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Wednesday,
June 6, 2001, Chandigarh, India   |
Kuerten,
Hingis ease into semis
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Gopi starts campaign with easy
win Kumble writes |
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ICC rules out ball tampering
allegations
Nehra likely to replace
Agarkar Sadgopan
Ramesh needs to deliver Vijay
Kumar leads by 12 points 17
sports nurseries ‘adopted’ Punjab,
Chandigarh in last 8
Indian
grapplers excel Malik
nominated AAWC vice-chief Bindra’s
award ceremony put off
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Kuerten, Hingis ease into semis Paris, June 5 Kuerten stayed on track for a third French Open crown by beating Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov 6-1, 3-6, 7-6, 6-4, while Hingis still has her sights set on the only Grand Slam title to elude her after defeating unseeded Francesca Schiavone 6-1, 6-4. Earlier, 14th-seeded Belgian Justine Henin breezed into the last four, demolishing Russia’s Lina Krasnoroutskaya 6-1, 6-2 to reach the semifinals of a Grand Slam for the first time. Fourth seed Juan Carlos Ferrero powered into the semifinals for the second straight year, overwhelming Australian Lleyton Hewitt 6-4, 6-2 6-1. The Spaniard outclassed his sixth-seeded opponent to set up a repeat of last year’s semifinal against top seed and defending champion Gustavo Kuerten. Playing with poise and power from the back of the Centre Court, Ferrero outmanoeuvred and overpowered the gritty Australian. He raced through the opening two sets, hitting the corners of the court at will with his heavy groundstrokes. Hewitt had come back from two-sets down to beat Argentine Guillermo Canas in the fourth round, but Ferrero refused to relax and closed out the match comfortably. American Jennifer Capriati had no intention of letting compatriot Serena Williams spoil her fairytale comeback when the fourth seed returned to the final four of the French Open, 11 years after becoming the tournament’s youngest ever semifinalist at 14. The 25-year-old Capriati dropped her first set of the tournament but came away 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 in one hour 59 minutes to set up a meeting with top seed Martina Hingis of Switzerland for a place in the final. Having won her first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in January at Hingis’ expense, Capriati is seeking confirmation of that win here, Paris being where it all began, but it took her four match points to seal the win. Kuerten’s victory was the third time he has beaten Kafelnikov in a Roland Garros quarterfinal, and on both previous occasions — in 1997 and 2000 — the Brazilian went on to win the title. “I was almost out of the tournament in the last round when I faced match point (against American qualifier Michael Russell) so I am grateful to be here,” Kuerten said. The Russian, French Open champion in 1996, squandered five break points at 4-4 in the third set, though, and Kuerten went on to take it in a tie-break. Kafelnikov lost heart and the Brazilian reeled off the fourth set with ease, clinching victory in two hours, 32 minutes. Hingis, the Swiss world No 1, overwhelmed her 20-year-old Italian opponent with a series of wrong-footing groundstrokes and deft touches around the court. The victory, achieved in 68 minutes, put Hingis through to her fifth consecutive semifinal at Roland Garros. Hingis, hasn’t won a Grand Slam tournament since the 1999 Australian Open. “Maybe I was a little bit too confident in the second set,” Hingis said. “But it is a good thing to be confident.” Henin, who celebrated her 19th birthday last week, needed just 50 minutes on a sunny Court Suzanne Lenglen to complete her victory. The 14th seed played with grace and guile to overwhelm the 17-year-old Krasnoroutskaya, a former junior world No 1. “I did what I wanted to do, it is a fifth consecutive straight-sets win which is important,” said Henin, who began the year with back-to-back tournament wins on Australia’s Gold Coast and in Canberra. The two remaining men’s quarterfinals will be played on Wednesday, when third seed Andre Agassi plays home favourite and 10th seed Sebastien Grosjean and unseeded Swiss Roger Federer takes on Spanish 13th seed Alex Corretja. Kuerten raced through the first set in only 18 minutes, brushing away the cobwebs from his sluggish performance against Russell. Kafelnikov hit back stylishly to take the second set with a pair of aces, but lost momentum in the third until Kuerten served at 4-4. The Russian was quickly 40-0 up but squandered all three break points and then a further two as the match turned. The set went to a tie-break and Kuerten sealed it 7-3 when Kafelnikov made another backhand error. “That game was the turning point,” the 24-year-old Brazilian said. “After that in the tie-break I played perfect and won it.” Kafelnikov, who beat Kuerten on his way to winning the Olympic gold medal last year, never recovered and lost consecutive service games to slump to 3-0 in the fourth set.
