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Saturday,
January 25, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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India to play in World Cup Roddick runs out of steam in semis Fighting Williams’ take doubles title
Paes-Martina duo in final Anand outwits Shirov Any team among the 14 teams that wins the World Cup on March 23 at Johannesburg need not necessarily be the best team on the planet. But it will prove to be the strongest in terms of commitment and the will to win at the end of the six-week tournament which will bring out the best and the worst in players. |
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Security beefed up
for Ganguly Pak players make hasty retreat Warne aims for special swansong 10-man ITI hold
Mahindras
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India to play in World Cup New Delhi, January 24 The ICC said in a release here today that the tele-conference decision “effectively calls truce between the ICC and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to allow the players to play by putting in place a series of steps following the tournament to resolve the commercial issues”. The decision of the ICC board will see “the BCCI accepting responsibility for any claims for compensation that arise from the ICC’s commercial partners as a result of the Indian team playing under altered contracts; the responsibility and size of these claims will be determined through an arbitration process after the event; that pending the outcome of any arbitration process, the ICC will retain India’s $ 9 million World Cup distribution; that should an arbitration process determine that the BCCI is liable for damages and the BCCI refuses to pay this compensation, the ICC board will recommend that India be suspended from the ICC.” On this basis, the ICC confirmed the decision of the ICC’s World Cup contracts committee to permit the Indian team to play in the World Cup. ICC President Malcolm Gray said the agreement would ensure that that the ICC and the BCCI put aside the commercial dispute until after the World Cup “to allow the best players to represent India”. It may be recalled that the BCCI had forwarded the conditional player terms signed by the Indian players to the ICC before the deadline for entries expired on December 31. But the ICC clarified that the “alterations to the player terms in the case of India will see the exclusion period for tournament sponsors limited to just the period of the event and limitations placed on the use of players in promotional campaigns”. Gray said the latest agreement “clears the way for the best team to represent India and ensures that the ICC is able to protect the commercial interest of the game around the world through the agreed process to deal with these issues”. India’s commercial pull, and clout among cricket-playing nations, obviously weighed heavily in helping the ICC tone down its stand and allow India play as a World Cup without India would be harmful to the commercial interest of cricket in the long run. |
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Roddick runs out of steam in semis
Melbourne, January 24 The 31st-seeded Schuettler capitalised on Roddick’s draining workload to win the second semi-final 7-5, 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 in 2hr-19min and will take on hot favourite Andre Agassi in Sunday’s final. Schuettler is the first German to reach a Grand Slam final since Michael Stich at the 1996 French Open, the last German winner was Boris Becker at the Australian Open in the same year. “Right now, I’m speechless, it’s unbelievable,” said 26- year-old Schuettler moments after clinching match point. “It was a dream to have a chance to play in the final and sometimes you have the chance to realise the dream. I am looking forward to playing Andre in the final,” he said. “It’s great to be in the final and I will give my best and see what happens.” Roddick looked a spent force in the fourth set and was feeling the effects of the draining five-hour quarter-final victory over Moroccan Younes El Aynaoui, which went to a record 21-19 in the fifth set in the early hours yesterday. Roddick went into the semi-final with almost double the amount of court time than Schuettler, who made him feel it early by running him around the court. Schuettler enjoyed the benefit of an extensive five-week off-season training programme before coming to Australia and his fitness and court speed were deciding factors against Roddick. Schuettler made a shaky start and was down three break points in his opening service game before he was broken, but he broke back in the fourth when Roddick double-faulted at 15-40. The German was making Roddick scamper about the court with drop shots and the young American was broken again in the 12th game for Schuettler to take the opening set. But Schuettler couldn’t bask long over his early success with Roddick breaking his first two services of the next set to take a 4-0 lead. Roddick served it out to level the match, but called an injury timeout at the changeover to seek treatment on his right wrist before resuming. Roddick was under early pressure in the third set down a break point in his opening service game but got out of trouble with a 210km/h service out wide to hold serve. But Schuettler was taking control against the tiring Roddick and broke through in the sixth game when he drilled a forehand that the American could barely get his racquet to. Roddick served up an 218km/h ace to hold in the eighth game but Schuettler advanced to two set points in the next game and served out for a two sets to one lead. Roddick, sweating heavily in the oppressive evening heat, was under mounting pressure on his opening service in the fourth set and was lost serve on his fourth break point when he over-cooked a forehand wide. Schuettler was comfortably holding serve, but Roddick was finding it an increasing struggle and fought off three more break points with two aces and another big serve to trail 2-1. Schuettler was easing through his service games while Roddick was having problems with his serve. The end came swiftly when Roddick was down three match points in the ninth game after the American’s backhand was wide and Schuettler claimed his final spot with a backhand winner to an unguarded court.
