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| Thursday, February 1, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Murali, Upashantha
fashion Lanka win Ganguly to miss
summit Indian cricket
goes tech-savvy Moin-PCB row
over logo money Hingis triumphs; Kournikova
survives
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Sunil overpowers
Saurabh Akopian wins; Dinesh ends
40th National billiards
from February 1 Stage set for
adventure festival Orissa meet ‘not
recognised’ Kedar Shah upsets
Rishi Sridhar Junior National Athletics
results Punjab cops go down
to Khalsa College Bunglings alleged in
PSEB sports cell
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Murali, Upashantha
fashion Lanka win NAPIER, New Zealand, Jan 31 (AP) — Eric Upashantha and off spinner Muttiah Muralitharan took nine wickets between them to lead Sri Lanka to a 61-run win over New Zealand in the first of five limited-overs cricket matches here today. New Zealand, chasing 214 to win at McLean park, could only muster 152, their second lowest completed innings against Sri Lanka. New Zealand’s batting lineup had no answer to the accurate spin bowling of Muralitharan, who took five wickets — his fifth in one-dayers — when he bowled Chris Martin for a duck to end the innings in the 43rd over. Muralitharan took Man-of-the-Match honours with his five for 30 off 7.5 overs. Upashantha recorded career-best figures of four for 37. Needing to score at 4.26 runs per over to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five series, only some dogged resistance from Chris Harris carried New Zealand past the 116 they scored at Moratuwa, New Zealand, in 1983-84, their lowest score in 40 previous matches. Harris was unbeaten on 39 off 78 balls. New Zealand has only one victory to show from its last nine limited-overs matches — the win came against Zimbabwe in Wellington earlier this month, although they went on to lose that series 2-1. The second match will be played on Saturday in Wellington.
Scoreboard Sri Lanka Jayasuriya c Parore b Martin 4 Atapattu c Parore b Vettori 29 Sangakkara c Astle b Franklin 12 Jayawardene lbw b Vettori 32 De Silva lbw b Vettori 17 Arnold run out (Martin) 50 Dharmasena c Harris b Astle 32 Upashantha c Parore b Martin 1 Zoysa not out 11 Muralitharan not out 1 Extras
(l-b, 5-lb, 16-w, 2-nb) 24 Total (for 8 wkts, 50 overs) 213 Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-43, 3-90, 4-95, 5-116, 6-177, 7-180, 8-212. Bowling: C Martin 10-1-56-2, A Penn 4-1-29-0, J Franklin 10-0-39-1, C Harris 10-0-33-0, D Vettori 10-0-21-3, N Astle 5-0-22-1, C McMillan 1-0-7-0. New Zealand Sinclair c Muralitharan b 25 Upashantha Astle c Sangakarra b 1 Upashantha Fleming lbw b Upashantha 0 Twose lbw b Muralitharan 23 McMillan c Jayasuriya b 0 Upashantha Harris not out 39 Parore c Fernando b 2 Muralitharan Vettori lbw b Muralitharan 11 Franklin run out (Fernando) 13 Penn b Muralitharan 15 Martin b Muralitharan 0 Extras (b-2, lb-7, w-12, nb-2) 23 Total
(all out, 42.5 overs) 152 Fall of wickets: 1-16, 2-16, 3-35, 4-40, 5-66, 6-72, 7-93, 8-122, 9-147. Bowling: Zoysa 7-0-14-0, Upashantha 8-2-37-4, Dharamsena 8-1-19-0, Fernando 8-0-36-0, Muralitharan 7.5-0-30-5, De Silva 4-0-7-0. |
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Ganguly to miss summit SYDNEY, Jan 31 (PTI) — India’s Saurav Ganguly is likely to miss a meeting of skippers of the 10 Test playing nations, called to discuss the future of the sport shrouded in match-fixing and betting scandals. The meeting is scheduled to be held on February 12 in Melbourne, The Sunday Morning Herald reported today. Ganguly, who would have represented a nation credited with opening the Pandora’s Box and exposing the murky side of the game, will be busy preparing for the tough home series against formidable Australians who arrive in India on February 14. England skipper Naseer Hussain may be the other absentee, given his team’s engagements in Sri lanka, International Cricket Council’s spokesman Mark Harrison said. Australian captain Steve Waugh, a veteran of 32 Tests, will be the senior most of the team leaders. The discussions will be chaired by ICC Chief Executive, David Richards of Australia. Ten top players from eight countries find mention in the CBI report as those who allegedly accepted money from bookmakers in the biggest scandal to hit the sport. MELBOURNE (Reuters): Australian captain Steve Waugh (35) will be the most senior figure in the group which includes Jimmy Adams (West Indies), Heath Streak (Zimbabwe), Stephen Fleming (New Zealand), Moin Khan (Pakistan), Shaun Pollock (South Africa), Sanath Jayasuriya (Sri Lanka), and Naimur Rahman (Bangladesh). The Australian team leaves the following day for a three-test tour to India. Playing conditions, five-run penalties for rule breaches and the widening gap between the game’s rich and poor countries are likely discussion topics. The director of the ICC’s anti-corruption unit, Sir Paul Condon, delivers the first review of his team’s investigations into match-fixing and corruption in cricket on February 10. Australia Test batsman Mark Waugh, twin brother of Steve, will be interviewed by the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) special investigator Greg Melick on February 6. A spokesman for the ACB was unavailable for comment today. |
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Indian cricket
goes tech-savvy BANGALORE, Jan 31 — India’s cricket control board has formally accepted the use of software analysis for improving the team’s prospects. The launch of e-CricketPro, a tool developed by Phoenix Global Solutions to help cricket players and coaches develop strategies and improve performance, was marked by the exchange of documents between the information technology (IT) services company and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) yesterday. Pakistan has already launched its e-CricketPro program and our program is also on, like both of us testing our nuclear abilities one after the other. eCricketPro would be used by our IT-savvy cricketers to enhance our competitive edge. Our vision statement is to be one among the top three in the world,” BCCI president A.C. Muthiah said at the launch. The cricket team could use this software for a-ball-by-ball video recording — supplied from the television cameras on the field without breaks for advertisements — and can analyze the bowler’s or the batsman’s plus or minus points sitting in the pavilion. For 620 balls the software would occupy 1.2 to 1.4 gigabytes of space on a customized system that could be carried into an aircraft as cabin baggage. Manual data entry for a fast bowler would take 12 to 14 seconds. For a spinner, four to six seconds. It will take into account whether it was an outswinger or inswinger and how the batsman responded to it,” Satish Bangalore, managing director of Phoenix Global Solutions, said. Similar analytical tools are already being used by South Africa and Australia. “Consistency of input is important. We could review the performance either at lunch or teatime. But, more importantly, at the end of the day’s play,” said John Wright, coach of the national team. Wright along with spin bowler Anil Kumble and other players contributed to the development of the software. The split screen technology provides an instant analysis of the best pictures as compared to the latest pictures of the batsman or bowler. The frame-by-frame technology would help the players to analyze the intricate movements. The fielding parameters would be brought into the version 2.0 of the eCricketPro. “The tool is just one piece in a jigsaw puzzle,” Bangalore added. The biggest certificate for eCricketPro came from Infosys Technologies chairman N.R. Narayana Murthy, who termed it as a “great tool to analyze strengths and weaknesses of the teams that we play with. And, it could be used by our budding cricketers, too.” The product would be marketed all over the globe and not confined to only the BCCI, Bangalore said. Simpler versions of it could be used by the state cricket associations, Muthiah said.
— IANS |
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Moin-PCB row
over logo money ISLAMABAD, Jan 31 (PTI) — Pakistan cricket captain Moin Khan was contemplating resignation as he ran into serious trouble with the cricket board (PCB) over his latest row with coach Javed Miandad in sharing the logo money, media reports said here today. The heightened media speculation over the future of Moin Khan’s captaincy follows his surprise omission from the list of probables selected by the board to play a practice match against a Karachi team yesterday.
