SPORTS

12 school teams for Kangaroo Cup Soccer
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, January 14
Twelve prominent school teams will participate in the Kangaroo Cup Under-14 and Under-17 Football Tournament to be held at the Ambedkar Stadium from Thursday. St. Columba’s School will take on Father Agnel School, Noida in the opening match of the under-14 group at 12 noon. The matches will be played on a league-cum-knockout basis.

The tournament is being conducted by the Delhi Soccer Association (DSA) under the direction of the Asian Football Confederation and the All India Football Federation (AIFF) to encourage and promote soccer at the grass-root level. The tournament is also aimed at spotting talented players from Delhi to be included in the national camps conducted by the AIFF for selection of the team for the Asia Cup championships.

DSA secretary N K Bhatia said prominent schools like Apex (Burari), Mamta Modern (Vikaspuri), Govt. Boys School No 1 (Moti Bagh), International School (Geetanjali), Laxman Public, Father Agnel, Modern School (Vasant Vihar), St. Columba’s, St Francis De-Sales (Janakpuri), N K Bagrodia, Central Reserve Public School, DPS (Vasant Kunj), Modern (Vasant Vihar) and Hanuman Sanskrit Mahavidyalaya (Raghubir Nagar) will participate in the tournament.

Jeev Milkha, Jyoti Randhawa for Pro-Am Golf
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, January 14
Top professionals like Jeev Milkha Singh and Jyoti Randhawa are among the 16 professionals who have been listed to participate in the ninth Business Today Pro-Am Golf Championship to be held at the Classic Golf Resort in Gurgaon on January 17 and 18. The other top players expected to participate are Amandeep Johl, Harmeet Kahlon, Pappan, Ravick Ali, Jaiveer Virk, Rohtas Singh, Vijay Kumar, Arjun Singh, Rahul Ganapathy, Shiv Prakash, SSP Chaurasia, Ajay Gupta, Ali Sher and Feroz Ali.

The two-day event, to be presented by Royal Challenge sports equipment and sponsored by ITC Maurya Sheraton Hotel, British Airways, Safari EXI and London Mariott-Hotel Marble, will also see top corporate heads like Anup Singh of ITC, Rana Kapoor of Yes Bank, Pramod Bhasin of GE Capital, Arun Kumar of Hughes, U K Bose of Sahara Airlines, Vikram Mehta of Shell, Abraham Thomas of IBM, Bharat Patel of P and G, Satish Tandon of Alfa Laval, Vijay Chauhan of Parle Foods and Kapil Dev rubbing shoulders with the top pros.

Both Jeev Milkha and Jyoti Randhawa would be making a rare appearance on the Indian circuit. The star attraction will be 2002 Asian Games gold medal winner and Arjuna Awardee Shiv Kapoor, who will be making an appearance in a tournament in the country after a gap of five months, taking time off from his studies in the US.

The Business Today Pro-Am of Champions, which began in 1995, has established itself as the premier Pro-Am Championship in the country. The tournament carries Rs 2 crore worth incentives, including a prize money of Rs 6.6 lakh, with Rs 25,000 as the minimum assured amount for every participant.

Former Asian Games gold medallist Rishi Narain, who is the tournament director, said the main difference of the tournament is that it is a stand alone one, and therefore, all the players, including the professionals, would take the event seriously, instead of using it as a warm-up for the main event, which is what happens in a normal tournament, because the pros would be competing for serious money, both individually as well as for the team.

Mr Ashish Bagga, executive director of the Today group, said the Pro-Am event was a unique event where some of the biggest decision-makers of the corporate world get to play competitive golf with the top pros of the country.

Ram Babu Gupta named manager of 
U-19 World Cup squad
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, January 14
Former Test umpire and present treasurer of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) Ram Babu Gupta has been appointed manager of the forthcoming Under-19 World Cup ICC Trophy Championship to be held in Dhaka (Bangladesh) in February. DDCA vice-president C K Khanna, who is also the vice-chairman of the Communication and Co-Ordination Committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), said Ram Babu’s appointment was made by the Board.

HDFC beat ICICI Bank

HDFC Bank defeated ICICI Bank by 74 runs in the Teri Cup Cricket Tournament at the Central Secretariat ground. Scores: HDFC Bank: 240 for 5 in 25 overs (Virender Bhoj 65, Deepak Sharma 70, Muskan Singh 41, Vikas Prasad 2 for 54, Jitender Dewar 2 for 47).

ICICI Bank: 166 for 8 in 25 overs (Jitender Dewan 68,Vikas Prasad 31, Harsh Gupta 3 for 29, Virender Bhoj 2 for 32, Girish Sharma 2 for 31).

CRPF sports doctor honoured

Chief Medical Officer (Sports) of the Central Reserve Police Force Dr R B Das has been honoured with the Fellowship Award of the Indian Association of Sports

Medicine during the Silver Jubilee Congress of the Sports Medicine Association held at Amritsar recently. The award was bestowed on Dr Das in recognition of his contribution for the advancement of sports medicine. The award was presented by president of the International Federation of Sports Medicine (Hong Kong) Dr K M Chan.

