Thursday,
August 15, 2002, Chandigarh, India
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ICC hardens stand
on contract issue
SS Das hammers unbeaten 165 Playing Sanjay Bangar makes cricketing sense ‘Umpires
should rely on judgement’ |
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Pakistan beat Lanka India, Pak on verge
of breaking deadlock? Roy Keane ‘ready for the next four years’ Injured Serena pulls out; Hingis wins
CGA ropes in Donato from Italy Drug-free squad for Asiad: Bharati Abhinn
Shyam, Popat top seeds
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ICC hardens stand
on contract issue
London, August 14 With 48 hours still to go for the Friday deadline for the national cricket boards to sign the Participating Nations Agreement for the Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka next month,the ICC came out with a statement reiterating its decision of not changing its sponsorship policy. Rejecting claims that ICC had ignored rights of players in its commercial arrangements with its official sponsors, its Chief Executive Malcolm Speed said in the statement it was a well established precedent to provide protection to those who support the game against ambush. “Given this precedent, it would be a great surprise if any elite cricketer or his management had the view that the player would be free of any obligations to the ICC tournament sponsors in the Champions Trophy and the World Cup when negotiating any personal endorsements,” Speed said. “To my knowledge no player or his manager at any stage sought the view of the ICC as to the restrictions that would be in place before they signed these agreements. “If a player now finds that, through his own actions, he has put his commercial interests ahead of his ability to play for his country he needs to decide what is more important to him, the money or playing for his country,” he said.
PTI |
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Australians say ‘no’ Melbourne: Australia’s participation in next month’s ICC Champions Trophy was under threat today after their leading players refused to sign contracts. International Cricket Council (ICC) contracts preventing players from endorsing products conflicting with official sponsors were illegal, Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) chief executive Tim May said. The provisions are designed to prevent marketing conflicts at ICC events such as the Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka and next year’s World Cup in South Africa. "For this Champions Trophy there’s not one Australian player that would have a direct conflict with a major sponsor,” May told reporters today. “However the players have taken this particular stance because, just because they don’t have one now, they may well have one in the future.” May said ICC contracts were inducing players to breach existing contracts. “That’s not only unreasonable, it’s unlawful,” he said. Many leading Indian players - led by Sachin Tendulkar and captain Saurav Ganguly - endorse a wide range of products not sanctioned by the Champions Trophy and would stand to lose a large sum of money if they agreed to the contract. ACB chief executive James Sutherland told Reuters: “In the end we’re confident we can work with the players to resolve any concerns they may have. “We always expect to field our best team and the ICC Champions Trophy is no different.” ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed said he would not tolerate any infringement of the ICC deal. The ICC has told national boards they must send their best teams to the Champions Trophy. May told Reuters player associations around the cricketing world had advised their players they should not accept the playing agreements in their current form. “We’ve forwarded the FICA (Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations) advice (to the Australian players),” May said. Reuters |