Inzamam ul-Haq and former captain Wasim Akram have been appointed as captains to lead the probables for the remaining two
matches. Moin Khan has also been dropped from the remaining two games, leading the media here to suspect trouble for him. |
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Hingis triumphs; Kournikova survives TOKYO, Jan 31 (AFP) — Martina Hingis was back to her winning ways today when she beat Zimbabwe’s Cara Black in style to launch the defence of her title at the Pan Pacific Open tennis tournament. The world No 1 Swiss, who crashed to a surprising defeat in the Australian Open final last weekend, chalked up a comfortable 4-0 lead in the opener and 3-0 in the second set for a 6-3, 6-3 win in the second round. Russian pin-up girl Anna Kournikova, the third seed, faced quite a scare before quashing the challenge from 1998 Japanese national champion Saori Obata 7-6 (10/8), 1-6, 6-4. Kournikova double faulted at 30-40 to go down 3-4 in the final set, but gained a timely break in the following game, charging hard to the net to force Obata to make a backhand error on her advantage point. The match ended abruptly when Obata, for her part, double-faulted on Kournikova’s first match point at 30-40 in the 10th game. “When I was down 3-4, I knew she doesn’t have a great serve, so I knew I could always break her serve and I could hold mine. So I was pretty much still confident,” said Kournikova, ranked ninth against Obata’s 155th. “In the beginning, I played really well, I was up 4-1 and playing aggressive. I just lost my focus and the girl started to get used to the pace and the match. I just had to fight for each point. “I was always in control, but I had to take the risks, because the girl was just keeping the ball in play. I must hit a winner or miss ... That’s why I kind of went up and down,” added the Russian. Meanwhile, Hingis said after her 54-minute match: “I came off a good start. After playing here so many times, you know what the strategy is and I think I played very well. “I had a little let down in the first set and also at the end of the second, but I felt I was always dictating the games.” In Melbourne, Hingis bowed to Jennifer Capriati in the final, but the Swiss Miss appeared confident of retaining her title here. “My goal is ‘winning.’ I won this tournament twice (in a row) before, coming here from Australia and being No 1 seed, so that is the way i have to think ... ‘winning, defending my title’,” she said. In the quarterfinals on Friday, Hingis, the winner here in 1997, 1999 and 2000, will take on either Japan’s Federation Cup ace Ai Sugiyama or last year’s finalist Sandrine Testud of France, the fifth seed. Kournikova will play the winner between Anne-Gaelle Sidot of France and sixth seed Elena Likhovtseva of Russia. Sidot outclassed American Jennifer Hopkins 3-6, 6-2, 6-3; while Likhovtseva downed American Corina Morariu 6-3, 6-2 earlier in the day in the first round. MILAN: Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia had to dig deep on Tuesday to overcome American qualifier Jeff Tarango and book his place in the last 16 of the Milan Indoors Tournament here at the Palalido. Tarango won the first set and was competitive in the second before second-seeded Kafelnikov revived to seal a 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory. The Russian, seeded behind his top-ranked compatriot Marat Safin, therefore avoided the earlier fate of Slovakia’s Dominik Hrbaty who was eclipsed by unseeded Frenchman Fabrice Santoro. Third seed Hrbaty looked up to scratch in the first set before conceding a closely-contested second and then watching Santoro ease through to record a 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 victory. Also through on day two of the tournament proper were Swiss pair Roger Federer and Marc Rosset, a former Olympic gold medallist. Belgian Xavier Malisse heaped more misery on the home fans, seeing off Andrea Gaudenzi less than 24 hours after Briton Greg Rusedski had eclipsed top-ranked Italian Gianluca Pozzi. And former French Open Champion Sergi Bruguera of Spain rolled back the years to dispatch Israel’s Harel Levy, who caused a stir last year by reaching the Toronto Masters final where he lost to Safin. Safin opens up his campaign later in the day with a game against Germany’s David Prinosil. |
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Sunil overpowers
