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Indians master
art of winning matches, hearts Bowling proved
the weakest link: Miandad Miandad defensive,
negative Nehra joins team
in Lahore Kumble - a silent
assassin
Notes from Pakistan |
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Best-ever Indian
team, says Pak media Indian team
visits Wagah
England bowler Andrew Flintoff celebrates his fifth wicket, that of West Indian batsman Fidel Edwards, during the 3rd Test at the Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados on Thursday. — AP/PTI photo Murali bowls
career’s 5 most crucial overs SAF Games Indian wrestlers maintain edge Islamabad, April 2 Indian grapplers maintained an edge over Pakistan to bag three titles today, while the hosts won two in the wrestling competitions of the 9th SAF Games here. India rule the
roost in SAF Games
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Indians master art of winning matches, hearts Multan, April 2 The public in Pakistan have not only appreciated and lauded the remarkable performances of the Indian cricketers but have also been bowled over by their conduct outside the field — be it mingling with inmates of an orphanage or speaking at prize distribution ceremonies. Just before embarking on the ice-breaking tour, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had urged the Indian players to not only win the matches but also the hearts of the people in Pakistan. The cricketers have responded by doing just that. The three weeks since crossing the border have been like a dream come true for the team which was not only eager to shed the tag of ‘chokers’ but also prove to the cricketing world that they could win matches overseas. The team has already created history on many fronts — by first recording their first one-day series win and then their maiden Test victory on Pakistani soil. Dashing Virender Sehwag also etched his name in the cricketing annals by becoming the first Indian to slam a triple century. All this has been applauded in Pakistan. Centuries from Indian batsmen have been given a standing ovation. Maiden overs by bowlers have been cheered by the boisterous crowds. Unlike in the past, the crowds have been sporting and have appreciated good cricket, irrespective of whether it is Indian or Pakistani. A tight security ring has been thrown around the Indian cricketers but it has not dissuaded scores of autograph hunters to wait at hotel lobbies to have a glimpse of the stars from across the border — and have their prized autographs whenever possible. The players have obliged them with broad smiles. The scenes are more or less the same at every venue, be it the plush Pearl Continental Hotel in Lahore or the Holiday Inn in Multan. In almost every press conference, Indian players have been asked about their visit to Pakistan and all the cricketers have gone on record praising the crowds and the warmth and hospitality they have received so far. “The Indian cricketers and all the people
who have come from India for this tour are our guests, and we want them
to feel at home. The team has come to Pakistan after a long gap, and we
just want to see good cricket matches. Winning and losing are part of
the game”, says Kamran, who owns a grocery shop near the stadium. —
PTI |
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Bowling proved the weakest link: Miandad Lahore, April 2 “India have played like champions and our strength proved to be our weakest link,” Miandad said a day after his team suffered its first defeat to India on home soil. Pakistani bowlers were touted as “the deadliest attack” but came a cropper on a track where an inexperienced Indian attack got 20 wickets to help their side register a historic win. “It is disappointing that our strength which is our bowling let us down badly. They allowed the Indians to accumulate runs at will and 675 was a mountain under which we were dumped,” said the former cricketer who played 124 Tests for Pakistan. “If at the international level you need the guidance to control no balls and line and length, it is amazing.” Miandad said the need of the hour was to “lift ourselves” before it was too late. “I am just as much under
pressure as the team is but we all need to lift ourselves, we have
staged comebacks in Tests and all we need is a positive mindset and
leave the defeat behind us,” he said. — PTI |
