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| Friday, July 7, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Davenport, Venus in final LONDON, July 6 — Defending champion Lindsay Davenport of the USA beat Australian teenager Jelena Dokic 6-4, 6-2 here today to reach the final of the women’s singles at Wimbledon.
2006 World Cup in Germany |
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| Lanka beat SA by 37 runs GALLE (Sri Lanka), July 6 — Sri Lanka beat South Africa by 37 runs in the second match of the one-day triangular tournament that also includes Pakistan.
Bhutia yet to join national camp CHANDIGARH, July 6 — Full-back Amarjit Singh has done Ropar Hawks proud having been selected as the best player of the inaugural Asia Cup Hockey Championship held recently at Singapore. Amarjit Singh excelled as a member of the victorious junior Indian hockey team which won the Asia Cup beating Bangladesh 5-2 in the final. He has been selected in the All-Asia Star team. India “to play” in
Toronto tourney IHF gears up for Olympics
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LONDON, July 6 (AFP) — Defending
champion Lindsay Davenport of the USA beat Australian teenager Jelena
Dokic 6-4, 6-2 here today to reach the final of the women’s singles
at Wimbledon. Top seed Davenport won in just 51 minutes and now faces fifth seed Venus Williams in Saturday’s final. Fifth seed Venus Williams ousted younger sister Serena 6-2, 7-6, (7/3) here today to reach the singles final. Venus beat her eighth-seeded sibling in 1hr 27min and in Saturday’s final will face defending champion and fellow-American Lindsay Davenport, who beat Australian teenager Jelena Dokic 6-4, 6-2 in the other semifinal. Venus won a tension-filled, heavy-hitting encounter as she hung tough when it mattered, although neither sister played their best tennis. The end when it came was an anti-climax as Serena served up a sixth double fault. Afterwards, Venus said the joy of making her first final here was tempered by whom she had had to beat. “It’s not really so much fun. A final would have been different. “It could have gone either way. In the end I was able to hang tough,” the 20-year-old Venus told BBC television. Venus revealed with a grin that as the older sibling she normally got her way when they were younger. “I was always able to get things first — got my car first. She added that if Serena complained, their parents stepped in to ensure “the younger one gets the ice cream.” Venus preferred to take the match and leave the candy to the loser. Serena was in tears at the end as the pair walked off with Venus striding purposefully ahead having vanquished her sister for the fourth time in five meetings. However, Serena put one over ‘big sis’ by landing the US Open crown last year while Venus has yet to lift a Grand Slam singles title. “The only reason I was able to play so well was because she played so well,” added Venus, who put her arm around Serena as they briefly embraced at the net. “We get on so well. For me it’s more like I have the big sister role. I’ve always taken care of Serena. That’s the way it’s always been.” Today’s match was the first time sisters had met on centre court here since 1884 and it was the first time in the Open era that sisters had faced each other in the main draw at the All-England Club. So close are the pair that they happily hit together on court four during the morning. Serena, playing only her second Grand Slam semifinal to Venus’ fourth, won the Grand Slam Cup last year at Venus’ expense and this time sensed that the older woman was determined to give her no quarter. There was no sign of their father Richard as Venus saved a break point in the opening game after electing to serve and brought through her second service game to love for a 2-1 lead. She then broke Serena, who produced a huge serve of 180 kmph but followed up with an anguished scream as she hit long from behind the baseline. It was only the second time Serena had lost her serve in the entire championship. She had made the last four dropping just 13 games in total. Serena, 15 months younger than Venus, broke straight back as the latter similarly sent a drive long from the backcourt and it was almost like watching a match in the mirror as both players mixed beefy winners with errors. But Venus recovered to score a second break of serve for a 4-2 lead, easily held serve and broke for a third time as she romped to the opening set in 32 minutes when Serena hammered long. After getting her nose in front Venus then gave Serena a helping hand as if to tell her to make more of a match of it and the younger sibling needed no second bidding as she broke immediately aided by a pair of double faults. She then held and had 3-1 and 4-2 leads before Venus began to rein her in as Serena started to make crucial mistakes, hitting 49 unforced errors to 30 for Venus, though she won the ace count 5-2. Venus served up her fifth double fault at 4-5 and had to save a break point as both players hammered the ball for all they were worth. Serena squandered a second break point when she fired into the tramlines and then dropped her serve a fourth time netting a backhand on the first of three break points as Venus
leveled at 4-4. Venus won 10 straight points to move 5-4 ahead but Serena stopped the rot with a fourth ace to bring through her service game for 5-5. Both then held serve to force the tiebreak, where there were five mini-breaks but Serena again let the initiative slip after going 3-1 ahead. With the set almost in her grasp she lost six points on the trot and finished with her sixth double fault. Sampras, Voltchkov in semis LONDON, July 6 (AFP) — Defending champion Pete Sampras didn’t reach his usual exalted heights but still did enough to reach the men’s singles semifinals at Wimbledon yesterday, beating fellow American Jan-Michael Gambill 6-4, 6-7, (4/7) 6-4, 6-4, in two hours 46 minutes. Sampras, bidding for a seventh title here and a record 13th Grand Slam, now plays qualifier Vladimir Voltchkov of Belarus, who beat Zimbabwe’s unseeded Byron Black 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (7/2), 6-4 in an error-strewn match featuring 13 service breaks.
