan, Yousuf Youhana. Sri Lanka: Sanath Jayasuriya (capt), Russel Arnold, Marvan Atapattu, Upul Chandana, Aravinda de Silva, Kumar Dharmasena, Dilshan Tillakaratne, Dilhara Fernando, Pulasthi Gunaratne, Hasantha Fernando, Mahela Jayawardene, Muttiah Muralitharan, Kumar Sangakkara, Chaminda Vaas. PTI |
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Chetan Sharma writes The action has now shifted to closer home, to the Emerald Isles of Sri Lanka as the world’s best gather in Colombo for the Champions Trophy. For those who don’t know the importance of the tournament, it’s next to the World Cup. I am sure I don’t need to remind my readers what kind of build-up this Champions Trophy has had. Only at the eleventh hour came the green signal of participation of India’s leading players once the International Cricket Council and Board of Control for Cricket in India sorted out the contracts controversy. They also saved themselves from the embarrassment of a rebellion in return. Let’s hope the cricketers put the issue behind their back and concentrate on the job ahead. India, alongwith Australia, are the joint favourites for the tournament and I won’t rule out the chances of South Africa, Sri Lanka or Pakistan either. The sum is that it can be anybody’s tournament and will be closely fought between four or five teams. The previous editions were won by South Africa (Dhaka) and New Zealand (Nairobi). India had lost in the semifinals to West Indies in Dhaka, while the Nairobi meet saw them lose in the final to New Zealand. I wish they win the title this time. They have a good side coming into the tournament and their confidence is also high. The youngsters are fit and if India can bowl well, they have the potential to become the champions. Tomorrow’s match will be explosive action as Sri Lanka and Pakistan promise to set the stands on fire with their rivalry. The Lankans got the better of Pakistan in Morocco but Pakistan will be hoping for a revenge here. In short this match will be a competition between the Lankan batting and Pakistani bowling. This contest will have a big bearing on the outcome of the match. One handicap for the Lankans will be skipper Sanath Jayasuriya’s injury. Even though Jayasuriya has said he is fit and plans to play tomorrow, but it is not easy to come off an injury and playing in important matches without practice. But Jayasuriya, as you all know, is a champion in himself and I won’t be surprised if he is the match-winner against Pakistan. Pakistan would also want their batsmen to score the runs on the board. It is difficult for bowlers to win matches where their own team has not put up a good total so Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram and Shoaib Akhtar would be hoping for their batsmen to click.
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Marit Safin, Tommy Haas in second round of President’s Cup
Tashkent, September 11 Safin, ranked third in the world, had an easy win over French qualifier Gregory Carraz 6-2 6-4, but Haas had a tougher time against Marc Rosset of Switzerland, winning 4-6 7-6 (7/2) 6-3. The German lost the opening set after double-faulting on a breakpoint and allowed the Swiss wild card to break him in the seventh game. The second set went to a tiebreak and the 24-year-old needed an early break in the third to take the match. Third-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia played an exhausting three-setter against Alexander Waske of Germany, winning 6-7 (6/8) 7-6 (7/5) 7-6 (8/6). After trading a set each in tiebreaks, Kafelnikov came back from 2-5 down in the third and 5-1 down in the tiebreak to wrap up the match. Waske, ranked 147th in the world, served 37 aces in the match, which lasted 2 hours, 24 minutes. Rising Asian star Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand, seeded fifth, confidently moved into the next round after crushing Anthony Dupuis of France 6-1 6-2 in just 45 minutes. In the day’s upset, fourth-seeded Rainer Schuettler of Germany fell to Kristian Pless of Denmark 6-7 (4/7) 2-6. Costa Do Sauipe (Brazil): Sjeng Schalken of the Netherlands — a surprise semifinalist at the US Open last week— beat Germany’s Michael Kohlmann 6-2 7-6 (7/0) yesterday in the first round of the Brasil Open. The