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| Thursday, January 4, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Aussies tighten grip on match Sharjah: BCCI hopeful of participation
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| Lankan bowlers fail to deliver
Millennium Cup’s name changed? Star-studded South take on North today USA dash Russia’s hopes Black brothers enter quarters Panja-Srinath duo crashes out Jalandhar XI, PSB in semis Polo star among crash victims
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| Aussies tighten grip on match SYDNEY, Jan 3 (Reuters) — Steve Waugh hit an unbeaten 82 as Australia dominated the second day of the final Test today, ending on 284 for 4 in reply to the West Indies 272 all out. After sharing the honours on the first day, Waugh’s men relentlessly tightened their grip on the match. Following on from his magnificent century in last week’s crushing fourth Test victory in Melbourne, the unflappable Waugh teamed up with Ricky Ponting (51 not out) as the pair shared an unbroken partnership of 127. The tourists had added 16 runs to their overnight total of 256 for 9 before Colin Miller mopped up the last wicket. Miller, one of cricket’s zaniest characters, added a touch of humour to proceedings when he walked out onto the sacred Sydney turf sporting a bright blue hairstyle, apparently to help mark Australia’s federation centenary celebrations. West Indian tailender Courtney Walsh had never seen anything like it in his 127 Tests and was so bemused by the sight of the Australian they call “funky” that he could not take strike until collecting himself. Inevitably, the match immediately took on a more serious note when the Australians took their turn at the crease. With a world record sequence of 14 Test wins on the trot the Australians wasted little time chasing a 15th success on a good batting strip. Brian Lara took his 100th Test catch and gave Walsh his 493rd wicket when he dismissed Matthew Hayden for three and Nixon Mclean had Justin Langer caught behind for 20 to give the beleaguered West Indies a glimmer of hope at 55-2. But Michael Slater and Mark Waugh started the recovery by adding 54 for the third wicket before a terrible mix-up ended with Waugh being run out for 22. Undeterred, Slater punished every loose ball and passed 13,000 first-class runs to reach 96 before his innings also ended tragically, just four runs short of a 15th Test century. The Australian opener had batted 174 minutes, faced 142 balls and smashed 13 boundaries and a all-run four when he mistimed a drive off left-arm spinner Mahendra Nagamootoo and presented Marlon Samuels with a simple catch at cover point. Even worse, by falling for 96, Slater had the dubious honour of becoming the first player in history to be dismissed in the 90s nine times. Steve Waugh also has nine score in the 90s but two of his were not outs. Slater’s departure proved to be of little consolation to the West Indian bowlers as Ponting joined the skipper at the crease and swung the match Australia’s way. Waugh reached his 50 midway through the final session off 111 balls while Ponting registered his second 50 of the series just before stumps after facing 109 deliveries. SCOREBOARD West Indies Ist innings Campbell c and b MacGill 79 Hinds b MacGill 70 Adams lbw b McGrath 10 Lara c M. Waugh b MacGill 35 Samuels c Langer b MacGill 28 Sarwan lbw b MacGill 0 Jacobs st Gilchrist b MacGill 12 Nagamootoo c Slater b Miller 12 Mclean lbw b MacGill 0 Stuart not out 12 Walsh c Hayden b Miller 4 Extras (lb-4, b-4, nb-2) 10 Total (all out in 102.1 overs) 272 Fall of wkts: 1-147, 2-152, 3-174, 4-210, 5-210, 6-235, 7-240, 8-240, 9-252. Bowling: McGrath 19-7-43-1, Gillespie 16-4-44-0, MacGill 37-11-104-7, Miller 30.1-8-73-2. Australia 1st innings Slater c Samuels b Nagamootoo 96 Hayden c Lara b Walsh 3 Langer c Jacobs b McLean 20 M. Waugh run out 22 S. Waugh batting 82 Ponting batting 51 Extras (b-1, lb-1, nb-8) 10 Total (for 4 wkts, 87 overs) 284 Fall of wkts: 1-17, 2-55, 3-109, 4-157 Bowling: Walsh 19-2-60-1, Stuart 12-2-38-0, Nagamootoo 22-2-77-1, McLean 14-2-58-1, Adams 14-2-38-0, Samuels 6-3-11-0. |
