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‘Experimental’ India drub China Decision on Jugraj next
week, says physio
Sri Lanka to sue ICC Ban on Murali’s ‘doosra’ defies logic |
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| Lanka pile on runs against Zimbabwe Harare, May 16 Kumar Sangakkara recorded the second highest score by a Sri Lankan today as the visitors piled on the runs against a weakened Zimbabwe side on the third day of the second Test in Bulawayo. Windies barely get home against Bangladesh
Gavaskar greatest cricketer: Kapil
England squad for first Test Imran to take custody
of love child
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‘Experimental’ India drub China
New Delhi, May 16 According to information received here, this was their second win after beating hosts Japan 2-1 in the opener. Scoring twice in each half, India set up a possible title clash with the Asian Games champions South Korea on Tuesday. Meanwhile, heavy rain delayed the start of the Japan- South Korea encounter which would take place late this evening or tomorrow. In today’s match, India’s goal scorers were Arjun Halappa (11th), Inderjit Singh Chadha (26th), Girish Pimpale (52nd) and Adam Sinclair (63rd). India began the match on an aggressive mode, even though a constant drizzle played spoilsport. India created regular breaches in the Chinese wall of defence as attacks came from both flanks, with forwards Sandeep Michael, Tushar Khandker and Arjun Halappa keeping their Chinese opponents always on their toes. The Indian midfielders, especially Ignace Tikey, Bimal Lakra, V S Vinaya and Vivek Gupta not only proved themselves outstanding positional markers, but also moved upfront. They thwarted the Chinese attacks with efficient tackles and ball rotations. India, in fact, should have taken the lead in the very fifth minute through Khandker, but the third highest scorer of the Karachi Junior Asia Cup shot wide even though he had only the Chinese goalkeeper at his mercy. India were awarded their first of the four penalty corners in the eighth minute when Sandeep Michael was obstructed in the China circle. However, his namesake and penalty corner specialist Sandeep Singh narrowly missed the mark as his push went inches wide. India finally had the lead in the 11th minute through Halappa when the Bangalore lad moved in tandem with Michael to beat the Chinese custodian with a spectacular reverse flick(1-0). India dominated the proceedings, even though play had to be suspended once in each session owing to heavy rains resulting in waterlogging of the pitch. Winger Inderjit Singh Chadha made it 2-0 in the 26th minute when he latched on to a rebound off an indirect penalty corner. The Indians did not provide any leeway to their opponents even in the second half despite the game slowing down due to the heavy turf. The cohesion of the forwards with the medios was as good as clinical. India increased the lead in the 52nd minute when 20-year-old Girish Pimpale, playing as an attacking half back, was set up by Halappa at a fairly acute angle in the striking circle. The Mumbai-based student deftly pushed home after beating two defenders(3-0). Adam Sinclair, another member of the recent victorious Junior Asia Cup squad rounded off the Indian tally, sounding the board from the edge of the circle in the 63rd minute, after intercepting a long through ball from skipper Ignace Tirkey(4-0). China earned their only penalty corner in the dying moments of the match after William Xalco was pulled up for deliberate obstruction, but their attempt to reduce the margin was warded off by goalkeeper Adrian D’Souza who palmed away the sweep push. With this win, India now have six points from three games, while South Korea enjoy an unbeaten record of six points from two matches. Hosts Japan have three points from two games and only if they upset Korea by a huge margin, they would make it to the final. India also enjoy a healthy goal difference of plus four. Chief coach Rajinder Singh said if his team reached the final, they would have to blend caution with aggression against the South Koreans who are in Gifu with their full Olympic squad. “This experimental side has shaped well and with a bit of luck, we might bring the title home,’’ Rajinder said. — UNI
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Decision on Jugraj next
