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Ajit Agarkar, Harbhajan likely to play today
Batsmen lacked application
Indians need to pull
up their socks: Kambli
Laxman nominated for three ICC awards |
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Pillay was given a raw deal: Shahid
‘Hold coaches responsible for boxers’ failure’
Rajwinder happy with Athens experience
Pratima alcoholic, says foreign coach
Capriati advances, Molik crashes out
Karate belt grading camp results
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Ajit Agarkar, Harbhajan likely to play today
London, September 2 Down 0-1 after the humiliating seven-wicket loss at Trent Bridge, Ganguly and his men must turn the corner at the Oval before it is too late. Since transforming a talented bunch of non-performers into a world beating side in the past two years, captain Ganguly
acknowledges the fact that he now faces the most testing time of his captaincy. “I will find out how good a captain I am in the next four or five months,” he said after his batsmen once again collapsed against a resurgent England yesterday. “It’s easy to captain the side when everything goes well like the past two years. It has been a little rough in the last four or five games. “We have to get together as a side. We would find out how good we are in the coming months.” A win for England tomorrow would give them an unbeatable lead in the three-match series and leave India with their third disastrous overseas tour in succession. Nothing has gone right for the Indians this season with defeats coming close in succession in Sri Lanka, Holland and now in England. The team’s biggest strength has become its biggest liability and not one but the entire set of their renowned batsmen have been reduced to a cowering presence at the crease. Individual performances in these three tournaments offer an insight into India’s plight. Virender Sehwag has 120 runs from his last seven games, VVS Laxman has 50 from six matches and Ganguly himself has 242 runs from nine games and it doesn’t look much better from the rest. Rahul Dravid, the lynchpin of India’s batting in recent years, has only 30 runs from the last six matches which has had a demoralising effect on young batsmen such as Yuvraj Singh (150 from nine matches) and Mohammad Kaif (122 from nine games). Ganguly continues to show faith in his batsmen and asserts that there would not be any change or shift in the batting order but sooner or later, it would come to a pass if India is not going to turn the winning corner. He said the poor performance of his side was not for want of effort — but somehow things were not clicking. “It’s to get their mindset right. I know they are trying hard, I can see it in practice, in the gym, in training. It’s just not going well.” India’s bowlers, who have ridden on the back of batsmen to strangle the opponents, are now struggling without the support of runs. Even Irfan Pathan, a usually feisty character, looked weary at Trent Bridge. Anil Kumble was given a hiding by Andrew Flintoff and his 57 from six-odd overs could have a far-reaching effect on his one-day career. He was unlucky as England were not chasing many and Andrew Flintoff was promoted to entertain the packed stands. Kumble was swept aside in the tide of events. England, on the other hand, have been on a roll and looked a vastly superior side. Their pace attack is incisive, fielding brilliant and batsmen are attacking enough to take the fight to the opposition camp. The pace quartet of Steve Harmison, James Anderson, Darren Gough and Alex Wharf would take some negotiating from the Indians in the next two games. All have a bustling approach to the crease and like to hit the deck hard, relying on bounce and movement to rattle the opponents. The Indians must counter-attack them or it would be too late. India will go with only cosmetic changes and it might come in the form of Ajit Agarkar and Harbhajan Singh coming in place of Ashish Nehra and Anil Kumble. But the trouble is at the top of the batting order, where the first 15 overs are being wasted and far too many wickets are falling early.
— PTI |
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Batsmen lacked application
The progress that Indian cricket made in the past four years seems to have taken a back seat after the NatWest Challenge defeat to England. With a skewed approach, it is headed for disaster. The Indians have now lost nine of their last 17 matches, and the one-sided nature of the defeats is a common phenomenon in almost every outing.
