 |
|
|
Kanpur’s loss is Ahmedabad’s gain
Asia Cup put off indefinitely
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
More rain, no play
Pakistan reduce gap with India in Test ranking
Mithali guides India to victory
Mongia hits ton as Punjab salvage draw
Bhowmick steps down, Panji is interim coach
Liberhan, Sanam qualify for main draw
Africans dominate Pune Marathon
Rastogi upsets Mankad for title
Jeev finishes tied 18th
Dutch eves win Champions Trophy
Bayern Munich lift IFA Shield Doomchherri
Rustam-e-Hind
|
|
Kanpur’s loss is Ahmedabad’s gain
Mumbai, December 4 Mohali would now host the India-England Test in place of Ahmedabad, while the one-dayer against England in Mohali has been given to Jamshedpur, he said. The committee also ratified the decision of the Programmes and Fixtures Committee taken yesterday and confirmed that during the February 25-April 22 tour by England, Mumbai, Nagpur and Mohali would host the Test matches. Indore, Goa, Delhi, Guwahati, Kochi, Faridabad and Jamshedpur would host the seven ODIs following the three-Test rubber against England. The two three-day warm-up games prior to the Test series will be held at the Cricket Club of India in Mumbai and Baroda. The complete itinerary for the tour would be finalised in a day or two, it was announced. The BCCI today took the first step towards professionalising the working of its archaic set-up by deciding to appoint an external agency to provide a suitable recommendation to this effect. In other sweeping moves to remove cobwebs from its functioning, the Working Committee also decided to appoint a legal cell, besides the Cricket Development Committee headed by former India skipper Kapil Dev, Media Committee and Constitution Review Committee. Among other important decisions taken was the appointment of former Hyderabad off spinner Shivlal Yadav as Director of the Bangalore-based National Cricket Academy, replacing another former Test cricketer Brijesh Patel, and making former Mumbai and India opener Lalchand Rajput as its chief coach. The NCA would continue to be headed by Sunil Gavaskar, Mr Pawar told a press conference after the meeting. The Working Committee also decided to reconstitute its Marketing Committee with Mr Pawar himself at its helm and has given directions to clear the controversial TV rights issues before the Indian team departs for Pakistan in the first week of January. In this context, the Working Committee has also authorised Mr Pawar to constitute the legal cell and to take steps to resolve the pending court cases involving the BCCI. Shashank Manohar of Vidarbha and leading Supreme Court lawyer Kapil Sibal have been named as two of the members of the legal committee. Significantly, former BCCI chief Jagmohan Dalmiya did not figure in any of the sub-committees formed at the Working Committee meeting although he attended it. Queried on the issue, Mr Pawar, who fought and won a bitter battle for supremacy with the Kolkata businessman and former President of the International Cricket Council, said, “Mr Dalmiya is still a member of the Working Committee and we would like to draw on his vast experience (as cricket administrator).” The Working Committee also decided to finalise the much-awaited new players’ contract at the earliest. “The groundwork has been done and it would be completed before the Indian team’s departure for Pakistan,” Mr Pawar said. The Working Committee also discussed the resignation of Mr Dalmiya as the chief of Asian Cricket Council and Afro-Asian Cricket Cooperation yesterday. Mr Pawar said the ACC presidentship would be institutionalised by which the president of the member association whose turn it was to head the Asian body — India at present — would also be heading the ACC. Mr Pawar, thus, would be the new president of the continental body too. The Working Committee decided that the issue of sponsorship of the Indian team would also be finalised and implemented before the team’s visit to Pakistan. The earlier sponsorship deal with Sahara India ended last month. Mr Pawar said the BCCI headquarters would remain in Mumbai. He unveiled a prototype of the new headquarters which is to be housed inside the Mumbai Cricket Association, of which he is the president. The various committees appointed today are: Legal Committee:
Shashank Manohar (chairman) and Kapil Sibal (plus one or two more to be decided later). National Cricket Academy:
Sunil Gavaskar (chairman), Ajay Shirke (vice-chairman), Shivlal Yadav (director), Lalchand Rajput (coaching director), Ashok Bhagwat, Sunil Dev, Gopal Bose and all BCCI office-bearers as ex-officio members. Constitution Review Committee: Shashank Manohar (chairman), I. S. Bindra, N. Srinivasan, Lalit Modi, Arun Jaitley and Ratnakar Shetty. Headquarters Committee: I. S. Bindra, N. Srinivasan, Niranjan Shah, Lalchand Rajput. Marketing Committee: Sharad Pawar, all five Vice-Presidents (Lalit Modi, Dayanand Narvekar, K. P. Kajaria, Chirayu Amin, Shashank Manohar), all office-bearers (Secretary Niranjan Shah, Joint Secretary M. P. Pandove and Treasurer N. Srinivasan), I. S. Bindra, A. C. Muthiah and Ranbir Singh Mahendra. Media Committee: Rajiv Shukla (Chairman), G. S. Walia (North Zone), K. L. Balaji (South), Rajan Nair (Central), Milind Rege (West) and Raja Venkat (East). Convener: Niranjan Shah. Grounds and Pitches Committee: Dhiraj Parsana (West), Daljit Singh (North), P. R. Vishwanathan (South), Tapash Chatterjee (Central) and Probir Mitra (East). Convener; Niranjan Shah.
