Windies vote proved decisive, says Shaharyar
Samiul Hasan

Karachi, May 2
A top Pakistan cricket official today said the West Indies’ vote in favour of Asia proved decisive in winning the bid to host the 2011 World Cup by beating the joint proposal of Australia and New Zealand.

“The African countries were with us but the vote by the West Indies proved decisive,” PCB Chairman Shaharyar Khan said soon after his return from ICC Executive Board meeting in Dubai where India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka were given the joint rights to host the World Cup.

Pakistan also got the right to host the 2008 ICC Champions Trophy.

Shaharyar, however, refused to reveal why the West Indies voted in favour of Asia despite having a history of supporting Australia and England.

But PCB insiders revealed lucrative financial returns tempted the West Indies to go in their favour.

In the final presentation (on Sunday) and even a day before, Asia’s bigwigs persuaded the West Indies to vote for them while conveying that if Asia got the World Cup, each of the full members would earn a minimum of $14 million as participation fee, sources said.

The appearance money in the 2011 World Cup is nearly $5 million more than what the countries would get to play in the 2007 World Cup.

In fact, the Asian bosses knew that West Indies Cricket was heading for bankruptcy and needed money to improve and uplift its infrastructure to restore the lost pride and image.

The West Indies have also proposed India and Pakistan to play a tri-nation one-day series in United States to raise money, the sources said.

As per the Asian proposal, 15 venues would be used for 51 matches with eight venues in India, four in Pakistan, two in Bangladesh and one in Sri Lanka. India would host 22 games, Pakistan 14, Sri Lanka nine and Bangladesh six. The venues of the semi-finals and the final is yet to be decided.

Shaharyar Khan, when asked if the participating countries would play in Colombo and Karachi, said Asia had given guarantees and if required, further guarantees would be given.

The event is still five year away and we will keep monitoring the situation. Security guarantees have been given by our respective governments, he said.

Australia and the West Indies had forfeited their Colombo matches in the 1996 World Cup while top teams have refused to play in Karachi. India broke that deadlock when they played in Karachi earlier this year while England only played a one-dayer in December last year. — PTI

Hectic schedule leaves Brett Lee fuming
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, May 2
Australian pace bowler Brett Lee joined the chorus of those who lament about the hectic international cricket schedule, such back-to-back matches have made the top players worn out, tired and injury-prone.

He indicated that his availability for the ICC Champions Trophy to be hosted by India in October-November this year would depend on his fitness.

Lee echoed the views of Australian vice-captain Adam Gilchrist, who had suggested resting some of the key players for the Champions Trophy, as the packed cricket scheduled was undermining the fitness and potency of the players. Lee said he would play in the Champions Trophy only if he was fully fit, though he conceded that he loved playing in the subcontinent.

The Champions Trophy will be particularly taxing for the England and Australian players, as the ICC event will be followed by the hectic Ashes series. Brett Lee has another valid reason to skip the Champions Trophy, as he would be getting married to his girl friend Liz Kemp shortly.

Lee said the players were all burnt out after the packed cricket series during the past two months. “If you compare it to a petrol tank, the last two months I have been on fumes. The tank has been empty,” he noted.

Lee refused to comment on the comparative importance of the Ashes and the Champions Trophy events, observing that the Aussies always “took one match at a time”.

“We always want to look at the next game on hand. For us the next event is the Champions Trophy. It will be the important thing for us now. Hopefull we can win it,” he added. The ICC Champions Trophy is the only major cricket title to elude the Aussies and Lee said they were very keen to correct this blemish in India.

He said the Australian team will think about the Ashes only after the Champions Trophy, though he admitted that the Aussies gave “more weight to winning the Ashes than the World Cup”. Lee said Australia were very keen to regain the Ashes from the “Poms” which they had wrested after the Aussies had held in their custody for 18 long years.

