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Sourav back in saddle
Australia need 35 more runs to avoid
Anand humbles Alexander Grischuk
Justin Gatlin powers to golden double
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Stadium’s capacity may be reduced for C’wealth Games
Coaches told to work under clerks
Geet Sethi to head Arjuna Awards panel
Paragliding Pre-World Cup from Oct 14
Mahesh-Damm in quarterfinals
Ramesh assured of title
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Sourav back in saddle
Mumbai, August 12 The stylish left-hander regained the captaincy from Rahul Dravid, who led the team during the tri-series in Sri Lanka, when Ganguly was not eligible for selection for all the matches as he served a ban for slow over rate. The five-man selection committee headed by Kiran More took close to two hours to arrive at the decision to name the 33-year-old Ganguly as captain for the triangular
series, also involving New Zealand, and the subsequent two-Test series against
Zimbabwe. Indian cricket board Secretary and selection panel convener S.K. Nair said the selectors initially discussed the team’s performance in Sri Lanka before taking
up the main task of appointing the captain for the Zimbabwe tour. Nair refused to tell mediapersons, after announcing Ganguly as the new captain,
whether any other name was discussed. “The selectors held deliberations before the committee named Ganguly as captain. I do not want to go into further details,” he said. “The other members of the 15-member team would be picked tomorrow by the selection committee, with the captain and coach being present at the meeting,” he added. Coach Greg Chappell, who did not attend the meeting, though he had checked into the hotel where the selectors met, had a brief chat with Nair and More before the selectors met, Nair said. Nair also said the Indian team’s physiotherapist John Gloster would provide the selectors with an update on the fitness of all players, including Sachin Tendulkar, before tomorrow’s meeting to choose the team. Tendulkar underwent surgery to correct his tennis elbow injury in London at the end of May and had been ruled out of action for between 12 and 16 weeks. He missed the Lanka tour. “The performance of the team in Sri Lanka will also be discussed by the selectors in the presence of the captain and coach,” Nair said. With his appointment as captain, Ganguly, India’s most successful Test skipper with 19 wins from 47 matches, had, thus, got a chance to improve on that record. The Bengal stalwart lost his captaincy to Dravid at the end of the 2-4 one-day series loss to Pakistan at home after being forced to sit out of the last two matches in the rubber
as well as the first two league ties in the tri-series in Lanka following a ban imposed by the ICC for India’s slow over rate in the series against
Pakistan. He returned to big-time cricket with a half century as opener in the third league match in Lanka, in the process becoming the third batsman after Tendulkar and Pakistan’s Inzamam-ul-Haq in scoring 10,000 runs in ODIs. Ganguly’s one-day record as captain stood at 73 wins and 64 losses from 142 matches. He had played 273 ODIs in all. KOLKATA: Having got back his captaincy, Sourav Ganguly on Friday said he was looking forward to a partnership with Rahul Dravid and Greg
Chappell to make India a winning combination in Zimbabwe. “I hope it becomes a good partnership among Dravid, Greg and I so that we can get a winning combination,”
Ganguly said minutes after being named captain of the Indian team for the tour to
Zimbabwe. “We hope to do well in Zimbabwe. We need to improve our performance in ODIs. We have not done well in the shorter version of the game in the past one year,” he said. Asked what difference regaining captaincy would mean for the team, Ganguly said, “I just want to say, whoever is the captain, the team has to play well.” Ganguly said he would leave for Mumbai on Saturday to attend the selection committee meeting to choose the team. Asked whether there would be any changes in the team as the Indians had not played well in Sri Lanka, Ganguly said, “I cannot say that now. I will have to sit and discuss it.” Asked about working as skipper with Chappell as coach, Ganguly said, “I am looking forward to it.”
