S P O R T S

Bangar, J P Yadav steady Railways

Mohali, March 30 Punjab won the toss and elected to bowl first on the Mohali wicket, which has a reputation for helping seamers early on.

Railways' Yere Gaud is trapped leg before wicket by seamer V.R.V. Singh on the first day of the Ranji Trophy Elite group final match at the PCA Stadim in Mohali on Wednesday. — Tribune photo by Parvesh Chauhan

Haryana begin on a solid note
Gurgaon, March 30
Chetan Sharma (95) fell five runs short of a well-deserved ton while half centuries by opener Bageswar Bist (50) and middle-order batsman Sunny Singh (52) powered Haryana to a commanding 264 for four on the opening day of the five-day Ranji Trophy Plate Division final match against Services here today.

Malik shines in Pakistan victory Hyderabad, March 30 Shoaib Malik stole the limelight, hitting an unbeaten 81, as Pakistan raced to an eight-wicket victory over India ‘A’ in a one-day match at the HCA stadium near here today. Suresh Raina of India ‘A’ raises his bat after reaching his half century against Pakistan in Hyderabad on Wednesday. — AFP photo

Pak pins hopes on Ganguly instance
Lahore, March 30
Citing the case of Sourav Ganguly, PCB said they would appeal against Match Referee Chris Broad’s one-Test ban on Inzamam-ul Haq, hoping the ICC would revoke the ban even if that means slapping another fine on the Pakistan skipper.

Maria Sharapova of Russia celebrates after defeating Justine Henin-Hardenne of Belgium at the Nasdaq-100 Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, USA, on Tuesday. — AP/PTI

	Cabinet backs New Delhi’s bid for 2014 Asian Games March 30, 2005
	Inept batting display costs India series March 29, 2005
	Pak push for series-levelling win March 28, 2005
	Younis Khan (267) helps Pak amass 570 March 26, 2005
	Record-breaking tons by Haq, Younis March 25, 2005
	India look to wrap up series March 24, 2005
	Wright foresees tough challenge from Pak March 23, 2005
	India, Pak players take a day off March 22, 2005
	India, Pak players take a day off March 22, 2005
	Kumble gives India a thumping victory March 21, 2005

Anand close to Amber title
Monaco, March 30
Viswanathan Anand cruised past Dutch Grandmaster Loek Van Wely with a 1.5-0.5 victory in the 9th round of the Amber blindfold and rapid chess tournament now underway here at Monte Carlo Grand.

Bhupathi-Woodbridge duo advances
New Delhi, March 30
Fifth seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and Todd Woodbridge of Australia had an easy outing against their American opponents in the men’s doubles second round of the Nasdaq-100 Open tennis tournament at Key Biscayne, Miami.

JCT rally to pip Vasco 2-1
Margao, March 30
A 82nd minute goal by Nigerian Alexander Jabba enabled JCT Mills Phagwara come from behind to edge out Vasco Sports Club Goa by 2-1 and gain full points in their second phase ONGC Cup 9th edition National Football League Championship match played here at Nehru Stadium, Fatorida today.

Indian colts go down to Pakistan
Kuala Lumpur, March 30
Defending champions India went down to Pakistan 2-3 in the six-nation Junior Hockey Tournament here today. The Indians, who were reduced to nine men in the dying moments of the second half, led 2-1 at the break, but could not hold on after their skipper Prabodh Tirkey and goalkeeper Adrian D’Souza were shown yellow cards.

PSB lift trophy
Hyderabad, March 30
Punjab and Sind Bank (PSB) annexed the Major Rangaswamy Cup defeating Indian Oil Corporation 2-0 in the final of the 61st Senior National Hockey Championship at the Gachibowli Complex here today.

Gurdaspur girls, Muktsar boys move up
Ludhiana, March 30
Gurdaspur girls and Muktsar boys recorded comfortable victories in their respective matches to advance into the super-league phase on the penultimate day of the 4th Punjab Youth Basketball Championship at Gurdaspur today.

Mixed luck for Punjab
Alamgir (Ludhiana), March 30
Fierce contests were witnessed on the second day of the 39th Senior National Indian Style Wrestling Championship here today.

