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Ganguly is fit for competitive cricket
Cricketers’ contracts to be delayed
We enjoyed every moment of the Super Series
West Indies coach exudes confidence
Lankans to arrive tomorrow
Rahul among leaders in Samarvir Sahi golf
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Sunil struggles to advance
Banga college in quarterfinals
Entrants choose to keep away
Maslennikov victorious
Chandigarh register 60-run win
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Ganguly is fit for competitive cricket
Mumbai, October 18 Ganguly, who had missed the recent Challenger Series for an injury which was
diagnosed as a ‘mild tennis elbow symptom’, was given the green-signal by the BCCI appointed sports medicine specialist Dr Anant Joshi and team physio John Gloster after a thorough reassessment of the injury. Ganguly will now lead East Zone in the Duleep Trophy match against North Zone beginning in Rajkot on October 20, a game which will assume much importance for the stylish left-hander, who has to prove his fitness and form as well. The country’s most successful captain was sacked from the post which was handed back to Rahul Dravid for the next two series. The Kolkata batsman was also omitted from the 15-member squad for the
first two matches of the seven-match one-day series against Sri Lanka. “Dr Anant Joshi and Gloster re-evaluated Ganguly’s elbow and were of the opinion that he has improved enough to participate in the Duleep Trophy match,” BCCI Executive Secretary in-charge Ratnakar Shetty said in a statement. “Participation in this match will give a better overall picture as to the status of his recovery,” the statement said.
— PTI |
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Cricketers’ contracts to be delayed
Kolkata, October 18 As per earlier plans, BCCI Joint Secretary Goutam Dasgupta and Executive Secretary-in-charge Ratnakar Shetty were scheduled to hold meetings with players’ representatives on October 19 before submitting a report to the board on the contracts for the 2005-06 season. Dasgupta and Shetty, along with BCCI Treasurer Jyoti Bajpai, figure in the review committee to go into the effectiveness of last season’s contracts and suggest changes. However, the plans went
haywire after the committee realised that captain Rahul Dravid, yet to return from Australia, Anil Kumble, Sourav Ganguly and V.V.S. Laxman would not be at the camp. “So, we have decided not to rush things. We will hold discussions with the cricketers midway into the series, that is early next month,” the source said. Last season, 17 players were given contracts by the board after dividing the lot into three groups, with their annual retainership pegged at Rs 50 lakh, Rs 35 lakh and Rs 20 lakh per player, depending on the grade they belonged to. But with the review panel not having the jurisdiction to decide on the promotion or demotion of a player from one grade to the other, the BCCI will have to form another committee to finalise the individual contracts after the three-member panel places its report. The new committee will comprise the board chief, Secretary (also its convener), team coach and selection committee chairman. “But the players have nothing to worry. Irrespective of when the new contracts are signed, they will be given retrospective effect from October 1,” the source said. The BCCI is mulling changes in the new players’ contracts to include clear-cut provisions on the amount payable to cricketers who sit out with injuries. Apart from the injury clause, several other grey areas in the last contract will also be discussed with players’ representatives before the fresh contract takes shape.
— PTI |
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We enjoyed every moment of the Super Series
From the time we hit the ground in the first one-day match, this fortnight has seen a marked difference in where we were with our one-day cricket in England. Everything we have seen during this Test will suggest the same.