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Miandad defensive, negative T he defeated Pakistan team’s coach Javed Miandad has been as defensive and negative as he was as a captain during his salad days. One of the mistakes Miandad regularly makes is to advice the youngsters with his own brand of cricket.After the heavy defeat at Multan, Pakistan will have no option but to go for a greentop in Lahore. It is a do-or-die game for them. They need to go for the jugular, opt for the difficult road and hope their fast bowlers, who remain their most potent weapon, would come good. There is little to choose between the two sides in terms of talent — for, the batsmen of one side are being neutralized by the bowlers of the other — but India appear streets ahead in the matter of discipline and perseverance. The intensity of the winners is what Pakistan should aspire to inculcate within themselves quickly, for the time indeed is running out fast. Indians have taken the observers’ breath away with their discipline and planning. They are looking so cohesive and they seem to have done a better job with details of Pakistan team. The Pakistan camp of today isn’t like the Indian unit where a Virender Sehwag or a Yuvraj Singh is given a free hand to showcase their talents. No wonder there is a feeling that the unit appears shackled, not its usual self. One of the reasons for India’s excellence in the last couple of years has been that nobody acts up like a superstar. Sachin Tendulkar, the seniormost cricketer in international cricket, seems perfectly at ease in the company of youngsters like Irfan Pathan and Laxmipathy Balaji. He is today approaching his job like a 9 to 5 occupation - batting has become such a routine for him. He remains simply the best. You can’t help but start with Virender Sehwag for a triple century is not seen everyday in world cricket. It was the innings of his life though for the purists, and certainly for me, you cannot compare it with VVS Laxman’s 281 — or for that matter Sachin Tendulkar’s unbeaten 241 in Sydney and the double centuries of Sunil Gavaskar and Rahul Dravid. Sehwag has a very limited defence but he attacks with ferocity and that in a way covers up for his flawed technique. He was surely the master blaster of this Test. I have also been very impressed with Yuvraj Singh. He has the making of a perfect cricketer — solid batsman, outstanding fielder and a handy bowler. Mark this young lad, he has the making of a future Indian captain. Anil Kumble has been a magnificent performer for India an he continues to draw upon his huge experience to trouble batsmen even on bland pitches. Pakistan batting, but for Inzamam-ul Haq and Yousuf Youhana, is young and inexperienced and keeping Kumble at bay isn’t going to be easy for them. And then there is Pathan whose rapid strides in international cricket convey India at last seems to have found a genuine fast bowling material. Yasir Hameed played one good knock but he regularly needs to convert his 60s and 70s into big scores. A youngster can have only so much licence about his age. Sooner than later, Yasir would have to perform to his potential. Both the teams made the mistake of going with a spinner less in the first Test. Saqlain Mushtaq would himself admit he needed to bowl more at the off-stump. Now it would be pace diet only as Pakistan would pull out all stops to beat India. It would not be easy since India appear more hungry, and are definitely more united. They help each other out and it shows nowhere better than in the field. Well as their bowlers bowled, India would have to depend on their batting to keep their superiority going in this series. This is the time for their batting to stay at the top of their form. Pakistan would do their best to strike back and hope Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami would be able to live up to their hype. In all likelihood, they would get the wicket to their liking but if Indian batsmen are able to withstand them, Pakistan would be left with no escape route. To me, the series is far from over. — PTI  |
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Lahore, April 2 Indian team manager Ratnakar Shetty said Nehra would be considered for the second Test after medium pacer Zaheer Khan was ruled out for the match. Talking about Zaheer’s injury, he said medical tests were going on and ‘’We will know about the real position of Zaheer’s injury by tomorrow morning.’’ Only after that a final decision would be taken on whether to send the bowler home or retain him here, he added. Meanwhile, BCCI secretary S.K. Nair told in
Thiruvananthapuram that Nehra had been examined by Board doctor Anant
Joshi who opined that the Delhi bowler had fully recuperated after
splitting his web on the bowling arm and there was no inflammation in
his ankle. — UNI |
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Kumble - a silent assassin I t was 16 years ago when I first met a bespectacled young lad called Anil Kumble. We shook hands to introduce ourselves in the Karnataka under-23 camp. Karnataka emerged champions, trouncing Kerala in the final. Roger Binny, our senior state captain, wanted to blood youngsters and immediately picked four players from the junior side for the Ranji Trophy team.The same year, Anil played in the Ranji Trophy, Wills Trophy, represented India under-19 and was picked for the senior team’s tour of England. During the first year of playing first-class games together, I noticed a phenomenon that every time the team looked to break a partnership, the captain’s gaze fell on this silent spin assassin. The phenomenon continues even today with captains turning to Anil to bail the team out of a crisis. After Anil’s maiden tour of England, I was understandably keen to get a first-hand account