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Sunday,
February 9, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Lara a threat to South Africa Toss not a factor today: groundsman Bowling remains West Indies’ weak link 13th man India’s batting a
threat: Pollock Streak ready to torment India |
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Ponting wants nothing less than title Shoaib keen to bowl
to Tendulkar
Police gears up to curb betting Leander-Mahesh duo puts India ahead New Delhi, February 8 Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi played with clinical precision to decimate Jun Kato and Thomas Shimada 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 in 90 minutes in the doubles tie to put India 2-1 ahead against Japan in the Asia-Ocenia Group I Davis Cup tie at the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association centre court here today. East Bengal rout HAL 4-1
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Lara a threat to South Africa Cape Town, February 8 It was Lara who secured the West Indies a place in the 1996 World Cup semifinals at the expense of South Africa with a smashing century. With Lara declaring his intentions to bounce back after illness and establish himself as the number one batsman in the world, South Africans were treating his threat very seriously indeed in this World Cup. His clash with Allan Donald under lights would be a classic moment because of the duels they have enjoyed between them in the past. Donald claimed his team had a recipe to dismiss Lara cheaply and pointed out that the left-hander had never scored a hundred at Test level against South Africa. But Donald knows that when Lara is in on song it is very difficult to contain him. Asked about Lara’s preparation for the match, Ricky Skerritt, the West Indies team manager said: “Brian is fit, ready and committed.” Skerritt admitted Lara was under pressure to deliver at the big stage. “Critics at the highest level of cricket are in agreement that Lara is a genius. Obviously there is pressure on him to perform. Some of that pressure is of Brian’s own doing because he has high levels of excellence and would like to maintain them,” he said. But Lara has certainly displayed the ability to handle that pressure in the past. Asked about Lara’s supposed inability to stay focused and motivated at all times, Skerritt said Lara had had a range of injuries and “situations” that had taken him away from the game for a while. “However, Brian is committed to excel against South Africa, and I am confident that he will perform at the cricket World Cup tournament.” Lara is widely known as the record-breaker who leapt into immortality with 876 runs which broke two of the most treasured records in cricket. He scored 375 at St. John’s, Antigua to better Garfield Sobers’s word record Test score of 365. Only seven weeks later he surpassed Hanif Mohammad’s world record of 499 by scoring 501 for Warwickshire against Durham. Both records were made before Lara’s 25th birthday. Following these record-breaking feats, Lara seemed at times almost disinterested and dispirited but when he is focused, the Trinidadian is a match winner with a free flowing willow and Calypso-spirit. The question bothering both West Indies and South Africa is which Lara will turn up tomorrow - the unfocused and tentative struggler, or the well-motivated and hyper-active left handed genius. West Indies captain Carl Hooper believed the pressure was on the hosts. “I think the pressure’s going to be on the South African side.” Hooper was also looking to the last time the two teams met on a cricket field to assert they were no longer push-overs. In a sensational Champions Trophy match in Sri Lanka last year, West Indies lost to South Africa off the last ball. “The last time we played South Africa, in all fairness we should have won,” said Hooper. But South African captain Shaun Pollock was not too impressed with the Caribbeans. “The West Indies are a quality outfit but so are we,” said Pollock. “They have been playing on low, slow wickets on the sub-continent so they will have to adapt to South African conditions.” Meanwhile, preparations of both teams were disrupted by unseasonal rain here yesterday but fine weather was forecast for tomorrow. Teams (from): South Africa: Shaun Pollock (captain), Herschelle Gibbs, Gary Kirsten, Boeta Dippenaar, Jacques Kallis, Jonty Rhodes, Mark Boucher, Lance Klusener, Nicky Boje, Allan Donald, Makhaya Ntini. West Indies: Carl Hooper (captain), Chris Gayle, Wavell Hinds, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Brian Lara, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Ricardo Powell, Ridley Jacobs, Vasbert Drakes, Mervyn Dillon, Jermaine Lawson. Umpires: S. Venkataraghavan (Ind), Daryl Harper (Aus).
