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India bank on Chappell for winning start
Rules ‘bent’ to suit India
Millions to miss live telecast
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Kenyan players cleared of
bribery charges
Srinath wins under-12 world chess title
Satyapragyan, Kidambi shine
Manan, Advani ousted
Royal Bengal Club enter super league
TNA wrestling on ESPN
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India bank on Chappell for winning start
Dambulla, July 29 Never in the past 10 years have the two giants of one-day cricket been missing together from a one-day assignment, though Ganguly, after a reduction in ban, would reappear for the second round of matches from August 3. Tendulkar and Ganguly first set up the firm of history’s most profitable opening partnership and then staggered their roles in one-day line-up to emerge with 13,642 and 9,945 runs from 348 and 270 games, respectively, with 60 centuries between them. India, incidentally, have played only 584 one-day games. It is a hole which is not easily filled even though V.V.S. Laxman is substituting for the experience of the two legends.
Unfortunately, Laxman has more sceptics than believers in his one-day ability. Most consider that he is only good when the ball comes on to the bat and cannot tonk the ball in the air like Ganguly and sometimes Tendulkar do. Mahender Singh Dhoni will be looked upon with hope to whip up a verve and dash of his own and Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif can no longer complain that they get too few overs to showcase their talent. Emphatically, the past few years have shown that Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid remain India’s best bet and whenever the two fired together, the Indians had runs on the board. Look at India’s all fine performances, be it Tests or one-dayers, in the past 12-16 months and these two would have featured prominently. Both choose different ways to go about their task in one-day cricket. Sehwag uses the advantage of infield in the first 15 overs to rattle up a string of boundaries while Dravid hopes to bat for long enough to cut loose in the last five overs. If India take care of the early and final overs, they can hope to be competitive in the park. Unfortunately, it has not happened often since the 2003 World Cup. Worryingly, since then, whenever they have batted first, India struggled to last the full quota of overs. To make it a double trouble, Indian bowlers have struggled to bowl out the opposition within the stipulated 50 overs. It has been more of a feature in subcontinental conditions. Of the past 10 matches India played against Sri Lanka and Pakistan in the subcontinent, they have got the rival teams all out in only three games. And not even once, in the past three games in Sri Lanka. Till they get some help from the wicket, they are no good. No wonder India’s track record is abysmal. Since the 2003 World Cup, they have played 50 games and won 22, 11 of these wins coming against the likes of Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Kenya and the UAE. They have been particularly bad in Sri Lanka against the hosts — just three wins from nine games in the past five years. Clearly, Indian batsmen need to fire to give their bowlers something to bowl at. They would be hoping to win the toss and bat first since chasing has always been a difficult proposition under lights here. Somehow the cool breeze and humid conditions in the evening afford swing bowlers extra zip and movement with the new ball. The visitors will also be hoping that the Sri Lankans are still as wobbly as they were against the West Indies in the recent two-Test series though it is sometimes easy to overlook the fact that those games still finished in three-and-a-half days and margins were as big as six wickets and 240 runs. If India want too many variables to fall in place, Sri Lanka inspire great depth and flexibility from their eleven. They have batsmen who can bowl and bowlers who can bat. They have always been an above-average fielding side. They boast respectable names such as Marvan Atapattu, Mahela Jayawardene, Sanath Jayasuriya and Kumara Sangakkara in batting, but it is in bowling that they are outright dangerous. The pace combination of Chaminda Vaas, Nuwan Zoysa, Ferveez Maharoof, Dilhara Fernando and Lasith Malinga, whoever of the three who play, are sharper and livelier than their Indian counterparts. They also have a reasonable lower half in batting. Unlike the Indians, who will be looking at inexperienced J.P. Yadav to shore up the lower half of the batting, Sri Lankans have cheeky customers like Russell Arnold, T. Dilshan, Upul Chandana, Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan to string together fine contributions. In short, Sri Lanka have a side where experience and youth blend well. India, on the other hand, are on the lookout for such a heady cocktail. No wonder Sri Lanka are second in the ICC one-day ratings while India are five notches below at number seven, ahead only of the West Indies, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and Kenya. Teams (from): India: Rahul Dravid (captain), Virender Sehwag, V.V.S. Laxman, Mahender Singh Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, J.P. Yadav, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Laxmipathy Balaji and Irfan Pathan. Sri Lanka: Marvan Atapattu (captain), Mahela Jayawardene, Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumara Sangakkara, T. Dilshan, Russell Arnold, Chaminda Vaas, Upul Chandana, Muthiah Muralitharan, Nuwan Zoysa, Dilhara Fernando, Ferveez Maharoof, Lasith Malinga, Upul Tharanga and Dilhara Lokuhettige. Vaas, Zoysa ruled out of opener
Sri Lanka suffered their second major injury setback when left-armer Nuwan Zoysa was ruled out of the triangular series opener against India tomorrow with a back injury. Zoysa pulled muscles in his back during a warm-up match yesterday and has returned to Colombo for medical treatment. Experienced left-armer Chaminda Vaas has also been ruled out of the match with a hamstring injury picked up during the recent Test series against the West Indies. Sri Lanka have called-up seam bowler Pradeep Jayaprakashdaran as a replacement, the third uncapped player in a new-look squad. Jayaprakashdaran, a 20-year-old right-armer who has played only 12 first-class matches, caught the selectors’ eye on Monday when he took three Indian top-order wickets and finished with three for 35.