There is a great feeling around our group and I think we have just started scratching the surface with different ideas and different ways we want to train and prepare. Every player in the Australian team thoroughly enjoyed every moment of the Super Series. A win like this is terrific. It is a great milestone for everyone to have achieved this level of success against such a line-up. We fully understand that the guys in the World XI were always going to find it tougher because they were playing for a foreign concept. We were playing for our country, playing for an established team. Those guys more than anything were probably just playing for themselves. For us to have the chance as the best ranking side in the world playing against the finest cricketers from around the world was an opportunity which we found exciting from the day this concept was announced. Every bowling change that you make or every wicket that you take, you know that you are going to confront another great player. As captain I had to do a lot more thinking and be a lot more prepared. The bowlers had to be at their very best since they knew the opposition that would face them. The way our bowlers adapted and bowled to the best in the world was according to me the highlight of this match. To win the game and win it as well as we did makes it more enjoyable. Sitting back, it is easy to make judgments. Because we have won the one-dayers pretty easily and now we have won the Test comfortably makes the critics suggest that they were not trying. But as Graeme Smith had said they were all trying. It might not have been the 20 per cent difference he suggested, but just the extra 5 per cent we had, wanting to be out there helping team-mates that made all the difference. There is always going to be a difference between doing a job for your country and just worrying about what you have to do as an individual. That will always be missing from a world side. But it was not as if we were on top from the first ball, since we lost a wicket with the third ball of the game. The top two teams playing off every four years has been suggested as an alternative and that may work, but that can end up in a situation where those sides may have just played a Test series. In our case, we will have four months-and-a-half of cricket against England. With us losing that series 2-1, but coming here and possibly winning another Test, where does that leave things? I am sure the concept of a Super Series will always have its pros and cons, no matter which way you look at it. The players have not sat and thought about it. We have just been trying to play the best cricket we can. That was obvious in the way Stuart MacGill bowled to me in our first training session before the Test. The difference in his bowling compared to what he was bowling in England was remarkable. Stuart told me on the first morning of the Test that he was bowling better than he had bowled in his life at this time of the year. He was confident and the result showed.
—Gameplan |
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West Indies coach exudes confidence
Bridgetown, October 18 “The Australians are very good and we are going into their den. We just have to go there and tame them,” King said before most of the team left Barbados for Sydney. “I believe everyone is comfortable.” West Indies have not won a Test series of any significance since India visited the Caribbean three years ago, and it have not beaten Australia in a series since 1993. The Australians, coming off a sweep of a World XI, including West Indians Brian Lara and Chris Gayle, have held the Frank Worrell Trophy for 10 years. Australia-born King said the team had put the dispute behind it and was looking forward to competing. “The camaraderie is there and we just have to keep moving forward and playing together as a unit,” he said. Squad: Shivnarine Chanderpaul (captain), Tino Best, Dwayne Bravo, Corey Collymore, Fidel Edwards, Chris Gayle, Wavell Hinds, Brian Lara, Jermaine Lawson, Daren Powell, Denesh Ramdin, Marlon Samuels, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Devon Smith, Dwayne Smith.
— AP |
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Lankans to arrive tomorrow
Mumbai, October 18 After playing the warm-up game, the squad is set to depart for Nagpur on October 23 for the first ODI against the Rahul Dravid-led Indian team, scheduled to be played on October 25. The other six ODIs are to be held at Mohali (October 28), Jaipur (October 31), Pune (November 3), Ahmedabad (November 6), Rajkot (November 9) and Vadodara (November 12), with the matches at Mohali and Ahmedabad being day-night encounters. Squad: Marvan Atapattu (captain), Mahela Jayawardene, Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Upul Tharanga, Thilan Samaraweera, Chaminda Vaas, Upul Chandana, Farveez Maharoof, Russel Arnold, Dilhara Fernando, Muttiah Muralitharan, Dilhara Lokuhettige, Nuwan Zoysa.
