St Kitts, May 22
India will have to quickly set their house in order as they go into the third cricket one-dayer against the West Indies here tomorrow seeking to make amends for their debacle in the last game.

The heart-wrenching one-run defeat in Kingston not only snapped their world record sequence of wins while chasing but also served as a wake-up call for Rahul Dravid’s men who have been below par so far in the series, tied 1-1 presently.

While the batsmen have not clicked as a unit, the bowlers, barring Ajit Agarkar, have also looked out of sorts. Although the tourists have dominated largely in the first two games, they have not been very convincing, evident from the fact that both matches went down the wire.

The Indian team management might have to pull some new trick out of the bag after their experiment with Irfan Pathan batting at number three backfired in both the matches at Kingston.

Mohammad Kaif, who had barely pulled himself out of a form slump with a half-century, once again perished cheaply, raising doubts on whether he has really worked himself out of his poor run of form. The Uttar Pradesh batsman now needs to bat higher up to silence the critics and showcase his talent.

Virender Sehwag, another batsman struggling to come out of poor form, also requires hitting the straps and giving a steady start, which the team is heavily dependent upon.

Dravid tried to sound nonchalant about their record of 17 wins on the trot being snapped but he conceded that the side had not expected it to come to an end in a low-scoring game.

“It had to end at one stage or the other, probably not when chasing a modest target,” Dravid said after India’s loss.

“We did not execute our plans well. Hopefully we can learn from here and move on,” the Indian captain said.

Dravid would be hoping that S. Sreesanth recovers from his bruised heel and shores up the team’s bowling resources. The Kerala paceman, if included, would take the place of Munaf Patel who has failed to impress so far.

As far as West Indies are concerned, they too have batted in bits and parts although there has been the odd big innings or two.

In the bowling department, their spinners have been lacklustre, with the off-breaks of Marlon Samuels even believed to have raised the eyebrows of the on-field umpire.

Samuels would have been hauled up in Jamaica itself but apparently there was not enough footage available for the officials to make the call.

The two close games have whetted the appetite of the cricket loving public of the Caribbean and this small island with a population of 45,000 is understandably delighted at the prospect of an international match coming their way.

The match here would also serve as a dry run for the local World Cup committee since the current top ranked teams — Australia and South Africa — would play their first two World Cup matches here. — PTI

Mumbai, May 22
Sachin Tendulkar will undergo a fitness test here tomorrow morning, which would determine whether the master batsman is available to play in the four-Test series in the West Indies commencing on June 2.

“The fitness Test for Tendulkar and Wasim Jaffer (who underwent a shin surgery) would be done at the Bandra Kurla complex ground (of the Mumbai Cricket Association) tomorrow morning,” a cricket board source said today.

Former Indian team physiotherapist Andrew Leipus and selection committee chairman Kiran More would be present during the fitness test.

The Indian team for the Test series is to be selected here a day later, on May 24.

Tendulkar, who missed the one-day series following a shoulder operation, is to fly to London tomorrow night to consult Dr Andrew Wallace who performed the operation.

“If he’s passed fit he would proceed from London to the West Indies,” the board source said. The other replacements for the Test series are slated to leave on May 25 night.

If he passes the fitness test, Tendulkar would be able to make good the chances he lost of scoring more than one century in the West Indies on his last two visits, as captain in 1997 and as player under Sourav Ganguly in 2002.

His lone Test ton in the West Indies four years ago, a fine innings of 117 at Port of Spain in Trinidad, had set up India’s only win in the Caribbean islands since 1976.

Tendulkar has crossed the 80 mark on four other occasions without converting them into hundreds. — PTI 

New Delhi, May 22
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resource Development, in its report presented in the Rajya Sabha and tabled in the Lok Sabha today, has stated that the cut made in the actual allocation from the proposed figures in the budget for sports “would definitely hamper proper implementation and ultimately have a negative impact on the performance of various schemes”.

Quoting the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, the Standing Committee, headed by Janardan Dwivedi, in its report noted that against a projected demand of Rs 929.29 crore under Plan for the year 2006-2007, a provision of only Rs 600 crore has been made, though the projections were made taking into consideration higher requirements for a number of ongoing and proposed schemes to be implemented by the Ministry during 2006-2007.