Reuters |
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Paes-Bhupathi duo in semifinals Paris, June 5 Paes and Bhupathi, winners here in 1998 won 7-5, 6-4 in the quarterfinals. The former world No 1 Indian pair is scheduled to meet the winners of the quarterfinal match between top seed pair of Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden and Tood Woodbridge of Australia and the Australia-US combination of Michael Hill and Jeff
Tarango. In the other semifinal, Petr Pala and Pavel Vizner of the Czech Republic will clash with the French pair of Arnaud Clement and Nicolas
Escude. Pala and Vizner defeated the duo of Niklas Kulti of Sweden and Micklael Llodra of France 6-3, 7-6 (8/6) while Clement and Escude beat the pair of Lucas Arnold of Argentina and Cyril Suk of the Czech republic 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 in other quarterfinal matches.
PTI |
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Gopi starts campaign with easy win Seville (Spain), June 5 The sixth-seeded Indian looked calm and composed against the left-handed German as he raced to a 15-3, 15-8 victory in just 25 minutes. Dominating the net like he invariably does, the 27-year-old All-England champion hardly allowed his 53rd-ranked opponent any opportunity to attack. Forced to go on the defensive, Roch struggled to cope with the speed and finesse of Gopichand. While he did take his time in getting used to his Roch’s style, once settled, there was no stopping Gopichand who literally toyed with his opponent in the first game, which was a totally one-sided affair. As Roch struggled to read his deception, Gopichand continued to tighten the noose around him in the second game and quickly established a 11-3 lead. Though Roch narrowed it down to 8-12, Gopichand, tipped as the favourite to win the title, took three consecutive points to finish the match in style. Abhinn Shyam Gupta put up a gallant fight against world No 1 Roslin Hashim of Malaysia but was unable to put it across him losing in straight games in the first round. Abhinn started in great style taking a 9-2 lead in the first game but the top seed Malaysian fought back to win 17-15 15-5 and move into the second round. The near capacity crowd, who had come to watch the world’s best player, was full of admiration for the 73rd-ranked Indian who matched Hashim stroke for stroke and nearly took the first game when he led 15-14. The Malaysian, who had skipped Sudirman Cup to concentrate on the individual event, was a bit rusty and committed a number of errors as he tried to deviate from his normal defensive style and went on the attack against Abhinn. Only when Hashim, winner of the last two tournaments on the IBF tour - Swiss and Japan Opens - reverted back to his natural game did he make some impact on the gritty Indian. In contrast, the women’s top seed Camilla Martin of Denmark had an easy entry into the second round. She defeated Jun Jae-Youn of South Korea 11-4 11-6. Earlier Siddhartha Jain and Chetan Anand had crashed out in the qualifying round. Siddhartha Jain was easily beaten by Japanese Shimogami 5-15, 4-15 but Chetan Anand put up a brilliant fight before going down to Polsanna Boonsak of Thailand 13-15, 15-13, 5-15. Manjusha Kanwar, however, was the toast of the evening when she played a tremendous game to beat Li Li of Singapore 9-11, 11-6, 11-6 on Monday. Manjusha is now in the main draw.
Meanwhile, PVV Lakshmi and V. Diju lost a hard-fought battle against the 11th-seeded England pair Graham Hurrel and Sarah Hrdekar in their mixed doubles first round. Lakshmi and Diju lost 8-15, 17-14, 11-15 after keeping the opponents on bay for almost 56 minutes.
