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| Thursday, May 11, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
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‘BCCI should have probed 1994
tie’ |
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Sydney-bound rowers to train in
USA
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Paes-Bhupathi duo ‘set to split’ DUBAI, May 10 (UNI) — The highly prosperous and exciting doubles partnership between Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi is all but over, a local daily claimed today. Dr Vece Paes, Leander’s father, was quoted as saying in the Gulf News that Paes and Mahesh were not playing together on the ATP tour. “However, they are open to partnering each other in the Davis Cup and Olympics”. Dr Paes outlined the reasons for the split, saying: “As long as Mahesh retains Enrico Piperno as his coach, Leander is not open to a professional partnership. Thus, playing together for this year at least is out’’. Dr Paes claimed that Mahesh had initially agreed to drop Piperno as his coach and Opt for Bob Carmichael, who is currently coaching Leander. “Mahesh had made up his mind twice but reneged on the agreement claiming that he needs Piperno to accompany him on the tour after recovering from a shoulder injury. After having waited for six months Leander decided to go ahead’’, he said. When contacted by the daily, Mr Krishna Bhupathi, Mahesh’s father also confirmed the split. “Yes, they are not playing together. What the future holds, I do not know. There are no crystal balls. Mahesh is currently in Rome for the Italian Open’’. When asked to throw light on the professional relationship between Mahesh and Piperno, Mr Krishna commented: “Piperno does accompany Mahesh but not as a coach. He is more like a manager”. He also refused to read too much into the issue. “When they played together, they did well. They will do well without each other. There is no big deal”. But the Leander-Mahesh split will have far reaching consequences. According to Dr Paes: “They were a package deal. They were good friends and played great tennis together. They both lose in this split: there will be deficits in income as well as sponsorship. We marketed Mahesh and Leander as a team. Now we have to re-think our strategy while marketing just Leander. The same holds true for Mahesh”. The newspaper said it is largely believed that Mahesh is his own man while taking decisions and does not consult his back-up team. Krishna Bhupathi shed some light on this fact, saying “Mahesh’s vote carries more weight. How can I say that he should not travel with Piperno?’’ He said: “To Mahesh, Piperno is like a court jester. He makes him laugh and keeps him relaxed. Mahesh has gone through six months of trauma with his injuries and not earned a single dollar. He finds Piperno to be good for him. How can I say no to that?’’ Dr Paes was, however,
willing to keep the door open for Mahesh. “In
professional sport, you cannot shut the door on anything.
Mahesh is injured and he has to get through with his
re-hab. We will then take things as they
come’’. |
AITA has
no news of split NEW DELHI, May 10 — The All-India Tennis Association (AITA) President, Mr Raj Kumar Khanna, said here today that he had no news about the split of the world’s top doubles pair, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi. The AITA president told The Tribune that he had “no formal news about the split of Leander (Paes) and (Mahesh) Bhupathi”. “I have not heard anything officially”, he added. He revealed that the AITA would be writing to both the players “soon” after the executive committee meeting (the date of which will be decided this week) to elicit the views (and news) of their parting of company. But Mr Khanna saw no reason why they should not team up together for the Davis Cup tie (against Sweden in Sweden) and the Sydney Olympics. “These are national commitments and an obligation and I don’t think they would say no to these events”, Mr Khanna explained. He said the AITA would “wait and watch” before coming out with any concrete step. Mr Khanna also confirmed that Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha would be the next President of the AITA. “It’s a unanimous decision of the executive”, he asserted, adding that “I am retiring as I have no motivation left to continue”. When asked whether he would be made the life President of the association, Mr Khanna responded said he had had his innings “but if they (the AITA general body) so desire, I will have no objection (in accepting the post of life President)”. “I have done my bit, and it’s upto the new body to give a new orientation to the game in the country”, observed the veteran administrator, whose one of the singular achievements is the construction of the magnificent tennis stadium at the Delhi Tennis Association facility in Haus Khas here. The stadium is incidentally named after Mr Khanna himself. Mr Khanna said the AITA
elections would be held sometime in October, and he felt
“it’s time new faces adorned the tennis
body”, one of the richest sports associations in the
country. |
‘BCCI