of his international experience. I visited him at his residence and was surprised to be gifted a pair of Gunn & Moore bowling boots. In the little time I spent with him he told me that I was not far from joining the India team. I returned home dreaming of playing for my country. It was Anil who made me believe that I was good enough for the national team. He was the inspiration for many Karnataka players and that resulted in seven from the state representing India in a span of five years. We were room-mates during my formative years in international cricket. Anil was already an integral part of the team in both forms of the game. It wasn’t easy for me to miss out on a good amount of cricket in the initial part of my career. Senior players then seldom had time for a youngster’s plight. Although younger by two years, Anil was as good as a senior player who advised and discussed the realities of cricket with me. It’s unfortunate that a complete cricketer with strong values has never seriously been considered for captaincy. The best part of Anil’s cricket is the way he conducts himself under challenging circumstances. Being excluded from the playing XI in last year’s World Cup was the biggest disappointment of his career. I am sure quitting the game was an option that crossed his mind. A piercing insight and egoless clarity in the assessment of his own future reinstalled his cricketing career once again. Anil is a master of his own art that is unique and far from orthodox leg-spin bowling. On hitting a rough patch in his career, he got more criticism than help from the famous Indian spin fraternity. Anil has confessed that the only man who could have been of help was B.S Chandrashekar, had he not been confined to a wheelchair. I can think of many games where Anil has engineered emphatic wins for India. The seven-wicket haul in the Irani Trophy game against Delhi in 1991 gave his prospects a fillip. The one-man demolition act in the ’93-95 series in India, getting six wickets in the Hero Cup final, the 10-wicket effort against the Pakistan and the astonishing performance Down Under are some examples of Anil’s brilliance. Recent feats in Australia and Pakistan will put one of the Indian greatest critic to shame who wanted Anil to hang his boots before the World Cup. Anil’s personal goals are always aligned with the team objective. He has a good three years of cricket in him now and one of the motivations should be to break Kapil Dev’s record. Anil has flown back to Bangalore to be
with his wife for the birth of their first child. The couple has been
blessed with a baby boy. Joyous Anil can’t ask for anything more in
life. — Chivach Sports |
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Notes from Pakistan Sachin Tendulkar, arguably the world’s best batsman and a well-known music buff, listens to his favourite songs these days on iPod, a digital CD player that has virtually become his permanent companion. iPod is one of the latest digital recorders that is becoming a craze among music freaks and it has obviously caught the imagination of the Indian maestro as well. iPod is said to have the capacity to record up to 5,000 songs or 500 CDs, sparing music lovers from carrying a collection of compact discs with them. Tendulkar was seen at hotel Holiday Inn, where the Indian and Pakistani teams stayed for the first Test, listening to his favourite songs with a headphone and the iPod in hand. Even when Tendulkar hits the gymnasium he does not part with his music system. It happened on Thursday after India defeated Pakistan by an innings and 52 runs to record their first ever win on Pakistani soil. Incidentally,
when Tendulkar reached the Holiday Inn gym, Pakistan’s Yasir Hameed,
Shabbir Ahmed and Umar Gul were already there pumping iron — keen to put
up a better performance at Lahore.
*
“Nobody in the team discusses ICPA any more, no one seems to have any
more interest in the body,” a senior player said. “I don’t think anyone
is any more interested in making the ICPA a vibrant body,” he said.
“When the ICPA was formed Sahara India had promised us Rs 3 million, but
no one knows when that money will come.” The ICPA was constituted a
couple of years ago essentially for the betterment of first-class
players in the country, with former India captain Mansur Ali Khan
Pataudi as its president and Ravi Shastri, Abbas Ali Baig and Arun Lal
holding key positions. *
Pakistani masseur Sohail Ahmed has become a
big hit with Indian players. He is travelling with the two teams to
the venues where matches are played on the current tour and the Indians
enjoy his company when he visits them to run his magic fingers on the
players’ bodies after they have spent a hard day on the field. Lovingly
called ‘Pappay bhai’ by cricketers, Sohail even has a visiting card that
claims he can treat sports injuries and back, neck and joint pains.
The bald masseur is based in Karachi and has an e-mail ID, which is
not surprising. But what is surprising is that his mails are accessed in
Hyderabad in India and messages are conveyed to him by some other means.
