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Acid Test for India
BCCI fixes two-year term for selectors
Laxman, Jaffer score fifties in warm-up game
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Eves blank Mongolia
Narang, Bindra fail to fire
Punjab girls storm into semis
Satinder Sharma to umpire in
hockey World Cup
Sridhar enters pre-quarters
Gopichand replaces Vimal as national coach
YPS triumph in U-13 cricket Workshop
on sports concludes 26
swimmers selected for championship Karate championship
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Acid Test for India
St John’s (Antigua), June 1 On occasions, though, the track has oscillated to being slightly baneful to batsmen. This time, the good length areas on one side are mostly barren, while on the other it’s a mixture of dead grass and a few specks of green. Thus, the wicket could be two-faced. The curator, Keith Fredrick said only batsmen with “patience” (perhaps a euphemism for good technique) would get runs. He forecast lateral movement and a “good carry”. But the ball might grip for spinners as well. Under a hot sun, especially midway through the match, it could be quite salubrious for batting. India have never won or lost a Test at ARG, and they desperately need to ensure they do not succumb now, so as to restore morale. It’s amazing what mental rest and fresh legs can do to one’s performance. Wasim Jaffer, VVS Laxman and Anil Kumble were clearly the pick of the players in the just concluded warm-up game. Mohammed Kaif’s consistency was also notable. Whether Yuvraj Singh is fit or not, it would be an injustice to ignore the Uttar Pradesh captain’s claim. It should not be forgotten that India’s purple patch in Australia and Pakistan in 2003-04 was founded on sturdy opening partnerships. Indeed, it’s imperative that Virender Sehwag, who will be making his maiden appearance in Tests in the West Indies, and Jaffer, who, to his credit, scored 51 and 86 at Barbados and Antigua, respectively, four years ago, give India a stable start. The old adage is “in the West Indies, bat the West Indian way — drive if the ball is pitched up, cut or pull if it’s short”. If the tourists opt for four rather than five specialists bowlers, then it’s likely to be a toss-up between Munaf Patel and S. Sreesanth. Irfan Pathan is an automatic choice, despite being off-colour. The same logic applies to Harbhajan Singh, who, sadly, continues to be hammered against the spin. The West Indies will doubtless present a three-pronged pace attack, with Corey Collymore expected to be excluded. The left-arm wrist spinner, Dave Mohammed, medium pacer Dwayne Bravo and off-spinner Chris Gale will round off the attack. Antigua’s economy — heavily dependent on tourists from the USA — has taken a tumble since 9/11 and the Bali bombings. Coincidentally, the standard of local cricket has declined with it. There are no Antiguans in the West Indies side, let alone an Andy Roberts, Vivian Richards or Richie Richardson; and their compatriots may be lukewarm towards showing up for the Test. At 9,500, the capacity at ARG is not much. But until this morning not even half the tickets had been sold for the first day. It’s also an acid test for the “Bharat Army”, who indulge in the razzmatazz of one-day cricket, but does not appreciate the real thing. With this fixture, the curtain will descend on ARG’s quarter century history as an ODI
and Test arena, for, starting with next year’s World Cup, all major matches will shift to Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, now under construction with Chinese assistance. All the more reason for India to retain happy memories of
ARG.
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Series live on Ten Sports
New Delhi, June 1 Schedule: June 2-6: First Test (Antigua); June 10-14: Second Test (St. Lucia); June 22-26: Third Test (St Kitts); June 30-July 4: Fourth Test (Jamaica).
