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West Indies put up a fight
Sehwag may make England squad
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Bopanna-Sania in mixed doubles quarters
Doping in India: A system failure
Up, up and away!
Lorgat defends abolishing runners
Contador booed on Tour return
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India’s tour of west
indies,
second test: day 3
Barbados, June 30 Earlier, bad weather combined with persistence of Marlon Samuels and Shivnarine Chanderpaul to frustrate India as the West Indies reached 98 for five on the rain-hit second day. Indian paceman Ishant Sharma struck twice in three balls to reduce the West Indies to 57 for five in the curtailed morning session after the hosts resumed at an uncomfortable 30 for three. However, several rain interruptions and some sensible batting by Samuels (21) and Chanderpaul (20) gave India no chance to make further in-roads into the hosts' batting line up. The two batsmen added 41 runs for the unconquered sixth wicket and batted together for 19.3 overs on a day when only 25.3 overs of play was possible on the day. The tenor of the day was set early when a shower delayed the start of the game by 45 minutes. There was another break of half an hour after lunch but the resumption lasted no more than eight-odd overs. Heavy rains lashed Kensington Oval in the second session which forced umpire to enforce an early tea in the hope of squeezing as much play as possible in the final session. That opportunity never arrived. Even though it stopped raining after a while, early tea was taken and players even came out in the final session. It began raining almost immediately for players to go to pavilion. Thereafter it was poor light which never allowed the game to resume. The most play possible was in the morning session as West Indies retired for lunch at 82 for 5 from 29 overs. Both the overnight batsmen, Ramnaresh Sarwan (18) and Devendra Bishoo (13), fell prey to Ishant's bounce with the paceman bowling a spell of 6-2-23-2 in the morning. Praveen Kumar and Ishant held the two ends up for all but the final 10 minutes and three overs of the shortened session. Despite the precision and pace of Indian bowlers, both Sarwan and Bishoo stood their ground for the initial half an hour’s play. Sarwan survived a couple of shouts and Bishoo once edged Ishant between the third and fourth slip. Bishoo's propensity to fiddle with every delivery outside off-stump made Dhoni strengthen the off-side to the extent that he had all his fielders manning the side of the stumps. — PTI Wrong replay shown to give Dhoni out
Bridgetown: The controversy over poor umpiring in the ongoing Test series between India and the West Indies has taken a new twist as it has now emerged that Mahendra Singh Dhoni was given out off a no ball on the first day of the second Test. In what could erupt into a major controversy, the television replays ordered to check if Fidel Edwards had no-balled didn't show that particular ball, instead some other legitimate delivery was shown to give Dhoni out. Incidentally, Dhoni was given out off a no ball even in the first Test in Jamaica. The latest case was the final delivery of Edwards' 15th over, the 59th of the innings, which had Dhoni offering the catch to Shivnarine Chanderpaul at mid-on. Scoreboard India first Innings: 201 West Indies 1st innings: Barath c Kohli b Ishant 3 Simmons c Dhoni b Praveen 2 Sarwan lbw b Ishant 18 Bravo c Dhoni b Mithun 9 Bishoo c Kohli b Ishant 13 Chanderpaul b Mithun 37 Samuels batting 43 Baugh batting 1 Extras (lb 2, w 5, nb 5) 12 Total (6 wkts, 57 ovrs) 138 Bowling: Praveen 21-3-52-1, Ishant 17-5-49-3, Mithun 11-4-23-2, Harbhajan 8-3-12-0. |
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Sehwag may make England squad
New Delhi, June 30 Further, if the strength of the squad is fixed at 16, there is a strong possibility that Yuvraj Singh may also make the cut. The team list will have some predictable changes, which would automatically result in some players being dropped. With Sachin Tendulkar set to rejoin the squad, along with players who were out due to injuries, which include Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Zaheer Khan. The batting order is expected to have Gambhir and Sehwag back at their slots with Rahul Dravid, Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Suresh Raina and Mahendra Singh Dhoni to follow. Murali Vijay is expected to be retained as the third opener while Parthiv Patel will go as the reserve wicket-keeper. The bowling front will see Zaheer returning, as he too is expected to return after a right ankle injury kept him out of the West Indies series. Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma and Munaf Patel are expected to complete the pace attack while Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra are in line for the spinners’ slots. This is expected to be the line-up of the team, to be announced on July 2 in Chennai. The return of the senior players would however be a blow for some of the youngsters, with Virat Kohli and Abhinav Mukund unlikely to make the squad, as also S. Badrinath. On the bowling front, Abhimanyu Mithun is anticipated to make way for Zaheer. An interesting twist to the probabilities is that there is an outside chance for Yuvraj to come in as well. Yuvraj, who also missed out on the West Indies tour, has gone on record professing his fitness for the England series but given the lack of openings in the squad, he is only likely to make it if the selectors decide on a 16-man squad instead of 15 players.