Mukesh keen to seal Order of Merit title
New Delhi, March 30
A star-studded field will tee off in the Petroleum Sports Promotion Board Golf Championships which kicks off at the well-manicured Delhi Golf Club course here tomorrow.

Video

PCB Chief satisfied with Kotla ground preparations. (28k, 56k)

Bangar, J P Yadav steady Railways
Gopal Sharma
Tribune News Service

Mohali, March 30
Punjab won the toss and elected to bowl first on the Mohali wicket, which has a reputation for helping seamers early on. They had four seamers in their ranks. But somehow Punjab failed to drive home the advantage on the first day of the Ranji Trophy Elite group final match against Railways at the PCA Stadium here today.

Though there is no cause for alarm for the hosts at the moment, but with 287 runs on the board and five wickets still in hand, there are no reasons for the Railways to worry also after the first day’s play today.

The Railways batsmen deserve credit for the way they batted. Virtually all the batsmen applied themselves to the task at hand and contributed to the team total.

Opener Amit Pagnis, however, looked like a man in hurry and started playing his strokes right from the word go. Pagnis surprised the rival seamers with an impressive array of thundering strokes which hurried to the fence. Thankfully for Punjab, Pagnis could not prolong his stay at the wicket and fell to an inswing delivery off Vineet Sharma when the batsman was going strong on 40. When he fell at the start of 13th over after nearly one hour’s stay at the wicket, 60 runs were there on the board.

All other batsmen, except for T.P. Singh, batted well enough to take the team to a satisfying situation.

Skipper Sanjay Bangar, who opened the innings with Pagnis, batted with purpose. Bangar, who has played 12 Tests and 15 one-day matches for India, brought all his experience into play and frustrated the rival bowling attack for nearly four-and-a-half hours.

It was this partnership for the third wicket for 123 runs between Bangar and all rounder J P Yadav, which threatened to take the match away from Punjab. But twin strikes from seamer Vineet, when he first dismissed a well-set Yadav and then Bangar in quick succession, stopped the contest from drifting away from Punjab. Bangar was back in the pavilion after contributing a sedate 79, while Yadav, more enterprising of the two, scored 63.

Reetinder Sodhi had earlier accounted for T P Singh having him caught behind the stumps by Pankaj Dharmani after the batsmen had scored 11.

Gangling Chandigarh seamer V.R.V. Singh, who extracted good pace and bounce bowling from the far end, got his first success of the day trapping Yere Gaud lbw.

Gagandeep Singh, the mainstay of Punjab bowling attack who played a crucial role in his team’s march to the final, looked off-colour. Despite trying hard, he went wicketless.

For Railways, Raja Ali was at the crease after making a compact 50. Keeping his company was Shreyas Khanolkar on 9.

Vinod Sharma, the Railways coach, sounded satisfied after the day’s play and said that they would be looking to put minimum 400 runs on the board. He said that besides the two batsmen at the crease, S Wankhede, the wicketkeeper-batsman, and Harvinder Singh were capable of chipping in with 30-40 runs each down the order.

Scoreboard:

Railways (Ist innings): Bangar c Sawal b Vineet 79, Pagnis lbw Vineet 40, Tejinder Pal c Dharmani b Sodhi 11, JP Yadav b Vineet 63, Raja Ali batting 50, Yere Goud lbw VRV Singh 15, S Khanolkar batting 7.

Extras: (nb-18, b -2) 20.

Total: (for 5 wickets in 90 overs) 287.

Fall of wickets: 1-60, 2-77, 3-200, 4-213, 5-269.

Bowling: Gagandeep Singh 22-7-37-0, Vineet Sharma 20-3-75-3, VRV Singh 18-0-58-1, Reetinder Sodhi 7-0-53-1, Sandeep Sawal 10-1-31-0, Rajesh Sharma 11-2-28-0, Aankur Kakkar 2-1-3-0.

Haryana begin on a solid note

Gurgaon, March 30
Chetan Sharma (95) fell five runs short of a well-deserved ton while half centuries by opener Bageswar Bist (50) and middle-order batsman Sunny Singh (52) powered Haryana to a commanding 264 for four on the opening day of the five-day Ranji Trophy Plate Division final match against Services here today.

Shafiq Khan (28) and Joginder Sharma (13) were batting at the crease when stumps were drawn.

