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Prasar Bharati to telecast series
Decision on marketing, live feed shortly
Practice match to be shown live
BCCI seeks clarification on Tricolour use
Narain to change helmet design
East Zone crush Bangladesh XI
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West Zone win by 9 wickets
IOA official seeks more funds for federations
Sania gets Dubai Open wild card
Dempo edge out East Bengal
Mahindra rally to beat SBT
Indian Oil, IA advance
ANOC honour for Randhir Singh
Finals of
basketball tournament from today
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Prasar Bharati to telecast series
Chennai, February 24 After a marathon hearing over the past few weeks, Mr Justice KP Sivasubramanian today passed the interim order saying that he would need at least two weeks to pass the final order as he needed to examine earlier cases. Citing the Supreme Court order regarding the India-Australia series in October last year, he said, “The order of the Supreme Court referred to shall be complied with except for the substitution of SET Satellite (Singapore Private Limited) by any other satellite channel when the BCCI may negotiate.” Following the apex court verdict in October last year, Prasar Bharati and SET Satellite were given the rights to telecast the Indo-Australia series as both contending television sports channels were engaged in a court battle and hence were kept out of telecasting rights. The legal battle begun when in September last year the BCCI had awarded telecast rights to Zee for four years but later cancelled it and gave it to ESPN-Star Sports, which made Zee move court. Today’s order following a petition by Zee challenging the BCCI’s decision to terminate its agreement put to rest the apprehension that the Indo-Pak series might be cancelled unless the issue of telecast was resolved. While Mr Justice Sivasubramanian passed the interim order, Zee counsel PR Raman and ESPN-Star Sports counsel ESS Vijay asked the court that why they were kept out of telecast rights. After the judge read out the brief order the BCCI counsel, Mr Somaiyaji told the court that his client would not appoint either Zee or ESPN-Star Sports to telecast the forthcoming series. Replying to Zee counsel’s submission that the channel was ready to negotiate a settlement with the BCCI for this series, the Judge observed, “It is not like the old days. Today you have 365 days of cricket,” and added that the issue could not be decided series by series. |
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Decision on marketing, live feed shortly
Chandigarh, February 24 The Pakistan cricket team, which last toured India way back in 1999, is scheduled to arrive on February 28 for a 50-day tour, during which they will play three Test matches and six one-day ties. Mr Ranbir Singh said the matter would be placed first before the marketing committee of the board and then in front of the working committee before a final decision was taken by the board. The board president said the matches would be telecast by Doordarshan, as directed by the Madras High Court. The Madras High Court, in its order, today directed Prasar Bharati to telecast the series and gave the BCCI freedom to engage any producer for the purpose of the live feed other than Zee TV and ESPN-Star Sports. The order must have come as a big relief to the BCCI, which stood to lose about Rs 300 crore if the issue was not resolved prior to the commencement of the series. The marketing committee of the board, headed by Mr Ranbir Singh, includes among others, the immediate past president of the board, Mr Jagmohan Dalmiya, the secretary, Mr S.K. Nair, who is also the convener of the committee, the five vice-presidents of the board, the treasurer as also the chairman of the BCCI finance committee N. Srinivasan. This committee will decide on who will market the telecast rights on behalf of the board. Mr Ranbir Singh, who is a Congress candidate for the Haryana Assembly elections, the counting of which is scheduled to be held on February 27, said in all probability the marketing committee meeting would be convened on February 28 or March 1 and the working committee meeting would follow soon after. The venue of the meetings, he said, would be decided after consultation with all concerned. |
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Practice match to be shown live
Dharamsala, February 24 Each ticket for the match would carry details of traffic routes and parking areas. “We also plan to show details of the traffic arrangements on local cable networks. The Sports Authority of India (SAI) grounds and the police grounds have been reserved for parking,” he said. |
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BCCI seeks clarification on Tricolour use
New Delhi, February 24 In a letter to Home Minister Shivraj Patil, BCCI vice-president Rajiv Shukla said, “While we wish to follow the government’s directive in this regard, a clarification has been sought by some of the players whether they can simply use the three national colours — saffron, white and green — without the Ashok Chakra, or this too is prohibited.” Shukla met the Home Minister here on Tuesday and discussed the issue with him, informed sources said. The BCCI vice-president, in his letter, recalled that the cricket board had sought the advice of the Sports Ministry with regard to the National Flag being used on helmets by some of the cricketers playing for the country. “On February 11, the Sports Ministry, along with a copy of the letter dated February 3 of the Ministry of Home Affairs, communicated to us that the National Flag cannot be used as a portion of costume or uniform of any description, including helmets,” Shukla said. The cricket Board, the sources said, had sought the fresh clarification as the cricketers wanted to display the tricolour while
representing the country without causing any insult to the National Flag. The Home Ministry had made it clear that cricketers could not get the flag embossed on their helmet or their costume as it was violative of the Prevention of Insults to the National Honour Act, 1971.