should have probed 1994 tie’ CHANDIGARH, May 10 —”If the Board of Control for Cricket in India had taken the right action after that infamous incident at Kanpur in 1994 then the issue of match-fixing would not have assumed such an alarming proportion today and the vexed issue could have been nipped in the bud,” according to Dr Ravinder Chadha, a one-time national selector and doctor of the Indian team. Dr Chadha was referring to the incident in Kanpur where India, playing the West Indies in the three-nation Wills Cup (the third team in the tournament being New Zealand) on October 30, 1994, scored just 16 runs off the last 43 balls of their innings to lose to the West Indies by 46 runs. It is a different matter that India had more or less assured their place in the final of the tournament with back-to-back wins against the West Indies and New Zealand. In the Kanpur match India were 195 for five, chasing the West Indies total of 257 for six in 50 overs, when Nayan Mongia joined Manoj Prabhakar, who along with Sachin Tendulkar had opened the Indian innings. The two —Manoj and Mongia —instead of looking for quick runs, with India having to score 63 runs for a possible win off 43 balls, were content in picking up the odd single or the two and the asking rate, which was around seven when the fifth Indian wicket had fallen, rose first to eight and then to ten. But the two Indians made no effort to go for the West Indies bowling and were content to just bat along. Manoj Prabhakar ended the match with 102 runs to his name off 154 balls (his second hundred in one-day internationals) while Mongia scored just four off 21 balls as India slumped to a loss without even giving a game fight. Immediately after the match, according to Dr Chadha who was present at Kanpur in his capacity as national selector, Gundappa Vishwanath, who was chairman of the national selection committee, rushed to the Indian dressing room to talk to Manoj Prabhakar and Mongia. “But strangely enough,” according to Dr Chadha,” Manoj took the plea that there was no message from the Indian dressing room to speed up the scoring. Also, Manoj said, Mongia too did not bring any message from the dressing room to speed up the scoring”. At this point Vishwanath told the Indian allrounder that he was too senior a player not to realise that India needed quick runs to make a match of it. This discussion took place in the Indian dressing room in front of all players of the squad. The national selectors who were present at Kanpur then decided to refer the matter to the then board president, Mr Inderjit Singh Bindra, and the secretary, Mr Jagmohan Dalmiya. This decision was taken in the Indian dressing room itself and Vishwanath had a talk with the senior board functionaries. Later, when the selectors met to pick the team for the remaining matches of the series it was decided that both Prabhakar and Mongia would be dropped from the Indian team. Not only that, Mr Rama Subba Rao, the match observer from the International Cricket Council (ICC), decided that the West Indies would not be given the two points for the win but he was over-ruled by the ICC. However, India were penalised two points by the ICC for affecting New Zealand’s prospects in the tournament by not trying for a win. “This was the most appropriate time for the board to take action and conduct a complete enquiry into the reasons why both Prabhakar and Mongia indulged in such a blatant anti-India role. If such an enquiry had been done by the then functionaries of the board then the alleged nexus between the players and the bookies might have been exposed. It was apparent to all present at Kanpur that the two Indian batsmen were not playing to achieve the target,” Dr Chadha maintained. Dr Chadha said Kapil was being “unnecessarily drawn into the controversy of match-fixing as he was not even present at the Kanpur match.” In fact , Dr Chadha was of the opinion that Prabhakar should first clear his doings in the Kanpur match before he pointed fingers at Kapil Dev for allegedly offering him money to play below par in the one-day tournament in Sri Lanka. The former Haryana
captain under whose leadership Kapil has played a lot of
first class matches in the formative years of his career
demanded that the BCCI and the CBI should also probe the
happenings of the Kanpur match. |
Lot more to Cronje affair: Woolmer LONDON, May 10 (PTI) — Former South African cricket coach Bob Woolmer is worried “there is a lot more to the Hansie Cronje scandal than that meets the eye”, and has said “the evidence is pointing to an overwhelming damnation of South Africa’s number one son.” Having defended Cronje vehemently for the first part of “this rapidly unwinding scandal I now feel betrayed. “This may or may not mean a thing, but if the unnamed individual concerned did collaborate, then there would be more egg on my face. Dr Bacher denied yesterday, though, that the meeting amounted to any admission of guilt,” Woolmer said. Woolmer said “Now I have to look back and wonder whether he started flirting with betting and match-fixing during my tenure. I desperately hope not, I believe it would be end of the respect I have had for him.” Woolmer recalled an incident during South Africa’s 1996 tour of India, when the players held a meeting in Mumbai to discuss a bookie’s offer. The England-born coach, now with Warwickshire and renowned for his innovative style and use of electronic equipment in training, said he had received a call in his hotel room and was asked to come down for a meeting with the players. “When I heard the subject I nearly went mad. I could not believe they were serious about the possibility of accepting money to influence the one-dayer against India. They decided against the idea, but only after some debate,” he said. Woolmer said it was the last one-dayer of the tour, the benefit match for former India all-rounder Mohinder Amarnath. “South Africa had narrowly lost the Test series and after nine weeks in India the team were desperate to go home. The game was a farce and Hansie pulled the team off when the crowd pelted us with water bottles. “At the supper
