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Sunday,
March 30, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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India call off Pak tour Mongia, Zaheer star
in Indian XI win
Lanka team for Sharjah
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Jennifer Capriati sets up title clash with Serena
Paes-Rikl duo
in final
Title for Mankad-Uppal duo NATIONAL BOXING India pin hopes on Vijayan Randhawa shoots into lead Rana Sodhi is COA chief Punjab men annex title Abhinav bags gold Air-India
hold BSF
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India call off Pak tour
Kolkata, March 29 Cricket board President Jagmohan Dalmiya said the team could not go to Pakistan because of the long-standing government policy which has banned cricket matches with Pakistan in bilateral series. “It is known to everybody that the Centre is against bilateral cricket ties with Pakistan,” Dalmiya told PTI here. Dalmiya wrote to the Pakistan Cricket Board informing it of India’s inability to send its team which attracted threat of a similar boycott from Pakistan next year. “BCCI chief Jagmohan Dalmiya informed us that though they were willing to tour Pakistan, the Indian government has not given them the approval,” PCB spokesman Samiul Hassan told PTI in Islamabad. Hassan said keeping in view India’s stand, Pakistan would not send its team to India for a scheduled tour in 2004. India has refused to play Pakistan in bilateral series since the Kargil war in 1999, accusing its neighbour of promoting cross-border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, though the two teams did face each other in the World Cup in South Africa earlier this month. That the next month’s tour, which entailed three Test matches and an equal number of one-day internationals, would not go ahead was clear when India announced that it would be participating in a tri-nation tournament in Dhaka, against Bangladesh and South Afria, from April 11. India was scheduled to tour Pakistan from April 8 to May 15. Hassan said the PCB was trying to rope in some other team to fill in the gap but refused to elaborate. However, there are reports that the PCB is considering inviting Kenya for a one-day series during that time. Kenya, who became the first non-Test playing country to reach the semifinals of the World Cup earlier this month, have, along with Zimbabwe, also been invited to replace South Africa in a one-day tournament with Pakistan and Sri Lanka in Sharjah from April 3 to 10. South Africa pulled out of the tournament due to security concerns owing to the war in Iraq. Saurav Ganguly’s team was scheduled to tour Pakistan as part of the International Cricket Council programme according to which each Test-playing country is supposed to play four series — two at home and two away — against each other in a 10-year period.
PTI |
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Mongia, Zaheer star
in Indian XI win
Mumbai, March 29 Despite the failure of Indian openers — Sachin Tendulkar (6) and Virender Sehwag (17) - India, electing to bat first, scored an imposing 294 for seven with Mongia displaying a fine array of shots notched up 116 not out off just 108 balls. The middle-order also chipped in with Yuvraj Singh scoring a run-a-ball 41 and Sanjay Bangar making 31 of 43 balls to take the Indian score close to the 300 mark. In reply, the Sri Lankans were rattled up by a fiery Zaheer Khan, who claimed three wickets for 29, as the visitors were all out for 170. Set to get 6.5 runs per over, the Sri Lankans lost wickets regularly after Zaheer Khan made inroads claiming the wickets of openers Sanath Jayasuriya (8), Romesh Kaluwitharana (5) and Kumara Sangakkara (7) to be all out in just 35.5 overs. Former Lankan opener Roshan Mahanama top scored for his side with a fluent 43 off 49 balls. The match was organised to raise fund for the Dinanath Mangeshkar cancer hospital in Pune. Earlier, in the afternoon both captains Saurav Ganguly and Arjuna Ranatunga landed in the stadium in a helicopter. Soon after Bollywood star Shahrukh Khan tossed the coin before the start of the match. Mongia, who hit four fours and a six during his knock, was declared the man-of-the-match. He added 79 runs (79 balls) for the sixth wicket with Bangar to coast the hosts to safety, who were struggling at 166 for five. Brief Scores:
India XI - 294 for seven off 45 overs (D Mongia 116 not out, Yuvraj Singh 41, S Bangar 31, I Zoysa 2-55) beat Sri Lanka XI - 170 all out in 35.3 overs (R Mahanama 43, U Chandana 39, A Gurusinghe 20, Zaheer Khan 3-29, Bangar 2-19, Yuvraj Singh 2-36).
