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Wednesday,
September 10, 2003, Chandigarh, India
  
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Challenger series a great opportunity, says Wright Bajpai may take over as treasurer Sachin hard to dislodge: Lee |
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Hockey camp begins amidst media blackout
Impressive win for Surjit Academy HSIDC spikers honoured Patiala take leads in first innings
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Seniors clash with India A
Bangalore, September 9 The likes of Shiv Sunder Das, Wasim Jaffer, Gautam Gambhir and Sanjay Bangar would have to prove their mettle for a opening slot, which has remained vulnerable for the last decade. The Trophy could also throw up India’s much-needed consistent wicketkeeper batsman, giving a rest to the tired back of vice captain Rahul Dravid. This will be one ocassion for Ajay Ratra and Thilak Naidu to lock horns with Parthiv Patel, for a place behind the stumps in the forthcoming home series against New Zealand. With Javagal Srinath’s retirement, the slot for the third pacer is also up for grabs, especially after Ashish Nehra recovering fast from an ankle injury. With Zaheer Khan’s spearheading the attack, upcoming pace bowlers L Balaji, Irfan Pathan and Avishkar Salvi will have to slog it out for becoming the first change option. But the greatest dilemma for the selectors will be the inclusion of V.V.S. Laxman, who missed the World Cup and has been out of international cricket for some time. A fine performance by Laxman in the Challenger Trophy and the ensuing Irani matches could put the selectors in a dock with having to choose between the stylish Hyderabadi and master blaster Virender Sehwag. With the middle order almost decided, whether the think-tank would be willing to risk Laxman yet again as an opener would be the moot question. Ajit Agarkar also will be hoping to turn in a better batting performances so that he can lay claim to being a genuine all-rounder in the Indian side. The national team stars have been equitably distributed among three teams — India Seniors, India “A” and India “B”, led by Ganguly, Anil Kumble and Dravid, respectively. Selection Committee Chairman Brijesh Patel told PTI that off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, who was earlier not considered for selection as he is undergoing rehabilitation for a finger injury, has been picked for India Seniors as he was very keen to play. Sarandeep Singh, who was part of the India Seniors team, has been moved to India “B”, Patel said. Missing the action would be Virender Sehwag and Ashish Nehra, who are recovering from back and ankle injuries respectively, and are undergoing rehabilitation monitored by team physio Andrew Leipus. Asked about chances of Sehwag featuring in the final slated for September 14, Patel said it was difficult to confirm as of now. “It depends...” was all what he said. John Wright, Sandeep Patil and Ashok Malhotra have been named coaches for India Seniors, India “A” and India “B”. Being day-and-night affairs, the matches would start at 2.30 pm. In the opening encounter tomorrow, India Seniors take on India A. On Thursday, India Seniors meet India B, and on Saturday India “A” clash with India “B”. Teams: India Seniors: Sourav Ganguly (Captain), VVS Laxman, Hemang Badani, Ambati Rayudu, Sanjay Bangar, Parthiv Patel, Amit Mishra, Murali Kartik, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Lakshmipathi Balaji and Reetinder Singh Sodhi. India ‘A’: Anil Kumble (Captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Rohan Gavaskar, Mohammed Kaif, Wasim Jaffer, Sridharan Sriram, Ajay Ratra, Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, Mithun Minhas and Ramesh Powar. India ‘B’: Rahul Dravid (Captain), Shiv Sundar Das, Satyajit Parab, Vijay Bharadwaj, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Mongia, V.S. Thilak Naidu, Jai Prakash Yadav, Avishkar Salvi, Siddharth Trivedi, Sarandeep Singh, Sairaj Bahutule and Amit Bhandari. — UNI, PTI
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Challenger
series a great opportunity, says Wright
Bangalore, September 9 “The three sides — India Seniors, India ‘A’ and India ‘B’ — are evenly balanced and matched. It offers a great opportunity to fringe players to stake a claim... It is a competitive situation,” Wright told reporters here. Wright has been named coach of India Seniors, led by Saurav Ganguly. Sandeep Patil is the coach for Anil Kumble- skippered India ‘A’ while Ashok Malhotra will guide Rahul Dravid-led India ‘B’. Dravid said it was the beginning of an exciting season for Indian cricket adding the players were raring to go out in the middle after a long break. Kumble said the sides were evenly balanced and he expected some good, hard cricket in the competition. Wright said special emphasis was given this time to ensure all three sides were well matched as the selectors were keen on “even competition.” Asked who would open the innings for India Seniors, Wright said it was for the Captain and selectors to decide. On the decision to field Harbhajan Singh, who was not scheduled to play, Wright said the spinner was very keen to play. “He hates to sit on the sidelines”. Aakash Chopra was not playing because of a knee injury. On the possibility of Virender Sehwag playing the final, Wright said a decision would be taken after taking into account whether a game at this stage would be good for him. However, the coach said “Sehwag batted well at the nets and was moving without discomfort.” Earlier, Dravid, Kumble, Wright and TVS Motor Company’s Vice-President, Sales & Marketing, Mr R. Chandramouli, launched the “TVS Salve Challenger Trophy”.
