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Rajinder asks ‘big headed’ seniors to quit
Shastri hockey meet on schedule
Air-India triumph
Workshops for umpires
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Shoaib, Haq agree to ‘mend fences’
World XI next week
Advani cruises to another win
Ganguly finishes third
Randhawa struggles
Honour unsung golfers: PGAI
JCT beat PSEB
Women’s powerlifting comes of age
Manpreet wins 100m event
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Rajinder asks ‘big headed’ seniors to quit
Amstelveen, August 19 Yet another insipid show against Pakistan last night saw India crashing to their third defeat on the trot in the eight-nation championship, prompting the coach to blame the seniors for the debacle. The defeat meant that India would be playing England tomorrow to avoid the wooden spoon. Giving vent to his feelings, Rajinder, in an apparent reference to players like strikers Gagan Ajit Singh, Deepak Thakur and Prabhjot Singh, ridiculed the “big headed” seniors with over six years’ experience at the highest level. He said these players failed in the basics like ball trapping and made several blind mispassing for the third successive time in the tournament. “I cannot teach them this in the camps. If they cannot do this, they should voluntarily stop playing,” an infuriated Rajinder said. He also stated that he would submit his report to the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) President KPS Gill upon return. The coach said the team would take a break from hockey and then come back to prepare for the Champions Trophy in Chennai scheduled for December. Rajinder said he would like to have a number of juniors whose team had recently finished fourth in the Junior World Cup at Rotterdam. “We need to give them a chance now,” he said. “'There are a number of good players in the team and if I look at the 2006 World Cup, I think we can form a good squad by then,” he explained. Since he became the national coach before the Azlan Shah tournament, Rajinder has been warning the seniors to shape up and start performing. “I think I have given them enough chances,” he said. Spain, Pakistan whip Germany
Amsterdam: Champions Trophy winners Spain came strongly from behind to demolish world champions Germany 4-1 in the Rabo Trophy here. After a barren first half, Germany opened the scoring when Nico Sonnenschen pushed in from a goalmouth melee in the 48th minute. Stung by this reversal, Spain put in an accelerated tempo to outclass their opponents yesterday. Quick positional interchanges and off-the-ball running by Spain had the Germans fall back and paying the penalty. The equaliser came from an indirect penalty corner scored by Victor Sojo in the 54th minute, and two minutes later they took the lead when Santi Freixa pushed past the towering German custodian Christian Schulte. Eduard Tubau scored the third Spanish goal when he struck a crisp angular in the 68th minute, virtually converting this session to one way traffic. Albert Sala rubbed salt into Germany’s wounds when he found the mark with a counter attack the next minute to round off the tally. In another match, Pakistan today thrashed Germany
5-0. — UNI, PTI |
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Shastri hockey meet on schedule
New Delhi, August 19 The organisers of Shastri hockey had scheduled the tournament for October 1 to 8 so as to celebrate the birth centenary of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri whose birthday is on October 2. But a circular from the IHF yesterday stating that all major domestic tournaments, scheduled to be held from August 22 to December 10, be postponed “in the larger interest of the game” sent the organisers in a tizzy as they had already invited three foreign teams, including Pakistan, and booked hotel accommodations in advance. Shastri Hockey President Kamal Chowdhary promptly sought a meeting with IHF supremo K.P.S. Gill yesterday morning and it was decided that an exemption would be made by the game’s governing body and in return four teams of the IHF would be fielded in the tournament. “Since this year is the birth centenary of Shastri ji, we had planned to hold the tournament from Oct 1-8. It’s not only this year, but we want to hold it on these very dates in future as well. After the IHF approved the dates in March, we went ahead with the preparations only to be shocked by the circular on Wednesday,” Chowdhary said. “However, things have been sorted out. The IHF chief has agreed to make a special concession for us. In return we will have to field four teams of IHF and restrict foreign participation to Pakistan and Oman. So, we will have six teams in all instead of the usual eight. We cannot complain because we will get all the top players of the country to play in this tournament.”