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Lanka team for Sharjah Colombo, March 29 Though Jayasuriya, who resigned as skipper soon after the World Cup, was retained by the authorities, senior batsmen Mahela Jayawardena and Russel Arnold were dropped for the Sharjah tournament. Pacer Pulasthi Gunaratne was also axed for his unimpressive performance in the mega-event in South Africa. The Sharjah Cup involving Pakistan, Sri Lanka and South Africa was to take place from April 1 to 8. Now it will be played between April 3 and 10 with the participation of Kenya and Zimbabwe in addition to Pakistan and Sri Lanka. South Africa refused to travel to the United Arab Emirates because of the war in Iraq prompting the authorities to make alternate arrangements. The Sri Lankan team features three new faces - the top order batsman Michael Vandort, wicket-keeper batsman Prasanna Jayawardena and leg spinner Kaushal Lokuarachchi. Kumar Dharmasena, the experienced off spinner and a member of the 1996 World Cup winning team, has been recalled after a long lay off. The squad: Sanath Jayasuriya (captain), Marvan Atapattu, Avishka Gunawardena, Kumar Sangakkara, Hashan Tillakaratne, Prasanna Jayawardena, Jehan Mubarak, Chaminda Vaas, Dilhara Fernando, Prabath Nissanka, Charitha Buddika Fernando, Kumar Dharmasena, Kaushal Lokuarachchi, Muttiah Muralitharan and Michael
Vandort. PTI |
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Jennifer Capriati sets up title clash with Serena Key Biscayne, March 28 The sixth-seeded Capriati will face Serena Williams for the second straight year in the final and now hopes to crown her 27th birthday by landing the trophy. “Maybe she’ll feel generous and give me a birthday present and let me win,” Capriati said, looking forward to her first final of the year against Williams, who earned her final berth on Thursday with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over third seed Kim Clijsters of Belgium. In the men’s event, No. 2 seed American Andre Agassi advanced to the semifinals with a 7-6 (8/6), 4-6, 6-1 win over Morocco’s Younes El Aynaoui while Albert Costa, of Spain, outlasted Switzerland’s Roger Federer 7-6 (7/4), 4-6, 7-6 (9/7). If Capriati can produce the form she displayed against Rubin she could indeed cause Williams some difficulty. Capriati trails her rival 4-7 in career outings and last secured a victory against the world No 1 in the 2001 Wimbledon quarterfinals. Here they’ve played three times in the past. Williams won their final last year but Capriati won their meetings in the 2000 fourth round and 2001 quarterfinals. “I’m just going to go out there and try to play perfect tennis,” said Capriati. “It’s everything, just because this is like my hometown. And, more so, because I’ve come so close. It’s like if you keep trying, you just finally get rewarded. “Either way, I’m just happy to be in the final.” Capriati’s forehand was a precision weapon, producing 19 of her 27 outright winners. In the hunt for her first title since winning a third Grand Slam trophy at the 2002 Australian Open, Capriati started off on the wrong foot by losing her serve in the opening game of the match. From that point on, Capriati won six of the next seven games, allowing Rubin only to hold serve in the sixth game. In the second set of the 73-minute match, Capriati momentarily took a 1-3 backseat to Rubin, but regrouped to 5-3 before dropping serve. However, she broke Rubin’s serve in the final game to move ahead of Rubin 6-4 in their career meetings. In a match of spectacular tennis, defending champion Agassi recovered from a shaky second set to beat Younes El Aynaoui of Morocco. “I dug down and made him hit shots and that took the edge off his game,” said Agassi. “I have to give him credit because he played some incredible tennis.” The ninth-seeded Costa earned his semifinal berth earlier yesterday by completing a match halted by rain on Thursday against Federer. Agassi holds a 3-1 lifetime career edge over the Spaniard. The win provided Agassi with a 4-0 record over El Aynaoui, but the American is well aware that El Aynaoui is not easy to beat. “He’s a great talent. I think his style of play is phenomenal,” said Agassi of El Aynaoui. Although Agassi failed to win the second set, he played near flawless tennis in majority of the match. Agassi only executed 11 unforced errors in the entire match and none in the third set. In that third set, Agassi stepped up his offence, holding all four of his service games at love and breaking El Aynaoui’s serve in all but the second game. The first set was a brilliant showing with each player holding serve as they worked their way to the tiebreaker. Costa earlier polished off Federer in their rain-delayed encounter to reach the semifinals. Costa needed precisely 12 minutes, 51 seconds on court when the pair returned to play the final 18 points after the match was suspended overnight at 6-5 deuce for the Spaniard in the third set. “I was really, really happy because it was a tough situation,” said a relieved Costa, who survived three match points. Costa is now into his first semi-final of the year. Federer had his third match point at 6-5 in the tie-breaker — he had two on his serve in the 10th game which would have put him into the semifinals before rain washed out play on Thursday — but Costa produced a winning forehand approach and a Federer forehand wide handed him victory.
