Shweta in lead
CHANDIGARH, Dec 25 —Shweta Chaudhary of Indian Airlines was leading in the air pistol (ISSF) in the 10 metres section with a score of 374 out of 400 (senior women) on the second day of the 25th Northern India Shooting Championship at Patiala Ki Rao ranges, Sector 25 here.

Inter-varsity athletics
Aman, Renuka shine on opening day
AMRITSAR, Dec 25 — Aman Saini of Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla and Renuka of Dhawrwad University (Karnataka) won the finals of the 5000 metres for men and women, respectively, on the opening day of the All-India Inter-University (men and women) Athletics Meet at Guru Nanak Dev University campus here today.

Jamia Millia triumph
NEW DELHI, Dec 25 — Spearheaded by in-form striker Hamza Mujtaba, hosts Jamia Millia Islamia continued with their winning ways as they routed Chaudhary Charan Singh University (CCSU) Meerut 4-0 to chalk out their second successive win in the semifinal round robin league of the North Zone Inter Varsity Hockey Tournament here today.

Woman shot putter made DSP
Patiala, Dec 25 — In an unprecendented gesture, the Punjab Police has promoted Indian shot putter Amandeep Kaur to the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), thus becoming the first state police force in the country to promote a sportswoman to the rank of DSP in recognition of her performance on the sports field.

Punjab teams for national karate meet
Patiala, Dec 25 — The Punjab Karate Association has selected a 21-member squad which will take part in the 26th Senior National Karate Championships slated to be held at Ahmedabad from January 26 to 28.

REGIONAL SPORTS BRIEFS

• HP Police, Kangra in last 8

• Golf tourney concludes

• Badminton title for Mukandpur college

• Football tourney from Dec 29
  
  
  
  
  
  

Waugh, returning to the side after missing the series winning clash in Adelaide, faces a fitness test on his strained buttock while leg-spinner Stuart MacGill and off-spinner Colin Miller could split the selectors.

Australia have not played two spinners in Melbourne since leg-spinner Shane Warne was partnered by off-spinner Tim May and claimed a hat-trick against England in the 295-run win in the second Test in December 1994.

Teams have traditionally depended heavily on the fast bowlers to break the opposition and three quiks have been a norm in recent Australian teams.

“I am not scared of breaking from tradition”, Waugh said. “It’s nice to have tradition but you can make your own and do things differently.

“If pitch suits two spinners and they’re bowling well and the opposition batters don’t play spin all that comfortably. (then) I don’t see any problems playing two spinners”.

How the new drop-in wicket square at the Melbourne Cricket Ground will behave remains a mystery. The West Indies were beaten badly in a four-day tour match by Victoria on the new surface before the first Test of the series.

“It’s a new wicket and you get different reports how it’s going to play”, said Waugh. “You have to guess a little bit and go with your gut feeling. How the wicket’s going to look and how its going to play”.

Miller’s ability to bowl medium pace to add to his off spin has been seen as a great asset but Waugh disagrees and doesn’t think it will help the 36-year-old to get a final nod.

While Miller bowled Australia to victory in Adelaide with a 10-wicket haul. MacGill had a poor match and was hammered around the Oval by star batsman Brian Lara during his innings of 182 and 39.

“I can’t see it as a forefront when you’re picking a side. I don’t think it’s going to swing a selection vote in his (Miller’s) way”.

“I am going to sit on the fence on this one. They’re both very good bowlers and I don’t know who I am going to pick”.

If Waugh (35) passes a fitness test, the record-breaking captain will oust the inform batsman Damine Martyn from the side that won in Adelaide by five wickets.

Waugh said beating the tourists 5-0 remains the biggest motivating factor for the side that has already taken an unassailable 3-0 lead.

“That’s what we’re playing for. We want to win the last two Tests. We’ll be disappointed if we don’t.

“I think there is too much at stake. We’ve got an opportunity to win 14 in a row. We’re looking at things like that”.

West Indies skipper Jimmy Adams would love a Test win as Christmas present but it remains wishful thinking after having come narrowly close to ending Australia’s record-breaking winning streak in the last Test.

Australia have used a nightwatchman in each of this season’s three Tests against the West Indies but Waugh said he had decided to ban the practice after consulting his team-mates.

Lower order batsmen are used as nightwatchmen to protect specialist batsmen when a wicket falls late in a day but Waugh said he could see no logical reason to continue the habit.

“We’ve decided as a group we’re not going to use it any more,” Waugh said. “We all came to the conclusion that we probably do it just for the sake of it.”