— PTI |
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Narain to change helmet design
London, February 24 Karthikeyan, who made it clear a number of times that he took pride in wearing the tricolour helmet, vowed to change it, but opined, “(It is) the government’s loss.” “We are only doing the country proud. I can probably sell that (helmet) space to sponsors and make a lot of money, so it is their loss,” he said. Earlier citing the Flag Code, the Home Ministry had sought to restrict the use of the National Flag on
sportswear. Karthikeyan, who would debut for Jordan in Melbourne next week-end, wore a helmet design depicting the Tricolour in winter testing and in fact, lent it to Euro 3000 Champion Nicky
Pastorelli, who joined Jordan. Earlier, asked in an interview why he used the tricolour helmet, Karthikeyan said. “It is a personal interpretation of the Indian flag. To signal at first sight where the heart belongs.”
— UNI |
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East Zone crush Bangladesh XI
Nagpur, February 24 The Bangladesh XI resumed at their overnight score of 123 for eight after following on and delayed the inevitable for 45 minutes as the last two wickets added 40 runs this morning. They were all out for 163 in 40.3 overs, giving the Sourav Ganguly-led team a comfortable win at the Vidarbha Cricket Association ground. For the visitors, Abdur Razzak remained unbeaten on 58, which came after his impressive bowling performance yesterday. Among the East bowlers, medium-pacers S.S. Paul (3 for 30), R. Bose (3 for 50) and S. Sanyal (3 for 34) shared the spoils as they exploited the ideal conditions to humble the Board XI batsmen. Earlier, Paul had claimed six for 45 to skittle the visitors out for 142 in the first innings. In reply, East Zone declared at 454 for six powered by Ganguly’s 170. With today’s outright win that gave them five points, East somewhat recovered from their defeat to Central Zone in Gwalior last week. Scoreboard East Zone (1st innings) 454 for 6 Bangladesh (1st innings) 142 Bangladesh (2nd innings) Al Shahariar lbw Paul 0 Shabbir Khan lbw Sanyal 0 Chowdary b Paul 8 Ashraful c Das b Bose 1 Kapali lbw Sanyal 13 Islam lbw Sanyal 26 Hossain c Das b Khan 34 Razzak not out 58 S. Hussain lbw Bose 0 A. Hussain b Bose 4 Jubair c sub b Paul 9 Extras:
(b-1, lb-3, nb-6) 10 Total: (all out in 40.3 overs) 163 Fall of wickets:
1-0, 2-9, 3-10, 4-14, 5-44, 6-65, 7-122, 8-123, 9-132 Bowling:
Paul 11.3-3-30-3, Bose 13-6-50-3, Sanyal 7-0-34-3, Mangaraj 6-0-35-0, Khan 3-1-10-1.
— PTI |
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West Zone win by 9 wickets
Hyderabad, February 24 Parab scored a masterly 106 and was ably supported by Irfan Pathan (61), who was promoted in the batting order, to guide the team to a comprehensive win at the Visaka Stadium on the penultimate day of the four-day match. After restricting South Zone to 241 in their second innings earlier in the day, West Zone got the required 223 runs losing only Wasim Jaffer’s wicket. The Mumbai opener made 28. South Zone, resuming at their overnight score of 141 for five, were bundled out for 241 just 40 minutes after lunch with not-out batsman Venugopal Rao compiling a neat 79 to help set a target of 222. Parab and Jaffer began the chase in earnest and batted with elegance against South Zone’s bowling attack led by Test player Laxmipathi Balaji and D Vinay Kumar. Parab’s 150-ball knock was a result of a 227-minute toil during which time he hit 17 fours. Jaffer was dismissed by Anil Kumble with VVS Laxman taking a neat catch in the slips. That was the only success for South as Pathan joined Parab and the duo took the game away. Scoreboard South Zone (1st innings) 187 West Zone (1st innings) 207 South Zone (2nd innings) Robin Utappa c Jaffar b Pathan 40 RM Barrington lbw Pathan 11 VVS Laxman b Zaheer 13 Dravid c Nira b Powar 5 Sriram c Parthiv b Pawar 23 Rao st Parthiv b Pawar 79 Dinesh Kaarthick b Agarkar 20 Kumble c Parthiv b Agarkar 5 L.Balaji c Parthiv b Powar 21 Vinay Kumar run out 0 R.Jesuraj not out 1 Extras
(b-6, nb-17) 23 Total (all out, 83.3 overs) 241 Fall of wickets:
1-31, 2-58 , 3-69, Bowling: Ajit Agarkar 20-5-58-2, Irfan Pathan 17-1-58-2, Zaheer Khan 14-0-38-1,Ramesh Powar 20-3-46-2, Rajesh Pawar 11.3-3-33-2, Tendulkar 1-0-2-0. West Zone (2nd innings) Satyajit Parab not out 106 W. Jaffar c Laxman b Kumble 28 Irfan Pathan not out 61 Extras
(b-12, lb-7, nb-9) 28 Total (1 wicket, 49.1 overs) 223 Fall of wicket:
1-76. Bowling: L.Balaji 12-1-53-0, Vinay Kumar 10-0-58-0, R.Jesuraj 8-1-33-0, Anil Kumble 15-3-40-1, S.Sriram 2-0-9-0, Venugopala Rao 2.1-0-11.0.