Lee praised the Asian bloc for winning the 2011 World Cup bid, beating the combined bid of Australia and New Zealand, as cricket is a religion here. But he hoped that he would be around to play when his country’s turn comes to host the mega event in 2015.

The 29-year-old pacer said the concept of Twenty20 cricket was good as it would help improve the standard of limited overs game.

About Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s blistering batting and keeping skills, Lee said “though I have not seen him play in person, whatever I have seen on TV, it has been a lot of sixes”.

Lee said his 200th Test wicket and the wicket of Marvan Atapattu at the 2003 World Cup in South Africa were his memorable wicket-taking deliveries. “I saw the stumps flying and then looked up and saw the speed guns register 160 kmph,” he recollected.

Warne rules out one-day comeback

Melbourne, May 2
Shane Warne today scotched speculation that he might come out of his self-imposed retirement from one-dayers to play for Australia in the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies.

The spin wizard said he does not nurture any desire to return to one-day international and his current form in Test cricket justified his decision to stay away from the shorter version of the game.

“I must have said it 14,000 times. I have retired and I have no aspirations to return,” he said. — PTI

Pak A win

Abu Dhabi, May 2
Pakistan A bounced back from an agonising defeat against arch-rivals India to hand a crushing six-wicket win to the Netherlands A in the Eurasia Series limited overs cricket tournament here yesterday.

After seamer Yasir Arafat’s bowling exploits (4-36) saw the Orange team being skittled out for a meagre 183, Pakistan A romped home with more than 17 overs to spare in the Group D second league phase match at the Sheikh Zayed stadium.

Top order batsman Shahid Yousuf hit a well-paced 62 while captain Hasan Raza was unbeaten on 41. The duo featured in a match-winning partnership of 65 runs for the third wicket. Earlier, Arafat knocked down the first four wickets with a fine exhibition of seam bowling to send their unfancied rivals packing in 48.1 overs in the day-night encounter.

Barring Maurits van Nierop, who scored a defiant 101-ball 60 with five fours, none of the other batsman could survive for long on a good batting track. Pieter Salaar was the only other notable contributor with a 59-ball 26. — PTI

Marathon prodigy Buddhia Singh
enters Limca Book of Records

Bhubaneswar, May 2
Child marathon prodigy Buddhia Singh today literally ran into Limca Book of Records by covering a distance of 65 km in a time of 7.02 hours even though he failed to complete the targeted 70 km distance.

Flanked by cadets of CRPF, the five-year-old Buddhia completed the distance from Puri Jagannath Temple to Bhubaneswar braving the humid and hot conditions.

“He has successfully completed a distance of 65 km in 7.02 hours. His name will figure in 2007 edition of Limca Book of Records,” Amreen Toor, Assistant Editor of the Limca Book of Records, told PTI at the CRPF stadium here.

Given the family background from which he has emerged, today’s achievement becomes more special, Toor said hinting that, “Buddhia’s will be a human interest story. We hope it will inspire a large section of people”.

Limca Book of Records Editor, Bijoya Ghosh also confirmed that Budhia’s name would figure in the 2007 edition.

“Yes, he has entered the record book,” she told a TV news channel.

Buddhia started his record run in the wee hours today (around 4 am in the morning) and reached here a few minutes after 11 am when the day’s temperature shot to approximately 35 degrees Celsius and humidity fluctuated between 45 per cent to 95 per cent.

People lined up on both sides of the NH-203 in large numbers to wish the wonder boy and offered garlands and flowers as a CRPF pilot vehicle tried to disperse the crowd.

A team of 300 CRPF cadets ran in groups alongside Buddhia who covered the distance at nearly 10 km per hour. After completing 65 Km, Buddhia was picked up by doctors trailing him after he showed symptoms of exhaustion 5 km from the CRPF group centre here — his destination — and lifted him into a vehicle.

Though he looked tired when he reached CRPF stadium, he had enough stamina to respond to the cheers of hundreds of school students and a large gathering.