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Bopanna-Sania in mixed doubles quarters
London, June 30 There was no stopping the sixth-seed Indians after they took the first-set lead and then it proved just a stroll in the park. They will next face the winner of the other third round match between 15th seed Andy Ram and Meghann Shaughnessy and unseeded pair of Paul Hanley and Su-Wei Hsieh. Sania has also reached the women's doubles semifinals along with Russian partner Elena Vesnina. She though made a first round exit from the singles as she played through pain in her left knee. Mahesh Bhupathi and Elena Vesnina advanced to the mixed doubles quarter-finals of the Wimbledon Championships after quelling a late challenge from Eric Butorac and Olga Govortsova here. The fourth-seeded Indo-Russian combination dismissed the challenge of American-Belarussian pair 6-2 7-6 (7) in the third round contest yesterday. It was a good day for Vesnina as she earlier, partnering Sania Mirza, reached the women's doubles semifinals. Bhupathi-Vesnina may run into the Sania-Rohan Bopanna Indian pair in the mixed doubles semifinals if both the pairs win their respective quarter-finals. Bopanna and Sania are one step away from making the quarter-finals as they face Czech team of Martin Damm and Renata Voracova in the third round. Earlier, they scored a 7-5 6-2 victory over Jamie Murray of Great Britain and Jarmila Gajdosova of Australia in the second round. Sharapova in final
Favourite Maria Sharapova set up a Wimbledon final against Petra Kvitova after storming back from a shaky start to beat Sabine Lisicki 6-4 6-3 on Thursday. The Russian fifth seed, who won the grasscourt grand slam in 2004, slipped 3-0 down to the German wildcard in the first set of the semi-final but suddenly found her groove to rattle off a string of winners. Rain was in the air just as Sharapova was excelling but the drizzle held off and her momentum was maintained. The second set was again inconsistent from both players but the 24-year-old prevailed and will now fancy her chances against the Czech eighth seed in Saturday's showpiece. — Agencies |
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Doping in India: A system failure
New Delhi, June 30 Mandeep, a member of India’s gold medal-winning 4x400-metre relay teams in the Commonwealth Games in Delhi and the Asian Games in China and Murmu, gold medalist in last year’s Asian All-Star 400m hurdles, have tested for banned substances, in an out-of-competition test conducted by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) at Patiala in May. Both have since been suspended by AAI, till the NADA disciplinary panel hears their case and gives its verdict. But people in the know of things were not surprised by this development. “The blame for this has to be shared by all those who took credit for the victorious performances of these athletes in the past,” observed Dr. P.S.M. Chandran, former Director of Sports Medicine, SAI. Chandran, who has had a ring-side view of the preparations of the Indian contingents for countless international competitions, including Olympics, World Championships and Asian Games, asserted that doping in sports was not an individual “but a team effort”. “A positive dope test in a top athlete is not an individual failing, but a failure of the system. In sports, the athlete is at the centre-stage, supported by a cast which includes coaches, trainers, recovery experts and doctors. Those who applaud the athletes for their victories rarely try to find out the efforts, some of them questionable, put in by the support staff,” said Chandran, who has accompanied many Indian contingents as team doctor. Presently associated with Hockey India, Chandran, who is also the president of the Indian Association of Sports Medicine, said the “winning habit” of Indian athletes, particularly the women, started with the arrival of coaches and support staff from the erstwhile USSR, particularly from Ukraine and Belarus. “They came, masquerading as coaches, recovery experts, doctors and masseurs. They were given a free hand to train the athletes and doping became an unwritten norm,” Chandran told The Tribune. He particularly cited the case of one “Dr. B”, who followed the athletes everywhere “with syringes loaded with Russian-made injections.” “He was a trend-setter, who became the Big B of Indian doping,” Chandran said. “When objections were raised on his practising medicine on Indian soil, that too without a licence from the Medical Council of India, the going got tough for him and the authorities, who had to eventually deport him,” Chandran elaborated. He said after the exit of ‘Dr B’, medical doctors were brought in as ‘recovery experts’ to provide the winning edge to our athletes. The demand of the ‘experts’ for medicines and injections to be given to the national campers was “gleefully met” by the authorities. “These recovery experts also smuggled in Russian-made medicines to administer to the athletes at a price. They even sold their medicines to local chemist shops and directed the athletes to purchase them from such shops,” Chandran revealed. “When such medicines with Russian labels and empty syringes were confiscated and reported by well-meaning camp officials and doctors, the ‘Godfathers’ of these ‘experts’ brushed them aside,” he said.
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New Delhi, June 30 "Our proposal to fly the two cricketers in the Su-30s has been approved by the Defence Ministry and we are looking forward to their flight in Pune soon," IAF officials said. The proposal for flying Tendulkar and Dhoni was submitted with the Government by the IAF. They said the dates for the flights have not been finalised yet and would be done soon depending on the availability of the two cricketers. After India's World Cup victory in April this year, IAF chief Air Chief Marshal P V Naik had said that he would seek special permission from the government so that Dhoni and Tendulkar could experience a flight in Su-30MKI. "Tendulkar is already our Honorary Group Captain. Once both Sachin and Dhoni are free from their cricketing engagements, I will ensure that they get to fly Su-30MKI. They have done our country proud and it will be an honour for us," he had said. At present, Dhoni is leading India in the three-match Test series against West Indies in the Caribbean and Tendulkar is on a personal visit to England. Pune-based air force station Lohegaon is the home-base of Sukhois and VIPs including President Pratibha Patil and her predecessor A P J Abdul Kalam had also taken off in the mighty jets from the air base. — PTI
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Lorgat defends abolishing runners
Hong Kong, June 30
Runners were abolished by the ICC Executive Board during its five-day annual conference which concluded here today. "If a bowler gets injured you can't continue bowling for the rest of the day and the feeling was that it would be better to not allow the use of runners because there has been abuse in the past," Lorgat said. The ICC's decision was criticised by former India captain Sunil Gavaskar, who said if the batsmen were to be denied runners, even bowlers should not be allowed water on the boundary. — PTI
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Barbados, June 30
London, June 30
"It's been considered by the cricket committee... and there has been a strong feeling that runners were used not in the right spirit," Lorgat told reporters here. "It's quite a difficult one for umpires to determine whether there has been a real injury to batters or whether it was a tactical use of runners," he added.
New Delhi:
London: