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Sachin, Mongia back in team
India 4th in ODI ranking
CAB elections
India A fighting to save match
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India go down to Vancouver club
Lump sum grant for sports bodies
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Sachin, Mongia back in team
Mumbai, July 20 Punjab all-rounder Mongia was rewarded for his fine show in English county cricket with a berth in the squad announced by BCCI Secretary Niranjan Shah after a one-and-a-half-hour meeting of the five-member selection panel here. Opener Robin Uthappa and middle-order batsman Venugopala Rao were left out of the squad that recently lost a one-day series to the West Indies. The national selectors also chose to ignore veteran leg- spinner Anil Kumble, who has been out of the Indian one-day scheme for long but was widely speculated to stage a comeback after emerging as the highest wicket-taker in the Tests in the Caribbean with 23 scalps. However, Chief Selector Kiran More said that the selectors had the “right plan” in mind for the experienced spinner to make a comeback in the shorter version of the game. Former captain Sourav Ganguly, currently testing himself out for Northamptonshire in English county cricket, continued to find himself out of favour. Left-arm paceman Zaheer Khan, also seeking to make his way back into the team through the county route, was ignored despite a decent performance for Worcestershire. More said Mongia was preferred ahead of Zaheer as the team needed a variety in the spin department. “Mongia can be useful as a left-arm spin option since both Harbhajan and Powar are off-spinners,” More said. “We are looking towards the future. Mongia is an ideal all-rounder. He also bowls left-arm. He had had good county and domestic stints,” he said. The tri-series, involving South Africa as the third team, and beginning in Colombo on August 14, will be the first international outing for the 29-year-old Mongia in more than a year. He last played a one-day international against Pakistan in New Delhi in April, 2005. Mongia is yet to do justice to his potential, having scored 1073 runs at an average of 27.51 in 51 matches so far. On Tendulkar, More said, “We had called physio John Gloster for the meeting and he gave us the full report of his fitness. He was with Sachin for three days and he is absolutely satisfied with his condition. “He has played five matches for Lashings. He has also bowled well and is certainly fit. Sachin himself is very keen to join the team in Sri Lanka.” More justified Kumble’s exclusion by stating that the selectors had some plans in mind for the bowler’s comeback. “We have discussed it with him. He is OK with it and has taken it into his stride. We have some plans for him,” he said, probably indicating that the bowler could be called to the bigger stage — the Champions Trophy to be hosted by the country later this year. Significantly, More said henceforth there would not be many changes in the team, other than the odd one or two but also added that the doors were not close on anyone. “It is not that Uthappa and Rao are sidelined. The wickets in Sri Lanka are not very bouncy and not according to their game. “We also considered Zaheer but he did not fit into our scheme of things. We have taken his performances in county and domestic matches into account. He can always come back to the team,” he added. Asked about packing the squad with five fast bowlers, More said, “We have picked five because we want to try them out. They did very well in the West Indies, especially in the Tests, and we are now trying them out here as well.” Irfan Pathan, going through a rough patch after an indifferent show in the Caribbean, received backing from More. “Pathan is a very good cricketer and three bad matches do not mean that he is a bad cricketer.” More said the “biggest failure” in the West Indies was batting. “But there is no problem because it was the only defeat in the past year and there is nothing to get panicky about. At the moment, the tri-series and Champions Trophy are the most important things for us. “Overall, we are happy with the team’s performances and the statistics have shown that,” he added. The Sri Lanka-bound team will undergo a fitness camp in Bangalore from July 25 to August 1 followed by a cricket skills camp from August 6 to 10. The team will leave for the Sri Lankan capital on the night of August 10. Shah said Sanjay Jagdale would accompany the team as manager. The team: Rahul Dravid (captain), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Suresh Raina, Dinesh Mongia, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Irfan Pathan, S Sreesanth, Ajit Agarkar, RP Singh, Munaf Patel, Harbhajan Singh and Ramesh Powar.