Since replacing Mark Taylor as Australian Test captain in 1999, Waugh has shown a genuine willingness to challenge many of the game’s conventions. While most captains prefer to bat first when they win the toss, Waugh invariably chooses to field and has shown little hesitation in throwing the ball to his spinners after just 10 or 15 overs when most skippers wait much longer.

“There are certain things in cricket that just go on and on without changing,” Waugh said today on the eve of the fourth Test against the West Indies.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for us to try and change a few little things and this is an example.”

Waugh’s aggressive approach to the game has paid off handsomely with his team stringing together a world record sequence of 13 Test victories against five different countries.

While accepted as part of cricket tradition, the use of nightwatchmen has long been a divisive issue in cricket circles and has become increasingly topical in Australia this summer because of the depth of the team’s batting lineup.

There have been celebrated cases of nightwatchmen doing more than just protecting specialist batsmen. Australia’s most famous instance occurred in 1977-78 when Tony Mann scored a century against India.

But Waugh said the practice also robbed specialist batsmen of the chance of scoring more runs.

Garry Kasparov can sit in Moscow, or wherever he is and shout at the top of his voice that he is the top rated player. He may also say that ‘his’ world title is now in the custody of his friend and protigi, Vladimir Kramnik, but the fact of the matter is Viswanathan Anand has beaten the world and won the title in the most emphatic manner possible.

No one has taken the world title with such authority as Anand did in the past four weeks. He sits neither in the quiet comfort of his home waiting for a challenger as Anatoly Karpov did, nor did he pick and choose rivals as Kasparov has done in recent times. Anand took the world and beat it fair and square. If a few players chose to stay away, Anand can hardly be faulted for it.

Anand has seen it all. Won against the best in Reggio Emilia in 1991; lost from the brink of victory to Gata Kamsky in 1994; has been crushed in a major match by Garry Kasparov in 1995; played to a punishing schedule of 31 games in 30 days in 1997-98 FIDE World Championships (Alexei Shirov, please note) and of course beaten Kasparov to the Chess Oscar two years in a row in 1997 and 1998. The 2000 FIDE World Championships title is a just reward for a player, who is truly one of the greatest of all time.

Anand is special in more ways than one, Not because he is from India, where the game of chess is believed to have originated, but because for the past 10 years of his career, Anand has been the only non-Russian or non-Russia born player to consistently figure in the top 10 of the world rankings. Many former Soviet Republic players represent other countries like Spain, Holland, Switzerland, USA and so on but it cannot be denied that they are primarily products of a Russian system. A majority of the players dominating world chess over the past century have all been products of a Russian system, where chess was once almost a way of life.

It is no secret that Russian players, even after they leave their country, maintain strong links with their erstwhile colleagues. The top coaches, the top schools, the top analytical lines. All have their origins in Russia. So for Anand to have emerged on top of the heap despite being outside of this omnipresent system, is indeed a phenomenal achievement.

Anand more than anybody understands this. After all he has seen it at the closest quarters. And his own second, Elizbar Ubliava, who has been with him for six years, is also from the former Soviet Union.

Anand turned 31 exactly two weeks ago on December 11. Ironically on that day he was busy dethroning the defending champion Alexander Khalifman in the quarter-finals of the World Championships in New Delhi. But Australian Grandmaster Ian Rogers, once told this writer, that should Anand ever become the world champion, “he would be the nicest world champion.”

There is a fair amount of truth in that. For Anand suffers none of the eccentricities that are normally associated with world champions. He is never known to have thrown tantrums. Even when he was going through the worst patch, losing a series of games in the middle of the match against Kasparov in 1995, Anand maintained his poise and dignity.

“There is more to life than chess,’’ he would say. And he meant it.

Few chess champions at the highest level maintain as much interest as he does in the world around him. One of the pleasantest friends to have, he is forever helpful to youngsters. One only needs to look around at the likes of Krishnan Sasikiran or Pentyala Harikrishna to realise that.

Seldom would one have heard of an excuse from Anand. More so after a loss. Not even ill-health can get him to belittle a rival’s triumph. Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, many times national champion, recalls of the instance he first played Anand, when the latter was a junior. “He was not even well. He had fever. And yet he did not mention it, he simply played and beat me,” said Thipsay. And Thipsay, mind you, in the mid-1980s was one of the top players in India.