break Hansie was so upset because the game was going
against us — it was his 50th one-day international
—that he threw his plate of food down so hard on the
floor that the chicken rebounded to the roof of the
dressing room. The sight of chicken stuck to the roof was
amusing, but the captain’s temper was such that he
left for washrooms where he smouldered out of control and
in tears,” Woolmer said. |
Sydney-bound rowers to train in USA NEW DELHI, May 10 (PTI) — A six-member rowing squad will undertake an intensive four-month training stint in the USA for selection of the top two to represent India in the open coxless pairs event at the Sydney Olympics in September. Johnson Xavier and Surinder Singh, the two who clinched India the Olympic berth by claiming silver at the Asian championship held in Japan last October, will lead the squad that will receive top-notch training from renowned American coach, Ted Bonarno, who has prepared several Olympic medallists and is head coach of Fordham University, New York. Indian rowers made history by clinching the first-ever Olympic qualifying spot in the discipline and will aim to make it to the final in Sydney against formidable opponents from 14 other countries. The qualifying spot was for the country and not for individual rowers and the pair winning the selection trials in USA at the end of training will travel directly to Sydney for the competition starting on September 16. The rowers — Xavier, Surinder Singh, Kasam Khan, Rampal Singh, Inderpal Singh and Sarwan Singh — along with Chacko Kandathil, chairman of Rowing Federation of India’s coaching commission, and coach Ismail Baig are scheduled to leave here for the USA today. Addressing a send-off for the rowers, Indian Olympic Association President Suresh Kalmadi and RFI President K P Singh Deo said Indian rowers have come a long way and had the potential to fight it out with the best in the world. India is the only country to qualify for the cokless Paris event from Asim, Xavier and Surinder Singh, Junior Commissioned Officers from MEG and BEG, respectively, had won silver clocking an impressive six minutes and 58 seconds. Japan, which won gold,withdrew from the event enabling India to clinch a qualifying spot, according to Singh Deo. The team has been cleared by the government as part of SAI’s long term development plan and will be able to train in weather conditions which are expected to be similar to Sydney, team leader Chacko Kandathil said. The final selection will be made by August end and the pair found the best will proceed directly to Australia and the rest will return home. RFI decided on the USA for the training as the facilities were excellent and the expenditure reasonable, Singh Deo said. The rowers, apart from receiving training, will also take part in competition in a graded manner to peak for the Games, he added. The foursome which fails to make it for Sydney will return home and train for next year’s Asian meet apart from the 2002 Pusan Asian Games and 2004 Athens Olympics. The Indian rowing team received a shot in the arm yesterday with Dundee Bancorp (India) announcing a six-year sponsorship deal. Vinay Lamba, former
Delhi cricket captain and Dundee Financial Services
president, said his company would be the exclusive
sponsor of the rowing team in both domestic and
international meets. The company also sponsors the
Canadian team. |
Anelka powers Real Madrid into final MUNICH, May 10 (AFP) — Real Madrid moved into the European Champions League with a 2-1 loss, but a 3-2 win on aggregate, against Bayern Munich here last night after bad boy French striker Nicolas Anelka turned from Real public enemy number one to adored hero. Anelka’s 32nd minute away goal which levelled the match at 1-1 left Bayern, who had beaten Madrid twice in the second round group phase, needing to score four and effectively killed off the tie and kept up hopes of Madrid’s eighth European Cup football title. The controversial $ 37-million signing from Arsenal had also scored the first goal in the first leg which Madrid won 2-0. Carsten Jancker scored a spectacular goal for Bayern in the 12th minute before Anelka’s goal. Brazilian Giovane Elber scored Munich’s second in the 54th minute. Madrid will now meet the winner of the Valencia versus Barcelona match in the May 24 final at the Stade De France to the north of Paris. Bayern coach Ottmar
Hitzfeld, who guided the side to German Cup success on
Saturday but looks like surrendering the Bundesliga title