second-seeded Schalken, who lost to eventual champion Pete Sampras in New York, faces Cecil Mamiit of the USA in the second round. Mamiit is 128 in the ATP rankings. “Mamiit’s style is similar to mine. He’s a baseline player. It’s going to be difficult,” Shalken said. Earlier, Brazil’s Fernando Meligeni beat Alex Kim of the USA, who was overcome by the heat and had to retire with the score 4-6 6-3 4-1. Meligeni now faces Argentina’s Gaston Etlis, who defeated countryman Nicolas Massu 2-6 6-4 6-4. Also, Brazil’s Andre Sa easily defeated Peru’s Ivan Miranda 6-2 6-2. On the women’s side, Slovenia’s Tina Pisnik beat Paola Suarez 6-2 6-2 while South Africa’s Amanda Coetzer beat Slovakia’s Janette Husarova 6-1 6-1. BUCHAREST: Top-seeded Andrei delighted the home crowd with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Spain’s Alberto Martin yesterday in the opening round of the $ 381,000 Romania Open. In the second round, Pavel will face another Spanish clay court specialist. Albert Portas, who beat Romania’s Ion Moldovan on Monday. “It’s always nice to be back in Romania playing in front of my home crowd,” Pavel said. “I played well today, I always tend to play at my best against Martin. My next match against will be very difficult. My game suits (Portas) very well.” A bad right hamstring forced 2000 Bucharest winner Juan Bacells to miss out on an opportunity to win his second career title. The Spaniard retired in the second test against Romanian wildcard Victor Hanescu 7-6 (7/3) 1-1. In other action, Australia’s Jurgen Melzer upset No 6 seed Albert Montanes of Spain 6-4, 6-4 and qualifier Juan Giner of Spain defeated Croatia’s Zeliko Krajan 6-3, 6-4. Kournikova advances Shanghai: Anna Kournikova and Janet Lee easily downed their opponents today to advance to the doubles semifinals of the Shanghai Open. The Russian and her Taiwanese partner beat Australians Mireille Dittmann and Amanda Grahame, 6-1 6-3. Kournikova and Lee are the second-seeded doubles team in the $140,000 tournament at Shanghai’s Xianxia Tennis Center. Petra Mandula of Hungary and Austria’s Patricia Wartusch also clinched a semifinal berth by defeating South Korean duo Cho Yoon-jeong and Jeon Mi-ra, 6-2 6-4. Mandula and Wartusch are third-seeded. In singles, Clarisa Fernandez of Argentina beat Japan’s Akiko Morigami, 6-3 6-2. Third-seeded Fernandez advances to the quarterfinals.
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Deepak sets new record Thrissur, September 11 Deepak, a CRPF Inspector, who has been creating waves in the pool in recent times, clocked 30.31 seconds to better the five-year old meet record of 30.52 seconds set by Abe Jose (Services) in 1997 at Thiruvananthapuram. Deepak, who holds the national record in the 100m and 200m breast stroke, had won the fifth place in the Asian age group championship at China recently in the 50m event. “I was confident of winning. I could have done still better but for the fever and throat pain I am having for the last two days,” the 21-year old Deepak swimmer said. In the two finals held this morning in the women’s 4x200m relay, the Karnataka quartet, comprising Kshipra, Shubha, Praditha and Ambica Iyyengar, maintained their dominance on the event for yet another year, winning the gold with a time of 9:34.81. Policewomen took the silver at 9:39.20 and Bengal the bronze with 9:49.09s. In the men’s section, the Services quartet comprising Benoy Sebastian, P.S. Sujit, Nilendu Jena and T.A. Sujit collected the 4x200 m freestyle relay gold with a timing of 8:17.06 secs while police team took the silver clocking 8:21.47 secs and Railway the bronze at 8:36.88 secs. T.A. Sujith of Services, who had upset ace swimmer Sebastian Xavier (Railways), in the 50 m freestyle in the last nationals at Kolkata, qualified for the finals of the 50 m event along with V Arun (TN) Rajikumar (Railways), Saiju Joseph (Services). Rahul Batra (Karnataka), D. Bairagi (Railways), Ashwinkumar (Karnataka) and K. Rajeev (Kerala). In the women’s 50 m freestyle finals, Lisa Mananantha (Assam), Madhura Patil (Maharashtra). Praditha (Karnataka), Amrapali Das Gupta (Bengal), Rishu Mehra (CRPF), Shruthi Reddy (Maharashtra) and Rajashree Chakraborthy (Bengal) would vie for the fastest women swimmer’s title.