It will be impossible to talk about Anand without dwelling, however briefly, on his entry into the world of chess squares. Initiated into the preliminaries of the sport by his mother, Susila Viswanathan, the youngster made his first moves at the age of six. He found it fascinating enough to continue with it. It was still not an obsession at least in those early stages — after all, how could it be, for he had no Anand to look up to.

The turning point was probably the time his father, K. Viswanathan, General Manager in Southern Railway, was posted to the Philippines for a special project. Young Anand accompanied his parents to the country, where chess was a major passion. The Filipino capital in 1978 had hosted one of the most intriguing world title matches between Anatoly Karpov, an establishment favourite, and the venerable Viktor Korchnoi, a rebel, who defected to Switzerland and made it his home. Karpov won, but the match attracted global attention and among the reasons was the controversies surrounding it — including one in which Korchnoi claimed one of the psychologists in Karpov’s enoturage was hypnotizing him!.

So when the Viswanathans — Anand is not the champion’s family name, as many make a mistake, but his given name — arrived in the Philippines, it was in this atmosphere. And the television channels used to have a daily chess programme. Anand within weeks of arrival was hooked on to it, started winning prizes for solving problems and so on. The bug had bitten him.

When Anand returned to Madras three years later he was ready to take on the best. Within a year or two he was making waves. In 1983, when still short of his 14th birthday, he emerged as the sub-junior national champion, and the same year he was the national junior (under-19) champion. By 1984 and 1985 he was the national champion and also the Asian junior champion. At 15 he was India’s youngest International Master.

Keeping track of his junior records became an impossibility. He was winning too fast and too much for statisticians to keep track of. Winning in India and Asia was almost a foregone conclusion. In 1987 came another landmark. He became the first Asian to win the world junior championships. And incidentally it came in the Filipino city, Baguio City. Before the year was out and before his driver’s license could be procured, Anand won two more Grandmaster norms and became India’s first Grandmaster. He was only a few days past 18 years.

In mid 1987 he touched a rating of 2500, and in just another year and a half, he was past 2600. In 1992 he became only the eighth player in the world to cross a rating of 2700. And in 1991-92 he won the world’s highest ever rated tournament in Reggio Emilia, and that win came ahead of even Kasparov. Since that year, he has been marked out as the future world champion.

When he faltered in 1995 and then in 1997-98, many felt he lacked just that wee bit, which separates the great from the greatest. On Christmas eve he showed us even that imaginary Rubicon had been crossed.

Barely returned from their 0-2 test series loss and 0-5 defeat in the one-dayers against South Africa, New Zealand host Zimbabwe in a one-off Test beginning tomorrow at the Basin Reserve.

Although jaded after an 18-week tour of Singapore, Kenya, Zimbabwe and South Africa, Trist said the players were enthusiastic about the Test and one-day series against Zimbabwe after practice on Christmas eve and a brief fielding session today.

“We’ve come together pretty late but the guys needed a bit of a breather after the tour of South Africa,” Trist said. “We have to move on and prepare positively — we have to be right at our best and I think we’ll be pretty close to it.”

“We need to get on the winning track again.”

Weather forecasters are predicting drizzle over the next few days.

“Any rain reduces the possibility of a result,” said trist. “We want to get ahead on the first day and stay ahead right through.”

Trist remains cautious of Zimbabwe despite New Zealand’s 2-0 series win there in September.

“They play a style of cricket that best supports their player base. We have to be patient as well, we need a clinical approach similar to what we used in Zimbabwe.

“They will have high expectations after playing reasonably well in India.”

Zimbabwe lost the Test series 1-0 to India but their batting was solid with Andy Flower in strong form with unbeaten scores of 232 and 183 against India.

Flower, a late arrival on tour with his wife Rebecca expecting their baby, said the team was determined to atone for earlier bad performances in Wellington.

“We’ve been hammered every time we’ve played here — we have something to prove that we can play in these conditions,” said Flower.

New Zealand crushed Zimbabwe by 10 wickets in the first of the 1998 series and Zimbabwe have yet to win a one-day international on the ground.

New Zealand have never lost a Test against Zimbabwe, winning five of the 10 encounters since 1992.

The New Zealand side will be finalised after a final pitch inspection tomorrow with the selectors only having to decide between rookie legspinner Brooke Walker and untried all-rounder James Franklin.

Zimbabwe have had to contend with injury and illness since its arrival.

The most serious setback was top-order batsman Grant Flower’s fractured finger, sustained while fielding against Canterbury.

