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BCCI office-bearers
take charge
Marat Safin stuns Roger Federer
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Sania Mirza wants to be among top 50
Anand draws again, in joint second spot
Sasikiran held to a draw
Aamir Khan XI to take on Kapil XI
Tsunami match postponed
Bhatia, Kang lead in CGA golf
East Bengal beat Vasco
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BCCI office-bearers take charge
Kolkata, January 27 The AGM, which was reconvened this morning following a Supreme Court directive, concluded in no time, with outgoing president Jagmohan Dalmiya saying the two pending items on the agenda could not be transacted in view of a restraint order by the court on September 28. Since all other items on the agenda had already been transacted in the meeting on September 29 and 30, the 75th AGM of the Board was, therefore, terminated and the newly elected office-bearers took over with immediate effect, he said. The controversy-ridden AGM had been adjourned without transacting two of the items on the agenda relating to the appointment of Dalmiya as the Patron-in-Chief and BCCI's representative at the ICC and other international bodies. A piquant situation arose
after the adjournment as according to the BCCI constitution the office-bearers cannot take charge till the AGM is concluded. Today's meeting, held as per Supreme Court's order on January 10, thus cleared the deck for Mahendra and the other office-bearers, elected in a bitter contest against the group led by Maratha strongman Sharad Pawar on September 29, to discharge their duties formally. However, the question of BCCI's representation at the ICC remained unresolved. When asked whether the meeting discussed the issue of BCCI's representation at the ICC and other international fora, Dalmiya said that matter "remained unresolved". To a specific query that who would represent the BCCI at international level from today, he said "I have no answer". Dalmiya had been appointed as the Patron-in-Chief and also BCCI representative at the ICC and other international fora by a Special General Meeting of the board at Chennai on September 12 but the matter needed to be confirmed by the AGM. The AGM could not take up these items due to a stay order by a Chennai court thus creating a deadlock situation. Dalmiya's appointment had been challenged by Bharathi Cricket Club of Chennai and the matter is now pending before the Madras High Court. Meanwhile, BCCI secretary S K Nair later told newspersons that he would represent the board in the ICC CEO's meeting in Melbourne from February 2. "This particular meeting does not pose any problem for us. Because it is the meeting of CEOs, and I am the CEO of BCCI," Nair said, adding "the problem will be there for ICC meetings like its AGM". Briefing the media on the deliberations at the reconvened AGM, Dalmiya sarcastically said that all the court cases relating to the BCCI were being filed from one place, Chennai. "This I feel is very significant". "First there was the Netaji Cricket club, then the Bharti Cricket Club, and now the Sri Thyagaraya Cricket Club, which went to court getting one stay after another. These are not our affiliate units and we don't know much about them," Dalmiya said. Dalmiya said cricket had been a sufferer due to the plethora of recent court cases. "But now, we are becoming accustomed to all this. It's a part of democracy". To a query whether from today onward he will have nothing to do with the BCCI affairs, he said "how I can say that, I am a former president, a number of former presidents are still active in the Board's affairs". On the absence of Mahendra, who is now busy electioneering as a candidate in the coming Haryana Assembly polls, Dalmiya said "he informed me well in advance that he will not be able to make it. Consequently, I have handed him charge after the AGM through correspondence". Due to Mahendra's inability to be present at the meeting, the Haryana Cricket Association was represented by its president Arvind Chowdhury at the AGM.
— PTI |
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Court restrains Dalmiya from representing Board
Kolkata, January 27 Counsel of the Chennai club Ankur Chawla told reporters here today that according to an interim order passed by the City Civil Court on January 25, “Dalmiya cannot get himself elected as the representative of the BCCI in any international cricket fora, be it the ICC or the ACC.’’ “We are saying that what cannot be done directly, cannot be done indirectly too. As he was restrained from being the Patron-in-Chief, he was trying to get a resolution passed seeing him through as the representative of the BCCI in the ICC and the ACC. But that cannot happen. The court has kindly consented to that idea,’’ he said. A similar order had been passed by the same court earlier restraining Dalmiya from becoming the Patron-in-Chief of the BCCI. “We had claimed that he was investing the power at hand at that time to get himself elected as the Patron-in-Chief. Now he is using it to get himself elected as the representative of the BCCI in the international cricketing fora. However, the court has also said anyone else who is eligible and legally entitled to become the representative can be appointed in the same post,’’ Mr Chawla said. “The next date of hearing for the case is January 31,’’ he said. Earlier, on
January 10 the Supreme Court had ordered the BCCI to complete the AGM as soon as possible. Accordingly, the AGM was to take up the pending issues including Sec 1B pertaining to the Patron-in-Chief and Section 13 regarding the representation of the BCCI in ICC/ACC.
