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Wednesday,
February 13, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Baroda
meet Punjab today Let Ganguly continue Railways keen to
overcome Bengal
Asian
cricket feels the pinch DULEEP TROPHY Hockey
title for Jamia Millia |
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Shame if
we don’t reach semis: Ajit Pal Chang
bows out High
hopes on shuttlers Gold
for Abhinav
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Baroda meet Punjab today
Baroda, February 12 Punjab, who had lost to Railways in the semi-final last year, are banking on their star performers Dinesh Mongia, Yuvraj Singh and off spinner Harbhajan Singh, all of whom had done their duties for the side in the quarter-final against Orissa last week, Punjab Manager S. Kapoor told PTI after the nets here today. “Last year, we missed the services of Mongia, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan as they were doing duty for their country in Zimbabwe and we lost to Railways in the semi-final. This time around we have all three players and I am sure Punjab will put up a good show,” Kapoor added. “Punjab has shown its true potential in the league and quarter-final stages with authoritative wins,” Kapoor said. “We play as a cohesive unit and contribute in own way to make a good impact. All I can say is we have a well balanced side and a side eager to perform,” he added. The Punjab team is without the services of their star all-rounder Reetinder Singh Sodhi, who is nursing injury while Harbhajan is expected to reach Baroda later today as he was given two days rest to spend time with his family after a gruelling home series against England recently, Kapoor said. Former India stumper and member of the ad hoc committee of the Baroda Cricket Association (BCA), Kiran More said Baroda had made one change in the team with Irfan Pathan (Senior) being replaced by Irfan Pathan (Junior). Punjab have a good batting line up with Dinesh Mongia, Yuvraj Singh, Munish Sharma and Pankaj Dharmani doing well this season. Vineet Sharma, Sandeep Sawal are good support bowlers for Harbhajan. Baroda have an advantage of playing at home and will be a formidable side. Their players combine well as a unit and they showed their class last year when they defeated some big teams on way to the title.
PTI |
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Let Ganguly continue Chandigarh, February 12 The question is: who will be the Indian captain? Will the selectors allow Saurav Ganguly to continue as the India captain or will they opt for somebody else? What are the compulsions which will guide the ‘‘wise men’’ of Indian
cricket. The choice cannot be Rahul Dravid, who is coming back after a long lay off. Sachin Tendulkar is not keen. In the queue are Anil Kumble and Saurav Ganguly. Logically, the selectors should ask Ganguly to lead the Indian team in the series against Zimbabwe, during which the tourists are scheduled to play two Tests and five one-dayers. But one never knows the way the selectors will think and act, specially after the Indian team’s indifferent showing against England both in the Test series, where the Indians won 1-0 with two other matches ending in draw with the English having the upper hand. The one-day series was tied at 3-3 after India had taken a 3-1 lead. A large part of the blame for India’s poor performance must fall on the lap of the captain and the brittle middle order. There is no denying the fact that Ganguly’s form with the bat has left much to be desired. His performance with the bat not only in the Test series against England but also in the previous series against South Africa has been much below par. In the one-day game, however, Ganguly did fairly well with good scores in Delhi and Mumbai, both games which India lost by close margins. But experts are of the view that Ganguly’s problems with the bat in the longer version of the game are more in the head than in technique. The rising delivery, specially the ones which tend to leave the left-hander, has been his nemesis time and again and all opposition bowlers have exploited this weakness to the hilt. But Ganguly is too good a batsman to be tied down by the opposition for too long. He will have to find ways, and only he can do that, to tackle these types of deliveries. Maybe, some help from John Wright, who has a very good understanding with him, is also needed. And it was for this reason that suggestions came from certain quarters that Ganguly should himself step down from the captaincy and devote more time to his technical problem, which only he can sort out. But then there is yet another school of thought which is of the view that the best place to sort out his batting problems is from the front, while leading India. And one must remember that Ganguly is in a better position to tackle the problem while batting in India where the pitches is not so helpful to the fast bowlers. India are scheduled to tour England this summer where the fast bowlers will get much more help from the pitches. And the problems for Ganguly will only multiply there if by then he is not able to sort out the glitches in his batting. One thing going in Ganguly’s favour is the fact that there are very few candidates who can slip into his shoes.