— UNI
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BCCI fixes two-year term for selectors
Mumbai, June 1 The board’s special general meeting here today also decided that each one of its affiliated unit would start a women’s wing to take care of women’s cricket, while deferring a decision on the Jharkhand-Bihar controversy by appointing a three-member committee to go into the issue. It also authorised President Sharad Pawar, who chaired the meeting, to decide on the formation of various committees for holding the 2011 World Cup jointly with Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. “All these decisions were taken unanimously and no voting took place,” BCCI vice-president Shashank Manohar said at a press conference. Talking about the decisions taken today, Manohar said the term of office-bearers and selectors, which was for one year till now, would be for two years henceforth with the provision they can be re-elected for an additional year depending on their performance. “It has also been decided that the candidate standing for presidentship and vice-presidentship should be proposed by a member from the same zone which he represents, though the seconder could be from outside the zone,” Manohar said. “There’s no provision to remove an office-bearer at present through a no-confidence motion and that’s the reason for opting for an extension of their term to the third year through re-elections,” he explained. “If their performance is not satisfactory another person from the same zone can be elected for the third year,” Manohar said. “It has also been decided by the special GM that the chairman would have an additional vote during elections as at present. This has been mired in controversy over the past four or five years”, the board vice-president pointed out. The meeting also decided to change the provisions of its constitution to give effect to its Working Committee’s decision to help talented young sportspersons in sports disciplines other than cricket to train overseas. “We have not decided upon the amount to be earmarked for the purpose though the last Working Committee had fixed it at Rs 50 crore. It can be even 100 crore, but first we had to make suitable amendments to our consitition to make this possible which we did today,” he said. Manohar made it clear that the BCCI would not have a women’s wing but the units affiliated to it would have one each to run women’s cricket after one year’s time. “We will allow the existing women’s cricket associations to conduct their affairs for the next year and would give them financial and other assistance. After that period they will have to wind up. It’s upto them whether to accept our decision or not,” Manohar said. Manohar said two groups had come here claiming to represent Jharkhand and four claiming to represent different units of Bihar besides the one of undivided Bihar before its bifurcation and none were allowed to attend the meeting. “There are so many cases that have been filed by these groups and the BCCI does not want to get involved in these litigations. None of them were allowed to attend the meeting,” said the president of the Vidarbha Cricket Association. Among those who had come were the Jharkand State Cricket Association’s Amitabh Chowdhury, Cricket Association of Jharkhand’s Ramesh Saxena, a former first-class cricketer, and one of the key members of the 1983 World Cup winning team Kirti Azad who was leading one group from Bihar. “We have formed a three-member committee comprising myself, treasurer N. Srinivasan and Arun Jaitley to study the issue and submit a report to the board within one month,” Manohar said.
— PTI
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Laxman, Jaffer score fifties in warm-up game
Antigua, June 1 Wasim Jaffer (52), VVS Laxman (71), Mohammad Kaif (53) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (60) had useful stints in the middle as the visitors made 311 for nine when match was called off five overs before the scheduled close. Importantly for India, Jaffer and Laxman, playing their first game on the tour, batted long and profitably to put themselves in shape for the first Test, starting here on Friday. Laxman batted for 204 balls and 226 minutes and hit nine fours. Kaif chose to retire himself on 53, after facing 127 balls and batting for 119 minutes, hitting five fours and two sixes. Dhoni, after the tea break, himself batted for over 100 minutes in compiling 60 from 78 balls with eight fours and a six. Even the tailenders batted stoically and chose to spend time in the middle, conveying how important team feels the need for its batsmen to get used to the conditions. Laxman gave a good account of himself. He reached 42 from 73 balls with five fours at lunch break. India resumed at 33 for one and lost two wickets in the opening session, one by way of a run out. Jaffer’s 52 came from 87 balls with eight fours before he failed to beat the throw from square leg. Rahul Dravid was the next to go when he cut and edged to the wicket keeper for five runs. Brief scores: Antigua and Barbuda XI: 300 all out in 72.2 overs; India: 311 for 9 in 96 overs (Jaffer 52, Laxman 71, Kaif 53, Dhoni 60 no).