— UNI |
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Mahendra should represent Board at ICC: Dungarpur
Kolkata, January 27 He said "all through its 75-year history, the BCCI has been represented by its presidents at the ICC. It has been a convention. And I strongly feel that this convention should be followed this time also". Dungarpur, a staunch critic of Dalmiya, said the outgoing BCCI president should no longer harbour ambitions to represent the Board at the ICC.
— PTI |
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Marat Safin stuns Roger Federer
Melbourne, January 27 Safin, runner-up in two of the last three Australian Opens, including last year, when Federer beat him, twice came back from a set down and saved a match point in the fourth set tiebreak before winning one Melbourne Park’s greatest battles.
Safin, whose only Grand Slam title was at the US Open in 2000, will now play the winner of tomorrow’s second semifinal between Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt in Sunday’s final. Federer had not lost a match since last year’s Athens Olympics in August and was chasing his fourth Grand Slam title in 12 months after winning last year’s Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open crowns. He had also won his last 24 matches against players ranked in the top 10 and was the hottest favourite in a century to win the Australian Open after romping through his first five matches without dropping a set. Everything seemed to be going according to script when he won the opening set but the first hint of a boilover came when Safin won the second. Federer appeared to have regained control when he won the third and held match point in the fourth but Safin produced a perfect lob to stay alive. Federer saved six match points in the final set but his resistance finally snapped after four and a half hours when Safin celebrated his 25th birthday with a victory that brought the capacity crowd to their feet.
— Reuters |
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Serena, Davenport enter final
Melbourne, January 27 Williams, beaten by Sharapova in last year’s Wimbledon final and the season-ending tour championship, saved three match points before winning 2-6 7-5 8-6. But the former world number one broke back both times in a struggle reminiscent of her semi-final against Belgian Kim Clijsters in the 2003 Australian Open when she saved two match points before reaching the final and winning the title. “Those are always the best wins, when you’re down match point because you can’t give up at any,” Williams said. “She has a fighting spirit and I think that’s gotten her to where she is today...but I’m still the top fighter out there.” There was no hiding Sharapova’s disappointment but she still managed to put on a brave face. “Of course I’m sad, and obviously it’s a tough one to lose but I’ve got a long way ahead of me,” she said. ‘’I’m 17 years old and I got to the semi-finals of the Australian Open so nothing’s negative. “This is not a sprint, it’s a marathon and I’m just riding along.” Davenport, champion at Melbourne Park five years ago, also needed to draw on her wealth of experience to beat
Dechy, who was appearing in her first semi-final in a decade as a professional. Davenport had her left thigh heavily strapped, is struggling with a hip strain and got off to a sluggish start, gifting Dechy the first set in only 24 minutes with a string of uncharacteristic errors.
Dechy was aggressive from the back of the court to shut Davenport out early but the American top seed used her powerful serve to battle her way back and force a tiebreak.
Dechy was two points away from winning the match but Davenport won the second set decider 7-5 on a Dechy double fault and then finally sealed the match when the Frenchwoman surrendered her serve to love in the final game. “I’m a little perplexed,” Davenport said. “I don’t think I’m playing well but I’m in the final. I got lucky but I’ll take it.” It will be the first time two Americans have contested a women’s grand slam final since Wimbledon 2003 when Serena beat older sister Venus as she had done at the Australian that year. Russians have won the last three grand slam women’s tournaments.
—Reuters |
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Sania Mirza wants to be among top 50
Hyderabad, January 27 “This also proved how close I am to my goal and also I got an exposure of the kind of tennis played at the top level,” said a confident Sania, who returned to her hometown yesterday. “It was my first Grand Slam. I played against Serena Williams and I could not have asked for more. “(But) the next time, I do not want just to play against Serena. I want to defeat her,” said Sania, when asked about her next goal. Sania also revealed that she had suffered an ankle injury. “I experienced pain in the ankle during practice sessions but I went on to play with painkillers,” she said. In popularity ratings at Australian Open, she was ranked next only to Russia’s Maria Sharapova. “I did not know. I was quite shocked myself to know this,” she said. Sania, who is now ranked 129 following her epoch-making performance, said she wanted to be among top 50 by the end of the year. The ankle injury, however, is troubling her. The pain had forced her to pull out of the WTA tournament in Thailand this week and she is still not sure whether she would be playing the WTA Hyderabad Open starting February 7. Sania’s father Imran Mirza, who played a crucial role in shaping up her career, said she would have to play seven WTA tournaments that were going to be held in the US from February 14. Her parents, who had come from Saudi Arabia just a couple of hours earlier, anxiously awaited her arrival from Mumbai Wednesday night. Utter chaos prevailed at the airport. Hundreds of fans and media personnel elbowed their way around several security personnel who were posted there.