| Sharjah: BCCI hopeful of participation DUBAI, Jan 3 (UNI) — With the government refusing to budge from its decision not to permit the cricket team to tour Pakistan, Indian cricket board officials are hopeful that the national squad would participate in the triangular tournament at Sharjah in April, provided the government gives the go-ahead. Apart from India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan are participating in the tourney. Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary J.Y. Lele told the Gulf News “We hope the team will be cleared for the event’’, scheduled to start on April 4. He said government’s clearance was a must for all overseas tours. Mr Lele’s comments came amid press reports that India has refused to take part in a tri-nation tournament in Malaysia because Pakistan is also competing.’’ The Malaysian Cricket Association has informed us that the planned tri-series between Pakistan, Malaysia and India has been cancelled because of India’s refusal to play’’, a Pakistan Cricket Board official was quoted as saying. The Indian government has refused to permit the cricket team to tour Pakistan, saying there was no point in having sporting links with a country which is promoting terrorism on the Indian soil. However, it is to be seen whether the Indian team will be allowed to take part in the tournament at Sharjah, which is a neutral venue. Both India and Pakistan have a three-year contract with the Cricketers’ Benefit Fund Series (CBFA), the organisers of cricket tournaments at Sharjah, for participating in the tournaments in the desert. The contract is expiring after the April tournament and the Indian board is yet to take a decision on whether it should be renewed. BCCI chief A.C. Muthiah, who was in Sharjah in November for the Asian Cricket Foundation (ACF) meeting, was non-committal on whether the contract with the Sharjah cricket authorities would be renewed. He said a decision on the issue would be taken by the working committee of the board. Meanwhile, Mr Lele refused to comment on the Australian team’s Indian tour itinerary which appeared in a section of the press. According to that itinerary, India play their last two one-dayers against Australia on April 3 at Pune and April 6 at Bangalore. But the Indian team is also scheduled to arrive in Sharjah on April three for the tri-nation tournament, which begins the next day. “I do not want to comment on this controversial issue’’, Mr Lele said. The official Australian tour itinerary is expected to be released by the BCCI by January 28, Gulf News added. |
| Lankan bowlers fail to deliver CAPE TOWN, Jan 3 (Reuters) — Daryll Cullinan hit a South African record 12th Test century to ensure his team’s total domination against Sri Lanka in the second Test at Newlands today. Cullinan scored 112 to lift South Africa from the overnight 130 for two to 323 for five at tea on the second day, in reply to Sri Lanka’s first innings of 95. Cullinan’s 100 came shortly before the tea interval from 212 deliveries and included three sixes, the first pulled over mid-wicket off left-arm seamer Chaminda Vaas which raised his 50 and the next two driven over wide long-off against occasional spinner Russel Arnold. Cullinan beat the South African record of 11 Test centuries he shared with Gary Kirsten. It was his fifth century in 10 Tests against Sri Lanka and his fourth in consecutive matches at his former home ground in Cape Town. SCOREBOARD Sri Lanka (Ist innings): 95 South Africa (Ist innings) overnight 130-2: Kirsten c Dilshan b Muralitharan 52 Gibbs c Sangakkara b Vaas 0 Kallis c Jayawardene b Fernando 49 Cullinan run out 112 McKenzie c & b Arnold 47 Boucher not out 43 Klusener not out 3 Extras (nb-15 lb-2) 17 Total (for five, 113 overs) 323 Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-97, 3-130, 4-231, 5-317. Bowling: Vaas 21-6-63-1, Zoysa 18-5-57-0, Fernando 16-2-42-1, Muralitharan 40-10-89-1, Jayasuriya 4-1-15-0, Arnold 14-2-55-2. |
| Hockey Round-up-2000 INDIAN hockey has to decide whether it wants to take a step forward, be pushed a step back or continue going around in circles as it happened in 2000. The Sydney Olympic 2000 Games was supposed to be the highpoint, a once-in-four-year opportunity for Indian hockey to redeem its reputation in the eyes of its own people and the international hockey community. The Indian men’s team finished seventh out of 12 sides in the fray at Sydney, after promising much but failing in crunch situations; the women didn’t qualify for the 2000 Olympics. Earlier, the Perth four-nation tournament prior to Sydney saw India finish on top, ahead of Australia, Germany and South Africa. The first two ended ahead of us at the Olympics, the third country did not participate. The win at Perth lulled the Indian Hockey Federation into a false sense of complacency that our Olympic preparations under Coach Vasudevan Baskaran were on the right track. In contrast, the women won the Asian Championships under coach Satinder Walia, at least something to build on for the future, providing the federation’s priorities are right and the right people are in charge. One hates to be critical about Indian hockey, because the game has suffered from a lot of negative publicity due to adverse results, but the federation’s refusal to own up for the men’s team seventh place at Sydney, one place better than the humiliating eighth position at the 1994 Atlanta Games, only confirms the lack of