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Shobhan Mehta had links with
Nayan Mongia denies charges
Ganguly’s ton goes in vain
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PCB interested in training pacers under Lillee
Kasimdzhanov crushes Shirov
Federer enters final
Indian cueists overcome Pak
Narain 17th in practice sessions
Armaan keen to finish on podium
Bhupathi-Woodbridge in semis
Shokeen reaches last eight
Basketball trials from June 22
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Shobhan Mehta had links with ex-players: police
Ahmedabad, June 11 The interrogation of Mehta revealed that his cricket betting network ran far and wide into cricket-playing nations like Pakistan, England and Australia, Mr Vanjara said. “The interrogation of Mehta, who was brought from Mumbai on a transfer warrant with regard to a cricket betting case and lodged here, has thrown up interesting facts,” he told reporters. “He not only ran a cricket betting racket in the country but also had links with Australian bookie Mark Peter and an England bookie code-named ‘Black 0365’,” Mr Vanjara said, adding that, “he was also associated with bookies in Pakistan.” Talking about Mehta’s modus operandi, Mr Vanjara said, “He used to bet on the result of a particular match like whether it will be a win or loss for one team or a draw.” The bookies associated with Mehta used to get ‘tips’ about “factors affecting a match, directly or indirectly from the players,” he said. “Tips about pitch condition, weather, toss, individual team strategy, physical fitness of important players and other matter were obtained by the bookies,” Mr Vanjara said. “Mehta used to place bets on the entire match after getting such tips,” he added. “He also revealed during interrogation that such tips were passed on to bookies by Indian players like Azharuddin, Mongia and Jadeja,” Mr Vanjara said, adding that similar tips were also given to bookies by foreign players like Waugh and the late Cronje. “No names of any current player has come up during the bookie’s interrogation,” he added. Mr Vanjara also said Mehta had not parted any information in connection with the recent India-Pakistan one-day match played at Motera stadium where huge betting reportedly occurred when the match was delayed for about 30 minutes. Mehta also did not reveal anything regarding his alleged involvement with a Gujarat MP, Mr Vanjara said. “Mehta was also associated with the underworld where he had either direct or indirect links with Mumbai-based gangs of Chhota Shakeel, Arun Gawli and Amar Naik,” Mr Vanjara said but denied names of any politicians cropping up during Mehta’s interrogation. “The gang members also used to place bets through Mehta,” he said, adding that, “there is no doubt that he is a big cricket bookie.” The official also said that besides Ahmedabad, Mehta’s betting syndicate was active in Delhi, Jaipur, Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad, besides some other cities. Mehta, who was a diamond merchant and belonged to Palanpur city of Sabarkantha district of North Gujarat, had entered cricket betting in 1992 and ran a racket worth crores with Mumbai as his base, Mr Vanjara said. He was recently arrested from a hospital in Mumbai by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch for his alleged involvement in a cricket betting case where four persons were arrested on May 31 for conducting a betting racket on the West Indies-Pakistan match played recently at Bridgetown. Meanwhile, Mumbai Crime Branch sleuths arrived in Rajkot today to conduct raids on the residence of another Gujarat-based bookie, Arjun Nihalchandani, for his alleged involvement with Shobhan Mehta. Arjun was recently arrested from Ahmedabad by the Mumbai Crime Branch.
— PTI |
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Vadodara, June 11 “I do not know Shobhan Mehta. I have never met him or talked to him,” Mongia told PTI here. When asked about the claims made by the Gujarat Police that Mongia had given “tips” to bookies about the important factors affecting the result of a cricket match, the stumper said: “I have never given tips to anybody either during my foreign tours or during any match being played in the country.” — PTI
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London, June 11 The Indian captain scored 142 off 124 balls and his innings was studded with 15 boundaries and five long hits. Ganguly took the crease at a crisis situation after the fall of three quick wickets for just five runs on the board. Glamorgan were following on after being all out for 358 against Kent’s first innings score of 568. The out-of-form southpaw initially worked the ball around and looked to built his innings while wickets were tumbling at the other end. Glamorgan were bowled out for 260 in 45.4 overs despite Ganguly’s valiant effort. Kent’s medium pacer Amjad Khan took all the three initial wickets. Dan Cherry was caught wafting outside the off stump and David Hemp played on before Michael Powell was bowled for the 10th time this summer. When Martin Saggers dismissed Matthew Elliott and Mark Wallace gave Niall O’Brien his third catch, Glamorgan had slumped to 34 for five in the 10th over. Thereafter, Ganguly and Robert Croft held the crease and averted complete humiliation by adding 44 runs. He then dominated a seventh-wicket partnership of 100 with Darren Thomas, who contributed only 17. Ganguly received valuable support from last man Andrew Davies (35 off 42 balls), who helped him add 80 runs for the 10th wicket. The Indian captain, who had scored 69 in the first innings, went into overdrive after reaching his fifty — his second half-century took only 41 balls, although he survived a dropped chance at 74. He scored his 100 in as many balls with 10 fours and three sixes. After reaching his century, Ganguly decided to cut loose and blasted his way through the last 