week, says physio Barog, May 16 Jugraj looked fit and totally committed to regaining match fitness, maintained Nair. Special fitness plans had been drafted for the ace drag-flicker's rehabilitation. From tomorrow the player would be under closer scrutiny, the physio revealed. Jugraj is to rejoin the camp today evening as he returns from Hyderabad, where he had gone to honour commercial commitments. The areas to be worked upon are Jugraj's mobility and endurance. "It remains to be seen how far he has recovered as after his surgery in the USA in November he was on a special diet". On the other players fitness levels, Nair expressed his satisfaction with their physical stamina. "Apart from a few players, who are carrying injuries, others were peaking well for the tough competitions ahead". The emphasis is on gym practice and uphill running. More uphill tracks in and around Barog have added to the running sessions. The output of the camp would be discussed with chief coach Rajinder Singh, who will join the camp on May 20 along with second batch of probables for the Athens Olympics. Nair is scheduled to accompany the probables to Chandigarh for the two-week fitness camp, though the IHF has not cleared it yet. Meanwhile after failing to find the facilities at Army Public School, Dagshai, to their liking, the players will go to Solan tomorrow morning for a gym session. There was a shortage of desired weights at Dagshai gym. Meanwhile players took a break after a hectic uphill exercising session in the morning and interacted with the students of Pinegrove School, near Dharampur. They earlier witnessed a cricket match between the staff of Pinegrove and Lawrence School, Sanawar, in which the hosts defeated Sanawar school by 29 runs. The national coach, M.R. Negi, physical trainer Sampath Kumar and the physiotherapist accompanied the team. While responding to the queries put forth by the students, the players encouraged them to take up hockey. New rule will curb dangerous play, says Negi SHIMLA (TNS): The new rule introduced by the International Hockey Federation will help curb dangerous play but will put more responsibility on the goalkeeper, according to M.R. Negi, the goalkeeping coach of the Indian team who is overseeing the conditioning camp for probables at Barog. Talking to newspersons, here today, he said under the new rule only the goalkeeper would be permitted to charge out to defend the penalty corner hits and no other defenders would allowed to do so. The IHF had wanted to implement the rule for quite some time so that more goals were scored in international matches, besides avoiding dangerous play, he said. He said teams would have to come out with new strategies as the new rule could change the face of the game. Regarding the conditioning camp, he said the 13 probables were being given high attitude training. No hockey training involved and the emphasis was on improving the strength and stamina of the players. In past such training had helped in improving the performance of the players.
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Colombo, May 16 Mr Rajapakse said in a statement today that he would defend the off-spinner even though Sri Lanka Cricket had asked the bowler to cut out the away-going delivery from his armoury. “The Prime Minister has decided to take legal steps against the ICC for banning (Muralitharan’s) doosra,” a statement from his office said. “The Prime Minister is already in consultation with a team of lawyers.” Mr Rajapakse said Muralitharan, who is now the most successful bowler in Test history with 523 wickets, was a national asset and he would do everything within his power and that of the government to defend the bowler. Sydney : Stung by Australian Prime Minister John Howard’s comments branding him as a “chucker”, enigmatic Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Murlitharan said he was talking to his lawyers and the Prime Minister should withdraw the word. Describing Howard’s comments as “very unnecessary”, the spinner told The Sunday Age, “I am disappointed and we are talking to our lawyers. He should take away that word, I think, because he doesn’t know what is happening.” Talking about his prospect of touring Australia for two Test matches in near future, he said, “I thought of coming to Australia, but now I will think three times before I come.” “Definitely because the prime minister of the country has accused me like that, why should I go out to that country? It’s not right. Normal people can say something and I don’t care, but when the Prime Minister of a nation comes out, it is very damaging (to) my image,” Muralitharan said from Bulawayo where Sri Lanka is playing Zimbabwe. Regretting the whole incident, Test cricket’s highest wicket-taking bowler said, “I don’t know why it is happening. People are trying to be funny. I don’t know what is in his mind, but I am so disappointed that the Prime Minister of a country would be coming out and giving a statement like this, because he has more responsibility than this, I think.” Meanwhile, the spinner also admitted that he had contemplated retirement after told by the Sri Lankan board and the International Cricket Council not to bowl his controversial “doosra” delivery. “All my career someone is trying to stop me because may be I’m very good at bowling and doing things that others can’t do, so maybe you can’t go on like this. In the last 14 years I have put up with this . . . but I won’t give in, I will keep fighting. There are ways to fight,” said the enigmatic turner from Kandy. — AFP, UNI
