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ICC okays substitution, new field restrictions
Obituary
Team distracted, says Chappell
Ganguly’s effort goes in vain
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Serena humbled
Argentina set up clash with Brazil
Badminton players allowed courtside coaching
Indian cueists clinch Asian Open title
Anand to focus on World Championship
Amandeep Johl finishes
tied seventh
Gatlin wins 100 m race
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ICC okays substitution, new field restrictions
London, June 26 The new regulations will be tried for 10 months on
implementation from July 30 and reviewed by the committee — which made the initial recommendations — at its 2006 meeting, the ICC Chief Executive Committee decided at its meeting here yesterday. The innovations may also be tried during the NatWest Challenge between England and Australia, starting on July 7, subject to convenience of the cricket boards of the two countries, an ICC statement said here. Under the new rules, soccer-style substitution will be permitted, which will allow sides to replace a player at any stage of a match. The replaced player will be ruled out of the rest of the match while the substitute will start afresh, assuming any remaining batting or bowling duties. There will also be an increase from 15 to 20 overs of restrictions. Unlike the present system, the new set-up means they will apply for the first 10 overs of every innings, plus two additional blocks of five overs, which must be selected by the fielding captain. The committee decided that the additional close-catcher field restrictions, where two players must be within the 15-yard inner circle, should only apply for the first 10 overs. The changes were recommended by the ICC Cricket Committee, headed by Sunil Gavaskar and comprising former international cricketers. The committee, holding a four-day meeting which would be concluded on Tuesday, also endorsed the proposal to undertake a technology trial during the Johnnie Walker Super Series in Australia in October. “This will allow on-field umpires to consult the TV umpire on any aspect of any decision, with the final decision remaining with the on-field umpire, the ICC statement said. The only exceptions to this will be line decisions, which will be dealt with by the TV umpire in the same manner as at present, and clean catches, where the existing process will also be retained. The current practice for clean catches is that they are only referred where both umpires are unsighted as this is one area where TV replays have proved inconclusive. On the issue of cricket bats, the committee said the Kookaburra bat used by several international players should be allowed pending a final decision from the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), on their legality in relation to current regulations. It, however, said an expert panel would be constituted to work with the MCC and bat manufacturers to review the laws and regulations governing manufacturing of bats.
— PTI |
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Former cricketer Solkar dead
Mumbai, June 26 Former Test allrounder, born on March 18, 1948, in Mumbai, was known for his brilliant close-in fielding, especially at short leg. He played 27 Tests between 1969 and 1976-77. Solkar was a gritty left-handed lower-order batsman and useful left-arm bowler who could bowl slow-medium or orthodox slow. He was instrumental in the success of the famous Indian spin quartet in 1970s due to his extraordinary reflexes and brave attitude, which helped him take some blinders and spectacular catches in the short leg position. Solkar represented Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy and also played for West Zone in the Duleep Trophy. In 48 Test innings, Solkar scored 1068 runs at an average of 25.42, with one century (102) and six half centuries to his credit. He also took 53 catches, most of them close to the wicket. Solkar captured 18 wickets after giving away 1070 runs at an average of 59.44 per wicket. His career best in Test cricket was 3 for 28. His only century came against Clive Lloyd’s West Indies in the deciding fifth Test in Mumbai in 1974-75. Solkar would also be remembered for dismissing Geoff Boycott four times, who hit back by sledging. Solkar was the son of the groundsman at the PJ Hindu Gymkhanna in Mumbai and shared one-room accommodation with five siblings and his parents. BCCI chief condoles death
Chandigarh (TNS): Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President Ranbir Singh Mahendra on Saturday expressed deep shock over the death of former Test cricketer Eknath Solkar, describing him as the “greatest all-rounder and the best close-in fielder”. “It will be difficult to fill the void after the death of the great all-rounder. The cricket fraternity has lost a brilliant and outstanding all-rounder”, Mr Ranbir Singh said when contacted for his comments. |
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Original utility man of Indian cricket