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Fighting Williams’ take doubles title Melbourne, January 24 The Williams sisters — who will meet in the women’s singles final tomorrow — defeated Spain’s Virginia Ruano Pascual and Argentina’s Paola Suarez 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. The American duo, who had been controversially chosen as top seeds for the tournament ahead of Pascual and Suarez, came back after trailing 1-3 in the final set to earn their sixth Grand Slam doubles crown. But they were made to work hard by Ruano Pascual and Suarez, who won the French Open and US Open crowns last year and currently are the world’s top-ranked combination. In the first set the sisters found themselves moved around the court by their smaller opponents, who mixed a series of clever lobs and volleys to catch them out of position. Suarez and Pascual looked in good shape in the second set, where they also took a 3-1 lead after scoring an early break. Yet with Serena gradually managing to introduce accuracy to her forehand, the American pair came back into the match. A ruthless smash from Serena levelled at 3-3 and the Williams sisters broke again before serving out for the set. In the final set, Suarez and Pascual regained momentum after a Venus Williams smash went long for an early break. They held and moved to 3-1 but then could only watch as the Williams sisters cranked up the pace to score two more breaks with a flurry of winners. Venus Williams set up match point with an unstoppable ace before Serena applied the killer touch with a volley.
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Paes-Martina duo in final Melbourne, January 24 The duo will face Australia’s Todd Woodbridge and Eleni Daniilidou of Greece in the finals. The 46-year-old Navratilova and former world No. 1 doubles player Paes combined well to unleash a flurry of winners with some excellent strokeplay. The pair mixed power with craft in their hour-long encounter, with Paes loping to the net and Navratilova rallying from the back. Winner of 38 grand slam doubles crowns Navratilova reached the final of the singles here on her debut in 1975 and quit playing singles tennis in 1994.
UNI |
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Anand outwits Shirov Wijk Aan Zee, January 24 Anand maintained his position atop the tables on 7 points after 10 games played so far and is followed by the world’s highest-rated woman Judit Polgar of Hungary, who is half a point behind. A pack of five players, including the Russian duo of Vladimir Kramnik and defending champion Evgeny Bareev, local star Loek van Wely, world championship finalist Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine and Azerbaijani sensation Teimour Radjabov, all with 5.5 points in their kitty are placed joint third. GM Koneru Humpy struggled yet again and went down to GM Dennis de Vregut to languish on 3.5 points along with Alexandra Kosteniuk of Russia and Peter Acs of Hungary. Anand had to flex his defensive muscles yet again and was only rewarded a full point against Shirov. The opening featured Caro-Kann defence where the Indian ace, playing black seized the upper hand following an erratic play by Shirov, who went all out for an attack with a piece sacrifice very early in the advance variation. Anand’s king was looking in some dangers in the middle game but a brilliantly crafted 14th move turned the tide in his favour. Castling quickly thereafter, Anand steered his king to safety and pocketed a couple of pawns on the king side to march ahead with his minor pieces.
