Mohali, October 6
Sri Lankans look like a confident lot. Noise emanating from their camp are akin to those from someone in control. The reasoning sounds plausible. Any other team of the same footing having to go through the rigmarole of qualifiers for such a key tournament would have shown a certain degree of desperation and despair, but not Sri Lanka.

A formidable outfit that the islanders are, Sri Lankans are least perturbed. They said the exercise of going through the qualifiers will enable them to gauge the prevailing conditions and rid the players of the any rust that they might have acquired ahead of the sterner tests ahead in the tournament dubbed “Mini World Cup”.

Being played on a new format, four teams — Sri Lanka, West Indies, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh — will play among themselves to determine the qualifiers. Top two teams from the group will join favourites Australia, India, South Africa, New Zealand, Pakistan and England for the main tournament commencing from October 15. Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Mumbai, apart from Mohali, are the other venues for the month-long extravaganza.

Given the strength of both the teams, their current form and the past record, guessing the winners should not be difficult when the Sri Lankans take on Bangladesh in the opening day/night match at the PCA Stadium here tomorrow.

Having turned the corner in an emphatic manner after humiliating 1-6 thrashing they received from India, Sri Lankans look like a team on the roll. Riding piggyback on the resounding comeback of dangerous Sanath Jayasuriya and the character shown by the young Upul Tharanga, they recently decimated England in their own backyard.

Mahela Jayawardene’s elevation to captaincy has seen the compact craftsman finding amazing consistency. If he is able to carry on in the same vein as he did on the England tour, it would spell trouble for his opponents.

Presence of other batsmen like former skipper Marvan Atapattu, Kumar Sangakkara and Tillakaratne Dilshan makes Sri Lanka a very strong batting side. Ferveez Maharoof is fast emerging as an able all-rounder. Pace spearhead Chaminda Vaas and spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan have been a vital link in the success story of Sri Lankans.

Best course for Bangladesh will be to go out and play their natural game, unmindful of the opposition they are up against. Skipper Habibul Bashar and Mohammad Ashraful, the two experienced campaigners, are the mainstay of their batting. They should take upon themselves the task of anchoring the innings. The young brigade led by vice-captain Shahriar Nafees and Aftab Ahmad is capable of playing attractive cricket.

Mashrafe Mortaza and Sayed Raseel will lead the pace attack. In left-arm spinner Mohmmad Rafique, Bangladesh have have a wily bowler capable of keeping a tidy line besides chipping in with vital breakthroughs.

Coach Dave Whatmore, who has worked hard in moulding the team, has supreme confidence in the ability of his players. It was under this doughty coach that Bangladesh ambushed the twice World Cup champions Australia in the Natwest Trophy match last year.

Expecting victory against their formidable neighbours will be expecting too much from the minnows of the game ranked No. 10 in the world. They will be winning a lot of plaudits, if they are able to dish out a nice game of cricket. A couple of impressive individual performances would do a world of good to the team confidence which will stand them in good stead for the rest of the matches.

Teams (from): Sri Lanka: Mahela Jayawardene (capt), Kumar Sangakkara (wk), Sanath Jayasuriya, Marvan Atapattu, Upul Tharanga, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Chamara Kapugedera, Farveez Maharoof, Chaminda Vaas, Ruchira Perera, Dilhara Fernando, Lasith Malinga, Malinga Bandara and Muttiah Muralitharan

Bangladesh: Habibul Bashar (capt), Shahriar Nafees, Khaled Mashud (wk), Mohammad Rafique, Mohammad Ashraful, Mashrafe Mortaza, Rajin Saleh, Abdur Razzak, Aftab Ahmed, Syed Rasel, Shahadat Hossain, Farhad Reja, Saqibul Hasan, Mehrab Hossain (junior).

Umpires: Steve Bucknor (West indies) and Darryl Harper (Australia); Third umpire: Simon Taufel (Australia); Match Referee: Mike Procter (South Africa)

Hours of play: 2.30 pm to 6 pm; 6.45 pm to 10.15 pm.

Mohali, October 6
Tom Moody, Sri Lanka coach, ruled out any complacency in the Champions Trophy opening game against Bangladesh. “Tomorrow’s game is important for us and we are looking forwards to it. We have prepared well,” he said. The former all-rounder observed that they were expecting tough competition in the tournament and taking it very seriously.

Asked how the team was taking the exercise of going through qualifiers before getting entry into the main tournament, the coach said, “We are taking it positively. We had a very good practice game. Playing these matches will provide us an opportunity to familiarise ourselves with the conditions here. The brand of cricket we are playing makes us confident of doing well.”

