The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

SPORTS

Royal Challenge Grand Prix kicks off today
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, October 7
The second Royal Challenge Indian Open, South Asia’s richest golf championship, will be held from March 27 to 30, at the Delhi Golf Club course, as the flag ship event of the largest-ever sponsorship in golf—the Royal Challenge Golf Program..

The cream of Indian golf will be seen in action in the Royal Challenge Grand Prix, to be held at the Delhi Golf Club from October 8 to 11. The Open will carry a total cash prize of $300,000.

The Grand Prix event will boast of a cash purse of Rs 8 lakh. As a build up to the Indian Open, Shaw Wallace will stage three other Grand Prix tournaments in Calcutta from November 20 to 24, in the South (date yet to be finalised) and in Mumbai from January 21 to 25, 2003.

The Grand Prix event in Delhi, which is an official event of the Hero Honda Golf IPGA Tour, will present fans with an exciting clash between Jyoti Randhawa, defending Indian Open champion Vijay Kumar, Arjun Singh, Gaurav Ghei, Uttam Mundi and Ashok Kumar.

Komal Wazir, executive director of Shaw Wallace, said, “our commitment to building Royal Challenge’s association with golf is stronger than ever in its second year.”

She said “the vision of our founder chairman (manu Chabbaria, who died recently) lives on with the Indian Open Golf Championship. With Rs 1.8 crore of prize money on offer, the golf program will consist of almost fifty per cent of the total prize money in Indian golf in the current season between August 2002 and April 2003.”

President of the Indian Golf Union Raghu Modi said, “we are delighted that a five-year sponsorship deal has been struck for the historic Indian Open, which has been held continuously since 1964.” He said with Indian star Shiv Kapoor winning the gold medal in the Asian Games at Busan, “we have an exciting time ahead for the sport in this country.”

Ravi Krishnan, managing director of IMG-TWI South Asia, the marketing and management representative of the Indian Golf Union for the Indian Open Championship, said, “IMG was founded in 1962 on a handshake between Arnold Palmer, then world No 1, and our founder chairman Mark McCormack. Since then, golf has been the foundation of IMG’s success”.

Jyoti finishes sixth at Dunhill

New Delhi, October 7
On a day when amateur golfer Shiv Kapoor made India proud by winning the individual gold medal at Busan Asian Games, his professional counterpart Jyoti Randhawa was keeping the Indian flag fluttering high when he finished a creditable sixth in the cash-rich US$-5 million Dunhill Links Championship, which concluded at the Old Course in St Andrews on Sunday.

The 30-year-old Randhawa played some fantastic golf and returned cards in the 60s on all four days of the championship, which was played over three different links courses on the first three days followed by the final day at St. Andrews, the Mecca of world golf, according to information available in Delhi. The Indian tallied an impressive 16-under 272 for the championship aided by a final round score of four-under 68. On the opening day, he shot a six-under 66 at Kingsbarn to be tied for the second place. A three-under 69 on day two at St Andrews saw Jyoti slide a couple of spots to tied fourth at nine-under 135. Another three-under 69 at Carnoutsie kept him at tied sixth place on the penultimate day.

The impressive performance earned Randhawa 171,919 euros, the biggest cheque of his career. It also earned him a spot in Trophee Lancome, the next event on the European PGA Tour, to be played at the Saint Nom-La-Breetche course in Paris, France, but Randhawa opted out of it to honour his commitment to play in the Royal Challenge Grand Prix. Amandeep Johl, the other Indian to have made the three-round cut. OSR

Karan Harit to lead Delhi Under-15 team
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, October 7
Karan Harit has been named the captain of the Delhi Under-15 team with Vartik Tihara as his deputy for the first two matches of the Polly Umrigar Trophy Zonal Programme for 2002-2003.

The 16-member team was picked by the Junior Selection Committee, which met under the chairmanship of Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) sports secretary Sunil Dev. The other selectors present were Mahinder Singh and Bikker Bahadur.

The team announced by Mr Sunil Dev is: Karan Harit (captain), Vartik Tihara (vice-captain), Siddharth Mandley, Kartik Bhatia, Rushil Bhaskar, Virat Kohli, Anuj Jain, Karan Rai, Saurabh Srivastava, Aswath, Kevin Gupta, Mohd. Daewood, Kumar Abhishek, Tapan Jain, Soumya Azad and Saurabh Srivastava (wicket keeper).