—PTI |
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Bajpai may take over as treasurer Chandigarh, September 9 Elections to the various posts of the BCCI are held every year. This year most of the current office-bearers are eligible for re-election and should find the going easy with symbolic or no opposition. The one significant change which is being talked about is the current joint secretary of the BCCI Jyoti Bajpai taking over as treasurer from Kishore Rungta,who has completed five years in office. For the post being vacated by Bajpai the contenders include Ratnakar Shetty from Mumbai or Karnataka’s Brijesh Patel, who besides being the Chairman of the senior selection committee of the board also has considerable clout in the Karnataka Cricket Association. Functionaries from the north zone, some of whom are keen to contest for this post, are currently not keen to throw their hat into the ring since next year it is north zone’s turn to select the person who will take over from the President, Mr Jagmohan
Dalmiya, who has already served two years in the top post. So all with aspirations to contest for a post in the BCCI are more than willing to play the waiting game this year. Heading the list of cricketing issues which are scheduled to come up for discussion at the Kolkota meeting is to revert the Duleep Trophy tournament to the old format of inter-zonal matches, contractual payment to the players on an annual basis, payment to the extra players who do not find a place in the final XI in a Test or international match as also endorsements of the sponsorship deals signed recently by the board. Last year the board had changed the format of the selection of the teams for Duleep Trophy but it failed to produce the intense rivalry associated with cricket matches of that level. Therefore, this year, the tournament will revert to the previous format where zonal teams clashed for the title. To add more competition to the tournament the expert committee which had been constituted by the board to suggest changes in the championship had suggested to the BCCI to invite a top team either from England or Australia to participate in the tournament. The Kolkota meeting has to take a decision in this regard as the tournament is scheduled to be held immediately after the international triangular tournament involving India, New Zealand and Australia and before the Indian team goes to Australia for a full tour. The issue of the making contractual payment to the players has been hanging fire for quite some time. During the Bangalore camp which concluded recently, the secretary of the board, Mr
S.K. Nair, had more than one meeting with the senior players on this issue. But nothing could be finalised. However, it is being felt in the BCCI that the time is ripe to finalise the contracts. With Mr Dalmiya taking a personal interest in the matter it is quite likely that something might will be finalised in this meeting. |
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Sachin hard to dislodge: Lee
Mumbai, September 9, Lee told reporters at the Timex function, where he was named the Brand Ambassador yesterday, he found hard to dislodge Lara because the West Indian had very quick reflexes and very good eye. “He pounces on balls which are pitched slightly short or over pitched and dispatches them to boundaries. The Kiwi is one of the hardest hitting batsmen I have ever bowled and on his day can tear any bowling apart while Sachin looks very small and innocent but can score off even good length deliveries as he has a fine body balance”, he added. Lee, who likes anything fast like fast bowling and fast cars, listens to classical music with Mozart and Elvis Presley being his favourites. The speedster said he prefers bowling to right hand batsmen as his deliveries are natural outswingers for a right hand batsman, who are always tentative playing balls which moves away from them. On the Aussies’ fighting qualities where they never give up till the last ball is bowled, Lee said, “I think these qualities were installed by our Test captain Steve Waugh who always leads from the front and the team always wants to win as the players respecting each others’ ability”. About his jersy number 58, which he wears in the limited overs internationals, Lee said, “My favourite numbers are five and eight but both were taken up when I came into the Aussie team and I thought I will combine both the numbers and it has got stuck with me”.