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Pursuing
two courses simultaneously? Patiala, September 11 Documentary evidence in possession with this reporter reveals that Tarlok Singh Sandhu, who represented the country in the 1980 Moscow Olympics in basketball, did his Diploma in Sports Coaching from the National Institute of Sports (NIS) from July 15, 1984, to January 13, 1985, and rejoined the institute on January 14, 1986, to May 7, 1986, to complete the diploma. Sandhu, then enrolled himself as a student of Masters of Physical Education (MPed) at Government College of Physical Education (GCPE) here from January to April 1985, and got his degree in May 1985 (exam roll No: 949), completing the 10-month course of MPed in just three months. On the basis of this degree he landed a job of lecturer in GCPE. Documents reveal that, in blatant violation of rules, Sandhu had simultaneously got himself enrolled both in the Diploma in Sports Coaching at the NIS and MPed (class roll No:745) course at the GCPE here for nearly seven months. As per the requirements of the NIS curriculum, a student has to attend practical classes in morning as well as evenings while the theory classes are held before noon. Similarly for the MPed degree, a student has to attend theory classes before noon while practical classes are held in the evenings. However, Sandhu dodged the managements of both the institutes for nearly seven months simultaneously attend classes at both places. Interestingly, the moot point is that since Sandhu was working in the Indian Air Force (IAF), how did the IAF give him permission for two courses from two government affiliated institutions at the same time. Moreover, if the IAF gave permission for the Diploma in Sports Coaching from the NIS, it remains a mystery how Sandhu completed his MPed degree at the same time. Taking notice of this development, in December 2000, Dr D.S Dhillon, Dean, Students Welfare and Director, Sports, Punjabi University, had written to the Dean, Colleges, to investigate the matter for which the Dean, Colleges, had initiated action. The Registrar of the university has now recommended that the entire matter should be brought to the notice of the Vice-Chancellor. |
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Islam snatches lead
Chennai, September 11 Delhi veteran Rohtas Singh, rookie Vikramjit Singh and Monish Bindra, who carded identical two under 68, each shared the second position jointly behind the leader. The 38-year-old Mohammed outshone the favourites Mhow’s Mukesh Kumar and Meerut’s Digvijay Singh, who shared the honours as either winner or runner-up in the three competitions preceding this. They were in eighth and 21st positions, respectively, with the former dropping a stroke to card one under-69 and the latter dropping three strokes to end up one over 71. Mohammed Islam, who described his hole in one as his best performance so far, considering the very humid weather, achieved it on the 17th hole. Mohammed missed birdies on the par three second and par five third holes. But he recovered to fire birdies on the par three fourth and par four 13th holes, respectively. He dropped a stroke each on the par three sixth and par four ninth holes. Forty-five-year-old Rohtas, who played the back nine holes first, dropped a stroke on the par four 13th hole. He sank birdies on the 14th and 16th holes, both par four. In the return journey, the greying pro sank a birdie on the third and seventh. He dropped a stroke on the fifth. Vikramjit, for whom this was the best score in his short career as a pro, fired four birdies on the sixth, seventh, 12th and 14th. He dropped a stroke each on the second and 17th. UNI
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Indian eves record sensational win
New Delhi, September 11 With Sania Mirza struggling to find her rhythm, the onus was on Ankita Bhambri who did her job in style defeating Melanie Hafner 6-4 6-2 in the first match, according to information received here. But the Germans levelled through Tatjana Malek who registered a 6-4 6-1 victory over Sania. The Indian was 3-1 up in the first set but then lost concentration to lose the match. It was then boiled down to the doubles match which Ankita and Sania won with relative ease. Carmen Klaschka and Tajana Malek, down 2-5 in the first set, fought back to level it 5-5. But soon they ran out of steam to concede eight straight games to lose the match 7-5 6-0. In the last league match, India take on Korea, the fourth team of the group, whom they had beaten 3-0 in the regional qualifying at Jakarta. PTI
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Kapil hot
on Sidhu’s trail Patiala, September 11 In his grey Mercedes, Kapil drove to
Dhruv Pandove Cricket Stadium, where young Navjot used to sharpen his
skills before his Test debut at Ahmedabad against the 1983 West
Indians led by Clive Lloyd. The former Indian skipper interviewed
Navjot’s childhood friends and the other acquaintances to know how
he had risen from the rank of a foot soldier to become a general in
the world of international cricket. Kapil also saw the swimming pool of Rajindera Gymkhana Club where Navjot used to train. Navjot used to practice on the concrete bottom of this pool whenever the turf at the nearby Dhruv Pandove Stadium was rendered unfit for play due to rain. The
Indian cricketer of the century was mobbed at the club, where children
and adults jostled with each other to get themselves photographed with
him. Kapil also visited Yadavindra Public School (YPS), Navjot’s
alma mater. He even took some time off to visit the the market here. Meanwhile, Navjot, enjoying his new avatar as a commentator, is expected to reach here from London later today.
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Top teams for Mandi hockey Chandigarh, September 11 Eight teams in the men’s section — Punjab Police, Punjab and Sind Bank, CISF, Northern Railway, Uttaranchal XI, Himachal Pradesh Red and Himachal Pradesh Blue — have confirmed their participation while in the women’s section, four teams — Haryana XI, Starch Mills (Phagwara), HMV (Jalandhar) and Himachal XI — will compete in the women’s section. The men’s teams have been divided into two group of four teams each. The tournament will be played on league-cum-knock-out basis. |
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Chandigarh
outplay Haryana Pondicherry, September 11 While Sandeep scored six points for Chandigarh, Dharma scored all the four points for Haryana. In the girls event, Madhya Pradesh prevailed over Pondicherry 4-2 with Sonum Jain scoring all the four points for the winners and Vijayalakshmi scoring for the hosts.
UNI
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