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Sourav’s ban reduced by two matches
Tri-series telecast dispute reaches SC
Indian pacers in testing waters
Dalmiya reigns supreme on home turf
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England agree to play ODI in Karachi
Govt move to streamline SAI financial operations
Sahaj Grover wins under-10 world chess title
Third successive win for Chanda
Sania falters against Venus
Grant Hackett sets 800m freestyle world record
Soumyajit, Neha lose in semis
Manan makes it to knockout stage
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Sourav’s ban reduced by two matches
London, July 28 “Justice Sachs formed the view that while the application of the code by the match referee (Chris Broad) and the ICC Appeals Commissioner (Michael Beloff) was correct, the penalty imposed was too severe in the circumstances, and he reduced his suspension from six to four matches,” an ICC statement said here today. Sourav, who missed the last two one-dayers against Pakistan pending his first appeal, can now join the Indian team in Sri Lanka after the Rahul Dravid-led team plays their first two matches. Sourav was slapped a six-match ODI ban by ICC match referee Chris Broad for India’s repeated slow over rate during the home series against Pakistan. The cricketer and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had appealed against the ban but ICC Appeals Commissioner Michael Beloff turned down their plea. Subsequently, the BCCI objected to the process adopted in the case and knocked the door of the ICC Disputes Resolution Committee. Justice Sachs was entrusted with the job of dealing the case. Justice Sachs had given the BCCI and the ICC time till July 20 to supply succinct additional written submissions concerning the provisions of the Code of Conduct and the process of imposing penalties. Each party was then given time till July 22 to reply in writing to these submissions. Justice Sachs’ decision will be final and binding on all parties. The ICC statement added, “On the specific points raised by the Board of Control of Cricket in India relating to the process by which the matter was dealt with, Justice Sachs reached the following conclusions: 1. On the regulations as they stand the principles of natural justice would not have required an oral hearing for Sourav Ganguly when the appeal was being considered. 2. It would not be permissible to go behind the published text of the Code of Conduct as it appears in the Blue Book. 3. Looked at as a whole, Clauses J, C 1 and CC do disclose a chargeable offence based on failure to meet the minimum required over rate. 4. Such charge does not require proof of deliberate intent. In considering the issue of the penalty, Justice Sachs concludes that more weight should have been given to the fact that the the Indian side was only five overs behind the required rate.” ICC President Ehsan Mani said he was pleased that the issue was now finally resolved. Kolkata: Former BCCI President Jagmohan Dalmiya on Thursday welcomed the decision to reduce the six-ODI ban on Ganguly, but said he would have been happier had it been fully lifted. — UNI, PTI
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Tri-series telecast dispute reaches SC
New Delhi, July 28 Taking note of Ten Sports’ application, filed in its pending case pertaining to the March, 2004, dispute over sharing of the telecast of Pakistan series with DD, a Bench of Mr Justice Ashok Bhan and Mr Justice S.B. Sinha stayed the proceedings in the high court on a PIL by P.S. Sudheesh and another person, making a similar plea this time. While issuing notices to the two petitioners, the Bench said the stay order would not, however, come in the way of Ten Sports and DD making any interim arrangement mutually for telecast of the Sri Lanka series, also involving India and West Indies, starting from Saturday. The two petitioners were directed by the Bench to file their replies by August 8. The PIL was listed for hearing in the high court today. Though Ten Sports and DD were not directly involved in a legal battle this time over the sharing of the telecast of the Sri Lanka tri-series, the international channel alleged that the PIL in the high court was “sponsored” by DD to get a favourable order by proxy. It said the PIL was moved after Ten Sports had rejected the July 13 proposal of Prasar Bharati, made through a letter for sharing of the telecast signal, in which it had given “indications that it was expecting a litigation possibly in the form of a PIL with regard to the tri-series and some interim order being passed therein.” Ten Sports claimed that the whole idea of filing the PIL in any high court just before the start of any cricket series involving India, was that in an interim arrangement, DD would automatically be asked to telecast the matches within the territory of India in public interest at the last moment. “Such a PIL is always filed at the last minute and this has been happening for the third time since the Madras High Court passed the order on March 13, 2004, directing telecast of the Pakistan series cricket matches,” Ten Sports contended. The dispute relating to Pakistan series between Ten Sports and DD over the sharing of advertisement revenue was pending adjudication before the apex court. Ten Sports said it had “acquired exclusive rights for the telecast of the tri-series at a huge cost and were being forced to share their rights with DD against its will under the garb of public interest.” The two petitioners had contended that since Ten Sports was a “pay channel” whose signal would be available through cable operators only, it should be directed to share the telecast with DD for use on its network. |
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Indian pacers in testing waters