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Ban on Murali’s ‘doosra’ defies logic The curious case of Muttiah Muralitharan continues to provide more twists and turns than a Hollywood action thriller. The latest development is he has been forced to leave the much villified “Doosra” out of his armoury. The flying saucer-eyed offie may be doing so not in deference to the boffins who tested him in Western Australia but in fear of a one-year ban. He has adapted the sensible course since the ruling at least allows him to bowl his off breaks in the funny action that has been his trademark. So frustrated was the Kandy Tamil at the unusual attention being paid to his bowling that he spoke of defying the ban and continuing to spray the Zimbabweans with his “Doosra.” In this era of excessive media attention, such a knee-jerk reaction is understandable. But then Murali would have to consider how kind the law makers have been to him since they even changed the laws to accommodate the huge use of the wrist in delivering the ball. In refining the new weapon that he bowls with very little discernible change in his bowling action, Murali took the art of bowling to a new plane though not necessarily a higher one. Anyone who has played one-bounce catch cricket on rain days on the hard floors of dressing rooms will tell you that the “Doosra” is the ball they throw every time to make the leather cricket ball turn and gain some advantage over batsmen trying desperately to keep the ball down. The boffins can claim what they want. But the “Doosra” is always thrown. Whether all bowlers bend and then straighten their bowling arm during delivery is a matter that needs study. Before we buy any theories spouted by the bio-mechanical experts, consider the fact that bowling in a laboratory is far different from doing it in match conditions. Frustrated by all the attacks on the nature of his world Test bowling record, Murali even bowled a genuine, orthodox leg break which Dion Ebrahim promptly described as the only legal ball that Murali bowled that day. Such are the extreme reactions to a spinner who has surprised the cricket world by taking his wickets at 5.8 wickets per Test. The strike rate is awesome considering how the world’s best fast bowlers like Dennis Lillee and Richard Hadlee have averaged only five wickets per Test. It does not become easy to reconcile such statistics because the world’s most successful spinners with the exception of Murali have had a success rate well below five wickets per Test. One would not like to take away the credit from a spinner of superlative skills who has befuddled batsmen with the amount of turn he imparts to what can be described as his normal delivery which is the off break. If he has had his wrong one taken away from him, then it is only fair to conclude that something is wrong with the way he bowls it. Murali was a vastly successful bowler long before he perfected the extra special “Doosra” that he now turns at a pace and to a degree that is not consistent with the first principles of spin bowling. On the face of it, such a ban is illogical, It is a bit like saying a fast bowler cannot bowl any ball beyond the 90 mph mark or that he cannot bowl the slower one. The problem is Muralis is a peculiar case. Cricket always took for granted that umpires would be judges of what constitutes legal bowling methods. But the moment Australian umpires called Murali, such judgment was virtually taken away from them. All the regular noises about ridding the game of the dart throwers are still being heard. Very little of the action taken makes sense in the defining test of modern cricket which is that of bowlers with doubtful actions. The solution does not lie with straightening out the test case. To weed out those who arrive at a mockup of actions of the likes of Muralitharan and Shoaib Akhtar would be the ideal. To attempt to know more about the mechanics of bowling is fine. That may help define what is legitimate overarm bowling and what is a throw. For the moment, the curious case of Muttiah Muralitharan will only grow curiouser and curiouser.
— UNI
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Lanka pile on runs against Zimbabwe Harare, May 16 Sangakkara scored a career-best 270, second only to the 340 Sanath Jayasuriya compiled against India in Colombo in 1997-98. At tea Sri Lanka were 703 for three in their first innings, a lead of 475 over Zimbabwe’s first innings of 228. Mahela Jayawardene was 93 not out at tea. Scoreboard Zimbabwe
(Ist innings): 228 Sri Lanka (Ist innings): (overnight 443-1) Atapattu c Taibu
Jayasuriya c Taibu
Sangakkara c Taibu
Jayawardene not out 100 Samaraweera not out 32 Extras:
(lb-5 nb-5 w-4) 14 Total: (3
wkts, 163 overs) 703 FoW: 1-100, 2-538, 3-627 Bowling: Hondo 29-5-116-0, Panyangara 25-4-120-1, Mupariwa 34-1-136-0, Nkala 31-3-106-1, Chigumbura 21-2-108-1, Matsikenyeri 22-1-107-0, Vermeulen 1-0-5-0.