Although Sachin Tendulkar did say towards the end of the tour of South Africa that he would not mind leading India again but subsequently has gone on record to say that he would like to concentrate only on his cricket. The other candidate for the captain’s job is Rahul Dravid but then he is just returning to cricket after a long lay-off due to injury and would obviously like to concentrate on his game. But the dark horse could well be Anil Kumble! |
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Railways keen to overcome Bengal
New Delhi, February 12 After a lot of speculation on whether Ganguly would be available for the Bengal team following a viral fever that kept him bedridden since Thursday, it was finally announced that he would indeed be playing tomorrow. And his presence will undoubtedly add an altogether different colour to the match, a fact conceded by both teams. Rohan Gavaskar, skipper of the Bengal side, which has reached the last four stage after eight years, said Ganguly’s presence would mean a lot to the team that had done “exceptionally so far in reaching the semis”. “His presence will boost the morale of the team. If he gets going he can win the match single-handedly for us with both the bat and the ball,” he said. But Railways refused to be overawed. A more balanced team than their rivals, the hosts have thrived on team-effort and have got past teams like Tamil Nadu who had six to seven internationals in their ranks. “Ganguly’s presence will be an added incentive for both teams to perform well. But we are not too worried about him. There are 11 players in the Bengal team and we will treat him as one of them,” Railways skipper Abhay Sharma said after nets in the morning at the Karnail Singh Stadium here. Cloudy and overcast conditions, that have rendered the outfield moist and also left a worrying wet patch in the middle of the pitch, restricted the players to stretching exercises rather than having a full practice session today. The wet patch, attributed to some athlete’s spikes, was being worked on and although it did not come any way in the danger area, it could pose a problem with the ball rising sharply. Given the conditions, toss would be vital as the sides would be keen to bat first and take the crucial first innings lead. Railways, runners-up in the last season, have a formidable bowling attack spearheaded by lef-arm spinner Murali Kartik and medium pacer Harvinder Singh and Bengal batsmen will have to stay at the wicket and desist from playing reckless shots if they are to defy them. Kartik, returning from a back injury, has been very impressive throughout with the ball and has been doing reasonably well with the bat also. In fact, Kartik and the last three batsmen chipped in some 200 odd runs in their last match against Tamil Nadu. Bengal: Rohan Gavaskar (capt), Devang Gandhi, Saurav Ganguly, Deep Dasgupta, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Sanjeeb Sanyal, Amitabh Chakraborty, Subhomoy Das, Sourashish Lahiri, Alokendu Lahiri, Utpal Chatterjee, Shabbir Ali, Ranadeb Bose. Railways: Abhay Sharma (capt), Sanjay Bangar, Amit Pagnis, Tejinder Pal Singh, Yere Goud, Raja Ali, Jayprakash Yadav, Sudhir Wankhede, Murali Kartik, Kulmani Parida, Harvinder Singh, Shreyas Khanolkar, Santosh Sahu, Zakir Hussain, Mukul Sharma, Dhiraj Sharma.
PTI |
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Asian cricket feels the pinch Sharjah, February 12 Both the UAE and Hong Kong were assured of $ 100,000 each when they qualified for the Asia Cup limited-overs tournament by virtue of being the two top non-Test playing nations in the continent. But the Asia Cup, featuring these two teams and the big four from the region — India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh — shows no signs of taking place. The tournament, originally scheduled to be played in Pakistan in April last year, has been repeatedly shelved due to the Indian government’s refusal to have cricketing ties with arch-rivals Pakistan. It is unlikely India will agree to play cricket against Pakistan in the near future, leaving smaller teams like Hong Kong and the UAE tearing their hair out in frustration. “Not only are our cricketers not getting a chance to play against the big players from Asia, our boards too have been deprived of the $ 100,000 appearance fee for the Asia Cup,” a cricket official from the UAE said. “We need the money to develop the game in our region.” The UAE and Hong Kong ensured their place in the Asia Cup by reaching the final of the qualifying tournament, the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Trophy for non-Test playing countries, held here two years ago. “The next ACC Trophy is taking place in Singapore in July, but we still do not know the fate of the last Asia Cup,” the official said. The Asian Cricket Council, headed by Pakistan’s Tauqir Zia, is due to meet here over the weekend to take stock of the losses generated by the stand-off between India and Pakistan. Officials from both Hong Kong and the UAE are hoping the meeting will take up their cause and atleast part of the $ 100,000 — if not the entire amount — is handed over to them. India cancelled a scheduled Test tour of Pakistan in 2000 and also declined to take part in the Asian Test Championship last year. India’s cricket chief Jagmohan Dalmiya is likely to be confronted at this weekend’s meeting by his Pakistani counterpart, who believes the sport is suffering in the region by the Indian government’s rigid stand.