Dambulla, July 28 Only three or sometimes even two of them will man India’s medium-pace attack in Sri Lanka and must quickly come to terms with slow pitches and marauding Sri Lankan batsmen. Frankly, they have been shown toothless in subcontinental conditions in the past few years. Zaheer, it is said, has got over his fitness and technical issues, but he still has to show it is for real on the field. Nehra just about made it to the cut-off list after new coach Greg Chappell lost little opportunity in conveying he was not fully
fit. Pathan has to show that he has rediscovered his in-duckers to right-handers and Balaji, after the mauling he got at the hands of the Pakistanis early this year, would be trying to avoid giving width to batsmen. None of them played in every single Test or one-dayer in the past season. Sometimes it was injury, at other times poor form, which put them on the sidelines. India played 11 Tests and 18 one-day internationals last season. Zaheer Khan featured in 9 matches in each format of the game; Balaji in 3 Tests and 8 one-day internationals; Pathan in 8 Tests and 10 one-dayers while Nehra figured in 11 one-day internationals and no Test. In the camp, a few youngsters were noticed. Shreesanth of Kerala was extremely quick and fast;
R.P. Singh of Uttar Pradesh was an exciting talent and Ranadeb Bose of Bengal impressed. Indian cricketers, presently in Sri Lanka, are also praising the bounce Munaf Patel managed. Chappell, in order to gain support in his mission, asked Dennis Lillee to come over to the camp and has brought over his old associate Ian Frazer to Sri Lanka to help out the fast bowlers. Frazer has gone about giving individual attention to bowlers. Pathan was discovered to be not taking his front foot across at the point of delivery, which affected his ability to bowl inswinging deliveries. After working with Frazer for 45 minutes, he was seen bowling from a shorter run-up and trying to bring his front foot as much across as possible at the point of delivery. Fast bowlers, from now on, will be shown video footage about the line they have bowled in a match. What must increase their anxiety is Chappell’s belief that bowlers with ability to bounce from close range have better chance of success. Indian fast bowlers have traditionally been
skiddy, swinging and seaming type of trundlers. Express pace is not their forte, nor the ability to bounce batsmen their strong point. With such shift in focus, it will come as no surprise if the Indian fast bowling quartet feel a little rushed in Sri Lanka. They need to retain their wit and do something special to keep their coach’s faith in them going.
— PTI |
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Dalmiya reigns supreme on home turf
Kolkata, July 28 The CAB elections were significant as the detractors of Mr Dalmiya in the BCCI had
reportedly quietly slipped in their support to challenger Dinesh Vajpai, who also reportedly had the tacit support of the government. But Dalmiya did not even bat an eyelid as he snuffed out his challenger by 106-13 votes, showing that he reigned supreme on home turf. Vajpai, who did all the mud-slinging and whipped up a storm over certain issues, left saying, “I congratulate Mr Dalmiya. My challenge was symbolic. It was a protest on some issues.” “But I feel that a majority of the members of the CAB do not concur with my views,” the super cop and former city Commissioner said, summing up the annihilation he faced. Later Dalmiya said, “It is a democratic process. There was no need for mud-slinging and getting into a battle of words. The AGM was the right forum for raising the issues and thrashing them out. But surprisingly, the opposition did not raise them here.” It was a day that Vajpai would like to forget in a hurry. After the secretary’s report was read out, followed by the treasurer’s, elections began, with the opposition coming against Mr Dalmiya chairing the elections. “Mr Vajpai objected to my chairing the meeting. We sought legal opinion and they said according to the rules of the CAB, the incumbent president had to chair the electoral process. After satisfying one and all, I stepped aside, allowing the seniormost vice-president, Barid Baran Pal, to conduct the poll,” he said. Once again objection came from Mr Vajpai, supported by joint secretarial candidate Samar Pal and Customs representatives, about declaring the result of the presidents election till the election of the joint secretaries was over. This time, Dalmiya stepped in and showed him the minutes that it was not a departure from the past. Further to add insult to injury, Mr Samar Pal was allowed to oversee the counting for the joint secretary’s post, in which Mr Dalmiya’s candidates Amitava Banerjee and Saradindu Pal won by thumping margins. Challenger Samar Pal came a poor third. “People were saying things like a batsman was doubling up as the umpire. But I have never conducted any elections, not even in the CAB,” he said. He then send a clear message to his adversaries in the national body, saying, “I presided over the BCCI AGM last time as I was the outgoing president and not a candidate.” Even the issue of districts getting inadequate attention could not stand ground as the secretary’s report pointed out that Manoj Tewari of Howrah and Sayan Sekhar Mondal of Durgapur were adjudged the country’s best in the under-19 and under-15 categories, respectively, and were products of CAB’s district development programme. Mr Dalmiya, who had never opened his mouth against the opposition in the pre-election campaign, said, “People had asked me about the allegations heaped against me and my board. I had said as a batsman answers with his bat, I will reply through the ballot box. I guess I have proved my point.”