Mumbai, June 26 Solkar, who died here today following a cardiac arrest, rose to represent India from humble beginnings — he was the son of the groundsman at the P J Hindu Gymkhana in south Mumbai. He showed extraordinary courage by standing at hand-shaking distance from the batsmen to pouch catches out of nothing off the great spin exponents — Bishen Singh Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar and S Venkatraghavan. In those days, there were no helmets to protect the close-in fielders and there were no shin protectors, but Solkar — who volunteered to stand at the suicidal position when Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi was the Indian captain — showed tremendous guts and selfless courage. The allrounder was a very gritty lower-order batsman who was very difficult to dislodge and a pretty useful medium pacer. Solkar, who followed in the footsteps of Bapu Nadkarni, Salim Durrani and Rusi Surti to occupy the allrounder’s spot, earned plaudits by twice dismissing the great Geoff Boycott when India toured England in 1971 and created history. He could bowl left-arm slow stuff too. His fantastic fielding played a big part in India’s famous victory at The Oval in the 1971 series against England, which later helped Ajit Wadekar to become a member of Solkar’s building society in Worli, the distinction of being the country’s first-ever victorious captain against England in the latter’s backyard. In fact, when England visited India for the return series in 1972, Solkar once again played a big part by snapping up catches off Bedi, Chandra and Prasanna to help his team score another series win for a memorable back-to-back Test series triumph. Solkar formed a great partnership with Wadekar at slip, Abid Ali at backward square leg or short fine leg and Venkat at gully to give the cutting edge to the great spin bowlers during that glorious period in Indian cricket. — PTI
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Team distracted, says Chappell
Bangalore, June 26 The 56-year-old former Australian captain said he could not pinpoint what went wrong for India in the series, but felt that they got distracted. “Generally speaking, when in that situation, it is a matter of a team getting distracted and getting away from the process that allows them to be successful.” “From what appeared to have happened from a long way away (Australia) was that Pakistan worked together well; they had a gameplan which they stuck to; they believed in themselves and worked hard towards getting the results they wanted to get,” Chappell said here. “Obviously, Pakistan regrouped; they came back and fought hard; that was a good effort on their part. That will happen from time to time. What we need to do and what players that were involved in that series is to learn from the experience.” “Sometimes, the worst days are your best experiences and best learning days because all of a sudden, it makes you step aside and think about what happened,” Chappell said. He also ruled out the need of a fielding coach for the team. “I think at this stage, there is enough resources within the team and in the support staff (trainer Gregory King and physio John Gloster) to go ahead with what we have got. From time to time, we may look at individuals who add something to the growth,” he said. India’s speedsters will come face to face with him for the first time at the pre-season pace bowlers camp, commencing at the National Cricket Academy here tomorrow.
— PTI |
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Ganguly’s effort goes in vain
London, June 26 Put in to bat, Warwickshire scored 205-7 while Glamorgan could pile up only 151 runs to be all out in 18.2 overs after Alex Loudon’s spin left them scurrying for cover. The Welsh county were going well on 91-1 in reply to Warwickshire’s 205, but Loudon’s vicious spell of 5-33 halted their charge. Matthew Elliott hit 51 off 32 balls and Sourav Ganguly made 36 off 35 with seven hits to the fence, but both fell to Loudon and Glamorgan lost the last five wickets for 19 runs and were all out for 151. The two batsmen put on 78 runs in their partnership. Jim Troughton topscored with 42 for Warwickshire and Jonathon Trott and Neil Carter both made 38.
— UNI |
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London, June 26 Scoreboard Bangladesh Omar b Flintoff 81 Nafees c Trescothick b S. Jones 11 Imran b Flintoff 32 Ashraful c Trescothick b Flintoff 0 Bashar run out 10 Ahmed b Giles 15 Mashud not out 42 Mortaza b Flintoff 1 Rafique not out 2 Extras (lb-1, nb-2, w-11) 14 Total (7 wickets, 50 overs) 208 Fall of wickets: 1-22, 2-92, 3-92, 4-112, 5-138, 6-183, 7-189. Bowling: Gough 9-0-59-0, S. Jones 9-0-44-1, Tremlett 7-0-26-0, Flintoff 9-1-29-4, Collingwood 6-0-21-0, Giles 10-0-28-1. England Trescothick c Mashud b Rana 43 Strauss b Rana 98 Flintoff lbw b Rafique 22 Solanki lbw b Rafique 8 Pietersen c Rafique b Rana 23 Collingwood not out 8 G. Jones not out 0 Extras (lb-4, w-3) 7 Total (5 wickets, 38.5 overs) 209 Fall of wickets: 1-99, 2-134, 3-151, 4-182, 5-208. Bowling: Hossain 7-1-43-0, Mortaza 9-0-48-0, Islam Rana 9.5-0-57-3, Rafique 10-1-44-2, Ahmed 3-0-13-0. — Reuters
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Bhupathi-Pierce advance
