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Women paddlers ousted
Men’s 4x100m relay team dropped
Iran’s ‘Hercules’ cleared to compete
Games of exploitation
Test series
Batsmen in hara-kiri mode
Yousuf breaks record
Punjab to rely on seamers
Maharashtra, TN share honours PSEB hold on to their nerves to emerge hockey champs
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Time to show medal mettle
Doha, November 30 The Indians had managed just 11 gold, 12 silver and 13 bronze in the last Asian Games in Busan to finish seventh on the table, a marked improvement from the earlier years but still not good enough for a country of billion people. There have been some notable performers but their heroics have largely been overshadowed by the failure of most of the other athletes to make much of an impression, raising doubts about India’s ability to make a mark at the highest level. India have fielded a very large contingent for the games this time round but any hopes of a medal would largely depend on the tennis players, shooters, cueists, chess players and athletes. The tennis duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi are the favourites to win the doubles gold. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Gagan Narang, Samresh Jung, Manavjit Singh Sandhu and Tejaswini Sawant will be India’s medal contenders in the shooting arena and going by the performance of the shooters of late, a few medals are a distinct possibility. The absence of Abhinav Bindra, who has pulled out of the games because of a back problem, will certainly have a bearing on the medal haul. India’s medal focus will also be on the athletics contingent which had accounted for seven gold, six silver and four bronze in the Busan games. Despite the form of ace long jumper Anju Bobby George being far from impressive, she was quite capable of springing a surprise. Quarter miler Pinki Pramanik, shot putter Navpreet Singh, discus thrower Vikas Gowda and the women’s relay teams are strong medal contenders but they have to maintain their form to make it to the podium. In cue sports, Pankaj Advani is the best bet for the country but it remains to be seen if the decision that players can take part in either billiards or snooker really helps the collection of medals from the discipline. Archer Jayanta Talukdar has put in some impressive performances of late to become a serious medal prospect. The men’s hockey team has an outside chance of winning the gold but the performance of the team in recent tournaments does not evoke much confidence. The sacking of senior players like Gagan Ajit Singh, Deepak Thakur and Viren Rasquinha has only compounded the woes of the team. In the next two weeks, over 5000 athletes from 45 nations will battle for glory in 39 disciplines with regional powerhouses China, South Korea and Japan expected to dominate the medal tally in what is billed as the biggest Asian Games ever. With only the opening ceremony scheduled for tomorrow, the competitive action will unfold the day after with the Indians launching their campaign in several disciplines. Unlike the previous years, there have not been much hype surrounding the contingent and the Indian Olympic Association did its bit to ensure a low-profile departure for the athletes by not even announcing the final list. The government did not clear the entire list by the IOA on the ground that some of the squads had no medal chances, forcing some of the teams like football to go at their own cost. The Doha-bound athletes had an extensive build-up to the games with a number of exposure trips abroad but it remains to be seen whether the months of training could translate into medals. — PTI |
Doha, November 30 The result was by and large expected as the Indians did not have the skills to match the Chinese who were never really tested in any of the contests at the Aspire Sports Centre. Anup Sridhar found the going tough in the first singles as he lost to Lin Dan 19-21, 11-21 in 28 minutes, while the Chinese doubles duo of Yun Cai and Haifeng Fu gave their team a 2-0 lead by accounting for the Indian pair of Sanave Thomas and Rupesh Kumar. “I should have probably won the first set. He was pretty fast in the second set, may be my preparation was not good enough,” Sridhar said after the match. In the second singles, P Kashyap put in a spirited performance but it was still not good enough to see him go past Jin Chen, who carved out a 21-17, 21-19 verdict in 30 minutes. The Indians were left trailing 0-4 after the second doubles as the Chinese pair of Zhendong Guo and Zhongbo Xie prevailed over V Diju and Vidhyadhar 21-18, 21-8 in just 22 minutes. In the third singles match, India’s star player Nikhil Kanetkar never really found his rhythm going as he lost to Chunlai Bao 14-21, 12-21 to complete a miserable day for the Indians on the badminton courts. — PTI |
Doha, November 30 With this, India’s men and women teams bowed out of the tournament even before the formal opening of the games. Indian women, who had yesterday beaten Uzbekistan 3-0 and suffered a 0-3 thrashing from North Korea in the league matches, made it to the last eight because they figured in three-team pool in which one win was enough for getting into the knock out stage. The South Koreans handed India the same treatment which their estranged neighbour North Korea had given to the South Asian champions. Only Paulomi Ghatak could snatch a game from Kyung Ah Kim in the whole tie as Mouma Das and Shamin Kumaresan went down in straight games. In the first match against Kyung Ah Kim, Paulomi after losing the first two games bounced back to win the third but that was all she managed to achieve as Kim hit back strongly in the fourth to wrap up th match 11-5, 11-2, 11-13 and 11-4 to give South Korea 1-0 lead. The next two matches were wash out for the Indians as Mouma Das found Mi Young Park too hot to handle. Park took only 11 minutes to dispose of Mouma 11-6, 11-5, 11-6 to make it 2-0. Bang Bang Kwak completed the tally as she put it across Shamini Kumarsan. The Indian threw in the towel without much resistanc and went down 7-11, 4-11, 6-11. The Indian men team had made their exit from the tournament yesterday itself, losing to Japan and China. This morning they won an inconsequential match against Yemen.