— PTI |
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Rahul among leaders in Samarvir Sahi golf
Chandigarh, October 18 The others who shared a similar card were Delhi’s Himmat Singh Rai, Gagan Verma, Manav Jaini and Bangalore boy Anirbhan Lahiri. Amit Nigam was the only other player to touch par as even the hardened amateurs found it difficult to save strokes. The current leader on the Royal Challenge Order of Merit, Simarjeet Singh, was tied for the seventh place after a round of one-over 73. Four others, Joseph Chakola, Surya Jai Prakash, Jaskeerat Dullet and H.S. Kang, were tied with Simarjeet. After a sedate start, making five pars, Rahul holed a 20-footer curling putt to record his first birdie of the day. This definitely must have spurred him on as he made a successive birdie on the par-5 seventh after he hit a perfect 7-iron to about five feet from the pin. Taking the turn at two-under, the Class IX student of St John’s School attacked the pin and in his enthusiasm, made a bogey on the 10th. Another long ranger on the par-5 13th gave him his third birdie of the day. However, a bad stroke into the bunker of the 17th hole forced the 15-year-old to just chip-out and incur a bogey. Rahul, ranked No.1 in the `A’ category of the Nokia National Junior/Sub-Junior Tour and playing the junior circuit for most part of the year, hit 14 green-in-regulation and made 30 putts for the day. “It was a long time since I played on this course. Yes, this being my home club, it was a it easy for me, but it is as tough course as ever,” said Rahul. “It is in the best of condition with the greens playing true and fast,” he added. Meanwhile, Anirbhan Lahiri had a bogey-free back-nine and overcame three bogeys on his front nine to post a total of 71. He also had two birdies on the fourth and fifth. Himmat Singh Rai also began in a similar fashion, incurring two bogeys and a birdie on the forward journey before resurrecting with a couple of birdies on the back nine. Manav Jaini played flawless golf until the 15th, where he bogeyed and lost a stroke, else he could have been the sole leader of the day. His birdies came on the second and the 11th. Gagan Verma, beginning from the 10th , played par with two bogeys and as many birdies in his front nine. He had a slightly better second half going one-under with the help of two birdies. Earlier, the tournament was inaugurated by Mr G.P.S. Sahi, father of Samarvir, in whose memory the tournament was being held. S.M.S. Sandhu, captain of the Chandigarh Golf Club, was amongst the others present. Top scores (after 18 holes): 71 Anirban Lahiri, Himmat Singh Rai, Manav Jaini, Gagan Verma, Rahul Bakshi; 72 Amit Nigam; 73 Simarjeet Singh, Joseph Chakola, Surya Jai Prakash, Jaskeerat S. Dullet, H.S. Kang; 74 Gaganjeet S. Bhullar, Suman Puri, Balpreet S. Ghuman, Jasjeet Singh. |
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Sunil struggles to advance
New Delhi, October 18 Sunil, whose first major title victory was at the same venue in the same tournament five years ago when he emerged the national champion at the age of 16 years, found the fighting Purav Raja a hard nut to crach. But having beaten him once, Sunil Kumar knew what strategy was to be adopted to prevail as he varied his service in the crucial third set to outfox the debonair Maharashtrian player. Sunil, looking fitter and filled up, played a calm and collected game to corner Raja. He waited for his opponent to make the mistake to cash in on. Though Raja played very aggressively in the second set, serving and returning well, he could not carry over his good work to the third set, in which Sunil’s deceptively lofted serves offered no chance to Raja to go for his shots. Sunil had skipped the tournament last year, but looked in good nick this year to be the favourite for the title. Two other Chandigarh boys advanced after they scored facile victories. Unseeded Navdeep Singh ousted Saurav Sukul of West Bengal 6-0, 6-4 while Tushar Liberhan stunned seventh-seeded Pavan Polavarapu of Andhra Pradesh 6-2, 6-2. Sixth-seeded Yasser Arafat Mohammad, also from Andhra Pradesh, crashed out when he lost to Siddharth Patil of Maharashtra 5-7, 6-3, 6-2. Gursharan Singh of Punjab ousted Anjan Viplav of Andhra Pradesh 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 while another Punjab player, Tushar Sharma, lost to Ranjeet Virali Murugesan of Tamil Nadu 7-5, 1-6, 7-5. Fifth seeded Kamala Kannan of Tamil Nadu was stretched by Divij Sharan of Delhi before he won 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (8). In the women’s section, fifth-seeded Ragini Vimal of West Bengal lost to Shalini Sahoo of West Bengal 2-6, 1-6. |
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Banga college in quarterfinals