— PTI |
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DISAPPEARANCE
OF JALANDHAR GIRLS
Jalandhar, September 9 “As the visa of the three absconding girls Ekta Andotra, Mandeep Virk and Baljeet Kaur has expired on September 7, the local police has handed over the case to immigration authorities for appropriate action, as now onwards the girls are staying illegally which amounts to an immigration offence”, Ravi Sharma, manager of the team told PTI here from London over phone. Sharma termed the report published in a section of media here that one of the absconding girl Ekta has landed at her residence in Gurdaspur district of the state on September 5 as ‘rubbish’. “How can the girl travel back to Indian without her travel documents, which has already been deposited with the police by me” he quipped. “With three cricketers still missing, the remaining 11 members of the team will land at Amritsar airport tomorrow.The team will leave today by the Turkmenistan Airlines,” Sharma revealed adding that he was not accompanying the team on its return journey as he wants to help the British authorities in tracing the missing girls. The team reached London on August 9 and played two matches only. Five of the team members went missing on August 12 afternoon, Sharma said adding that as soon as he came to know about the incident he immediately informed the authorities concerned at Hounslow to investigate their disappearance. Two of the absconding cricketer girls rejoined their team in London on August 25 after much persuasion, but the remaining three girls were still missing. — UNI
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Hameed’s ton earns Pak big win Multan, September 9 Bangladesh was out of reckoning once Pakistan posted 323 for three in front of around 25,000 spectators at Multan Cricket Stadium. Bangladesh, in reply could muster only 186 before it was dismissed in 43.2 overs. Pakistan’s total was three runs better than its previous best of 320 for three against Bangladesh at Dhaka last year. The game was over when Bangladesh lost half the side by the 13th over for only 52 runs. Seamer Shabbir Ahmad and Umer Gul sent back Mohammad Ashraful and Tushar Imran without scoring while dangerman Habibul Bashar ran himself out for only six. Abdul Razzaq then claimed two wickets in an over. He bowled debutante Razin Saleh (25) and two balls later captain Inzamam-ul-Haq neatly caught his Bangladeshi counterpart Khaled Mahmud low down in the slips. Razzaq finished with three for 32 while part-time off-spinner Mohammad Hafeez had as many scalps for 17 runs. Debutante 19-year-old medium fast bowler Junaid Zia, son of Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Tauqir Zia, went wicketless and conceded 35 runs off his seven overs. Pakistan: Hafeez run out 27 Hameed c Sleh b Kapali 116 Youhana run out 49 Inzamam not out 56 Younis Khan not out 59 Extras:
(lb-4, w-3, nb-9) 16 Total: (for 3 wickets, 50 overs). 323 Fall of wickets:
1-62, 2-182, 3-211. Bowling: Mashrafe Mortaza 9-1-63-0, Mushfiqur Rahman 8-0-59-0, Khaled Mahmud 10-1-65-0, Sanwar Hossain 6-0-33-0, Mohammad Rafique 10-0-55-0, Alok Kapali 7-0-44-1. Bangladesh: Bashar run out 6 Ashraful lbw b Gul l0 Saleh b Razzaq 25 Imran c Akmal b Ahmed 0 Kapali lbw b Razzaq 26 Mahmud
Hossain c Shabbir
Mashud lbw b Hafeez 14 Rehman not out 36 Murtaza run out 8 Rafique b Hafeez 19 Extras:
(b-8, lb-2, nb-8, w-15) 33. Total: (all out, 43.2 overs) 186 Fall of wickets:
1-3, 2-28, 3-39, 4-52, 5-52, 6-78, 7-100, 8-120, 9-140. Bowling:
Gul 8-0-51-1, Shabbir 8-2-19-1, Razzaq 8-2-32-3, Junaid 7-0-35-0, Malik 6-1-22-0, Hafeez 6.2-1-17-3.
— Reuters |
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Hockey camp begins amidst media blackout
New Delhi, September 9 Shut out from the media glare, the six-day camp began this morning at the National Stadium under the supervision of chief coach Rajinder Singh. Senior IHF official Suresh Sharma said Aiyappa had been called to the camp as selectors wanted to have a look at him before deciding about the replacement of injured Jugraj Singh. Mr Sharma said barring a couple of players all the probables had arrived here to attend the camp which would continue till September 15, the day the team would leave for Singapore en route to Kuala Lumpur. He said the team for the Asia Cup would be announced in three or four days and added that the India squad would have four days of practice in Singapore under floodlights. Mr Sharma denied that there was any ban on the media to cover the camp. “Media has played a very big role in highlighting the game and players. How could we stop it from giving publicity to the camp?” He, however, said the players had been asked to concentrate on the training. “It is very important for the boys to be focussed. They (players) have been told that they will get ample chances to have interaction with the media before team leaves for Kuala Lumpur but as of now they have only assignment that is to be disciplined and think only of the game.” Despite Mr Sharma’s brave words, the media was not allowed near the area where the team was undergoing training session. Meanwhile, the news that Aiyappa had been invited to the camp has raised a sort of debate as to why he had been ignored for so long. Tall and powerful Len Aiyappa is
considered to be a very effective penalty corner expert. He hit the limelight in 2000 at junior Asia Cup, which was also held in Kuala Lumpur. It was due to Aiyappa’s penalty corner conversions that India were able to make it to the final in which they lost to South Korea. However, India qualified for the junior World Cup which they won. Len Aiyappa could not make it to the Junior team for the World Cup as he had crossed the stipulated age but since then he had been sitting on the fence waiting for the call from the IHF. Aiyappa has established himself as a very effective drag flicker in the Malaysian Hockey League where he emerged as top goal scorer ahead of Pakistan’s Sohail Abbas. The IHF has also called Sandeep Singh, a member of the junior team that won an international tournament in Poland recently, to the camp. But it is doubtful if he will get the selectors nod.
