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Coaches look to be first among equals
Glut of cards, dearth of goals
Mexican referee set to create record
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No Italian hand in citing of Frings: FIFA
Lara blasts selectors, curator
SC rubbishes PIL on cricket World Cup
All Haryana blocks to
get stadia
India cagers claim bronze
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Coaches look to be first among equals
Berlin, July 3 Two of the quartet — Luiz Felipe Scolari and Jurgen Klinsmann — may feel they already have had their luck, with Portugal and Germany winning their quarterfinals on penalties. Italy’s Marcello Lippi may also count his blessings that someone up there likes him after his Azzurri won their second-round match against the Australians with a penalty five minutes into stoppage time. France’s Raymond Domenech could also surmise that the blessing for him was the second yellow card of the group stage that ruled out playmaker Zinedine Zidane from the final first-round match against Togo. Having looked jaded and every inch his 34 years, the former Real Madrid star returned for the 3-1 win over Spain reinvigorated and outplayed the superstars of Brazil to a man. Aside from luck, the four men with whom the buck ultimately stops with success or failure also need qualities of their own to inspire their troops to victory. All four have very different ways of going about it, owing, of course, to their contrasting characters. Scolari is as he is on the sidelines of the pitch — animated, charismatic and a brilliant mindgames manipulator — and Brazil may well be rueing the fact one World Cup was enough for him. “This is a new Portugal team and it’s a new spirit. It’s a warrior spirit. This is what we were missing in the past,” said the 57-year-old of his squad. Domenech, by contrast, cuts a different character entirely. A dormouse to Scolari’s bulldog he may be but both his coaching and motivational powers are just what his squad needed after the uninspiring reigns of Roger Lemerre and Jacques Santini. “I made every tackle, I jumped up and down, I kicked every ball along with the team. I am exhausted but immensely happy,” Domenech said after the Brazil match. Lippi is very much the classy-looking, smooth-talking Italian. Not for him the pre-big-match superstitions of predecessor Giovanni Trapattoni of sprinkling holy water on the turf, but that has come as a refreshing change for hardman midfielder Gennaro Gattuso. “Nothing against Trapattoni, but Lippi has his own way of preparation which has made us a more solid squad.” “Also as a man he is always able to tell us things straight to our faces. I hope that he stays with us as long as possible,” said the 28-year-old AC Milan stalwart. Whether the 58-year-old Champions League winning coach does renew his contract rather than leave and return to his favourite past-time of fishing on his boat remains to be seen. The same question can be posed about Klinsmann, the 41-year-old US-based former star striker has not yet decided whether he will stay on. However, previous sceptics about the rookie coach’s free spiritedness he has brought to the job have been won over after watching a German side playing for the first time in years with enterprise and joy. “Klinsmann has installed a philosophy in this team and that needs to continue as we owe it to the fans — even if there is the risk it sometimes doesn’t work,” said German Football Federation president Theo Zwanziger. “Klinsmann’s way is the right one and we want to continue with it.”
— AFP
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Glut of cards, dearth of goals
Berlin, July 3 In Spain (1982), 98 yellows and just five red cards were shown in 52 games. In contrast to the glut of cards, there has been a dearth of goals. If less than four goals are scored in the next four games, the tournament will go down as the lowest scoring ever. So far, 138 goals have been scored for an average of 2.30 per match. The only tournament with a lower average was Italy ’90 when 115 goals were scored in 52 games for an average of 2.21. On the brighter side, attendances are higher than at any finals apart from in 1994 in the USA. Some 3.11 million spectators have seen the games in Germany, an average of 51,791 per match. At USA ’94, an average of 69,991 spectators watched the games, a
figure FIFA regards as unbeatable because of the size of American stadia.