— UNI |
Men’s 4x100m relay team dropped
New Delhi, November 30 The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) conducted trials for both the men’s and women’s 4x100m relay teams in presence of the Selection Committee members. The men’s team clocked 39.84s in the second trial after which the selected to drop them. Missing the flight to Doha are Arunjit Sivadasan Nair, Arvind Alaguvel, B G Nagraj, Vilas Shivappa Neelgund, Amit Kumar Saha and Vishal Kumar Saxena. The athletics contingent will now have 37 athletes. The women’s 4x100m relay team, however, improved upon their performance done in the last trials and clocked 45.44s in their second trial today.
— UNI |
Iran’s ‘Hercules’ cleared to compete
Doha, November 30 While Rezazadeh, known as the “Iranian Hercules”, was not among those who tested positive, all of the country’s lifters faced a two-year ban from international competition if the fine was not paid. Rezazadeh won Olympic gold in the 105kg category in Sydney (2000) and Athens (2004) and was named the World’s Best Weightlifter by the IWF in 2000, 2002 and 2004.
— Reuters |
Doha, November 30 The government of the tiny gas-rich Gulf state has been commended by a UN rights official for trying to curb the exploitation of migrant labourers, but it was urged to do more to combat the scourge. Workers who helped refurbish the Khalifa Stadium, venue of the main events kicking off tomorrow, said contractors continue to rob them of a slice of their paltry wages. “The company for which I work promised to pay me 1,000 rials ($ 275) a month, but its (Indian) manager is only paying 750 rials ($ 206),” said Raju Nat, a 24-year-old Indian, during a break outside the stadium. Organisers of the 15th Asian Games plan a stunning opening ceremony at the 50,000-seat stadium to usher in the tournament for 13,000 athletes from 45 nations that runs until December 15. Basenta, a Nepalese construction worker, said he was receiving 550 rials (about $ 150) a month instead of the 600 rials ($ 165) he had been promised. “I have no choice but to work for this small sum because I can’t find a job in my country, and I have to provide for my four children, to whom I send 150-350 rials (about $ 40-95) a month,” he said. The CEO of United Development Company (UDC), a Qatari-Gulf private shareholding firm, pointed a finger at small contractors, saying that “they are either greedy or take projects at low prices, which prompts them to pay low salaries in order to make profits.” But workers’ conditions “are improving because the Labour Ministry is carrying out surprise inspections of construction sites and workers’ dwellings,” added Walid al-Saadi, whose company is developing Pearl-Qatar, a man-made island off the coast. A new labour law passed two years ago stipulates that employers must pay monthly wages by the fifth of the following month. According to Mohammed Fuad, a legal expert with the officially-sanctioned National Human Rights Committee, more than a quarter million workers were brought in over the past two years to cope with the construction boom in Qatar. The small Arab state has been using its immense gas wealth to build hotels, residential quarters and state-of-the-art conference facilities. “When the number of workers increases, so do labor problems,” said Fuad, adding that most complaints received by his committee relate to late payment of salaries and difficulties for workers seeking to change the “sponsors” of their residency. Current wages for unskilled workers, ranging from 600 to 1,200 rials a month, “are too low and don’t match the cost of living,” said Fuad. But the committee receives few complaints about low salaries because the migrant workers “know that this is what they will get before coming over from their countries,” he explained. The committee has received 10 collective complaints from workers so far this year, down from 17 in 2005, “which is a good sign,” he added. In its annual report released last May, the National Human Rights Committee warned of the less-than-human working conditions of the expatriate labour force, brought mainly from India and Pakistan, and urged the government to take action. “The abuse of labour rights is on the rise, especially in the construction sector, which is something that would tarnish the image of the country if not checked,” the committee said. A UN specialist in combating human trafficking, who visited Qatar two weeks ago, praised the measures taken by Doha to control recruiting agencies which deceive migrant workers. However, it said Qatari authorities had much more to do to meet their international obligations to combat human trafficking. — AFP |