Haryana captain Ajay Ratra’s decision to bat first was vindicated as both openers adopted a cautious approach before playing their shots. Services bowlers Sudhakar Ghag and Arun Sharma bowled their hearts out, but could not get any assistance from the pitch while the Haryana openers looked solid in defence.

Sharma got the first breakthrough for Services when he had Bist caught by M. P. Reddy just after completing his half century. With Chetan, Bist stitched together a 129-run opening wicket partnership. Bist’s 119-ball innings included five hits to the fence.

Sunny Singh then joined Chetan in the middle and both milked the Services attack. Just when Chetan seemed destined for a century, Reddy took his second catch of the match off Yashpal Sharma to send him back and the Haryana score read 177 for two.

Chetan spent more than four hours in the middle to score 95 off 200 deliveries, that included seven boundaries and a six.

Yashpal struck again eight overs later when he castled Ishan Ganda (9). Towards the end, Haryana lost the other half centurion Sunny, who was trappd leg before by Arun Sharma.

Shafiq and Joginder then took the stage and played with caution to ensure that there was no further loss for Haryana.

Haryana (1st innings):

Bijeswar Bist c Reddy b Sharma 50, Chetan Sharma c Reddy b Yashpal 95, Sunny Singh lbw Sharma 52, Ishan Ganda b Yashpal 9, Shafiq Khan not out 28, Joginder Sharma not out 13.

Extras: (b-5, lb-3, w-1, nb-8) 17.

Total: (four wickets, 90 overs) 264.

Fall of wickets: 1-129, 2-177, 3-195, 4-222.

Bowling: Fazil Mohammed 2-0-11-0, Sudhakar Ghag 23-3-67-0, Arun Sharma 38-8-94-2,Yashpal Singh 15-3-46-2, A. K. Mohanty 12-2-38-0. — UNI 

Malik shines in Pakistan victory

Hyderabad, March 30
Shoaib Malik stole the limelight, hitting an unbeaten 81, as Pakistan raced to an eight-wicket victory over India ‘A’ in a one-day match at the HCA stadium near here today.

After restricting India ‘A’ to 189 for seven in the warm-up match, that was reduced to 45 overs at the request of the Pakistan team, they raced to victory, scoring 190 losing just two wickets.

Shoaib Malik was the man of the match.

The modest victory target was within the reach of Pakistan right from the first over. The inexperienced India ‘A’ bowling could not force the visitors on the defensive.

They lost opener Mohammad Hafeez as they reached 47 in 16.3 overs. But Malik, joining the other opener, Salman Butt, took Pakistan near the victory target. The duo added 137 runs for the second wicket in 23.5 overs.

Both batsmen scored half centuries. Malik was more aggressive, scoring an unbeaten 81 in 106 minutes facing 77 balls, with the help of four sixes and four boundaries.

Butt, staying for 181 minutes at the wicket, faced 134 balls. He scored 70 with the help of five boundaries.

Salman Butt was lucky to escape being run out in the 10th over, bowled by Ranadeb Bose.

Butt went for a single after pushing the ball to short mid-on, only to realise that there was no run in it, and rushed back to his crease. Sriram’s throw at the stumps was wayward. This proved crucial as the batsman went on to score a half century.

Scoreboard

India ‘A’:

S. Dhawan b Naved-ul-Hasan 8

M.S. Dhoni c S. Malik b Naved-ul-Hasan 3

S. Sriram run out 38

Venugopala Rao c Iftikhar b Arshad Khan 20

S. Raina c S. Malik b Iftikhar 55

Niraj Patel b S. Nazir 18

Ramesh Powar run out 16

S. Bahutule not out 12

Amit Bhandari not out 1

Extras: (b-5, lb-1, w-6, nb-6) 18

Total: (7 wickets, 45 overs) 189

Fall of wickets: 1-12, 2-31, 3-77, 4-82, 5-118, 6-157, 7-182.

Bowling: Rana Naved-ul- Hasan 9-1-42-2, Rao Iftikhar Anjum 9-0-31-1, Shahid Nazir 9-1-26-1, Mohammad Hafeez 5-0-18-0, Arshad Khan 6-0-22-1, Danish Kaneria 3-0-20-0, Abdul Razzaq 4-0-24-0,

Pakistan:

Salman Butt b Bose 70

Mohammad Hafeez run-out 16

Shoab Malik not out 81

Abdul Razzaq not out 1

Extras: (lb-1, w-16, nb-6) 22

Total: (2 wkts, 41 overs) 190

Fall of wickets: 1-47, 2-184.