accountability which has been the nature of our hockey administration. True, national coach Vasudevan Baskaran, assistant coach Harinder Singh and skipper Ramandeep Singh have been discarded, but none of the key people in the IHF who had a direct role to play in the team’s selection, preparation and performance have owned up. For example, the men’s team for Sydney was finalised by the national coach, in consultation with the federation. The selection committee of late has been sidelined during the final phase of selecting the team. This has led to a feeling amongst the selectors that if the final selection is not in consultation with them, why should one take the trouble of going through the preliminaries. The absence of quality bench strength as seen at Sydney, which led to coach Baskaran’s reluctance to use the rolling substitution rule, is a pointer to the mistakes made by these worthies during selection. It would be wrong to put all the blame on the national coach Baskaran and his deputy for first making a wrong assessment of the team’s strength and then failing to rectify the team’s weaknesses. The federation is equally culpable for donning the mantle of experts and having a major say in the technical side of the Olympics preparations, without having the expertise. Now when the damage has been done, the same federation officials are shying away from taking the blame for leading India up the garden path. The only gains for Indian hockey last year were the flowering of individual talents like goalkeeper Jude Menezes, defender Dilip Tirkey and penalty corner specialist Baljit Singh Dhillon at Sydney. Dhillon and women’s skipper Sita Gossain were also nominated on the FIH World team. Former India skipper Dhanraj Pillay used the four-nation event at Perth to clinch a professional contract with the German club Stuttgart, becoming the second Olympian after Jagbir Singh to play in Germany. He also played in Malaysia afterwards. Mukesh Kumar’s retirement after a sterling career in world hockey will create a void which Indian hockey will take time to fill. On the other hand Dhanraj Pillay who started playing around the same time as Mukesh is still good enough for another year at least. In my opinion Mohd Riaz and Ramandeep Singh have served the country well and should gracefully call it a day. The first major event in India after the Sydney Olympics was the Senior Nationals, an opportunity for the IHF to project the right image of Indian hockey. The new concept of having the zonals before the qualifiers vying for the Rangaswamy Cup was a welcome change for the simple reason that it allowed lesser teams to play a number of league matches against more fancied and powerful teams. But allowing corporate teams to participate does not lend credence to the tournament being called the ‘nationals’. I had the opportunity to witness the zonals at Mumbai, which saw teams like Maharashtra and Gujarat give more fancied teams a tough time unlike in the past. Unfortunately not much of talent was visible. Indian Airlines retained the title on the strength of their experience, beating Indian Railways in the final, but then the question of whether hockey was promoted in any way remains unanswered. Ashish Ballal as one of the coaches is one of the best things that could happen. In the present form of goalkeeping there is none better to match his experience. More so because he has been till recently playing competitive hockey. It would have been nice to have a person like Jude Felix too in the panel of coaches because of his experience and involvement in the game both as a player and coach. Cedric coming back as the Chief Coach makes one wonder whether his list of wants has been acceded to by the federation and if it is so for how long will the federation tow his line — PMG |
| Millennium Cup’s name changed? NEW DELHI, Jan 3 — With just seven days remaining for the ambitious Millennium Super Cup Soccer Tournament to be held at three venues — Calcutta, Cochin and Goa — there was some confusion regarding the nomenclature of the tournament. At a hurriedly called press conference here today, Ms Henna Juneja of Studio 2100, promoters of the Millennium Cup, said Sahara India will be sponsoring the event, and the tournament, featuring 16 teams, will now be known as Sahara Cup Tournament or Millennium Sahara Cup Tournament. But no official from the All-India Football Federation (AIFF) was present at the press briefing to authenticate the latest development. Even Ms Vandana Bhargava of Sahara India refused to make a firm commitment regarding the extent to which Sahara was involved in the sponsorship deal, other than saying that “we will ensure that the tournament is run smoothly as far as monetary commitments are concerned”. The tournament carries a total prize money of $ 325000 with the winners standing to benefit $ 150,000 and the runners-up will get $ 100,000. Meanwhile, the four quarterfinal matches will be held at Cochin (Jan 18, 7 p.m), Calcutta (Jan 20, 6.30 p.m), Goa (Jan 20, 4.30 p.m) and Calcutta (Jan 21, 5 p.m). Calcutta will also host the placement match, the semifinals and the final. The final is slated to be held on January 25. Sixteen teams, including hosts India, have been divided into four groups, and will play their group matches in Cochin, Goa and Calcutta. |