Test series Laxman made vice-captain New Delhi, November 30 Ganguly had strengthened his case after his fine display with both the bat and the ball in domestic cricket (Duleep Trophy and Ranji Trophy). After being rudely cast away from the Indian team, the former captain, instead of losing heart, kept himself match fit and also improved his batting performance to catch the attention of the national selectors. And to Ganguly’s luck, former India captain Dilip Vengsarkar, after taking over as the chief national selector, had announced that the doors were still open for Ganguly to stage a comeback into the Indian squad. Technically, Ganguly comes in place of the injured Yuvraj Singh, who is yet to fully recover from the ligament rupture he suffered during a kho-kho game prior to the selection of the squad for South Africa. Vengsarkar would witness Ganguly’s performance in the Ranji Trophy match between Bengal and Mumbai in Kolkata this weekend. The national selectors, who met today under the chairmanship of Vengsarkar, also made V. V. S. Laxman the vice-captain, replacing the off-form Virender Sehwag. But Vengsarkar indicated that Laxman, who would be featuring in the remaining one-day match, would be the vice-captain “only for the Test team”. Pacer Zaheer Khan has been retained in the Test squad as well. He comes back into the Test team after a long hiatus as the selectors had taken note of his impressive bowling displays in the ODI series against South Africa. While Mohammed Kaif and Suresh Raina have not been included in the Test team, Delhi opener Gautam Gambhir has been reinstated in the Test squad, though the selectors have also retained Wasim Jaffar, who had a none too impressive one-day outings against the Proteas. V. R. V. Singh has been brought back to bolster the medium-pace attack in place of an ineffectual Ajit Agarkar, who had been clobbered in the ODI series. The selectors had a daunting task after the disastrous performance of the team in the one-dayers thus far. The selectors met BCCI president and Union Minister Sharad Pawar at his residence before meeting to pick the Test squad. Vengsarkar said it was felt that an experienced player like Sourav Ganguly would be a valuable asset to the Indian team presently besieged with self doubts. Team: Rahul Dravid (capt), V. V. S. Laxman (vice-capt), Wasim Jaffar, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), Dinesh Kaarthick (wk), Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble, Munaf Patel, Irfan Pathan, V. R. V. Singh, Zaheer Khan and S Sreesanth.
— OSR |
Batsmen in hara-kiri mode
India once again showed no stomach for a fight as they crumbled on a pitch that held no demons whatsoever. It was a performance that calls into question the application of the players and the cavalier way they are treating the honour and privilege of playing for the country. Time and again, they have got out playing the same shots and none of the batsmen seems eager to stay at the wicket. None of them is learning from the mistakes of the others and getting out in such a listless manner that if India have to lose, then it would be better to see a totally different set of players take the field in the Test series. The Indian bowlers had done a good job in restricting the South Africans to a score that invited a run rate of less than five runs an over, which on this pitch was not really a problem. True, the ball can do a bit more under the lights and when the wind picks up, but even those factors were not there to any great extent. Zaheer got his man once again, and it’s quite clear that the South African skipper is going through the horrors. The way he walked out of his crease even before Zaheer had bowled the ball showed how confused he was and he will have to go back to the drawing board to start scoring runs again. Loots Bosman is another who moves so much in the crease that he has little idea where his off stump is. Kallis, however, is one of those players with a solid technique and good match temperament and he along with Herschelle Gibbs built a partnership that steadied the innings and that too at a fair clip. Cricket is a great leveller and Justin Kemp, who hammered the Indian attack for his first one-day century at Capetown, was out to the first ball he faced here. Virender Sehwag used the fifth bowler’s overs well, distributing it between himself and Tendulkar, and with Anil Kumble being right on target as always, the overs bowled by the slower bowlers were more productive and restrictive than those by the seamers. Once again, it was Shaun Pollock who helped loosen the spinners’ stranglehold, and he and Gibbs took South Africa to a total that they would have been satisfied with but also wary of, because it wasn’t one that put pressure on the Indians. Of course, the Indians on this tour have been masters at putting pressure on themselves and the shots that were played were eminently forgettable. Gibbs’ was a mixed innings, for he went through periods of doubt but he hung in there grimly, knowing that it was important for the team to have him play till the end. In doing so, he showed that sometimes when a player is not in good touch, he has to change his game to suit the needs of his team. Unfortunately, nobody from the Indian side seemed to have taken any notice. Wasim Jaffer once again flashed outside the off-stump before he was set and Sehwag played a casual shot to be caught brilliantly. Tendulkar was the only one who got a good ball, and since he is not in form, he