— Reuters
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Mexican referee set to create record
Berlin, July 3 His fellow Mexican Jose Ramirez and Canada’s Hector Vergara will work the touchlines for tomorrow’s match in Dortmund, with Japanese pair Toru Kamikawa and Yoshikazu Hiroshima serving as the fourth and fifth officials, FIFA announced yesterday. Archundia has already been the referee for first-round matches between Brazil-Croatia, France-South Korea and Czech Republic-Italy, and the second-round match between Switzerland and Ukraine. This is the first World Cup for Archundia, a 40-year-old lawyer and economist from Tlalnepantla who has officiated matches at the international level since 1994. Six other referees shared the previous record of four matches at a World Cup, including three from the 1994 tournament in the United States. The current 32-team, 64-match format was introduced at France in 1998. Jan Langenus of Belgium was the referee in four matches in the inaugural World Cup at Uruguay in 1930, when only 13 nations sent teams and 18 matches were played. The others were Nickolaj Latychev of Russia (1962), Jose Ramiz Wright of Brazil (1990), Sandor Puhl of Hungary (1994), Joel Quiniou of France (1994) and Jose Joaquin Torres of Colombia (1994).
— AP
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No Italian hand in citing of Frings: FIFA
Berlin, July 3 Argentine players Maxi Rodriguez and Leandro Cufre were cited over the weekend for their roles in the skirmish on Friday that followed Germany’s win in the penalty shootout. After initially saying no, German players would face investigation, new video evidence emerged late yesterday that forced FIFA to investigate Frings’s involvement. FIFA’s disciplinary committee was expected to receive a statement from Frings today afternoon and make a ruling within four hours, FIFA communications director Markus Siegler said. The mass-circulation Bild newspaper carried a front-page headline today that said, “Italians want Frings suspended!” “Are the Italians afraid of us, or why are they calling for a suspension for Torsten Frings?” the accompanying article asked. “Let me make it clear, there was no attempt whatever from the Italian federation to incite FIFA into doing something,” Siegler said. “The footage was not presented to us from Italian TV stations, it was shown in Germany.” The video showing Frings appearing to strike at an Argentine player was broadcast on public television in Germany on Saturday, but FIFA’s disciplinary committee did not see it until Sunday, Siegler said. Footage from the 24 TV cameras at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium had to be reviewed because Frings's involvement did not appear on the official match broadcast, he said. “New TV images were presented ... that possibly Torsten Frings was slapping the face of an Argentine player or hitting him in the head,” Siegler said. Reacting to German media reports, the Italian soccer federation today denied asking FIFA to charge Frings in the hope that the midfielder would be banned for the semifinals. “We have done nothing, there has been no initiatives on our behalf against Germany or the federation,” Italian federation Antonello Valentini told Sky Italia TV on Monday. He said he communicated Italy's official position to the Germans on Sunday evening. “There is no effort on our behalf to create hostility, friction or to denounce anybody; We’ll try to win the match on the field. We have no interest that Frings be punished if FIFA doesn’t believe he should be punished,” Valentini added.
— AP
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Indians become kings of Kingston
Kingston, July 3 Interestingly, the genius of the country’s Silicon Valley, which has catapulted India onto the world map, was primarily instrumental for the success. Rarely in cricket history, let alone in the catalogue of Indian cricket, has a player led by example as Rahul Dravid did in this match with his two incredible half centuries, in course of which he became the fastest to aggregate 9,000 runs in Tests in 176 innings, thus surpassing his much acclaimed opposite number, Brian Lara’s record of 177. He, then, turned to Kumble when it came to the crunch, when the West Indians were threatening to conjure the impossible, who duly delivered the coup de grace. The fact is, the tourists failed to correct their first innings capitulation. Resuming on 128 for six on the third and what proved to be the final morning, they could only muster a total of 171. This gave a slight sniff to the hosts, although