PTI |
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SA favourites, Sri Lankans dangerous Any team among the 14 teams that wins the World Cup on March 23 at Johannesburg need not necessarily be the best team on the planet. But it will prove to be the strongest in terms of commitment and the will to win at the end of the six-week tournament which will bring out the best and the worst in players. As for Pool B, I feel South Africa, playing in home conditions and also having selected the venues where they could perform better, would be the team to qualify on top of the pool. On paper South Africa’s batting seems to be rather thin. They would definitely depend on players like Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Kallis, Jonty Rhodes and Gary Kirsten. In my opinion, they have done a mistake in dropping Graeme Smith. Among the batsmen, Rhodes could make a lot of difference. He is not a great hitter of the ball but he is the best in running between the wickets. He can also urge his partner to convert singles into twos. Plus he is an enthusiastic cricketer who motivates his mates by his sharp fielding. He can make a lot of difference to the side in the middle. The bowling is dependent a lot on Allan Donald. He is not getting younger these days and is also to a great extent injury prone. Given the occasion, playing before his home crowd, he can be a thorn to any team. South Africa also have a useful pinch hitter in Nickey Boje, who has proved his worth on many occasions. The way the South Africans approach their fielding is phenomenal and it is akin to the Australians. Considering these, South Africa should comfortably head the pool and qualify for the super six. As for the Sri Lankans, it augurs well for the team that Sanath Jayasuriya has found back his golden touch in batting. Despite their disastrous outing in the tri-series in Australia, Jayasuriya was back to his old ways — of scoring runs at will. The manner in which he scored back-to-back centuries recently was an indication that he was getting back to the top form ahead of the World Cup. With Kumar Sangakkara also showing lot of promise alongwith Marvan Atapattu, they have a decent batting line-up. Apart from their impressive opening pair of batsmen, Muttiah Muralitharan is the best in the business when it comes to off-spin and most of the sides are scared to face him. In one-day games, Murali is much more effective than Shane Warne. He always comes on to bowl at the death and usually makes a mockery of the tailenders’ defence and technique. At present, Sri Lanka have found their feet though they failed to make the final of the tri-series. Since they have been playing well these days, Sri Lanka have a genuine chance to progress to the second round in World Cup. If you look at New Zealand’s record in the Cup it has been phenomenal. They have made it to the semi-finals in four out of seven World Cups. Apart from 1983, the only times they could not make it to the semis was when the tournament was played in the Indian sub-continent — perhaps, the conditions did not suit them. But they have a few injury problems. Their key player is Chris Cairns, a brilliant all-rounder and he is expected to be fully fit by the time World Cup gets rolling. One cannot forget his superb century in the ICC knockout final in Nairobi which helped his team win the Cup pipping India. They also have another dependable all-rounder in Scott Styris. Though they have no big names, they are capable of surprising other teams with bowlers like Shane Bond, Andre Adams, Daryl Tuffey and offie Daniel Vettori. They have given every side a run for their money and wickets in South Africa should suit them better. The West Indians are seemingly finding their moorings after a prolonged lean patch. Particularly, the seven match one-day series in India, which they won 4-3, must have given them tremendous confidence. Chris Gayle, for that matter, can be as hard hitting as anyone can in the business today. If he is on song, he can be a bowler’s nightmare. Mind you, the team has found success even without Brian Lara. Now that Lara is also back the Calypso Kings have a strong batting line-up. The opening pair of Gayle and Wavell Hinds could pose problems to their rivals providing the team a good start. Next in to the middle are batsmen of the calibre of Lara followed by Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Marlon Samuels and skipper Carl Hooper. I doubt whether the same could be said of their bowling, which is inexperienced. Their best bet is Mervyn Dillon and I doubt whether they would be able to trouble the rival batsmen. To offset this weakness, the team from the Caribbean have to use their batting strength to post a sizeable total making it difficult for the rivals to chase. The fielding is also not top notch barring a few, who could be considered brilliant. Most of them are lethargic. Fielding is one area, they have to attend to. But at the same time, one cannot rule out West Indies. It will be a contest between, New Zealand and Sri Lanka or West Indies, with two of them joining South Africa in the Super Six.
PTI |
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Security beefed up
for Ganguly Kolkata, January 24 Saurav Ganguly resides in Behala in the southern fringe of the city. Additional Superintendent of Police (Industrial)
of South 24 Parganas district, Rajesh Singh told UNI here today: ‘’We cannot divulge what amount of security has been given for obvious reasons. But we can say that the security has been beefed up sufficiently to meet any circumstances.’’ “I cannot say from which source or from whom the threat emanates. But the crack commandos and police personnel have been beefed up,’’ Mr Singh said.