Bowling: Amit Bhandari 9-1-22-0, R.P. Singh 8-0-25-0, Danadeb Bose 8-0-41-1, Sairaj Bahutule 7-0-33-0, Rajesh Powar 3-0-31-0, S. Sriram 6-1-37. — UNI

Pak pins hopes on Ganguly instance

Lahore, March 30
Citing the case of Sourav Ganguly, PCB said they would appeal against Match Referee Chris Broad’s one-Test ban on Inzamam-ul Haq, hoping the ICC would revoke the ban even if that means slapping another fine on the Pakistan skipper.

“We have not received an official intimation as yet but as soon as we get it, we are going to appeal against the ban and will ask the ICC to review the one match ban and convert it into a fine,” Pakistan team manager Saleem Altaf told “The News”.

He said he had discussed the issue with Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Shaharyar Khan who also witnessed the Bangalore Test which Pakistan won to level the series 1-1.

“I have discussed the issue in detail with the Chairman Shaharyar Khan and we feel we have a good chance of a successful appeal against the Test match ban,” he said.

“The ICC recently also upheld an appeal against a two-match ban on Indian captain Sourav Ganguly,” Altaf pointed out.

Sourav was slapped a two-Test ban by ICC match referee Clive Lloyd for India’s slow over-rate against Pakistan in the BCCI Platinum Jubilee one-day international match. New Zealand lawyer Tim Castle, Appeals Commissioner, later exonerated the Indian captain.

Meanwhile, siding with the captain, Altaf said he could understand Inzamam’s emotional outburst because of the huge pressure involved in the Bangalore Test.

In Bangalore, Broad found Inzamam in breach of Level 1.3 and Level 2.6 of the ICC Code of Conduct.

The Level 1.3 breach relates to showing ‘’dissent at an umpire’s decision by action or verbal abuse’ and occurred in the ninth over of India’s second innings. Inzamam, who pleaded guilty, was fined 30 per cent of his match fee for this breach.

The Level 2.6 breach concerned ‘charging or advancing towards the umpire in an aggressive manner when appealing’. This charge was brought by the match officials after an incident in the 90th over of Indias second innings and Inzamam was banned for one Test match after pleading guilty to the offence. — UNI

Anand close to Amber title

Monaco, March 30
Viswanathan Anand cruised past Dutch Grandmaster Loek Van Wely with a 1.5-0.5 victory in the 9th round of the Amber blindfold and rapid chess tournament now underway here at Monte Carlo Grand.

Winning his blindfold game and drawing the rapid, Anand almost assured himself of his fourth title on the Monaco soil after taking his lead to a whopping three points with just two rounds or four games remaining in this unique event that has a total prize money of Euros 193,250.

The Indian ace now just needed 1.5 points in the remaining four rounds for his fourth unshared title in Amber chess that is played on a round robin basis with one blindfold and one rapid game in each round.

With his seventh victory in the 9 mini-matches here so far, Anand also stepped closer to victory in all the three events — rapid, blindfold and combined — which he continued to lead solely after the 9th round.

For the records, Anand now has 13.5 points under his belt and the closest rival is last year’s joint winner Alexander Morozevich of Russia who is three points behind.

In joint third spot are Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine, Peter Leko of Hungary and former Russian champion Peter Svidler who all have 10 points each in their kitty while Classical champion Vladimir Kramnik, perceived as a threat to Anand’s supremacy here at the start of the event does not even have a theoretical chances of catching up with Anand as he lags behind 4.5 points from the Indian ace.

In the blindfold, Anand continued to enjoy 1.5 points lead over Morozevich and Francisco Pons Vallejo of Spain while in the rapid the champion from Madras was able to stretch his lead to a full point following favourable results in other games.

It turned out to be an interesting outing for Anand against Van Wely. The Dutchman had drawn with the Indian when he was close to defeat in the last Corus chess tournament and he generally played solid games in both forms of chess.