New Delhi, June 26 Bhupathi and Pierce defeated local hope David Sherwood and Amanda Janes of Great Britain 6-3, 6-4 to set up a second round clash with second seed Wayne and Cara Black of the USA. Sania Mirza kept her flickering Wimbledon hopes alive as she and Sweden’s Simon Aspelin managed to thwart the challenge of the Argentinian-Australian duo of Gaston Etlis and Lisa McShea 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 7-5 in the first round of the mixed doubles, according to information received here. Trailing by one set, the Sania-Aspelin pair stretched themselves before they could win the next two and seal the match in their favour yesterday. It was a match which saw swinging fortunes. The first set was a close contest and went into the tie-breaker, which the Indo-Swedish pair lost 5-7. It was a wake-up call for Sania and Aspelin, who had reached the men’s doubles quarterfinals here last year. They came into their own in the second set, winning it comprehensively 6-2, but the sailing was not smooth in the third set as Etlis and McShea bounced back. The third set was a close call and the Indo-Swedish pair pocketed it 7-5 to book a berth in the next round. Sania and Aspelin would face the seventh-seeded Czech-Slovak duo of Leos Friedl and Janette Husarova in the second round. In boys singles, Asian champion Sanam Singh thrashed Christopher Llewellyn of Great Britain 6-0, 6-2 to move into the second round. He will now face Antal Van Der Dwim of Netherlands, who upset ninth seed Australian Carsten Ball 7-6 (12/10), 3-6, 6-2 in the opening round. The Wimbledon sojourn was not so sweet for left-handed Chennai lad Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, who fought hard before giving up 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 against another Briton, Myles Blake. Jeevan had started quite promisingly, winning the first set, but lost his way midway as the Briton returned into the match winning the second 6-4 to draw parity. Blake blew away Jeevan in the third 6-1 to proceed to the next round.
— UNI, PTI |
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Serena humbled
Switched at the last minute to ‘The Graveyard of Champions’ court two, and with dusk falling, 2002 and 2003 winner Serena never got going against an opponent who had won just seven Grand Slam matches in 21 previous attempts. As night fell, Craybas proved too consistent for an erratic 23-year-old Serena.
— Reuters
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Argentina set up clash with Brazil
Hanover, June 26 The two teams were locked 1-1 after extra time. Carlos Salcido put Mexico ahead in the 104th minute while Luciano Figueroa equalised for Argentina in the 110th minute. The teams finished level at 0-0 at the end of regulation time. Javier Saviola of Argentina was sent off in the 89th minute for a high and late kick on Mexican midfielder Gonzalo Pineda. Rafael Marquez of Mexico was sent off one minute later for a foul on Pablo Aimar. They were the first players dismissed in the eight-nation tournament. Argentina will take on Brazil in the summit clash in Frankfurt on Wednesday, while Mexico play Germany in the third-fourth place playoff in Leipzig earlier the same night. Brazil had defeated Germany 3-2 in the first semifinal yesterday. — Agencies
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Badminton players allowed courtside coaching
New Delhi, June 26 The move will be implemented on an experimental basis in all World Grand Prix and IBF events beginning from the World Championship at Anheim, the USA, and is likely to become a rule from August next year. The decision to this effect was taken by the IBF Council meeting in China last month. Director of Events Vanessa Freeman now sent a detailed guideline to all member associations, continental confederations, referees and umpires about the details of the experiment, which would see earlier law regarding coaching during matches being nullified. According to the earlier law, a player could get inputs from his coach only during the 90 second break between the opening two games or the five-minute interval before the decider. But most coaches had evolved a mechanism to give inputs to the player covertly and the match officials, despite their best efforts, were helpless in curbing it. “We are aware that unauthorised coaching from the courtside does take place at competitions all over the world, overtly, but more often covertly, and it really is a near impossible task for referees and umpires to police effectively,” an IBF spokesperson said. “By relaxing the rules at this experimental stage, we will see whether the situation can become more manageable.” Under the new guidlines, the coaches would be allowed to sit on the sidelines and give inputs to players any time during the game, when the shuttle was not in play. They would, however, not be allowed to stand up or shout instructions to players as it
could distract the opponent. On the other hand, the umpire would be given powers to issue a warning to the coaches breaching the rule and in consultation with the
referee, could even remove them from the arena floor if the same offence was committee
repeatedly.