| Star-studded South take on North today VIJAYAWADA, Jan 3 (PTI) — Star-studded South Zone will clash with defending champions North Zone in their opening tie of the four-day Duleep Trophy cricket league match at Indira Gandhi Municipal Corporation Stadium (IGMC) here tomorrow. Stylish batsman V.V.S. Laxman leads the South Zone which has allrounders Sunil Joshi, Robin Singh and Hemang Badani. Most of the south players performed well with bat and ball in the Deodhar Trophy, which concluded recently. North Zone, led by Vikram Rathore, has young and dynamic players Yuvaraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh and R.S. Sodhi in their ranks. Anil Kumble and Rahul Dravid opted out of the South Zone team due to health reasons. S.L. Venkatapathy Raju and Tanveer Jabbar were included in their place. The match has gained significance with the presence of National Selection Committee member Madan Lal along with Chairman Chandu Borde to assess the performance in the wake of ensuring Australian Tour during February-April 2001. Andhra Cricket Association (ACA) and Krishna District Cricket Association (KDCA) are jointly organising the match. The ACA has allotted the tie as a benefit match for B.R. Patel, former Andhra Ranji player, who also served ACA as a selector and manager of Ranji team. The teams would be selected from the following: South Zone: VVS Lakshman (captain), S. Ramesh, S. Sriram, Nanda Kishore, Hemang K Badani, Robin Singh, V.S. Tilak Naidu, T. Kumaran, K.S. Shahabuddin, Tinu Yohan, Sunil Joshi, Ashish Kapoor, D. Ganesh, Vijay Bharadwaj, Tanveer Jabbar and S.L. Venkatapathy Raju. North Zone: Vikram Rathour (captain), Vijay Dahiya, Akash Chopra, Virender Sehwag, Sudhakar Ghag, Yuvaraj Singh, Dinesh Mongia, Sarandeep Singh, Harbhajan Singh, R.S. Sodhi, Parinder Sharma, Rajeev Nayar, Surinder Singh, Rahul Sangvi. WZ sans stars NAGPUR: a depleted west zone sans its stars, Sachin Tendulkar and Ajit Agarkar, will meet central zone in the four-day Duleep Trophy cricket league match at the Vidarbha Cricket Association ground from Thursday. The newly introduced league tournament will certainly provide ample opportunity for the upcoming young talent in different zones. The West-Central tie slated to be played at Kanpur was shifted a few days back to Nagpur owing to disturbances there. West Zone skipper Nayan Mongia, who is on a comeback trail after being exonerated from match fixing allegations, will be looking forward to prove a point or two. His performance will be under close scrutiny with the Australian tour to India due in February. The Central Zone, led by Amay Kurasia, have a bunch of talented lot who could cause flutter in the opposition camp. Kurasia, Amit Pagnis, Mohd Kaif, J.P. Yadav and Raja Ali are capable of putting up big scores. Test spinner Murli Kartik along with former Test star Narendra Hirwani and upcoming left-arm seamer Salabh Srivastav could cause some worry to the West Zone batsmen. The rival captains have decided to name the final eleven on the morning of the match. The teams (Central Zone): Amay Kurasiya (captain), Gagan Khoda, Amit Pagnis, J.P. Tadav, Mohd. Kaif, D. Bundela, Raja Ali, Murali Kartik, K. Parida, Salabh Srivastav, A. Zaidi, Narendra Hirwani, R. Kanwat, Yere Goud, A. Sharma and R. Zalani. West Zone: Nayan Mongia (captain), Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Wasim Jaffer, Connor Williams, Jacob Martin, Abhijit Kale, Niraj Patel, Zaheer Khan, Iqbal Siddique, Santosh Saxena, Sairaj Bahatule, Ramesh Power, Valmik Buch, Prashant Noshi and Santanshu Kotak. |
| USA dash Russia’s hopes PERTH, Jan 3 (AFP) — Americans Monica Seles and Jan-Michael Gambill boosted their hopes of reaching the Hopman Cup tennis final while ending those of Russia in a bruising six-and-a-half hour duel here today. During a thrilling deciding 105-minute mixed doubles confrontation, Seles and Gambill edged out men’s world number two Marat Safin and partner Elena Likhovtseva to clinch the crucial tie 2-1 after the singles clashes had been shared. The Americans, third-seeded of the eight nations in the round-robin contest, beat the Russian pair — seeded second — 4-6 6-2 6-2. It was the USA’s second win in the competition, following their sweeping 3-0 drubbing of the Slovak Republic on Monday. Russia registered