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Toss not a factor today: groundsman Cape Town, February 8 “On Thursday, I thought it would be a bit slow, but today I am more convinced that there will be more speed and carry. It will not be an encounter during which winning the toss, will automatically mean victory,” Christo Erasmus, groundsman at
Newlands, said yesterday. Erasmus said he was not worried about the effect the opening ceremony would be having on the playing surface for the match. “It will make life a bit more difficult. One could expect the outfield to be somewhat whiter because of all the traffic. We had about 10 rehearsals the past three weeks,” he said.
PTI |
Bowling
remains West Indies’ weak link By the time you read this piece, the ball would have been set rolling for the eighth edition of the cricket World Cup after, what I am given to understand, a spectacular opening ceremony, last night. Though the tournament sponsors tried their best to put “cricket first”, it’s rather sad that the sport’s most prestigious tourney has highlighted off-field controversies. But as tournament warms-up with a clash between yesteryears and present day powers, cricket will be back to the fore. As former heavyweights West Indies take on hosts South Africa in the opening encounter, the odds would be heavily tilted in favour of the latter, if skill, performance ratings and consistency were any parameters to judge this contest. Though group B is relatively easy when compared to the other group, still one of the four major teams, Sri Lanka and New Zealand being the other, have to sit out of the Super Six stage. The gap between the teams barring South Africa isn’t too big, which promises an excellent cocktail of cricket and competitiveness in the earlier stages itself. West Indies decline in one day cricket has been pretty much the same as rupee tumbling against the dollar but having said that, West Indies remain the dark horse of the tournament. The return of the injured Brian Lara is a huge moral boost to the former two time world champions but Lara’s brilliance must tie the knot with consistency to rightfully justify his world class tag. Skipper Carl Hooper often relishes tough challenges and trust him to come good at this championship. Supported by faithful lieutenants, Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan, the West Indies middle order looks solid even when question mark remains on Marlon Samuels’ return to the Windies squad. Samuels, like Lara, is highly talented and is peaking at the right time and would be a great help in West Indies making past the first grade. Openers Wavell Hinds and Chris Gayle have their confidence sky high, thanks to the generous feeding by the Indian and Bangladeshi to adjust their natural attacking flair to the South African conditions. Bowling, however, remains Hooper’s weak link.
Mervyn Dillon, their strike bowler hasn’t enjoyed his stints with the ball off late and clubbing Jermaine Lawson, Pedro Collins and Vasbert Drakes, the bowling seems rather pedestrian, though personally I have high hopes from Lawson. Hooper’s another problem would to get part timers deliver a major chunk of overs. South Africa, on the other hand seem to have everything going their way. A nice composition of the team, with tactful balance of youth and experience, make them strong contenders for the Cup. Remember the host nation do not have happy memories in this particular championship, with two heart breaking losses in consecutive world cups at the last stages. Allan Donald, Jonty Rhodes and Gary Kirsten, will form the backbone of the team and great stalwarts that they are of their respective departments, the likes of Kallis, Gibbs, Mark Boucher, Makhaya Ntini and Pollock can safely ride on their backs to set the record books straight. Much has been said about the lean patch of Lance Klusener and his presence in the team but I would back my instincts that Lance would come good in this tournament. Frenzied home support apart, Proteas strength lies in the plethora of all round talent at the disposal of Pollock, Nicky Boje being another addition in that category. South Africa have the luxury of a settled batting and bowling attack and the world class fielding standards adding extra cushion to that comfort. Still, South Africa would have to watch out for complacency and needs to pin point their energies and concentration to avoid any repeats of 1996 or 99. An exciting game is about to begin!
