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BCCI launches rating system
Rain rescues England
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Gibbs to tour India: coach
Indian eves on top
Bhupathi-Xavier crash out
GND varsity to honour players
Chowrasia, Gurbaaz make fine start
B’ball academy trainees for Asian meet
Kashyap loses to Hidayat
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BCCI launches rating system
Mumbai, August 31 Launching the ratings, which cover batting, bowling, fielding and all-round performance, BCCI vice-president Lalit Modi said the rating system had been introduced to reward performances which largely remained unrecognised, especially in domestic cricket. The categories are: best Test and ODI batsman, bowler, fielder and all-rounder; best Test and ODI opening batsman, most consistent/reliable ODI and Test player; best Test and ODI innings of the year. The popular categories are: Test and ODI player of the year; my favourite player; most stylish player and master blaster of the year, while viewers’ voting categories would include player of the week and my favourite player. The rating system is based on parameters defined by the BCCI panel that includes cricketers and statisticians. For the first time in such rating processes, the public would be able to participate by casting their votes through various channels, Modi said. “But we are keeping details of the awards close to our chest till the last moment and the annual awards ceremony would be held at the end of the season, in April,” Modi said. The BCCI rating process is being initiated in partnership with Percept Holdings, he added. Modi said the BCCI was on the lookout for sponsors for the ratings and they would be updated regularly on their website www.bcciratings.com from October this year. “This is one of the most important initiatives being undertaken by the BCCI. We hope that all cricketers are given recognition through these official ratings,” the cricket board’s vice-president said. He also explained that that the long-awaited launch of the BCCI’s official website would take a few more months
to fructify. “The BCCI is going to record all domestic matches with a six-camera feed and we are going to show live 72 matches,” he said. Asked about the lack of response from spectators for watching domestic matches at the venues, Modi said it was a challenge for the BCCI to make this happen at major centres. “At smaller centres, which do not witness big matches, crowds in excess of 25,000 come and watch domestic cricket,” he pointed out while admitting that at major centres the crowd response for domestic matches was poor, barring the NKP Challenger Series in which top players took part.
Forfeiture clause must go: Shah
India will strongly back Sri Lanka if it moves a proposal to relieve umpires of their powers to forfeit a match, BCCI Secretary Niranjan Shah said today. Responding to Sri Lanka’s call to the ICC to initiate discussions on whether umpires should be allowed to forfeit matches, Shah said not even the match referee should be empowered to take such an extreme step. “There should not be any clause in the laws of the game that allows for forfeiting the game. This power should not be vested even with the match referee, let alone the umpires,” he said. Pakistan were deemed to have forfeited their fourth Test against England at the Oval after they refused to take the field in protest against charges of ball tampering by Australian umpire Darrell Hair. Shah said a match should be allowed to be cancelled but never to be forfeited. “Unless there are riots or bad weather or any other unforeseen circumstances which are out of control of the organisers, the match should always go ahead,” he said.
— PTI
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Rain rescues England
Cardiff, August 31 Pakistan were set 159 runs to win from 32 overs according to the Duckworth-Lewis calculation. The original target was 203 before a 95-minute rain interruption. The tourists faced only seven overs before the rain came down again when they were cruising towards victory on 46-1. Earlier, Pakistan seamer Mohammad Asif claimed three wickets for 28 runs to help restrict England to 202 from 49.2 overs. The abandonment reprieved England from extending a sequence of eight successive limited-overs defeats, with the exception of the match against minnows Ireland. Scoreboard
England Trescothick c Akmal b Asif 16 Strauss c Afridi b Asif 2 Bell run out 88 Pietersen c Akmal b Asif 2 Collingwood lbw Afridi 14 Dalrymple b Akhtar 27 Clarke c Malik b Akhtar 6 Read c and b Hafeez 0 Mahmood b Akhtar 1 Gough c Malik b Afridi 18 Broad not out 8 Extras (lb-5, w-10, nb-5) 20 Total
(all out, 49.2 overs) 202 Fall of wickets: 1-14, 2-35, 3-51, 4-98, 5-166, 6-166, 7-167, 8-173, 9-173. Bowling: Akhtar 10-1-45-3; Asif 10-3-28-3; Naved 7-0-43-0; Razzaq 4-1-10-0; Afridi 8.2-0-38-2; Hafeez 10-0-33-1. Pakistan Shoaib lbw Broad 5 Hafeez not out 18 Younis Khan not out 12 Extras (lb-4, w-7) 11 Total
(1 wkt, 7 overs) 46 Fall of wicket: 1-12. Bowling: Gough 4-0-28-0; Broad 3-0-14-1. — Reuters
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Bond raring to go
Mumbai, August 31 “I am fully fit now and am looking forward to play in the Champions Trophy,” said the 31-year-old Christchurch-born pacer who has started training with his country’s former national boxing coach to improve his fitness. Bond, who has troubled all the leading batsmen in the world with his searing pace and movement, was here to promote a specially made light-weight cricket shoe by sports apparel major Nike along with young India pacer Shantakumaran Sreesanth. “We will start a two-week camp for the Champions Trophy around September 25 and will reach India a week ahead of our first match (against South Africa at the Brabourne Stadium here on Oct 16),” said Bond, who was off cricket for nearly two years because of a stress fracture of his back after bowling splendidly in the 2003 World Cup in South Africa. “My back has troubled me since my youth. I have undergone a surgery to correct it and am feeling cent per cent fit,” said the bowler, who has taken 64 wickets in 14 Tests and has a fine strike rate of plus 18 in One-day Internationals.