— PTI |
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Air-India triumph
Bangalore, August 19 A captain’s knock of 57 off 60 balls by Suresh Raina enabled Air-India to beat New South Wales in the last over of the match, which was played in the evening. Earlier, Raina took three for 13 and team-mate Dinesh Kaarthick scored 66 runs. The new version of cricket, which is limited to 20 overs, saw many firsts. This included “free hit” and “free catch”, which are penalties imposed on any bowler who bowls more than one wide in an over. They allow the batsman to have a go at the bowler without the danger of being declared out if clean bowled or caught. The first game in the forenoon saw CAB struggling in the slog overs against Air-India. Subhomoy Roy, S. Das and Rohan Gavaskar fell quickly, with Rohan scoring a duck. A. Jhunjanwala and Manoj Tewari tried to steady the game but the former was clean bowled, leaving it to CAB captain Deep Dasgupta to bring some respectability to the score. Manoj Tewari (25) and Dasgupta (29) were the only big scorers who were both dismissed by Raina. Rudrapratap Singh was the other bowler to shine with three for 27. In reply, Air-India started with Naman Ojha hitting two boundaries in the first over. However, he fell in the second over. Vithalhaty (0) and captain Raina (six) also fell cheaply to bring CAB back into the game. However, a useful partnership between Kaarthick (66) and S. Sriram (28) saw Air-India winning comfortably with 15 balls to spare. In the second game New South Wales batsmen fared poorly, with most of them failing to reach double figures. Only J. Packman (19), Grant Lambert (10) and Daniel Smith put up some resistance was the team managed only 97 for 9 in 20 overs. Air-India started off steadily and kept on piling the runs while keeping wickets intact. After the quick exit of Rohit Sharma (6), captain Raina and Naman Ojha took the team within sight of victory before Naman went for 27 runs. The morning’s hero Kaarthick scored just three runs. But Raina hit the first ball of the final over for a boundary to seal victory for his side. |
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Workshops for umpires
New Delhi, August 19 The seminar for North and Central Zones will be held in Delhi tomorrow and on August 21, for South Zone in Hyderabad on August 23 and 24 and for West and East Zones at Pune on August 26 and 27. BCCI Umpires’ Committee chairman CK Khanna said here yesterday that the seminars would be conducted by former Test umpire Prof RS Rathore, current International Cricket Council (ICC) umpires AV Jayaprakash, K Hariharan and I Sivaram (TV umpire), physiotherapist Dr Kinjal Suratwala and psychologist BP Bam at all three centres. Mr Khanna said it would be for the first time that the umpires would do physical fitness training on the field under the supervision of Dr Suratwala. He said this system had been introduced to enable the umpires to cope with the exacting demands of the modern game by being fit and agile on the field. Mr Khanna said the umpires would also be familiarised with the ICC rules to be implemented in domestic cricket from the coming season. The BCCI umpires will also be taught the use of the light meters for applying the technology in domestic cricket. He said as per the recommendations of the technical committee of the BCCI, headed by former India captain Sunil Gavaskar, V Jayadevan would make a representation in the umpires’ seminar about his method of calculating the target score in a truncated match. Thereafter, ICC panel umpires Hariharan, Sivaram and Jayaprakash will submit a report on Jayadevan’s method to the BCCI. It is understood that Gavaskar was very impressed with the computer expert’s method when he made a presentation before the technical committee. |
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Shoaib, Haq agree to ‘mend fences’
Islamabad, August 19 Latif reportedly managed to convince Inzamam, when both were in Jeddah last month, to put things behind and thrash out a proper working relationship with Shoaib in the long-term interest of Pakistan cricket.
— PTI |
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World XI next week
Sydney, August 19 World XI selector Richard Hadlee, and the newly appointed World XI coach, will announce the star-studded final squads and team captains who will represent rest of the world in cricket’s ultimate contest. The series pits the world’s top-ranked team, Australia, against the World XI in three ODIs at Melbourne’s Telstra Dome, and a six-day Super Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground, in a winner-takes-all challenge to be crowned “the best of the best.”