Standbyes: Yogesh Nagar, Parateek Pawar, Raman Sachdeva, Mohit Chaudhary, Shobit Kaushik, Hemant Chugh and Saurabh Passi, Somen Trikha and Tarun Chaudhary.

Mr Hitesh Sharma and Mr Baljeet Singh Joban will be the coach and manager of the team. The players will have to report to the coach and manager on Tuesday at 2.30 pm at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground for a practice-cum-coaching camp.

Air Force win

Indian Air Force beat Delhi Blues by one wicket in the N N Mohan Memorial Cricket Tournament at the Mohan Meakins Stadium in Ghaziabad.

Scores: Delhi Blues: 143 all out in 36.1 overs (Ankur Kakkar 28, 2x4, 1x6; Mihir Diwakar 23, Deepak Bhaskar 2 for 38).

Air Force: 144 for 9 in 42.3 overs (Deepak Bhaskar 54 n o, Mukesh Deewan 4 for 29, Sachin Jain 2 for 20). Deepak Bhaskar was named the Man of the Match.

S P enter Rameshwar Trophy final
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, October 7
Deadly bowling by Vinay Sharma, who claimed five wickets for 24 runs, powered S P Academy to a 76 runs victory against Ravindra Public School, in the first semi-final match of the second Shaheed Smriti Under-19 Cricket Tournament for the Rameshwar Trophy, organised by the North Delhi Cricketers’ Association, at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground.

In the second semi-final, Scindia Club India will meet Lal Bahadur Shastri Club. The final will be played on October 10.

A large number of spectators watched the thrilling match, including Delhi Under-17 coach Radhey Shyam and manager Devender Chaudhary, Sports Committee member Praveen Jain, Delhi Under-15 team manager B S Joban, organising secretary Rajinder Saini and secretary of the North Delhi Cricketers’ Association Himmat Saini.

Vinay Sharma was adjudged the man of the match. The award was presented to him by DDCA Sports Committee member and president of the Delhi Cricket Association of Disabled P S Chauhan. S P Academy won the toss and batted first.

Scores: S P Academy: 208 all out in 38.4 overs (Anuj Tyagi 41, Vinay Sharma 35, Harish 3 for 32, Shawej Khan 2 for 33, Sandeep 2 for 25).

Ravindra Public School: 132 all out in 30.3 overs (Karan Passi 26, Akash Chauhan 36, Vinay Sharma 5 for 24).