He, however, did not disclose how he gets those messages. Sohail has
two phone numbers, one of Pakistan and the other of the UAE. The other
day Sohail was seen wearing long shorts bearing the words ‘Sahara,’ the
Indian team’s sponsor, which an Indian player has obviously given to
him. — IANS |
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Best-ever Indian team, says Pak media Lahore, April 2 “This is without doubt the best Indian team ever,” declared noted cricket write Omar Kureishi in his column in ‘The Dawn’. “This is a team that has come with a mission. It is not distracted, it remains focussed. We were lulled into believing that we had the edge over them with our bowling,” he wrote. ‘The Nation’ slammed the home team for its “thorough trouncing” saying “Pakistan’s cricketing pride was that while it had won a series in India, India had not won even a Test in Pakistan. Well, now it has, and what a thorough trouncing it was”. The very paper which had criticised the umpiring a couple of days ago, refused to do so again. “Let us not blame poor umpiring but look at our own flaws. The hara-kiri by the bowlers and poor fielding of the team in dropping triple centurion Virender Sehwag cost the match for Pakistan.” “One can only hope the rest of the series will be better; it can hardly get much worse,” it said. The daily also ridiculed Pakistan coach Javed Miandad for his comment that bowlers like Irfan Pathan could be found in every nook and corner of the country. “One wants to know from Miandad if he has now formed a different opinion of Pathan. One wishes Miandad had brought one-tenth of the improvement in the Pakistani team which, according to him, (Wasim) Akram had imparted in his brief meetings with Pathan.” Comparing home captain Inzamam-ul Haq to India’s stand-in skipper Rahul Dravid, it said “there is nothing to be said of the manner in which Inzamam got himself run out. He was lazy and listless and attitude that sums up his captaincy too. “In contrast to him, India’s stand-in captain Rahul Dravid was not merely in command but also imaginative, professionally alert and made pertinent and result-oriented bowling changes and field placings. To say the least, Inzamam has not been an inspiring example for his boys.” A report on the Multan match in ‘The Dawn’ said “the last rites had been administered by close of play on Wednesday evening. The burial took only a few minutes yesterday. Fittingly, it was Irfan Pathan who took the last wicket and brought to close a Test that Pakistan lost by a thumping margin as if to give the impression that it was no contest.” Dravid, it said, “missed out as a batsman but consider the role he played as a captain. He provided the kind of leadership that moves mountains. He is not as demonstrative as Sourav Ganguly but he did not miss a trick.” The newspaper also declined to blame the pitch for the defeat. “We found fault with the curator, not with the bowling that was not sharp enough and our fielding in this Test was even poorer. Compare it with India’s fielding. Can we claim to have a fielder even half as good as Yuvraj Singh or even with the commitment of Pathan who not only bowled like a tiger but fielded like one.” The vernacular press were universal in their condemnation of the team’s performance with ‘Nawa-e-Waqt’ also blaming the coach for the “shameful defeat”. “As expected Pakistan lost the match in a subdued manner and it would be hard to swallow the defeat,” said ‘Jung’. Kureishi said “what Pakistan needs is a huge leap of faith. The team needs to get together and work out how they can get out of the deep hole that they have dug for themselves. It will serve no purpose to apportion blame and find scapegoats,” he wrote. Terming the defeat as a “total team failure”, he called for every official and player to “own up his responsibility”. “Most of all, they must plan to win the Lahore Test
which means that they have to have a strategy which includes better
communication with each other. The team should see the Multan Test as a
wake-up call and not as a tolling of bells. All is not lost,” he said.