Saurabh CHANDIGARH, Jan 31 — Sunil Kumar, the Davis Cup player from Chandigarh, today had to fight tooth and nail to overcome the stiff challenge posed by his own city mate Saurabh Singh, the dark horse, in a quarter-final tie of the Drish ITF Junior tennis meet here at the CLTA courts, Sector 10. The other semi-finalists in the boys section included, third seed Amanjot Singh of Chandigarh (India), Ivan Kokurin (11th seed) of Uzbekistan and Rohan Gajjar (sixth seed) of India. In the girls section, top seed Sania Mirza of India along with Megha Vakaria also of India today sailed into last four while the two other entrants were Rebecca Dondeniya of Great Britain and sensation girl Olga Dzyuba of Kazakstan. All others had a smooth sailing, but it was Olga, unseeded in this meet, who kept her winning spree, upsetting seventh seed Stefanle Maya Rosa of Indonesia in three crucial sets. Yesterday, Olga had demolished fourth seed Sasha Abraham of India in the prequarter final stage. The Indian girls' doubles pair of Sania Mirza and Sasha Abraham of India justified their top billing when they overpowered Chen Yee of Malaysia and Ayako Tamura of Japan. They will now face Indonesian pair of Sandy Gumulya and Septi Nindya in the final. In boys doubles, local pair of Saurabh Singh and Amanjot Singh of India gave a harrowing time to Sunil Kumar and Vinod Sewa of India before losing in three nerve wrecking sets in a quarter final tie. Results: Singles (QF): Boys — Sunil Kumar Sipeya (Ind) b Saurabh Singh (Ind) 6-4, 6-3; Rohan Gajjar (Ind) b Nipun Gupta (Ind) 6-1, 6-1; Amanjot Singh (Ind) b Chatwinder Singh (Ind) 6-1,7-6(4); Ivan Kokurin (Uzb) b JacoT Mathew (Ind) 6-4, 6-4. Girls (QF) — Sania Mirza (Ind) b Sandy Gumulya (Ina) 6-1, 4-6, 6-1; Rebecca Dondeniya (Gbr) b Nischela Reddy (Ind) 1-0 (conceded); Olga Dzyuba (Kaz) b Maya Stefanie Rose (Ina) 4-6, 6-1, 6-4; Megha Vakharia (Ind) b Chen Yee Liaw (Mas) 6-2, 6-2. Doubles: Boys (QF) — Vikrant Sane and Rohan Gajjar (Ind) b Sujay Mahadevan and Inder K Mahajan (Ind) 6-4, 6-2; Dannio Yahya (Mas) and Ivan Kovalev (Kaz) b Nipun Gupta and Vikram Aditya Menon (Ind) 6-3, 3-6, 6-1; Sunil Kumar and Vinod Sewa (Ind) b Saurabh Singh and Amanjot Singh (Ind) 6-7 (7), 6-1, 6-0; Adam Jaya (Mas) and A.Mohammed (Oma) b Jaco T. Mathew (Ind) and Somdev Verman (Ind) 6-2, 5-7, 6-2. Girls (SF) — Sandy and Septi w/o Nischela Reddy and Vishika Chhetri (Ind); Sania Mirza and Sasha Abraham (Ind) b Chen Yee (Mas) and Ayako Tamura (Jpn) 6-4, 7-6 (6) . |
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Akopian wins; Dinesh ends 40th UBEDA (Spain), Jan 31 (UNI) — Former FIDE runner-up grandmaster Vladimir Akopian of Russia added another feather to his cap winning the Ubeda International Open Chess tournament which ended here yesterday. Half a point behind overnight leader Zhang Zhong of China and in a must-win situation for clinching the title, Akopian showed his class with black pieces. Facing his own favourite, the ‘Moscow variation’, against his Sicilian defence, it was a game of incredible patience from the super grandmaster. When he equalised the game in the opening stage, white resorted to the exchange of pieces to prevent black from complicating the struggle. Keeping his cool, Akopian slowly improved the position of his pieces in a bishop and knight endgame and eventually cornered white’s knight. Zhong had to resign when he could not prevent black’s ‘b’ pawn from queening. The second board saw the upset victory of IM Jobava Baadur of Georgia over grandmaster Pavel Eljanov of Ukraine in a marathon battle. Baadur took the second place. Dinesh Kumar Sharma was the only Indian to finish in the prize list. He took the 40th place after a short draw with international master Rodriguez Perez of Cuba. IM R.B. Ramesh too drew his final round game though after a long struggle. Playing the king’s Indian defence with the black pieces, Ramesh faced the ‘g3’ system. Inspite of equalising the game in the opening, he could not make further headway in view of the extremely closed nature of the position. After intense manouevering from both sides in search of a breakthrough, the players decided on truce on the 54th move. IM Sandipan Chanda lost his second consecutive game today with the black pieces against IM Gallego Jimenez of Spain. After steady exchange of pieces the game landed in a knight versus bishop ending with white enjoying a