history was against them, in that the best ever winning score in the fourth innings at the ground, one of the Meccas of Caribbean cricket, was 211. The man who provided the scent was Corey Collymore, who with his impeccable line and length and ability to deviate the ball both ways bowled 22 overs unchanged from just before tea on the second day to the end of the Indian venture to finish with a haul of five wickets, including Dravid bowled by an inadvertent “shooter”. But for injury problems, the Barbadian’s career figures would have been far more impressive than they are. India’s young and comparatively inexperienced new ball bowlers, however, dashed such hope. Sreesanth, who has brandished a remarkable improvement since his performance in the first Test at Antigua, removed both openers, while Munaf Patel captured the key wicket of Lara lbw. The former obtained another crucial breakthrough by forcing Ramnaresh Sarwan, who compiled a worrying half century for the Indians, to snick to first slip. Kumble, then, took over. With an inexorable persuasion he picked off six of his opponents, although Denesh Ramdin, with an unbeaten 62, resisted till the end. Somewhat unusually, the highest total of the match, that of 219, had arisen in the fourth innings in this notably low scoring match, which suggested the wicket may have settled a bit, but not enough, and in any case too late, to be labelled an acceptable Test track. Curator Charlie Joseph fully deserves the criticism heaped on him by Lara! But West Indian helmsman’s rather public and intemperate outburst against his board and selectors after the match detracted nothing from a significant Indian achievement in which Dravid easily outshone him as a batsman to be unsurprisingly declared the man of the series. More importantly, the team conquest erased the bearable setback in the one-day internationals as well as cemented his position as captain for the foreseeable future. Scoreboard
India (1st innings) 200 West Indies (1st innings) 103 India (2nd Innings) Jaffer c sub (Morton) Sehwag lbw Taylor 4 Laxman c Lara Dravid b Collymore 68 Yuvraj c Lara b Collymore 13 Kaif b Collins 6 Dhoni b Taylor 19 Kumble c Bravo Harbhajan c Lara Sreesanth c Lara b Taylor 16 Patel not out 0 Extras
(b-4, lb-3, w-1, nb-1) 9 Total (all out, 65.1 overs) 171 Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-6, 3-49, 4-63, 5-76, 6-122, 7-141, 8-154, 9-171. Bowling: Collins 22-8-61-1, Taylor 15-4-45-4, Collymore 24.1-9-48-5, Bravo 4-1-10-0. West Indies (2nd innings) Gayle c Laxman Ganga b Sreesanth 16 Lara lbw Patel 11 Sarwan c Dravid b Sreesanth 51 Chanderpaul lbw Kumble 13 Bravo b Kumble 33 Samuels c Yuvraj Ramdin not out 62 Taylor lbw Kumble 20 Collins lbw Kumble 3 Collymore c Dhoni b Kumble 0 Extras
(lb-2, nb-3) 5 Total (all out, 69.4 overs) 219 Fall of
wickets:1-0, 2-27, 3-29, 4-56, 5-128, 6-129, 7-144, 8-180, 9-219. Bowling:
Sreesanth 15-2-38-3, Patel 12-2-26-1, Harbhajan 16-3-65-0, Kumble 22.4-3-78-6, Sehwag 4-0-10-0. — PTI
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Lara blasts selectors, curator
Kingston, July 3 “We were against all odds. Bad selection and bad pitches. I am very proud of the way my boys played,” a visibly hurt Lara said after losing the four-match series 1-0. Lara had demanded a genuine quick bowler to be included in the team and asked for pacy tracks do exploit the Indians’ weakness against fast bowling ahead of and during the Test series. Both his request went unheeded. Lara was particularly upset by the fact that a rank turner, which suited the Indian spinners Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh more, was dished out for the decisive Test. During the West Indies’ second innings, after a huge off-break by Harbhajan beat his outside edge, Lara turned to groundsman Charlie on the boundary and gave him a sarcastic applause. The 37-year old, who holds the world record individual score of 400 not out, refused to accept that the hosts’ poor batting on the second day when they were bowled out for 103 was partly to be blamed for the team’s humiliating loss. “It maybe, but when 40 wickets fall for 600-odd runs in 2-1/2 days, you have to look for other things,” he said. It would not go unnoticed to the followers of West Indian cricket that Lara does not enjoy in Jamaica the same popularity he does in his home island of Trinidad. The relationship between one of the world’s leading run-getter and Jamaican fans reached the nadir when Lara came back from a sabbatical to take the West Indian captaincy from Courtney Walsh, the latter’s home town hero, a few years ago.