— PTI, UNI |
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IOA official seeks more funds for federations
New Delhi, February 24 He said the government was missing the woods for the trees by putting the emphasis solely on the 2010 Commonwealth Games, to be held in Delhi, and neglecting the training programmes of the Indian athletes for immediate events like the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, the 2006 Asian Games in Doha (Qatar) and the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. In between, there will be other international events like the South Asian Federation Games and the Afro-Asian Games. He said it was strange that every single work being undertaken in Delhi was being attributed to the 2010 Commonwealth Games, including purchase of fogging machines, brooms and other tools by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi. He claimed that in the name of the Commonwealth Games, funds were being diverted to create more hotel rooms and other construction activity. Mr Malhotra, who was the president of the All-India Council of Sports when it was revived by the BJP-led NDA Government but quit the post when the government changed at the Centre, said India could not expect to put up an improved performance in international competitions unless a substantial hike was made in the allocation of sports in the coming Budget. He said the government had taken no step for the preparation of the Indian teams for major international competitions next year. “It’s high time the government woke up from its slumber and paid proper attention to the preparation of the Indian teams”, he cautioned. Mr Malhotra lamented that most of the proposals submitted by the National Sports Federations were gathering dust in the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports as it hadnot bothered to react to them. He stated that it was very important for India to concentrate on preparation of the sportspersons for the Melbourne Commonwealth Games and the Doha Asian Games in earnest. He said the grooming of sportspersons for the 2010 Commonwealth Games should also start now to enable sportspersons to peak at the right time. He said India had garnered 69 medals, including 30 gold medals, in the last edition of the Commonwealth Games at Manchester in 2002 and had an impressive haul in the Asian Games in Busan as well. He said such standards could be sustained only if the sportspersons were put through their paces from now. Mr Malhotra pointed out that many commitments made during the preparation of the Indian contingent for the 2004 Olympic Games at Athens were not being honoured by the Central Government. He said the sports federations have not been reimbursed for sending teams abroad for training and competitions, which had put most of the federations in the red. He said the allocation of Rs 281.38 crore for sports and games in the 2004-2005 Union Budget had to be hiked manifold as 90 per cent of the present allocation was being directly spent by the Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. Elaborating further, Mr Malhotra said the allocation for sports also included various heads of expenditure such as assistance to the Laxmi Bai National Institute of Physical Education, Gwalior (Rs 10 crore), infrastructure grant to states (Rs 18.5 crore), expenses for the Sports Authority of India (Rs 145 crore) and to the universities (Rs 12 crore). He said the meagre amount of Rs 50.31 crore provided towards assistance to the sports federations should be enhanced to Rs 500 crore per year to peg it at a realistic level till at least the 2010 Commonwealth Games. He said sports federations should tap talent at the sub-junior and junior levels and groom them properly to make them champion material for the Commonwealth Games. Mr Malhotra also mooted the suggestion to allow Members of Parliament to spent up to Rs 20 lakh from their MP Development Fund to create sports infrastructure in their respective constituencies, including buying “perishable” goods like equipment and sports kits. He also advocated the involvement of the Indian Olympic Association in “all aspects of the preparation for the Commonwealth Games”, adding that the infrastructure at the SAI centres should be upgraded for the conduct of the training camps. He felt that it was ludicrous to build a stadium for kabaddi for the 2010 Commonwealth Games as the sport was hardly played in the country and money spent on it would be a sheer waste. |
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Sania gets Dubai Open wild card
Hyderabad, February 24 Imran said it would be a tough outing for world number 99 Sania against the top players who would be playing in the competition with a cutoff ranking of 36. “The tournament will give her nice exposure, with almost all top 30 in WTA rankings taking part, including the Williams sisters, world number 1 Lindsay Davenport and the Russian duo of Anastasia Myskina and Svetlena Kuznetsova,” he said. Sania would leave for Dubai tomorrow, Imran said.