Nabha, October 18 S.N. College, which became the first team to enter the quarterfinals, would now cross swords with Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) to earn a spot in the last four. Khalsa College, Jalandhar, who chalked out a hard-earned 1-0 win against Mahilpur wing today, would now meet Khalsa college, Garhshankar. The Patiala students, who had jelled well in the first two matches, today seemed to be out of depth against a better outfit. The Banga boys were quick to mark the university’s star strikers Amarinder Singh and Aman Batra. The university boys failed
to find the rhythm which they had displayed in their earlier matches. For S.N. College, the first goal was scored by medio Sukhinder Singh when he placed his angular shot deftly into the net. The second goal came against the run of play late into the second half when striker Jagdeep Singh showed fine reflexes to head home the ball from a difficult angle. In another match played at a fast pace between two evenly matches teams, Khalsa College, Jalandhar, scraped past a fighting Mahilpur wing 1-0. Both teams had equal exchanges in the first half, although the Jalandhar boys came near to scoring on two occasions. Midway through the first half, medio Tarsem Singh fed Harpreet Singh (Senior) with a defence-splitting pass. Harpreet, in his eagerness to score, misdirected the shot though custodian Gurwinder Singh was out of position. Minutes later, Harpreet (Senior) collected a stray ball near the centre line and made his way in the danger area. He hoodwinked two defenders, but his power-packed shot hit the horizontal bar and rebounded out of play. In the second half, with time running out, the Khalsa College team went all out to score the all-important goal. Their coach took a man out of the defence and put him in the attack, which put pressure on the rival citadel. With just a couple of minutes to go for the long hooter, the Jalandhar team struck when Ajay Kumar fed a perfectly measured pass to the well-positioned forward Harpreet (Senior). The striker took his time to control the pass and sent in a scorching drive to score. |
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Entrants choose to keep away
Billing, October 18 Talking to The Tribune, S.P.Katyal, organising secretary of the event, said although initially, 76 pilots from different countries had expressed their willingness to participate, they had withdrawn immediately after the earthquake. “Some of them even conveyed this to us that they were not participating due to safety concerns raised after the devastating earthquake,” said Katyal. The fact that the required information about the event, beginning on October 16, was put on the official website of the Pre-World Cup Association only on October 3 also acted as a dampener. “The international pilots have the tendency to confirm their participation only after they find the necessary information about ranking on the site and this year, the delay kept some of them away,” he said. The authorities have failed to properly promote paragliding in the state. Most of the pilots taking part in the event are foreigners and only five pilots from Himachal Pradesh figure on the list. Katyal said though the event was being organised since 2002, paragliding was still being seen as a lucrative commercial activity and not as a competitive sport. Another organiser said a local pilot would rather focus on using his glider for giving tandem flights to tourists instead of improving his timing. The paragliding kit to participate in international events was costly and most locals did not have sporting obsession to invest over Rs 6 lakh on it, he said. |
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Maslennikov victorious
Kangra, October 18 Wojciech Malinz and Roman Witwowski, both of Poland, were second and third, respectively. Debu Choudary was the winner in the Indian category. Ajay Kumar and Dilip Kotecha were placed second and third, respectively. In the women’s category, Pia Maria of Switzerland bagged the first position. Roor Tatiana of Russia and Mary Kusi of Venezuela were second and third, respectively. |
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Chandigarh
register 60-run win Barwala, October 18 Batted first after winning the toss, Chandigarh scored 209 runs for six wickets in 35 overs. In reply, Panchkula were bundled out at 149 runs in 31.2 overs. Brief scores: Chandigarh District: 209 for 6 in 35 overs (Harkrishan 53, Amit Prashar 39, Bhageshwar Bisht 35, Waqar Ahmed 33 n o, Mandeep 2 for 47). Panchkula District: 149 all out in 31.2 overs (Tejwinder Gill 35, Nitin Mehtani 21, Sudhir 3 for 30, Waqar Ahmed 2 for 40).
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