AFP |
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Shane Bond ruled out Christchurch, February 12 |
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DULEEP TROPHY New Delhi, February 12 The north zone selection committee meeting, held at the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) complex, was chaired by Madan Lal and attended by Tilak Singh (Jammu and Kashmir), Arun Sharma (Punjab), Aman Kumar (Haryana), Col. A D Sharma (Services), Anurag Thakur (Himachal Pradesh) and Sunil Dev (Delhi, convenor). The 15-member team and five reserves are: Dinesh Mongia (Punjab, captain), Mithun Minhas (Delhi, vice-captain), Gautam Gambhir (Delhi), Akash Chopra (Delhi), Yuvraj Singh (Punjab), Kanwaljit Singh (J and K), Sangram Singh (Himachal), Amit Misra (Haryana), Sarandeep Singh (DDCA), Vishal Bhatia (Himachal), Ajay Ratra (Haryana), Reetinder Sodhi (Punjab), Vaneet Sharma (Punjab), Ashish Nehra (Delhi) and Amit Bhandari (Delhi). Standbyes: Pankaj Dharmani (Punjab), Yashpal Singh (Services), Vijay Dahiya (DDCA), Shakti Singh (Himachal) and Shafiq Khan (Haryana). |
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Hockey title for Jamia Millia New Delhi, February 12 Sri Guru Gobind Singh College, Chandigarh, trounced Lyallpur Khalsa College, Jalandhar 6-0, after leading by 3-0 at half time, to take the third place. Prabhjot Singh, who opened the scoring in the seventh minute, also struck the third goal in the 34th minute while Rajinder Singh powered in the second goal. Captain Navdeep Singh, Gurpreet Singh and Gurdeep Singh scored in that order in the second half. Chandigarh were awarded a cash prize of Rs 40,000. Jamia Millia were put in the lead by their captain Hamza Mujtaba through an indirect penalty corner conversion in the 19th minute. Shivam Tiwari scored a spectacular field goal in the 22nd minute to restore parity for the Meerut college. The rest of the first half was played at a furious pace with the ball moving up an down in a regular motion, but the matchwinner of Jamia Millia came only in the second half when Hamza Mujtaba completed his brace, scoring again off a penalty corner—the third of Jamia—to settle the issue. But for the excellent goalkeeping by Meerut’s Harjeet Singh, who was also the captain of the team, and Satish Kumar of Jamia, the scoreline would have been thicker. Jamia’s coach Chhatra Pal Singh was given a cash prize of Rs 8,000, while Vivek Gupta of Jamia, Joginder Singh of Meerut, Harwant Singh of Chandigarh and Aiyappa P A of St. Joseph’s College, Bangalore were awarded Rs 2,000 each after being chosen as the “best players of the tournament”. ONGC Director (Human Resources) Jauhari Lal, who gave away the prizes, announced a monthly scholarship of Rs 1,000 for one year to each of the 18 players and the coach and manager of the winning team. It was a sweet revenge for Jamia Millia as they had lost to the Meerut team, who had played under the Chaudhary Charan Singh University banner in the Inter-Varsity Hockey Tournament hosted by Jamia last year, in the title clash, interestingly by an identical 2-1 margin. |
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Shame if we don’t reach semis: Ajit Pal
New Delhi, February 12 “If we do not qualify for the semi-finals from the relatively weaker of the two pools, we should stop playing the game,” Singh, who led the country to its only World Cup triumph in 1975, also in Kuala Lumpur, told IANS in an interview. India have been placed in the relatively easier pool B along with Oceania champions Australia, previous World Cup runner-up South Korea and hosts Malaysia. Pool A has four-time World Cup winner Pakistan, favourite Germany and defending champion Holland. Incidentally, it was in Kuala Lumpur that Singh had lifted the coveted trophy 27 years ago - and received a tumultuous reception on the team’s return. He will again be in Kuala Lumpur during the tournament beginning on February 24, but this time as a newspaper columnist and a spectator. But Singh was cautious enough not to imply that the task would be easy for the Indian team, which has lately won a few smaller international tournaments. “All the teams playing at Kuala Lumpur will be tough and we cannot take any one of them lightly,” said Singh, who was rated as the top mid-field player of his time. “We cannot compare the World Cup with, say, a four-nation tournament.” He said India would have to play aggressively if it wanted to do well. “We