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Indians reluctant Kolkata: The name of the Indian squad for the ICC Mini World Cup in Colombo remained unannounced as the ICC’s ‘contractual obligations’ with the Indian players are yet to be fulfilled. BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya, who was contacted by uni today, was tight-lipped about the situation. “You will surely know if there are any developments,” was all he said. Meanwhile, it has been learnt that the players had been contacted in England, but no breakthrough was achieved. While the BCCI top brass cannot ignore ICC’s interest, they also feel the players cannot be asked to sacrifice their endorsements. The ICC has refused to change its marketing protection given to its sponsors which bars cricketers from sporting any logo in direct conflict of interest for tournaments till 2007. The players are not supposed to endorse such products one month before and after the tournament. The reluctance of the Indian players to sign on the dotted lines has forced the BCCI to withhold the announcement of the squad for September 12-29 meet. The ICC has given India a deadline of Friday within which to announce the team after fulfilling the ‘contractual obligations’. There are also reports that the official sponsors-Hero Honda, Pepsi, L.G. Electronics and South African Airlines — will renegotiate the contractual amounts if the ICC was unable to deliver on its side of the bargain. The sponsors, who are coughing up huge amounts, are insisting on the contractual obligations to pre-empt ambush marketing. Pepsi currently has eight cricketers endorsing its brand. They are Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Harbhajan Singh, V.V.S. Laxman, Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar and Mohammed Kaif. Virender Shewag is endorsing Coke with Sunil Gavaskar. UNI |
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SS Das hammers unbeaten 165 Chelmsford, August 14 At close, Indians reached a commanding 331 for six with Das batting on 165. Keeping his company was skipper Saurav Ganguly batting three. The diminutive Orissa player, sidelined for the first two Tests against England, stroked freely and brought up his century with a cover drive off Jon Dakin five minutes before tea break, having batted for 232 minutes and 164 balls and hit 15 fours. Das was associated in two successful stands with Virender Sehwag (36) and V.V.S. Laxman (46) as the county side’s bowlers wilted on a slow wicket under scorchingly hot weather conditions. Resuming at their lunchtime score of 104 for one, Indians lost Sehwag immediately when he was trapped leg before without adding a single run to his 37. India (1st innings): Das not out 165 Bangar b Middlebrook 21 Sehwag lbw b Middlebrook 37 Laxman c Robinson b Grant 46 Jaffer c Flower b Middlebrook 19 Patel c Flower b Grant 32 Ratra lbw b Ilott 1 Ganguly not out 3 Extras
(lb-3 nb-4) 7 Total (6 wickets, 90 overs) 331 Fall of wickets: 1-60 2-106 3-191 4-234 5-310 6-326 Bowling : Dakin 18-6-47-0, Ilott 21-4-89-1, Grant 16-8-42-2, Middlebrook 23-5-85-3, Phillips 12-1-65-0.
PTI |
Playing
Sanjay Bangar makes cricketing sense Chandigarh, August 14 As India trail 0-1 after the completion of two games in the four-match Test series against England, Ganguly must be ruing the miserable performance of all his front-line bowlers. None of them have been able to make a mark on the bowler-friendly England pitches. He has gone on record to say that he was not happy with the performance of his bowlers and they would have to pull up their socks if India were to come back in the series. And at this moment it indeed seems to be a tall order. The Indian batsmen have struck a purple patch, specially in the second Test where they were able to frustrate the England bowlers and salvage a draw. Now the onus is on the bowlers and they will have to perform much better than they have done in the previous two matches, if India are to pull back from the deficit in the next Test beginning at Leeds on August 22. There is no denying the fact that it is the bowlers who win matches and at their current form none of the Indian bowlers seems capable of taking the team to a possible win. In fact, their performance has been falling instead of picking up as the tour has progressed. Of the four Indian bowlers who played in the second Test Ashish Nehra and Ajit Agarkar (never mind his wonderful century in the second innings of the first Test) were a pale shadow of their former selves. While Agarkar’s performance is far inferior to what he had demonstrated in 1999 in Australia, Nehra’s bowling has gone to pieces and his deliveries have only helped the England batsmen pick up easy runs. Zaheer Khan has been the best among the Indian medium pacers but the warning he got from the umpire in the Nottingham Test for running on to the danger area probably made him very cautious, preventing him from going all out. Harbhajan Singh is still to come to terms while bowling outside India but then he still enjoys the skipper’s confidence and should be able to deliver sooner than later. One only hopes it will be sooner! So where does