— PTI
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Gibbs to tour India: coach
Durban, August 31 “This is one of the reasons we are leaving for India a little earlier than was originally planned. We want Herschelle’s situation to be sorted out completely before the serious cricket begins,” coach Mickey Arthur said. The interest around Gibbs follows reports over the past few days that he was keen to travel to India despite the fear of police interrogating him about the match-fixing scandal which was exposed in 2000. Gibbs has been quoted here as saying that if was selected he would travel to India with his lawyer.
— PTI
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London, August 31 After following on, England were 104 for two at tea in their second innings, still needing 103 runs to wipe off first innings deficit and make India bat again. Resuming the third day at 74 for six, England were soon all out with Goswami picking up two quick wickets, including that of overnight not out batswoman CM Edwards, who top-scored with 26. — UNI
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Sania goes down fighting New York, August 31 Sania lost to the 14th seed 7-5, 1-6, 2-6. The 19-year-old Indian had beaten Karolina Sprem of Croatia in the first round. Meanwhile, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Amelie Mauresmo played like champs and former winners Serena Williams and Martina Hingis also advanced. A day after rain prevented any matches from being completed for the first time since 1987, virtually the whole tennis world was on display at Flushing Meadows yesterday. Former Open champions Lleyton Hewitt, Marat Safin, and Andy Roddick won in straight sets. Roddick’s 6-3, 7-6 (3), 6-3 win over Kristian Pless of Denmark was yesterday’s only second-round match. Maria Sharapova, the 2004 Wimbledon champion, and Roddick have been the subject of gossip. He turned 24 and she was asked whether she’d bought him a present. “Is it his birthday?” Sharapova responded. “I had no idea.” With 80 matches across the grounds, the upsets were quite limited, with the biggest probably 2004 French Open champion Anastasia Myskina’s 4-6, 2-6 loss to Victoria Azarenka of Belarus. The top-seeded Federer rebounded from a startling loss two weeks ago to overwhelm Wang Yeu-tzuoo of Taiwan 6-4, 6-1, 6-0. The No. 1 Mauresmo seemed to benefit most from the rainout. Trying for her first US Open championship, the Australian Open and Wimbledon winner led No. 131 Kristina Barrois of Germany 6-1, 2-5 when their match was suspended on Tuesday. Mauresmo was sharp when they returned, winning all five games to close out a 6-1, 7-5 victory. Williams cruised, beating Lourdes Dominguez Lino of Spain 6-1, 6-2 and drawing a big ovation at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Sharapova compiled 33 winners to only 13 unforced errors and breezed to a 6-3, 6-0 victory over Michaella Krajicek, the younger sister of 1996 Wimbledon champion Richard
Krajicek. Beset by injuries for several years, Hingis drew a warm reception in her first Open appearance since 2002. She switched to her left hand to win a point at the net, then did a little hop when Peng Shuai’s lob landed wide for a 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 victory. Known for his success on clay, the second-seeded Nadal had an easy time on the hard court. He won the first eight points and beat 1998 Open runner-up Mark Philippoussis 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 in the first round Safin, the 2000 US Open winner, defeated Robin Vik of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3.
— Agencies
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Bhupathi-Xavier crash out
New York, August 31 The Indo-Belgian pair failed to raise their game at crucial junctures and allowed their opponents to sail into the second round of the last Grand Slam of the year. Bhupathi and Malisse wasted two break points in the first set and were also broken twice as the Czech-Russian pair got a foothold in the match and took the initiative to win the opener in 41 minutes. The next set followed a similar pattern and having lost their rhythm in the opener, Bhupathi and Malisse found it difficult to make a comeback. Friedl and Youzhny also gave away little and the Indo-Czech duo ended up conceding 10 break points. However, their opponents managed to convert just two, which led to the second set being stretched to 56 minutes. But the Indo-Belgian pair had lost the plot by then as they failed to capitalise on any of the mistakes committed by their rivals to crash out of the event.