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ZURICH, July 6 (AFP) — Germany scored a stunning one point victory to snatch the most glittering prize in football from South Africa here today. Germany won the right to host the 2006 World Cup by 12 votes to 11 from FIFA’s 24-man executive committee when Oceania member Charlie Dempsey abstained. If the New Zealander had voted for South Africa, FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who has been secretly campaigning for the African nation, would have had the casting vote — ensuring certain victory for South Africa. Before announcing the result, Mr Blatter said the executive committee had had two choices — “to invest with courage and trust in a newly developed football national or stand with an established football house.” In the end the committee rejected South Africa’s plea that it was Africa’s time. Instead they went for the security and tradition offered by Germany, who last hosted the tournament in 1974 when they were West Germany and part of a divided Europe. The two other candidates, England and Morocco, quickly fell by the way side — going out in the first two rounds. Morocco were the first to fall when they only managed three votes. England collected five, Germany 10 and South Africa six. But England’s support crumbled in the second round and they crashed out with only two votes.
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Wimbledon-2000 Agassi played like a genius at times The men’s singles quarterfinal bought normality back to the championships after seeds dropped like ninepines in the first week. Pete
Sampras, Andre Agassi, Pat Rafter and a lone outsider Vladimir Voltchkov made it through to the semifinal with not too much difficulty in their respective matches. The much-anticipated Andre Agassi — Mark Phillippoussis match went according to plan for Agassi, who played a perfect match from start to finish. The Australian who had beaten the Dutchman Sjeng Schalken and the No 8 seed Britain’s Tim Henman in marathon five set matches, felt he was ready to win the big one. When I spoke to him after the Henman match, Phillippoussis felt he was strong enough to take the
five set matches and still have enough left to go all the way. He did have a day’s break between each of those two touch matches and came out against Agassi firing on all cylinders. But the American, 1992 champion here, had more than just a return of serve, that is quite easily the best in the game. He had a plan, to get his hands on everything the big server had to throw at him early in the match. When it came down to the tie-break in the opening set, Agassi connected and very quickly the first set was in the American’s favour. That’s all he needed. Playing like a
genius at times, Agassi made the Australian think everything he had to serve, even standing was behind the baseline on one occasion to force Phillippoussis to do something else on his serve. One break point and Agassi got what he wanted and once he had the second set, it was just a matter of time before the match was over. Agassi completed the win with one more break in the third set and showed the British crowd who had witnessed the defeat of Tim Henman by the same man, that the serve of Mark Phillippoussis can be tamed after all. Agassi said to me after the match that he felt hike he did when he won in ‘92 and the French Open in ‘99. He thought his timing was better on the grass and I think he is ready for another clash with Sampras in the final. Sampras, on the other hand, came through his match against Jan-Michael Gambill and did only what was necessary to win and certainly was not impressive as Ag assi in getting to the last four. At one set all, and even in the third set everyone was questioning Sampras fitness and had he lost the third set he would have been hard pressed to win in five but then again this is
Wimbledon and the Centre Court is his stage and for some reason he always looks like a winner when he steps on it. He came through in four sets and I saw him limping to his press conference and when I asked him how he felt, he didn’t quite say he was feeling great. He has not practiced or even warned in before his matches which leaves him the early part of the matches to really get into it. He plays the first
qualifier to teach the semifinal since John McEnroe in 1977, Vladmir Voltchkov and normally should not have a problem. By the time the man from Belarus gets used to being on the Centre Court and the occasion, the champion should have the first set. But then tennis is a funny game and the
youngsters today have very little respect for tradition. Pat Rafter had an easy win to the semifinal and now a repeat of last year’s match against Agassi should be what we expect, a marvelous serve and volleyer
against he perfect returns of Andre Agassi. I think it is still hard to stop a Sampras — Agassi final. — PMG |
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GALLE (Sri Lanka), July 6 (Reuters) — Sri Lanka beat South Africa by 37 runs in the second match of the one-day triangular tournament that also includes Pakistan. Russel Arnold hit an unbeaten 60 after sharing a fifth-wicket stand of 120 with Sangakkara, and opener Avishka Gunawardena contributed 45, as Sri Lanka recovered from 35-3 to post a challenging score after being sent to bat by rival captain Shaun Pollock. Sangakkara, a 22-year-old left-hander from Kandy justified his inclusion ahead of veteran wicket-keeper Romesh Kaluwitharana with 11 boundaries off 115 balls in only his second match. He made 35 against Pakistan in the series opener here yesterday, helping Sri Lanka to a five-wicket win. Sri Lanka lost captain Sanath Jayasuriya off the second ball of the match, run out by a brilliant pick-up and throw from square leg by Andrew Hall. Marvan Atapattu, who made 62 against Pakistan, managed only three before being caught behind off fast bowler Mortantau Hayward in the fourth over.