42 runs which came off just 25 balls with five fours and a six. With his exploits, Glamorgan, at one point facing an innings defeat, finished at 260 all out, a lead of 50 runs. Kent’s David Fulton and Rob Key knocked off the runs with 19 balls to spare. Earlier in the morning in the first innings, Ganguly added eight runs to his overnight 61 not out before his team were all out for 190. He featured in a 111- run 4th wicket stand with David Hemp after Glamorgan had been reduced to 79 for 3. In another Division One match at Lord’s, India’s Irfan Pathan failed to impress with the ball as Surrey, replying to Middlesex’s first innings score of 437, notched up 460 for nine at stumps on the penultimate day of their four-day match last evening. Pathan, who had scored 68 runs for Middlesex, went without wicket conceding 73 runs in his 23 overs. Medium pacer A Richardson captured 6 for 106. Harbhajan Singh, playing for Surrey, who had taken two wickets for 87, was out for a duck. — PTI
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PCB interested in training pacers under Lillee
Islamabad, June 11 The plan to send young fast bowlers to train at the academy will be limited to the period former Australian pace-bowling legend Lillee remains present there to supervise their training. “Our information is that Lillee is available from June 26 to July 5 at the academy. We plan to send our bowlers to the academy during this period only,” a senior PCB official was quoted as saying by ‘The News’ today. The PCB had recently confirmed that it intended to send three pace bowlers — Mohammad
Asif, Mohammad Irshad and Najaf Shah — to train at the academy, where Lillee also made regular visits to coach the bowlers. Academy’s chief coach
T.A. Sekar, however, said nothing had been discussed formally as yet. They had opted for India because it was financially more viable for them, he said. “Besides, PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan had read about us in the papers while on the 2005 tour. He has seen how our products — Zaheer Khan and Laxmipathy Balaji — have shaped up in the past few years. This must have encouraged their board to contact us,” he added.
— PTI |
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Kasimdzhanov crushes Shirov
Leon (Spain), June 11 After drawing the inconsequential fourth game with the defending champion Shirov, Kasimdzhanov sealed his berth in the final in which he will meet the winner of the match between Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen of Norway. It turned out to be a dramatic first day of the three-day rapid event as local hope and favourite Shirov simply could not get himself going against Kasimdzhanov. The Latvian-born Spaniard, who authored the famous ‘Fire on board’, was a pale shadow of himself right from the word go as he lost the first and the third games with white pieces and drew the remaining two to bow out of the event. Kasimdzhanov’s big claim to fame is the FIDE World Championship title he won last year at Tripoli in Libya. There too the Uzbek was at his best in tackling the shorter-time control games and now again he proved that his success did not come by chance. The time control here is for the fittest, 20 moves for the entire game with a 10-second increment after every move is made. In the press conference after the match, Kasimdzhanov earned praise from Shirov, who asserted that he deserved to win this match.
— PTI |
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Halle (Germany), June 11 Top seed Federer, going for a third successive title at the pre-Wimbledon grasscourt tournament, produced a superb display of serve and volley tennis, extending his three-year winning streak on the surface to 28 matches. Haas, roared on by the crowd in the 12,500-seater Gerry Weber stadium, fought well to take the second set to a tie-break, but double-faulted at 9-10 to hand victory to Federer. The 23-year-old Swiss is also going for a third successive title at the two-week All-England Club tournament in London starting on June 20. Federer and Haas had each won two of their four previous matches but this was their first encounter on grass. Birmingham: Third seed Jelena Jankovic cruised into the DFS Classic final on Saturday, taking less than an hour to beat American Laura Granville 6-2, 6-2. The 20-year-old from Serbia and Montenegro, who is yet to drop a set at the Wimbledon warm-up event, had too much firepower for the unseeded Granville, clinching victory in 53 minutes. “I didn’t expect to reach the final here,” said the world number 20. “I’ve only played a handful of matches on grass, so this is a surprise.” — Reuters
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Indian cueists overcome Pak
Karachi, June 11 Pakistan’s Mohammad Yousuf, in the last Lucky Seven singles against Manan Chandra, required a victory with a half century break to force a sudden death. But the 1993 world champion and 14-time former national champion could only manage a 64-41 victory. Pakistan appeared dead and buried when they started the final day’s play trailing 20-31 with a minimum of 17 points for grabs. But they got a lifeline in the fourth match of the day when surprise package Imran Shahzad not only defeated Manan Chandra 20-58, 73-20, 114-10 but also conjured up the maiden century break of the series to reduce India’s lead to 35-30. Mohammad Yousuf, in the fifth match, then recovered to beat Asian champion Alok Kumar 8-131, 76-35, 60-45 after the bespectacled Indian cueists had started briskly by notching up breaks of 74 and 57 in the first frame. Yousuf replied with a break of 52 in the second frame as both players contributed three points each to their teams cause. Pakistan captain Naveen Perwani kept Pakistan’s hopes alive when in the penultimate three-frame singles match he defeated Devendra Joshi 81-13, 72-48, 33-61 to further trim India’s lead to 39-35.
