Jaipur, October 12
Bangladesh will have more to prove than Zimbabwe when the two teams clash in an inconsequential Champions Trophy qualifying match here tomorrow.

Both the sides are out of the reckoning following two defeats each in as many matches, against Sri Lanka and the West Indies who have clinched the two spots available in the Super Eight stage.

That is very much in keeping with the script but last night’s defeat against the Caribbeans must have hurt the Asian team more than the two maulings the African minnows have suffered in the biennial event.

Zimbabwe were handed a nine-wicket thrashing after being bundled out for 85 by title holders West Indies and then Sri Lanka pasted them to register a 144-run victory.

Nothing more could have been expected of a team that has been stripped of its Test status and comprises a bunch of raw youngsters whose average age is 21.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, have consistently flattered to deceive. They started the tournament with a reasonable performance against the Lankans in the first tie at Mohali where they held themselves while chasing a tall target of 304.

But the batting crumbled when asked to set a target against the West Indies, crashing to their 113th loss in 135 matches.

Brian Lara’s men were going to give them no quarter, themselves having a point or two prove after being forced to come through the qualifying rounds despite being the defending champions.

The 10-wicket loss was a massive dent in their pride and a big let down on the expectations following a few good wins in recent times.

Captain Habibul Bashar, who has failed to score a run and has lasted only three balls at the crease from the two innings he has played so far, said it was a “bad game” and did not expect it to be repeated again.

Bashar would also remember the recent one-day series loss to Zimbabwe.

With voices against their Test status always growing, Bashar’s men need to come up with a big win to silence their critics and fans.

As Lara said the other day, Bangladesh really have to put the distance between themselves and Zimbabwe. That is, if there is any. — PTI

New Delhi, October 12
Saddled by a string of poor performances, the Indian Hockey Federation might consider appointing a foreign coach again after the Asian Games in Doha in December.

IHF President K.P.S. Gill said they will look at the possibility after assessing the team’s performance in the Games.

Asked whether the IHF would go for a foreign coach, especially in the backdrop of the poor showing of the Indian team at the World Cup in Germany, Gill said the Federation would make a decision after assessing the national side’s performance at the 15th Asian Games.

“It will depend on the Asian Games,” the IHF supremo said at a press conference held here to announce the dates of the 62nd Senior National Championship.

IHF has not had a happy experience with the only foreign coach they appointed a couple of years. Germany’s Gerhard Rach quit his post in a huff but not before launching a verbal tirade against the IHF bosses.

Gill, for a change, did not sound very enthusiastic about the national team’s chances in the Asian Games.

“It’s very difficult to say. Because some top teams like Pakistan and Korea will be there. Besides, an emerging side like Japan, who finished above us at the World Cup at ninth spot, will also be there,” said Gill.

The IHF chief said the Indian team would focus on their techniques after the Asian Games.

Gill unveiled the logo of the Senior Nationals, to be sponsored for five years by the Dainik Bhaskar newspaper, on the occasion.

The Nationals will be held in three phases. In the first phase, 37 affiliated state units, divided into eight groups, will play league matches and two teams from each group will qualify for the knockout stage.

These 16 teams will play knock-out matches and eight will qualify for the super league.

In the second phase, 14 associate members, divided into four groups, will play league matches in Delhi from October 20. One side from each group will qualify to take part in the super league.

Altogether 12 teams will vie for the title at the super league stage, which will be played at Jalandhar from October 28 to November 3. — PTI

New Delhi, October 12
The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) has decided to waive off the suspension on Indian federation, serving a one-year ban for doping misconduct, in lieu of a fine allowing its athletes to get back into action at the upcoming Asian Games.

The IWF has informed the Indian Weightlifting Federation that their weightlifters would be free to take part in any international event once they pay the fine amounting to $50,000.

“The Indian Weightlifting Federation shall pay the fine of $50,000 and remain suspended from the membership of the IWF only until the whole amount of the fine is duly paid to the IWF,” the IWF said in a letter to the Indian body.

The IWF also declared that the money procured would be utilised for the purpose of anti-doping activities.

“The IWF Executive Board declares that the fine shall be used for the purpose of anti-doping activities,” it said in the letter.

The national Federation was suspended for 12 months till March next year after India’s Edwin Raju and Tejinder Singh tested positive for a banned steroid at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games early this year.

Shailaja Pujari and B Prameelavalli were the other two who returned positive tests in the pre-event doping tests conducted by WADA officials at the national camp in Patiala.

Four positive cases in a calendar year were more than enough for the IWF to ban the Indian federation for a second time within seven months of coming out of a previous ban following the Athens Olympic doping fiasco.

The decision apparently came after the IWF realised that several countries, including Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Argentina were at present serving their suspension period and would not be able to take part in the Doha Asian Games to be held in December.

Since the wrongdoing of few weightlifters was affecting the young and innocent lifters, most of these countries, who do not have problem with the funds, would be willing to pay and become active at the earliest.

As far as the Indian case is concerned, there was dim hope for their athletes due to lack of adequate financial resources.

“We are looking at it (paying fine) if we can arrange some funds. We have money but that won’t be enough and pooling in money is not easy. We have not yet initiated any talks in this regard so far,” national federation president H.J. Dora told PTI.

“We will try our best, otherwise it would be like killing the prospects of the beginners,” he said.

Also, the lack of preparation of the Indians in the absence of any scheduled training camp would make picking the right candidates for the competition in a short span a difficult proposition.