Doctors, CRPF cadets and his mentor Biranchi Das, however, rued about frequent disruptions on the way by onlookers for which Buddhia could not cover 70 km.

“Frequent intervention from curious people disturbed his rhythm,” Das said.

Jyotsnarani Jena, a doctor accompanying Buddhia said, “the public acted in an irresponsible manner. Buddhia was frequently disturbed by the people who were frequently interfering by breaking the cordon”.

Buddhia was kept in an air-conditioned room and given some medication for some time before he came out to acknowledge the cheers of the people and get felicitated by the CRPF at the stadium.

Siddharth Mohanty, the boy’s personal physician, said Buddhia’s pulse rate was between 120 to 130 which, he claimed, was normal under the circumstances.

“He was advised to take juice and light food in the morning,” Mohanty said.

“It is incredible. This child has loads of stamina,” N Tripathy, a CRPF jawan, who covered a part of the distance with Buddhia told PTI on reaching Bhubaneswar.

CRPF Additional Deputy Inspector General B S Gill said, “the child is a bright prospect. We will do whatever is needed to be done to facilitate proper training.”

Orissa Sports minister Debasis Nayak, who was present at the CRPF stadium to receive the child prodigy said, “the achievement is extra-ordinary. But we should take a cautious approach to harness his talent.”

He said, “Buddhia needed to be groomed gradually. He should not be rushed and given unnecessary stress to become a star.”

Asked whether it was prudent to make such a little boy run long distances, Limca Book of Records Editor said, “It was not their idea to make the child run. As he had already been traversing the distance of 70 km, the Limca Book of Records showed interest.” On May 9, Buddhia with his mentor Das is travelling to London to take part in a marathon.

Since the child was spotted from a city slum, the national as well as foreign TV channels have been following his incredible stamina at such a tender age. — PTI

Ramesh finishes joint fourth

Dubai, May 2
Grandmaster R.B. Ramesh defeated compatriot teenager S.P. Sethuraman to finish joint fourth after ninth and final round of the Dubai International Open Chess championship here today.

There was an expected three-way tie at the top but Grandmaster Sergey Fedorchuk of Ukraine emerged as the champion on a better tiebreak score than Armenian duo of Gabriel Sargissian and Tigran Petrosian, who finished second and third, respectively.

The three top finishers ended with seven points apiece while Ramesh was next among the set of 13 players having 6.5 points each and finished 11th after the tie was resolved in the $ 40,000 prize money tournament.

International Masters Abhijeet Gupta, Vishal Sareen and S Satyapragyan also figured amongst the prize winners after they all won their respective final round games against lower rated opponents. All three ended with six points overall.

Among other Indians in the fray, double Grandmaster norm holder Parimarjan Negi lost his final round game against GM Evgenij Miroshnichenko of Ukraine and finished with 5.5 points.

Kruttika Nadig could not hold a promising position against GM Faruk Bistrik of Bosnia and Herzegovina and went down.

Kruttika, who needed just a draw as white in her last round game to secure her maiden Women Grandmaster norm, had earlier seen her peace proposal rejected by the Bosnian GM. Even though the WGM norm did not come her way, Kruttika still ended up gaining a few important rating points and was adjudged joint third amongst women along with WGM and former world under-18 girls’ champion Aarthie Ramamswamy. — PTI

Saroja, Shweta disappoint

New Delhi, May 2
Commonwealth Games gold medallist Saroja Kumari and Shweta Chowdhary had a disappointing outing in the women’s 25m sports pistol event at the ISSF World Cup Resende in Brazil, finishing 31st and 33rd, respectively.

Saroja tallied 564, which included 281 (91,96,94) in precision and 283 (95,93,95) in rapid stage. Shweta aggregated 563 (289+274). She fired a series of 97,93,99 in precision and in the rapid stage. She shot (94,91,89).

Anisa Sayyed shot 564 in the MQS (minimum quota score). She scored 278 (94,91,93) in precision and 286 (96,95,95) in rapid.