PTI, UNI |
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Meine gulli danda khela
hai:
Laloo Patna, June
5 Even when the state government and the entire administration were fully engrossed in the unprecedented power crisis that kept the state, including capital
Patna, in dark, for 48 hours, Laloo Yadav was in the capital’s Moinul Haque stadium with Bihar Cricket Association
(BCA) officials on Sunday discussing means and ways of improving cricket facilities in Bihar and the stadium in particular. He had come here to attend BCA’s executive body meeting, being its president. And Laloo Yadav gave his expert opinions as he acted as the world’s best curator. “Go to the Ganga and bring in sand from its banks and litter it in the field mixing it with cow dung. That will ensure healthy growth of grass,”, Laloo instructed the BCA officials. Critics may say that he does not know the finer elements of cricket but his knowledge of ‘farming and fodder’ cannot be
challenged! Laloo Yadav promptly ordered the start of work on the floodlights system in the stadium so that he could fulfil his promise of conducting an India-Pakistan one-day match here at
Patna. He knows the BCA has a Rs 3 crore fund. The BCA officials, however, informed him that the Income Tax Department had served a notice on the BCA to furnish details of its income. That angers Laloo
Yadav. “Income Tax people feel that Laloo will swallow the money and run away?”, he asked in anger. Laloo’s distaste for the Income Tax people is known, as they have been the source of many of his woes. These problems, however, do not deter Laloo from enjoying. He says with pride, “Meine gulli danda khela hai (I have played gulli
danda). “He maintains he could have been a world-class cricketer had he been playing cricket. CM wife Rabri Devi holds the belief that Laloo Yadav’s involvement with cricket would help its popularity at the grass-root levels. Everything is fine in the name of grass-root benefit? Democracy it is,isn’t it? |
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Kumble
writes A foreign tour brings with it plenty of hope and expectations and this Zimbabwe sojourn is no different. After having won against the mighty Aussies in the recently concluded Test series our team is full of confidence; this is our best chance of winning a Test series abroad. I attended the camp conducted by John Wright in Bangalore, ahead of the team’s departure. It was a 6-day camp and the players were completely involved in it from morning to evening. And it was not just hard work, there was plenty of fun involved too. For instance the players were divided into four different teams and each one had to make a short movie. In fact, I happened to be the director of one of the movies! Like the camp at Channai before the Aussie series, this camp has also ensured that the team is completely prepared for the season ahead. As far as Zimbabwe are concerned, they have always proved a tough side to beat at home. The last time we toured Zimbabwe for a one-off Test match, we lost narrowly. This time round, Zimbabwe will decidedly miss the services of Neil Johnson and Murray Goodwin, also Henry Olonga, the chief wicket taker the last time round has not found a place this time. Their batting will revolve round the Flower brothers, especially Andy, and their bowling will depend on captain Heath Streak. We have started the tour on a good note with all our batsmen getting big runs before the Test match: Rahul, Laxman, Dass and Hemang scoring hundreds. Samir Dighe also made a significant contribution in the first side game. Our batting line up consisting of Ramesh, Dass, Laxman, Rahul, Sachin and Sourav, is a formidable one. I am confident they will put up a big score on the board. Our bowlers seem to have settled into a good rhythm quite early on tour. I am extremely happy for Harbhajan Singh, who I think is going to play a key role again. The venue for the first Test — Bulawayo — is a small quiet town. On our previous tour we played a one-dayer here, and from what I can recall, the wicket had bounce in it. Our fast bowlers should enjoy bowling on this pitch, as would Harbhajan. I will miss being part of the tour. However, my shoulder is getting better and is feeling stronger. I am hopeful about coming back soon and I am training regularly. There is no pain and I am looking at making it for the South Africa tour. I certainly don’t want to rush anything, and while being fit ahead of the Sri Lanka series is a possibility I want to be absolutely sure that my shoulder has healed before I start playing. It has been one of my dreams to win a Test series abroad, albeit I am missing at the action I only hope that we will do it this time. Come on Sourav we can do it... Good luck India.
