SPORTS

Sachin joins the Star bandwagon
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, June 30
Sachin Tendulkar will do another kind of cricket talk, this time not with his willow, when he joins the ESPN and Star Sports commentary team in the television box. Sachin, the accomplished batting maestro, has signed a contract with sports channels ESPN and Star Sports, to voice his opinion on cricket.

Under the long-term contract signed between WorldTel and ESPN Star Sports, Sachin will actively promote ESPN and Star Sports and join the channels on air in exclusive programming that will treat Indian cricket fans to the batting ace in a new role.

Manu Sawhney, managing director of ESPN Software India Pvt. Ltd, said, “Sachin is the icon of sporting excellence while ESPN and Star Sports are the true leaders in sports broadcasting, making this relationship a natural gift of sporting excellence and leadership. We are extremely delighted and proud to have Sachin join us at ESPN Star Sports”.

Sachin Tendular has reportedly observed that “ESPN and Star Sports are clearly India’s leaders in sports broadcasting. They have completely altered the way the game is watched and followed in India.

Along with their complete sports lineup of programming, I am looking forward to partnering the excellence in cricket broadcasting on ESPN and Star Sports”.

Karen Mascarenhas, president of WorldTel Inc. said, “We are delighted that Sachin will now endorse India’s leading sports broadcaster. I’m sure it will be a treat for millions of cricket fans across the country to watch Sachin in a new starring role on ESPN Star Sports”.

In 2002, ESPN and Star Sports will showcase over 261 days of live and exclusive international cricket, including a whopping 82 days of India playing cricket, covering India’s tour to England and New Zealand (the tour to West Indies was comprehensively covered).

“It is our constant endeavour to innovate, create and bring compelling sports content from around the world for the millions of our loyal viewers. I’ am sure our long-term association with Sachin will immensely enhance the value we bring to our viewers and business partners”, said Sawhney.

“Over the years, ESPN and Star Sports have become renowned brands that represent sport to consumers, cable operators and advertisers in over 28 million home in more than 4,000 cities and towns across India”, he added.

ESPN Star Sports has rights to international cricket from eight out of the ten Test-playing nations, including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, England, West Indies, Zimbabwe, Pakistan and Bangladesh. In addition, the ESPN Star Sports’ commentary team includes cricketing legends such as Sunil Gavaskar and Geoffrey Boycott, Ravi Shastri, Navjot Singh Sidhu and ace commentator Harsh Bhogle.

200 kids take part in Roller Skating Beginners Meet in Faridabad
Bijendra Ahlawat
Tribune News Service

Faridabad, June 30
The District Roller Skating Association (DRSA) held the Beginners Meet in Roller Skating at Community Centre of Sector 15 here on Saturday. About 200 children in the age group of four to 16 years participated in the competition.

In the category for four-year-old, Karamvir Talwar stood first. Parth Gupta and Mehul Rao came second and third respectively. In the four to six years’ category, Aditya, Jaspreet and Yash came first, second and third respectively. Up to nine years’ category, Rajat came first while Navpreet and Rishab stood second and third. Rahul, Puneet and Saras shared the first, second and third places in the age group of nine to 12 years. Gaurav came first in the 15 years’ category.

In the girl’s sections, Nayanika came first in the competition for four-year-old, while Latika, Asima and Chand shared first three spots in 4-6 years’ group. Nainika Taneja, Vaishali and Krutika Anand got first, second and third spots in the 6-9 years’ category. Ekta, Pranjali and Priyanka won the first three places in the above 12 years’ category and Shivani Phogat stood first in 12-15 years’ group.

Neha and Ratna clinched top spots in the above 15 years’ category.

The prizes to the winners were given by Mr L. S. Bajwa, president of the District Roller Skating Association.

The national champion in Speed Roller (Racing), Ms Khushboo Saini, members of the District Association and several state and national level players were present on the occasion.

Q-School Golf Tournament in Jaipur
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, June 30
The Qualifying School Golf Tournament for the 2002-03 season’s tour, will be held at the Rambagh Golf Club course in Jaipur from July 2 to 12. The tournament is being organised by the Professional Golfers’ Association of India.

The Q-School, last held at Jaipur in 1998, was staged at Pune the following two seasons. Lucknow’s Sheeraz Kalra had won the title in the 2001-02 edition. This year, the Q-School will be played in three stages. The event begins on July 2 with the first of two pre-qualifying stages. The first stage, a 36-hole strokeplay affair, will be followed by the second pre-qualifying stage, also a 36-hole event, on July 5 and 6.

The final stage of the Qualifying School will be played over four days and 72 holes, from July 9. The cut will be applied after 36 holes, with the top 100 players plus those tied at the 100th position, progressing into the final two days.

The top 34 players are expected to earn their cards from events on 18-hole courses in the coming season, while the top 16 would get a chance to play on nine-hole courses.

The top 50 players in Category A, based on the 2001-02 money list (minimum eight events), who have been exempted for 2002-3 season, are: Mukesh Kumar, Feroz Ali, Shiv Prakash, Uttam Singh Mundy, Gaurav Ghei, Vijay Kumar, Sanjay Kumar, Rohtas Singh, SSP Chowrasia, Rafiq Ali, Yusuf Ali, Digvijay Singh, Zai Kipgen, Harmeet Kahlon, Rahil Gangjee, Ali Sher, Basad Ali, Ranjit Singh, Jaiveer Virk, Pappan, Shamim Khan, Amit Dube, Indrajit Bhalotia, Rahul Ganapathy, Mohammed Islam, Dinesh Raghuvanshi, Vinod Kumar, Amritinder Singh, Devendra Patel, Dinesh Kumar, Sheeraz Kalra, Mohammed Maqbool, Akbar Ali, Monish Bindra, Chini Ali, Gast Ram, Jumman, Binod Pandey, Suleman Ali, K. S. Sibia, Raju Ali, Vishal Singh, Bhoop Singh, Roop Singh, Rajiv Kumar, Naman Dawar, Asgar Ali, Gursimran Sethi, Rajesh Kumar Rawat and KPS Sekhon.