AFP |
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Paes-Rikl duo
in final New Delhi, March 29 The Indo-Czech pair conceded the first set after failing to convert two break points but rallied brilliantly staving off three break points in the final set against the Americans, according to information reaching here
today. Paes and Rikl will play Belarussian Max Mirnyi, who won last year’s US Open doubles crown with Mahesh
Bhupathi, and Swiss star Roger Federer in the final. PTI |
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Title for Mankad-Uppal duo Kolkata, March 29 The doubles final, an all-Indian affair, saw Mankad and Uppal humble the fourth-seeded combination of Vijay Kannan and Ajay Ramaswamy in straight sets 6-1, 6-4 at the BTA tennis complex. Mlynarik gave an awesome demonstration of powerful ground strokes and serves to win his second Futures title in a week prevailing over Marcel Felder of Uruguay 6-3, 6-4 in the final. He gained 18 ITF points and a prize money of $1,950, while Felder had to contend with $ 1350 and 12 ITF points. Mlynarik, who had won the Mumbai leg of the Futures last week by outclassing Rohan Bopanna in the final, broke his opponent in the first and fifth games, but the Uruguyan broke back in the sixth. However, Mlynarik played his shots well to again break Felder in the ninth game to take the set 6-3. The Austrian kept up the momentum in the second set to open up a 5-2 lead, but at that point Felder raised his game by several notches and broke Mlynarik in the ninth to reduce the margin to 4-5. But serving to level the score and save the match, Felder suddenly became a bundle of nerves and committed two double faults to concede the set 4-6 and surrender the match after a 83-minute fight. The doubles final saw its first break in the fourth game when Kannan dropped his serve as Mankad-Uppal raced to a 4-1 lead by taking the fifth game. The sixth game saw a marathon battle as 20 points were played on Ramaswamy’s serve. Ramaswamy saved six break points before succumbing. Mankad and Uppal conceded the first two points on the former’s serve in the next game to trail 0-30, but then took the next four points to seal the opening set. The Mankad-Uppal duo then cruised to a comfortable 6-4 victory in the second set to clinch the title.
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NATIONAL BOXING New Delhi, March 29 The Commonwealth Games gold medallist landed a flurry of punches on his opponent last evening to win by a margin of 25-7, with the referee fighting in favour of Qamar in the third round itself. In the other matches of the day, Akhil Kumar of Railways beat Sundy Raja of Andhra Pradesh 27-13 in the flyweight category. The Railways team continued its dominance in the championship with Dharambeer Singh registering a 19-13 victory over Vijender Singh of Haryana in the bantamweight category. The following are the other results: Light Flyweight: Bhabneshwar (CHT) beat Rajkumar (Karnataka) 14-12 Khemanand Belwaal (SSCB) beat Anurag Verma (Himachal) 36-21 Arun Singh (AIP) bt Gurala Ram Rao (Andhra) 27-16. Flyweight: S Suresh Singh (CISF) bt Sunil Chodankar (Goa) RSC III round Robin Deo (SPSB) bt Rakesh K Das (CHT) RSC II round D Kannan (SSCB) bt K Satish Kumar (Karnataka) RSC III round. Bantam: Sujit Biswa (AR) bt Ashish K Sharma (UP) 54-36 Y Herojit Singh (Manipur) bt Amandeep Singh (AIP) RSC IV round Dalbir Singh (CISF) beat V Durga Rao (Andhra) 34-12. Feather: Muztaba Kamal (RSPB) beat Navin Deo (Haryana) 25-12 Som Bahadur Pun (SSCB) bt Pramod S Nego (AIP) 31-19 D Munik Murthy (Andhra) bt Aimul Huda (Bengal) 14-6 Bishal Chhetri (MEG) beat Rakesh Kumar (Punjab) 25-11. Light: Devender (Delhi) bt Ramesh Chaturvedi (UP) RSC III round. UNI |