The team is saddled with numerous problems. Firstly, injuries to players have become a bane of Indian cricket. Except for Sachin Tendulkar, who is genuinely injured, the rest of the players seem to be using their injuries to beneficial effect. What needs to be checked of a consistently injured cricketer is his attitude rather than his wounds. No player deserves to be in the side if he is injured. The word “match fit” now has to be rephrased as “series fit”. The team management should pick, instead of the hardly fit but talented ones, those who are maybe less talented but do not suffer from fitness problems. The other area which the Indians have been neglecting is planning, an integral part of modern cricket. The whole idea behind using computer-related technology is to maintain an archive of every international player. The style and technique of each player evolves over a period of time and most of them get better. It’s all the more important to have the latest videos on each international team and then start analysing the players on the drawing board. The Indian team has a habit of carrying mostly the videos of their own heroics. It is the responsibility of the coach to chalk out plans. To understand the strengths and weaknesses of opponents, you need to watch their videos again and again. Missing out on playing 50 overs was a blunder and there can be no excuses for that. The Indian batsmen definitely owe an apology to their fans. The pitch begged for patience and occupation from the batsmen. On such a juicy track, shots had to be curtailed and skilled players required playing a wait-and-watch game. The tentative start, with Virender Sehwag getting out early, was not the right recipe for the day. It was disappointing to see both Sourav Ganguly and V.V.S. Laxman getting out in quick succession. The unknown factor in Alex Wharf hit the Indians hard and they did not know what to do with this newcomer. Wharf used the conditions very well and made the most of the mistakes committed by Indian batsmen. Mohammad Kaif should have played till the end. A hat-trick in any form of cricket is a major landmark. My very short stint with the Durham County last year gave me an opportunity to bowl with Steve Harmison and have a closer look at his bowling. He only had to pitch the ball a yard in front. He did it successfully and has reaped rich rewards. Indian bowling didn’t look penetrative at all. Ashish Nehra didn’t inspire any confidence and that brought Laxmipathy Balaji, currently the best bowler, into attack. Ganguly should not make the mistake of bowling with Ashish when Balaji is around.
— PTI |
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Indians need to pull
up their socks: Kambli
Mumbai, September 2 Speaking on the sidelines of a function to launch LG CDMA’s cricket mania contest here, the southpaw said that Indian players have to pull up their socks and not depend on one or two players. “You now can not say that Ganguly failed or Sachin failed, but each and every player has to lift his game for India to succeed. Every player has realise his responsibility and play for the team as one.” Kambli further said that the defeats were getting frustrating, but, added that this team has it in them to get back to that winning habit. “We might still end up winning the next two NatWest Trophy matches and also the big one Champions Trophy. Getting back into the rhythm is just one win away”, he added. On the contest, Kambli said that it was a good thing as you get more charged up when you have people supporting you (the winners of this contest would travel with the India team as cheer leaders). “I definitely benefitted from the support I received from the crowd”, he added.
— UNI |
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Laxman nominated for three ICC awards
New Delhi, September 2 Rahul Dravid has been nominated for two awards—Cricketer of the Year and Test Player of the Year. He seems to be a front-runner for the Cricketer of the Year award. The other Indian players who have been nominated for various individual awards are Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Irfan Pathan. The nominees in the four individual-player categories for the ICC Awards, to be presented on September 7 at the Alexandra Palace in London, are “intended to recognise and honour the best performing international players of the past 12 months”. The individual awards will be judged by an academy of 50 high-profile cricket personalities. The Test Team of the Year and ODI Team of the Year will both be World XI sides made up of the best individual international players in the respective forms of cricket. Former South African cricketer Jonty Rhodes, who had made fielding an exciting art, unveiled the magnificent crystal-studded ICC Trophy, designed by Swarovski, here today. The trophy will be presented to the Cricketer of the Year Award winner. The winner will also ride home with a