— PTI
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Hewitt, Robredo move up
Paris, June 1 Montcourt, ranked 213, recovered from 1-4 down in the first set to lead 5-4 before Hewitt hit back and he eventually won comfortably on Centre Court. Seventh seed Tommy Robredo of Spain dropped a set before defeating Ilia Bozoljac of Serbia & Montenegro 7-5, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1. Czech 11th seed Radek Stepanek hammered Davide Sanguinetti of Italy 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 to reach round three and equal his best performance at a Grand Slam event. Dmitry Tursunov of Russia completed a 6-3, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 victory over Briton Tim Henman in the second round. The Russian plays Argentine third seed David Nalbandian in the third round. Myskina enters third round
Former champion Anastasia Myskina eased past Hungary’s Melinda Czink 6-2, 6-4 to advance to the third round. The Russian 10th seed, winner of the tournament in 2004, wrapped up the 64-minute contest on her third match point to set up a showdown with 19th seed Ana Ivanovic. Serbia and Montenegro’s Ivanovic demolished France’s Emilie Loit 6-1, 6-1. An edgy Justine Henin-Hardenne beat the rain to slip through to third round with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over Belarussian Anastasiya Yakimova. Playing on her 24th birthday, defending champion Henin-Hardenne was short of her best against 19-year-old Yakimova in a match played in steadily worsening weather. Other results (second round): Men’s singles: Julien Benneteau (France) b Marcos Baghdatis (Cyprus) 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-7, 6-4, Dominik Hrbaty (Slovakia) b Ivo Karlovic (Croatia) 4-6, 6-4, 6-7, 7-5, 6-2, Martin Vassallo Arguello (Argentina) b Sebastien Grosjean (France) 1-6, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2; Alberto Martin (Spain) b Dieter Kindlmann (Germany) 6-3, 6-3, 6-3; Olivier Rochus (Belgium) b Jiri Vanek (Czech Republic) 6-2, 6-0, 6-2; Radek Stepanek (Czech Republic) b Davide Sanguinetti (Italy) 6-3, 6-3, 6-1. Women’s singles: Gisela Dulko (Argentina) b Yuliana Fedak (Ukraine) 6-2, 6-4; Shenay Perry (USA) b Akiko Morigami (Japan) 6-3, 6-0; Daniela Hantuchova (Slovakia) b Emmanuelle Gagliardi (Switzerland) 3-6, 6-2, 6-3. Paes-Damm lose
Leander Paes and his Czech partner Martin Damm crashed out of the French Open with a 1-6, 6-7 first-round loss to the Serbian-Russian pair of Janko Tipsarevic and Mikhail Youzhny in men’s doubles event at Roland Garros here today. Paes and Damm, who were seeded seventh in the event, found themselves struggling against their unheralded opponents from the first set. The seventh seeds ran out of steam after winning a game and their opponents bagged five games in a row to race away with the set. The Indo-Czech pair was trailing 1-2 in the second set but came back strongly to win three games on the trot to make it 4-2 and even led 5-3 at a stage before Tipsarevic and Youzhny caught up and the set entered the tie-breaker. Despite their vast experience, Paes and Damm could not raise their game when it mattered the most and lost the tie-breaker 4-7 to crash out of the tournament.
— Reuters, UNI
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Chess Olympiad
Turin, June 1 Grandmaster Koneru Humpy had the toughest challenge to meet amongst the Indian girls and she did not disappoint on the top board. Women Grandmasters D. Harika and Swati Ghate also came up with inspired performances on the remaining two boards to keep alive India’s medal hopes. Ukraine maintained their half point lead over nearest rivals Russia with a fine 2-1 victory over former champions Georgia. The Russian women defeated Bulgaria with a similar margin but it was not enough to catch up with Ukraine that started the day with a half point cushion. With Ukraine on 23 points and Russia on its toes, the top two medals are virtually decided with just three rounds remaining in the biggest team event in the world. Men held by Cuba
World No. 2 Viswanathan Anand settled for a draw for the sixth consecutive time as Indian men continued to move at a slow pace and were held 2-2 by Cuba in the 10th round of the 37th Chess Olympiad here. Anand, who was playing his seventh game out of 10 here so far, did not get any chances against Bruzon Lazaro of Cuba and ended on equal footing in the keenly contested game. On the remaining boards, Krishnan Sasikiran, P. Harikrishna and Surya Shekhar Ganguly also signed peace to leave the team precariously placed on 24.5 points with just three rounds or 12 games remaining.