— PTI |
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Advani cruises to another win
New Delhi, August 19 Advani romped home with a 4-0 scoreline, 64-21, 45-35, 78-1, 76-66, in the Group UD match, according to information received here today. That the Indian took his opponent rather casually was obvious from the fact that he gave Wilcock, who is placed sixth in the group, ample space to score but managing a safe distance for a clean record. After having an easy first frame, Advani won the second with a minimum margin and showed Wilcock his place in the third one but it was again a close affair in the fourth and last frame though Advani maintained his edge till last at Juffair Dome. The 20-year-old also registered a break of 72. The tournament is being played in a league-cum-knockout format among the junior (u-21) and senior (over-40) participants. Unheralded Aditya Mehta matched the performance of his fancied compatriot Advani by thrashing Shannon Swain of New Zealand 4-0 in the group UA. Mehta, who is placed second in the group, scored 63-48, 90-4, 72-8, 70-20 along with a break of 51. He will next play Ali Faisal Radhi of Bahrain. In another interesting juniors match, Kobkit Palajin of Thailand set an impressive break mark of 116, perhaps the highest in the tournament so far, as he defeated Mohammad Al Assal of Egypt 4-2 in Group UF. He won 43-58, 2-70, 69-59, 125-9, 59-11, 81-25. Among the seniors, former world billiards champion Geet Sethi defeated Mustafa Ali Atta of Egypt 3-1 in Group SB. Sethi won 65-37, 64-33, 31-61, 55-48. He next takes on Mohammed Buainnein of
Qatar. — PTI |
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Ganguly finishes third
Abu Dhabi (UAE), August 19 National champion Ganguly, who was leading 1-0 in the semifinal against Igor Kursonov of Russia, went down fighting in the next two games and spoilt his chances for the top honour. In the final, GM Sergey Grigoriants of Russia defeated Kursonov 2-0 to emerge the winner of this 3000 UAE
dirham prize money tournament. Earlier, Ganguly had defeated International Master Othman Moussa of the UAE in the first round and outplayed Russian GM Vladimir Dobrov of Russia to set up his quarterfinal clash with another Russian GM Dmitry Bochrov, who had also lost after some brilliant play by the Indian. Ganguly came under pressure in the semifinal. The other Indian participants in the Blitz tourney, Woman Grandmaster-in-waiting Tania Sachdev, IM DV Prasad, Akshat Khamparia and MB Muralidharan had lost in the first round itself. In the Master’s section, which had a rest day, it has been a predictable story for Ganguly, who has won two with white and drawn two as black to reach three points out of a possible four. The Indian is placed joint fourth while Russian GMs Mikhail Kobalia, Bocharov and Armenian GM Ashot Anastesian share the lead with 3.5 points each in their kitty. Alexander Goloshchapov of Ukraine will be in the firing line when he meets Ganguly in the next round. The Indian will have white pieces in the contest and he might join the leaders pack if he is able to get the full point. Parimarjan Negi and Eesha Karavade, both on 2.5 points, are the other Indians doing well in the tournament. Negi had a rather forgettable performance in the just concluded National B Chess Championship at New Delhi but apparently has regained the confidence needed for such a strong event, while Karavade has bounced back quickly enough to be in reckoning for her maiden IM norm. In the next round, Negi meets IM Rasul Ibrahimov of Azerbaijan, while Karavade has a tough customer in GM Grigoriants. With just five rounds remaining in this $ 16,400 prize money tournament, IM-to-be Abhijeet Gupta will be hoping for an improved performance along with WGM-in-waiting Tania Sachdev. Gupta is on two points while Sachdev has garnered 1.5 points so far.
— PTI |
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Karthikeyan 22nd in practice
Istanbul, August 19 |
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Randhawa struggles
Akron (Ohio), August 19 Randhawa, playing after a long gap, during which he was recovering from an injury, opened with three pars and then came a double bogey on the fourth. Thereafter, nothing went right, as he made seven more bogeys, three on the front nine and four more on back nine for a 79 and is tied 69th from among 72 starters. Atwal tied 76th
Reno (Nevada): Arjun Atwal had a rough opening day as he ended with a two-over-par 74 on a windy opening day at the $ 3 million Reno Tahoe at the Montreux Golf and Country Club. The Indian star, a former Asian Tour No. 1 who has secured his PGA Tour card for 2006, had four bogeys and two birdies in his card and lay tied 76th. Atwal will need a good second round to make the cut as the top 70 and ties make it to the weekend rounds. Meanwhile, Daniel Chopra had a worse day with two triple bogeys and another four bogeys in his card of six-over 78. He also had four bogeys. Atwal was good off the tee, but on a windy day he had a tough time with his irons as he reached the greens only on 56 per cent of the occasions. With 29 putts he ended a very modest day after starting out on the 10th hole. Chopra opened with a triple and then had another bogey on the second. He had a his second triple on the eighth, as he was six-over for front nine. An even par second nine with two birdies and two bogeys ended his day leaving him an uphill task to make the cut.