India go from here? For one, the Indian bowlers will have to reinvigorate themselves if they have to push England on the backfoot. Their performance has so far enabled second-class batsmen to make merry and this must stop. The Indian bowlers must bowl the line and length required of them and should cut out all fancy stuff. Discipline in this department, now the weakest link in the Indian team which was on cloud nine after their fantastic win in the final of the NatWest Trophy, has to enforced at the earliest because only if India can take 20 England wickets can they hope for a possible victory. It would not be a bad idea if India opted to play Sanjay Bangar. Sanjay, who bowls gentle medium pace and can also open the innings, can be tried out in place of Wasim Jaffer who probably would like to forget his performance in the first two Tests as a bad dream. There is no reason why Bangar cannot come good. Remember what a great success Mohinder Amarnath was with his military medium whenever he played in England. Playing Bangar will give the team management the option of dropping a medium pacer and bringing in Anil Kumble into the team. Kumble and Harbhajan (together with Zaheer Khan) are India’s best bet in the bowling department and playing both of them makes for good cricketing sense even if the pitch report is otherwise! |
‘Umpires should rely on judgement’
London, August 14 “The technology is available, and sometimes it can be required, but I think that the on-field umpires are referring too often to the man at the television screen and should rely a bit more on their own judgement,” Ganguly wrote in his column in ‘The Daily Telegraph’ today. “The catch that Virender Sehwag claimed against Alec Stewart was a pretty clean one to somebody on the ground, looking at it with the naked eye,” Ganguly said adding that as long as the rules were the same for both sides, it was OK. Describing the Trent Bridge Test match which ended in a draw as a “great escape”, Ganguly said “It (the draw) was important one because now we go on to Headingly, which has always produced result pitches, and know it is still anyone’s series.” The Indian captain was all praise for young Parthiv Patel whose “prospects” look very good. “When I was out dragging a ball from Steve Harmison on to my stumps, I had a bit of a scare. I suddenly realised we could still lose, but Patel, our young wicketkeeper showed a lot of character. He may not have scored big runs, but he batted for 25 overs under pressure, and there are not too many 17-year-old who could do that.” “Nasser (Hussain) joked last week that Parthiv looks about 12, which is true. But he also has a good batting technique and after two successful tours with our ‘A’ side, and this impressive start to his Test career, his prospects look very bright,” Ganguly said. He said Zaheer Khan was the pick of the Indian bowlers for the second Test running. “He has come a long way in this series. His fitness has improved immensely as he is working hard on it now, and he has all the qualities to develop into a quality fast bowler. “But I am a bit worried about Ashish Nehra. He has a lot of ability but somehow has not been able to get it right so far. All our support is with him because we know he can do a lot more with the ball, and Headingly could be a good place for him to show his class,” he said. “Ashish just needs to be mentally strong. You are bound to have bad days in cricket but it’s how you wake up the next day and how you get back that matters.” PTI |
Pakistan beat Lanka Tangiers (Morocco), August 14 SCOREBOARD Pakistan: Anwar b Chandana 70 Nazir lbw b Vaas 9 Youhana c Sangakkara Haq c Jayawardene Afridi c Chandana b Murali 13 Y. Khan not out 56 Razzaq not out 29 Extras: (lb-1 w-5 nb-1) 7 Total: (5 wickets, 50 overs) 279 Fall of wickets: 1-15 2-85 3-147 4-170 5-229 Bowling: Vaas 10-0-61-1, Gunaratne 10-0-69-1, Fernando 9-0-56-1, Murali 10-1-35-1, Chandana 5-0-29-1, Jayasuriya 6-0-28-0. Sri Lanka: Jayasuriya c Nazir b Akram 36 Atapattu c Razzaq b Afridi 42 Sangakkara c Akram b Razzaq 38 Jayawardene c Afridi b Razzaq 32 Chandana c Youhana b Waqar 15 Arnold not out 37 Aravinda lbw Sami 2 Vaas c Afridi b Akram 31 P Gunaratne b Razzaq 0 D Fernando not out 1 Extras (nb-3 lb-7 w-7) 17 Total
(8 wickets, 50 overs) 251 Fall of wickets: 1-55 2-116 3-141 4-161 5-187 6-191 7-2498-249 Bowling: Akram 10-0-56-2, Waqar 10-0-77-1, Razzaq 10-1-36-3, Sami 10-0-39-1, Afridi 10-1-36-1.
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India, Pak on verge
of breaking deadlock?