— PTI
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Narang, Bindra fail to fire
New Delhi, June 1 In the women’s section, ace shooter Anjali Bhagwat finished seventh, while promising youngster Tejaswani Sawant ended up 10th. Narang, who shot a score of 593 with a series of 99, 98, 99, 98, 99 and 100, blamed the faulty gun for his poor performance. Bindra finished 42nd with a score of 589, while Imran Hasan Khan was 64th. Anjali, who has also qualified for the Olympics, shot 498.3 (396+102.3) with a series of 97, 100, 100 and 99 in the qualifications. Sawant’s score of 396 got her the 10th place while Avneet Sidhu finished 28th with 394 points. Olympian Suma Shirur and Deepali Deshpande participated in the MQS (minimum quota score) section. Shirur shot 394 (99, 99, 99, 97), while Deshpande fired 390 (98, 98, 96, 98).
— PTI
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Punjab girls storm into semis
Ludhiana, June 1 Punjab overcame Tamil Nadu 89-57 to storm into the semifinal. International Kiranjit Kaur garnered 44 points for the winners. Other scorers were Harminder Kaur and Manda who netted 10 points each. For Tamil Nadu, Kikita and Sangeeta scored 14 and 16 points, respectively. Holders Chhattisgarh drubbed Madhya Pradesh 103-46. The architects of Chhattisgarh’s victory were Pushpa and Kanwaljeet, who scored 33 and 20 points, respectively. For the losers, Prerna and Ritu contributed 19 and nine points, respectively. In the third quarterfinal, Delhi routed Chandigarh 70-32 to reach the last-four stage. In the boys section, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh secured berths in the semifinals. In the first quarterfinal, Chhattisgarh romped home victorious against Tamil Nadu 112-62. In other quarterfinals, Delhi quelled a strong challenge from Haryana before emerging winners 92-84, while Uttar Pradesh beat Madhya Pradesh 103-72.
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Satinder Sharma to umpire in
hockey World Cup
Satinder, who is on the elite panel of international hockey umpires, has already officiated as an umpire in the Junior World Cup at Hobart, senior World Cup at Kuala Lumpur in 2002, Champions Trophy at Cologne and Chennai in 2003 and 2006, Olympic qualifiers at Madrid in 2004, Olympic Games at Athens in 2004, and the Asian Games. He has supervised over 70 international hockey matches all over the world.
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Indonesia Open
New Delhi, June 1 After pulling off a sensational victory over Shoji Sato of Japan in the first round, Sridhar quelled the challenge of Bo 21-10, 21-12 to reach the last 16 of the six-star Grand Prix event. The first round yesterday saw Sridhar fight a keen battle with Sato, world No. 33, before dumping the favourite 22-20, 17-21, 21-19. The 23-year-old, who played a crucial role in India’s bronze medal glory in mixed team event in Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, will now take on Yanbo Qiu of Indonesia for a place in the semifinals. But it was disappointment for other Indian shuttlers as none of them were able to clear the first round hurdle. World No. 20 Chetan Anand was knocked off 21-12, 15-21, 21-17 by Lu Yi of China while Anand Pawar lost to Adnan Fauzi of Indonesia 21-13 21-16 21-15. Arvind Bhat failed to get past local lad Simon Santoso, going down 21-19, 21-18 and P. Kashyap lost to Marleve Mainaky 23-21, 21-17. Rohan Castelino lost 21-17, 21-19 to Sairul Amar. India’s top doubles combination of Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas was ousted by home favourite Trikus Harjanto and Bambang Suprianto 21-19, 21-17 in the first round. V. Diju and J. Vidyadhar won the opener 21-16, 21-16 against Indra Dimas and Sr Hartoko but lost the next round 21-12, 21-12 to Lars Paaske and Thomas Laybourn of Denmark. In women’s doubles, Saina Nehwal and Ruth Misa lost 21-5, 21-7 to Dan Zhang and Tingting Zhao of China in the first round. — PTI
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Gopichand replaces Vimal as national coach
New Delhi, June 1 The BAI will also recruit two foreign coaches, for singles and doubles, respectively, to train budding talent for intensive and extensive training and will revive the prestigious Indian Open as part of its Project 2010 programme. The programme is intended to reap a rich haul of medals in the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi. BAI president V.K. Verma said the foreign coaches would be the Indonesian who has been with the Indian team for the past two years and a new Chinese coach. Indian badminton had received a shot in the arm when 16-year-old Saina Nehwal, a trainee of Gopichand, lifted the Philippines Open Grand Prix singles title at Manila last week. The BAI will be assisted by the Singapore-based Yonex-Sunrise and the Mittal Trust.