But due to the drastic reduction in the budget allocation, various schemes of the Sports Authority of India (SAI), creation of sports infrastructure, work on the 2010 Commonwealth Games and training of Indian athletes, would be severely affected.

For example, the SAI schemes, in actuality, needed Rs 173 crore implementation, but got only Rs 150 crore; only Rs 27 crore have been allocated for creation of infrastructure from the proposed 90 crore; only 150 crore have been allocated for Commonwealth Games from the proposed Rs 200 crore; and no money has been set apart for the training of sports persons though Rs 75 crore had been proposed by the Ministry.

“Not only this, the proposed expansion of the NYKS (Nehru Yuvak Kendra Sankathans) to 123 uncovered districts and promotion of Rural Sports Club movement in the villages would also be adversely affected due to the cut in the proposed demand of the Ministry”, the report elaborated.

The committee was surprised to note the “sweeping cut” for the training of sportspersons and wanted to be apprised of the “plans/scheme” formulated by the Ministry for the training of the Indian athletes for the forthcoming Asian Games and other international events.

The report has also castigated the Ministry for the under-utilisation of funds.

Chandigarh, May 22
About 550 budding basketball players, both boys and girls, will be in Ludhiana to participate in the 57th Dhanoa National Junior Basketball Championship to be played at Guru Nanak Basketball Stadium from May 27 to June 3.

For Ludhiana, it will be the ninth National Championship and third in the juniors section.

Though this industrial town boasts of an ultra-modern indoor basketball stadium, two floodlit outdoor courts, the staging of the championship this year is an opportunity for the host boys to wrest back the title which they lost at Pondicherry last year after remaining the top boys team of the country for five consecutive years.

Punjab girls are not lagging behind. They have won the national title six times.

Ludhiana has produced several basketball players for senior and junior national teams. In the Melbourne Commonwealth Games, two girls — Kamaljit Kaur and Karanjit Kaur — represented the country. Recently, three boys from the Ludhiana Basketball Academy represented the country in the Asian Reebok Junior Championship held in China. These boys are Yadwinder Singh Jr, Sukhbir Dhillon and Gurpreet Singh.

“All three basketball courts have tereflexed surfaces. All modern gadgets, including timers and electronic scoreboards would be used during the championship, “ says Mr Teja Singh Dhaliwal, Secretary, Punjab Basketball Association.

Mr Gurpreet Singh, organising secretary of the championship, said 24 participating teams in the boys section have been divided into six pools of four teams each.

Punjab boys have been clubbed with Maharashtra, Goa and Pondicherry, while Chandigarh boys are in pool A with Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Uttaranchal.

In the girls section, there are 22 teams. While Chandigarh share pool A with Chhattisgarh and Gujarat, hosts Punjab are in pool F with West Bengal, Manipur and Orissa.

Matches will be played on round-robin league basis before the knockout stage starts.

Meanwhile, Mr A.S. Rai, chairman of the organising committee, said all arrangements for the conduct of the championship had been finalised. Matches will be played from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. each day.

All four semifinals (boys and girls) will be played on June 2 and the finals will be held on June 3, Mr Rai added.

Turin, May 22
Second seed Indian men were shocked by much lower ranked Morocco as they were handed a humiliating 1-3 defeat in the first round itself at the 37th Chess Olympiad here.

In the highly regarded team, Grandmasters P. Harikrishna and national champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly could manage only a half point each on top two boards while on the remaining boards GM Sandipan Chanda and International Master-to-be Diwakar Prasad Singh suffered unexpected defeats giving an early blow to the India’s medal aspirations.

Surprisingly, top ranked player GM Krishnan Sasikiran was rested in the first round despite the absence of Viswanathan Anand, who is expected to arrive in Turin today but most probably start playing from the fourth round.

The team hopes the arrival of Anand from Sofia in Bulgaria, where the Indian ace just finished a super category event, will make the difference.

The result appalled the team members and officials alike.

In the last Olympiad when the men had finished sixth, the worst result during the course of the tournament was a 1.5-2.5 loss against eventual winners Ukraine but this time losing to Morocco, a team which is unlikely to find itself in the top 30 here, like the way they did, left a lot of ground to be covered in the remaining 12 rounds.

For the records, India was the only seeded team in top 30 that lost in the 146-team competition. Fearing second worst was ninth seed Azerbaijan that drew with Mangolia with a 2-2 score.