— Reuters Zimbabwe (2nd innings): Matsikenyeri c Jayawardene b Zoysa 14 Taylor not out 19 Vermeulen c Murali b Zoysa 6 Ebrahim not out 3 Extras:
(lb-2) 2 Total: (for 2 wkts, 25 overs) 44. Fall of wickets:
1-22, 2-40. Bowling: Vaas 8-4-10-0, Zoysa 8-2-12-2, Muralitharan 9-2-20-0.
— Reuters |
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Windies barely get home against Bangladesh
Kingstown , May 16 Chasing a modest target of 145 to win, the West Indies slumped to 133 for nine and had to rely on their last wicket pair of Edwards and Ian Bradshaw, two of their most inexperienced players, to take them to the jackpot with 20 balls to spare. The West Indies now lead the series 1-0 with the second ODI scheduled again for the Arnos Vale Playing Field. “We got the most important thing - the win - but we are not happy about the way we went about getting this result,” acting West Indies captain Ramnaresh Sarwan said yesterday. “We certainly will not be underestimating them on Sunday. They are improving and we saw that in this match.” Ricardo Powell hit half-dozen boundaries in the top score of 52 from 64 balls, but he too, was guilty of the thoughtless, careless batting that almost sunk the West Indies. Left-arm spin bowler Manjural Islam Rana again showed that he could be Bangladesh’s main weapon on this trip with three wickets for 21 runs from 10 overs and Khaled Mahmud took two for 15 from 10 overs. “If we had scored a few more runs, like 200 or more, it would have been quite interesting,” Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar said. “I am very happy with the boys’ effort and I think we have learnt quite a lot from this match.” Fast bowler Tino Best captured four wickets for 35 runs from 10 overs on his ODI debut for the West Indies, as Bangladesh were restricted 144 for eight from their allotment of 50 overs. Mohammed Rafique hit the only six of the innings in the top score of 32 not out from 59 balls and Khaled Mashud scored 30 not out from 75 balls in a stand of 62, unbroken, for the ninth wicket that brought some respectability to the Bangladesh innings. The West Indies appeared to be coasting slowly, but surely to victory when they reached 81 for two. The wickets of
Chanderpaul, lbw to Manjural’s third delivery for 15 in the 26th over, and Powell, bowled playing an ill-advised backfoot drive off Mahmud in the 29th, opened the floodgates. Panic almost immobilised the West Indies, particularly when
Manjural, Mahmud and Rafique cleverly wheeled away in the middle of the innings.
Scoreboard Bangladesh: Hossain c Gayle b Best 0 Islam Rana lbw b Edwards
1 Bashar lbw b Best 0 Saleh c wkpr Jacobs
Ashraful c wkpr Jacobs
Kapali c Best b Bradshaw 5 Rahman c Joseph b Best 13 Mashud not out
30 Mahmud b Best 0 Rafique not out 32 Extras: (lb-8, w-17, nb-1) 26. Total:
(8 wkts 50 overs) 144. Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-0, 3-5, 4-43, 5-51, 6-52, 7-79, 8-82. Bowling:
Best 10-1-35-4, Edwards 10-0-24-2, Bradshaw 10-4-11-2, Bravo 10-2-20-0, Smith 3-0-16-0, Gayle 7-0-30-0. West Indies: Gayle c Mashud b Baisya 0 Powell b Mahmud 52 Joseph c Mashud
Chanderpaul lbw
Sarwan c Rahman
Bravo run out 16 Smith st Mashud
Jacobs run out 1 Bradshaw not out 12 Best lbw b Islam Rana 2 Edwards not out 4 Extras:
(lb2, w9, nb1) 12 Total: (9 wkts in 46.4 overs) 145 Fall of wickets:
1-7, 2-46, 3-81, 4-83, 5-119, 6-123, 7-126, 8-126, 9-133. Bowling:
Tapash Baisya 6-1-25-1, Mushfiqur Rahman 6-0-20-0, Khaled Mahmud 10-3-15-2, Mohammad Rafique 9.4-0-35-0, Manjural Islam Rana 10-2-21-3, Alok Kapali 3-0-16-0, Rajin Saleh 2-0-11-1.