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YPS triumph in U-13 cricket Patiala, June 1 Brief scores: Kanpur Nursery: 122 all out (Udit Arora 27, Shubham Gupta 26, Rajeshwar Singh 3 for 13, Ayush Goyal 3 for 20, Gursharan Diwana 2 for 27, Gurjot Singh 1 for 30). YPS, Patiala: 124 for 5 (Rajeshwar Singh 24, Ridham Kashyap 24, Karan Sidhu 21, Adesh 21 n.o, Rishab Jaswal 2 for 30, Kuldip 1 for 7) In another match played at the Black Elephant Club, Ruby Cricket Academy, Amritsar, beat Agra Cricket Academy by 6 wickets. Agra Academy: 93 all out (Amit 28, Sham Sunder 10, Aditya 10, Viney 4 for 9, Akash 2 for 9) Ruby Academy: 94 for 6 (Akash 37 n.o, Abishek 18 n.o, Rohit Kumar 1 for 33).
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Workshop
on sports concludes Patiala,
June 1 The chief guest on the occasion was Mr Dalel Singh Chouhan, Director (Sports), Kurukshetra University, while Dr Raj Kumar Sharma, Director (Sports), Punjabi University, presided over the function. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Dalel Singh complimented the organisers for holding the event and emphasised that proper eligibility rules and regulations should be followed by colleges while fielding teams in various inter-college meets. Prominent among others who spoke on the occasion include Dr Gurdeep Kaur, Assistant Director (Sports), Punjabi University, and Dr Jasbir Singh, senior athletic coach. As many as 100 delegates took part in the three-day long workshop in which latest rules and new techniques that have emerged in various sports disciplines over the years were discussed.
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26 swimmers
selected for championship Ropar, June 1 Those selected to participate in the championship include Lovraj Singh, Jashandeep Singh, Inderpal Singh, Panbil Sharma, Harish Kumar, Harpreet Singh, Jagbir Singh, Gurvir Singh, Prabar Pande, Ragav Sharma, Amanpreet Singh, Pinkash, Basso Sharma (boys) and Prabjot Kaur, Neha Saini, Amarinder Kaur, Chandan Preet Kaur, Urvashi Sharma, Astha, Harsimran Kaur, Himanshi Bakshi, Pomi, Kamalpreet, Nancy, Shena Saini, Isha Sharma (girls).
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Karate championship Ambala, June 1 The selected participants from Haryana are Tarun Saini, Navneet Singh Jonty, Baljinder Singh, Randeep Singh Beniwal, Jitender Singh, Aman Manocha, Ashok Chauhan, Mahender Kaur, Shivani Vishisht, Sahil Kumar, Gurmail Singh, Sugam Solanki, Novalpreet, Sharanjit, Sunil Jha, Satish Kumar and Arun Kumar.
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Chandigarh, June 1