He will stay with the team but is not expected to be fit until Zimbabwe play Australia and the West Indies in a tri-series in Australia beginning in January.

Teams (from):

New Zealand: Stephen Fleming (captain), Mark Richardson, Matthew Horne, Mathew Sinclair, Nathan Astle, Craig McMillan, Adam Parore, James Franklin, Paul Wiseman, Shayne O’Connor, Chris Martin, Brooke Walker.

Media reports quoted PHF secretary Musaarratullah Khan as saying his federation was not ready to invite India for this tournament.

He gave no reason for refusing invitation to India to play in Pakistan.

Intrestingly, the PHF secretary announced Pakistan would play India in series of matches in Qatar or Dubai and added that Malaysia have shown an interest to play in the series. It may become a three-nation tournament, he added.

Meanwhile, in a desperate bid to revive the game in the country, the PHF appointed Olympian Islahuddin as a Director of its international wing while an other former Olympian Samiullah was named director of the domestic wing.

Announcing these appointments, Musarratullah Khan said besides the forming of these two wings, three other groups have been created as part of resurrecting the game in the country.

The PHF secretary said Islahuddin would help the federation in dealing with all the international, home and away activities of the team. While Samiullah will monitor the domestic activities.

The other three wings formed are technical, marketing and administrative, but no director was appointed for these.

He said the International Hockey Federation (FIH) has provided the PHF two international experts-Moris Hendrick and Peter Van Rath from Holland to train coaches and umpires.

Hendrick will conduct a course for coaches at Lahore from January 10 to 24 whiler Van Rath will organise course for umpires side-by-side the 48th National Hockey Champion-ship at Lahore from January 14 to 24.

He said the PHF had invited all the 30 coaches, who had served the Pakistan team in this department but would only pick 15 from them to attend the course.

The PHF secretary said the senior national team will participate in six international competitions next year (2001).

The programme which had been finalised included Prime Minister Cup in Bangladesh from March 12 to 18, a four-nation tournament in Germany from June 22 to 24, Azlan Shah Cup at Kuala Lumpur from August 2 to 12 and the 23rd Champions Trophy at Lahore from November 3 to 11.

The tour, comprising four Test matches and five one-day internationals scheduled for December-January next year, was cancelled by the Indian Government citing Pakistan’s support to cross-border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir as the reason, but the PCB, chief Gen Tauqir Zia, has indicated that a short series may still be possible.

General Zia said efforts were on from cricket boards of both countries in this direction and he was awaiting a final word from the BCCI tomorrow, ‘The News’ reported today.

“We’ve started looking into the possibility of hosting the Indians for a short series, which will preferably include three Tests and three one-dayers,” General Zia said and added that the BCCI had asked for a tentative itinerary for the purpose.

Well-placed sources in the pcb said the fresh initiative had the blessings of the foreign ministries of both the countries who have taken some clear moves in recent days to reduce tension along the border and open talks at the diplomatic level.

The possibility of the tour had got a boost with Pakistan announcing reduction of troops along the Line of Control and India saying they could resume talks with Pakistan, the sources said The BCCI president had also said on Saturday that he had sent a letter to the government to once again reconsider their decision on cancelling Pakistan tour.

Highly-placed agency sources said a thorough probe to unravel a nexus between cricketers and underworld persons had been initiated and the CBI had sought help from various other agencies in this connection.

The sources said CBI Director R.K. Raghavan had held a series of meetings with the officials of other security and intelligence agencies for data on some of the underworld people.

The probe into this nexus and its ramifications on the national security is being conducted both within India and abroad. The sources said the agency, after completing the probe into the role of cricketers and bookies, would be now going deeper into the possible nexus of the underworld with cricket players and administrators.

They said even though the nexus had been unearthed during the agency’s probe in the betting and match-fixing scandal, the dimensions were yet to be fully established.

Without disclosing any names, the sources said a “few Indian players” had links with the underworld that had been fairly established during earlier investigation.

The CBI, sources said, would cast its net wide to get to the bottom of nexus between underworld, cricketers and the game’s administrators.

They said the underworld had shown more than academic interest in the game and had found that the game could be manipulated.

They said the entire gamut of the unholy nexus could be unraveled with active co-operation from police forces of other states including Mumbai and agencies like Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI).

It is believed that the Mumbai police and the DRI had stumbled upon the conversation between the underworld and some players in 1995.

The sources drew attention to a warning contained in the CBI’s report on match-fixing that underworld mafia can be expected to take overall control of betting racket, if not checked immediately with a firm hand.