— UNI |
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England agree to play ODI in Karachi
London, July 28 According to an England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) press note, the visitors would play three Test matches — in Multan, Faisalabad and Lahore — and five one-day internationals — two each in Lahore and Rawalpindi and one in Karachi. ECB Director of Cricket Operations John Carr, made it clear that the board had the safety aspect very much in mind. “This agreement is subject to ongoing advice from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and our own security advisers that all venues are acceptably safe to visit.’’ The ECB also agreed to budge from its previous stance of shifting the Multan Test to Rawalpindi.
— UNI |
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Govt move to streamline SAI financial operations
New Delhi, July 28 The issue was raised in the Rajya Sabha, and replying to it, Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, Prithviraj Chauhan, who has been looking after the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports after the death of Sunil Dutt, said the working of the SAI needed to be improved substantially in order to bring back the glory of the apex body, set up to help the nation achieve excellence in sports at the national and international levels. According to the Press Information Bureau, the minister informed the House that several measures, like compilation of all accounts on mercantile system (accrual basis) from 2004-05, steps toward proper maintenance of account books, reconciliation process for security/earnest money, uniform formation of accounts in different SAI centres and training of accounts staff, were being taken to streamline the financial operations of
the SAI. The SAI has also been directed to take the assistance of a professional financial agency to streamline the financial operations, instead of solely depending on the inhouse staff, who had been appointed at random when the SAI was constituted after the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi. The auditors of SAI, N.C.Mittal and Com., had pointed out various cases of financial irregularities in its report for 2000-01, 2001-02 and 2002-03. The auditors observed that the account books at the corporate office of the SAI in Delhi and its various centres were not being maintained properly. On the issue of large-scale transfers of SAI coaches across the country, the minister said it was not a vindictive action as alleged by the coaches but an effort to move those who were staying at one centre for a long time. Sources in the SAI said some of the coaches were hardly doing any coaching work, but were running private business which forced the SAI to transfer the coaches. In fact, the SAI is expected to make all future appointment of coaches on a result-oriented contractual basis so that the coaches who draw hefty salaries are also made accountable and deliver results. The present Director-General of the SAI, Rattan P. Wattal, and secretary Dr BK Sinha, joined the SAI only a few months ago, and they initiated several steps within the period to make the SAI accountable for its actions, by the coaches and the administrators alike, which has ruffled many feathers, and drawn criticism from those whose vested-interest has been harmed. But the SAI has promised that it will look into the grievances of those coaches who have been consistently producing results, and have carved a niche for themselves as competent trainers. |
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Sahaj Grover wins under-10 world chess title
Belfort (France), July 28 Sahaj, who defeated Chiam Eng Yeap of Malaysia in the previous round, scored nine points out of a possible 11 to emerge the winner, edging out Ivan Bukashvin of Russia. Sahaj was outstanding in scoring over Yeap in a one-sided affair. Playing the white side of a Sicilian Sveshnikov, Sahaj took advantage of an early opening error by Yeap and showcased his positional sense by outplaying his opponent in all departments of the game. First, Yeap was saddled with weaknesses all over the board. Later, he had a bad bishop saddled with a daunting task of defending them all. Finally, Sahaj won an exchange through a fine manoeuvre to romp home in 53 moves. In the under-12 boys section, N. Srinath maintained his sole lead after drawing with Ray Robson of the USA and moved very close to his gold medal. Srinath also took his tally to 8.5 points and remained half a point adrift of second seed Sujgirov Sanan of Russia. In the next round, the Indian was slated to play So Wesley of the Philippines and even a draw would be enough for Srinath to win the gold medal in his group. S.P. Sethuraman and V.A.V. Rajesh were the other Indians in this section who were in with a chance of winning a medal, though in all probability, only one of them could make it. In the penultimate round game, Sanan was held to a draw by Sethuraman while Rajesh did well to beat Bahruz Rzayev of Azerbaijan. Woman Grandmaster D. Harika came back into the reckoning to be amongst medals in the under-16 girls section after crashing through the defence of Nazerke Rysbayeva. With 7.5 points to her credit, Harika was set to play the championship leader Anna Muzychuk of Slovenia in her next round game and would have to win to remain in contention for a medal.