Hyundai ‘Elantra’ luxury car. “I am eagerly looking forward to these awards. This is a great initiative from the ICC. These awards are commendable since they encompass so many aspects of the game,” remarked Jonty Rhodes in his flamboyant style. Following are the nominations for the various ICC Awards, christened as the “Oscars” of cricket: Cricketer of the Year: Rahul Dravid, Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison (both England), Matthew Hayden (Australia), Jacques Kallis (South Africa), Brian Lara (West Indies), VVS Laxman, Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka), Ricky Ponting (Australia) and Virender Sehwag. Test Player of the Year: Rahul Dravid, Andrew Flintoff, Adam Gilchrist, Jason Gillespie (Australia), Steve Harmison (England), Matthew Hayden, Brian Lara, VVS Laxman, Jacques Kallis, Muttiah Muralitharan, Ricky Ponting and Virender Sehwag. ODI Player of the Year: Stephen Fleming (New Zealand), Andrew Flintoff, Chris Gayle (West Indies), Adam Gilchrist, Jason Gillespie, Matthew Hayden, Jacaques Kallis, Laxman, Muralitharan, Shaun Pollock (South Africa), Ricky Ponting, Abdur Razzaq (Pakistan), Sachin Tendulkar, Heath Streak and Andrew Symonds (Australia), Chaminda Vaas (Sri Lanka) and Daniel Vettori (New Zelanad). Emerging Player of the Year: Tino Best (West Indies), Michael Clarke (Australia), Imran Farhat (Pakistan), Umar Gul (Pakistan), Yasir Hameed (Pakistan), Hamish Marshall (New Zealand), Irfan Pathan and Devon Smith (West Indies). The Test Team and the ODI Team of the year will be both ICC world XI sides. They will be made up of the best individual players from all international teams in each form of the game. Selection of the World XI teams will be made by the ICC Awards panel. |
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Pillay was given a raw deal: Shahid
New Delhi, September 2 Pillay, who played his fourth and final Games, made brief appearances in most of the contests and played for less than three minutes in his last Olympic match. “He played well and even better than others but was not allowed to play for long throughout the Olympics. The country should be grateful to such players but unfortunately they were given raw deals. I strongly believe that whatever happened to Pillay in Athens was intentional,” Shahid told PTI. “I could make out that he was very very hurt after the last Game (against Korea). He was crying, which is quite understandable. He deserved a better treatment for the contributions he has made to the game in the last 16 years.” Incidentally, Shahid, whom Pillay considers his idol, had suffered a similar fate as his protege when he was forced to make an unceremonious exit from the game in his final Olympics at Seoul in 1988. But the Varanasi-based former Indian captain said such things were not new in Indian hockey. “These things have been happening for years. Players who gave their all for the game, got such treatments in return.”
—PTI |
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Dhanraj regrets playing hockey
New Delhi, September 2 "Now I think I should have played cricket and not hockey.'' Dhanraj said he was made to feel like the worst player in the side.
—UNI
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‘Hold coaches responsible for boxers’ failure’
New Delhi, September 2 Bhardwaj, who set up the coaching department in boxing at the National Institute of Sports, Patiala in 1975, and was the national coach for several years, said if the boxers fared poorly at Athens, the coaches should own up the blame. “Our coaches find escape routes to blame others instead of accepting their own mistakes”, Bhardwaj said, while analysing the performances of the four-member Indian boxing team at Athens—Akhil Kumar in fly weight (51kg), Diwakar Prasad in bantam weight (54kg), Jitender Kumar in light heavy (81kg) and Vijender in the 64kg. He said the biggest flaw of Indian sports was that the “sportspersons are not faithful to their chosen discipline”. The Dronacharya coach said the boxers could not have given any convincing reason for their failure as they had been given the best of facilities in the run up to the Olympics. He said the boxers were given 14 foreign exposures, and the government, the Sports Authority of India and the Indian Amateur Boxing Federation (IABF) spared no effort to fullfill all the demands of the pugilits for their training. “In fact, the government, the SAI, the IABF and various corporate houses like cement company NCC,