Another Indian in the fray, Sonia Rai, who won the bronze medal earlier in the 10m air pistol, fired 288 (95,96,97) in precision and 271 (91,90,90) in the rapid stage.

Jasna Sekaric of Serbia won the gold medal with a score of 784.7 (584+200.7) and the silver went to Maria Pilar Fernandeze of Spain for 783.2 (580+203.2). Renata Sike of Hungary bagged the bronze with an effort of 782.4 (585+197.4).

Samresh Jung shot a score of 536 in the elimination round of men’s 50m free pistol event. The Commonwealth Games hero fired a series of 85, 89, 96, 91, 91, 84. However, Jung invited a two-point penalty after he complained about the machine at his point and shifted to another.

According to ISSF rules, if a shooter complains during sighting shots about the correct recording or evaluation of the shots, the jury may offer to move him to another firing point.

When jury examined the sighting shots on the original firing point, it showed that the target provided correct results and Jung was penalised with the deduction of two points from the lowest value shot of the first competition series.

Other two Indians, Vivek singh and B Biji, shot a score of 542 (90,90,89,91,92,90) and 539 (87,91,92,93,85,91), respectively. — PTI

JCT edge out Sporting Clube 2-1 in NFL
Amardeep Bhattal
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, May 2
JCT Mills, Phagwara, rallied superbly to down Sporting Clube de Goa 2-1 in a high-voltage contest of the tenth National Football League at Guru Nanak Stadium here today.

Having gone into arrears a few minutes into the second session when Nicholas Rodrigues found the net after a barren first half, JCT hit back to restore parity four minutes later through diminutive striker Sunil Chhetri who chipped the ball in off a cross from the right. Nigerian striker Johnson Banner's match winner in the 70th minute sealed the fate of the Goan outfit, steering JCT to the fifth position in the league. The mill men now have 20 points from five wins and five draws and are trailing Dempo SC who also have the same number of points but superior goal average.

Sporting Clube sorely missed the services of key players like Rajesh Meetei, Wilton Gomes and Bibiano Fernandes due to injury and as coach Clifford Chukuwama said, it did affect the team's performance. Nevertheless, dashing Nigerian striker Macpherlin Dudu Omagbemi and compatriot Edeh Chidi proved constant threats as they initiated several good moves which, however, fizzled out in the face of a stubborn JCT defence.

With the league moving into its decisive phase, the mill men appeared determined to snatch valuable points in their penultimate home match. Egged on by a boisterous crowd, JCT seldom betrayed signs of nervousness. The attack, spearheaded by Brazilian striker Marcos Pereira, Rennedy Singh, Sunil Chhetri and Parveen Kumar, did put Sporting Clube on the defensive in the initial stages but the breakthrough came only in the second session with the induction of Jaswinder Singh and Johnson.

In the opening minutes, JCT's Baldeep Singh's square pass to an onrushing Rennedy Singh went abegging as the latter failed to connect.

Off a counter attack, Sporting Clube's Dudu Omagbemi despatched a cross for Hardeep Saini whose right footer was slightly off the mark.

A free kick by JCT's Rennedy Singh midway into the first session saw Marcos Pereira attempting a well-directed header which Luis Barreto collected with some difficulty.

A few minutes before half time, a move initiated by Baldeep on the right flank saw Marcos sending a cross for Chhetri after dodging a defender but goalkeeper Luis Barreto again made a timely save off the latter's header.

Five minutes into the second session, Sporting Clube took the lead when off a pass by Joseph Pereira, Nicholas Rodrigues calmly slotted the ball home with the goalkeeper looking on helplessly (1-0).

Undettered by the setback, JCT attacked relentlessly and just four minutes later managed to draw level when substitute Jaswinder's cross from the right saw striker Parveen leaving a dummy for Sunil Chhetri who placed the ball in the net without much difficulty (1-1). Thereafter, Parveen was replaced by Johnson.