Negligence of the police and other authorities for allowing “wagering to turn into an organised racket, particularly with the involvement of the underworld mafia”, was cited by the CBI as the reason in its 162-page report.

The underworld mafia’s involvement is also borne out of the testimonies of former Indian skipper Mohammed Azharuddin and the team’s former physiotherapist Ali Irani in which names of mafia dons Anees Ibrahim, Abu Salem and Sharad Shetty found mention.

Dungarpur told PTI here today that the two issues had no connection as was made out and both Hanumant Singh and Paranjpe had tendered their resignations two months ago which were accepted at the NCA meeting on Friday.

“We tried to persuade Hanumant Singh to carry on as director for some more time but in vain,” he added.

“Not even a ‘mali’ (groundsman) has resigned after Gavaskar quit. In fact, Hanumant Singh wanted to be relieved as he could not leave his family alone for a long period of time while Vasu could not leave his wife alone in Mumbai after his son Jatin married and shifted to his new house in the suburbs,” Mr Dungarpur said.

The two long standing friends, Gavaskar and Dungarpur, had a show down after Gavaskar, in his column on Friday, had said the NCA boys should not have got a three-day game against the Zimbabweans in their tour opener at Indore.

Mr Dungarpur, who took exception to this, called for the batting legend’s resignation in an interview to the same tabloid the following day.

The BCCI executive secretary, Mr Sharad Diwadkar, told PTI here today that reports in a section of the press that another NCA official and junior team coach Roger Binny too had quit were not true.

“I do not know why ‘distorted’ versions appear in the press as Binny is very much a part of NCA,” Diwadkar added.

The board secretary, Mr Jaywant Lele, told PTI over phone from Baroda “as far as I know, Roger Binny has not resigned as coach as his name did not come up in the meeting on Saturday while we did discuss the matter concerning Hanumant Singh and Vasu Paranjpe”.

Former Indian Test player Brijesh Patel is likely to replace Hanumant Singh as the “Director of the National Cricket Academy (NCA).

Mr Lele told PTI from Baroda over phone that in all probability Patel would replace Hanumant Singh as “we want a youngster as the Director while former medium pacer Balwinder Singh Sandhu will replace Vasu Paranjpe as the coach.

“However, the final decision would be taken up at the NCA committee meeting to be held in Mumbai soon,” he added.

According to another BCCI source, former Test star Polly Umrigar is another candidate for the Director’s post but age may go against him.

A lacklustre performance in the Sydney Olympics and a series of rather indifferent shows in various other international tournaments during the year has proved that Indian hockey had miles to go before all the grey areas could be removed.

Clearly, the Indians have failed to make much of an impact in the international hockey scene as the game has undergone a sea change in the past few decades. The problems have persisted for much too long and only new methods in tune with changing times can pull India out of the pits.

Despite preparing assiduously for the Sydney Olympics, the team flopped when it mattered most and finished a poor seventh, shattering hopes of reversing the country’s sliding fortunes in the Olympics.

Heads had to roll and they have kept rolling after almost every hockey disaster, but India’s fortunes have not really changed with the constant choppings and sackings.

The dismal performance in Sydney prompted the Indian Hockey Federation to fire coach Vasudevan Baskaran at the end of the year, re-appointing Cedric D’Souza to take charge of a team which has the talent but lacks consistency.

D’Souza, who coached the Indian squads for the Sydney World Cup in 1994 and the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, was entrusted with the job till the next World Cup in Kuala Lumpur in 2002.

He will be assisted by C.R.Kumar, who had built up the junior string, and Ashish Ballal, while the Barcelona-based Ranjit Singh has been designated as the expert.

The choice of Ballal came as a big surprise as the former goalkeeper had been a vociferous critic of the establishment and had often paid a heavy price for being too outspoken.

It was apparent that both Ballal and the top brass of the IHF had decided to bury the hatchet and work together for uplifting the standard of Indian hockey.

Along with Baskaran, IHF sacked two players — Olympian skipper Ramandeep Singh and Mohammed Riaz — from the 43-member list of probables for the 2002 World Cup. The two were dropped as they were found wanting in their level of performance while stalwart rightwinger Mukesh Kumar announced his retirement immediately after the Sydney games.

The Olympic fiasco again opened up the debate on whether India should rope in the services of a foreign coach to make the team more adept to the European-style of play.

Europe and Australia have taken a big lead in competitive hockey and the systems crafted by the thinking coaches of Holland, Germany, Spain and England have smothered the class and calibre of Asian hockey.