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India pin hopes on Vijayan Margao, March 29 With the experienced striker Baichung Bhutia, reliable defender Debjit Ghosh and promising striker Ashim Biswas being ruled out for tomorrow’s tie, the Indian young turks will have to depend on the experience of IM Vijayan and in-form captain Jo Paul Ancheri to deliver the goods. Having lost 0-2 in their away match, the Indians are aware that they will have to beat the Koreans by at least 2-0 margin and see that they don’t concede any goal as according to tournament guidelines issued by the Asian Football Confederation, an away goal counts for two in the ultimate goal analysis. “It will definitely be a tough game and it will be difficult to beat the Koreans, who only need a draw to move into the next round. We will adopt a defensive game (5-4-1) with only one striker in front and try to pin us on the backfoot on counter-attack and we are ready for that.” a confident Indian coach Stephen Constantine said. For the Koreans, stamina would be a crucial factor as they are not accustomed to the sultry heat. “If our boys are able to get them tired in the first half and get an early goal, we stand a good chance to snatch victory against Koreans, who are dangerous exponents of dead-ball situations,” Constantine added. However, the Indian coach admitted that the team would miss the services of experienced and talented Bhutia. “But we have other players like Alvito D’Cunha, Alex Ambrose and Abhishek Yadav who are capable of scoring goals,” he said. In-form Jo Paul Ancheri will lead the attack along with Renedy Singh, Climax Lawerence and S
Venkatesh. PTI |
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Randhawa shoots into lead New Delhi, March 29 Randhawa, the 2002 Asian PGA Order of Merit leader who was placed joint fourth with a day two card of 71, is now one stroke ahead of Australian Adam Groom, who carded a three-under 69 today. Groom was in joint lead along with Myanmar’s Zaw Moe and South African James Kingston goingz into the third round. Moe shot a two-under today to be placed joint third along with Rick Gibson (69) and Mike Cunning (68) of the USA on 206. Kingston (71) was close on their heels at joint sixth on 207. The hero of the day was undoubtedly local favourite Randhawa who brought back the smiles on the myriad faces at the historic Delhi Golf Club course here. Starting the day with an eagle, Randhawa rediscovered his love for the DGC greens and staked his claim for the coveted Indian Open title which he had won in 2000. Having won two of the Hero Honda Masters title at this very venue, Randhawa today exploited his familiarity with the course to give himself the cushion of a one-stroke lead going into the fourth and final round tomorrow. “It is a tough course. But somehow it works for me,” the Delhi golfer said after his round while admitting he did not really “expect to finish the day so strongly”. Randhawa was not planning anything “fancy” tomorrow. “I will just stick to the basics and follow the same game plan unless the wind changes,” he said. Randhawa, who has his brother Bunty for a caddy, said he was thrilled by his performance today as he had not been on the top of his game for quite some time.