to Bayern Leverkusen, admitted that at 1-0 up he thought
that Real were on the way out. |
CAG to examine DD telecast deals NEW DELHI, May 10 (UNI) — The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) is to examine allegations of scams in telecast of sports events on Doordarshan, including those contained in the Arun Agarwal report relating to the erstwhile four-member sports consortium. This has been conveyed by CAG in a letter sent to Doordarshan, according to Prasar Bharati Chief Executive Officer R. R. Shah who told UNI that this showed that there was no attempt to stall any inquiry or shelve the Agarwal report. In the controversial report which was made public by Mr Agarwal at a press meet in the capital on April 27, serious allegations were made about losses incurred by Doordarshan because of certain deals with regard to the telecast rights of the ICC knock-out tournament in Dhaka in October 1998. The report revealed that
Doordarshan suffered losses running into several crores
of rupees from telecasting of several sporting events
during 1998-99 either because of some
collusion/misappropriation or because of lack of proper
planning by Doordarshan officials. |
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MUMBAI, May 10 (PTI) — Cricket coach Kapil Dev, in the centre of the raging match-fixing storm, is to reach Mumbai on May 13 and then go to Pune the next day to take charge of the 10 day conditioning camp for the Asia Cup probables. “He is taking part in a match in Mumbai on May 13 before proceeding to Pune with other Mumbai-based players called for the camp”, board secretary Jaywant Lele told PTI from Baroda. Mr Lele thus dispelled speculations in a website that the senior national coach, upset at the board for not having backed him against the allegation levelled at him recently by its former chief Inderjit Singh Bindra, was contemplating resignation from his post. The website had also quoted Kapil having said “no comments” when it contacted the former India all-rounder to know whether he would continue to be the team’s coach. Kapil Dev and skipper
Sourav Ganguly, who is to reach Pune on May 22 evening,
are to be invited to take part in the discussions with
the five-man selection committee. |
Kuerten, Kafelnikov leave Rafter behind ROME, May 10 (AFP) — Defending champion Gustavo Kuerten and second seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov made winning starts to the tennis Masters Series event here last evening, but there was an upset for last year’s runner-up Patrick Rafter. Kuerten crushed Frenchman Jerome Golmard 6-4, 6-1 before a deluge halted play for more than three hours, while Kafelnikov squeaked home 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 against Italian wild card entry Andrea Gaudenzi in the night match. But there was no room for crowd favourite Rafter as he struggled in the heavy conditions before losing 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 to Bohdan Ulihrach of the Czech Republic. Rafter, seeded 12th, was the first seed to bow out of the $ 2.95 million tournament on the red clay of the Foro Italico - but he was soon followed by Britain’s Greg Rusedski and later by former winner Marcelo Rios of Chile. Rafter looked to be heading for victory before getting into trouble in the second set and badly losing his length in the third. He was not the only serve and volley player in trouble, though. He saved a first match point with a cross-court drive after a protracted rally and was spared another when Bohdan double-faulted. But the Czech was third time lucky with a forehand winner to book his place in the next round. Dismissing a right shoulder problem which had been troubling him, he said: “I went amiss. I was serving very well in the first set and a half, and it was hard to keep that standard of serving up. Kuerten had no trouble in his match, finding his feet in the first set and routing his opponent in the second as the Frenchman’s service went to pieces. It was a double celebration for Kuerten, winner of the 1997 French Open, as he could play without the back pain, caused by an inflamed disc, which has recently plagued him. “Now I feel no pain. Today, I played as well as I have been for the past two or three weeks, but feeling much more comfortable is a completely different feeling,” he said. “I was relaxed and trying my shots. If I missed it was okay — I just tried to think about the next point and not about any pain going away.” Kafelnikov seemed to face defeat in his centre court match-trailing 5-2 and 15-30 to Gaudenzi in the third set before rallying to victory. “The match was there to be won and I lost it,” Gaudenzi lamented afterwards. Rios, a Rome winner in 1998 and finalist in 1997, was hammered 6-1, 6-4 by 20-year-old Marat Safin, who is here after winning tournaments in Barcelona and Mallorca. The big-serving Russian could have finished the job a game early, missing three match points on the 11th seed’s serve at 5-3, before reaching the second round with a searing backhand down the line. Rusedski, seeded 13th, was another victim of the heavy court as he was hammered 6-3, 6-1 by Spain’s Fernando Vicente. “It’s usually
quick, dry, fast and flying,” Rusedski said.
