Chandigarh, September 30
Yuvraj Singh has fought his way back into the Indian team with selectors picking him for the lone T-20 international and the first three ODIs against Australia.

Yuvraj replaced Dinesh Karthik in the squad that won the Champions Trophy in June. Also included in the squad were Ambati Rayudu, Mohammed Shami and Jaydev Unadkat in place of Murali Vijay, Irfan Pathan and Umesh Yadav.

Two senior out-of-favour players, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, who have been in action for India A and in the Challenger Series in the recent days, were ignored for the India squad.

Yuvraj last played for India in January this year, in an ODI against England at Dharamsala. In the nine months he’s been out of the team, Yuvraj has missed 15 ODIs and India’s triumphs in the Champions Trophy and in the series against West Indies and Zimbabwe.

He had not been idle, though. Yuvraj worked hard on his fitness during his time out of the team, and said that he had been focussing on improving his “lung capacity”. He and another India discard, Zaheer Khan, trained in France and both said they emerged fitter and stronger.

That had been quite evident in the case of Yuvraj, who is visibly lighter and fitter than he was a year ago. This translated into some good performances at the start of the current season. Two weeks ago, Yuvraj launched his comeback bid with a blistering 123 off 89 balls against West Indies A. “I just wanted to work hard on my fitness. I worked hard when I came back from cancer and it took a while for my body to get 100 per cent fit,” Yuvraj said after that knock. “The doctors said it would take me about a year to get fully fit. My body’s improved a lot.”

Leading the side, he was the top run-getter for India A in that limited-overs series against West Indies A, with 224 runs at an average of nearly 75. In three subsequent List A (limited-over) matches, he has two half-centuries with a lowest score of 29.

Yuvraj, with his unfettered strokeplay and useful left-arm spin, brings great value to the squad. Sunil Gavaskar, the former Indian captain, believes that Yuvraj’s return would bolster the Indian squad a great deal. "Yuvraj's inclusion will not only strengthen the team but will add variety as well," Gavaskar said in a TV interview.

One of the notable exclusions was pacer Umesh Yadav. Bengal speedster Mohammed Shami Ahmed, seasoned Karnataka seamer Ranganath Vinay Kumar and promising Saurashtra left-arm seamer Jaydev Unadkat were retained from the pace attack that played its last international series in Zimbabwe.

Haryana paceman Mohit Sharma was dropped from the squad while Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ishant Sharma made a comeback after well deserved rest. Bhuvneshwar bowled India Blue to Challenger Series triumph with a four-wicket haul in the final.

New Delhi, September 30
The Supreme Court today directed the newly-elected BCCI President N Srinivasan to stay away from the functioning of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and any probe into allegations of match and spot fixing in IPL matches.

A Bench comprising Justices AK Patnaik and JS Khehar told Srinivasan’s counsel CS Vaidyanathan that the “fairness of the probe should not be affected.”

Vaidyanathan informed the Bench that his client had been elected as BCCI President unanimously, but he would have nothing to do with the proposed inquiry by a BCCI panel into IPL-related charges against Srinivasan’s son-in-law Gurunath Meiyyappan and others.

BCCI’s senior counsel Aryaman Sundaram said the Board would set up another panel comprising Arun Jaitley and Niloy Dutta to go into betting and fixing charges.

At this, the Bench asked the Board not to rush with constituting the probe panel and instead give some time to the Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB), which has come to the SC challenging the Bombay High Court’s refusal to direct the BCCI to set up a fresh committee to investigate the charges, to consider the proposal.

CAB’s senior counsel Harish Salve said Meiyyappan was the Team Principal of IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings (CSK) owned by Srinivasan’s company, India Cements. If the probe found something amiss with CSK, who would take action against the team owned by the BCCI President, he wanted to know. In view of this, the probe should be taken out of the purview of BCCI, he pleaded.

During the arguments, the Bench remarked that BCCI had lost its credibility and exclaimed “how deep the rot has run.” Srinivasan’s continuance as BCCI chief should not affect the probe, it clarified.

The Bench, however, did not agree with Salve’s exception to Srinivasan’s re-election despite the fact that the SC was hearing a case against him. This showed the tremendous influence he was wielding, Salve said. Pointing out that it was a democratic process, the Bench said it had no problem with that.