— PTI, Reuters |
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Rules ‘bent’ to suit India
Dambulla, July 29 Even the International Cricket Council (ICC) stipulates that only 14 members will represent a national team in its tournaments, including the World Cup. The squad must be named well in advance and any replacement can only be done after prior permission from the ICC. However, for other tournaments, separate rules and regulations can be worked out through understanding between participating countries. So has been the case for the present triangular series. A senior BCCI official said there was an exception for this tournament and the Sri Lankan Board had been taken into confidence to allow 16 members to represent the Indian team. “A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed with the Sri Lankan Board to let India be represented by 16 members in the tournament,” said the functionary. It still amounts to bending of the rules. Tomorrow, any team can cite the example of India and take 16 and even 17 or 18 members for a tournament. If the ICC regulates a fixed number of players for its tournament, why Sri Lankan Board has bent backwards to accommodate India is easy to guess. The Indian team’s presence is important for the financial returns for a host country and Lanka is well aware of it. That is why they even allowed the tournament dates to be adjusted after India demanded a rescheduling in order to accommodate the Afro-Asian cricket one-day internationals, due in mid-August. Interestingly, it is heard that by this afternoon, the Indian Board had informed its Sri Lankan counterpart that though they would have a 16-member strength, only 15 would actually be considered for final selection. It implies that there would be at least one cricketer who would be just a passenger on the present tour, virtually ruled out to play any single one-day international. That would mean that one of the two youngsters Suresh Raina or Venugopal Rao would actually watch the matches from the sidelines. Rahul Dravid, the Indian captain, refused to be drawn into the fairness of the issue. “I am not aware of such things. It is for the manager and the Board to reply to it”.
— PTI |
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No problem playing under Dravid: Ganguly
Kolkata, July 29 “I did not expect that the ban will be reduced so much,” Ganguly told newspersons at his Behala residence here. Ganguly, who had been leading India since 2000 until his ban in April this year, said his sole aim as a cricketer was to play for the country and it did not matter to him whether he was captain or not. “I don’t mind playing under anybody — be it Dravid or Virender Sehwag or Harbhajan Singh.” Ganguly would leave for Colombo on Sunday en route to Dambulla to join the Indian team before the side’s third match against the Lankans on August 3.
— PTI |
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Millions to miss live telecast
New Delhi, July 29 Prasar Bharati, which tried its best to acquire co-telecast rights, failed in its bid with Ten Sports finally managing to keep the matches in its exclusive domain. “We will be telecasting the highlights of all matches for 90 minutes on the day of the match and repeating these the next morning,” Prasar Bharati CEO KS Sarma told PTI here after a marathon meeting with top Ten Sports officials.
— PTI |
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Kenyan players cleared of bribery charges
Nairobi, July 29 In a confirmation letter to the Kenya Cricket Association, ICC Chief Executive Malcolm Speed said the investigations into bribery allegations in Kenyan cricket had been concluded and had linked no other players. “I am pleased to confirm that following a thorough investigation by the ACSU, there is no evidence to prove that any Kenyan player other than Odumbe received benefits from bookmakers or was involved in match fixing,” Speed said. Odumbe, who captained Kenya between 1996-2001, was banned for five years in 2004 for his association with an Indian bookmaker. During the trial, a number of unamed other players were implicated in the scandal. “Over 20 persons were interviewed, including former administrators and team officials, by the investigators essentially to find out if they knew the two Indian bookmakers widely mentioned in the Odumbe trial,” said new KCA chairman Samir Inamdar. Veteran Kenyan opener-wicketkeeper Kennedy Otieno said the news was great for the sport.
— AFP |
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Magnini leaves Phelps far behind
Montreal, July 29 Magnini fended off the formidable challenge of South Africans Roland Schoeman and Ryk Neethling, who finished second and third. And the trio of speedsters did something few swimmers can manage these days: They left six-time Olympic champion Michael Phelps floundering in their wake. He finished with a championship record — only world record holder Pieter van den Hoogenband has swum faster. Phelps, eighth at the turn, was seventh in 48.99 seconds, six-hundredths of a second outside his personal best. But a return to his comfort zone in the 200m medley — in which he came in as the world record holder as well as world and Olympic champion — yielded the sixth individual world title of Phelps, career. That matches the record held by Australian great Ian Thorpe — who is skipping Montreal — and Aussie Grant Hackett, who like Phelps has more gold medals in sight before his week here ends. Poland’s Olympic champion Otylia Jedrzejczak bettered her world record in the women’s 200m butterfly, adding the world title to the gold she won in Athens in 2:05.61.