It was in the 70th minute that JCT forged ahead. Johnson trapped the ball inside the box and beat Felip Gomes with a fine body swerve. With only the goalkeeper at his mercy, Johnson placed the ball in after dodging him, sending a wave of joy in the JCT camp (2-1).

JCT could have consolidated the lead in the dying minutes when Jaswinder Singh raced down the right flank with only two defenders in front. He cut past one before shooting to his left but the ball sailed over the goal-line.

Sporting Clube effected a couple of substitutions at the fag end bringing in Vincent Pires, Joe Rodrigues and the veteran Francis Silveira but JCT held on to the lead and eventually logged full points. Johnson Banner of JCT was adjudged the man-of-the-match.

32 probables shortlisted

New Delhi, May 2
The Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) today announced a list of 32 probables to select the national squad for the Sultan Azlan Shah hockey tournament to be held in Kuala Lumpur from June 18 to 25.

The probables: Goalkeepers: K. Bharat Chetri, Baljit Singh, Adrian D’Souza. Full Backs: Dilip Tirkey, Kanwalpreet Singh, Sandeep Singh, Jugraj Singh, Harpal Singh, William Xalxo. Mid-fielders: Prabodh Tirkey, Ajmer Singh, Vikram Pillay, Ignace Tirkey, V.S. Vinay, Bimal Lakra, Sunil Ekka, Nitin Kumar, Viren Rasquinha. Forwards: Gagan Ajit Singh, Rajpal Singh, Tushar Khandekar, Arjun Halappa, Adam Sinclair, Shivendra Singh, Birender Lakra, Hari Prasad, Gurvinder Singh, Sardar Singh, Didar Singh, Deepak Thakur, Prabhjot Singh, Tejbir Singh. — UNI

50 u-14 hockey players selected

Chandigarh, May 2
The Punjab Sports Department has selected 50 under-14 hockey players on the basis of physical tests and preliminary trials held at Ludhiana, Amritsar and Jalandhar last month. The players selected are for the Surjit Hockey Academy, Jalandhar, the Government Senior Secondary School Hockey Academy, Ludhiana, and the Lyallpur Khalsa School Hockey Academy, Amritsar.

Meanwhile, the trials in the under-16 age group for the Surjit Hockey Academy and Senior Secondary School, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, have been directed to report at the National Institute of Sports, Patiala, on May 3 at 9 am for medical examination, age verification and final selection.

The players selected for Surjit Hockey Academy, Jalandhar (under-14) are: Gurjot Singh, Gurpinder Singh, Sukhmanjit Singh, Barkat Singh, Navtej Singh, Manpreet Singh, Gurmehar Singh, Gurjan Singh, Chamkaur Singh, Paramvir Singh, Gurninder Singh, Harjinder Singh, Davinder Singh, Karamvir Singh, Gursahib Singh, Kamaljit Singh, Amanjot Singh and Hardip Singh.

The players selected for Lyallpur Khalsa School Hockey Academy, Amritsar (under-14): Navpreet Singh, Rajwinder Singh, Simrandeep Singh, Karan Singh, Jaskaran Singh, Harkirat Singh, Rakesh Suman, Nishan Singh, Malwinder Singh, Kuldeep Singh, Sukhdev Singh, Davinder Kumar, Manpreet Singh and Gurbir Singh

The players selected for Government Senior Secondary School Hockey Academy, PAU, Ludhiana (under-14): Dhanwinder Singh, Jatinderpal Singh, Gurnoor Singh, Simran Singh, Karamvir Singh, Jatinder Singh Sandhu, Prabhjot Singh, Tejbir Singh, Harkanwalpreet Singh, Pavittar Singh, Jaspal Singh, Gagandeep Singh Mann, Dhanraj Singh, Ranjeet Singh, Akashdeep Singh, Manjot Singh, Kulbir Singh and Amandeep Singh.