— PTI |
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Australia need 35 more runs to avoid follow-on Manchester, August 12 Shane Warne was 45 not out with Jason Gillespie at the other end. Giles took three for 66 and fast bowler Jones three for 30. Australia need to reach 245 to avoid the follow-on, should England intend to enforce it. They have not suffered such an indignity against England in an Ashes encounter since 1986-1987, the last time England won the series. England produced moments of brilliance, none better than Ian Bell’s catch at short leg and a perfect left-arm spinner’s dismissal from Giles. Australia mirrored that with moments of uncharacteristic ineptitude, none worse that Simon Katich’s shouldering arms to Andrew Flintoff, a decision which cost him his off stump. Things went farcically wrong for them off the pitch as well. Batsman Michael Clarke, sidelined since the opening overs of the match with back pain, had to be rushed to the ground from his hotel bed to bat with a runner as the Australian innings imploded. He made seven before giving a catch off Jones. Earlier in the day, Brett Lee and Warne took four wickets each as the home side, resuming on 341 for five, were dismissed shortly after lunch. Their last four wickets fell for 11 runs in 25 deliveries after an 87-run stand between Flintoff and Geraint Jones. Bell enjoyed less luck in the morning as he failed to add to his overnight score of 59. The 23-year-old, England’s last specialist batsman and seeking to increase the tempo, attempted a hook against Lee. Television replays suggested no contact but umpire Steve Bucknor’s finger finally went up after frenzied appeals. Scoreboard England (1st innings) Trescothick c Gilchrist Strauss b Lee 6 Vaughan c McGrath b Katich 166 Bell c Gilchrist b Lee 59 Pietersen c sub b Lee 21 Hoggard b Lee 4 Flintoff c Langer b Warne 46 G. Jones b Gillespie 42 Giles c Hayden b Warne 0 Harmison not out 10 S.Jones b Warne 0 Extras
(b-4, lb-5, w-3, nb-15) 27 Total (all out, 113.2 overs) 444 Fall of wickets:
1-26, 2-163, 3-290, 4-333, 5-341, 6-346, 7-433, 8-434, 9-438. Bowling:
McGrath 25-6-86-0, Lee 27-6-100-4, Gillespie 19-2-114-1, Warne 33.2-5-99-4, Katich 9-1-36-1. Australia (1st innings) Langer c Bell b Giles 31 Hayden lbw b Giles 34 Ponting c Bell b S. Jones 7 Martyn b Giles 20 Katich b Flintoff 17 Gilchrist c G. Jones Warne not out 45 Clarke c Flintoff b S. Jones 7 Gillespie not out 4 Extras
(b-4, lb-5, w-2, nb-4) 15 Total (7 wickets, 56 overs) 210 Fall of wickets:
1-58, 2-73, 3-82, 4-115, 5-129, 6-182, 7-197. Bowling: Harmison 6-0-37-0, Hoggard 6-2-22-0, Flintoff 12-0-46-1, S. Jones 11-3-30-3, Giles 21-3-66-3.
— Reuters
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Anand humbles Alexander Grischuk
Mainz (Germany), August 12 Anand, a huge favourite for his fifth successive victory in Mainz, was clearly the stronger player in the first two games in this high-profile event and outclassed Grischuk in all departments of the game to take a 2-0 lead. The eight-game match is being played under rapid chess rules with 25 minutes to each player at the start with a 10-second increment after every move is played. Anand started his first game with black pieces and the loss came as a real shocker to Grischuk. The impact was quite disheartening as the Russian, generally known as a consistent performer, crumbled in the second game too. Playing the Queen’s Indian in the first, Anand achieved a balanced position without much ado and definitely Grischuk was not comfortable in taking a draw with white in the first game itself in this short match. Looking for an elusive attack, the Russian was outdone by Anand in quick time when the Indian calculated more and found a major flaw in his opponent’s analysis. Winning a piece in the tactical melee, Anand had little trouble in converting his extra material to a full point in just 40 moves. The second game saw a typical attack-counterattack battle wherein Anand’s mastery in the Sicilian English attack came handy for him. Playing white this time, Anand gave a fine lesson in attacking chess to Grischuk. It looked like a race against getting to the king when both players started the onslaught in the middle game almost simultaneously. However, Anand’s sprint proved much quicker when the dust subsided. A methodical pawn sacrifice on the 24th move left the Russian panting for breath and Anand went berserk with his attack, first sacrificing an exchange and latter a full piece to keep himself in the game. The Indian ace then wasted little time in quietly coming to the rescue of his king. When the extra rook had its say in the matter, it was all over in 38 moves. Meanwhile, in the Finet Open Chess 960 tournament organised simultaneously, Grandmaster and world junior champion P Harikrishna won four games and lost one in the first five rounds. The Indian started with three victories in the 207-player event but lost his fourth round and bounced back with a victory over Mikheil Kekelidze of Georgia in his fifth game. Grandmasters Ivan Sokolov of the Netherlands and Alexei Shirov of Spain, who both have five points, were jointly leading the event while Harikrishna is on sharing the eighth spot. Chess 960 is now a famous variant of the game in which the initial position on the pieces is randomly changed before the start of a game. Earlier it was called Fischer Random chess, named after the inventor of this game — Robert James Fischer, the famous former world champion. In the Finet World Championship match between Russian Peter Svidler and Zoltan Almasi, the former got lucky to win one game and took an early 1.5-0.5 lead in the eight-game
match. — PTI |
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Justin Gatlin powers to golden double
Helsinki, August 12 Another American Tyson Gay was fourth. “I’m here to make history. It was a powerful race and a great victory for us (the Americans). I want to show the world that I am the champion!” said Gatlin. “I was a bit scared coming off the bend because I didn’t know how the other guys were doing but I put my technique together and ran a fast race.