— PTI |
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Indian cueists clinch Asian Open title
New Delhi, June 26 ONGC employee Alok, who is also the reigning Asian champion, was down 1-2 and trailed by 50 points by the experienced cueist came up with a half-century break to win the frame on black ball. He went on to win the next frame and avenge their defeat against the same opponent in the league stage. The Indians had gone down to Thailand 0-3 in their opening league encounter. India, however, failed to get a good start as Manan Chandra went down 1-3 to Paithoon Phonboon in the first rubber. Former IBSF world champion Pankaj Advani then levelled the score for the Indians when he beat Supoj Saenlah 3-1 and take the match to the decider. Indian team captain Alok was elated at the victory and said it was even unexpected to them. “We came here as underdogs and did not even think that we will reach the finals. But we managed to beat formidable teams like China and Thailand and it is a great achievement,” he told PTI from China. — PTI
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Anand to focus on World Championship
New Delhi, June 26 The top eight players of the world, including Anand and arch-rival Vesselin Topalov of Bulgaria, will compete in the World Championship. With the unexpected retirement of Russian Grandmaster Gary Kasparov early this year, Anand now dons the mantle of the World No. 1, but he needs to add 12 more points to reach the coveted 2800 ELO points to become only the third man in chess history to achieve that feat, the others being Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik. The new-found status of being the No. 1, after occupying the No. 2 slot for quite some time, does not flatter Anand, who considers the World Championship as an ultimate test of chess skill, as the field will have the eight best players. “You do not go there thinking you will get 12 points,” Anand said frankly. Anand, who was here as the brand ambassador of NIIT, took on 20 opponents simultaneously in a magnificent display of non-stop rapid chess, which lasted over two hours, with Anand playing the matches standing on his feet. At least 30 players tried to match wits with Anand, but only two of them could hold him to draw, the others biting the dust. Anand remained on top, despite some challenging moments, with former Union Minister for Power Suresh Prabhu, president of PricewaterhouseCoopers Deepak Kapoor, heart surgeon Naresh Trehan, industrialist Satish Kaura, businessman Vinayak Chatterjee and lawyer Shanker Vaidyalingam putting up tough fights. Anand said though he was disappointed at chess not figuring in the Olympic Games as yet, he was happy that chess had been included in the 2006 Doha Asian Games. “We should be happy with small mercies,” he said, adding, “We should lobby hard for the inclusion of chess in the Olympics.” Anand said he was happy to note that more and more Indian youngsters were breaking into the top 100 of world chess. “Five years ago, I was the only Indian in the top 100. Now we have three, with Sasikiran and Harikrishna joining the elite group.” Abhijit Kunte and Suryasekhar Ganguly were set to join them in the top 100. Anand said his biggest ambition was to make chess the most popular sport in the country. He said he was happy to learn that children were enthusiastically learning chess. “It was my dream that chess would grow to such level,” he pointed out. Recalling his experiences, Anand said when he used to play as a junior at the Tal Chess Academy in Chennai, there was a group of 10 or 15 players, and he got hardly five minutes to play. That was how he developed a liking for rapid chess as he got very little time to ponder over the moves. |
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Amandeep Johl finishes
tied seventh
Bandar Seri Begawan, June 26 Johl’s final round of one-under 70 meant he was among the handful with a sub-par round on each of the four days. Australian Terry Pilkadaris carded a final round of four-under 67 to aggregate a total of 19-under 265 and a huge five-shot win over fellow Aussie Jarrod Lyle.
Johl’s 70 gave him a total of nine-under 275 and saw him tie for seventh place with Ahmad Bateman and Scott Barr. Gaurav Ghei carded a two-under 69 to come up to tied 16th, while Firoze Ali bogeyed his last two holes for a 72 and dropped from 13th to tied 20th. Still it was his best finish of the season. Uttam Singh Mundy, after three par rounds, finally carded a sub-par round to finish at one-under 283 and tied 35th. Ashok Kumar lost his rhythm and bogeyed the last two holes to drop to tied 39th, while Digvijay Singh shot a 74 and stayed at tied 68th.
— PTI |
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Gatlin wins 100 m race
Carson, June 26 Shawn Crawford, the Olympic 200 metres gold medallist, was second in 10.17 and Leonard Scott third in 10.18 at the American trials. The trio would now represent the USA at the world championships in Helsinki in August. Former Olympic champion and world record holder Maurice Greene was close to the lead when he was forced out by a hamstring injury after 70 metres.
— Reuters |
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New Delhi, June 26
London, June 26