Gameplan |
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ICC rules out ball tampering
allegations
Manchester, June 5 Sledging, alleged ball-tampering and umpiring errors overshadowed a come-from-behind victory by Pakistan yesterday to level the two-match series 1-1. England, chasing 370 to win and comfortably placed on 196 for two after tea on the fifth and final day and poised to force a draw, collapsed to 261 all out as hopes of a fifth consecutive series win vanished. Match referee Brian Hastings from New Zealand dismissed charges of ball tampering after television footage showed Pakistan skipper Waqar Younis running his nail over the quarter seam the stitches that hold the leather together. “The match referee has on complaints or concern,” ECB’s Andrew Walpore said. “I don’t think there was any tampering with the ball,” Waqar said when asked. Waqar, one of the greatest fast bowlers of the modern era, was suspended and fined by ICC’s John Reid for changing the condition of the ball during a one-day international against South Africa in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in July last year. Similar controversies has marred Pakistan’s previous tours here in 1992 and 1996 and threatened the cricketing relationship between the two countries. In 1992 during Pakistan’s one-day international against England at the Lord’s, the ball was changed when batsman Allan Lamb drew the umpires’ attention to it. Match referee Deryck Morray, from the West Indies, changed the ball during the lunch break, but refused to clarify whether it was done under law 42.3 (changing its condition) or law 5.5 (becoming unfit for play). But Lamb aired some theories of his own-bail tampering and paid the price with a heavy fine and a two-match ban. The Pakistan win was further clouded by television footage that showed four wickets during England’s dramatic last day collapse fell to no balls. According to the ICC’s playing conditions, the match officials Englishman David Shepherd and West Indies’ Eddie Nicols — must “periodically and irregularly” inspect the ball to see whether the condition of the ball had been “unfairly” changed by the fielding side. In such even the ball will be changed and reported to the match referee. The ball was not changed yesterday during the England second innings when it lost its last eight wickets for 60. The collapse was triggered with the arrival of the second new ball when Wasim Akram and Waqar struck in tandem before Saqlain Mushtaq ran amok during teasing spell of offspin bowling. Nick Knight, Ian Ward, Andy Caddick and Dominic Cork were dismissed by no balls. Shepherd missed three when Saqlain Mushtaq was bowling while Nichols missed a Wasim Akram no ball-over stepped by at least six inches - when the leftarmer trapped Knight leg before wicket for a first ball naught. “I’m not going to start moaning, saying umpires’ decisions cost us the game,” stand-in skipper Alec Stewart said. “They are there to do a job to the best of their ability. Like batsmen, bowlers, fielders, everyone makes mistakes. “He can’t call for a third umpire, so as players we take it on the chin and carry on. They are human beings, the fact is Pakistan beat us.” “Twenty years ago when the BBC had only two cameras, things like that weren’t picked up. Now there’s 10, 12, 15 cameras anything and everything can be seen.” In May the ICC decided to keep the existing rules on TV technology — replays to decide on catches, stumpings, hit wicket, run outs and boundaries — but decided against extending it. The game’s governing body will review the technology available on a regular basis rather than consider it every three years, which it goes with other regulations. During the Test, player of both teams escaped punishment after war of words.
AP |
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Nehra likely to replace Agarkar Bulawayo, June 5 Nehra, who last played for India in an Asian Test Championship match in Colombo in 1999, will get this break on the basis of his impressive performance in the tour-opening match against Zimbabwe ‘A’ in
Mutare, team sources said. Nehra had figures of three for 43 in that
match. Nehra bowled a good line and produced enough bounce and movement on a placid pitch at Mutare and has a tendency to skid the ball on the pitch, the sources said. He will also be a help for the team with his big foot on the wicket in his follow-through for spinner Harbhajan Singh to exploit the last rough bowling from the other end. On the other hand, Agarkar could not beat even the schoolboy side of CFX Academy in the second tour match and does not have a very good record in Tests. In nine matches, the Mumbai seamer has taken only 23 wickets at an average of 36.43. His best figures are three for 43 against Australia in Adelaide in 1999-2000. His much-talked about batting abilities have also come under doubt after he recorded seven ducks against the Aussies in the last two series against them.