— PTI
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India 4th in ODI ranking
Dubai, July 20 India have moved up by virtue of strong performances over the past year, including series win against Sri Lanka, Pakistan and England and a drawn series against South Africa. They, however, lost 1-4 to the West Indies on their recent tour of the Caribbean. World champions Australia’s lead over second-placed South Africa has been cut to eight rating points. The gap was 13 points last year. The annual update, which includes results from matches played after August 1, 2003, is carried out to ensure the championship table continues to reflect recent form, with older results being discarded. The Proteas’ improved rating is down to a turnaround in fortunes in the past 18 months. In January last year, they were languishing in the seventh place but have since enjoyed a good run of form culminating in a 3-2 series win over Australia.
— PTI
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CPM divided over Dalmiya’s participation
Subhrangshu Gupta Tribune News Service
Kolkata, July 19 Sourav Ganguly’s elder brother, Mr Snehasish Ganguly, and Mr Asok Bhattacharyya, the CPM minister in charge of metropolitan and municipal departments, who is also Ganguly’s close relative, want that Mr Dalmiya should quit in the wake of the financial scam allegedly involving the CAB. They feel Mr Dalmiya has been responsible for Sourav’s exclusion from the Indian team and once he is out of the CAB, the Sharad Pawar camp will be eager to bring back the southpaw. However, CPM secretary Biman Bose, who is also an important politburo member and the Left Front chairman, said the Chief Minister should not get too involved in the CAB elections. He made it clear that the CPM would in no way be involved in CAB politics. The veteran leader said he wanted to know from the Chief Minister why he was keen to oust Mr Dalmiya and put the Police Commissioner in his place. The Sports Minister recently met Mr Dalmiya as an emissary of Mr Bhattacharjee with the request of not contesting the CAB poll scheduled for July 30. However, Mr Dalmiya turned it down. Mukherjee files nomination
PTI adds: City Police Commissioner Prasun Mukherjee today filed his nomination for the post of president of Cricket Association of Bengal, even as West Bengal Sports Minister Subhas Chakraborty admitted his failure to persuade sitting CAB chief Jagmohan Dalmiya not to contest the July 30 poll. Mukherjee — backed by the anti-Dalmiya lobby in the CAB — has the blessings of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who had gone public with a statement that he wanted Dalmiya to stay away from the CAB presidential race. Mukherjee’s candidature for the president’s slot as a nominee of the Police Athletics Club was sent to the CAB during the day by the club secretary. Meanwhile, the Sports Minister said that his attempts for a compromise between the two factions had not borne fruit. “I haven’t been able to fulfil the task which the Chief Minister had given me,” Chakraborty told mediapersons at the state Secretariat here. In another development, The Calcutta High Court today refused to pass an interim order on the anti-Dalmiya faction’s prayer for the appointment of an independent observer for the forthcoming CAB elections and directed the city civil court, before which the application was first moved, to hear the matter without adjournment.
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India A fighting to save match
Melbourne, July 20 Their second-innings batting was a vast improvement from the first when they were dismissed for 254 after adding 33 runs this morning. Speedster Mitchell Johnson (4-45) and Shaun Tait (3-67) finished off the India A innings inside seven overs but despite a lead of 207 runs, home team skipper Brad Haddin did not enforce the follow-on and decided to go for some big runs. That they did, scoring 274 for 7 in 48 overs. First-innings double centurion Phil Jaques rubbed salt into Indian wounds, slamming 117 in 103 balls that included five sixes and seven boundaries. The hosts scored at almost a run a ball as Jaques and Chris Rogers (64) took the Indian attack to the cleaners. Skipper Venugopala Rao (4-79) then took it upon himself to stop the Aussie onslaught after all three pacers — R P Singh, Shib Sankar Paul and Siddharth K Trivedi — went wicketless and had only their bulging economy rate to show on a wicket where the rival speedsters had wreaked havoc. Rao claimed both the openers after their destructive 167-run stand and leggie Piyush Chawla, who was the only bowler to survive the onslaught, picked two for 55 before the Aussie declaration. India started on a cautious note but Uthappa, who scored a half century in the first innings, after surviving three missed catches, made a strokeful 67 in 114 balls.