— PTI |
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Third successive win for Chanda
Pardubice, July 28 Sandipan gave a brilliant display of a tactical game when he, despite playing black, beat Ukranian International Master Igor
Smirnova. With this win, Sandipan now had 4.5 points and was a point behind the leader, Valeri Shalimov from Ukraine.
Poobesh Anand, who drew with Vladislav Borovikov of Ukraine in the sixth round, also had 4.5 points. International Master and Grandmaster norm holder Kidambi almost lost his chances for his GM norm when he lost his sixth round game to International Master Thomas Henerich of Germany. Playing black,
Kidambi, who was unbeaten so far, had to surrender the match after he committed a mistake in the middle game.
M.R. Venkatesh, S. Satyapragayan, Devaki Prasad, Eesha Karawade and Kruttika Nadig won their respective games while International Master Saptarshi Roychowdhury and Grandmaster Tejas Bakre drew their games. Besides
Kidambi, Tania Sachdev and Rhul Shetty lost their games to Sergei Iskusnykh and David Schneider, respectively.
— UNI |
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Sania falters against Venus
New Delhi, July 28 Williams, a two-time title winner here, would next play seventh seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia, and Montenegro, who beat American Amy Frazier 6-0, 6-3, in the quarterfinals of the Tier II event, according to information received here today. After Sania lost on her service in the second game of the first set, Williams demonstrated her powerful serves and made no mistake in earning easy points against the
18-year-old. Sania made too many mistakes to stay close against the ninth-ranked Williams. The American hit three consecutive aces in her first service game of the second set and broke Sania in the first, fifth and seventh game so.
— PTI |
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Grant Hackett sets 800m freestyle world record
Montreal, July 28 “I feel like it was probably a perfectly swum race,” said Hackett, who opened an early gap on his rivals and relentlessly extended it. Hackett’s time of seven minutes, 38.65 seconds sliced 51-hundredths of a second off the world record, set by compatriot Ian Thorpe when he surged past Hackett in the final 100m to win the first world title ever awarded in the men’s 800m free style at Fukuoka, Japan, in 2001. Hackett finished 6.98 seconds in front of US record-holder Larsen Jensen, who improved his own personal best with a time of 7:45.63. Russia’s Yuri Prilukov took the bronze in 7:46.64 — a European record — but they barely seemed in the same pool as Hackett. Hackett said it was an honour to break a record held by Thorpe, who was skipping the 2005 world meet to refresh himself for his 2008 Olympic campaign.
— AFP |
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Soumyajit, Neha lose in semis
New Delhi, July 28 In his semifinal match against Korean Young Sik Jung, Soumyajit looked well in control, winning the first two games, before he was beaten 2-3. Just when the Indian looked a bit complacent, his Korean opponent pulled the rug from under his feet and won three games on the trot to walk away with a hard-fought 12-14, 3-11, 11-3, 11-9, 11-2 win. In her cadet girls semifinal, Neha tried her best against Sim Kai Xin Zena, but could not avert a 1-3 defeat. The paddler from Singapore dropped the first game before winning it 3-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-8. In a boys doubles quarterfinal match, the Indian pair of Aman Balgu and Arpit Bhopalkar were routed 3-0 by the Chinese duo of Yang Li and Haiyang Jiang, who won 11-9, 11-6, 11-7. The Aniket Koparkar-Devesh Karia pair had the same fate and they lost to Chinese Taipei duo of Tung Yu Chou and Chi Ming Shen 11-2, 11-9, 11-9. Ashlesha Bodas and Madhurika Patkar, the only Indian pair in the girls doubles quarterfinals, also crashed out of the tournament after a 1-3 defeat. Koreans Se Rom Shim and Dal Rae Jin beat the Indians 11-9, 11-7, 8-11, 13-11.
— UNI |
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Manan makes it to knockout stage
New Delhi, July 28 Manan virtually toyed with his rival before reocrding a thumping 75-4, 62-7, 65-8, 73-17 win, according to information received here today. In the knockout stage, he would meet Chan Kwok Ming of Hong Kong. The other Indian to make it to the next stage, Pankaj Advani, would take on Saleh Mohammed of Pakistan. Defending champion Alok Kumar had crashed out of the event with a poor show in the league matches.
— UNI |
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