Ahmedabad, September 30
Evin Lewis (70) and Darren Bravo (63) hit blistering half centuries as Trinidad and Tobago registered a six-run win over Titans via D/L method in a rain-hit match to place themselves in strong contention for a semifinal berth in Champions League Twenty20.

Sent into bat, Trinidad and Tobago posted a challenging 188 for six against Titans in the Group B match, riding on a 109-run partnership between opener Lewis and Bravo for the second wicket at the Sardar Patel Stadium here.

The Caribbean side then returned to restrict Titans to 153 for six in 17 overs, when heavy rains stopped play and the match was called off.

Calculated under the Duckworth/Lewis method, the par score was 159 and since Titans were behind at that point, T&T were adjudged the winners by six runs. With this victory, T&T kept their hopes alive of a semifinal berth as they now have eight points from three matches, behind Chennai Super Kings (12).

Lewis blasted seven fours and five sixes in his 35-ball 70-run innings, while Bravo hit five boundaries and four sixes in his 44-ball stay to lay the foundation for T&T. Chasing 189, Henry Davids (42) and Jacques Rudolph (31) gave Titans a flying start, amassing 65 in 6.5 overs before the former was dismissed by Rayad Emrit. Heino Kuhn was sent packing by Samuel Badree in the 10th over. Lendl Simmon then struck twice in the next over, dismissing opener Rudolph and Roelof van der Merwe (4) as Titans slipped to 88 for four in 10.4 overs.

But T&T spinner Sunil Narine’s twin strike — Behardien and David Wiese (0) — in the 16th over left the Titans at 137 for six in 15.5 overs.

Brief Scores

New Delhi, September 30
Call it government apathy or lackadaisical attitude on the part of officials as batting great Sachin Tendulkar’s visionary document to integrate sports into the education system has hit a roadblock.

Member of Parliament Tendulkar had opened his innings in the Rajya Sabha with a letter asking the government to focus on honing fresh talent in Indian sport, especially in schools and colleges and improving sports infrastructure at the university level.

Tendulkar, who was nominated to the Upper House earlier this year, had addressed his letter to former Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal and ex Sports Minister Ajay Maken. Tendulkar had given a two-page summary and attached a 25-slide presentation to show the road ahead for Indian sports.

Tendulkar’s proposal was largely based on the one prepared by the Sports Authority of India (SAI) last year to identify talent at the age of 13-15 years and to provide them with the best facilities and systematic training so as to enable them attain peak performance at the 2020 Olympics.

The ambitious scheme, modelled on the pattern of Chinese and Eastern European countries, talked about identifying talent at school and college level and put an ultra-modern monitoring system in place to realise the medals dreams.

However, Tendulkar’s proposal has made no headway ever since it was submitted to the Sports and HRD ministries with the project still to see the light of the day. The modalities are yet to be worked out by NCERT to make sport a subject in school curriculum.

Tendulkar outlined four points in his proposal — tap into grassroots and nurture young talent, promote sports at university and college levels, revamp sporting infrastructure and make physical activity part of school curriculum.

When Tendulkar had submitted the proposal to then Sports Minister Maken, he had prompltly asked the sports secretary Sindhushree Khullar to look into the document and involve SAI into the matter.

The minister and secretary were shown a presentation by the then DG SAI Desh Deepak Verma and Regional Director Roque Dias on ‘Vision 2020’ and Maken was informed that all the necessary points outlined by Tendulkar in his proposal have been incorporated.

Maken, after going through the presentaion, agreed to implement the project at the earliest and his views were endorsed by the 10 National Sports Federations (NSFs).

Maken, based on the Vision 2020 document prepared by SAI and the one submitted by Tendulkar, had announced at a press conference in the capital last year that India will target 25 medals at the 2020 Olympics and efforts would be to identify and nurture young talent. But nothing happened after that. — PTI

Jaipur, September 30
Having sealed their place in the semifinals, Rajasthan Royals would look to grab the top spot in the table when they square off against Otago Volts in their final Group match of the Champions League Twenty20, on Tuesday.

By finishing atop the table Royals will not only avoid playing rampaging Chennai Super Kings in the semifinals but also they will get to play their last-four stage match at home, where they have an incredible 11-match winning streak. Stakes are much higher for the Kiwi side as a win tomorrow would ensure their passage in the last-four stage. They are currently placed second in the group with 12 points from three matches and could knock out IPL champions Mumbai Indians if they win.