“Double gold means I’m king of the sprints. It shows I’m the best sprinter around. I’m in shock right now.
“Two down and one to go,” added the champion who now wants a third gold in the relay and emulate compatriot Maurice Greene’s feat in the 1999 championships. Gatlin, who took bronze in the event in the Olympics, blew away his rivals — after looking less than at ease in the preceding rounds — running a superb bend. From then on it was a race for the minor medals among the three other Americans as Gatlin strode imperiously to almost as easy a victory as he had experienced in the 100m. Capel fought tooth and nail to get into the medals and eventually hauled in Gay while the latter’s training partner Spearmon, the fastest man in the world this season over the distance, held on for the silver. American Walter Davis made the most of Christian Olsson’s absence to win the men’s triple jump world title with his season’s best leap yesterday. Davis jumped 17.57 metres to beat Cuban Yoandri Betanzos (17.42), who won silver just as he did two years ago, and Romania’s Marian Oprea (17.40), who snatched bronze with his last jump. The competition had been thrown wide open after Sweden’s Olympic and 2003 world champion Olsson opted to rest his injured foot and did not travel to Helsinki. The 26-year-old Davis, who played basketball for Louisiana as a schoolboy and has a tattoo depicting the American state on his left bicep, said he had nailed a “big one”. Oprea had registered a season-leading jump of 17.81 in Lausanne in July but the Olympic silver medallist could not hit peak form in good jumping conditions. His final bronze medal-clinching leap deprived Bahamian Leevan Sands of the bronze medal by just one centimetre. Franka Dietzsch of Germany won her second world women’s discus title with a throw of 66.56 metres yesterday. Dietzsch, the 1999 world champion, led from the opening round but produced her best effort on her fourth throw during another cold, wet evening in the Finnish capital. Olympic champion Natalya Sadova of Russia was second with 64.33 metres and Czech Vera Cechlova took the bronze with her best throw of 63.19. Sadova won the world title in 2001 but was stripped of her gold medal after failing a drugs test for caffeine. Dietzsch, at 37 the oldest woman in the final, was the most consistent of the 12 competitors sending all her throws spinning out over the 64-metre mark. Four of her five throws
were far enough to win the gold. — Reuters |
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Stadium’s capacity may be reduced for C’wealth Games
New Delhi, August 12 Though the National Stadium complex has been designed as a multi-purpose facility, only hockey matches are played inside the main stadium now. The cinder athletics track had given way to grass long time back, signalling the end of athletics activity at the stadium. The gap between the synthetic hockey turf and the spectators’ stands are so wide that viewing hockey matches is a ‘distant’ experience at the National
Stadium. To make the stadium more compact, and to be closer to the action in the middle, the spectator stands on the eastern, northern and southern sides will be brought closer to the astroturf. There are plans to lay new astroturfs to give a makeover to the complex, facing Rashtrapati Bhavan, at the eastern end of India Gate. Meanwhile, after the first annual general body meeting of the Organising Committee of the Commonwealth Games here yesterday, the organisational aspect of the games has picked up. Chairman and vice-chairman of the committee, Suresh Kalmadi and Randhir Singh, respectively, are now getting into the task of constituting the 29 sub-committees to cater to all aspects. The members of the Organising Committee have been given the option of putting their names in any three of the 29 sub-committees. The games are not coming to New Delhi cheap. An amount of Rs 108,816,350 has been spent by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports toward payment of games hosting fee.This amount is in addition to the Rs 3,41,99,502 incurred for the Commonwealth Games bid at Jamaica by the Indian Olympic Association. In terms of the host city contract, the Organising Committee is liable to pay, for the right to host the games, as the host fee, to the Commonwealth Games Federation £1.5 million by January 1, 2006, and similar amounts in the subsequent three years, till January 1, 2009. In short, India will be shelling out £7.3 million for hosting the Commonwealth Games, which works out to Rs 56.25 crore. |
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Coaches told to work under clerks