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13th man CAPE TOWN: “All this took place in just one day,” said Saurav Ganguly, sitting next to me, rapt in attention as television commercials were run on giant monitor screens. As Indian captain, he figured in every second spot and was proud he didn’t need many retakes for his shoots. “At the most, two retakes,” said Ganguly, visibly happy with almost a flawless work in front of the camera. The evening was a party thrown by LG, one of World Cup’s main sponsors, at an opulent hotel on Cape Town’s scenic waterfront. All participating captains were present, except England’s Nasser Hussain, busy with the ICC to thrash out the ticklish Zimbabwe issue, and West Indies’ Carl Hooper who couldn’t beat the traffic in time. Ganguly might have been pleased with his acting skills but he still thought home captain Shaun Pollock was the best of all. “Watch him, he looks so natural and so completely at ease with his expressions,” uttered the Indian captain. As all the captains stood on the stage, Ganguly appeared the odd man out with brown leather shoes on an otherwise white cricketing attire. “I had no option but to wear them as they didn’t have shoes to fit me,” Ganguly said later as he tried to slip himself into a hastily arranged pair of sport shoes by the organisers. “And now these ones, they appear too tight for me.” Ganguly was relaxed but not indifferent to his team’s failings in the last practice game against KwaZulu Natal on Thursday. “Most of us tried to hit shots in the air,” said the Indian captain shaking his head in despair “We just didn’t bat with any application.” The organisers did the socially correct thing by parading a group of HIV patients on stage and informing everyone of how bravely they had beaten the odds to survive. Ganguly was curious to know how the infection spreads and whether science, in years to come, would have an answer to this deadly disease. Ganguly looked forward to the opening ceremony but better still was keen for his side to practice hard in the next few days before squaring up to Holland in their first game. “We don’t know much about Holland and need to be on our guard,” said Ganguly “One thing is sure, we have practiced hard and you would be surprised with our fielding standards in this tournament.” Ravi Shastri, now an LG ambassador, compared with his characteristic aplomb and did his best to salvage a rather cluttered evening. Waqar Younis, the Pakistan skipper, was delighted the way he has shed weight in recent months. “Too much of cricket has its benefits,” said Waqar with an impish smile on his face. Ricky Ponting, captain of cricket’s glam team, mixed freely and along with Stephen Fleming, looked no different than a youngster out on a trendy part in a trendy joint. Outside the hotel, in a different corner of the beach front, Sachin Tendulkar with team-mates Ashish Nehra and Virender Sehwag preferred to have Chinese food in the dinner. They sat in a secluded part of the restaurant, avoiding any social contact, and also apparently were without a security cover. The last thing this World Cup can afford is to slip-up on the safety aspect of players. But then players have as much a duty towards their security as it’s the job of the men paid to give them protection. Ashish Shukla will write
exclusively for The Tribune from South Africa on off-field issues. |
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India’s batting a threat: Pollock Cape Town, Feb 8 “They may have had their failures in recent times but it remains potentially a very dangerous batting line-up,” said Pollock who had still not forgotten the two ICC Champions Trophy semifinal defeats against India in Kenya and Sri Lanka. India had a disastrous tour of New Zealand in December when they lost both their Test matches and were thrashed 5-2 in the one-day series. But Pollock was not willing to rate Indians lightly. “I remember from my past experience they are a dangerous bunch of customers. They did it to us in Kenya and Sri Lanka, and they batted brilliantly well when they toured here last time (in 2001),” he said. The hosts’ captain in particular remembers Sourav Ganguly for some astonishing hitting in the one-dayers, smashing no less than 14 sixes in the triangular Standard Bank tournament of 2001-2002. “Ganguly showed he had a freakish sense of timing,” commented Pollock about his Indian counterpart. Pollock said there was pressure on his team to do well in this tournament but they were taking a match at a time. “There is pressure on us but we are not looking too far ahead. We are ready for this World Cup.” Pollock also denied it was right to say his team chokes up in big moments.