will have to go all out.” He said his team had won the 1975 World Cup by playing an attacking game throughout. The team played with the most aggressive 5-3-2 field-setting with five forwards, three midfielders and two defenders. “I can only say that we should play go all out against the weaker teams, such as Japan, so that we can win by bigger margins. “These goals will help the team if, at the end of the group league, India ties with other teams on points.” Singh, however, said the team would have to change its strategy from game to game and depending on the opposition. For instance, he suggested that against a stronger team, such as Australia, who themselves play a very attacking game, Indians would have to play intelligently. “We will have to be cautious, mixing aggression with defence,” he said. “Basically, India should take it match to match. But attack should will be a must.” Penalty, or short, corner conversion, according to him, will be the clinching factor for all teams. “Results of most of the matches will largely depend on goals scored off short corners,” he said, while blaming India’s dismal showings in the past on its poor goal conversion from this aspect of the game. The India team has a specialist in Jugraj Singh, who scored seven goals off penalty corners in the Junior World Cup that India won in Hobart, Australia, in October. India’s current short corner conversion rate is around 15-20 per cent. Coach Cedric D’Souza is making efforts so that it improves to about 40 per cent at Kuala Lumpur. Singh also praised striker Dhanraj Pillay, who will be playing his fourth World Cup. He did not agree that a change in his playing position — D’Souza wants to play Pillay in a different position — would hamper the 33-year-old’s natural, free-flowing game. “Whichever position he plays at, he will show whatever quality he has. After all, he has vast experience,” said Singh. Singh declined to comment on the composition of the team. The 18-member final squad will be picked from 22 probables who trained at a three-week intense at Chennai last month. “Actually, everything boils down to how they play over there. Performance on the field will show how good the team is,” Singh said. He refused to be drawn into any discussion about the team’s preparations, saying he had not been to the training camp. But some experts believe that there has been not enough match practice in the run-up to the World Cup and this could cause problems for the team.
IANS |
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Chang bows out Copenhagen, February 12 |
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High hopes on shuttlers Jalandhar, February 12 According to S.M. Arif, coach of the team, the boys are likely to fare well in the Thomas Cup. “We should be able to top the European pool. Our only worry is the second doubles for which we have to plan a
strategy”, he said here today. In the team is Arvind Bhatt, a first time entry who will play his first international tournament. Commenting on his performance, Arif said he had immense potential. “Being an engineering student, he is not able to devote much time to the game. Commenting on the change in format that is likely to affect Abhinn Shyam Gupta, he informed that Abhinn had fast reflexes but a defensive attitude. Another lucky entrant is Ravinder Singh who has been included in the absence of Gopi Chand. In the women’s section competing for the Uber Cup is going to be touch, according to Arif. He predicted that the girls may cross the preliminary rounds. The reason for inclusion of Madhumita Bist was that she was still good in doubles, he added. He was also all praise for Aparna Popat. The coaches accompanying the team will be S.M. Arif and Leroy D’Sa. The team: Boys: Abhinn Shyam Gutpa, Chetan Anand, Nikhil Kanetkar, Sachin Ratti, Arvind Bhatt, Jaseel P. Ismail, Jaison Xavier, V. Diju, Sanave Thomas, Ravinder Singh. Girls: Aparna Popat, Trupti Murgunde, D. Shweta, C.H. Dipti, G. Jawla, Shruti Kurien, Madhumita Bist, P.V.V. Lakshmi, Neelima Choudhary. |
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Gold for Abhinav Chandigarh, February 12 Abhinav has been consistent since the start of the year. When contacted he said ‘‘I am very satisfied with my performances as I had an average of 595 in all the matches. |
BARODA PLAYERS’ KIT STOLEN FEDERER PULLS OUT PUNJAB JUDO COACH LOSES SLEEP |
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