Patiala, August 12 An order signed by Mr A.K. Sharma, in charge, SAI Udhav Dass Mehta Central Zone Centre, Bhopal, states that the 30 freshly posted coaches at the centre should work as subordinates to officials like upper divisional clerks, accountants and assistant directors. The coaches have been asked to sign an attendance register, which is being kept in a room (monitoring cell) in the Bhopal centre, at 9.30 every morning. The order dated August 2, 2005, also states that at 10 am the register will be taken to the in charge. This decision has come in for stringent criticism from various quarters. Mr G.S. Anand, a former Regional Director of the NIS, said instead of taking out such a harsh order, the coaches should have been assigned technical jobs and that too only till they were absorbed in the numerous schemes run by the SAI at Bhopal. Earlier, the Choudhury Devi Lal Northern Centre, Sonepat, authorities had asked the coaches to perform clerical duties. |
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New Jersey, August 12 However, the Baltusrol beast caught up with Atwal again as he dropped four shots over a stretch of five closing holes as he ended the day in tied 97th place. Six players, Stuart Appleby, Trevor Immelman, Ben Curtis, Phil Mickelson, Stephen Ames and Rory Sabbatini all shared the first round lead on 67. World number one Tiger Woods, bidding for a third major this season, slumped to a score of 75, a score which reflected on how difficult Baltusrol was playing. Atwal opened bogey-bogey-double bogey to be four after three holes. But he recovered well with birdies on the fourth and the seventh, but then again dropped a shot on the ninth to be three-over 37 for the front nine. Excellent birdies on the 10th and 12th saw him claw his way back but then back to back bogeys on the 13th and the 14th and again on the 16th and the 17th set him back heavily. A closing birdie was a consolation as he ended the day at four-over 74 and in tied 97th place.
— PTI |
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Geet Sethi to head Arjuna Awards panel
New Delhi, August 12 The members of the committee are former table tennis champion Kamlesh Mehta, badminton ace Pullela Gopichand, hockey Olympian Harbinder Singh, Asian
Games silver medallist in swimming Khazan Singh Tokas, former Davis cupper Jaideep Mukherjee, squash champion Bhuwaneshwari Kumari, woman cricketer
Shubhangi Kulkarni, Manoj Pingale, Sanjeev Singh, secretary of the Indian Airlines Sports Board, secretary of the Services Sports Control Board and
Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Director-General of Sports Authority of
India, and Director, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. |
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Paragliding Pre-World Cup from Oct 14
Mandi, August 12 Talking to The Tribune here today, the organising secretary, HPASA, Dr S.P. Katyal said over 42 pilots from 21 countries had confirmed their participation. “We expect over 120 pilots to take part in the event”, he said. The Pre-World Cup has been branded as World Cup Selection Tour-2005 and is approved by the Federation Aeronautics Internationale (FAI), a world body that governs aerosports. The organisers said the event was a category-II event that attracted adventurers from across the world every year. The president, HPASA, Mr Ashok Thakur, who is also Principal Secretary, Tourism, said the local pilots who had the requisite flying experience could also participate in the event. |
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Mahesh-Damm in quarterfinals
New Delhi, August 12 Bhupathi and his Czech Republic partner Martin Damm, seeded seventh, overcame Cyril Suk and Pavel Vizner 6-3, 7-6 (4) at the hardcourt event yesterday. Fifth seeds Paes and Serbia’s Nenad Zimonjic lost 6-2, 3-6, 6-7 (3) to Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram of Israel on Wednesday. —
PTI |
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Ramesh assured of title
New Delhi, August 12 Ramesh is followed by 10 others on nine points, who have ensured their slots among the 14 qualifiers for the National A Championships. The final round of the 13-round tournament tomorrow will be a battle for the remaining slots for which six players, with 8.5 points each, would be fighting to gain 9.5 points. DK Sharma, K Rathnakaran, Argyadip Das, P Konguvel, Abhijeet Gupta, Deep Sengupta, M Panigrahi and V Saravanan are the players whose matches would be decisive tomorrow. Woman Grandmaster Nisha Mohota, IM R R Laxman, Dronavalli Harika and 12-year-old M.R. Lalith Babu suffered shocking defeats to blot their chances. |
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Mansher 19th
New Delhi, August 12 |
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