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Streak ready to torment India Cape Town, February 8 “We remember from our past games what Indians don’t like,” Streak told PTI here today in an interview. “They have appeared susceptible to balls seaming and swinging on our tracks,” Streak said. Streak was referring to India’s recent record in Harare where they have lost two of the three Tests and have also been beaten in one-dayers. India, led by Mohammad Azharuddin, also came a cropper in 1998 when they failed to chase a target of 250 plus in the fourth innings in an one-off Test. In May 2001, it was Sourav Ganguly and his men who collapsed to only 200-odd runs in their second innings to once again lay beaten. “We also know they had a poor series in New Zealand and we would make our preparations keeping these points in mind,” said Streak. India have a history of having some extremely close finishes with Zimbabwe starting with 1983 World Cup when they had the Indians reeling at 17 for five before Kapil Dev played an all-time great innings of 175. India were astonishingly beaten by Zimbabwe in the last edition of the World Cup in England, losing three wickets in the final over. It was a defeat which hurt them enormously for the rest of the tournament. Streak believes that with all six first-round matches at home, Zimbabwe is perfectly capable of reaching the super six stage. “Obviously there have been a lot of distractions but the guys have been very focused on the World Cup,” he said. Streak wants to concentrate entirely on cricket and would rather not comment on the politics swirling over the cricketing set-up of his country. “I am not an economist or a politician. I keep out of that,” said Streak. “This is not a cricketing issue. That’s up to the economists and the politicians. I’ve got games of cricket to play and I’m looking forward to hosting our World Cup games.” Streak is privileged compared to most of his countrymen but even he has had his share of governmental attention in the past. His father Dennis was jailed when he refused to give up his farm. Three-quarters of the land was taken over under president Robert Mugabe’s redressal plan. But Heath Streak, the 28-year-old veteran of 51 Tests and 149 one-day games, is adamant Zimbabwe is a safe place to play cricket.
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Ponting
wants nothing less than title Johannesburg, February 8 “There’s going to be more expectation on us this time than any other time,” Ponting said. “It’s a huge tournament and it would be great if we could win it, but there’s a lot of hard work first.” While the burden of trying to repeat their earlier successes could weigh down some teams, Ponting said Australia’s victory in 1999 World Cup has given them added confidence and a psychological edge over their rivals. “We’ve got a very, very good team and we can sometimes have an aura about us so that other teams find it hard to play their best against us,” said Ponting who, at 28, is the youngest captain among the main contenders to win the coveted title. “We’ve got the players here who’ve been through tough games in World Cups and know how to win a World Cup so all those things add up.” Australia will start their campaign with the match against Pakistan here on February 11. Ponting said though his leadership style has been strongly influenced by Waugh, he is now starting to impose his own character on the team. “I think you learn a little bit from every captain you play under... so I probably think my captaincy style is a mix of all of those guys put together. It’s been over 12 months so hopefully there’s a bit of a stamp on the team now. If there wasn’t, I would be a bit concerned. “Things are going well, the team is playing good cricket and seems to have responded well to me taking over as captain. I’ve always felt pretty confident. Even before I was made captain I always tried to think as a captain out on the field so nothing’s really changed a lot there.”
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Shoaib keen to bowl to Tendulkar Cape Town, February 8 “My adrenalin gets going when I bowl to Tendulkar,” said Shoaib as he looked ahead to his side’s potentially explosive clash with India at Centurion Park on March 1. “There are Gilchrists and there are Haydens but Tendulkar is in a different league of his own. “I have enormous respect for his ability as a batsman,” he said, bemoaning the fact that he has not had much opportunity to “test” himself against the world’s greatest batsman. “I have bowled to him only in one Test. May be in a couple of one-day internationals. I have always enjoyed the challenge of bowling to him." “Unless you test yourself against the likes of Tendulkar, and (Brian) Lara, you really can’t judge how you are,” he said. Shoaib won the first round of his battle against Tendulkar when he knocked off the little genius’ middle stump with the very first ball he bowled to him during the Kolkata Test
in the 1998-99 series. He said he would love to do something similar in the World Cup.
