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India to play five bowlers
All clear for ‘live’ telecast on DD
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Greg Chappell attends a training session as police personnel stand guard in Cuttack on Tuesday. — Reuters
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Gibbs’ appeal to be heard today
New Zealand’s Jacob Oram plays a reverse sweep off the bowling of England’s Monty Panesar during the tri-series one-dayer at the Adelaide Oval on Tuesday. — Reuters
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Muzumdar guides Mumbai to 233
Serena Williams of the USA exults during her quarterfinal against Israel’s Shahar Peer at the Australian Open in Melbourne on Tuesday. Serena won 3-6, 6-2, 8-6. — AP/PTI
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CAB poll: Minister not to contest
Brazil soccer club to play in India
Surjit Academy, PAU lads set title clash
Utkarsh wins karate belt
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India to play five bowlers
Cuttack, January 23
Encouraged by the form of the top-order batsmen, the Indian think-tank has decided to draft in an extra bowler in Ramesh Powar, who is almost certain to figure in the playing XI along with Harbhajan Singh. The young Suresh Raina has been left out of the 12 shortlisted for the match, with Haryana all-rounder Joginder Sharma taking his place for the day-night encounter at the Barabati Stadium. It could be a toss-up between S. Sreesanth and Joginder for a place in the final XI for a game in which a victory would give India an unbeatable 2-0 lead. Skipper Rahul Dravid justified the exclusion of Raina while stating that the final combination would be decided after having a look at the pitch tomorrow. “We have decided on the 12 after looking at the condition and opted for the extra spinner,” Dravid said. “We decided to give Raina a break as we want to play the extra spinner and extra bowler. It is more vital for us in these conditions.” The Indians finally arrested their sequence of defeats in ODIs in the opening tie of the four-match series in Nagpur, which would be remembered for Sourav Ganguly’s remarkable comeback to the shorter version of the game. Asked whether dew would be a factor, Dravid said, “Obviously, it may be there. But I cannot predict how much impact it will have.” Dravid said the top order would be decided depending on the kind of start the team got. “For instance, in Nagpur, Mahendra Singh Dhoni was promoted ahead of me. That was done as we had a good start. Depending on the kind of start, we might change the batting order a little,” he said. Asked whether keeping the likes of Raina out would have an adverse effect on the team’s fielding, Dravid said, “Young guys are surely the best of fielders. We have experienced players who may not be the best of fielders, but are getting runs for us. For us, it is all about striking the right balance.” “When we picked a lot of youngsters, the criticism was that we were not picking senior players. When senior players are selected, you have to accept that they may not be that good on the field. You have to look at the pluses and minuses,” he said, taking a potshot at critics. Turning to the Caribbeans, Dravid said his side had a strategy in place to counter Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who slammed an excellent unbeaten 149 in Nagpur. “I thought he played an innings of superb control till the end. There are things we can try against him. Chanderpaul, Chris Gayle and Brian Lara are the key players in their team. If we can get them out early, we can put them under pressure,” he said. For those statistically inclined, Barabati has been a happy hunting ground for India, though the script seems to have changed of late. The hosts have won six of their 10 matches here, but went down to England and New Zealand in their last two ties. The West Indies played here once, in 1994-95, when they went down to India by eight wickets. Lara and Chanderpaul are the only two surviving members from that game. Lara ruled out, Gayle to lead
West Indies captain Brian Lara has been ruled out of tomorrow’s match with a knee problem. “Brian has a long-standing chronic problem in his left knee and after the first one-dayer he pulled up a bit sore in that knee,” team physiotherapist Stephen Partridge said in a statement today. “I have advised him to miss the second one-dayer,” he added. “The one-day form of the game puts far more pressure on his left knee than Test cricket, and with the World Cup around the corner he is heeding the advice of the medical team,” Partridge added. Vice-captain Chris Gayle will make his debut as skipper. No decision has been taken on Lara’s availability for the third and fourth one-dayers in Chennai (January 27) and Baroda (January 31). All-rounder Dwayne Bravo has been declared fit for the match. He had sustained a shoulder injury when he collided with the square-leg umpire while fielding in the opening game.
