SPORT

Six-wicket win for city boys
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, April 27 — The Sector 8 Chandigarh Coaching Centre beat Panchkula Coaching Centre by six wickets in an under-14 cricket tournament organised by the Chandigarh Cricket Association affiliated to the Punjab Cricket Association. In another match of the day, in the Sector 16 stadium, Ludhiana beat Himachal Pradesh by five wickets.

In the first match, Panchkula won the toss and elected to bat first. Sunny and V. Dutt made 36 and 34 runs, respectively. The middle-order batsmen Karandeep and Dhanol scored 27 and 29 runs, respectively. All of them helped Panchkula score 183 runs in 34 overs.

In reply, Chandigarh began on a dismal note with their opener Roni bowled for just five runs when the total was 18. Gurkiral and Gauhar built the innings steadily, but, the former was declared the leg before wicket after he had made 13 runs. Gaurav and Aseem stayed at the wicket long enough, but, Aseem got run out after making 36 runs. Gaurav and Naresh played a sensible knock and both helped the team achieve the target in 30.4 overs.

Brief scores: Panchkula CC — 183 runs all out in 34 overs (Sunny 36, V. Dutt 32, Dhanol 27, Karnadeep 29, Vishal 15 n.o., Arvind 13, Rajnish 2 for 37, Subhi 2 for 22); Chandigarh CC — 188 for four in 30 overs.

Himachal Pradesh — 186 runs in 35 overs (Munish 44, Ramneet 11); Ludhiana — 188 for five in 33.3 overs (Karan Goyal 15, Tabish 56 n.o., Munish 24, Bharat 17 n.o.).

Gauhar Pruthi and Anuj were declared the best batsmen and Rajneesh and Tabnish the best bowlers.

League cricket: Kelvinator Cricket Club will take on Energiser XI in the opening match on April 30 of the second Samsung Cash-prize League Cricket Tournament to be organised by the Chandigarh Cricket Association (affiliated to the Haryana Cricket Association).

The tournament will be organised in the memory of Samuel Banerjee, a former renowned journalist of The Tribune. According to Mr Surinder Singh, Secretary of the association, 25 teams have confirmed their entries in the tournament.

The teams have been divided into eight pools as follows: Pool A — Kelvinator, Energiser XI, Ranger, JAL XI; Pool B — ICC, MCC, Panther; Pool C — Gymkhana, Videocon, Shine Star XI; Pool D — Godrej, Striker, Sun Cricket Club; Pool E — LIC, Bombay, Royal Cricket Club, St John's Coaching Centre XI; Pool F — Chetna Club, Punjab Secretariat, Goldy CC; Pool G — Evergreen, Gallant and Sohal XI; Pool H — Bedi CC, Ricky XI and CNS XI.

In the league phase, each team will play against the remaining teams in the pool once and the winner of each pool will qualify for the quarterfinals.

Sport programme to be launched today
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, April 27 — A grassroots-development programme, part of a nationwide drive and aimed at promoting a fitness culture around the country, will be launched in the city and the surrounding region tomorrow. Every school included in the programme will need to identify at least 60 students each in the 10 to 12, 12 to 14 and 14 to 16 age groups with 20 children in each group.

The programme will include the latest training skills and techniques, fitness, proper diet and nutrition, sport psychology, sport medicine, knowledge of equipment and strategies. The programme is an effort by the Alchemy Sports Promotion Network (ASPN).

The body comprises a panel of former national coaches, players, captains, administrators and international experts. The persons who are now actively associated with this body include Cedric D' Souza, a former national hockey coach; Horst Wein of Federation International de Hockey (FIH) who is a master coach and a renowned hockey expert; Dr P. Kannan, sport-medicine expert who has worked in the Australian Institute of Sport; Jude Felix, a former national hockey captain; besides Marcellous Gomes, Jagdeep Singh Gill, Amitoj Inder Singh and a few others.

ASPN offers services on individual analysis and corrective planning, game planning, besides organisation of complete training camps for teams. The programme also intends to nurture and produce a nursery of sport talent by providing trainees with inputs in the areas of physical fitness, mind training, diet and nutrition and other related skills. It will be a nearly five-year-long programme, following at least three-days-a-week schedule.

Athletics meet

The Veterans Amateur Athletics meet will be held in the Sector 7 Sports Complex, according to a press note of the Veterans Amateur Athletics Association of Chandigarh. The competition will be for men in the above-40 age group and women in the above-35 age group.

ADMINISTRATION

New SDM of Mohali takes over
From Our correspondent

SAS NAGAR, April 27 — Mr Jai Pal Singh took over as Subdivisional Magistrate here today. He replaces Mr O.P. Popli. Mr Jai Pal Singh has been transferred here from Khadur Sahib.

Asked whether transfer to this town during civic election related work posed any difficulty for him, he said he had conducted a number of elections. He said if the staff was not able to cope with the election-related work, more persons would be put on the job.

Nanda new CITCO chief likely
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, April 27 — Ms Neeru Nanda, who is expected to take over as the new Chairperson of the Chandigarh Housing Board on May 6 or 7, is also likely to be appointed Chairperson of the Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Development Corporation to relieve the Adviser to the Administrator, Ms Vineeta Rai, of the additional charge.

Ms Rai had been holding the additional charge since the Chandigarh Home Secretary, Mr N.K. Jain, facing a criminal case registered by the Special Cell of the Central Bureau of Investigation, went on long leave on April 11.

A proposal to appoint Ms Nanda the new Chairperson of CITCO had been mooted, sources said today.

Gurbachan heads NCP’s city unit
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, April 27 — Mr Gurbachan Singh, former General Secretary of the Chandigarh Territorial Congress Committee, who quit the party on the eve of the last Lok Sabha elections, was today appointed President of the Chandigarh unit of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

Mr Gurbachan Singh’s appointment was made by Mr T.P. Peethambarann, General Secretary of the party, following approval by Mr Sharad Pawar, President of the party. Mr Pawar has also approved the list of office-bearers of the Chandigarh unit.

Meanwhile, eight eminent Congressmen — Mr Tarlochan Singh, Mr Darshan Garg, Mr Shyam Lal Kanoujia, Mr Bansi Lal, Mr Kulbir Singh, Ms Radha Rani, Ms Surjit Kaur and Mr Subash Chander — today resigned their party positions in the Chandigarh Territorial Congress Committee and its units and decided to join the local unit of the Nationalist Congress Party.

In their joint letter of resignation to the party President, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, they blamed Mr Pawan Kumar Bansal for providing poor leadership qualities that forced them to leave the party.

HUDA chief's term ends
Tribune News Service

PANCHKULA, April 27 — After a seven-month stint as the HUDA Administrator, Mr Abhilaksh Likhi will now take charge as Joint Secretary, Political and Services, Vigilance and Training Departments, and Director Training. He will leave the charge of the HUDA Administrator tomorrow.

During his tenure, as part of his "easy accessibility'' drive, a number of tatkal darbars used to be organised in various sectors of the township and had proved to be a big success.

The department had also undertaken anti-encroachment and cleanliness drives under his tenure. Two successful auctions for the urban estate were organised during his term.

The drive for the removal of hedges undertaken by him is still in progress, while that for the removal of jhuggis is undertaken from time to time. The high point of his tenure was when he earmarked over Rs 1 crore for eight new tubewells in the township.

The new Administrator, Mr Sandeep Garg, will take over tomorrow. He was previously Deputy Commissioner of Panipat.