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Police gears up to curb betting Bathinda, February 8 The Punjab police authorities, who have collected a considerable amount of relevant information in connection with the betting business which run into hundreds of crores of rupees, have been planning raids throughout the state on the bookies, who operate in a clandestine manner using cell phones and all types of electronic gadgets. Over the years, the World Cup of any sporting event, particularly football and cricket, has been kicking off heavy betting with the entire state in grip of betting mania. Official sources said that apart from putting Punjab police personnel and sleuths of CID, Punjab on the job to keep a close watch on the activities of known bookies, the police authorities have also been taking help from the sleuths of Intelligence Bureau (IB) for ensuring the success of their operations, which could be launched any time. Information gathered by TNS revealed that already bets worth crores of rupees had been laid in Punjab over the final outcome of the ICC World Cup-2003. The betting fever is running so high that even a large number of rural youths facing extreme poverty had been shelling out money to lay bets with the hope to make fast buck. Mr Ishwar Singh, SSP, when contacted, while declining to divulge any information regarding decision of the state police
authorities, said that Bathinda police had been geared up to check the menace of betting. He added that a number of satta operators had already been arrested. LUDHIANA: Australia stands at the top among the bookies while India is placed fourth after Africa and Pakistan which are placed second and third, respectively. But there are hundreds of others who are placing small bets for underdogs as these offer massive returns. Weaker the team, more the returns. Although betting has already become part of cricket, it is expected to touch all time high during the World Cup. “It is betting all the way and nothing else”, retorted a punter when asked about the level of betting taking place in the run-up to the World Cup. While the local bookies are accepting the stakes from the hundreds of punters, the betting is reportedly being controlled from Dubai with the Karachi-based underworld Don Dawood Ibrahim exercising considerable control over it. The recent assassination of Sharad Shetty, a close Dawood aide, is also linked with the rivalry in the betting world. |
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Leander-Mahesh duo puts India ahead
New Delhi, February 8 The doubles victory has rekindled the hosts’ hopes of wrapping up the tie, though the onus of giving the killer punch would once again be on Leander, as he would have to beat Goichi Motomura in the second reverse singles tomorrow to ensure victory. Rohan Boppana's stock has plummeted after his defeat due to an erratic performance in the opening singles on Friday. India would have been in dire straights had not Leander beaten Takao Suzuki in straight sets in the second singles after Rohan lost to Motomura in four sets in the opening singles. Rohan meets Suzuki in the reverse singles opener tomorrow, and he cannot be expected to get the better of Suzuki, who is ranked 133rd on the ATP. The doubles was yet another day in office for Leander and Mahesh, who, among themselves, have collected 12 Grand Slam titles, and were once ranked at the top. No wonder, they struck up an instant rapport on court, and the Japanese pair, no way, could have made a match of it. The match started with Leander serving, and he provided killer punch by blasting a cross-court winner off his own serve, to get the set point. In between, Leander served and returned immaculately. His solid ground strokes, down the line, back hand and cross court winners were amazing efforts, and his good form came in handy when Mahesh tended to waver. While Leander simply raced through with his serves, Mahesh faced some hiccups, and was lucky to survive three break points in the seventh game of the first set. India could have wrapped up the first set earlier than they did if only Leander and Mahesh seized the chance to break Thomas Shimada in the second game. Shimada was down 0-40, but Mahesh and Leander blundered when they needed to score big points to let Shimada off the hook. Kato was the weak link, and the Indian pair targeted him to gain the breaks. He was broken in the fourth and eighth games as India won the first set in 28 minutes. The second set took two minutes longer to finish as the Japanese held their serves till Shimada was broken in the sixth game. Then Kato was broken in the eighth as the Indians played an encore. In the third set, Kato was allowed to hold his serve in the fourth game, despite India enjoying three break points. But it was a short reprieve, as he was broken in the eighth game. Leander served for the set, but when on match point, he committed a double fault, but made up for the lapse quickly by firing a cross court winner, to the delight of a packed house.  |
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East Bengal rout HAL 4-1 Kolkata, February 8 After Okoro opened the account in the 21st minute, Suley Musah buttressed the lead in the 38th minute while the former made it 3-0 from a penalty conversion just before the breather. Okoro secured his third goal and team’s fourth in the 74th minute while the HAL reducer came three minutes before the end from striker Kentong. Churchill win MARGAO: Two goals by striker Yakubu Yusif helped rejuvenated Churchill Brothers rout strong contenders Dempo Sports Club 2-0 in the 12th round of the second leg of the National Football League at Nehru Stadium here today.
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