— PTI, Reuters
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All clear for ‘live’ telecast on DD
New Delhi, January 23 But the “live” telecast would be available on DD with a delay of seven minutes due to technical reasons to enable Nimbus’ Neo Sports to filter out their ads to make the signals “clean”, which was the primary condition of the public broadcaster. The interim arrangement ordered by a Bench headed by Chief Justice M.K. Sharma, would continue till the next hearing on February 8 and cover the India-Sri Lanka match fixed for that day. The India-West Indies series comes to an end on January 31. The order also cleared the way for running commentary of all matches by All-India Radio till February 8 as the Bench said the interim direction would apply equally to the radio signals, which will be available simultaneously with the start of the game. The court said it would decide the revenue-sharing arrangement between DD and Nimbus later after listening to the arguments from both sides when the hearing resumes. The court order came after Prasar Bharati’s counsel, senior advocate Dushyant Dave, produced a letter from Nimbus pertaining to its negotiation with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for the $ 612 million telecast rights deal in February, 2006, acknowledging the government guidelines that the live signals had to be shared with DD if it got the contract. Additional Solicitor-General P.P. Malhotra, appearing for the Centre, contended that the government guidelines making it compulsory for all private channels to share telecast feed of sports events involving India with DD, were binding in nature and had the authority of the law. It was not merely an executive order as Nimbus tried to made it out to be, and the January 19 memo of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting asking it to share live signals of the India-West Indies series with DD was issued as per the December 2005 guidelines. Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for Nimbus, challenged the guidelines as well as the January 19 memo, saying that none of these had any force of law as they were merely executive directions. He termed the ministry’s January 19 memo as a last-minute effort by it to “pressurise” Nimbus to share its feed with DD, which had rejected its offer to accept “dirty” signals. Such tactics would harm Nimbus’ commercial interests with those who had pledged their ads to be shown during the live telecast of the matches, he said.
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Assault on Greg a cheap publicity stunt: Dravid
Cuttack, January 23 “What happened yesterday at the airport was indeed very sad and disappointing. Things like this should not happen. But it does not surprise me nowadays. It’s so easy to get into the news nowadays,” Dravid told newspersons here. Chappell was pushed from behind at the Biju Patnaik airport in Bhubaneswar by a Kalinga Sena activist claiming to protest the non-inclusion of players from Orissa in the Indian team. The man, identified as Biranchi Maharana, was immediately arrested. “The problem is we want to become famous overnight.Nobody knew that person or that organisation before, now everyone knows. Publicity is being given to things like this,” Dravid said. “Obviously things like this come to the news everyday ... we find cases of people filing cases against actors and people doing funny things. It gives them a platform to become famous overnight. You don’t need to achieve anything to become famous,” he said. “This is a sad state and the future does not look so bright,” Dravid added.
— PTI
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Gibbs’ appeal to be heard today
Dubai, January 23 Besides Gibbs and Benaud, the former’s legal representative, ICC match referee Chris Broad and a legal representative acting on his behalf would be part of the hearing. ICC in-house lawyer Urvasi Naidoo will also be present on the call in an administrative capacity, a press note issued by the International Cricket Council said. Under the terms of the appeals procedure, Benaud has seven days (from January 18, the date his appointment was confirmed) to hear and determine the appeal. The appeal will therefore be processed before South Africa’s third Test against Pakistan beginning in Cape Town on January
26. Benaud has the power to increase, decrease, amend or otherwise substitute his own decision from that made at the previous hearing, and his decision is final and binding. Gibbs was banned after Broad found him guilty of a Level 3 offence, a breach of clause 3.3 of the ICC Code of Conduct. The clause prohibits “... any language or gestures that offends, insults, humiliates, intimidates, threatens, disparages or vilifies another person on the basis of that person's race, religion, colour, descent or national or ethic origin.” During the hearing conducted Broad after the Test concluded on January 15, Gibbs apologised for the remark but pleaded not guilty to the Level 3 charge.