— PTI |
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Narain 17th in practice sessions
Montreal, June 11 The Jordan driver, who clocked 1 minute 19.791 seconds covering 21 laps in the morning, improved to 1:18.234 in the later session and completed 50 laps to be ahead of his team-mate Tiago Montiero of Portugal, who had some hydraulic problems affecting the gearbox. “Actually this track is a pleasant surprise. It is very smooth because it has been resurfaced and the bumps taken off. But it is slippery and dirty. We did not have good grip on the track in the first session as it was rather dirty and the car was quite difficult to handle,” the 28-year-old, who was driving here for the first time, said. The Indian said in his 50 laps he learnt that precision was the key on the track, which was considered the favourite of all the teams. — PTI
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Armaan keen to finish on podium
Pattaya (Thailand), June 11 The 15-year-old, driving for Korean team E-Rain, finished third in the first qualifying but slipped one position in the second session and had to be satisfied on fourth at the Bira racing circuit here. Australia’s Michael Tony Patrizi of Team Maritus took the pole position for tomorrow’s first race while Armaan’s team-mate and competition leader Salman Rashid Al Khalifa of Bahrain secured his fifth pole in six qualifyings in the second session. Armaan, JK Tyres National Racing Champion 2004, had created history in the fourth round in Malaysia when he became the first-ever rookie to win a race. Though disappointed with his performance in the qualifying sessions, the Chennai-based driver was upbeat about his chances in the races tomorrow and said his main aim was to finish on the podium on this “challenging” circuit. “I am not very happy with my performance today. It is a tight circuit with quick turns and no run off. There are very few corners for overtake. I will just try to pressurise the guy ahead of me and let’s see what happens. My first priority tomorrow is to finish on the podium in both races,” Armaan told reporters today. Armaan, who is also the youngest driver in the event, is currently second in overall standing behind Khalifa and is the joint leader in the rookie category with Charlie-Ro Charlez of Malaysia. In the first qualifying session this morning, the team took a slight gamble as it sent Armaan out only halfway through the 30-minute qualifying session since they were worried about the oil split on the track by a saloon car before the start. The Indian, who had dominated the practice sessions in the past two days, took a while to settle down and could only register a best lap time of 1.01.938 to finish third fastest. The second qualification session began a lot better as the Indian stayed at the second position for most of the period but Khalifa and Patrizi pipped him in the last 10 minutes to take the first and third positions, respectively. The second spot for tomorrow’s both races was bagged by Hamed-Al Fardan of Bahrain, driving for Team Meritus. Armaan, sponsored by JK Tyres, has been working hard on his fitness ahead of the event and had six test sessions in the past two days to get used to the track and arrive at an optimum balance with the car.
— PTI |
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Bhupathi-Woodbridge in semis
New Delhi, June 11 The Bhupathi-Woodbridge duo got a walkover from the German pair of Nicolas Kiefer and Alexander Waske — the German who created a sensation by beating French Open champion Rafael Nadal in the first round of the singles event. Earlier, the Indo-Australian pair of Bhupathi and Woodbridge had beaten the Austrian duo of Julian Knowle and Jurgen Melzer 6-3, 6-4 to reach the second round. The winner of the semifinal would meet Marat Safin and his Swedish partner Joachim Johansson in the doubles final, according to information received here today. The Safin-Johansson pair got a walkover from the pair of Jiri Novak and Petr Pala.
— UNI |
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New Delhi, June 11 Pitted against Schmid, the Indian found the going quite tough as his German opponent made life difficult for him. Though Vivek managed to win the first set, the German did not give up and came back in the second to stretch the match into the decider. The third set again proved a see-saw affair and went down to the wire, with both the players trying to outplay each other in the tie-breaker. Vivek managed to keep her calm and eventually his poise saw him edge out the German 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(5) to reach the quarterfinal, according to information received here today. Vivek’s compatriot and second seed Sanam Singh crashed out of the event in the prequarterfinals. Sanam, who had beaten German Marc Meigel 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 in the second round, was never at ease against Luka Belic of Croatia. The Indian was made to run around the court and the Croat won 6-3, 6-4. In doubles, the top-seeded Vivek-Sanam duo got a bye in the first round. They would play the Australian pair of Brydan Klein and Joel Lindner in the prequarterfinal round. — UNI
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Basketball trials from June 22
Sangrur, June 11 |
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Gurdaspur, Sangrur in softball semis
Sangrur, June 11 Ludhiana caused an upset in the girls section when they defeated holders Gurdaspur 6-5 in the semifinal. |
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Mumbai, June 11 The hosts took a commanding 24-0 lead by the half-way stage. India would travel to Guam to take on the latter on June 18. — PTI
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