In the blindfold, it was an English opening wherein Anand had no troubles equalizing as black. — PTI

Bhupathi-Woodbridge duo advances

New Delhi, March 30
Fifth seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and Todd Woodbridge of Australia had an easy outing against their American opponents in the men’s doubles second round of the Nasdaq-100 Open tennis tournament at Key Biscayne, Miami.

Bhupathi and Woodbridge defeated Graydon Olivier and Travis Parrott 6-3 6-4 to enter the pre-quarterfinals of the $ 3.45 million event, according to information received here today.

They will next play third seeded Swede-Belarussian pair of Jonas Bjorkman and Max Mirnyi, who scored an identical 6-3 6-4 win against Ashley Fischer of Australia and Fernando Verdasco of Spain in their second round tie. — PTI

JCT rally to pip Vasco 2-1

Margao, March 30
A 82nd minute goal by Nigerian Alexander Jabba enabled JCT Mills Phagwara come from behind to edge out Vasco Sports Club Goa by 2-1 and gain full points in their second phase ONGC Cup 9th edition National Football League Championship match played here at Nehru Stadium, Fatorida today.

The winners first scored through Julius Akpele in the 70th minute and then Alexander Jabba found the net to seal the fate of Vasco whose lone goal came through Francise Fernandes in the 63rd minute.

With this win, JCT increased their points tally to 21 points from 14 points and jumped on to the fifth place relegating Mahindra United to sixth place with 20.

After a barren first half Vasco shot into the lead in the 63rd minute through Francise Ferandes, who after collecting a pass from Fabio Soares unleashed a long ranger which gave no chance to Rival goalkeeper Mansooro to make it 1-0.

Stung by the debacle, the mill men accelerated the pace of their game and restored parity in the 70th minute through Julius Akpele when Vasco’s goalkeeper Virendeer Singh failed to grab the ball properly.

Inspired by a goal, the millmen continued to attack and increased their lead in the 82nd minute through Nigerian Alexander Jabba who received a square pass from Jaswinder and banged it into the goal to make it 2-1. — UNI

Indian colts go down to Pakistan

Kuala Lumpur, March 30
Defending champions India went down to Pakistan 2-3 in the six-nation Junior Hockey Tournament here today. The Indians, who were reduced to nine men in the dying moments of the second half, led 2-1 at the break, but could not hold on after their skipper Prabodh Tirkey and goalkeeper Adrian D’Souza were shown yellow cards.

Pakistan made the most of the number advantage to pile up pressure on the Indian citadel in the last 18 minutes of the game and scored twice through penalty corners to take full points.

Pakistan drew first blood in the fourth minute, but India came back strongly when Sandeep Singh converted a penalty corner.

Hari Prasad gave India the lead three minutes later when he slated home a Tushar Khandekar pass off a free hit from Tirkey.

India would take on England tomorrow and later play hosts Malaysia. — PTI

PSB lift trophy

Hyderabad, March 30
Punjab and Sind Bank (PSB) annexed the Major Rangaswamy Cup defeating Indian Oil Corporation 2-0 in the final of the 61st Senior National Hockey Championship at the Gachibowli Complex here today.

Brojen Singh netted the second goal for Indian Airlines in the 60th minute to take a 2-0 lead. — PTI

Gurdaspur girls, Muktsar boys move up
Our Sports Reporter

Ludhiana, March 30
Gurdaspur girls and Muktsar boys recorded comfortable victories in their respective matches to advance into the super-league phase on the penultimate day of the 4th Punjab Youth Basketball Championship at Gurdaspur today.

In the boys’ section, Muktsar defeated Kapurthala 43-27 with main contributions coming through Lavdeep (17), Shashi (10) and Vikram Kumar (8). For the losers, Harkamal and Rakesh contributed 11 and 6 points, respectively. In another match, Jalandhar beat Kapurthala 53-24.

In the girls’ category, Gurdaspur faced no challenge from their rivals Hoshiarpur, whom they drubbed 46-11.