— PTI |
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Honour unsung golfers: PGAI
New Delhi, August 19 PGAI president Arvind Khanna, while launching the professional golf body’s ‘Indian Golf Vision’ as part of its National Golf Development Programme at a function here, pointed out that outstanding golfers like Rohtas Singh and Basad Ali, who reached the pinnacle of success from humble beginnings, never got the recognition they deserved. He pleaded their cases with the apex sports body, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), for getting them deserving government recognition. IOA Secretary-General Raja Randhir Singh, who was the chief guest, promised to take up their cases with the government for getting them the awards they deserved. He felt that such sportspersons, who quietly accomplished a lot, without boasting or trumpeting about their achievements, deserved a better deal. Former Indian captain Kapil Dev, who has been an avid golfer for over a decade after his retirement from international cricket, took a swipe at armchair critics who formed ‘considered opinions’ after watching television to run down sportspersons without realising the struggles and sacrifices made by them. The PGAI also launched its “Hall of Fame” awards to honour the greats of the game who played decisive roles in taking Indian golf to its present enviable level. Those honoured were the legendary Billoo Sethi, the first Indian to win the Indian Open as an amateur in the 1960s, Rohtas Singh, the “Guruji” of Indian golf who has accumulated over 100 titles in a career spanning over 35 years, Basad Ali, the legendary golfer from Kolkata who holds the record of maximum title wins in a single season, Ranjit Nanda, India’s first and finest golf course architect, Dr Bharat Ram, one of the founder members of the Delhi Golf Club and sponsors Hero Honda and ITC Ltd. |
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JCT beat PSEB
Chandigarh, August 19 In a fast-paced encounter, JCT made a promising start when international Parveen Kumar, formerly of Punjab Police, capitalised on a cross from winger Jaswinder Singh and shot home to put his team ahead in the second minute. PSEB created some good openings thereafter but the JCT defence seldom let down their guard. On one occasion, Tejinder of PSEB looked dangerous but the JCT custodian was alert enough to thwart his move. In the 77th minute, Sakatar Singh of JCT initiated a good move followed by three attempts by Bimal but the mill men failed to consolidate the lead. Eventually, it was Gyan Moin who made it 2-0 in favour of JCT when off a throw-in, he headed the ball home. Tomorrow, JCT Football Academy will take on BSF at Guru Nanak College, Phagwara. Meanwhile, the second Punjab State Second Division Football League also kicked off yesterday in which seven teams are participating. The teams are SGGS Society FC, Jalandhar, Capt GPS Chahal SC, Jalandhar, GS Parmar FC, Narur Panchhat (Group A); International FC, Phagwara, Sikh National FC Banga, Harcharan SC, Hoshiarpur, and Bassi Football Club, Bassi Pathana (Group B). On the opening day yesterday, SGGS Society FC beat GS Parmar FC 3-0 at Jalandhar; International FC went down fighting to Harcharan SC 0-1 at Phagwara; and Bassi Football Club defeated Sikh National FC 2-0 at Banga. |
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Women’s powerlifting comes of age
BATHINDA: Babita Joshi who once left training mid-way, managed to win a gold medal in Asia in powerlifting when she was just 20. Babita, who also won a bronze medal in the world junior category became “strongest girl of Asia” in 2001.