— UNI
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Hard work, planning
did it for PU
Chandigarh, August 31 The trophy is awarded every year to the university which displays overall excellence in sports. It was last won by PU in 1995-96. From 1996 to 2004, it had remained with Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU), Amritsar. “When I joined the department, it was high on my agenda to reclaim the trophy,” Prof Toor said. “I streamlined things and chalked out a result-oriented plan. I supervised all camps conducted by the university, besides overseeing the training process and the selection procedure. The purpose was to convey the message to coaches and players that they had to produced results. The strategy worked.” Panjab University garnered about 7,900 points, 1,000 more than Guru Nanak Dev University, Prof Toor added. Dr D.N. Jauhar, Director, Sports Department, PU, appreciated his predecessor’s efforts and congratulated the players for bringing laurels to the university. “We will try our best to retain the trophy,” he said. Sources revealed that the Amritsar university had lodged a protest with the Union Sports Minister regarding the awarding of the trophy to Panjab University. “We had the upper hand as the Dr BL Gupta Inter-University Men’s and Women’s Trophy and the Kridma Shree Inter-University Men’s Trophy were won by us. Moreover, AIU did not give points in kayaking and canoeing on the plea that participation was very less in the sport. It cost us more than 2,000 points,” said Dr R.S. Bawa, Registrar, GNDU, on the phone. However, Dr Bawa admitted that when it came to the national and international participation category, PU had done better than GNDU. Incidentally, the trophy has been won only by three universities since its inception in 1956-57. GNDU has won it 19 times, while Delhi University and PU have it 17 and 13 times, respectively. During the 2004-05 session, winning top honours in rowing, swimming, athletics, football, handball and powerlifting, besides bagging the Osmania Platinum Inter-University Men’s Trophy, contributed to clinching the trophy.
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GND varsity to honour players
Amritsar, August 31 According to an university press release, the university would grant full fee concession to those players who would secure first position in inter-college and for participation in inter-varsity competitions. Similarly, the sportspersons who get second and third position in the inter-college competitions and inter-varsity competitions would be given half and one third fee concession, respectively. It further said the campus sports committee had decided to replace old machines with new and modern machines at the fitness centre established at the students centre. A new sports ground would be developed on the land lying vacant near the multipurpose gymnasium, it added. The university has decided that if any sportsperson is found guilty of taking performance-enhancing drugs during competitions, the whole team would be declared ineligible and strict disciplinary action would be taken against the guilty. The presence of the head of the department or the team incharge has been made mandatory during inter-departmental sports competitions.
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Chowrasia, Gurbaaz make fine start
Johor Bahru, August 31 Giving Chowrasia company was, among others, fellow Indian Gurbaaz Mann, who fired six birdies as against a sole bogey on the 12th hole to return an identical card. The Indian duo were four strokes off the lead which was shared by South African Anton Haig and Aussie ace Marcus Both. Shiv Kapur, after his return from the World Golf Championship, shot a four-under 68 and shared the tied 22nd position with, among others, Amandeep Johl and Digvijay Singh. Tokyo: Jeev Milkha Singh went on a birdie spree after a none-too-good start to come one-under par 71 for the first round in the 150-million-yen Fujisankei Classic golf tournament on Thursday. The 34-year-old was lying tied 21st at the 7,454 yards long Fujizakura Country Club.
— UNI, PTI
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B’ball academy trainees for Asian meet
Ludhiana, August 31 Three more cagers, trainees of this academy, have figured in the list of the Indian squad which will take part in the 19th FIBA Asia Basketball Championship for junior men to be held from September 1 to 9 at Urumqi, China. According to Mr Teja Singh Dhaliwal, honorary general secretary, PBA, Sukhbir Singh Dhillon, Gurpreet Singh and Yadvinder Singh have been selected for this major event. Meanwhile, three cagers of this academy: Kiranjeet Kaur, Harwinder Kaur and Manda have been selected for the coaching camp to be organised for the preparations of the forthcoming Asian Basketball Championship for junior women slated to be held in Bangkok in January next year, Mr Dhaliwal said.
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Kashyap loses to Hidayat
Hong Kong, August 31 Kashyap, who scored an upset win over world number 19 Przemyslaw Wacha of Poland yesterday, put up a spirited fight but failed to match the guiles of the much experienced Indonesian and lost 17-21, 17-21. Kashyap’s loss saw Indian challenge in the tournament coming to an end.
— UNI
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Swimming
championship
Ropar, August 31
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