their second successive loss, having gone down 1-2 to Belgium in a shock result on the same day. Safin, (20) had kept the Russians in the tie at the Burswood Dome when he defeated 23-year-old Gambill, ranked 33rd in the world, in the men’s singles in three sets, 6-4 6-7 (6/8) 6-3 after Seles had overcome Likhovtseva in the women’s singles. Seles, 27, ranked fourth in the world, used her vast experience to grind down a plucky Likhovtseva, 25, ranked 21st. Seles, the former world number one, got home in straight sets, 6-3 6-3. “I am playing pretty well and I am happy with my form,” Seles said. Seles said she would love to help her adopted nation win the Hopman Cup, having helped to guide her native country, Yugoslavia, to the title 10 years ago when she partnered Goran Prpic. In that success the Yugoslav pair defeated the USA, represented by David Wheaton and Zina Garrison, in the final. Safin was relieved to wear down the hard-working Gambill in the singles after he had lost to Belgium’s Olivier Rochus two days earlier. |
| Black brothers enter quarters CHENNAI, Jan 3 (UNI) — The top-seeded Zimbabwean pair of Byron Black and his brother Wayne Black put behind a pathetic first set display and entered the quarterfinals defeating E-Alvarez of Spain and M. Hilpert of Germany 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the doubles event of the ATP Tour Gold Flake Open tennis championship here tonight. In another match between unseeded pairs, B. Cowan of the UK and M. Navarra of Italy defeated Russians Y. Schukin and Stoliarov 7-6 (7-3), 3-6, 6-1 and gained a place in the quarterfinals. The famous Indian pair of brothers, will begin their campaign to regain the title they had won here from 1997 to 1999. They will take on the Swedish pair of J. Landsberg and A. Vinciguerra. Leander and Mahesh did not defend their title last year as Mahesh was injured. Another Indian pair Saurav Panja and Prahlad Srinath, who were runners-up last year, will play Eyal Ran and J.Velasco (Spain). Unseeded Michael Tabara of the Czech Republic became the first player to enter the quarterfinals defeating error-prone Dutchman Edwin Kempes 6-4, 6-0 in a second round match. The Dutchman seemed to have got up from the other side of the bed as nothing went right for him. A spate of errors made matters easy for Tabara, who hardly faced any resistance right through the 45-minute baseline contest. Much was expected from Kempes following his upset victory over eighth-seeded Jiri Vanek in the first round. But the victory turned out to be a flash in the pan, as he looked totally out of sorts against an opponent who served well and hit the ball hard and deep. After trading early breaks, Tabara gained the crucial break in the ninth game and served out the first set 6-4. His double-fisted backhand strokes brooked no response from the lanky Dutchman who managed to stave off three break points from 0-40 in the first game of the second set. That’s all he cold do as two double-faults and a fine passing shot by Tabara saw Kempes drop serve in the first game. There after, it was a whitewash as Kempes dropped serve twice again in the third and fifth games to lose without any fight. He struggled with his first serves and served two double faults in the fifth game in which he managed to stave off two break points before Tabara broke with a blistering forehand winner. The Czech served out the match when Kempes dumped an easy backhand voley into the net, one of the rarest occasions when he venturned at the net. |
| Panja-Srinath duo crashes out CHENNAI, Jan 3 (PTI) —India’s misfortune at the gold flake ATP tennis championship continued here today with last year’s runners-up pair of Saurav Panja and Prahlad Srinath bowing out in the first round of doubles event. The Indian pair went down to the combination of Eyal Ran of Israel and Jairo Velasco of Spain in straight sets 3-6, 4-6. Upsets continued in the singles event with fourth seed Byron Black of Zimbabwe making an exit in the second round. Black lost 3-6, 4-6 to Frenchman Cyril Saulnier to become the fifth seeded player to be ousted by lesser known opponents. Others who crashed out earlier are top seed Magnus Norman (Sweden), second seed Franco Squillari (Arg), seventh seed Markus Hantschk and eight seed Jiri Vanek. In other second round matches, Michal Tabara overwhelmed Edwin Kempes while Tommy Robredo (ESP) defeated compatriot David Sanchez 4-6, 6-1, 6-2. UNI adds: The top-seeded Zimbabwean pair of Byron Black and his brother Wayne Black put behind a pathetic first set display and entered the quarterfinals defeating E-Alvarez of Spain and M. Hilpert of Germany 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.In another match between unseeded pairs, B. Cowan of the UK and M. Navarra of Italy defeated Russians Y. Schukin