Disciplinary Committee: Sharad Pawar, Shashank Manohar and Chirayu Amin.
Cricket Development Committee: Kapil Dev (chairman), Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, Dilip Vengsarkar, Hanumant Singh, Arun Lal and Ravi Shastri. |
|
Asia Cup put off indefinitely
Mumbai, December 4 Consequent to this development, the Indian team would now reach Lahore in Pakistan on January 6, instead of January 1 as per the earlier schedule, and leave for home on February 20 instead of staying on to play the Asia Cup. India are scheduled to tour Pakistan to play a three-Test series followed by a five-match one-day series. “We have agreed that the matches would be held at Lahore, Faisalabad, Karachi, Peshawar, Rawalpindi and Multan”, Pawar said, adding that the complete itinerary would be decided soon. Pawar also said that it had been agreed between the Indian and Pakistan boards to play the series every two years on the pattern of the Ashes. It was also decided to have an annual match between the winners of the national cricket championship of the two countries. “The championship would be held annually between the Ranji Trophy champions (of India) and the Quaid-e-Azam championship (of Pakistan) to be played in India and Pakistan alternately”, Pawar said.
— PTI |
|
More rain, no play
Chennai, December 4 Umpires Daryl Harper of Australia and Mark Benson of England inspected the ground this morning and immediately decided to call off play for the third consecutive day as the field remained waterlogged and covers enveloped most of its parts. There was no rain in the morning but the overcast weather and remote chances of sunlight later in the day led to the loss of three full days and with more rain predicted in the next 24 hours this Test is being considered as good as dead. Not a single ball has been bowled in the Test match due to heavy downpour, being caused by Cyclone Baaz in the Bay of Bengal, leaving Chennai fans disappointed. Their hopes of watching Sachin Tendulkar score his record 35th Test century have suffered and a possible return of captain Sourav Ganguly to the national side has also been prolonged. Ganguly was ignored for the one-day series against Sri Lanka and South Africa. This is the second time in two weeks that rain has disrupted an international fixture following the November 22 washout of the one-dayer between India and South Africa. This is the fourth successive international contest on this ground to be affected by rain since 2003, when the India-New Zealand one-dayer failed to produce a result.
— PTI |
|
Pakistan reduce gap with India in Test ranking
Dubai, December 4 The win leaves them just nine points behind third-placed India, their next Test opponents in a three-match series at home starting in January. As things stand, India would be desperate to win their three-Test series against Sri Lanka to move to the second spot — their best-ever position in the past four years. A 1-0 or 2-1 series win for Rahul Dravid’s side in that series will see them join England on 113 points, but India will go to the second place in the table when the rating is calculated to three decimal places. If Sri Lanka win 3-0, they would even leapfrog India to the third spot, while their 2-0 success would draw the two sides level on 106 points. Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Yousuf and Shoaib Akhtar have all surged up in the individual ranking after the team recorded their first win in a Test series since December, 2003. Inzamam is joint third in the ranking for batsmen alongside Australia’s Ricky Ponting and behind only South Africa’s Jacques Kallis (the ICC Test Player of the Year) and Brian Lara of the West Indies. On the bowling front, Shoaib has moved up three places to fourth in the ranking for bowlers. Shoaib claimed six scalps in the Lahore Test and a total of 17 wickets in the series. Leg spinner Danish Kaneria, who took four wickets to hasten England’s decline, has also moved up the ranking, easing up two spots to 13th and is now just 10 points short of his best-ever points haul. Andrew Flintoff has slipped from the top of the player ranking for Test allrounders in the wake of the series in Pakistan.