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Rana Sodhi is COA chief Chandigarh, March 29 After nearly one hour of hectic deliberations, Mr Sodhi announced his new team comprising of 19 office-bearers, which included one president, one senior-vice president three vice-presidents, one secretary-general, one treasurer, two joint secretaries, and five executive members. Mr Sodhi clarified that they would not have voting rights unless an amendment was made in the constitution. As expected, Mr Ravinder Talwar, the man associated with many sports organisations was appointed secretary-general, while Mr Chandersekhar, president of the Chandigarh Hockey Association and a senior IPS officer was made senior vice- president. Mr TC Gupta, former IAS officer and a known name in sports, was made vice-president alongwith Mr Satish Chandra, another senior IAS officer and president of the Chandigarh Amateur Boxing Association and leading industrialist Jaspal Singh Kandhari. Mr Kandhari recently took over as new president of the Chandigarh Gymnastics Association. Mrs K Atma Ram, now a councillor in the Municipal Corporation was the lone women’s representation. Since morning, more than 300 supporters of Rana Sodhi mainly from his home constituency, Guruharsahai in Ferozepore District, and other friends had converged on the venue to show their solidarity with Sodhi. Later talking to newspersons, Rana Sodhi announced the holding of the city sports festival in the city. He would soon convene a meeting to chalk out the strategy to promote sports in the city. Immediately after Rana Sodhi’s appointment, congratulatory messages poured in from Raja Randhir Singh, secretary-general, Olympic Council of Asia, Mr Suresh Kalmadi, president, IOA and Mr Arvind Khanna, president, Fencing Association of India among others. All sports bodies were represented in today’s meeting. However, the Chandigarh Badminton Association is not affiliated with the COA. The office-bearers of the COA are: Life president-Col AS Judge; patron-Mr Rajan Kashyap; adviser-Mr Milkha Singh; president — Rana Gurmit Sodhi; senior vice-president — Mr Chandersekhar’ vice-presidents — Mr TC Gupta, Mr Satish Chandra and Mr Jaspal Singh Kandhari; secretary-general — Mr Ravinder Talwar; treasurer — Mr Vijay Pal Singh; joint secretaries — Prof CK Jerath and Mr R Sharan; Associate vice-presidents — Mr AP Singh, Mr Ashok Goel and Mr Satpal Jain; associate joint secretaries — Mr MS Cheema and Mr Maha Singh. Executive members — Mr JP Sharma, Mr SC Khanna, Mrs K Atma Ram, Mr JS Cheema and Mr Kewal Dhillon. The following four committees were formed — Affiliation and Dispute Committee — chairma — Col TS Dhillon, convener — Mr Jagbir Singh. Sports Development Committee — chairman — Mr SD Sharma, member — Mr Mohanjit Singh; finance committee — chairman — Mr M Ramsekhar, media committee — Chairman — Mr Raman Kalia. |
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Punjab men annex title Patiala, March 29 With this win, the hosts extracted sweet revenge as in the nationals held at Pune last year they were piped to the second place by Manipur.The hosts accumulated 36 points, followed by Manipur with 26 points. Karnataka with 10 points were third. On the distaff side, Manipur lived upto their top billing and claimed the overall title by collecting 41 points. The team, which started as favourites, somehow lost focus midway in the championship, before the experience and expertise of E.Geeta Devi and M.Usha Rani, enabled them to retain the title. The hosts, with 12 points were placed third. In the final of the foil individual event for men, Punjab’s Vikramjit Singh was engaged in a epic duel with Rajeshwar of Manipur before getting the better of him 15-14. Vikramjit, displaying fine technique, used the foil for thrusting and cutting with both the cutting edge as well as the back of the blade. Accordingly, a majority of his hits were counted as good which enabled him to get back into the reckoning after being down at one stage. Technically superior than his opponent, the Punjab lad made good use of the offensive actions, including the attack, the riposte and the counter riposte. In the epee individual final for men, Rohit Gangadhar of Karnataka beat Paramvir Dhaliwal of Punjab 15-9. The unique manner Rohit adopted to execute both the immediate and delayed ‘riposte’ came in for praise from all quarters. This complex technique left his opponent gasping for breath as he registered a comprehensive win. The final of the foil team event for women saw the Manipur girls successfully defend their title when they defeated an out-of-form Punjab 15-6. After starting smoothly the winners suddenly found things going awry. The Manipur girls started pushing and dragging the point of the electric weapon on the electric ‘piste’ for too long, which meant they had to surrender valuable points. However, E.Geeta Devi and M.Usha Rani demonstrated their control as their rivals slowly ran out of steam and ultimately went down 6-15 to their better-equipped rivals. |
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Abhinav bags gold Chandigarh, March 29 Abhinav scored 598 in the preliminary round and went into the finals with other three shooters with similar score. This was one of the rare occasions when four of eight top shooters had scored so high points out of 600 in the preliminary round. The Indian boy had a series of 99,100,100, 100 and
99. Abhinav bagged a second gold for India with the score of 103.7 in the final.
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Air-India hold BSF Thiruvananthapuram, March 29 BSF forged ahead in the 12th minute with striker Gurjit Atwal connecting a left flank cross from Ouseph from inside the box. Air-India then put the pressure but their efforts to find the equaliser did not pay dividends in the first half. In the second half, the securitymen played a defensive game allowing Air-India to dominate and come close to scoring thrice. Air-India captain Anthony Fernandez found the target in the 44th minute following a goalmouth melee.
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