Ganguly was the first to take a draw with Elbilia Jacques who is rated around 250 points less than the Indian. Playing white, Ganguly did not get much advantage in an age-old Phillidor defense game and signed peace in just 26 moves.

Panchkula, May 22
The first edition of the six-day National Twenty20 Cricket Championship will commence at Tau Devi Lal Complex, Sector 3, here tomorrow.

Twelve teams from all over the country will vie for top honours. The teams have been divided into four pools — A, B, C and D — and there are three teams in each pool. Promising an exciting championship, Mr I D Kamboj, chairman, organising committee of the tournament, said, “The teams, mostly consisting of top Ranji players, would face each other in the league matches prior to the knockout stage. The top teams from each pool will play the semifinals on May 27.”

“All rules and regulations of the International Twenty20 Cricket Federation would be followed in the tournament. The 20-over matches will be played with white ball and coloured clothing”, said Mr Piyush Rana, Secretary General, Indian Twenty20 Cricket Association.

During the championship, the probables will be selected to represent the country in the forthcoming Asia Cup to be held at Chandigarh in November.

In the inaugural match, starting at 7 am, the Indian Twenty20 Cricket Federation team will take on Bihar, while Uttar Pradesh will meet Andhra Pradesh in the next match at 10.30 am. In the third match of the day, Chhattisgarh will face Bihar at 1.30 pm.

The tournament is being organised by the Panchkula District Twenty20 Association.

Pool A: ITCF, Bihar, Chhattisgarh.

Pool B: Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana.

Pool C: Madhya Pradesh, Mumbai, Uttaranchal.

Pool D: Punjab, West Bengal, Chandigarh.

New Delhi, May 22
Outgoing coach Vimal Kumar today lashed out at the Badminton Association of India for giving preference to rank youngsters at the expense of experienced pros for important upcoming tournaments in Asia.

Vimal, who has just finished his coaching stint with the team after scripting India’s successful run in Thomas Cup, said it was a hasty move by the BAI to leave out players like Aparna Popat and Trupti Murgunde from the women’s team.

“The junior players who have been selected are only 16 or 17 years old and I don’t think they are prepared to play in five-star tournaments like Philippines Open and Singapore Open yet,” he told PTI.

The Indian men’s and women’s team have busy few weeks ahead as they are slated to play in the Philippines Open (May 24-28), Indonesian Open (May 31-June 4), Singapore Open (June 5-11) and Malaysian Open (June 13-18).

The men’s team is spearheaded by world No. 24 and Commonwealth bronze medallist Chetan Anand but the women’s team is without the seasoned Aparna Popat and Trupti Murgunde.

Vimal said the players picked in place of the seniors were raw and lacked international exposure. — PTI

Bangalore, May 22
India’s Pinki Pramanik won gold medals in women’s 800m and 400m, while her compatriot Anju Bobby George disappointed the home crowd by managing the long jump silver in the second leg of the Asian Grand Prix 2006 here today.

Pinki, the winner of the 800m gold medal in Bangkok, repeated her performance today by winning the gold in in 2 minutes 4.42 seconds. In 400m, she picked up her second gold clocking 52.46 seconds. Pinki had won the silver medal at Bangkok.

In 800m, Shanti Sounderajan won the silver, while the bronze went to Amirova Zamira of Uzbekistan.

In the long jump for women, Volga Rypakova of Kazakhstan repeated her Bangkok performance and won the gold leaping 6.39 metres.

Anju finished second with a jump of 6.35 metres, while Corresonarescella of the Philippines won the bronze.

In men’s 800m event, Mohajershoaaei Eeshan of Iran won the gold clocking 1 minute 47.5 seconds. Home challenge Francis Savairaj took the silver and Kazakhstan’s Dmitry Tarasenko the bronze.

In women’s discus throw, Song Aimin of China won the gold, while India’s Krishna Puniya and Saroj Sihag bagged the silver and bronze, respectively. — PTI 

New Delhi, May 22
The long lull in her activity at the WTA tour circuit eventually reflected on Sania Mirza’s rankings as she slipped three ladders down to 38th in the list announced today. Shikha Uberoi, an Indian of American origin, maintained her 179th position. — PTI

Compiled by Pankaj Vasudeva; Graphic by Gaurav Sood