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India aim to master Lord’s
Tendulkar is the best in the world: Lara
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SAI notice to doctor Nandi
Mallya yet to take decision on withdrawing controversial ad
Uruguay take on spirited Peru
Hi-tech lab to be set up
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New Delhi, July 19 Minutes after sealing India's 50-over World Cup victory with a six in Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium, a drained Dhoni was already discussing how to sustain the dominance of the team who have been the number one test side since December 2009. The biggest hurdle since that crazy, humid April night await them in England in the form of a four-test series starting at Lord's on Thursday, to be followed by five one-day internationals with a Twenty20 match thrown in. Dhoni would like to believe that he has ticked most of the boxes. Sachin Tendulkar is not just back in the squad but he made it a point to reach England early to get accustomed to the conditions, dropping in briefly at Wimbledon to watch Roger Federer. Such meticulous preparation for someone who has spent 22 years in international cricket does not surprise former India captain Sunil Gavaskar. "I'm not surprised he's out there trying to acclimatise and get some practice... also having had a word with Roger Federer, be prepared for the pull shot past mid-on," Gavaskar said. Tendulkar's demanding fans will be expecting more than few nice shots. At the age of 38, Tendulkar is unlikely to return to England and he has yet to score a century at Lord's, venue of the firset test starting on Thursday. If he does reach his century, he will the first person to score 100 international centuries. Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid (38) and VVS Laxman (36) share 99 centuries and 35,000 runs in tests and Gavaskar said they would do anything to make their final England tour memorable. Yuvraj Singh is also not short of motivation. The architect of India's Twenty20 (2007) and 50 overs (2011) World Cups remains a fringe test player, even after 11 years of international cricket, and this would be one of his few remaining opportunities to cement his place or else watch someone like Suresh Raina slam the door on his face. "In terms of one-day cricket, everything has been good for me, but in terms of test cricket, I suppose the graph reads a bit up and down," Yuvraj said before leaving for England. "Cricket is my game though and I am going to give this test series my level best. I will give my 100 percent.” — Reuters England v India factbox
England have won 34 matches, India 19 and 46 have been drawn. England will overtake India as the world's number one side if they win the series by a margin of at least two Tests. Sachin Tendulkar needs one century to become the first man to score 100 international hundreds. India captain MS Dhoni led his side to victory in the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup in 2007 and the 50-overs World Cup this year. He has taken India to number one in the world Test rankings for the first time and never lost a series. Duncan Fletcher, England coach during their 2005 Ashes win and now with India, will become the first head coach to take charge for 100 Tests. |
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Tendulkar is the best in the world: Lara
London, July 19 Participating in a panel discussion at Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni's 'East Meets West' Gala Dinner at the Hilton Park Lane here last night, Lara said, "Sachin started playing (Test cricket) at the age of 16. And at 38 now, we have not seen a better player. Sachin is the best batsman in the world. I am going to the Lord's to see Sachin make his 100th century," he said. Stewart, who also participated in the discussion, described Tendulkar as ‘modern day Bradman’. India's veteran batsman Rahul Dravid added to the praise, saying, "In India, we have many Gods and he is one of them." Answering questions from cricket commentator Henry Blofeld, Lara said, "While Sachin is special, Dravid is the wall. Dravid is always going to be there - he is a tremendous player.” Stewart described Dravid as a ‘great player’. Dravid is India's most technically gifted player," he said. Matter of time before Sachin gets 100th ton: Zaheer
The Telegraph further quoted him, as saying, “It has been such a privilege to play with him and see him reach so many fantastic landmarks, this would be the perfect way for him to get his 100th hundred - in the 100th game between England and India and the 2,000th Test match. We all know he will get there, it is just a matter of when and the whole team is behind him to do it at Lord’s and create history for himself there,” he added. Tendulkar has already been honoured ahead of the game by being named in the ICC’s greatest Test XI of all time after an online poll. London: 'Timeless' Test - a match that only ends when one team wins - could be held to decide the World Test Championship in 2013, ICC CEO Haroon Lorgat has said. The latest ICC Future Tours Programme has a four-year Test league with the top four teams at the end of each period qualifying for a play-off event. Lorgat said the ICC is trying to work out a way to ensure that the play-off does not end in a draw. "We've still got to decide how we determine a winner in case of a draw or if the draw will be the end result. I would favour a winner because you want somebody to be a Test champion," Lorgat said. "That is what Dave Richardson and the committee is currently working on because it is not a good idea to end up with a drawn Test match. You have got to determine a winner - whether it is on the first-innings basis, or the runs (scored) in the game - they will come up with a viable formula to determine a winner in case of a drawn Test match. The final may well be a 'timeless' Test," he added. Broad's place under threat for 1st Test