The match between the Volts and Mumbai was washed away putting the reigning IPL champions in quandary.

Mumbai have six points from three matches and are likely to win their last match against Perth Scorchers at Delhi on Wednesday. — PTI

New Delhi, September 30
Unhappy with the shabby treatment meted out to their players, including late arrival of visas of three key players for the AFC Cup away semifinals against Kuwait SC, East Bengal has made a formal complaint to Asian Football Confederation against the Kuwaiti side, saying that it has impacted its preparations for the crucial match.

Captain Mehtab Hossain, defender Arnab Mondal and Gurwinder Singh could only leave for Kuwait late last night, one day after their team-mates had reached Kuwait due to non-arrival of visas from the Kuwait SC authorities.

The first leg of the semifinal will be played on Tuesday in Kuwait City.

East Bengal secretary Kalyan Majumdar said that one player — Robert Lalthlamuana — was also made to wait for more than two hours as his visa-on-arrival was not in order at the Kuwait City Airport. “Even the players were not given enough water at their team hotel in Kuwait City. This is unacceptable,” Majumdar said from Kolkata.

“How can a coach chalk out strategy without the captain and another key defender (Mondal)? They (the three players) will be able to join team practice for just one day before the match. They (Kuwait SC) wanted our team unity to be affected so that they can take advantage of.”

“We have made a formal complaint to the AFC that what Kuwait SC had done was not acceptable,” he added.

East Bengal are seeking to become the first Indian club to make it to the final of AFC Cup. — PTI

BRIEFLY

Biswal to prepare roadmap to make IPL clean
Bhubaneswar: Newly-appointed IPL chairman Ranjib Biswas today said he will soon prepare a roadmap to make IPL matches clean and corruption-free. "I will try to make IPL a clean cricket tournament. Besides, I will also see that IPL matches will be played in a better way with every passing season," Biswal, who was appointed the IPL chairman at the BCCI AGM in Chennai, said on his arrival. Stating that it is a very important responsibility, the former national selector said, "I'll call a meeting soon to review all these incidents related to IPL. Also I'll hold discussions to make a system of checks and balances to make cricket corruption-free." The Odisha Cricket Association (OCA) president and a former India Under-19 captain, Biswal assured more IPL matches in the state in future. Odisha is a venue for IPL matches. But the local franchisee Sunrisers Hyderabad must agree for the matches here, he said.

Deepika in elimination round in World C’ship
New Delhi: Ace Indian archer Deepika Kumari qualified 10th for the main elimination round of the women's individual recurve event in the World Archery Championships at Belek in Turkey. Deepika shot a total of 1345 points from 144 arrows in the qualifying event which was topped by Bo Bae Ki of Korea (1376 points).Deepika's compatriots Dola Banerjee finished at 49th on 1300 points while comeback woman Chekrovolu Swuro was 71st on 1283 points. India qualified 12th in women's recurve team event with 3928 points. Korea topped the qualifying chart with 4106 points. In women's individual compound qualifying event, Jyothi Surekha Vennam finished sixth with 684 points from 72 arrows while compatriots Trisha Deb (680) and Jhano Hansdah (645) were 15th and 69th respectively. The Indian trio qualified 10th in the women's compound team event with 2009 points. In men's individual compound qualifying event, Abhishek Verma was the highest-ranked Indian at 31st with 698 points from 72 arrows. Rajat Chauhan (693) and Sandeep Kumar (691) were 46th and 56th respectively. India finished 13th in the men's team compound qualifying event at 13th with 2082 points

Kartar Singh to compete at Veteran World C'ship
New Delhi: Double Asian gold medallist Kartar Singh will be the lone Indian representative at the Veteran World Championship as other members of the team were denied permission by the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) to participate in the tournament. "Thankfully he had a valid Schenegan visa (a common visa for 26 European nations) so went for the competition on September 28. As it is an open tournament anyone can participate," Rakesh Sanoria, Coordinator, Veteran Wrestling Federation of India, said of Kartar Singh, who is the general secretary of this organisation. The Veteran World Championship is from October 1-6 in Bosnia and Herzegovina. — Agencies