SCOREBOARD Sri Lanka: Jayasuriya run out 0 Gunawardena c Boucher b Ntini 45 Atapattu c Boucher b Hayward 3 Jayawardena c Boucher b Kallis 8 Sangakkara run out 84 Arnold not out 60 Chandana b Kallis 2 Dharmasena c Pollock b Kallis 4 C. Vaas not out 5 Extras: (lb-5, nb-7, w-24) 37 Total (for seven wickets) 249 Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-14, 3-35, 4-99, 5-219, 6-224, 7-240 Bowling: Pollock 10-1-34-0, Hayward 5-0-47-1, Kallis 10-0-40-3, Klusener 10-0-45-0, Ntini 8-0-42-1, Boje 7-0-34-0. South Africa Kirsten b Muralitharan 59 Hall c B Chandana 81 Kallis c Chandana b Cullinan c sub b Chandana 14 Rhodes c Sangakkara b
Chandana 0 Klusener run out 20 Boucher run out 2 Pollock c Jayawardene b
Chandana 5 Boje b Muralitharan 1 Hayward not out 3 Ntini run out 0 Extras: (w-8 lb-4 b-4) 16 Total: (in 48.2 overs) 212 Fall of wickets: 1-150, 2-157, 3-176, 4-176, 5-192, 6-194, 7-206, 8-208, 9-211. Bowling: Vass 6-0-27-0, Zoysa 7-1-27-0 (2w), Dharmasena 10-0-41-1, (1w), Muralitharan 10-0-34-2 (3w), Chandana 10-0-44-4 (2w), Jayasuriya 2.2-0-15-0, Arnold 3-0-16-0. |
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Bedi, Pargat on NSDF Council NEW DELHI, July 6 (UNI) — In a significant move to boost sports in the country the Union Government today announced the formation of Council for National Sports Development Fund (NSDF) and included among others former cricket captain Bishen Singh Bedi, flying queen P.T. Usha, former hockey captain Pargat Singh and weightlifter N. Kunjarani as its members. The high powered 19-member council, which also has leading
industrialists Rahul Bajaj, Punjab National Bank Chairman S.S. Kohli, Indian Oil Corporation Chief M.A. Pathan, HUDCO Chairman V.Suresh and the corporate President of Sun group of industries Vikramjit Singh Sawhney as its members, will be headed by Sports Minister Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa. Minister of State for Sports Syed Shahnawaz Hussein has been named as the Vice-Chairman of the NSDF. Other sportspersons in the council are versatile shooter and Secretary-General of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) Randhir Singh, former hockey international Thoiba Singh, and athletic coach Joginder Singh Saini. However, the seven-member executive committee of the NSDF, dominated by the government officials, has only one sportsperson – P.T. Usha – in its list. The executive committee will be headed by the Sports Secretary N.N. Khanna. Sports Authority of India (SAI) Director-General D.K. Mittal, Joint Secretary J.P. Singh and Financial Adviser Sanjay Narayan in Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports are the ex-officio members. P.T. Usha and Vikramjit Singh will be the members while Director, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports H.S. Kingra has been made member secretary of the executive. The non-official members on the council and the executive committee shall hold office for three years. |
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Prabhakar
seeks help of Sachin MUMBAI, July 6 (UNI) — “Scambuster” Manoj Prabhakar has appealed to Sachin Tendulkar to come out clean on why his decision to force a follow-on against New Zealand last season was reversed. In an open letter to Tendulkar through a website cricketnext. Com Prabhakar informed that this piece of information was obtained by him from the BCCI secretary, Mr J.Y. Lele. Prabhakar says that his efforts, both clandestine and otherwise, has failed to urge cricketers from coming out in open and support his accusations that Kapil Dev offered him a bribe to throw a match in Sri Lanka against Pakistan. “Only you can rescue Indian cricket from the shackles off match fixing,” he adds. He further writes “I am not suggesting here that you avenge all wrong-doings against you, but do not forget the times when you were run out”. |
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Sydney countdown — 3 Jamaican sprinter Merlene Ottey returns to Shane Gould is used to swimming rather than running. But that didn’t stop her from powering along on Tuesday as an Olympic torch bearer in the town of Busselton, south of Perth. Gould holds the mantle of being the most successful Australian athlete at an Olympic Games after her 1972 Munich performance. At 15, she won five medals-three gold, one silver and one bronze. Despite her background of Olympic participation she admitted to being apprehensive about running a leg of the relay. “I am more used to swimming than running,” record-breaking swimmer said. She said she was excited by the impending Olympics but was critical of the use of the controversial body suits by today’s swimmers. She says they should not be used during the games. “Everyone agrees they create more streamlining so it reduces friction in the water, but I think they create buoyancy and that’s a device... and in the rules you can’t use devices.” While swimmer Gould was finding her land