Dubai, August 14 “The officials of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) are making all efforts to convince Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to allow India to play Pakistan,” ICC Chief Executive Malcolm Speed was quoted by the Khaleej Times, as saying. According to sources, Speed told cricket administrators from Pakistan, who are in Tangiers for the Morocco Cup, that the BCCI chief Jagmohan Dalmiya has had talks with Mr Vajpayee on the issue. According to Speed, Mr Vajpayee’s basic concern was the security of Indian players in Pakistan. Therefore, there is a strong likelihood that the two sides could break the deadlock on a neutral venue, like
Sharjah, he said. India is scheduled to tour Pakistan in April and May next year for three Tests and five one-day internationals. Pakistan and India could also meet in the ICC Champions Trophy in September but would certainly face each other on March 1, 2003 in the World Cup in South Africa. Since May 2000, the Indian government has steadfastly refused to permit the Indian team to tour Pakistan which complains that it has suffered massive revenue losses due to the refusal.
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Sodhi powers
Punjab to win Chandigarh, August 14 Sodhi played a resolute knock which included six fours and a six during which he faced 108 balls as Punjab, after being put in, amassed 242 for nine in 42 overs. The match was reduced to 42 overs a side due to early morning rain. Ravneet Ricky (28), Ishan Malhotra (36) and Amit Uniyal (30) were the other contributors. Kenya were never in hunt and were bowled out for paltry 112 in 31 overs. Steve Tikolo (25) and Hitesh Modi (28 not out) were the main scorers. Ankur Kakkar was the most successful bowler scalping three wickets, while Amit Uniyal and off-spinner Rajesh Sharma claimed two wickets each. |
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Roy Keane ‘ready for the next four years’
London, August 14 The comment, in an autobiography that has generated many lurid headlines in recent days, was Keane’s way of drawing a line under the revelation that he wanted to retire from football last season. Keane said it was his mentor, United manager Alex Ferguson, who talked him out of quitting. To the delight of Old Trafford, the volatile midfielder signed a new contract later in the year. Yet even Ferguson could not rescue Keane’s relationship with Ireland manager Mick McCarthy, which collapsed on the eve of this year’s World Cup with Keane storming out of the squad, never to return. Impulsive behaviour, for right or wrong, is what makes Keane such a compelling player to watch. Obsessive in his quest for success, Keane’s presence in the United side will go a long way to determining if the former champions can reclaim their pre-eminence after a trophy-less season. The 31-year-old United captain was not slow to criticise his team mates last term, saying United got what they deserved — “nothing’’. As a player, Keane is almost without equal as a competitive force in the middle of the pitch. There is much debate over how Ferguson will deploy the midfielders available to him this season but it is almost unthinkable that he would drop Keane. Despite knowing that, Keane never allows his own performance levels to drop and that is perhaps why, when he felt he had let Ferguson down in getting sent off at Newcastle United last season, he considered packing the game in. To throw in the towel would have been totally out of character, though, and it would also have prevented Keane pursuing one of his few unachieved goals — to lift the Champions League Trophy. Keane was suspended when United won the 1999 final in dramatic style against Bayern Munich and has since said that victory means little to him. There is bitterness, too, in the way he describes his row with Ireland. After reopening the feud with McCarthy in his autobiography, Keane says he will never pull on a green jersey again while the Yorkshire-born coach is in charge of the national team. Another of the main revelations of Keane’s book, serialised in two British newspapers this week, is that he has had to work hard to control both a drinking habit and a short temper. Keane is certainly no white knight, no matter how highly regarded he is by United fans. There have been many flash points in his life, one in 1999 that ended with Keane spending a night in police cells, even though, according to him, he was “set up’’. “When I look back on some of the stuff I’ve done I cringe,’’ Keane says. His observations on a running feud with rival Alf-Inge Haaland may yet come back to haunt him after the Football Association announced it was looking into the matter. Reuters |
Injured
Serena pulls out; Hingis wins