“We did not plan a training camp and we will have to see who could be the candidates to be sent to such an important event, which is just a couple of months away,” Indian Federation General Secretary Balbir Singh Bhatia said. — PTI 

Jalandhar, October 12
“Catch them young” is former coach Pal Singh Sandhu’s advice to the Indian Weightlifting Federation. He doesn’t mean promising players, but dope cheats. Doping culture proliferates at the junior club level itself, he says.

The dope trial leads from senior players to juniors. “By the time they graduate to the senior level, they know all about what substances to take to enhance their performance.”

Sandhu, the Dronacharya awardee coach, who had been associated with national teams for more than 20 years, wants the federation and other bodies concerned to start dope tests at the club level itself. That is the level where the lifters start taking steroids and other performance-enhancing substances.

Indian weightlifters are reeling under a one-year ban for the second time within seven months. For the ignominy he rests the blame squarely on the players and exonerates the federation and the coaches completely. “It is not federation’s fault.” But the federation goes into denial every time a positive test is revealed.

“The ban is a total disgrace for us. Doping is like a disease, which has spread its tentacles everywhere around the globe. It is not possible today to compete at that level easily as lifters from other countries have better methods of masking the drugs, bit that is no excuse for our players to flush their systems with dope. The players do not heed our advice.”

The federation carries out regular dope tests at national camps. Sandhu advocates stopping those and starting at a lower level. “We tell the players again and again about performance-enhancing drugs. At national camps and regular training centers, the information against doping is drilled into them. But, the lifters today want a short cut to success; they are not ready to work hard for it.”

Huge holes can be punched into coach Sandhu’s advice and statements. Sanamacha Chanu and Pratima Kumari, who failed tests at the Athens Olympic Games and Edwin Raju and Tejinder Singh, who tested positive at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games, had cleared tests conducted by the Sports Authority of India’s Dope Control Centre.

And somehow, the idea that the coaches have no knowledge of their trainees using dope does not cut ice with sports followers. If coaches don’t have inkling of players’ performance and its components, then Indian weightlifting is in dire straits. 

New Delhi, October 12
Eighth-seeded Sanam K. Singh of Chandigarh warded off a determined fight by third seed Vivek Shokeen of Delhi to win at 7-6, 4-6, 6-4 and sailed into the men’s singles semifinal of the DSCL Open National Tennis Championship at the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association deco-turf court here today.

In a battle of the baseliners, Sanam clinched the match with his staying power and better court craft as he covered the length and breadth of the court to executive some breath-taking winners to keep his opponent on tenterhooks.

But the best match of the championship was fought between two young players, Vishnu Vardhan of Andhra Pradesh and Arjun Goutham of Karnataka, and the former won the engrossing duel after a stamina-sapping three hours and five minutes at 6-2, 6-7 (4), 7-5. Vishnu, a semifinalist in the grass court nationals last year, could have wrapped up the match in straight sets, but after winning the first set comfortably and leading 5-4 in the second, he committed some unforced efforts to concede the advantage which was seized by Arjun to take the battle to tie-breaker in which he prevailed with some searing winners.

In the decider, both players held their serves till 5-5, but then Vishnu achieved the vital break to wrap up the set and the match. Vishnu, a product of the AITA coaching scheme, has shown the potential to be a player to be taken serious note of as he has an amazing all-round game with a whipping backhand.

Last year’s runner-up Ashutosh Singh made a mockery of the seeding as he knocked out second-seeded Aditya Madekar in straight sets at 6-2, 6-1. Thus the top two seeds are out of the semifinals as earlier, top seed Divij Sharan pulled out of his semi-final clash against Purav Raja, citing a shoulder injury as the reason.

In the women’s singles, top seed Isha Lakhani did not have to strain much to overwhelm sixth seed Parija Maloo 6-3, 6-4 in an all-Maharashtra quarterfinal. However, Maloo had the consolation of making the girls under-18 semi-final when she defeated Nupur Kaul 6-1, 6-2.

Second-seeded Sandhya Nagaraj also posted a straight-set victory when she powered past Shalini Sahoo of Delhi 6-4, 6-2. Delhi schoolgirl Vishka Sheoran continued to make waves as she booked her berth in the semifinal after beating Sweta K Solanki, also of Delhi, at 6-0, 6-3. But she had little stamina left to wage another full-blooded battle in the girls under-18 singles quarterfinal and lost to Kyra Shroff at 5-7, 1-6.

In the other woman’s singles quarterfinal, fourth-seeded Sonal Phadke had to dip into her reserve energy to dispose of a tenacious and fighting Kelsey Sunderam of Tamilnadu at 7-6 (7), 6-4.

Madura Ranganathan progressed in the girls under-18 singles when she edged out her Tamil Nadu State-mate Shmita Eashwaramurthy 6-1, 7-5.

With some exciting new faces making the last four grade in both the men’s and women’s singles, the penultimate day’s matches are expected to provide lots of thrills.

Stockholm, October 12
Swede Joachim Johansson made a stunning return to top tennis after a year of injury, hammering home a 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) upset win over Rafael Nadal in a Stockholm Open shock.

The 24-year-old “Jackhammer”, his ranking languishing at 690 after shoulder surgery in summer, 2005, and subsequent elbow problems, rained down 17 aces against the Spanish world No. 2, following up his bombs with charging attacks on the net yesterday.

He reached his first quarterfinal since Marseille in February of last year.

Johansson advanced as Nadal slammed a service return into the net to lose after one hour, 51 minutes. — AFP

Kabaddi meet
Chandigarh: Chandigarh defeated Delhi 44-41 in the men’s section, whereas in the women’s category the local outfit got the better of Rajasthan 30-25 in the 18th Senior National Circle Kabaddi Championship at the Football Stadium, Sector 17, here on Thursday. — TNS