legs to run her stretch of the relay, Busselton man George Webb said he might have to turn into a duck for his rain-soaked leg of the relay. Gould passed on the Olympic flame to the 70-year-old Wardandi tribal elder, who has been confined to a wheelchair since a stroke in 1991. Hosts hit by drug exposure A gold medal-winning Australian athlete says Australian sporting officials backed his used of banned drugs to improve his prospects for a comeback at the Sydney Olympics. Werner Reiterer, a finalist at Barcelona and 1994 Commonwealth Games gold medal discuss thrower, said testing was timed so he would get away with the drug-taking. A well-placed Olympic official provided feedback on whether test results aroused suspicion said his drug-taking was accommodated by a tailored schedule of testing, with a well-placed Olympic official providing feedback on whether results aroused suspicion. The claim of sanctioned doping fills in one of the few blanks left in Reiterer’s explosive book Positive, launched in Sydney on Tuesday. Among the book’s more starting claims are Reiterer’s contention that some of Australia’s Sydney-bound swimmers and track athletes are using the banned human growth hormone drug. Also that track and field athletes supported Athletic Australia’s (ultimately abandoned) 1997 appointment of disgraced former East German coach Dr Ekkart Arbeit as the nation’s head coach because of his expertise with drugs. Along the way, he makes a series of astonishing claims, not all limited to the Australian scene. Writing about a high-profile American, he says the track star “will” win a medal here to extend a history of successful drug use which started when he was 11. Of his own drug-taking since 1997, Reiterer (32) said he “was being guided by people within the Australian Olympic system”. “I feel I got some sort of message, and in between I got a few more messages that I should possibly stay out of the limelight and then do my own thing with the right advice and aim for Sydney 2000.” Reiterer’s career-ending claims come four months after he responded to an invitation to compete in the Victorian state league final by sending out a throw that fell just 60 centimetres short of the Olympic B-qualifying standard of 62 metres. The throw put him metres clear of his nearest Australian competitor, although Reiterer insists he held back to avoid suspicion. He said his decision to turn whistleblower came down to personal ethics. “Morally, I couldn’t live with it. I couldn’t go to an Olympics and perhaps win a medal, let alone a gold medal. It’s just not right.” Urging Australians to see that he is only the tip of the iceberg, Reiterer argues that the Olympics have become a largely commercial enterprise founded on the promise of records. Ebony lady looking for gold Still on the drug scenes, or sorry off it really, it will be good to see Jamaican sprinter Merlene Ottey free to fulfil her dream of competing in a sixth Olympic Games after being cleared of a doping charge. The former world 200 metre champion and dual 1996 Olympic silver medallist, tested positive for the steroid nandrolone in July 1999. The 40-year-old, the most decorated athlete in history with 34 individual medals in major international championships always protested her innocence, and was cleared by her national federation. Ottey tried to resume her career indoors but was refused permission to enter races at several meetings in Europe, because the International Amateur Athletic Federation had referred her case to its arbitration panel. Now Ottey has been told she can run again after a three-man panel ruled the testing laboratory in Lausanne had not taken in to sufficient account factors regarding the concentration of her urine sample. The decision is bound to give new hope to other athletes facing arbitration hearings later this month after testing positive for nandrolone. There were 343 positive nandrolone tests in all sports around the world last year, including 1992 Olympic 100 metre gold medallist Linford Christie. Washed onto the beach First it was community opposition to it being built now it’s gales which again shut down the controversial construction of the Olympic beach volleyball stadium at the tourist attraction of Bondi beach. Workers refused to work on the grandstand seating for the second day as Olympic officials admitted the project would remain static until the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union gave its approval. Wild storms and high seas pounded the half-finished stadium yesterday, ripping up steel seating slats and pieces of timber. The meteorological onslaught prompted a demands that work on the stadium be stopped indefinitely until its structural integrity could be guaranteed. — PMG The writer is a well-known sports journalist now settled in Australia. |