king side pawn majority. With steady play white converted this advantage into a win in a methodical manner. IWM Aarthie Ramaswamy drew with IM Reinaldo Casteneira of Spain from the white side of the Tarrasch variation of the French defence in a short encounter lasting 15 moves. IM-elect Rahul Shetty and Sriram Jha scored smooth victories over Millan Urrutia of Spain and Van Hoolandt of Holland, respectively. While Shetty won rook and the game in 46 moves from the white side of the Budapest gambit opening, Jha outplayed his opponent in an endgame to win an exchange. Soon, with precise play, he converted his material superiority into a victory. C.S. Gokhale agreed to a short draw in 10 moves with Fernandez Browne of Spain. Visweswaran failed to convert yet another advantageous position into a win and had to be content with a draw against Spanish international master Gonzalez Bernal. Facing the sharp Sicilian dragon variation, white secured the space advantage in the early middle game. However, instead of utilising the plus to launch a kingside attack, white allowed the game to fizzle out into a drawish rook and minor piece endgame. The game ended in 54 moves when neither player had any material other than their lone kings on the board. Final standings: 1 GM Akopian Vladimir (Armenia) 8.0; 2 IM Jobava Baadur (Georgia) 7.5; 3 GM Zhang Zong (China) 7.5; 4 GM Sakaev Konstantin (Russia) 7.5; 5 GM Anastasian Ashot (Armenia) 7.5; 6 IM Eljanov Pavel (Ukraine) 7.0; 7 GM Fominyh (Russia) 7.0; 8 GM Motylev (Russia) 7.0; 9 IM Sargissian (Armenia) 7.0; 10 GM Kobalija (Russia) 7.0; 40 D.K. Sharma (India) 6.0. Iimportant results: GM Zhang Zhong (7.5) lost to GM V. Akopian (8); P. Eljanov (7) lost to IM B. Jobava (7.5); D.K. Sharma (6) drew IM R. Perez (6); IM Kim Pilgaard (5) drew IM R.B. Ramesh (5); Gallego Jimenez (5.5) IM Sandipan Chanda (4.5); IWN R. Aarthie (4.5) drew IM C. Reinaldo (4.5); K. Visweswaran (4.5) drew IM B. Gonzalez (4.5); Sriram Jha (4.5) Van Hoolandt (3.5); C.S. Gokhale (4) drew Fernandez Browne (4); Rahul Shetty (4) Millan Urrutia (3). |
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National billiards
from February 1 CHENNAI, Jan 31 (UNI) — The 67th Senior and 25th Junior National Billiards and Snooker Championships will be held here from February 1, after a gap of seven years. All top cueists in the country are expected to be seen in action at the Rs 9 lakh event. Women would also get a chance to exhibit their skills in both billiards and snooker events. Tamil Nadu Billiards and Snooker Association (TNBSA) member-incharge C.A. Theagarajan told reporters here last night that qualifying rounds would be held for junior billiards event for the first time in 25 years. Junior billiards main rounds would be held from February 7 to 16. Senior women’s billiards would be from February 7 to 10, junior snooker from February 11 to 16 and senior women’s snooker from February 11 to 14. Matches for senior men’s billiards would be held from February 17 to 23 and snooker from February 24 to March 3, Mr Theagarajan said. |
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Stage set for
adventure festival CHANDIGARH, Jan 31 — All is set for the seventh National Adventure Festival which will be inaugurated at Tagore Theatre, Sector 18, here on February 4 at 4 pm. To be organised by National Adventure Club, this eight-day event will include among other events, the second Chandigarh Marathon for which runners from abroad are likely to take part. Briefing newspersons, Mr SS Dhillon, organising director of the meet, said 400 entries from 19 states had already been received and some more states were also expected to participate. He said due to the Gujarat earthquake, the festival will have less of the pomp and show. He said the marathon will be sponsored by Indian Oil Corporation Limited who will pump in Rs 12 lakh. Besides, various other adventure sports activities like river rafting, snow skiing, kayaking, trekking, water sports and aero sports would also be organised. Mr Dhillon said the festival would be sponsored by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India. The total budget for the festival will be Rs 25 lakh. Giving details of the different events, Mr Dhillon said the participants of the festival would be divided into six groups. After the inauguration they would be sent to different destinations in the Himalayas such as