— PTI |
|
Mithali guides India to victory
Guwahati, December 4 Electing to bat, England made 215 for seven which the hosts managed to surpass in 40.4 overs. India showed attacking form with the bat as Mithali played a captain’s knock and remained unbeaten on 65 off 81 balls with eight fours. She was ably supported by Karuna Jain (64) and Anjum Chopra (40). Openers Karuna Jain and Jaya Sharma laid a strong foundation for the home team on a slow wicket as they forged a strong opening partnership of 67 runs before Sharma fell at 24, but not before hitting three fours and a six. Vice-captain Anjum continued with her good form in the series as she took advantage of an already battered English attack and scored an unbeaten quickfire 40 off 46 balls, studded with seven hits to the fence. Raj and Chopra treated the English bowlers with disdain in their 81-run stand. With the slow pitch turning docile, the duo hit the English bowlers to all parts of the field which was cheered by the 20,000-strong crowd in the Nehru Stadium. Earlier, English skipper Charltone Edwards’ decision to bat seemed to have click as she partnered Laura Newton for a 102-run opening stand. Edwards made an emphatic 66 in 111 balls with the help of seven hits to the fence while her opening partner scored 40 in 62 balls with five fours. But as the first wicket fell, the Indian bowlers gained control of the match with wickets falling at regular intervals. Vice-captain Aran Brindle provided some resistance with a controlled innings of 38 but other batswomen perished to slow left-arm spin of Nooshin Al-Khadeer, who took three for 46. Mithali Raj was adjudged the player of the match. The fourth tie of the five-match series would be held at Silchar on Wednesday. Brief scores:
England: 215 for seven in 50 overs (Charltone Edwards 66); India: 216 for two in 40.4 overs (Mithali Raj 65 not out, Karuna Jain 64).
— PTI |
|
Mongia hits ton as Punjab salvage draw
Mohali, December 4 Haryana earned two points from the drawn match on the basis of first-innings lead of eight runs, while Punjab drew a blank. Haryana now have six points as they bagged four from their win against Uttar Pradesh in the first match. Resuming at 332 for 8, Haryana were dismissed for 383, 46 minutes before lunch. Mahesh Rawat, who was 99 not out overnight, completed his first Ranji century (114 off 239 balls). He was trapped leg before wicket by Gagandeep, who completed his 10-wicket haul in the match (four in the first innings and six in second). Amit Mishra made 54 before being dismissed by Rajesh. Chasing a big target of 392, Punjab lost their first wicket at the score of 19. Mongia, who came at one down, regained his form and hit 116 runs off 165 balls. With the ton, Mongia, playing his 62nd Ranji match, became the third batsman after Vikram Rathore and Pankaj Dharmani to complete 4,000 runs in Ranji cricket. For Haryana, Joginder, Mishra and Vashisht took one wicket each. Punjab finished at 206 for 3. Haryana will play their next match against Baroda at Sirsa, while Punjab take on Hyderabad at the PCA Stadium on December 9. Scoreboard:
Haryana (1st innings): 232, Punjab (1st innings):
224 Haryana (2nd innings): Chetan Sharma lbw Gagandeep 0, Bagheshwar Bisht lbw Gagandeep 29, Sunny Singh c Munish b Mongia 15, Siddharath Verma c Mongia b Gagandeep 20, Shafiq Khan c Gaurav Gupta b Ishan Malhotra 20, Joginder Sharma c Pankaj Dharmani b Rajesh Sharma 43, Pardeep Sahu lbw Gagandeep 8, Mahesh Rawat lbw Gagandeep 114, Sachin Rana c Ishan Malhotra b Gagandeep 62, Amit Mishra lbw Rajesh Sharma 54 G Vashisht not out
1; Extras (nb-8, w-2, lb-7) 17; Total (all out, 130.1 overs) 383; Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-34, 3-57, 4-68, 5-100, 6-116, 7-170, 8-281, 9-313; Bowling: Gagandeep 44.1-9-133-6, Ishan Malhotra 31-6-100-1, Rajesh Sharma 19-1-79-2, Dinesh Mongia 14-1-20-1, Reetinder Sodhi 5-2-10-0, Navdeep Singh 14-6-21-0, Ravneet Ricky 3-0-13-0;