“With all this rain, I think ... none of the serve
and volley players survived at all.” |
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LONDON, May 10 (AFP) — A brilliant unbeaten 97 by former England cricket captain Alec Stewart inspired Surrey to a seven-run win over the hosts Yorkshire in Benson and Hedges Cup quarter-finals. Yorkshire, replying to Surrey’s score of 198 for six and needing 12 runs off the final over, managed just four before Ryan Sidebottom was bowled off the fifth ball by Jason Ratcliffe. The hosts made a slow start yesterday but were rejuvenated by a century stand between Matthew Wood (59) and Australian Darren Lehmann (50). But they fell away at the finish, paying the price for three run-outs. Adam Hollioake and Alex Tudor each claimed two wickets for Surrey, who had earlier slipped to 39 for four before Stewart and Hollioake (44) turned things round. Young paceman Matthew Hoggard (4/39) was the pick of Yorkshire bowlers. At Old Trafford, spinner Chris Schofield and England veteran Neil Fairbrother were the heroes for Lancashire, who progressed by three wickets at the expense of Durham. Durham, put in by Lancashire skipper John Crawley, lost Jon Lewis to the first ball of the match but rallied as Australian import Simon Katich (62) and Martin Speight (36) put on 87 for the second wicket. But no-one else contributed much and from 129 for three the visitors slumped to 154 all out, with Schofield (4/34) ripping the heart out of the Durham innings aided by tremendous catches from England allrounder Andrew Flintoff and Indian star Saurav Ganguly for two of the wickets. Lancashire did not have things all their own way and at 35 for five were in deep trouble. But Fairbrother (57 not out), Warren Hegg (36) and Ian Austin (16 not out) steered them home with five overs to spare despite the battling efforts of Durham medium-pacer John Wood, who claimed four for 26. Glamorgan were the most
convincing winners, seeing off Hampshire at Cardiff by
113 runs. |
Punjab
win b’minton meet CHANDIGARH, May 10 — Punjab clinched the team championship in the 27th all-India inter-state electricity board’s badminton tournament being played here at Sector-42 here today. Punjab outplayed Maharashtra 3-0. Top Punjab player Jaideep Kohli won first singles easily against Santosh More of Maharashtra 15-4, 15-10. Mohammad Salim then trounced Anand Gadekar at 15-2, 15-0. The doubles also was an easy affair for the Punjab pair of Chanderdeep and Ram Lakhan who disposed off Pankaj Pathak and Sunil Pawar 15-7, 15-5. Tamil Nadu were placed third. Earlier in the semifinals, Punjab beat Tamil Nadu 3-0 while Maharashtra got the better of UP by a similar score. Yesterday, defending champions Haryana Power Sports group bowed out to Punjab as in the quarterfinal. Teams from Punjab, Haryana, UP, Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat, AP, Karnataka, TN and Kerala are taking part in this four-day tournament. Result: semifinals-Pb b TN 3-0 (Jaideep Kohli b RJ Michael 15-2, 15-3; Ram Lakhan b P Sella Kumar 15-3, 15-4; Rohan Kapoor & Jaideep Kohli b RJ Michael & M. Peer Mohammad 15-9, 15-6), Maharashtra b UP 3-0 (Pankaj Pathak b Anjam Ashraf 15-5, 15-8; Santosh More b Rajesh Chaudhary 15-3, 15-7; Pankaj Pathak & Sunil Pawar b Rajesh & Sanjay 15-11, 15-3).
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Olympic squad ‘to have 50 members’ NEW DELHI, May 10 (PTI) — India will field around 50 competitors for the Sydney Olympics to be held from September 16 to October 1, Indian Olympic Association President Suresh Kalmadi today announced. The IOA chief said 33 had already made the grade and around 15 to 20 athletes were expected to qualify besides a couple of archers while a wildcard each was expected in shooting and weightlifting. Kalmadi said the men’s hockey (16 players), boxing (4), table tennis (3), tennis (2), rowing (2), shooting (1), swimming (1), wrestling (1), weightlifting (2), badminton (1) have already qualified for the quadrennial extravaganza. Kalmadi announced this at a send-off function got up for a six-member rowing squad going for training in the USA. In shooting, India have clinched a spot for the men’s trap event and the National Rifle association of India is trying to gain a wildcard for pistol ace Jaspal Rana for the air pistol event. In weightlifting, India
have gained a berth each in the men’s and
women’s events following their performance in the
Asian championships in Osaka, the final Olympic
qualifying event. The trials for athletes is expected to
come off in August. |
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