Montreal, August 14 The world No 1 said she was suffering from tendinitis in her left knee. Williams suffered the injury during practice on Monday, received treatment and said it felt better overnight. But her knee swelled up after a training session yesterday. “I felt it would be much smarter to withdraw now rather than to aggravate the injury more,” Williams said. The world No. 1 said her knee bothered her last week in Los Angeles, where she was upset in the quarterfinals by Chanda Rubin, who is the 16th seed here. The sixth-seeded Martina Hingis rolled to a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Spanish qualifier Magui Serna in the former world No 1’s first WTA Tour match since May. Japan’s Ai Sugiyama, who upset Capriati in the Los Angeles quarterfinals, provided another surprise result here, eliminating American Lisa Raymond, the 15th seed, 6-3, 6-1. Washington : America’s Andre Agassi broke Noam Okun of Israel’s serve twice in the first three games and never looked back as he advanced to the third round of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic with a 6-2, 6-2 victory on Tuesday. Agassi, looking to win the tournament for the sixth time, was seldom bothered by Okun’s serve. Okun won just 42 per cent of first-serve points, and Agassi earned three service breaks in the first set and two more in the second. Fellow American Todd Martin advanced to the second round by beating Stefano Galvani of Italy 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. The No 10 seed broke Galvani’s serve in the sixth game of the third set, winning four straight points after falling behind 0-30. Martin will play countryman Alex Kim, a 6-4, 7-5 winner over Brazilian Flavio Saretta. Third-seeded Dutchman Sjeng Schalken, the runner-up last year, won a second-round match, beating Cedric Pioline of France 7-6 (5) 6-1. In first-round matches, Fernando Gonzalez of Chile beat Irakli Labadze Georgia 6-4 6-3; Justin Gimelstob of the USA defeated Kenneth Karlsen of Denmark 6-3, 6-3; Oleg Ogorodov of Uzbekistan edged Julien Varlet of France 7-6 (3), 6-4 and Germany’s Lars Burgsmuller beat Neville Godwin of South Africa 6-3, 6-2. Frank Danevic of Canada got his first career ATP Tour win with a 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-3 victory over Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko; Bob Bryan of the USA beat Thailand’s Danai Udomchoke 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-1; America’s Michael Russell beat Belgium’s Christope Rochus 6-2, 6-2 and Argentina’s Guillermo Coria beat Wayne Black of Zimbabwe 7-5 7-6 (2). Indianapolis (Indiana): Tommy Haas ignored the pain to emerge a 7-6 (11/9), 6-3 second-round winner over Sweden’s Magnus Norman on a rain-delayed day at the $ 800,000 ATP event here on Tuesday. The German third seed said the right shoulder pain, which has bothered him for months, is now spreading to his elbow. He feels it after every shot. Haas missed Wimbledon to spend time with them in the hospital. They are now being treated in
Germany. In other matches, France’s Sebastien Grosjean, the No 6 seed, beat Sargis Sargsian, of Armenia, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 in a second round match. Frenchman Arnaud Clement advanced to the second round with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Sweden’s Jonas Bjorkman. Tenth seed Max ‘The Beast’ Mirnyi of Belarus eliminated.
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CGA ropes in Donato from Italy Chandigarh, August 14 The first of the three camps will be held on the lush course of the Golf Range from August 17 to 25. While the professionals and top amateurs will have to shell out Rs 30,000 each for the eight-day camp, the young amateurs, 10 of them from Chandigarh, will pay Rs 10,000 each for the camp. However the teachers and coaches from Delhi and Chandigarh will sharpen their teaching skills free of coast. Donato, who is the head of the teaching programme of the Italian Golf Federation for the past 15 years, has been involved with the PGA of Europe for six to seven years. In 1995 the European PGA recognised him as the Golf Professional of the Year. At present he works with professionals from the European Tour and also the Asian Tour, including our own Amandeep Johl and Harmeet Kahlon. Donato has been mounting pressure on the Indian Golf Union and the PGA of India to set up an academy on the lines running in Europe so that Indian golfers do not go looking for coaches abroad. The Italian professional said if the coaches were available in the country the players would not have to spend loads of money to get training abroad. But Donato’s proposals were ignored by the IGU and the PGAI. Finally it was Amandeep Johl who managed the whole thing. The CGA under Mr D.P. Azad, President, accepted