— PTI |
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Lahore, April 2 The cricketers travelled 25 km east of Lahore to experience the ceremony featuring personnel of the Border Security Force and Pakistani Rangers in all their splendour. The ceremony, held every evening, attracts visitors from either sides of the Wagah border for the lowering of the flags at sun down and closing of the gates at the international border. The Indian team had earlier spent the day in the team hotel following a late-night “celebration dinner”. “Friday is total rest for the team. We had a celebration dinner last night,” said a team official. The Indian team enjoyed the dinner alongwith some other
close friends invited at Pearl Continental hotel here. — PTI |
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Bridgetown (Barbados), April 2 Ramnaresh Sarwan hit the top score of 63 and Shivnarine Chanderpaul made 50, but Flintoff took five wickets for 58 runs from 16.2 overs, as the West Indies were dismissed for 224 in their first innings. England reached 20 for one when stumps were drawn with Marcus Trescothick again failing with bat, being bowled for two off the inside edge for the third time in the series. Victory here will give England their first series triumph in the Caribbean for 36 years. Sarwan and Chanderpaul added 79 for the fourth wicket either side of tea to steady the innings, but the West Indies lost their last seven wickets for 57 runs in a little under 18 overs. Flintoff, bowling aggressively on a hard, true, bouncy Kensington Oval pitch, had the big wicket of West Indies captain Brian Lara just after the lunch interval and came back after the tea break to blow away the home team’s lower order. “It’s been a long wait for my first five-wicket haul because we probably needed it after a bit of a partnership between Lara and Sarwan,” Flintoff said after the match. West Indies (1st innings): Gayle lbw b Hoggard 6 Ganga lbw b Harmison 11 Lara c Butcher b Flintoff 36 Sarwan c Flintoff b Harmison 63 Chanderpaul c Thorpe b Flintoff 50 Hinds c Jones b Harmison 5 Jacobs c sub b Flintoff 6 Best c Butcher b Flintoff 17 Collins c Trescothick b Jones 7 Collymore not out 1 Edwards c Read b Flintoff 0 Extras: (lb-14, w-1, nb-7) 22 Total: (all out, 75.2 overs) 224. Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-20, 3-88, 4-167, 5-179,6-197, 7-198, 8-208, 9-224. Bowling: Hoggard 16-5-34-1, Harmison 18-6-42-3, Flintoff 16.2-2-58-5, Jones 16-1-55-1, Giles 9-1-21-0. England (1st innings): Trescothick b Edwards 2 Vaughan batting 12 Butcher batting 3 Extras: (nb-3) 3 Total: (1 wkt, 12 overs) 20 Fall of wickets: 1-8 Bowling: Edwards 5-1-9-1, Collins 5-3-10-0, Collymore 1-0-1-0,
Hinds 1-1-0-0. — AFP |
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Murali bowls career’s 5 most crucial overs Sydney, April 2 High-speed footage of Murali bowling at the University of Western Australia’s human movement department will be used to either clear him of chucking his doosra or reignite the debate over his standing in the game. Muralitharan, 31, needs seven wickets to reach 520 and overtake West Indian Courtney Walsh as Test cricket’s leading wicket- taker. If declared legal, he is young enough to extend the record to 700 and beyond. Twelve cameras, shooting at 250 frames per second, recorded Murali bowling his doosra - the leg break delivered with an off-spinning action - under controlled conditions. UWA professor Bruce Elliott, the International Cricket Council’s main biomechanics expert, said the technology could tell to within one degree if Murali straightened his arm while bowling. “His comment is that he uses far more wrist in his top-spin delivery to create his doosra. We will see if there is any truth in that,” The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Elliot as saying. The testing required Murali to bowl with the same energy and action that he used in Tests. Former Australia spinner and Sri Lanka coach Bruce Yardley was used to monitor each delivery and ensure it was a legitimate reflection of Murali’s technique. Yardley was satisfied that Murali bowled in the lab as he does in matches. Murali would not comment after the testing. However, he said in Sri Lanka this week that he was disappointed to have been reported by referee Chris Broad after the third Test against Australia in Colombo. The footage will be analysed over the next day or so by Elliott and UWA’s Daryl Foster, the former Western Australia coach, before their report is given to the Sri Lankan board and the ICC. If the report finds that Murali throws his doosra by extending his arm during delivery, he must remove the delivery from his repertoire or undertake remedial work. Elliott said computer analysis would determine if Murali’s arm straightened. “We put reflective