Even the Koreans have stolen a march over their Asian rivals by the sheer strength of strategy than matching the skills exhibited by India and Pakistan.

The Sydney-bound team left the Indian shores amidst high expectations of returning with a medal and the IHF officials seemed confident of a vastly improved performance by the players.

Indisputably, it was one of the best Indian squads in the last few years — balanced and experienced. The start was excellent and the path, minus Korea, was smooth but that last minute disaster against Poland destroyed everything.

Clubbed in pool-A, India beat Argentina 3-0, drew with Australia 2-2, beat Spain 3-2, drew Poland 1-1 and lost to Korea 0-2 in their league matches.

As a unit the team combined well with the speedy Dhanraj Pillay remaining the fulcrum of attack while Baljit Dhillon also played an important role after a somewhat hesitant start. Baljit Saini and Thirumalvalavan were outstanding in the midfield.

But the Indians had to pay a heavy price for a few costly lapses and ultimately had to be content with the seventh position defeating Argentina 3-1 in the classification match.

It was India’s splendid performance in a four-nation tournament in Australia earlier in April which perhaps raised hopes of a revival in the Olympics.

The title triumph in the four-nation tournament in Australia was the lone bright spot for hockey during the year, triggering off a mood of euphoria for a brief period in a nation starved of a major title for long.

With strong teams like Australia, Germany and South Africa in the fray, the victory under coach Baskaran was indeed creditable but the pressure of expectation seemed to weigh down on the players.

The Indians defeated Germany 3-2 in the final with the irrepressible Dhanraj Pillay (2) and Dilip Tirkey (1) being the scorers.

India, after a rather sloppy start, managed to finish a decent third in the Azlan Shah tournament in Kuala Lumpur in March with arch-rivals Pakistan claiming the title.

Fear of India hitting the bottom appeared a possibility after the team succumbed to Germany and Pakistan but it showed great resilience to stage a comeback of sorts and eventually claim the third position in the seven-team championship.

A strong midfield manned well by skipper Ramandeep Singh and assisted by Thirumal and Riaz, prevented a total disaster as the frontline exhibited shades of brilliance.

The Indians prevailed over hosts Malaysia 4-1 for the third position in the classification match.

The performance of the juniors, many of whom found a place in the senior team later in the year, proved that there was really no dearth of talent in the country but only skill will not help India regain its lost pride.

The Indian junior team played consistently to reach the final of the Asia Cup junior tournament where they lost to Korea 2-3 in a keenly contested encounter.

“After some people sent confusing and wrong reports to the Asian Football Confederation, New Zealand decided to opt out. So we have included Slovenia,” Mr Dasmunshi told newspersons.

He said Slovenia, who were placed a few rungs above New Zealand in the international order of merit, have agreed to send a full professional side.

Bangladesh, the SAF Champions, would be included in place of one of the Asian teams.

Mr Dasmunshi said he had already written to Bangladesh Prime Minister Seikh Hasina Wajed in this regard, and would also be going to Dhaka soon.

The draw ceremony of the tournament, scheduled to be played simultaneously in Calcutta, Kochi and Goa, would be held in Delhi on December 29.

Disclosing this to newspersons here, AIFF president Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi said yesterday that a seminar-cum workshop would be held here on January 11 to draft the policy.

Other than AIFF office-bearers and executive committee members, former soccer internationals and scribes would attend the workshop, he said.

The four paid functionaries are administrative secretary, assistant secretary (competition and referring), assistant secretary (finance, sponsorship and marketing) and director of coaching. The last post is likely to go to a foreigner.

Former FIFA referee Melvyn D’Souza will be appointed as assistant secretary (competition and referring).

Uzbekistan’s Rustam Akramov, a former coach of the Indian team, has been sounded for the post of director of coaching through the Asian Football Confederation, while the other two posts would be filled through interviews.

Mr Dasmunshi said the AIFF was yet to finalise a sponsor for the ongoing national league, but talks were on with Zee TV in this regard.

He regretted that Doordarshan was yet to pay the AIFF the dues for last year’s league. “But now they have promised to pay up after January 7”.

PATIALA, Dec 25 — The foursome comprising former hockey Olympian Balkishen Singh, Lt-Gen K. Davar, Mr C.S Brar and Mr Gurpal Singh was declared the best team in the Maharaja Yadvinder Singh Memorial Golf Tournament which concluded at the ‘Black Elephant’ golf course here today.