England team director Andy Flower has offered mild criticism for his performance this season. "I didn't think he bowled as badly as his figures suggested against Sri Lanka. I've got a lot of respect for Broad as a young cricketer," Flower was quoted as saying by the newspapers here. — Agencies |
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SAI notice to doctor Nandi
Patiala, July 19 Speaking to The Tribune, Nandi said that the SAI Director-General had issued this notice and asked him to reply. “I spoke to media regarding doping practice at NIS on July 8 while this letter has been signed on July 7,” Nandi said. “The authorities must have deliberately signed with on back date, just to give an impression that this notice had nothing to do with my speaking against NIS authorities. Anyway, I received the letter on July 16 and have to send my reply within 10 days.” Asked why he was transferred to Bangalore, Nandi said the NIS, Patiala, authorities had falsely implicated him in a sexual harassment case after he had objected to their way of functioning. “Within one week of my transfer, I approached the police department to investigate this matter as it was a false complaint. The authorities even ordered an inquiry in this regard by a committee which never existed. “I didn’t join in Bangalore as the transfer order was illegal and based on a false complaint,” Nandi added. “I felt that acceptance of illegal orders was also illegal and didn’t join. Since then, inquiries have been ordered but no report has been submitted yet.”
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Mallya yet to take decision on withdrawing controversial ad
New Delhi, July 19 Mallya said that they were considering the notice served on them by Harbhajan's lawyers and made it clear that the spoof was not targetted at the ace Indian spinner. "We are studying the notice at the moment and have not taken any decision on withdrawing the advertisement. We will respond to the notice soon," Mallya told PTI over phone. "Our company has a professional set-up and had a good profile. We have been involved in sports for a very long time and it is wrong to interpret the ad as any sort of target against Bhajji," he said. — PTI
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Buenos Aires, July 19 "I don't want to talk about favourites, we've got it wrong every time," Uruguay's coach Oscar Tabarez said on Monday. "Any of the four teams that are in the semi-finals have a chance of snatching the title. Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela are not going to say: 'That's it, we've got this far'," he told a news conference. "In this tournament, (Peru) are one of the four best teams in South America. Their evolution is evident. We're going to try to mark them well, we won't go out to expose ourselves as we did in the first match. We don't believe ourselves to be superior." Uruguay and Peru drew 1-1 in the opening match in Group C in San Juan two weeks ago, with the World Cup semi-finalists salvaging a draw after falling behind to a goal by Paolo Guerrero. In a tournament of generally tight results, Uruguay's only victory was 1-0 against Mexico, while Peru lost to Chile and finished third in the group before upsetting Colombia 2-0 in their quarter-final in Cordoba on Saturday. Tabarez said he would prefer to be able to attack constantly like Argentina and Brazil rather than wait for them and hit on the break. "If we compare ourselves with Argentina they ought to rout us every time and that's not the case. We have to think about what we've got and not in what we lack," he said. In Wednesday's semi-final in Mendoza, Paraguay, who have drawn their four matches and eliminated Brazil on penalties, meet surprise package Venezuela, who had never before progressed so far. The teams shared a thrilling 3-3 draw in their final qualifying match with two goals in the dying minutes leaving Venezuela top of their group. — Reuters
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London, July 19 Games organisers hope that their preparedness will deter cheats. "We have a state-of-the-art facility, we have the best detection systems going, we're right up to date with the science, and if athletes know you've got good testing and good detection systems, it really has a deterrent effect," said David Cowan, head of the Drug Control Centre at King's College London and the man who will oversee London 2012's anti-doping regime. His staff are aims to conduct more than 5,000 tests at the Olympics. — Reuters
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The first Test will be the 2,000th ever and the 100th between the two countries.
London: Indian fast bowler Zaheer Khan has said that it would be a privilege to see Sachin Tendulkar get his 100th international ton during the England tour, added that he was confident that Tendulkar would get it. “I hope he gets there in this match. It would make it the perfect numbers game,” said Zaheer Khan.
The spearhead of England's pace attack but off-colour for quite a while now, Stuart Broad's place in the team is under threat for the opening cricket Test against India starting July 21 at the Lord's. Although his name figures in the squad announced for the match, but he is facing stiff challenge from seamer Tim Bresnan for a place in the playing XI.
Rachel plans to sue attorney