SPORTS

ONGC honours Kaif with Rs 1 lakh
M.S. Unnikrishnan

New Delhi, July 14
Mohammed Kaif’s brilliant, match-winning, unbeaten knock of 87 against England at Lord’s in the NatWest Trophy final on Saturday, created happy tidings in the Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC), his employers, when they announced a cash award of Rs 1 lakh to their star player.

Mr Subhir Raha, chairman and managing director, and Mr Jauhari Lal, director of Human Resources Development, ONGC, jointly made this announcement, according to ONGC’s officer-in-charge of cricket, Mr Sunil Khanna.

Mr Sunil Khanna, a former manager of the Indian cricket team, proudly announced that four players of the Indian one-day squad — Virender Sehwag, Mohd Kaif, Ajay Ratra and Ashish Nehra — belonged to the ONGC.C.

The ONGC had honoured dashing batsman Virender Sehwag with a Rs one lakh cash award when he was adjudged the player of the series against Zimbabwe when they toured India early this year. ONGC has employed a string of cricket talent, which includes other India players like Sharandeep Singh and Gagan Khoda.

Kaif’s matchless unbeaten 87, and his incredible 121-run partnership with Yuvraj Singh, helped India chase and overhaul the formidable England total of 325 scored off 50 overs, to create history. This was the second highest total chased by a team in a One-Day International match.

Board of Control for Cricket in India president Jagmohan Dalmia has already announced a Rs one crore bonus to the Indian one-day squad for their remarkable triumph, which came after losing nine ODI title contests during the past two years.

Mohd. Kaif, born in Allahabad on December 1, 1980, had made his India debut, interestingly, against England at Kanpur in the fourth One-Day International match in the 2001-2002 season. He made his Test debut against South Africa in Bangalore in March, 2000.

Kaif, who was the captain of the India Under-19 Cricket team, which won the World Cup in Sri Lanka, is an exciting batting prospect. Technically sound, Kaif is considered to be the ideal bat for India in the middle order in both Tests and ODIs.

A stylish stroke-maker, he also performed well for the India ‘A’ team, when they toured the West Indies. Kaif is also an effective leg-break bowler.

Talent search to unearth U-15 cricketers
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, July 14
In a unique talent search, Heinz India has launched the Complan Under-15 National Cricket Talent Search, in which a galaxy of former India captains like Polly Umrigar, Nari Contractor, Chandu Borde, Hanumanth Singh, Bishen Singh Bedi and former Australian captain Bob Simpson, are involved. Young under-15 schoolboys from all the five zones across the country — North, South, East, West and Central — are being put through a rigorous regimen on the fundamentals of cricket.

They are also being taught values which people say are getting eroded over t the years. In these days of ball tampering, chucking and faulty umpiring, instilling such proper values in the minds of the young cricketers, will help them turn out to be true sportsmen, with all the right qualities made as an integral part of their character. Former Indian captain Nari Contractor said, “All these controversies flourish because umpires and those in charge are not able to come down heavily and preserve the true spirit of the game.”

President of the Cricket Club of India Raj Singh Dungarpur said, “We have to thank the Indian umpires that the chucking controversy continues to go unchecked. By the time the cycle of instituting an enquiry, investigating charges and handing out verdicts is completed, the match has been won and the tournament has ended.”

“We are quite clear that cricket is not just about one-day wonders or about the glamour and glory of winning”, says Pradeep Poddar, Managing Director, Heinz India, the prime mover behind the Complan Talent Search. “Cricket is about character and values”, says Poddar. “This is the time when we have to try and bring these values back so that we inculcate in our youngsters the true spirits of cricket,” he added.

Bob Simpson felt some of the youngsters in the Complan Academy had the potential to hit the big league.

N.K.Bhatia elected DSA secretary
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, July 14
In a razor-sharp contest, Nawabuddin Shaheer of Ajmal Club edged out City Club president Sharafatullah by 39-35 votes to become the new president of the Delhi Soccer Association in the elections held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in the Capital. In an acrimonious Annual General Body meeting, the DSA was forced to allow all the 75 nominees to vote, though after casting the vote for the presidential election, one nominee left the venue, and only 74 voted for the elections to the posts of secretary and treasurer.

Mr N. K Bhatia of State Bank of India beat Mr Dev Raj Katyal of New Delhi Heroes 43-40 to become the secretary while Hem Chand of Delhi Veterans edged out Mohd Shaheen of Zakir Hussain College 42-31 in the fight for the treasurer’s post. After losing the three key posts, the rival group conceded defeat and left the vacancies of vice-presidents, joint-secretary and executive committee members to be filled in by the new body with their nominees. It may be recalled that the run-up to the DSA elections had created a lot of bad blood when outgoing secretary Nasir Ali expressed his desire to contest for the post of the president. Though Ali later backtracked, the divide among the two warring groups, the other being headed by outgoing president Umesh Sood, remained and despite all efforts, a compromise formula could not be worked out. One group swept all the posts with the voting pattern remaining more or less on expected lines.