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Bhutia yet to join national camp Patiala The Indians will play two matches against division one clubs, Fulham FC on July 22 and West Bromwich Abony on July 26. The third match will be against the Bangladesh national squad on July 29. All the matches are slated to be held at Liecester in Central London. The tour is being organised by AIFF overseas representative, Saphire Enterprises. Baichung Bhutia, who has been contracted to play for an English second division club, Bury FC, has yet to join the camp, though all other senior players are going through the
paces. However, chief coach Sukhwinder Singh said Bhutia’s absence from the camp would not mean that he would not be eligible for selection for the England tour. This is the first tour to be undertaken by an Indian team to the mother country of the game. A two-day conference focussing on Indian football will be held on July 18 and 19 at the University College, Northampton. |
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Amarjit does Ropar proud CHANDIGARH, July 6 — Full-back Amarjit Singh has done Ropar Hawks proud having been selected as the best player of the inaugural Asia Cup Hockey Championship held recently at Singapore. Amarjit Singh excelled as a member of the victorious junior Indian hockey team which won the Asia Cup beating Bangladesh 5-2 in the final. He has been selected in the All-Asia Star team. A product of Ropar Hawks, Amarjit Singh was initiated into hockey by his coach Ajaib Singh, himself an outstanding national level full-back at an early age. As a student of local RTP Model School he showed enough promise as a kid and caught the eyes of Mr S.S. Saini, secretary, Hawks Club who happens to be a regular visitor to the RTP coaching centre. As many as 150 budding players sweat out at these centres everyday. The other four coaching centres at Hawks Stadium, D.A.V. School, Sahibzada Ajit Singh Academy and the Nehru Stadium, Roopnagar, function regularly to implement the “catch-them-young” campaign launched by Hawks Club to spot and develop hockey talent. |
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India “to play” in
Toronto tourney
DUBAI, July 6 (UNI) — India have confirmed their participation in a one-day cricket series against Pakistan in Toronto in September, a local daily said. Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCC) Secretary J.Y. Lele told Gulf News that “We will be going for the Toronto tournament. We have informed the organisers of our participation”. Pakistan too had confirmed their participation in the tournament but organisers were doubtful whether India would take part in the
series. The organisers had fixed September 9 to 17 as the dates for the tournament, pending India’s confirmation. The newspaper said doubts on whether Toronto would ever be able to stage an Indo-Pak series arose after India decided not to play against Pakistan last year in the wake of the Kargil conflict. Both India and Pakistan played three matches each against a third team, the West Indies , and returned home last year. The newspaper quoted a source close to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) as saying that the Indian and Pakistani cricket officials had decided to bury all their differences to challenge the authority of the International Cricket Council (ICC). It said some of the cricket nations from Asia feel that though most of the television viewers of cricket are from the Asian region, they have not been getting proper allocation of resources from the ICC. Hence there is need for cooperation among the Asian nations. The ICC’s decision to ignore Zee TV’s bid for the next two World Cups, despite quoting the highest price, has also angered some of the Asian
nations. It is understood that India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka voted in favour of Zee TV’s bid but the rights were given to Rupert Murdoch-backed World Sports Group, the Gulf News said. In the light of the latest developments, India is understood to have also agreed to tour Pakistan and play three Tests and five one-dayers from December, the newspaper said. Meanwhile, the newspaper said Mr Lele was non-committal on whether the BCCI would be submitting the report on financial dealings and code of conduct for players by July 27. Sports Minister S.S. Dhindsa has reportedly stated that the board officials had promised on April 27 that they would submit a detailed report to the government in three months. “The financial report is in the hands of the BCCI President. I have no idea”, Mr Lele remarked. “Regarding the code of conduct, the three-member committee, formed to frame the code of conduct for the players is meeting on July 20”, he added. |