Moody did not read too much into the team’s performance during its previous visit to India, saying that it was nearly a year back and the team had progressed a lot after that. “We had some young players at that time who were inexperienced. We have worked very hard. In fact, it takes time for improvement to take place in the side. Fortunately, a number of young players are beginning to find their feet at this level,” he remarked.

Skipper Mahela Jayawardene took comfort in the strong batting line-up and a couple of all-rounders in the side, adding that the batsmen have scored nearly 10 hundreds during the recent couple of months.

“We have the luxury of a couple of all-rounders in the side. This provides us with a chance to field a balanced combination,” the diminutive middle order batsman said, adding “There is a lot of flexibility in the side. There are a couple of experienced batsman, who can be shifted up or down the order keeping in mind the requirement of the side.”

When reminded that Bangladesh have a victory over the islanders to their credit, Jayawardene said the minnows had been playing the game at this level for six to seven years and were capable of playing good cricket.

Refusing to divulge the final playing 11, Jayawardene said a decision would be taken after reviewing the conditions in the morning.

“If we are able to harness the talent that we have, I think Bangladesh can field a competitive side. We are in the process and probably need a bit of luck,” Dave Whatmore, the Bangladesh coach, said, adding “Slowly but surely, we are heading in the right direction.”

He said both his fast bowlers had recovered well and bowled very well in the practice match.

Skipper Habibul Basher, the most experienced batsman in the side, was confident that his side would do well in the tournament. He said his team was well prepared for the tournament.

“We had adequate practice before coming here. Boys are ready for the match. We are hopeful of doing well,” he remarked.

Mohali, October 6
The contentious issue of revenue sharing lingered even as the PCA expressed its willingness to resolve the matter through the grievances redress mechanism provided the ICC agrees to the same, PCA chief I S Bindra revealed today.

“Some issues are still lying pending with the ICC,” he said, making, however, clear that “100 per cent ticketing revenue is with the PCA.” Mr Bindra stressed that the PCA was ready to withdraw if its demand was not accepted.

Payment was due to PCA from the ICC for undertaking media upgrading facilities. The world body paid for these in England, he said.

Mr Bindra stressed that the PCA was not sparing any effort in making the tournament a grand success. 

London, October 6
West Indian umpire Billy Doctrove, who was Darrell Hair’s colleague at the forfeited Oval Test, has been omitted from the list of umpires for forthcoming ICC Champions Trophy duty.

Though Doctrove, along with Hair, received flak from ICC match referee Ranjan Madugalle for deciding Pakistan should forfeit the Test after they refused to take the field following ball-tampering allegations, the apex cricket body insisted that there was “nothing sinister” in the West Indian’s absence from Champions Trophy duty.

“There were only going to be eight umpires,” an ICC spokesman was quoted as saying by the BBC Sport.

“It doesn’t mean Billy Doctrove is a bad umpire,” he added.

Earlier, Hair was removed from the eight-man umpires’ list for the elite tournament on security reasons.

But, Mike Procter, who was match referee in the Oval Test, will be there for Champions Trophy duty. — PTI 

Tashkent, October 6
Sania Mirza crashed out against a lower seed Russian opponent in the quarterfinals of the USD 145,000 Tashkent Open Tennis tournament here today. The Indian, seeded third, was upset by sixth seed Olga Poutchkova 4-6, 6-4, 0-6.

It was another inconsistent performance by Sania, who said she never really adjusted to the conditions at the Tashkent Tennis Centre.

“Sometimes you don’t get used to the conditions and then you don’t win,” said Sania, who also admitted she was low on confidence.

“There were some 20-25 times in the match when I wanted to go for a winner but I didn’t have the confidence to go for it, I just kept pushing the ball back,” she said.

Sania’s discomfort was visible during the 1-hour, 42-minute match, in which there were 14 breaks of serve. After losing the first set, hitting wide an inside-out backhand at set point, Sania slumped to a 0-4 deficit in the second. — PTI

Jalandhar, October 6
The 23rd Indian Oil Surjit Hockey Tournament, scheduled to be held from November 3, will now be held from November 6-15 at the Olympian Surjit Hockey Stadium, Burlton Park, Jalandhar. Mr A. Venu Parsad, president, Surjit Hockey Society, stated this while addressing mediapersons here today.

He said the date was changed due to the Senior National Hockey Championship, which would be organised by the Punjab Hockey Federation from October 20-November 4 here.

In the men’s section, the matches will be played on knockout-cum-league basis, while in the women’s section, it will be on league basis. In the men’s section, 16 teams are divided into four pools.