	Khanna, Azad felicitated Our Sports Reporter New Delhi, October 7 A galaxy of cricket players and sports officials attended the function to felicitate former vice-president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) C K Khanna for being appointed as vice-chairman of the National Cricket Academy (NCA). C K Khanna is also the vice-president of the Delhi and District Cricket Association. Newly-elected national cricket selector Kirti Azad was also felicitated on the occasion. Those who were present to felicitate Khanna and Kirti Azad, were former Delhi Chief Minister and Delhi BJP chief Madan Lal Khurana, Union Labour Minister Sahib Singh Verma, Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Subhash Chopra, DDCA president and former Union Law Minister Arun Jaitley, former national selector Madan Lal, Chief Commissioner of Income Tax L. K. Singhvi, senior police officials U. K. Katna, Deepak Mishra and R S Krishamaya, manager of the Indian cricket team Ram Babu Gupta, renowned cricketers Hari Gidwani, Suresh Luthra, Rajan Mehra, V N Nigam, Bhaskar Pillai, Delhi Ranji Trophy captain Vijay Dahiya and other members of the Ranji team, DDCA joint secretary Sunil Khanna, joint club secretary Dr S. S. Sareen, Anil Khanna, Sunil Mittal, chairman of the Company Secretary Institute S. P. Narang and president of the Shri Ram College of Commerce Alumni Association Girish Ahuja.
	R R Gymkhana lift title Our Sports Reporter New Delhi, October 7 A devastating bowling spell by Sandeep Angurala, who claimed four wickets for 38 runs and a crackling unbeaten knock of 52 by Pradeep Chawla, enabled Rohtak Road Gymkhana beat Dena Bank by eight runs and lift the S P Sharma Memorial Cricket Tournament trophy at the Jasola Sports Complex. R R Gymkhana received a cash prize of Rs 11000, while Dena Bank was awarded Rs 8100. Pradeep Chawla was adjudged the man of the tournament while Vishal Sharma was declared the best batsman of the tournament. Vikas Vij got the best bowler award. Mr Maninder Singh Bhitta, chairman of the All-India Anti-Terrorist Front, gave away the prizes. Scores: R R Gymkhana: 223 for 7 in 40 overs (Pradeep Chawla 52 n o, Raja Gurmeet Singh 42, Abhinav Bali 35, Vikas Vij 3 for 30). Dena Bank: 215 all out in 39 overs (Sanjay Sharma 54, Varun Kumar 45, Pradeep Gupta 35, Sandeep Angurala 4 for 38).
	LIC Zonal Carrom Tournament Our Sports Reporter New Delhi, October 7 Players from 13 divisions of the Northern Zone are taking part in the 23rd Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) carrom tournament, which was inaugurated at the Russian Culture Centre, by Mr P. K. Behl, RM (P and R), Northern Zonal office. The following players entered the quarter-final rounds. Men: Mohd Irfan, Sanjay Verma, D K Baudh and Rajiv Prakash (all Delhi), N. N. Arora (Ajmer), Rajinder Rathore (Udaipur), Rajesh Khurana (Jodhpur) and Vikas Sharma (Ludhiana). Women: Bharti Narayan (Delhi), Neeraj Jain (Jalandhar), Saroj Saini (Udaipur), Bhanu Jain (Chandigarh). Also, Sneh Lata, Mamta Mukhi, Malti and Parvesh Thakur (all Delhi).
	Hewlett Packard down ICICI Our Sports Reporter New Delhi, October 7 Hewlett Packard beat ICICI Bank by six wickets in the sixth D G Phadkar Memorial Cricket Tournament at the Teri Oval. Vivek Dwivedi of Hewlett Packard was adjudged the man of the match. Scores: ICICI Bank: 74 all out in 17.4 overs (Vikas Prashad 31, 2x4, 3x6; J T Jacob 2 for 3, Sandeep Behl 2 for 3, Vivek Dwivedi 2 for 16). Hewlett Packard: 75 for 4 in 17.4 overs (Sanjeev Tickoo 28 n o, 2x4, 1x6; Vivek Dwivedi 27, 5x4; Gaurav Ahuja 1 for 6). Ganga in semis Ganga International School, Hiran Kudna edged past Ramjas Public School, Anand Parvat 3-2 to enter the semi-final of the Central Board of Secondary Education (Cluster X) Junior Football Tournament at the Ganga School ground. Rajesh Makar, Manas and Kamlesh were the scorers for Ganga School. In the senior section, Ganga International beat Doon Public School 6-1 to sail into the quarter-final. Laxman Public School, Haus Khas beat Mont Fort School 3-2 and Jaspal Kaur Public School beat Arwashin Public School 1-0 in other matches.

Nagar Nigam removes 25 encroachments
Our Correspondent

Ghaziabad, October 7
The Ghaziabad Nagar Nigam has removed 25 encroachments in Sector 10, Raj Nagar, area of the city. The Nagar Nigam has also confiscated three truckloads of goods spread near the roadside.

The anti-encroachment cell of the nigam removed 25 encroachments in Sector 10 of Raj Nagar. The offenders have been warned not to encroach public land or build unauthorised structures on government land in future also. The three truckloads of goods confiscated from the roadside will be returned only on receipt of fines and penalties by the nigam, the officials said. The Chief Nagar Officer, Mr Ram Bodh Maurya, inspected tax and penalty recoveries in the Kavi Nagar zonal office. He expressed unhappiness at only 33 per cent tax receipts and issued orders for speeding up the recoveries. As against a target of Rs 5.90 crore only Rs 1.66 crore had been received so far.

Meanwhile, the new Nagar Nigam Chief Engineer, Mr R. P. Singh, resumed charge of his office. He has been transferred from Meerut Nagar Nigam. Mr R. K. Shukla from Ghaziabad has been posted to Meerut Nagar Nigam in place of Mr R. P. Singh.