— PTI
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Sania enters quarterfinals
Mason (USA), July 20 The match against Laine fluctuated wildly with the Indian breezing through the first set before suffering a slump in the second set which saw her losing it to love. But the ninth seed got her act together in the decider and raced ahead to make her first quarterfinals of the year. Sania was her usual inconsistent self, firing 27 winners compared to the 12 by her opponent in the first set but inexplicably losing her way in the second. She was at her aggressive best in the third, hitting three aces and 29 winners to take it in an hour and a half. She next faces Schnyder, who beat American qualifier Abigail Spears 6-1, 6-0 to make it to the last eight. In doubles Sania and Poland’s Marta Domachowska are through to the last eight, where they will take on Varvara Lepchenko of Uzbekistan and China’s Meng Yuan.
— PTI
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Zidane, Materazzi banned
Zurich, July 20 The Italian defender, who has admitted insulting Zidane, provoking the Frenchman’s head-butt, was handed a two-match ban and fined 5,000 Swiss francs. The bans apply to international competitive matches, even though it is a symbolic ban for Zidane who has confirmed he has no intention of reversing his decision to quit the game. FIFA said in a statement: “Zidane has also agreed to do community service work with children and youngsters. As Zidane has now retired from international football, the committee took note of Zidane’s pledge to do three days of community service work with children and youngsters as part of FIFA’s humanitarian activities. “In their statements, both players stressed that Materazzi’s comments had been defamatory but not of a racist nature. “During the course of their hearings, both players also apologised to FIFA for their inappropriate behaviour and expressed their regret at the incident.” Zidane head-butted Materazzi in the chest during the closing stages of the July 9 final in Berlin, which Italy subsequently won on penalties.
— Reuters
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India go down to Vancouver club
Vancouver, July 20 David Testo and David Morris scored for the hosts, who also benefitted from an own goal conceded by N S Manju. The sole goal-scorer for the Indians was JCT Mills striker Sunil Chetri. The home team led 2-1 at the break. The local side was the more dominant team in the encounter and could have won by a wider margin had it not been for the excellent display by Sandip Nandy in the Indian goal. After Nandy had made two good saves in the first 10 minutes, Freddy Mascarenhas found himself in a good position in front of the Whitecaps’ goal, but put his shot over the target. The visitors were punished two minutes later when David Testo struck a low hard shot from the top of the box to put the home side ahead. The Indians were finding it difficult to deal with the tricks of Martin Nash who was pulling the strings in the midfield in an effective fashion. The home side continued to put pressure and David Morris found Tino Cucca alone 15 yards out whose low shot was just wide of the far post in the 34th minute. But the Indians went two behind in the 37th minute when in a bid to clear a dangerous ball in front of the goal, Manju put it in his own net. India were thrown a lifeline just before half time when Surkumar Singh sent in Sunil Chetri alone up the middle and the young striker placed it past helpless Whitecaps goalkeeper Josh Wicks. Houghton pulled out his substitutions in the second half to fashion an equaliser but Indians could not find the net again. Morris put the result beyond doubt when he scored from a Tony Donatelli pass in the 73rd minute. In the next match of the tournament, the Chinese under-20 side meets Cardiff City FC of Wales tomorrow and the losers will take on India in the third-place playoff. India are using the tournament to prepare for the AFC Asian Cup qualifiers against Saudi Arabia and Japan later this year and the Doha Asian Games in December.
— PTI
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Lump sum grant for sports bodies
Chandigarh, July 20 The decision was taken at a meeting of the Punjab State Sports Council and the Sports Department, Punjab, held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Amarinder Singh. “As it is the prerogative of the state sports associations to prepare and send their teams for the nationals and other events, besides organising state-level competitions, the council has decided to give the amount on a regular basis”, said Pargat Singh, Director, Sports, Punjab, and Secretary, PSSC. The financial powers of the Chief Minister, the Sports Minister and the Secretary, Sports Council, have been increased manifold, Pargat said. Among those who attended the meeting were the Education Minister, Mr Harnam Dass Johar, Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Sports, Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi, the Principal Secretary, Sports, RPS Pawar, Principal Secretary Suresh Kumar, Raja K.S. Sidhu and newly appointed executive members.
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Mumbai, July 20
In video: Fastest Indian rallies
to bring F1 racing to home tracks. (