Punjab (2nd innings): Ravneet Ricky c Amit Mishra b G Vashisht 44, Karan Goel b Joginder Sharma 10, Dinesh Mongia not out 116, Reetinder Sodhi retired hurt 1, Munish Sharma c Bagheshwar Bisht b Amit Mishra 0, Gourav Gupta not out 11;Extras (nb-9, w-4) 13; Total (3 wkts, 63 overs) 206; Fall of wickets: 1-19, 2-142, 3-163; Bowling: Joginder Sharma 9-2-22-1, Sachin Rana 13-4-37-0, Sunny Singh 5-0-16-0, Amit Mishra 20-2-64-1, G Vashisht 16-3-52-1. |
|
Bhowmick steps down, Panji is interim coach
Kolkata, December 4 East Bengal secretary Kalyan Mazumdar told a press conference after a meeting here that “East Bengal has appointed assistant coach Bikash Panji as the coach of the side for Durand Cup as Subhash Bhowmick was in legal custody.” He said Mr Bhowmick’s wife had given a letter to the club authorities stating that he would not be able to perform his duties to his satisfaction as he was in a legal tangle. Mr Mazumdar said, “We are not appointing any one as the coach for the time being. We will wait and see which way the matter proceeds and it is only after Durand Cup we will think about recruiting a permanent coach depending on the circumstances.”
— UNI |
|
Liberhan, Sanam qualify for main draw
Chandigarh, December 4 Liberhan downed compatriot Abedin Sham 4-6, 6-1, 6-1 in a second-round qualifying match at the Microsoft centre court. Tushar will now have a tough first-round match in the main draw. The draw was taken out by referee Sheetal Iyer. He is pitted against top-seeded Rohan Bopanna, ranked 303. Sanam K Singh defeated compatriot Vikas Punna 6-4, 6-1 and later got past Metzger Dominic of Germany 6-0, 6-7 (1), 6-1. Sanam’s opponent in the first round of the main draw will be Yi Chu-Huan of Taipei. Wildcard entrant Ashutosh Singh will face second seed Matthew Smith, while the fourth wildcard entry, Divij Sharan, will face sixth seed Lee Childs of Great Britain in the first round. Top-seed doubles pair of Frank Moser of Germany and Vishal Uppal of India are pitted against the Indian duo of Arjun Goutham and Aditya Madkekar in the first round. Marico Torres of Brazil and Aisam Qureshi of Pakistan have been seeded second and were drawn to meet Motaz Abou El Khair of Egypt and Shivang Mishra of India in the first round. Local lad Sanam Singh and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan got wildcard entry in the doubles. Other pairs awarded wildcards were Siddharth Gulati and Kinshuk Sharma and the Malaysian pair of Kanagaraj Balakrishnan and Giri Sitham. The seedings: Singles: Rohan Bopanna (India , 292) 1, Matthew Smith (GBR, 305) 2, Go Soeda (Japan, 331) 3, Norikazu Sugiyama (Japan, 362) 4, Karan Rastogi (India, 388) 5, Lee Childs (GBR, 400) 6, Toshihide Matsui (Japan, 401) 7 and Michal Prezysiezny (Poland , 407) 8. Doubles: Frank Moser (Ger) and Vishal Uppal (India) 1, Marico Torres (Bra) and Aisam Qureshi (Pak) 2, Karan Rastogi (India) and Asuthosh Singh (India) 3, Ravi Shankar Pathanjali (India) and Vinod Sridhar (India ) 4. Results (Qualifying), Final round: Kwon Hyung-Tae (Korea) b Aditya Madkekar (India) 6-2, 6-2, Dmirti Makeyev (Kaz) b Domnic Stoeckler (Sui) 6-2, 6-3, Steve Nobelcourt (France) b Raja Purav (India) 6-4, 6-1, Sanam K Singh b Domnic Metzger (Germany) 6-0, 6-7 (1), 6-1, David Brewer (GBR) b Poth Fabian (Ger) 7-5, 6-2, Maras Jozef (Svk) b Shivang Mishra (India) 7-6 (1), 6-2, Tushar Liberhan (India) b Alexei Filenkov (Russia) 6-2, 6-3, Nam Hyun Woo (Kor) b Navdeep Singh (India) 6-1, 6-1. |
|
Africans dominate Pune Marathon