— AFP |
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Gavaskar greatest
cricketer: Kapil Hyderabad, May 16 Kapil was here last night as chairman, Hero Indian Sports Academy (HISA), during the presentation of the second HISA awards for excellence in sports for the year 2003. Terming the recent win in Pakistan as historic, the legendary allrounder said the present Indian team had blended nicely under skipper
Sourav Ganguly. When asked to rate the team, Kapil said the depth in the Indian batting is all there to see. “The top six have settled
cosily, which is an envy for any opposition. With Yuvraj leaving his mark in the Tests too, the selectors have an enviable option. The need is to look for a wealthy crop of spinners as a back-up once the days of Kumble and Harbhajan are over.” Kapil had a special word of praise for Gundappa
Viswanath, who received the award on behalf of brother-in-law Sunil
Gavaskar, conferred the Lifetime Achievement award. “A great cricketer and a gentleman off the field, Viswanath was in a league of his own. He brought charm with his approach to the game. There cannot be a better cricketing sight when Vishy was in flow. His double century (222) against England at Chepauk in ‘81 was one of the best I had witnessed during my career. It was artistry at its delightful best.” As HISA chairman, Kapil said the onus was on him and his team to come up with more schemes for the benefit of needy sportspersons. “There is good money in cricket which is not the case in other sports. Somewhere along the line, the balance has to be restored.”
— UNI |
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England squad for first Test
London, May 16 Left-arm spinner Ashley Giles who missed the drawn fourth and final Test in Antigua through injury was recalled to a 13-man squad for the first of a three-match series against New Zealand. Also included were batsman Paul
Collingwood, whom EngLand great Ian Botham has suggested should be one of those vying for former skipper Nasser Hussain’s place, and Lancashire quick James Anderson. In the West Indies Anderson found himself surplus to requirements during the Test campaign but the 21-year-old has made an impressive start to the English season including taking 10 wickets against Worcestershire in a County Championship match. England’s chairman of selectors David Graveney said in a statement: “Our Test series win in the West Indies was a magnificent performance by all concerned and we are keen to keep the momentum going against New Zealand by drawing on the sAme group of players. Squad:
Michael Vaughan (Yorkshire, capt), James Anderson (Lancashire), Mark Butcher (Surrey), Paul Collingwood (Durham), Andrew Flintoff (Lancashire), Ashley Giles (Warwickshire), Stephen Harmison (Durham), Nasser Hussain (Essex), Matthew Hoggard (Yorkshire), Geraint Jones (Kent,
wkt), Simon Jones (Glamorgan), Marcus Trescothick (Somerset), Graham Thorpe (Surrey).
— AFP |
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Imran to take custody
of love child London, May 16 Khan flew to Los Angeles last night to bring home his ‘love child’ Tyrian after her multi-millionaire mother Sita White collapsed, having apparently suffered a heart attack near her home in home in Beverly Hills, a report said here on Sunday. Quoting her friends, ‘The Mail on Sunday’ said the 43-year old Sita, a fitness fanatic, had taken steroids which exacerbated an existing heart condition. For years, the 51-year-old cricketing legend refused to acknowledge Tyrian, born in 1992, as his child until Sita won a paternity suit in 1997. He finally met his child the following year. Khan and his wife Jemima now are understood to have discussed bringing the 12-year-old to live with them and their sons Sulaiman, 7, and Qasim, 4, in Britain. Sita’s will stipulated that Khan got “full and complete parental rights over Tyrian if anything happened”, her friend was quoted as saying. “Tyrian and Imran now have a strong bond despite his reluctance to acknowledge her during her early years,” the friend said.
— PTI |
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