— PTI |
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Dempo edge out East Bengal
Margao, February 24 Martin, adjudged man of the match, scored in the 10th, 46th and 76th minutes. Goals for East Bengal came in the 21st minute through Bhaichung Bhutia and in injury time of the second half by Julino Martin. With this win, Dempo has increased points tally to 20 from nine outings (six wins, two draws and one defeat) and were one point behind table-toppers East Bengal which has 21 points from 10 matches (six wins, three draws and a defeat). Dempo, who had better share of exchanges for the first 15 minutes, shot into the lead in the 10th minute through Martin, who after collecting a pass from the left flank from play-maker Clifford Miranda, moved down with the ball and dodging past rival defender Mahdab Das shot into the net. 1-0. After Dempo took the lead, East Bengal coach Subhash Bhowmick replaced defender Das by Sasty Duley and since then the complexion of the game completely changed in favour of the visitors. East Bengal restored parity in the 21st minute through Bhutia. When Dempo’s defender Raju Singh gave a back pass to goalkeeper Satish Kumar, Bhutia, who was lurking inside the goal, snatched the ball and just tapped it into the net. Mumbai: Two late strikes by Brazilian import Rodrigo De Almeida helped Mahindra United script a come from behind 3-1 victory over State Bank of Travancore (SBT) in an NFL football match at the Cooperage Stadium here on Thursday. — UNI
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Mahindra rally to beat SBT
Mumbai, February 24 Mahindra, with this win, took their tally to 16 points from nine matches, while the bank men remain on nine points from 10 matches. The match, however, started with SBT on the ascent they time and again beat Mahindra defenders. Their first chance came in the second minute when Martin John, after receiving a pass from Abdul Naushad, could not connect properly and the chance went abegging. SBT finally got the lead in 10th minute when in a move down the left flank Asif Saheer gave a short pass to A.B. Kabeer, who made no mistake in putting the ball into the net to give the visitors the lead. Mahindra, stung by this reverse, went into attack mode and were rewarded in the 36th minute. Rodrigo M.M. Da Silva put Flavio Rodrigues through, who then, with a deft touch, beat goalkeeper Harshal Rahman to restore parity. The second half saw play restricted to the midfield as both teams did not want to take chances. The game, however, came to life in the 89th minute when Mahindra earned a corner. The corner taken by Jatin Bhist saw Abhishek Yadav head on the ball to the waiting Rodrigo De Almeida, who tapped the ball in to give Mahindra the all-important lead. Then in stoppage time, Rodrigo De Almeida made the issue safe for the jeep men, unleashing a pile driver from the top of the box into the right corner of the net and beating goalkeeper Harshal Rahman all ends up.
— UNI |
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Indian Oil, IA advance
New Delhi, February 24 After a goal-less first half, Indian Oil scored two quick goals in an 11-minute span when Bikramjeet Singh converted a penalty corner in the 55th minute and Prabhjot Singh added the second goal in the 66th minute. Surinder Singh scored off a penalty corner in the 68th minute to reduce the margin. Indian Airlines were on a roll, scoring two goals each in either half. Arjun Halappa opened the account in the third minute and Bimal Lakhra scored off a penalty stroke to add the second goal. On resumption, Dhanraj Pillay made it 3-0 while Pundlik Bellary reduced the margin for Bharat Petroleum. Girish Pimple added the fourth goal for Indian Airlines at the fag end. |
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ANOC honour for Randhir Singh
New Delhi, February 24 Randhir Singh, a six-time Olympian trap shooter, had been given the Order of Merit Award by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) in Kuwait on February 5. Randhir, a former Asian Games gold medallist, is also the Secretary-General of the OCA, member of the IOC, vice-president of the Commonwealth Games Federation, executive board member of the ANOC and member of the World Anti-Doping Association Foundation Board.
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Finals of
basketball tournament from today
Ambala, February 24 In another match, the West Bengal postal circle team won its match against the Tamil Nadu team by 55-31 points. In the last match of the day between West Bengal and Punjab postal circles, there was keen contest between the two teams. Punjab won the match by 71-60 points against West Bengal.
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