— AFP |
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Srinath wins under-12 world chess title
Belfort, July 29 The nearest contender to Srinath, second seed Sjugirov Sanan, did not succeed in beating Ray Robson in his final round despite trying for more than four hours. In the end, Sanan had to settle for a draw, giving the Indian his first gold medal in a world championship. Srinath and Sahaj Grover were the only two medal winners in the Indian contingent. Sahaj, the winner in the under-10 section, also became the youngest Indian to win any world championship, breaking the 1996 record set by current world junior champion P Harikrishna. The biggest upset from the Indian perspective was the failure of Woman Grandmaster D Harika, who finished fifth in the under-16 girls section, and candidate International Master Parimarjan Negi, who finishes ninth overall in the under-12 boys category. Both Negi and Harika had started as the top-seeded players of their respective sections. On hearing about Sahaj’s feat, Harikrishna, currently in India, was all praise for him and Srinath. “When I won the under-10 gold about a decade ago, I never knew that it was a record, I wish both gold medallists greater success in life and many more tournament victories,” Harikrishna said. Speaking about his own success in the tournament, Sahaj was obviously delighted. “I played well till the seventh round and then I lost one game in the ninth, thankfully I remained in the lead right from day one till it finished.” Sahaj's trainer, former national junior champion Gurpreet Pal Singh, was also all praise for his young protege. “I think what Sahaj has got without much support is exemplary in competitive chess these days. The boy is very hard working and we had been expecting some good results for past year. “Just prior to coming here Sahaj was the best in the under-10 section of the Dubai International Junior Championship. That naturally gave him great confidence,” he said.
— PTI |
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Satyapragyan, Kidambi shine
Pardubice, July 29 As things stand now in the $ 10,000 prize money tournament, International Master Valeri Shalimov of Ukraine retained his slender half-point lead after settling for a quick draw with Grandmaster Daniel Fridman of Latvia. With six points in his kitty from seven games played so far, Shalimov is now a firm contender for the winner’s purse of $ 3,000. Following Shalimov closely were as many as 13 players, including top seed Evgeny Najer of Russia, Sergei Azarov of Belarus and Fridman, all of whom have 5.5 points. India’s
Kidambi, Satyapragyan, GM Sandipan Chanda and IM S Poobesh Anand were among the 25 players who were on five points each. Just two rounds remain in the tournament being played under FIDE’s Swiss rules with 332 participants. Satyapragyan revived some hopes for his maiden Grandmaster norm after beating GM Leonid Voloshin of the Czech Republic. The big plus for Satyapragyan in the win was that he achieved it with black pieces. In the next round, he will meet another Grandmaster Petr Haba, also of the Czech Republic. Though in contention, Satyapragyan has a daunting task ahead of him as he needs a favourable result in the final-round game apart from getting at least a draw against Haba. Currently the Indian has played an average opposition of 2449 ELO rating points. Kidambi also came out with flying colours against Vladislav Kaprivin of Russia, but the problem plaguing the Indian in this event was that he had met several strong contenders. Yet a good prize for him is on the cards as he meets a lower ranked player in the penultimate round. Sandipan Chanda could not make the most of the opportunities that came his way in the game against Jakov Geller of Russia and had to split the point in the end. The draw dashed Chanda’s hopes of finishing among the toppers. Poobesh Anand had another good day, as the Indian, playing white, held higher-ranked IM Boris Grachev to a draw to move to five points. Anand is among those few players who have not lost a game so far in the event. — PTI |
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Manan, Advani ousted
New Delhi, July 29 Chandra, who had overcome the challenge from eighth seed Chan Kwok Ming of Hong Kong to be the only Indian to reach the quarterfinals, went down 3-5 to the talented Jin Long, the runner-up in 2001. Chandra lost 97-13, 41-54, 43-101, 50-72, 74-31, 16-66, 135-0, 0-137 in a match that went to the wire. Earlier in the day, last year’s finalist and second seeded Pankaj Advani’s dream of capturing the only title missing in his profile crashed as he was knocked out in the prequarters. Advani, former world champion, was upset by fourth seed Mohammad Saleh of Pakistan 3-4, according to information received here.
— PTI |
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Royal Bengal Club enter super league
New Delhi, July 29 D Ghosh put Union Club in the lead in the 12th minute while Robin Raju and Gaurav Sharma slotted in for Royal Bengal. Nivia Club scored a thumping 8-2 victory over Gulabi Bagh, after leading 4-0 at half time, to enter the Super League at the Ambedkar Stadium. Three goals were scored by Jitender. In a Group II match at the Nehru Stadium, Ajmal Club drubbed Young Sports 4-0. Parveen, Sushil, Rohit and Yuvraj were the marksmen. |
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TNA wrestling on ESPN
New Delhi, July 29 The first episode of TNA wrestling will be broadcast on August 2 at 4 pm on ESPN-Star Sports. ESPN managing director RC Venkateish said here today at a press briefing that wrestling was the only missing link in the channel’s sports telecast and that gap has been filled with the introduction of TNA wrestling. |
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