— PTI
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Kiwis whip England
Sydney, January 23 England looked to have the match under control when they bowled New Zealand out for 210 before their own batting crumbled in less than 38 overs. James Franklin ripped through England’s top order and Daniel Vettori destroyed the tail to finish with 4-24 after Jacob Oram had rescued New Zealand with 86 in his first match back from injury. Andrew Flintoff captured four wickets for England before the tourists limped to their lowest total yet on the disastrous tour of Australia. New Zealand had not won a match in the tri-series until today, but earned a bonus point because of the margin of victory to leapfrog England into second place in the standings behind Australia, who are unbeaten at the halfway stage. England had New Zealand in all sorts of trouble when they reduced them to 67-5 in the 24th over on a lifeless pitch that made fast scoring almost impossible. Flintoff captured the vital wicket of New Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming, then polished off the tail to finish with four for 21 from his 10 overs. Collingwood also held three catches and was involved in the run-out of Franklin as the Kiwis were bowled out on the final ball of the 50th over. New Zealand were at risk of falling well short of 200 after Fleming (20), Peter Fulton (24) and Ross Taylor (15) all made starts but failed to go on with the job. But Oram, playing his first international match since injuring a hamstring, smashed six fours and two sixes to post his highest one-day score and help the Kiwis finish with a respectable total. He shared a 120-run partnership with Brendon McCullum for the sixth wicket before both batsmen threw their wickets away as England mopped up the last five batsmen for just 23 runs in four a half overs. Scoreboard New Zealand Fleming c Nixon b Flintoff 20 Astle c Collingwood b Anderson 1 Fulton c Collingwood b Lewis 24 Taylor c Collingwood b Panesar 15 McMillan lbw Collingwood 2 Oram c Strauss b Anderson 86 McCullum b Flintoff 30 Franklin run out 14 Vettori c Nixon b Flintoff 2 Bond b Flintoff 2 Gillespie not out 1 Extras
(b-2, lb-3, w-6, nb-2) 13 Total (all out, 50 overs) 210 Fall of wickets:
1-5, 2-37, 3-55, 4-61, 5-67, 6-187, 7-191, 8-194, 9-196. Bowling:
Lewis 10-1-31-1, Anderson 10-2-47-2, Flintoff 10-2-21-4, Collingwood 8-0-40-1, Panesar 9-0-44-1, Dalrymple 3-0-22-0. England Strauss lbw Franklin 19 Loye c Fleming b Franklin 8 Bell c Fleming b Franklin 2 Joyce c Gillespie b Vettori 47 Collingwood lbw Vettori 10 Flintoff c McCullum b Vettori 9 Nixon c McCullum b Oram 6 Dalrymple c Fleming b Vettori 0 Lewis c Fleming b Bond 5 Panesar c Astle b Bond 6 Anderson not out 0 Extras
(lb-5, w-1, nb-2) 8 Total (all out, 37.5 overs) 120 Fall of wickets:
1-21, 2-30, 3-31, 4-76, 5-92, 6-107, 7-107, 8-107, 9-120. Bowling:
Franklin 7-2-17-3, Bond 9.5-1-32-2, Gillespie 5-2-25-0, Oram 7-1-17-1, Vettori 9-0-24-4.
— Reuters
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Muzumdar guides Mumbai to 233
Vadodara, January 23 Muzumdar, who faced 208 balls, hit 18 four during his knock which fell just three run short for a century but took Mumbai past the 200 mark. Muzumdar, who played confidently, failed left-arm seemer Irfan Pathan’s delivery and ended up giving a catch to his brother Yusuf standing in gully. Pathan took three wickets conceding 49 runs. Another seamer Rakesh Patel continued to shine with the ball by taking three wickets. Earlier, the visitors were struggling at 40 for two at one stage after they lost two quick wickets of Wasim Jaffer and Sahil Kukeraja and were 96 for four at lunch. At this juncture, Muzumdar and Abhisek Nair put up a brave face and stitched a 70 run partnership for fifth wicket. But as Mumbai lost Nair’s wicket, its other batsmen also followed at regular interval and except Vinayak Samant (20) no body could contribute enough.
Bengal on top
Kolkata: Bengal medium pacer Ranadeb Bose picked a six-wicket haul to bowl the Karnataka batsmen out for a meagre 89 runs in their first innings on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy semifinal here today. Bengal were poised at 121 for four at close. Sourav Sarkar played the perfect foil to Bose from the other end with his in-swingers to claim the remaining four wickets of Karnataka, who had elected to bat after winning the toss at the Eden Gardens here. None of the Karnataka batsmen, apart from Thilak Naidu (33) and to a certain extent Vinay Kumar (23) could stand up against the Bengal bowling attack. Coming in to bat, Bengal faced the scare of a similar fate and lost three wickets with just 16 runs on the board. It was opener Arindam Das and middle-order batsman Rohan Gavaskar who stopped the slide. Arindam remained not out at 45, while Rohan scored 63 in 75 balls before being caught by Barrington off Dhananjaya.