and Stoliarov 7-6 (7-3), 3-6, 6-1 and gained a place in the quarterfinals. Unseeded Michael Tabara of the Czech Republic became the first player to enter the quarterfinals defeating error-prone Dutchman Edwin Kempes 6-4, 6-0 in a second round match. The Dutchman seemed to have got up from the other side of the bed as nothing went right for him. A spate of errors made matters easy for Tabara, who hardly faced any resistance right through the 45-minute baseline contest. Much was expected from Kempes following his upset victory over eighth-seeded Jiri Vanek in the first round. But the victory turned out to be a flash in the pan, as he looked totally out of sorts against an opponent who served well and hit the ball hard and deep. After trading early breaks, Tabara gained the crucial break in the ninth game and served out the first set 6-4. His double-fisted backhand strokes brooked no response from the lanky Dutchman who managed to stave off three break points from 0-40 in the first game of the second set. That’s all he cold do as two double-faults and a fine passing shot by Tabara saw Kempes drop serve in the first game. | |
| Jalandhar XI, PSB in semis JALANDHAR, Jan 3 — Confident and consistent former champions Haryana-XI girls got the better of Pepsu-XI 1-0 to enter the final in the 17th Indian Oil All-India Surjit Singh Memorial Hockey Tournament currently underway at Ashwani Stadium, BSF Campus here. In the men’s section Jalandhar-XI defeated Punjab and Sind Bank Hockey Academy 5-3 in the tie-breaker while Punjab and Sind Bank, Delhi, chalked out a facile 2-0 win over Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, Jalandhar. Haryana XI earned seven penalty corners in the first half but could not convert any of them into goal. Pepsu-XI displayed a defensive game in the first half. The only goal of the match was scored by Navpreet Kaur in the 39th minute. She successfully converted the eighth penalty corner into goal. Pepsu-XI tried to equalise but their unplanned moves failed. They wasted five penalty corners. Haryana now have six points from two outings. The second finalist will be decided after the match between Haryana XI and RCF, scheduled for tomorrow. SAIL have four points from three outings while RCF have one point after two matches and Pepsu XI have three points from three outings. In the third quarterfinal of the tournament, Punjab and Sind Bank Academy displayed good stick work, but luck today favoured Jalandhar-XI, who had a direct entry into the quarterfinals. Both he teams played evenly and tried for domination but could not score. In the first half Jalandhar XI wasted two and the academy lads wasted one penalty corner. Harjinder Singh of the academy opened the account for his team in the 39th minute by converting the third penalty corner. Equaliser for Jalandhar came through Raj Singh in the 42nd minute of the play, who also converted a penalty corner. Second goal for the bank academy came through Satinder Pal Singh on the fourth penalty corner in the 47th minute. It was again Raj Singh who equalised the score at 2-2. With the issue remaining deadlocked, in the tie-breaker S.N. Yadav, Balwinder Singh and Charanjit Singh successfully converted their strokes for Jalandhar XI while for the bank academy only Harjinder Singh was on target. In the last quarterfinal of the tournament played between Punjab and Sind Bank and EME, the bankmen wasted two penalty corners in the 7th and 24th minutes, respectively. The first goal of the match was scored by Parminder Singh in the 28th minute on a brilliant pass by his team-mate Baljit Singh Chandi from the left flank. The second and decisive goal was again scored by centre forward Parminder in the 30th minute of the game. Former champions BSF will play last year’s runners-up Punjab and Sind Bank while Punjab Police will cross swords with Jalandhar-XI in the semifinals. |
| Polo star among crash victims CHANDIGARH, Jan 3 — Major Pradeep Mehra(retd), an Arjuna awardee who captained the Indian polo team in 1976, was among the six persons killed in a helicopter crash near Mussoorie. With him on the fateful flight were his wife, Veena and daughter Radhika, who also died. A son-in-law of Admiral Nanda, Major Mehra dominated the Indian polo scene in the seventies. The news of Major Mehra's death was received with shock in polo circles here. Gen Kuldeep Singh Bajwa (retd), who was the GOC of the 54 Infantry Division, said Major Mehra was a big hitter and was in the best of gear in number four position. But what he liked the most about Major Mehra was that he was a perfect human being. The President of the Punjab Equestrian Association, Gen Bajwa said Major Mehra took premature retirement from the army and opened a stud farm near Delhi. |
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