— PTI
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SC rubbishes PIL on cricket World Cup
New Delhi, July 3 A Bench comprising Mr Justice K G Balakrishanan and Mr Justice D K Jain expressed displeasure over the abuse of the public interest litigation (PIL) process by the filing of such petitions. Though the World Cup will be held in the West Indies, petitioner Umakant Agnihotri had chosen to move the Supreme Court in India for rescheduling of its itinerary with a plea that the tournament be held after April when the examinations will be over. The World Cup is scheduled to be held from March 13 to April 25, 2007. The petitioner had named the BCCI as respondent in his PIL.
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Li’s dream run continues
London, July 3 An exasperated Vaidisova lost her rhythm completely in the second set. Li’s low, flat forehands paid rich dividends and she raced to a 5-0 lead. She finished off the set with a crisply delivered ace. In a tense deciding set, Li, who beat fifth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova in the previous round, broke the Czech teenager’s service in the fifth game and held on for an historic victory. Russia’s Maria Sharapova dropped her first set at this year’s Wimbledon in a battling 7-6, 3-6, 6-3 fourth-round victory over Italian Flavia Pennetta today. The 2004 champion was given a real test by 16th seed Pennetta who more than matched her for long periods of a tight fourth round encounter on court two. Sharapova, who used bags of ice to cool herself in the changeovers, took the first set tiebreak 7-5 but the fourth seed was immediately 3-0 down in the second set and Pennetta soon levelled the match. The Italian netted a forehand to lose serve for 3-1 in the decider and Sharapova, shrieking with every bludgeoned groundstroke, whacked a backhand winner on her third match point to seal victory. She tackles fellow Russian Elena Dementieva in the last eight. Seventh seed Dementieva beat Shenay Perry of the USA 6-2, 6-0. Justine Henin-Hardenne stifled Slovak Daniela Hantochova 6-3, 6-1 to reach the quarterfinals. As temperatures soared on a sweltering day at the championships, both players struggled to hold serve in a topsy-turvy first set. The Belgian third seed held a 3-1 advantage before the next five games went against serve. Sania crashes out of doubles Sania Mirza, pairing with Michaella Krajicek of the Netherlands, bowed out of the women’s doubles event after losing to Russia’s Elena Dementieva and Flavia Pennetta of Italy in the second round here on Monday. The eighth seed pair of Dementieva and Pennetta carved out a 6-4, 6-2 win to advance to the third round. — PTI, Reuters
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Schumacher wins US Grand Prix
Indianapolis, July 3 Schumacher beat Massa by 7.9 seconds as he took a record fifth win at the Indianapolis circuit and cut Spaniard Fernando Alonso’s lead in the World Championship to 19 points. For Massa, second marked the best finish of his Formula One career and he comfortably held off the advances of Italian Giancarlo Fisichella, Alonso’s Renault team-mate, who was another 8.6 seconds behind by the end. Behind the podium finishers, Italian Jarno Trulli had his best race of the year, using a one-stop strategy to full effect to finish fourth — after starting last in the pit-lane. Defending world champion Fernando Alonso took an uncharacteristic fifth after being off the pace all weekend in his Renault.
— AFP
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All Haryana blocks to
get stadia
Sirsa, July 3 Talking to newsmen here yesterday, Dr K.V. Singh, OSD to the Chief Minister, said Rs 35 to 40 lakh would be spent on the construction of each stadium. The stadiums would be constructed in those villages where the panchayats would make six acres available for the purpose, he added. Dr Singh said seven villages of the district had been chosen for establishing the stadiums — Jamal village of Nathusari Chaupta block, Dhaulpalia of Ellnabad, Balasar of Rania, Ganga of Dabwali, Kanwarpura of Sirsa Sukhchain of Badagudha and Asir village of Odhan block. The OSD asserted that Rs 70 crore would be spent on promotion of sports activities in the state during the current financial year.
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India cagers claim bronze
New Delhi, July 3 The Indians defeated China 112-75 in the match to decide the third place to finish behind gold medallists Iran, who defeated Thailand-I in the final. This was the first time India participated in the tournament which is being treated as a warm-up event for the Asian Cup FIBA Asia Borisalav Stankovic Cup to be held in Damascus, Syria, from July 20 to 27, a press note from the Basketball Federation of India said today. In addition to the bronze medal, the Indians won five of the seven individual awards at the tournament which concluded yesterday.
— PTI
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