Nelco, Steel Plants and the Services Sports Control Board had provided all the required incentives and facilities to the boxers, but the end result was zero”, he noted. Bhardwaj said the failure of the boxers should be deemed as the failure of the coaching methods of national coach G S Sandhu and foreign coach IB Fernandez. Analysing the strategy adopted by the coaches, Bhardwaj said Akhil Kumar lost his bout against Sydney Olympic Games bronze medallist Jerome Thomas France as the latter used his experience to great success in outboxing the promising Indian by 37-16 points. “It was a big mistake on the part of Akhil not to go on the offensive and keeping his guard. Why did the coaches not advise him to keep his guard during the one-minute rest in between rounds is surprising”, Bhardwaj opined. Though Diwakar Prasad boxed his way into the second round, after defeating Moroccan Hamid Ait Bighrade by 25-17, with a fine display of technique, he was counted out against Nestor Bolum of Nigeria in the second round. The referee stopped the bout in the third round in a one-sided mismatch. “Even in the first bout, after dominating the first three rounds, Diwakar pedalled back to save himself from the scoring blows of his opponent”, Bhardwaj pointed out. Jitender Kumar’s fight against Andriy Fedchuck of Ukraine was stopped by the referee in the second round when his opponent used his powerful punches in a ‘south paw’ stance after observing that Jitender was close to the ring corner from where he did not have much scope to move back. Bhardwaj said the Ukrainian pinned Jitender to his corner, and used his left-straight and straight right in lightening speed to open a cut above the left eye of the Indian, rendering him hors de combat. Jitender was trailing 11-12, when a left-handed jab by Andriy injured Jitender. The referee stopped the bout, and India’s boxing hopes evaporated into thin air. Bhardwaj said it was surprising that the Indian boxers could not do much despite being coached by a Cuban, whose country has been dominating the Olympic boxing contests for several years. He said Fernandez had been coaching the Indian pugilists for the past 11 years, though this time around, he joined the boxing camp only a month before the Olympic Games. Yet, the poor display of the boxers could not be justified, after all the pre-games hype. |
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Rajwinder happy with Athens experience
Amritsar, September 2 Rajwinder expressed happiness that the women’s relay team had reached the final of the event for the first time since the 1984 Olympics. She said they were dejected that they could not keep the momentum going in the final. However, she said there were some unavoidable reasons which played the spoilsport. Manjeet Kaur, who played a pivotal role in the semifinal, was down with fever and was not able to run in the final. Rajwinder said another runner, Chitra Soman, received a cut on her toe in the semifinal. As a result, the team which had clocked 3:26.89 in the semifinal, a national record, finished in a time of 3:28.51 in the final. In the final, Rajwinder was accompanied by KM Beenamol, Chitra Soman and Geeta. The Indian team finished a dismal seventh among the eight finalists in the race, which was won by the USA. Rajwinder was all praise for the Athletic Federation of India (AFI) and their foreign coach for their support. She said the Ukrainian coach introduced them to a “strength technique”, which they did not use to follow earlier. Unlike women wrestlers, who were upset over the training session overseas, she said their training stint in Ukraine was of immense help. Rajwinder took to athletics at the age of 16 and soon carved a place for her. A head constable in Punjab Police, she clinched three gold medals (200m, 400m and 4x400m) and a bronze in 800m race in the world police meet held in Barcelona, Spain, in 2003. She set a new record in the all-India police meet in 200m by clocking a little over 24 seconds. |
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Pratima alcoholic, says foreign coach
Patiala, September 2 Documents provided by Taranenko to this reporter showed that when the Indian women’s weightlifting squad was undergoing training at Minsk, he had made Pratima undergo a blood test, which revealed 1.07 per cent of alcohol in her blood. This quantity is on the higher side as medical experts say that the normal permissible limit is 0.4 per cent. Taranenko, who reached NIS yesterday morning, claimed that during training at Minsk, Pratima used to be under the influence of alcohol. Samples of her blood were tested on the pretext of checking her for suspected doping at a hospital in the Minsk suburb of Buinovskaya on July 11. The report says that “on the basis of chemical and toxilogical blood test of Pratima Kumari, ethyl alcohol has been found to be 1.07 per cent in her blood.” The report, which has been translated into English from Russian, has been signed by the doctors concerned. When asked about Taranenko’s allegations, Pratima, who is in New Delhi, said he had misled her into giving her blood samples. She claimed that the Belarussian coach had always discouraged her and at one time he had even made a plea to her to cancel her plans of going to Athens. Pratima said Taranenko wanted lifters from Belarus, who were well known to him, to win in her weight category. The lifter termed the episode as a conspiracy against her and vehemently denied that she was an alcoholic. On the contrary, she claimed that Taranenko used to take alcohol, particularly Vodka, almost everyday and that his contention that she was an alcoholic was just a ploy to divert attention from him in the aftermath of the doping scandal. Taranenko said he would meet officials of SAI and the Sports Ministry and submit Pratima’s report to them shortly. |