— PTI
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Serena overcomes Peer pressure
Melbourne, January 23 Seven-time Grand Slam champion Serena, who won here in 2003 and 2005, staged an amazing fightback to down Israeli 16th seed Shahar Peer 3-6, 6-2, 8-6 in an epic battle and will meet Czech teenager Nicole Vaidisova in the semis. Serena was leading 4-1 in the final set before her gritty opponent, the first Israeli woman to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal, pulled level. But Serena drew on all her experience to carry her through. “I feel awesome. I’m the ultimate competitor,” said the elated Serena, who came into the tournament unseeded after an injury-hit 2006. “It’s exciting to come through. I’m just happy to be out there and competing. Definitely ready to create some more carnage, hopefully,” she said. Tenth seed Vaidisova won an all-Czech quarterfinal 6-1, 6-4 against unseeded Lucie Safarova, who dumped defending champion Amelie Mauresmo out of the tournament. The 17-year-old, who made the French Open semis last year, belied her tender years with a ruthless performance and broke her opponent twice early in the match then served out the first set with an ace. The lanky world number 12 maintained the pressure and put her big-match experience to good use to end Safarova’s challenge after one hour 11 minutes. “Definitely very, very happy and excited,” said Vaidisova, who is the youngest player left in the tournament.
It was a far simpler exercise for Roddick against the unseeded Mardy Fish, wrapping up a 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 win in one hour 27 minutes, just four minutes longer than it took Serena to get through her third set. Roddick was in a class of his own in a mismatch against his former room-mate Fish in an all-American clash. The sixth seed made just four errors in the entire match as Fish self-destructed with a flurry of volleying errors. Federer, far short of his fluent best, beat Spain’s Tommy Robredo 6-3, 7-6, 7-5 in the quarterfinals. The top seed struggled in blustery conditions against the seventh seed, but still did enough at key moments to extend his winning streak to 34 matches and stay on course for his 10th Grand Slam title. Federer started slowly on Rod Laver Arena, making a number of uncharacteristic errors, but the world number one still broke Robredo’s serve three times in the opening set. The Spaniard took advantage of this carelessness to contrive two breaks of his own but Federer ruthlessly seized on his first set point with a flowing backhand down the line. The Swiss continued to misfire in the second, mixing a couple of wild mis-hits with a succession of weak groundstrokes into the net, and Robredo stayed with him until the top seed broke for 5-4. Federer, 25, then played a poor service game, slipping to 15-40 before sending a tame forehand volley wide. Robredo comfortably held serve but Federer typically raised his game in the tiebreak, roaring into a 6-2 lead and clinching it at the first opportunity. Federer broke early in the third set but handed the advantage straight back and if the 24-year-old Robredo had been able to push harder, he could have extended the Swiss maestro further. Robredo had to serve at 5-6 to save the match and Federer pounced, wasting his first match point with an errant backhand down the line before forcing the Spaniard to drift a backhand wide to seal victory in two hours and 20 minutes. Roy-Donald in quarters
India’s Rupesh Roy and his Australian partner Stephen Donald defeated the Aussie duo of Jared Easton and Bernard Tomic to advance to the boys’ doubles quarterfinals of the Australian Open here today. After conceding the first set, sixth seeds Roy and Donald fought back to win the second-round match 2-6, 6-3, 6-4. In the quarterfinals, the Indo-Aussie pair will meet top seeds Roman Jebavy of the Czech Republic and Martin Klizan of Slovakia. Jebavy and Klizan beat Danila Arsenov and Vladimir Zinyakov of Russia 7-6 (6), 6-4 to reach the last-eight stage.
— AFP, PTI
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CAB poll: Minister not to contest
Kolkata, January 23 Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who has reportedly backed Kolkata Police Commissioner Prasun Mukherjee, the sole candidate for the CAB president’s post so far, made the formal announcement. “I told Chakraborty that it would not be justified for him to contest the CAB poll. He realised it and took a decision spontaneously,” Mr Bhattacharjee said. Later, talking to newspersons at his residence, Mr Chakraborty said he would not contest at the request of his mentor, party patriarch Jyoti Basu, the Chief Minister and party state secretary Biman Bose. “I have the highest regard for Basu, who wanted that I should not contest. The Chief Minister also requested me not to contest,” said Mr Chakraborty, who had first announced his decision to contest against the Police Commissioner on January 16. With the nominations to close on January 24, the patch-up at the highest level came when Mr Chakraborty met the Chief Minister at the CPM headquarters in the presence of the party state secretary. “As a Cabinet minister, when a Chief Minister says something, I am bound to accept,” the Sports Minister said. Chakraborty, who was earlier debarred by his party from contesting, said he was not happy with the police chief being a contender as the latter’s first duty was to oversee law and order. “But I did not want to make it an issue.” The minister, who has been with the CPM since its inception, had earlier met Bose on Saturday night and wondered how the party could allow the police chief to contest and not a partyman. Meanwhile, the Chief Minister dismissed as “baseless and irrelevant” the allegation of Nandagopal Bhattacharjee, Water Investigation Minister and a CPI leader, that his office had instructed district magistrates to take steps to ensure the votes of CAB affiliate bodies in the districts went in favour of the police chief. “Such an allegation is baseless and irrelevant. Neither has this happened nor will such a thing happen in my office,” he said without naming the minister.