In pool A, the teams are Indian Oil, Mumbai; BSF, Jalandhar, and Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala, while in pool B the teams are Indian Airlines, New Delhi, CRPF, New Delhi. Punjab Police, Air India, Mumbai, and Habib Bank, Pakistan, are in pool C, whereas pool D has Punjab and Sind Bank, Bharat Petroleum, Mumbai, and Shadman Hockey Cub, Pakistan. These teams are directly seeded into the league stage.

In the knockout stage, the teams are Corps of Signal; Punjab National Bank, New Delhi; Surjit Hockey Academy; EME, Jalandhar, and Namdhari XI.

In the women’s section, the teams are Western Railways, Mumbai; Central Railways, Mumbai; Punjab XI; Haryana XI; Northern Railways, New Delhi, and Pepsu XI.

The final of the women’s section will be played on November 14, while the final of the men’s section will be on November 15. 

Chandigarh, October 6
Indian Navy polo team thrashed the joint Army Service Corps (ASC) and Remounts and Veterinary Corps (RVC) team by 14 goals to four-and-a-half in the opening match of the Punjab Polo Season-2006 at Patiala today.

Lt Cdr A.S. Sangha led the Navy team. Lt Cdr Akhil Sirohi of the Navy, who has been a member of the Indian national team in the World Cup, scored eight goals, the highest tally in the match today.

In the second match played today for the Punjab Cup, the final of which is scheduled from October 8, a joint Patiala and Sehgal Stud Farms team defeated Taragarh team by 11-4.

A total of six teams are participating in the event. The remaining two teams are the Cavalry Red and a joint team from the Cavalry and the Army Polo and Riding Club (APRC), New Delhi.

Chandigarh, October 6
Puneet Rana of Panjab University, Chandigarh, emerged winner in the 100m breaststroke (men) with a timing of 1:06.06 sec and broke his own record created in 2002 (1:08.31 seconds) on the third day of All-India Inter-University Aquatic (men and women) Championship

Results: Men: 4x100m (free style relay): Panjab University, Chandigarh (Puneet Rana, Gagan Matta, Harpreet Singh, Mohit Sharma) 4:02.67 sec 1; Bangalore University (Abhishek, Satya Sheel, Ramachandra Rao, Rehan Poncha) 4:06.72 sec 2; VTU Belgaum (Vishnu, Sreejith, Anoop, Adith) 4:07.50 sec 3. 100m breaststroke: Puneet Rana (PU, Chandigarh) 1:06.06 sec, 1, Sandeep Sejwal (Delhi University) 1:08.79 sec, 2; Abhishek V ( Bangalore University) 1:12.28 sec, 3. 200m freestyle: Rehan Poncha ( Bangalore University) 2:02.70 sec, 1; Srinand Srinivas (RGUHS, Bangalore) 2:04.12 sec, 2; Nalang Kapil A. ( Shivaji University, Kolhapur) 2:04.77 sec, 3. 50m backstroke: Rahan Poncha ( Bangalore Unversity) 0:29.25 sec, 1; Abhimanu (University of Delhi) 0.29.71 sec, 2; Nalang Kapil A. (Shivaji University, Kolhapur) 0:29.76 sec) 3. 200m butterfly: Rehan Poncha ( Bangalore University) 2:10.17 sec, 1; Srinand Srinivas (RGUHS, Bangalore) 2:10.82 sec, 2, Abhishek ( Bangalore University) 2:16.19 sec, 3.

Women: 4x100m freestyle relay: Kerala University ( Beena, Praveen, Rohini, Saranya) 04:35.41 sec, 1; Calicut University (GR Sharma, Soomya, Sabunamol, Manusha) 04:36.93 sec, 2; Mumbai University (Juilee, Shruti, Tejashree, Bhavna) 04:47.19 sec, 3. 100m breaststroke: Divya MS (Bangalore Unversity) 1:22.62 sec, 1; Mini M (University of Calicut) 1:23.41 sec, 2; Bhavna Sharma (University of Mumbai) 1:24.53 sec 3. — TNS

Bathinda, October 6
The 52nd Punjab School Games got off to a colourful start at the sports stadium here today. ADC (Development) Gurkirat Kirpal Singh inaugurated the games in which over 7,000 players from different parts of the state are participating.

Lodging arrangements for these players have been made in various schools of the district. Players from newly formed districts of Mohali and Tarn Taran are also taking part in the sports event, which would conclude on October 10.

On the inaugural day, kho kho matches in junior and senior categories of boys and girls took place at different schools of the city. The event would witness volleyball, handball, kabaddi, cricket, karate, shooting ball, wrestling and kho kho matches.

DEO (Secondary) Surinder Kaur Kataria and DEO (Elementary) Joginder Das were also present at the inaugural ceremony.