— UNI |
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Impressive
win for Surjit Academy Amritsar, September 9 Four matches were played today. In the first tie Surjit Academy beat underdogs Jammu Academy. For Surjit Academy the first goal was scored by left out Gagandeep Singh in the second minute. He struck three more goals. Right-in Inderpal Singh was the highest scorer with five goals. Raminder Singh and Harpreet Singh scored one goal each. For Jammu Academy Manjit Singh, Onkar Singh and Matinder Pal Singh scored one goal each. The second match between PAP Academy, Jalandhar and Saint Soldier Academy, Jalandhar ended in a 1-1 draw. Satinder Pal Singh scored the first goal for PAP in the 33rd minute and continued to lead till the 68th minute when Varinder Kumar of Saint Soldier found the equaliser. The third match between Bhopal Hockey Academy and Sukhchain Hockey Academy, Faridkot, also ended in a 3-3 draw. It was the most interesting match of the day. Bhopal took the lead in the fifth minute as Habib Khan converted a penalty corner. The equaliser was scored by Paramjit Singh three minutes after the first goal. After two minutes Bhopal again took the lead as Osaf-ur-Rehman converted a penalty corner. Despite repeated attempts Faridkot were not able to score any goal till the 54th minute when Bhopal scored the third goal. However, after two minutes Joga Singh of Faridkot scored the equaliser. The last match was won by BBK DAV College for Women who beat Nehru Garden, Jalandhar, 8-0. |
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HSIDC spikers honoured Chandigarh, September 9 Sanjay Kumar, Dinesh Kumar, Darshan Singh and Rampal Singh, all members of the Indian junior volleyball team, while Om Prakash who was recently honoured with the Major Dhyan Chand Life Achievement award were today felicitated by Mr Om Prakash Chautala, Chief Minister, at a function held this afternoon. The volleyball team bagged gold medal in the Asian Youth Volleyball Championshp held in Visakhapatnam in April where teams from China, Japan and Iran took part. In the meet, Sanjay Kumar was declared the most valuable player. The four spikers were also part of the Indian Youth Volleyball Team which bagged silver medal in the 8th World Youth Volleyall Championship held in Thailand. Mr Gopi Chand
Gehlot, Deputy Speaker, Haryana Vidhan Sabha and president of the Haryana Volleyball Association; and Mr Abhey Singh Chautala, president of the Haryana Olympic Association, appreciated the achievements of the players. Dr Harbaksh Singh, Managing Director of the
HSIDC, also praised their achievements. The coach, Om Prakash, was promoted as Senior Sports Officer. Later the Chief Minister announced that the four spikers would be given a cash award of Rs 3 lakh each, while the coach would be given Rs 82,000 as award. Mr 'Fitness' contest
The Fort Foundation will hold ‘Mr Fitness’ tournament on September 20 at YMCA, Sector 11, Chandigarh. According to Mr Arvind J Noel, an organiser of the tournament, the contest will be held in boys-under 18 (open), men above-35 and above- 45 categories.
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Patiala
take leads in first innings Patiala, September 9 Earlier, the Patiala skipper, Munish Bali, played a knock of 87 runs to help the hosts reach a comfortable 235 in their first innings. His effort was complimented by Rakesh Raini (61) and Binwant Singh (27). In reply, the Minor Districts skipper, Harikrishan Kali (51), waged a lone battle even as his colleagues wilted under the sustained pressure piled by Amit
Kakria. Brief scores: Patiala: (first innings) — 235 all out (Munish Bali 87, Rakesh Raini 61, Binwant Singh 27, Amit Kakria 25, Ranjit Singh 5 for 77, Rahul 1 for 40). Minor Districts XI:
147 all out
(Harikrishan Kali 51, Sapinder Pal 20, Gagan Arora 20, Ranjit Bhola 19, Amit Kakria 6 for 25, Maninder Bhardwaj 2 for 11).
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Mumbai,
September 9,