PTI |
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Sadgopan Ramesh needs to deliver Bulawayo (Zimbabwe), June 5 After a poor performance in the tour-opener against Zimbabwe ‘A’, Ramesh did score 42 and 52 in the three-dayer against CFX Academy but his effort in the first innings in Harare was at best scratchy. The latest threat to his opener’s slot has come from his statemate Hemang Badani who made the best use of the opportunity provided to him in the match against CFX Academy. Badani, also a left-hander, scored an unbeaten 112 in the first innings and retired after making an attractive 35 in the second when he was tried as an opener. Badani is yet to play in a Test and should Ramesh not deliver the goods in the first Test, the team management might be inclined to let him make his debut in the second Test as an opener. Ramesh’s opening partner Shiv Sunder Das too failed in the tour-opener at Mutare with scores of 4 and 12 but learnt his lessons quickly, making a stylish unbeaten century against the academy boys. By deciding not to field Das in the second innings, the team management has almost cleared his name for the first Test. Such is not the case with Ramesh though he is most likely to play the first Test during which his performance will be critically examined. Coach John Wright has a very clear mind regarding what he expects from his openers. “We need a bit of consistency in that position. I would be very happy if we could go to lunch with one or two down in the first session,” he said. “Just get through this session and see the new ball off and we have got the middle order to take advantage of that situation.” Ramesh has generally struggled outside his off-stump and has this in-built habit of pushing at deliveries. On wickets with bounce and a bit of seam movement, it is suicidal. He also appears uncomfortable against short, rising balls. But Wright said he was not worried about his style as long as he delivered. “Everyone has his own style. At the end, it is runs on the board which count. If he has it on the board, he has done his job for the team. I am not the one to object. People can play their own game and as long as they are consistent in their own way, and have done their job, that’s okay,” he said. Ramesh has so far aggregated 1125 runs from 15 Tests and 29 innings at an average of 40.18. He has two centuries and seven fifties to his credit but in the three Tests this year he has tallied just 61 runs. His partner Das, who made his debut against Bangladesh last year, has 396 runs from six Tests averaging 39.60 with a hundred and two fifties.
PTI |
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Vijay Kumar leads by 12
points New Delhi, June 5 The strokeplay Leela BGC Open event, to be played in Bangalore from June 7 to 10, has the makings of a match-play theatre between two of India’s crack golfers, both of whom have risen from the ranks. Both of them have won Rs 12 lakh each in the current season in prize money, and who ever wins the Mahindra award will pocket a cool Rs 8.5 lakh as a just reward, for a season well-played. The ‘rankings’, instituted by the Mahindras to reward quality golf, coupled with staying power, will next year offer the ‘champion golfer’ a handsome Rs 10 lakh. In an intricate working of tournament rank, bonus points, stroke average and the money list, the ‘champion golfer’ need not necessarily be the highest money winner. Twentyone-year-old Rahul Ganapathy (Mysore) with a collection of 60 points and Rs 4.3 lakh in prize money has virtually no challenger for the ‘Rookie Golfer of the Year Award’ as the second-placed Vinod Kumar is way below at 25 points, with just Rs 2.1 lakh in prize money gathering to his credit. Indrajit Bhalotia leads in putting averages with 1.75 followed by Mukesh Kumar and Vijay Kumar. The rookie and putter will receive a cash award of Rs 1.25 lakh each, which will be enhanced to Rs 1.5 lakh from next year. |