Pune, December 4 He won the 42.195 km marathon by clocking 2:19:35. The second and third positions were bagged by Gemech Kebede (Ethiopia) and Ambrose Makau (Kenya), who clocked 2:20:38 and 2:22:26, respectively. The winner of the Women’s Half Marathon was Nailya Yulamanov of Russia, who completed the race in 1 hour and 15 seconds. The second and third spots went to Joyce Kandia (Kenya) and Teringo Gelachew (Ethiopia). They clocked 1:17:05 and 1:20:19, respectively. Jayabhay Dattatraya and Gurnule Madhuri were the winners among the Indian runners. Jayabhay completed the race in 2:26:57, while Madhuri reached the finishing line of the Half Marathon for women in 1 hour and 22 seconds. A total prize money of Rs 15 lakh was distributed among the winners in different categories by Union Health Minister A. Ramadoss, Miss India Amrita Thapar and film actress Yukta Mukhi. Josephat Ndeti got Rs 1.5 lakh for winning the Pune International Marathon and Nailya Yulamanova received a cash award of Rs 1 lakh for coming up tops in the Half Marathon for women. Jayabhay and Madhuri received Rs 1 lakh each for their efforts. A wheelchair race and a 3 km AIDS Charity Run was also organised on the occasion. “Though the prize money is not much, I am pretty pleased to have taken part in the Pune International Marathon,” Josephat Ndeti told PTI. He said this was the first time he had taken part in the Pune Marathon, which is in its 20th year. Lots of Kenyans have been participating in the Pune Marathon for some years now, and Douglas Gwandaru (who unfortunately withdrew from the race midway), the winner of the race in 2004, was also from his country, Ndeti said. |
|
Rastogi upsets Mankad for title
New Delhi, December 4 More than the title and the cash, what mattered the most to the 19-year-old Delhi boy was the manner in which he chalked out two upset wins on successive days. He had stunned Rohan Bopanna in the semifinal yesterday. Earlier, in celebrity matches, Shikha Uberoi, serving for the set and the match, was broken by Michaella Krajicek to level the score 6-6 and then upstaged the Indian girl in the tie-breaker to win the set at 7-6 (7-3). In the men’s celebrity match between Mahesh Bhupathi and Richard Krajicek, the Indian Grand Slam champion was put in his place by the former Wimbledon champion 6-4. |
|
|
Jeev finishes tied 18th Hong Kong, December 4 It was a lacklustre show by the Indians, including 2002 Asian number one Jyoti Randhawa and exciting Shiv Kapur, with all of them going over par. Meanwhile, 42-year-old legendary Scot Colin Montgomerie returned a card of par-70 to walk away with the title with nine-under 271. Though the big Scot dropped bogey on the very first hole and it came to haunt him again on the fifth and 11th, Montgomerie bailed himself out of the morass with birdies on the fourth, 10th and 14th. Jeev was struggling right from the beginning and dropped three bogeys on his front nine. On his way back, the Indian stumbled on two more on the 12th and 18th but managed to squeeze in a couple of birdies on the 13th and 16th to prevent it from being worse. Jeev’s rounds of 69, 69, 66 and 73 earned him the 18th place.
— UNI
|
|
Dutch eves win Champions Trophy
Melbourne, December 4 De Roever’s save gave the champions a 5-4 victory on penalties after the match had been scoreless after regulation and sudden-death extra time. Australia had topped the round-robin section with four wins and a draw, while the Netherlands finished second. China beat Argentina 9-8 on penalties to clinch the third spot after their match ended 2-2.
— Reuters |
|
|
Bayern Munich lift IFA Shield
Kolkata, December 4 In between, Michael Stagmyer (51st minute), Stefan Meier Hoffer (54th minute) and George Nieder Meier (58th minute) completed the rout for the German team.
— UNI
|
|
|
Doomchherri
Rustam-e-Hind Rajpura,
December 4 In women’s kabbadi,a team from Kurukshetra bagged the first position defeating girls from Devi Nagar in Patiala district. Palwinder Singh Doomchherri won the Rustam-e-Hind title by defeating Devinder from Panipat.
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