Narkanda for snow skiing and trekking, Rishikesh for river rafting, Pong Dam for water sports, Pinjore for aero sports at Civil Aviation Club. For trekking, rock climbing and scuba diving Nahan has been selected while skiing will be organised at Manali. Mr Dhillon said roller skating which was organised last year from Narkanda (HP) to Chandigarh was not included owing to difficulties faced last year. Mr Dhillon said the Chandigarh Marathon would be held on February 11 as per the rules and regulations of the Amateur Athletic Federation of India. This marathon will comprise four categories — full marathon for men (42.5 km) starting at cricket stadium, Sector 16, covering SAS Nagar and Panchkula and terminating at the Sector 16 stadium. This will have a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh for winners. The race will be flagged off by Mr Abhey Singh Chautala, president, Haryana Olympic Association. The half marathon only for women will have a total distance of 21.97 km covering Chandigarh and SAS Nagar and the winners will get Rs 50,000 as cash prize. Mr Dhillon said unlike last year when the mini-marathon witnessed chaos, this year the time gap between full and mini-marathon was being increased and the race will end at Sukhna Lake. Here also six cash prizes of Rs 1000 each will be given to the top six in each section. Then there will be a marathon for fun where mass participation will be allowed. He said technical officials of the UT Sports Department would assist in making the marathon successful. |
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Orissa meet ‘not
recognised’ JALANDHAR, Jan 31 — The women’s football committee of the All-India Football Federation will take appropriate action against those organising unauthorised women’s football championships, according to Mr Surinder Bhambri, honorary secretary of the women’s wing of the All-India Football Federation. According to Mr Bhambri, these persons were organising unauthorised tournaments without recognition from the Ministry of Sports, Department of Youth Affairs and Sports, Indian Olympic Association and the All-India Football Federation, the governing body of football in the country. The federation has taken a serious view of the announcement of one such tournament to be held in Orissa and has taken up the matter with the Orissa
government. Mr Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, president of the AIFF, has written to the Chairman, Railway Board, regarding railway concessions being given to these persons. Only recognised national sports federations are eligible to issue railway concession certificates, he added. |
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Kedar Shah upsets
Rishi Sridhar KOLKATA, Jan 31 (PTI) — Men’s fourth seed Rishi Sridhar of Tamil Nadu and his women’s counterpart Karnataka’s Archana Venkatraman fell by the wayside in second round singles matches at the Senior National Grasscourt Tennis Championship here today. Unfancied Maharashtra boy Kedar Shah served and volleyed well to stun Rishi Sridhar 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, in a hard-fought three-setter even as top seed Vinod Sridhar carved out an easy 6-1, 6-3 win over Delhi’s Gurmeher Singh to romp into the men’s singles quarterfinals at the Calcutta South Club lawns. The men’s top seed, who survived a scare against qualifier R. Narendran yesterday, put up an improved display to put it across his opponent in only 55 minutes. In women’s singles, Maharashtra’s Liza Pereira pulled off a stunning 6-1, 6-2 upset over Venkatraman in an one-sided affair to move into the last eight. The famed Karnataka player seemed far from her best as she meekly succumbed to her much lower-ranked opponent. However, top seed Manisha Malhotra of Maharashtra made short work of Nandini Perumal of Andhra Pradesh 6-4, 6-3 while defending champion and sixth seed Radhika Tulpule overwhelmed N. Karsolia of Uttar Pradesh 6-3, 6-2 to advance to the quarterfinals. |
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Junior National
Athletics results PATIALA, Jan 31 — The Amateur Athletic Federation of India (AAFI) has been caught in a piquant situation over results of the National Junior Athletic Championships which concluded at Bangalore on