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17 sports nurseries ‘adopted’ Chandigarh, June 5 The corporation had released Rs 2 lakh for these nurseries and was planning to spend Rs 7 lakh more during the current financial year. Haryana Warehousing Corporation had adopted three nurseries — for table tennis at Sirsa, while two wrestling nurseries had been set up for at Sports Stadium, Bahadurgarh, (12 boys) and at Mahabir Stadium, Hisar, (13 girls). The corporation had released a sum of Rs 4.50 lakh for these nurseries. HUDA had sponsored two kabaddi nurseries, one at Kaithal for 13 boys and another at Ugrakheri in Panipat district for 12 girls. A sum of Rs 9 lakh had been released by HUDA. The Haryana State Cooperative Apex Bank had adopted hockey and archery sports nurseries. The hockey nurseries, exclusively for girls, had been started at the SGNP School, Shahabad, for 13 girls and at Jharsa village (Gurgaon) for 12 girls. Archery nurseries had been started at Maharana Pratap Stadium, Sirsa, for 12 boys and at Nehru Stadium, Gurgaon, for 13 girls. The bank had released Rs 9 lakh for the nurseries. A volleyball nursery for 25 boys had been adopted by Haryana State Industrial Development Corporation which would be set up at Notana village (Narnaul) for 12 boys and another at Makdana village (Bhiwani) for 13 boys. The corporation had released Rs 9 lakh for this nursery. HAFED had sponsored basketball nurseries to be set up at Rao Tula Ram Stadium, Rewari, for 13 girls and at Government Senior Secondary School, Kiloi (Rohtak) for 12 boys. Haryana State Agricultural Marketing Board had adopted athletic and gymnastic nurseries. Athletic nursery would be set up at Tika Ram Girls High School, Sonepat, for 13 girls and Mandeep Stadium, Narwana (Jind) for 12 boys. Two gymnastic nurseries had been established at Panchkula and Rohtak for 13 and 12 girls, respectively. |
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Punjab, Chandigarh in last
8 Kapurthala, June 5 In the girls section, defending champions Madhya Pradesh and Chandigarh in group A; Punjab and Tamil Nadu in group B and Andhra Pradesh in group E have qualified for the quaterfinals. The teams to qualify for the knock-out from group B and C will be decided after the matches between Maharashtra and Chandigarh in group B and between Kerala and Haryana in group C. All these teams have won one match each. In the morning session today, the Punjab and Tamil Nadu one match in the girls’ section was keenly contested. At the end of the first quarter, Tamil Nadu led 10-7. Punjab players managed to reduce the margin at the end of the third quarter to 21-27 but the Tamil Nadu girls played aggressively and won the match 37-25. In another match in girls’ section, Rajasthan were unlucky to lose the match to Andhra Pradesh 34-27. |
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Indian grapplers excel Chandigarh, June 5 This was disclosed by Mr M.S. Malik, President, Wrestling Federation of India, from Ulanbaatar today. He said that Kiran Sihag of India defeated her rival Norie Saito by fall in the 68 kg weight category. Sunita in the 56 kg category defeated her rival D. Batsesteg of Mongolia by 4-0. In the male section, Gurbinder Singh in 63 kg displayed technical skills defeating his rivals Yen Shih-Cheih (TPE) and Nishida of Japan. Gurbinder Singh has entered the semifinals. Mukesh Katri in the 54 kg section defeated his rival Chen Yun Gang of China by a margin of 2 points, he added. |
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Malik nominated AAWC vice-chief Chandigarh, June 5 Mr Malik, at present, is in Mongolia in connection with the 15th Asian Greco Roman, free style men and women championship being played from June 5 to June 10. According to Mr Malik, President, Asian Wrestling Federation, has sought cooperation of the President of WFI for promoting wrestling in India. They have also decided to chalk out a mutual training programme for coaches, referees and wrestlers, so as to ensure development of wrestling at global level. Similarly on persuasion of Mr M.S. Malik, Mr Martinetti, vice-President, FILA, and Mr Kim Chang Keo, President, AAWC, have promised to make sincere efforts for inclusion of wrestling for women in the forthcoming Asian Games to be held in 2002 at Pusan. |
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Bindra’s award ceremony put off Chandigarh, June 5 |
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