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Capriati advances, Molik crashes out
New York, September 2 Molik, coming off a bronze-medal performance at the Athens Olympics, joined No. 18 Karolina Sprem and No. 32 Meghann Shaughnessy, who lost on Monday, and No. 24 Anna Smashnova-Pistolesi and 25th-seeded Elena Likhovtseva, who went out on Tuesday. “I had a bit of a mental lapse,” said Molik, who won the Nordic Light Open in Stockholm in early August. “You can’t just walk out there and expect to win, regardless of my form for the past month. I had a couple of disappointing points, a few small things I let turn into a big deal.” The victory was only the second for Hantuchova against a top-20 ranked player in 12 matches this year. The 21-year-old, ranked as high as fifth last year and who reached the quarterfinals at the US Open two years ago, advanced to a third-round meeting against No. 15 Patty Schnyder of Switzerland, who beat Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-1. In other women’s matches played yesterday, No. 12 Ai Sugiyama of Japan needed only 52 minutes to win her second-round match against Argentina’s Gisela Dulko 6-4, 6-2, while No. 31 Maria Vento-Kabchi of Venezuela required three sets to subdue Germany’s Julia Schruff 6-1, 2-6, 6-2. In the men's bracket, two more seeds were eliminated to bring the number to six. Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic beat No. 32 Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden 6-3, 2-6, 6-2, 1-6, 6-3, while Bjorkman’s compatriot Robin Soderling ousted No. 14 Fernando Gonzalez of Chile 7-4, 7-6 (3), 6-7 (4), 6-1. Top seed Roger Federer rolled into the third round with a 6-2, 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-1 victory over Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus. Mark Philippoussis of Australia, runner-up at the US Open in 1998 and Wimbledon last year, quit with a hip injury in the fifth set against Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko. Fourth-seeded Lleyton Hewitt carried Australia’s banner for the day, beating Wayne Ferreira 6-1, 7-5, 6-4 in just over an hour and a half, the South African’s last tour match before retiring. Other men’s seeds advancing to the second round were No. 12 Sebastien Grosjean of France, who overcame a first-set loss to eliminate countryman Olivier Patience 5-7, 7-6 (6), 6-2, 6-1, and No. 23 Vince Spadea of the USA, who won 6-7 (3), 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 over Peruvian Luis Horna. Venus Williams had an easy match, as expected, as she defeated fellow American Lindsay Lee-Waters 6-4, 6-3 in the second round. America’s Angela Haynes upset 22nd seed Magdalena Maleeva of Bulgaria 6-2, 6-3 to reach the third round. 47-year-old Martina Navratilova won again at the US Open, teaming with Lisa Raymond for an easy doubles victory in the first round. The fifth-seeded pair defeated Julie Ditty and Samantha Reeves 6-3, 6-2 yesterday. Olympic champions Fernando Gonzalez and Nicolas Massu of Chile also won, as did American twins Bob and Mike Bryan. Gonzalez and Massu defeated Karsten Braasch and Sargis Sargsian 7-6 (3), 6-4. In Athens, they beat the Bryans in the quarterfinals. The second-seeded Bryans won their opening match, beating Amer Delic and Jeff Morrison 6-3, 6-4.
— AP |
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Karate belt grading camp results Ambala, September 2 Association general secretary Hemant Sharma said students who had cleared the camp included Anuradha Mohan, Kanti Aggarwal, Kritika Dhillon, Abhinav Mittal, Preeti Mohan, Poonam Sangwan, Anand, Parth Gupta, Sreyas Gupta and Pranjal Goel. These students cleared the orange belt test. Anirudh Aggarwal,
Tushar, Sanjana Anand, Jatin Bindra, Harpreet Singh, Pooja Saxena, Rajinder, Gaurav Gandhi, Nitish Khanna, Karan Sachdeva, Akshat Sharma, Saurabh Gupta, Ankit Sachdeva, D. Chaudhary, Tarun Saini, Jagdeep Singh, Bhavneet Singh, Guneet Singh, Ankur Jain, Parashiv and Mrinal Munjal passed the yellow belt examination. Mr Sharma said the karate competition would be held in the last week of September in Ambala. The students who won medals in the district-level competition would participate in the state-level championship.
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Marathoner gets
hero’s welcome True Trophy Tickets sold out Rastogi in last 8 Khalsai games
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New
Delhi, September 2