is more tentative than usual. Then we had Dinesh Kaarthick getting Mohammad Kaif run out and then trying to get out caught at third man, flashing wildly outside the off stump to each and every rising delivery and finally succeeding and that too off the gentle medium pace of Kemp. Dhoni hit some good shots but was simply not prepared to play a game where he could wait for the scoring opportunity. It’s this kind of approach that begs the question: are these players playing for their own pleasure or for the team? If a strokeplayer like Gibbs could play a subdued game, then why couldn’t the Indians? All it needed was a sensible approach and a decent start and the South Africans would have been under pressure. Instead, by trying to score at a run-a-ball when it was not needed, the Indians squandered a great opportunity to come close and worry the South Africans. Irfan Pathan used the chance to do his case no harm, having been used intelligently by Sehwag with the ball earlier in the day. His performance and the bowling of Zaheer and Kumble, and to a certain extent Sreesanth, were the only things that India got out of the game. — PMG |
Karachi, November 30 Yousuf, 32, made his second century of the match and his ninth of 2006. He finished the year with 1,788 runs in 11 matches to overtake the total of 1,710 amassed by Richards in 1976. The visitors were 39 for two with captain Brian Lara on 18 and Ramnaresh Sarwan (11) after they were reduced to 17 for two inside four overs. They have been set an improbable target of 444 to win the Test. — Reuters |
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Punjab to rely on seamers
Mohali, November 30 But, inspired by skipper Sourav Ganguly, rookie medium pacer Ashok Dinda proved to be a revelation and did the demolition job, which his more accomplished rival bowling attack was expected to do to Bengal. Bowling an inspired spell, Dinda claimed five wickets in the second innings, sending the hosts hurtling to an embarrassing defeat with a day to spare. Punjab would be too keen to prove that the unexpected defeat was not more than an aberration and go all out for a better result as they take the field in their second match against Gujarat at the PCA Stadium tomorrow. The onus will be on new coach Daljit Singh to ensure that the players come up with a better display. |
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Maharashtra,
TN share honours Ferozepore, November 30 The overall games trophy will be declared at Kurukshetra where Group-I championships shall be held from December 7-10. Tamil Nadu teams won gold in football (girls), table tennis (boys) and weightlifting (boys) whereas Maharashtra bagged gold in weightlifting (girls) and wrestling (girls) titles. Tamil Nadu boys and girls pocketed silver in volleyball (boys and girls) whereas Maharashtra got silver in table tennis (boys and girls) and wrestling (boys). Three Bronze medals went to Tamil Nadu girls in volleyball, table tennis and weightlifting. Maharashtra got two bronze in football (girls) and weightlifting (boys). Hosts Punjab stood overall third with 19 points. The
final tally of points won by various states were as follows: Maharashtra
(21), Tamil Nadu (21), Punjab(19), Kerala(13), Haryana (9), Orissa(6)
and Mizoram (1). |
PSEB hold on to their nerves to emerge hockey champs Patiala, November 30 The dazzling hockey display by the PSEB enabled it to annex the title in the 33rd All-India Inter Electricity Board hockey tournament which concluded at the PSEB sports complex. With this win, the hosts have etched their name on the glittering trophy for a record 31st time. The proceedings became so intense during the fag end of the second half that the umpires, V.P Patel and Heera Singh, both of the NIS, had to repeatedly step in to smoothen the frayed tempers of players of both teams. Specks of rough play surfaced when a free hit taken by a Calcutta defender was called for 'lifting' following which players of both teams entered into a fracas. Both teams were leg weary as they had to play their semifinals in the morning and the lack of pace on the part of both CESC and the PSEB clearly showed in their lethargic play in the first quarter of the first half. However, there was a spark in the proceedings once skipper Hardyal Singh, who played a dazzling role as left-out, shot in the first goal for the hosts off an angular shot which beat the rival goalkeeper all ends up in the 16th minute of the match. The PSEB coach, Wazir Chand, effected a couple of substitutions in an effort to add a second goal to the team's kitty. However, the CESC defence, resolutely managed by Adrain Kerketta and B.Shanmugham, played a steady game to thwart many a PSEB move launched particularly from the left flank by skipper Hardayal Singh. Calcutta team, well served by forward James Adrian in the front line launched a ferocious attack on the hosts' citadel after he combined with S.Chatterjee. However, the agile PSEB custodian, Harnek Singh, who was instrumental in many saves. |
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