the proposal and agreed to bear 25 per cent of the cost. Donato will be charging $7,000 for each camp. With no sponsors coming forward the CGA will manage the first three camps by charging from the golfers. But once the sponsors come forward at least the young amateurs will be spared the expenses, said Mr Azad. Also present at the press conference were Mr Jassi Grewal, Director of the Hero Honda Golf Academy, Mr J.S. Cheema, Senior Vice-President, and professional golfer Amandeep Johl. Mr Cheema was of the view that golf promotion could be part of the Chandigarh Tourism project. During the first eight-day camp the mornings will be spent with the professionals and top amateurs. The teachers will oversee the methods used by Donato to pick and rectify the player’s mistakes. The afternoon will be a classroom session with the teaching professionals where they will be taught the advanced techniques and methods used by coaches all over the world. Later in the day Donato will teach the budding amateurs for one hour each in two groups of 10 students each. During all these sessions Donato and his assistant will be using high-speed video cameras to capture the swings and then replaying them frame by frame to see and pinpoint the mistakes of the students. The
following players and coaches will be participating in the inaugural camp starting on August 17 at 5.30 p.m. : Professionals and top amateurs: Girish Virk and Gursimran Sethi (both Chandigarh), Keshav Mishra, Anitya Chand and Samanth Shergill (all Delhi); Tarun Sardesai and Gaurav Dewan (both Karnataka) and Shubham Jindal (Maharashtra) Teachers/coaches: Jessi Grewal (Director, CGA), Nonita Lal (Delhi), Jasjit Singh (Classic Golf Academy), Karan Bindra (Delhi), Shashi Raj (Patna), Romit Bose (Calcutta), Pal Singh (Chandigarh), Rajesh Kumar and Rakesh Kumar (Delhi) and Ajay Johl (Haryana Golf Association) Young amateurs: Chirag Kumar, Anirudh Goyal, Madhav Verma and Divya Kapoor (all Delhi); Sujan, Ashwini Sharma, Anoop Tejinder, Zorawar Singh, Fatehbir Dhariwal, Ratul Sood, Kanika Minocha, Manrit Kochhar, Shruti Reddy, Ajitesh Sandhu and Dilsher Sukhija (all Chandigarh); Jaskirat Dullet and Kabir Dhariwal (both Punjab); Anshuman Yadav (Haryana) and Raghav Wahi (Jammu). |
Vijay leader Chennai, August 14 The Lucknow pro, who was victorious in Bangalore last week, could not have asked for a better start than this in his quest to win the second title of the season as he returned with a bogey-free round. Jointly laying three strokes behind him were Uttam Singh Mundy and Pappan who finished the day at a satisfying five under-67, while Mukesh Kumar of Mhow and Mohd Islam of Patna were in joint third at three-under 69.
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Drug-free squad for Asiad: Bharati
New Delhi, August 14 “What happened at the Manchester Commonwealth Games was terrible and I am going to try and send a drug-free squad to Busan,” said Bharati while presiding over the Afro-Asian Games organising committee meeting here. “I demand that all concerned, particularly the weightlifting federation, ensure that the competitors are adequately educated on this issue,” she said. Two medal winning lifters — Krishnan Madaswamy and Satheesha Rai — had failed the dope test during the Manchester Games. While Madaswamy was promptly stripped of his three silver medals, the Commonwealth Games Federation has not yet made any announcement on double gold medal winner Rai. Reacting to profession of
innocence by different bodies, Bharati said no purpose would be served on passing the buck to others. “It has to be a joint effort by the federations, Sports Authority of India and the Sports Ministry”. She noted that full-fledged drug testing laboratory would be operational at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here by the end of March next year.
PTI |
Abhinn
Shyam, Popat top seeds Mumbai, August 14 Former national champion Prakash Padukone, who is the coordinator for the mega event which is offering $ 5000 as prize money, told reporters last night that Chetan Anand and Nikhil Kanetkar have been seeded second and third, respectively, in the men’s category while Salakjit Polsana of Thailand is the second seed in women’s singles. More than 150 players including those from England, Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Singapore have confirmed their participation in this tournament, which is the first mega international meet being held in the metropolis in the last 19 years, he said. The qualifying matches will start from tomorrow while the main event will begin from August 16, Padukone said adding, the quarterfinals and semifinals will be played on August 17 with the finals slated for August 18.
PTI |
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