Other results: boys- Kapurthala beat Mansa 38-25; Lodhiana Academy beat Moga 47-13; Ludhiana beat Gurdaspur 70-61; Jalandhar beat Faridkot 42-26; Ludhiana beat Hoshiarpur 57-38; Patiala beat Faridkot 35-27; Muktsar beat Ludhiana 76-56; Gurdaspur beat Hoshiarpur 45-13; Ferozepore beat Sangrur 37-34; Baba Lodhiana Academy beat Amritsar 48-25 and Gurdaspur beat Muktsar 61-54; Girls- Gurdaspur beat Amritsar 38-26; Hoshiarpur beat Kapurthala 26-15; Jalandhar beat Muktsar 43-22; Amritsar beat Bathinda 51-36 and Ludhiana beat Mansa 30-12.

Mixed luck for Punjab
Our Sports Reporter

Alamgir (Ludhiana), March 30
Fierce contests were witnessed on the second day of the 39th Senior National Indian Style Wrestling Championship here today. The hosts had mixed luck as in the 66 kg category, Joginder of Punjab proved his mettle, getting better of Vinod Kumar of Chhattisgarh by fall, whereas Kamaljit of Punjab went down to Kasimdeen of Jammu and Kashmir.

Results: 66 kg: Deepak Patil (Mh) b Dharminder Singh (Ser) by points; Anurag Rathi (Bihar ) b Patil Manhar (Guj) by fall; Satpal Yadav (UP) b Vikas Kanojia (MP) by points; Rajesh (BSF) b Imam Bakash (Kar) walkover; Jagmohan (Hr) b Abilash K.H. (Kerala) by points; Joginder (Pb) b Vinod Kumar (Chhattisgarh) by fall; Jasbir (CISF) b Anuj Malik (Delhi) by points; Kasim Deen (J&K) b Kamaljit (Pb) by fall; 74 kg: Hemant (UP) b Sham Singh (TN) by fall; J Gulab Singh (AP) b Gadigeppa (Kar) walkover; Rakesh Kumar (Pb) b Jeevan Birajdas (Mh) walkover; Vinod Kumar (Hr) b Om Veer Singh (Chhattisgarh) by points; Sikander Tomer (Rly) b Sanjay Kumar (Chhattisgarh) by points; Omkar Singh (J&K) b Chandan Yadav (MP) by fall; Rakesh Kumar (BSF) b Tajinder Singh (Pb) by points; Rajinder Bhati (Delhi) b Gajinder Singh (Ser) by fall; 96 kg: Rakesh Kumar (Rly) b Hawa Singh (BSF) by fall; Kishore Bhagat (Guj) b Chander Harish (Mh) walk over; Sanjeev Kumar (Navy) b Jugal Kishore Yadav (AP) by fall; Sanjeev Kumar (UP) b T P Goswami (MP) by fall; 84kg: Mahesh Mahr (Mh) b Raj Singh (Chhattisgarh) by fall; Param Veer (Pb) b Shiv Singh (Rjt) by fall; H.K. title bout: Harvinder (Pb) b Jattan (UP) by fall; Satinder (Pb) b Abimanyu Yadav (Aligarh) by fall; Sarwar (Pb) b Satish (Pb); Anil Mann (Rly) b Sanjeev Kumar (Navy) by fall; 84kg: Rajesh Kumar (BSF) b Kamal (AP) by fall; Anil Kumar (MP) b Ravi Kumar (J&K) by fall; Balram Yadav (Rly) b Naresh Kumar (BSF) by fall; 55kg: Satywan (BSF) b Pawan (Chd); Devinder (Hry) b Gyaninder (Rly); Veer Pal (Pb) b Tirath Ram, Bajrangi Yadav (Navy) b Pawan (Delhi); 60kg: Joginder (Rly) b Rohit Kumar (Pb); Dharam Pal (CISF) b P. Maheh Gour (AP); 96kg: Sunil Kumar (Hya) b Balaji Bawani (Mh) Sachin (Navy) b Harkesh (Raj).

Mukesh keen to seal Order of Merit title
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, March 30
A star-studded field will tee off in the Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) Golf Championships which kicks off at the well-manicured Delhi Golf Club (DGC) course here tomorrow. Mukesh Kumar is one player who wants to pocket the title not only for the huge prize money on offer — Rs 8 lakh — the highest in the domestic golf tournament, but also because the Order of Merit title would be his if he clinches the crown.

Most of the domestic tour regulars, keeping the above facts in mind, will be focusing their attention on annexing the crown which will propel them to a comfortable lead on the Amby Valley PGAI Tour Money list.