Beant Kaur, who was also unable to meet her own expenses due to her poor economic condition, bagged a silver medal in Asia in 2002 and a world bronze medal in Bulgaria in powerlifting. Besides, both these girls, hailing from nearby villages of this town, added a gold medal in the All-India Inter-university Weightlifting Championship. It is even said that these two girls would have made it to the Indian team for the Olympics. They were in a camp at Lucknow where selection to represent India in the Olympics was to be made, when they got a job offer of providing private security to high-risk clients. They accepted the job and as a result had to leave the camp mid-way. In a relatively backward area, powerlifting has caught the imagination of young girls. A number of them have played in various national and international competitions. The initial step was taken by Ms Manmohan Kaur, who started training after her marriage with Mr Kanwar Bhim Singh, an NIS trained coach, who discovered her strength and encouraged her to participate in state-level competitions. She set a new record of 102.5 kg in weightlifting and switched to powerlifting. After setting a record in powerlifting, she became the “strongest woman of Punjab” for four consecutive years. After that there was no looking back for her as she, along with her husband, started providing training to the young boys and girls in powerlifting and weightlifting. A number of their trainees, including Babita Joshi, Beant Kaur, Sunita Rani, Asha Rani, Mandeep Kaur, Neelam and Rupinder Kaur have brought laurels to this region by winning various national and international competitions. Not only this, six girls out of seven, who won the Junior National Championship in powerlifting, were trained by them. The honours won by these girls have encouraged many others of this district to take to powerlifting and weightlifting. “Some of the village girls from very poor families, after adopting this game, have developed such a tremendous self-confidence that it astonishes all,” says Ms Manmohan Kaur. Poor financial conditions, improper diet, and costly kits are some of the common problems these girls face. Though sometimes the district administration has provided them economic help, yet most of the times they have to depend on the monetary prizes. “Earlier, the parents were reluctant to spend much on girls, specially in games, but now the trend is changing,” says the coach. Now, a 14-year-old Poonam of this town has been performing very well. Last year, she won a silver medal in the Punjab sub-junior powerlifting championship. The coach has pinned all hopes on Poonam, who has been taking coaching for the past three years. |
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Manpreet wins 100m event
Patiala, August 19 Meanwhile, the controversy which erupted regarding the secretaryship of the Patiala District Athletics Association (PDAA), was given a quiet burial with the PDAA president, Mr A.S Kaleka, confirming that Mr R.S. Randhawa stood as secretary till the next meeting of the association was held. He also said that the meet, being organised by Mr Randhawa, carried the official tag of the the PDAA. Results: 100m (boys,u-16): Manpreet Pal Singh-1, Parminder Singh-2, Ranjit Singh-3; 100m (boys, u-18): Maninder Singh-1, Iqbal Khan-2, Ajay Astana-3; 100m (boys, u-20): Inderpeet Singh-1, Gurpreet Singh-2, Amanpreet Singh-3; 100m (girls, u-16): Rajni-1, Sumandeep Kaur-2, Pushpinder Kaur-3; 1500m (boys, u-20) Harpreet Singh-1, Amandeep Singh-2, Amritpal Singh-3; 1500m (boys, u-16): Ramanjit Singh-1, Vishal Mittal-2, Parminder Singh-3. 1500m (girls, u-16): Harmanpreet Kaur-1, Sumandeep Kaur-2, Pushpinder Kaur-3; 200m (boys, u-20): Sukhminder Singh-1, Inderpreet Singh-2, Gurwinder Singh-3; 200m (boys, u-18): Iqbal Khan-1, Parminder Singh-2, Raninder Singh-3; 400m (girls, u-16): Amritpal Kaur-1, Ravneet Kaur-2, Rupleen Kaur-3; 400m (girls, u-18): Nishu-1, Harpreet Kaur-2; 400m (men): Harjinder Singh-1, Tajwinder Singh-2, Sukhdeep Singh-3; and 400m (boys, u-18): Parwinder Singh-1, Harmeek Singh-2, Sandeep Singh-3.
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Samuel Banerjee tournament results
Patiala, August 19 Brief scores: Mohindera College: 160, all out (Ramanpreet Singh 27, Akashdeep Singh 55, Navdeep Singh 26, Raj Kumar 3 for 39, Rahul Kumar 5 for 6). Rajindera College, Bathinda: 155, all out (Rahul Kumar 48, Sanjeev Kumar 20, Sukhbir Singh 18, Akashdeep 3 for 16). In another league match, Khalsa College trounced Modi College by 10 wickets. Brief scores:
Modi College: 41 all out. Khalsa College: 42 for no loss (Arun Deep Singh 31 no)
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Boparai re-elected PDFA chief
Patiala, August 19 Senior football coach S.S. Gill was unanimously re-elected as the secretary of the association. Prof Babu Singh, Prof Charan Dass, Mr Yashwant Sharma, Mr Bhagwant Kaushal, Mr J.S Cheema and Mr Rajinder Singh were elected as vice-presidents. Meanwhile, it was decided at the meeting to hold the inaugural edition of the Panth Rattan Jathedar Gurcharan Singh Tohra Memorial Football Tournament in October. The exact dates will be decided in consultation with the Punjab Football Association (PFA). It was also decided to start a football academy with a strength of 20 youngsters drawn from all over the state in the age group of 12-14 years. A sub- committee, under the presidentship of Prof Charan Dass, has already been formed to conduct trials to select the youngsters for the academy.
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Amstelveen, August 19