January 20. According to Patiala-based AAFI sources, lack of coordination among recorders and officials of the Karnataka Amateur Athletic Association, who were the hosts of the meet, led to the inclusion of many results in the tabulated tally which were in fact earlier withheld by the organisers due to a variety of reasons. Initially the Tamil Nadu contingent was declared winners of the overall championship but after the organisers pointed out the mistakes committed by the recorders the overall championship was awarded to Kerala. However, the AAFI has yet to ratify this decision of the host unit. Sources reveal that the AAFI has been caught in a catch-22 situation, as it is unable to decide whether to scratch the results or uphold them and this despite more than 10 days having elapsed since the meet ended. The AAFI is not in a position to revise the results because those athletes who have won medals and created records may take recourse to legal proceedings. On the other hand if the AAFI decides to scratch the entire championship not only will the efforts put in by the organisers be rendered totally meaningless but all the hard preparations put in by the athletes who took part in the meet will also go down the drain. Meanwhile, the Punjab Amateur Athletic Association (PAAA) has confirmed that five of the state’s athletes have been slapped with a one year ban for being found overage during the meet. The five athletes — Harpreet Singh, Amardeep Singh, Gursewak Singh, Harpal Singh and Pushpinder Singh — were competing illegally in age categories not meant for them which led to the AAFI ban. In another related development, the organisers who had lodged a complaint with the Bangalore police against another Punjab athlete, Amardeep Singh, have now withdrawn the complaint. Sources reveal that Amardeep Singh had reportedly instigated athletes to
indulge in rowdyness during the closing ceremony. In the ensuing fracas Amardeep Singh himself was beaten up badly and acting on the complaint of the organisers the police kept Amardeep Singh and two Kerala coaches in custody for a night before he was bailed out the next morning. |
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Punjab cops go down
to Khalsa College GARHSHANKAR, Jan 31 — On the third day of the 39th Principal Harbhajan Singh Memorial Football Tournament, which is being played at SGGS Khalsa College, Mahilpur, fancied Punjab Police bowed out of the tournament, losing to Khalsa College, Jalandhar 0-5. It was a one-sided match and a humiliating defeat for Punjab Police. Centre forward Kamaljit of Khalsa College, Jalandhar, scored five goals in a row, including a hat-trick. Kamaljit could not be checked by the opponents. The half line of Khalsa College, Jalandhar, functioned effectively. In the second match S.E. XI Hoshiarpur defeated GN College, Narur Panchhatta, 3-1. For SE XI Sarabjit scored two goals while Paramjit scored one. For GN College, Panchhatta, Pardeep was the scorer in the first half. In the third match BSF defeated GN College, Phagwara, 3-0. The first goal was scored by Dharminder Dhamma for BSF in the first half. In the second half Raghvir scored the second goal through a penalty kick. The last goal was scored by Sukhvir. |
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Bunglings alleged in
PSEB sports cell BATHINDA, Jan 31 — The Sports Federation of the Punjab State Electricity Board has alleged that the decline in PSEB’s sports achievements is due to policies adopted by the management. In a letter to the PSEB Chairman, Mr Gurdeep Singh, the president of the federation, alleged that there were a number of bunglings being committed in the sports cell of the PSEB. He pointed out that certain persons who had shown that they had participated in the national-level games as employees of PSEB actually never took to sports. These persons were shown to be members of various teams of PSEB merely to secure promotions for them. He alleged that a section of employees of PSEB which even did not know the basics of sports had been influencing the affairs of the sports cell and in this way, the sports persons who had achieved something at the national and international level had been ignored. He said the federation had demanded that the Chairman of PSEB should take personal interest to improve the image of PSEB in sports and a Sports Director should be appointed from amongst sportspersons who had won laurels at the national and international level. |
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