Doha, November 30
India’s top athletes will need a huge spark of inspiration as they seek to break the shackles of mediocrity and boost the country’s measly medal collection in the Asian Games arena when the 15th edition begin here tomorrow.

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
Indian shuttlers went down tamely to world champions China who showed little mercy in spanking their unfancied rivals 5-0 in the opening Pool A match of the badminton team competition in the 15th Asian Games here today.

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
Qatar is putting on its best front for the Asian Games but thousands of foreign workers who built the facilities for the two-week extravaganza have less cause to celebrate.

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

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
The West Indies were struggling to avoid a big defeat against Pakistan after run machine Mohammad Yousuf broke Vivian Richards’ 30-year old record for most runs scored in a calendar year on day four of the third and final Test today.

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

Mohali, November 30
Defeat would have been the last thing on their mind when Punjab players took the field in the first Super League (Elite Group) Group B Ranji Trophy match against Bengal. It was their home turf and the team had the pace attack to rattle the opposition on a seaming and bouncy track.

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.