markers on Murali . . . the computer then does the calculation and gives
us the answer. The worst case scenario is that he is found to extend
beyond five degrees.” — ANI |
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SAF Games
Islamabad, April 2 In the 55 kg category, Kripa Shankar overpowered Abdullah Karim of Afganistan to win the gold for India. Ravindra Kumar defeated Muhammad Farooq to win the 60 kg gold. Pakistan’s Ghulam Haider and Amir Jan won the bronze in the 55 kg and 60 kg, respectively. India maintained their supremacy in the 66 kg as well with Shokindar defeating Zahid Khan of Pakistan. Ahmed Mansoor of Afghanistan took the bronze. The hosts earned their gold in the heavier weight categories. Muhammad Ali beat Chand Ram in the title clash to clinch the 74 kg gold and Muhammad Usman pushed India’s Sandeep Kumar to silver in 84 kg class. Muhammad Bashir and Muhammad Ashraf from Pakistan took the bronze in the 74 kg and 84 kg categories, respectively. Earlier, Muhammad Umar from Pakistan won the gold in the 96 kg category defeating Rajesh of India. Abdullah of Afghanistan took the bronze. India’s Jagdish Kaliraman had won the 120 kg gold last night. After completion of the wrestling event in all weight
categories, India have earned four gold and three silver, while Pakistan
has three gold, an equal number of silver and one bronze. Afghanistan
finished with 1 silver and five bronze, while Nepal won a solitary
bronze. — UNI |
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India rule the roost in SAF Games Islamabad, April 2 Indias nearest rivals in terms of medal tally are hosts Pakistan who have so far collected a total of 15 gold so far. India today picked up all the four shooting titles which were at stake both in the team and individual events for men’s 10m Air Pistol (60 shots) and women’s 50 small bore free rifle three position. Indias Ronak Pandit and Meena Kumari bagged the individual titles. Ronak, who scored 681.5, edged past compatriot and favourite Jaspal Rana who came second scoring 671.9. In 50m small bore event for women, Meena took the title while the silver and bronze went to compatriots Rajkumari and Kuheli Ganguly, respectively. India had a mixed luck in athletics. Out of the four finals, India bagged two gold in women’s long jump and javelin through Jetty Joseph and N. Latha. Pakistan earned their first athletics gold, which is also their lone gold today, when Naushad Khan won the 500O metre title in style. Nepal and Sri Lanka took the silver and bronze in this long distance event. In women’s shot put, Sri Lankas Anne Maheshi won the event pipping favourite Gurmeet Kaur who bagged the silver. Anne threw 51.37m against Gurneets 51.27m. The bronze in this event also went to Indias Sumana Devi who threw 50.58m. Indias total supremacy in men’s swimming, however, received a slight dent today as Sri Lanka bagged the 50m butterfly title through Conrad Anthony Francis who beat Indias Rahul Batra by a narrow margin. Conrad clocked 26.11 sec against 26.14sec by Batra. In volleyball, both India and Pakistan moved to the title clash. In the semi-finals, India beat Sri Lanka and Pakistan outplayed Bangladesh by an identical 3-0 margin. Both India and Pakistan have ensured themselves of a gold and a silver through squash. While it will be an all-Indian affair in the women’s final to be fought between Mekhala Subedar and Joshna Chinappa, the men’s final will see both the Pakistani cousins of Mansoor Zaman and Shahid Zaman battle it out. Both of the players belong to the famous Zaman family which ruled the roost in the word squash scenario for quite some time. The Indian football team scored twice in each half to beat a debutant Afghanistan 2-0 in their last league assignment and sailed into the semifinal topping Group A in the 9th SAF Games today. In semifinal, they will take on Group B runners up Bhutan. Earlier, the hosts Pakistan beat holders Bangladesh by a solitary goal to reach the last four stage. They will play Sri Lanka in the semifinal. India opened their account towards the end of the first half when striker Jerry Jirsangha headed home from a center to give India 1-0 lead in the 41st minute. Again 30 minutes into the second half, medio Marlanki Suiping scored from a crowded box to make it 2-0 in Indias favour and seal the game. Jagdish Kumar defeated his Pakistani rival in the final of the 120 kg category to win the first wrestling gold for India in the 9th SAF Games here last night. Pakistan
took the silver, while Bangladesh won the bronze. — UNI |
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Lahore, April 2 