— IANS |
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Anand draws again, in joint second spot
Wijk Aan Zee, January 27 With just three rounds to go in this category-19 tournament, Peter Leko of Hungary shot in to sole lead for the first time after holding out in an inferior position against Alexander Morozevich of Russia. After the draw, Leko took his tally to 6.5 and is now a firm contender for the title. The fifth spot is jointly held by Cuban Lazaro Bruzon and Russian duo of Vladimir Kramnik and Alexander Grischuk who all have 5.5 points in their kitty while Judit Polgar of Hungary, after a rather unexpected victory over in-form Topalov, is next in line on 5 points. In other games, Vladimir Kramnik signed truce with Adams in less than two hours while Commonwealth champion Nigel Short got the same result against former Russian champion Peter Svidler. In the ‘C’ group of the event, Parimarjan Negi gave an inspired performance to beat Dutchman Joost Wempe who played white. Negi faced the queen pawn opening and went for the Queen’s Indian defence against which Wempe had nothing planned in particular. After slugging out a complicated middle game, Wempe allowed black to get a dangerous king side attack and the game ended with a tactical stroke resulting in forced checkmate. Thursday is the final rest day of the event and the final battle will begin on Friday.
— PTI |
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Sasikiran held to a draw
Gibraltar, January 27 Sasikiran drew his game after facing some difficulties against Wells while top seed and hot favourite GM Alexei Shirov of Spain had to sweat it out before winning against Marc Cazelais of Canada to register his first victory in the event. On the other boards, nine players emerged as joint leaders with a perfect score in this over £ 15,000 tournament. Prominent among them are third seed former world junior champion Levon Aronian or Armenia, sixth seed Kiril Georgiev of Bulgaria and seventh seed Boris Avrukh of Israel. Sasikiran was in trouble against Wells, who went for one of the main variations against the Semi-Slav Defence with his white pieces. The Englishman was once one of the most promising juniors of his country and he showed glimpses of brilliance in this game too. Sasikiran had to remain alert for the major part of the game as Wells made continuous progress on both flanks and only the exchange of pawns at regular intervals helped Sasikiran maintain the balance. Wells even successfully weakened Sasikiran’s King side structure but the Indian found a correct defence in time to steer the game to a draw after 43 moves.
— PTI |
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Aamir Khan XI to take on Kapil XI
Chandigarh, January 27 The match will feature the best from the film and sports fraternity. Aamir Khan XI would feature Salman Khan, Suniel Shetty, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, Mohd Kaif, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Parthiv Patel, Ram Mahadevan, Mithun Chakraborty, Ritesh Deshmukh, Aftab Shivdasani and Rahul Dev. Kapil Dev would lead a team including Aravinda D’Silva, Romesh Kaluwitharana, L Balaji, Javagal Srinath, Salil Ankola, Narain Karthikeyan, Harsha Bhogle, Charu Sharma, Mohd Azharuddin, Ajit Agarkar, Ajay Jadeja and P Gopichand. The Airtel brand ambassador, Sachin Tendulkar, would also be present to cheer the two teams. However, due to a healing injury, Sachin will not play in the match. A number of television channels will telecast the match live. |
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Tsunami match postponed
KOLKATA:
The second tsunami charity match between Rest of World XI and Asian XI, scheduled to be held in February, has been postponed to April due to unavailability of the best players from different countries.
Announcing this here on Thursday Jagmohan Dalmiya, President of the Asian Cricket Council, said the match had been rescheduled following a communication from the International Cricket Council in this regard. The match was scheduled to be held here at the Eden Gardens on February 13.
— PTI
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Bhatia, Kang lead in CGA golf
Chandigarh, January 27 Trailing by two strokes in the open class was Sanjay Mandal with a card of 76. Another good performance came in the 13-14 age-group competition with Rahul Bakshi returning a six-plus card of 78. His nearest rival in this category was nine strokes behind. Mr D.P. Azad, Dronacharya awardee and CGA patron, did the ceremonial tee off in the morning The scores on the opening day: Open class (18 and above): Sagar Bhatia 74, H.S.Kang 74, Sanjay Mandal 76. Class A (15-17 years):
Rohan Bakshi 84, Vicky Kumar 89, Mahesh 90. Class B (13-14 years): Rahul Bakshi 78, Dhruv AS Ghai 87, Amanvir s. Guron 88. Class C (11-12 years): Anish Gupta 94, Rishi Raj Singh 98, Arjun Partap Singh 101. Class D (Under 10 years): Tarundeep Chadha 92, Jairaj S. Sandhu 98, Dhruv Neil Banerji 106. Class E (15 and above): Kanika Minocha 79, Sonali Chhibber 91, Mrs Binny Bath 91. Class G (under 15 years):
Mani Chander 97, Tanya Anand 97, Rabbiya Gill 103. |
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East Bengal beat Vasco
Margao, January 27 The Bengal giants, who dominated the first half, took the lead in the 31st minute through Selwyn Fernandes. Climax Lawrence increased the lead in the 74th minute with a back header off a flag kick by Chandan Das. Bhaichung Bhutia then made the issue safe in injury time. East Bengal, who registered their second win today, have eight points from four matches. Vasco, who suffered their third defeat, have one point from four matches.
— PTI |
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