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Pak players make hasty retreat Islamabad, January 24 A huge crowd showed up at the Gaddafi Stadium, taking advantage of the free entry, and a section of the over-enthusiastic fans turned unruly leaving the organisers and the police battling to control the situation, the local media reported today. The presence of Governor of Punjab Khalid Maqbool as chief guest compelled police to resort to lathicharge to clear the crowds. Trouble started when sections of the crowd gate-crashed through barriers in their effort to get closer to the podium. The spectators also left their enclosures to climb over the iron grills and poured on to the field. While the organisers made repeated appeals to the crowd to show some discipline, most of the players avoided going on stage and left early as the show continued with a firework display. The organisers were able to only invite only Taufeeq Umar, Muhammad Sami, Saleem Elahi, Saqlain Mushtaq, Yousuf Youhana and Abdur Razzak on stage before the police had to be called in to control the crowd. Even Taufeeq, Sami and Elahi had to wait for a while in a brand new car which was used to drive them to the stage as the crowd gathered around the stage and surrounded their car. Later, the organisers dropped the idea of having all the players drive to the podium. Plans to invite the other World Cup squad members on the stage for a grand moment were dropped and captain Waqar Younis came in a hurry, delivered a short speech and left immediately. He told the crowd to pray for the team and support them and assured the crowd that the team would do its best to live up to their expectations. The disruption left everyone wondering whether the organisers showed wisdom in keeping entry to the stadium free or allowing seating near the main podium close to the main entrance of the stadium. A number of broken chairs, hoardings and iron grills were scattered in the stadium after the function was over. The pitch at the stadium was also damaged. Khalid Maqbool and the PCB chief Lt General Tauqir Zia were, however, able to deliver their speeches urging the nation to stand behind the Pakistan team in the World Cup.
PTI |
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Warne aims for special swansong Melbourne, January 24 Back for a second workout at the top level after having surgery on a dislocated right shoulder, Warne will be making his final one-day international appearance in front of his home crowd at Melbourne Cricket Ground “Hopefully, I can do something special for the crowd,” said Warne, who announced earlier this week he would quit limited-overs internationals after the World Cup, getting under way in South Africa and Zimbabwe next month. “They’ve been so supportive over a long time. “It would be great to go out on top, hopefully by winning and then going to the World Cup and winning that. “It would be a great way to finish my one-day career.” Warne played in his first match for Australia yesterday since dislocating his shoulder in mid-December. He snared one for 28 from 10 overs as Australia mauled England by 10 wickets in the opening match of the best-of-three series. Warne admitted he had been nervous in his first few overs. He settled down well and reported no soreness. Australian openers Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden smashed 118 in 12.2 overs to end the match after England had been skittled for 117. Gilchrist whacked 69 from 37 balls, including 15 fours. “I just wanted to try to have a good bat and feel the ball in the middle of the bat,” he said. “It’s amazing when you don’t think about it and you relax, what can happen.” Gilchrist acknowledged England were struggling mentally, but would still have to be afforded respect tomorrow. “They’d be a bit flat, they’ll be thinking about the end of the tour, maybe the chance of trying to get home before going to South Africa for the World Cup,” he said. “They’ve been on the road a long time, they’d be a bit jaded. “But we’ll expect them to turn around and bounce back - they wouldn’t want to end their tour on a note like that.
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10-man ITI hold
Mahindras Mumbai, January 24 Brazilian import Nei Junior gave the lead to Mahindra, while Najeeb scored the equaliser for ITI. ITI, who were down by a goal at half time fought back gallantly even though reduced to 10 men for the whole second half to steal a point from the home side.
Churchill held MARGAO: Three clever saves by goalkeeper Edward Ansah saw Churchill Brothers share points with Dempo Sports Club in a goal-less draw in their ninth round match here. Dempo could have romped home by at least three goals had they utilised the gilt-edged opportunities, especially in the first 10 minutes of the second half, but they could not convert their
superiority into goals. With this draw, Dempo maintained their lead with 20 points from six wins, two draws and a defeat while Churchill moved on to the fourth position with 14 points from three wins, five draws and a defeat.
UNI |
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