Rachit Kapoor shines in R R Gym.’s victory

Deadly bowling by Rachit Kapoor (4 for 22) and an unbeaten 87 by Chetan Sharma helped Rohtak Road Gymkhana defeat hosts Guru Gobind Singh College by seven wickets and entered the quarter-final of the 8th Sahibzada Ajit Singh Memorial Cricket Tournament at the latter’s ground in Pitampura.

Scores: Guru Gobind Singh College: 175 for 9 in 40 overs (Gitesh Gogia 40 n o, Piyush Sharma 30, Sanjeev Rana 31, Rachit Kapoor 4 for 22, Neeraj Chawla 3 for 30).

R R Gymkhana: 176 for 3 in 31 overs (Chetan Sharma 87 n o, 8x4, 3x6, Rajesh Anand 33 n o, Anshuman Dayal 2 for 9).

Dogra Academy in semi-final

Deadly bowling of 6 for 23 by left-arm medium-pacer Mannu Kapoor and 4 for 14 by Parvinder Awana helped hosts Sumit Dogra Academy defeat Dronacharya Cricket Foundation by 10 wickets and entered semi-final of the 4th Shakuntala Devi

Memorial Under-19 Cricket Tournament at the winner’s ground. Mannu Kapoor was named the man of the match.

Scores: DCF: 50 all out in 12.4 overs (Anuj Nayyar 13, Mannu Kapoor 6 for 23, Parvinder Awana 4 for 14). Dogra Academy: 51 for no loss in 8.2 overs (Aditya Aima 24 n o, Rameez Niyamat 25 n o).

Sawej Khan hits century

January 14—A fine century by Sawej Khan and an all-round display by Sandeep Karki (3 for 27) helped Ravindra Public School defeat Government School, Jheel by 63 runs in a league match of the second Rajeev Gandhi Memorial Under-17 Cricket Tournament at the Picnic Hut ground in Ashok Vihar.

Scores: Ravindra School: 288 for 9 in 40 overs (Sawej Khan 101, Sandeep Karki 91 n o, Hemant Kumar 31, Narender Singh 3 for 57, Vivek Srivastava 3 for 45).

Govt School, Jheel: 225 all out in 39.2 overs (Vivek Srivastava 55, Rajeev Gupta 50, Lalit Gaur 43, Sandeep Karki 3 for 27, Randhal Choudhary 3 for 42).

Ravindra School win

Ravindra School defeated Delhi Eaglets by six wickets in the second Gyan Niketan Under-15 Cricket Tournament at the Najafgarh ground. Scores: Delhi Eaglets: 158 for 7 in 35 overs (Sachin Adhikari 41, Arun 48, Vipul Gupta 3 for 31, Ashish Yadav 2 for 27).

Ravindra School: 159 for 9 in 34.3 overs (Hemant Singh 54, Subham Gupta 39, Ankur Arora 2 for 12).

Gajender, Soni star in LIC’s victory
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, January 14
A fine knock of 75 by Gajender Singh and deadly bowling of 4 for 44 by P K Soni helped Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) beat Pioneer Club by 51 runs in an A-II Division match of the DDCA League at the Yamuna Sports Complex ground.

Scores: LIC: 244 for 9 in 40 overs (Gajender Singh 75, Raghubir Singh 33, Vikas Kumar 55, Rajesh Azad 38, Ashok Lamba 4 for 72).

Pioneer: 193 all out in 34.3 overs (Prananshu Dev 38, Umesh Sharma 34, P K Soni 4 for 44, Dev Kumar 2 for 33).

National Stadium debarred

The National Stadium Coaching Centre have been debarred from the Aviva Young Achiever Under-15 Cricket Tournament for not finishing their match against Delhi Gymkhana Club at the Najafgarh Sports Club ground. Electing to bat, Delhi Gymkhana scored 157 for 8 in 72 overs and National Stadium were 127 for 5 off 43.2 overs when they stopped playing, alleging unfair umpiring decisions. The team have been debarred from the tournament for three years.

Williams Cricket

Puneet Mehra slammed a century and Vaibhav Kakkar scored a half century as R P Academy defeated Guru Harkrishnan Public School, Vasant Vihar by 69 runs and entered the final of the fifth R G Williams Memorial Under-15 Cricket Tournament at the Frank Anthony School ground.

Scores: R P Academy: 235 for 4 in 30 overs (Puneet Mehra 105, Vaibhav Rawal 52, Mukul Dagar 31, Gurjeet Singh 3 for 40).

GHPS: 166 all out in 28.1 overs (Varun Kumar 66, Kanwarjeet Singh 30, Raghav Kakkar 3 for 32, Shakti Sehrawat 2 for 37, Varun Thakur 2 for 38).