— PTI
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Ski is the limit
Chandigarh, January 23 The 30-year-old Ludar, born and brought up in the Solang valley of Manali, has been participating in the national championship since 1991. He represented the country in the Junior Winter Asian Games in South Korea in 1995. The next year, he was part of Indian contingent in the Senior Iranian Championship held in Iran. “Skiing at a high speed on snowy slopes has fascinated me since my childhood. As the skiing equipment was unaffordable, I made wooden skis. Later, I worked very hard and purchased the imported skis in 1989,” said Ludar. He has been pursuing his passion courtesy his business, which involves organising adventure sports events, including skiing and paragliding, for tourists. He first participated in the Sub-Junior National Winter Games held at Auli (Uttarakhand), where he finished second. Subsequently, he emerged as the national champion, winning the title in the Junior National Winter Games in his hometown, Manali. Ludar was not able to participate in the National Winter Games last year due to a knee injury sustained during a practice session. Having recovered from the injury, he is ready to compete again in the games this year. He feels the Winter Games have good potential in India but expensive paraphernalia and lack of facilities are major hindrances. “The government should develop facilities on the pattern of European countries to make the games popular,” he said. At present the games are being held at three places - Aula (Uttarakhand), Solang valley (Himachal Pradesh) and Gulmarg (Jammu and Kashmir).
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Brazil soccer club to play in India
New Delhi, January 23 The Brazilian club team, expected to include a few star players, will play their first match on January 27 against East Bengal at the Kanchanjunga Stadium in Siliguri. The other matches will be played against Mohammedan Sporting at the JRD Stadium in Jamshedpur on January 31, Mohun Bagan at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata on February 4, and a combined Kerala team at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Cochin on February 7. The Tatas are reviving the Super Soccer series after over a decade in a bid to create interest in the game as their ultimate goal is to set up a soccer academy in North India on the lines of the Tata Football Academy (TFA). The match is being held under the aegis of the Indian Football Association (West Bengal) and not the All-India Football Federation. No wonder, no match has been scheduled for Goa, the home turf of AIFF Secretary Alberto Colaco.
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Surjit Academy, PAU lads set title clash
Ludhiana, January 23 In the first semifinal, Surjit Academy boys overpowered Ranjit Academy, Amritsar, 7-6 in a tie-breaker after the two teams were tied 1-1 at the end of the stipulated period. After the first barren half, Surjit Academy lads surged ahead in the 37th minute through Manpreet Singh. In the 55th minute, Ranjit Academy restored parity through Gurinder Singh. The second semifinal, played between PAU Academy and Khalsa School, Amritsar, was too a well fought one in which the former romped home victorious 1-0. The all-important goal came off Pawitter Singh’s stick in the 49th minute.
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Deep and Rajat are ‘Chitkara Idols’ Rajpura, January 23 The highlight of the festival was the ‘Chitkara Idol’ - a talent hunt from among the students studying in the institute. The contest was won by Deep Kataria and Rajat Mahajan for Indian and western music, respectively. Mr A.J. Philip, Senior Associate Editor, The Tribune, was the chief guest. He applauded the efforts of students and also appreciated the facilities available to the students at Chitkara. ‘We the People’, an open-house debate on the topic ‘Dragons vs Tigers’, was also organised. Mr Shiv Dullar Singh Dhillon, MD, PRTC, was the chief guest and gave away the prizes.
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Utkarsh wins karate belt Ambala, January 23 Chief Instructor Hemant Sharma said the karate belt grading test was organised by the Sports Karate Do Association of Haryana. A number of students from different schools participated in the test. The yellow belt was given to Akshat, Akansha, Shefali, Kishan Chauhan, Shalini Singh, Akash Singh, Divya Tyagi, Manubhai Pathak and Abhijay. The green belt was given to Rhythm Atri, Sonal Antil, Sahil Antil and Ashwin Tiwari. The senior green belt went to Gurmail Singh while the brown belt was given to Shubham Singh Solanki.
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