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IHF gears up for Olympics NEW DELHI, July 6 (PTI) — Indian Hockey Federation has chalked out a comprehensive training programme for the national team to enhance its medal prospects in the forthcoming Sydney Olympic Games. The probables, who are at a conditioning camp in Bangalore, will play a few preparatory matches against Egypt early next month and the squad will leave for Australia well ahead of the games to get acclimatised to the conditions there. “The preparation for the team has been going on for a long time. The camp has been progressing well and all the players, barring Dhanraj Pillay and Baljit Singh Dhillon, have reported,” IHF Chief K.P.S. Gill told PTI here today. While Pillay was expected to join the camp by this evening, Dhillon had sought
permission to attend to his wife’s health, he said. Mr Gill said the federation had invited Egypt to play a few matches with the Indian probables from August 1 to 10 and after a brief rest, a 22-member squad will leave for Australia on August 20. “We will take 22 players to Australia initially for training and the squad will be pruned to 16 before the closing date for submission of names. We want to take more players so that we can substitute a player in case of injury,” he said. The team will train in Murwillunbah, near Brisbane, for a few weeks before moving to Sydney by September 9. The Indians open their Olympic campaign with a match against Argentina on September 17. “This is the best team in terms of physical fitness to leave the Indian shores. There is a lot of cohesion among the players. There is also a lot of interaction between the players, coaches and the management,” Mr Gill said. He said the federation had roped in the services of former Olympian Ranjit Singh, now settled in Spain, to assist the players in penalty corner conversions and goalkeeping. “We have laid a lot of emphasis on physical fitness and a couple of other weak areas which need improvement. The coaches are working on them. We are also getting full back up from SAI,” he said. Asked whether the Indian team required the services of a foreign coach to make them more adapt to the European style of play, Mr Gill said, “there has been too much talk about foreign coaches. We recently beat Germany, Australia and Korea and we had an Indian coach”. Stressing that Indian coaches were competent enough to bring about the desired results, the IHF chief said: “There are only five or six good foreign coaches at the moment. The question is are they available to us. There is also the problem of resources”. He said the IHF had limited resources at its disposal and all development programmes were worked out taking the financial constraints into consideration. On the IHF’s controversial sacking of six senior players after the Bangkok Asian Games which caused a flutter in hockey circles, Mr Gill clarified that the players were ‘rested’ and that was necessary to prolong their careers. “If we had not rested key players like Dhanraj Pillay at that time, he could not have sustained himself for so long. It was a decision taken in the best interests of the players,” he explained. He cited the example of Korea who dropped a number of senior players after the Asian Games and rebuilt the team with a clutch of junior players. “We had a bad experience during the World Cup. So I was a little unhappy with the euphoria generated by the Asian Games success. If we did not experiment, we would be left in a bad situation,” he said. He said the Indian players had not trained as hard as they should have in the past and the results had therefore not been satisfactory. “I agree that the players should get more money, but the IHF has limited resources. When the team goes out, it involves a lot of expenditure. We have to spend a lot of money for these trips,” Mr Gill said. Asked whether goalkeeper Ashish Ballal had also been ‘rested’ after the Asian Games or dropped on disciplinary grounds, Mr Gill clarified that the IHF had not been too happy with his not attending the conditioning camp in Bangalore. “We had asked him to attend the camp in Bangalore but he did not report. He claimed that he had not received the information due to a communication gap. But why did he not call me up and find out?” Mr Gill asked. He said Ballal was out of reckoning for a berth in the Indian team for the Olympic Games but it did not mean the end of the road for the ace goalkeeper. On development programmes, Mr Gill said the IHF was concentrating on building the junior and sub-junior teams to ensure a steady supply of players for the national team. “We are preparing for the junior (under-18) World Cup scheduled to be held in Uganda in 2001 and the IHF determined to give them the best opportunities possible,” he said. Besides working out a comprehensive programme for the junior and sub-junior teams, the IHF was also planning to lay down synthetic turfs in more cities and streamline its talent search at the grassroot level all over the country. “There is a lot of talent in the rural areas, particularly in some north eastern states. We are making all efforts to tap this talent and get the best out of them,” he said. |
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