Mukesh Kumar, with earnings of Rs 14,28,100 in the current season, enjoys an over Rs 4 lakh lead on the Order of Merit for the current season. Mukesh is looking for his fourth money list win in five years.

“A win at the Delhi Golf Course has eluded me since the time I have turned pro, and I am keen to break that jinx”, said Mukesh.

No wonder, top players like Jeev Milkha Singh, Amandeep Johl, Ali Sher and Asian Games champion Shiv Kapoor have entered the championship to achieve one landmark or the other. However, Harmeet Kahlon has pulled out due to “fatigue” after playing in the foreign circuit while Jyoti Randhawa excused himself after the organisers failed to “meet his expectations”.

Managing director of Tiger Sports Marketing Brandan D’Souza said Jyoti wanted appearance money, which is an accepted practice in the professional circuit, but could not be complied with by the organisers of the PSPB Golf Championship.

But the presence of Jeev, who has been playing on the Japanese and Asian circuit, and Amandeep, who just returned from the Asian circuit, will add lustre to the championship.

Jeev observed that it was good to see Indian golf changing now. “We need such tournaments of big prize money (Rs 50 lakh) to keep the interest going. Other sponsors should also come forward and support such tournaments”.

Jeev, who has not won a title for the past five years, said the Delhi Golf Club greens were “fantastic and the course is very good. I hope we can provide good golf”.

But he noted that the course was tough and anybody carding a 12-under par during the four-day contest would have done a good job. Jeev has come closer to winning a title on a number of occasions in the past, but missed out just narrowly. Now from the top-10 finish at last week’s Token Homemate Cup on the Japanese Tour, Jeev is keen to end up on the podium here.

Amandeep Johl, for whom the DGC course is like a “home ground”, though these days he plays most of his golf in Chandigarh, said it felt good to come back home and play.

“It’s always good to support the PGAI Indian Tour. This is the second best domestic tournament in Asia after the Korean championship. It is the breeding ground of youngsters in Indian golf”, Amandeep added.

With a lot at stake, the PSPB Open is expected to generate high-voltage drama on the greens. Ashok Kumar, who has collected Rs 10,94,094 in prize money, would be seeking to overtake Mukesh and Shiv Kapoor (Rs 8,63,150), to win his second straight Order of Merit Award. Vijay Kumar and Rafiq

Ali are the other players who would be striving to win the title too.

The addition of four players from Thailand, Atthapphone Prathumanee, Wisut Artjanawat, Chapchai Nirat and Ronnachai Jamnong, and two pros from Sri Lanka — Anura Rohana and Lalith Kumara, — promises to add zest to the championship.

BRIEFLY

India qualify for hockey tourney
NEW DELHI: India have qualified for the 5th under-21 women’s junior World Cup hockey tournament to be held at Santiago, Chile, in September. The qualifiers’ list was declared by the International Hockey Federation and conveyed to India, the Indian Women’s Hockey Federation said. — PTI

Graf to play
MIAMI: Steffi Graf will make a brief return to pro tennis after joining the Houston Wranglers in the first round of the World Team Tennis draft, which also includes Anna Kournikova and John McEnroe. Winner of 22 Grand Slam singles titles, Graf will play one home match in July for the Wranglers. “I am excited to be a part of WTT’s 30th season,” the 35-year-old Graf said. — AP

Abhinn bows out
NEW DELHI: Former national champion Abhinn Shyam Gupta made a first round exit from the Thailand Open badminton championship at Bangkok on Wednesday. The Allahabad-based shuttler went down against seventh seed Neils Christian Kaldau of Denmark 15-3, 15-8, according to information received here. Abhinn was the only Indian participant in the championship. — PTI

SGPC teams
AMRITSAR: The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) will soon prepare men’s and women’s hockey, football and kabaddi teams. Bibi Jagir Kaur, President of the SGPC, announced this during the budget session here on Tuesday. — OSR

Sub-junior basketball trials today
Patiala: Trials to select sub-junior basketball team of Patiala district will be held at the Polo ground on March 31 at 5.30 pm. The selected team will take part in the Punjab state sub-junior basketball tournament to be held at Kotkapura from April 3 to 6. Players desirous of taking part in the trials should contact Mr G.S. Biru, secretary, Patiala District Basketball Association, tomorrow at the venue. OSR