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Uthappa promises more fireworks
India lost chance to finish series
HC notice to Nimbus on ‘delayed’ feed
National Games on schedule: Assam CM
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Sania back among top 50
Strong reply by Himachal
Surjit Academy bag hockey title
CFA register win
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Uthappa promises more fireworks
Vadodara, January 29 The 21-year-old, who hammered a 41-ball 70 studded with 11 fours and two sixes at Chennai, said neither did he plan such a belligerent innings nor did he have an eye on the World Cup at the moment. “I am not thinking about the World Cup. Getting selected is just the by-product of doing well,” he said of his blazing performance which, however, went in vain as India lost by three wickets. “It was not a planned innings. I played each ball on merit. I am looking forward to a big innings in my next match,” said the former India under-19 player, who is expected to open the innings here with Sourav Ganguly. Uthappa was among the few Indian players who opted for practice today at the IPCL ground ahead of the fourth and final ODI, the others being captain Rahul Dravid, Irfan Pathan and Munaf Patel. While Pathan is part of the squad, Patel has been called up by the team management to see how he is shaping up after his ankle injury. Uthappa, who was playing in only his fourth ODI at Chennai since his debut eight months ago, said he did not go out to bat with a premeditated plan to attack the Windies bowlers. Pathan back in rhythm: Fraser
Indian team’s biomechanical expert Ian Fraser today expressed satisfaction over Irfan Pathan’s current form, saying that the left-handed paceman was back in rhythm. “He seems to have got his bowling rhythm back. The break from international cricket and the fact that he has bowled close to 70 overs for Baroda in the Ranji Trophy seems to have stood him in good stead,” he said. Fraser assessed Pathan and Patel after their net session today. Pathan was recalled midway through the South African tour for his poor form and was asked to play domestic matches to regain his rhythm. Fraser said “the best way to get back into form would be to go back and bowl in a natural manner which he did today. His run-up looked fluent and his action also was smooth. There was fluidity in his motion,” he told reporters. World Cup team
by February 12
The Indian squad for the World Cup in the Caribbean would be chosen on February 11 or 12. “The selectors, who are to meet in Mumbai on February 3 to pick the team for the Sri Lanka series, will decide on the date and the venue, either Rajkot or Mumbai,” BCCI Secretary Niranjan Shah said today. That means the selectors have three more matches, the last of the West Indies series and two of the four-match Sri Lanka series, to assess the players before making up their mind on the final combination. The first two ODIs against Sri Lanka are to be held at Kolkata (February 8) and Rajkot (February 11) and the final 15-member World Cup squad needs to be sent to the International Cricket Council on or before February 13. The combination chosen for the first two ODIs against the Lankans, who would play the last two matches of the series in Goa (February 14) and Vishakapatnam (February 17), would very much be the squad for the World Cup to be held in March-April. Meanwhile, the BCCI is yet to prepare a final draft for the contracts to be issued to the players for their perusal. “We are still having discussions on the final draft,” Shah said. The BCCI had indicated earlier that the contracts, which are overdue, would be ready before the team departs for the World Cup. The team is slated to land in the Caribbeans on March 1.
— PTI
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India lost chance to finish series
India missed an opportunity to throw the West Indies out of the one-day series when its middle and lower order batsmen batted limply in the third one-dayer at Chennai to leave the visitors a much more reasonable target than was anticipated at the end of the 30th over. At that stage, with both Tendulkar and Dravid batting well and looking good, the Indian fans were excited as they anticipated a run bash and India getting to 400 runs. As many commentators like to say, a team that has wickets in hand and a fair bit of batting left to bat should get double the score at the end from that at the 30 over stage. India were 230 for three at that stage so while it would have been quite something if India had doubled that. The expectations were that India would get closer to 400 runs. But after Tendulkar was out attempting to go over the top and being brilliantly caught, the later batsmen just did not show any appreciation of the platform built for them and succumbed in a meek manner to Bravo who after his disastrous first over earlier in the innings bowled with cunning to end up with four wickets. Yuvraj making a comeback to the team was woefully out of touch and Dinesh Karthik went for the aerial shots too soon. What was galling that leave alone getting close to 400, the Indians did not even bat their full quota of overs. They had been given a rousing start by Robin Uthappa who with his stroke-play would have made people ask why he was dropped in the first place? He had begun his career with a score of 86 against England but was for some unknown reason dropped from the playing eleven and then not considered for the South Africa tour. He made a comeback on the weight of centuries in domestic cricket and showed how current form is crucial, especially in limited-overs cricket. He would have been acutely aware after the treatment meted out to Joginder Sharma who was dropped after just one match. Why Sharma was dropped after just one game is baffling to say the least. What did the selectors see in that one game that told them that Sharma doesn’t have it? The hurry to bring back Pathan in the team does indicate that the team management has made up its mind on the squad for the World Cup, so why pick players like Sharma and destroy their confidence? It is indeed a sad way to treat one of the stellar performers in domestic cricket, and make no mistake, after the manner in which Uthappa has been treated, he too will be on the chopping block at the first failure. All sensible Indian cricket lovers will be hoping that failure will be a long long way away, for Uthappa demonstrated such a lovely range of shots that he had taken the game away from the West Indies within a few overs. The West Indians would have despaired after losing the destructive Gayle to the first ball of the innings but they have in Marlon Samuels a batsman, of such class that even the sporting Chennai crowd would have enjoyed watching him take the game away from the Indians. The win gives the Windies a chance to level the series and with an extra days rest thrown in they could be well rested after the heat of Chennai to fancy their chances of doing so. — PMG
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HC notice to Nimbus on ‘delayed’ feed
New Delhi, January 29 Taking cognisance of the Prasar Bharati’s revision petition against the single Judge’s January 23 order, providing for an interim settlement between the Nimbus Communication and Prasar Bharti, a Bench, headed by Chief Justice
M.K. Sharma issued notices to Nimbus and its sports channel NEO and sought their replies by February 9. As per the interim order of single judge S.K. Kaul, Nimbus’ NEO sports would provide ‘clean feed’ of the cricket telecast to DD with a seven minutes delay as was proposed by it. The interim order was effective till February 8 and will be applicable to the India-Sri Lanka tie fixed for that day. The single judge, which later also provided for an interim arrangement on revenue sharing between the litigating parties, had fixed next hearing for February 8. But the Prasar Bharati was not satisfied with the arrangement, particularly on the aspect of providing it signals with seven minutes delay, that virtually deprived DD viewers of the real ‘live’ action on the ground. It sought setting aside of the single judge’s interim order. Prasar Bharati claimed that the private channels were bound to share ‘simulcast’ of all sports events covered by them in which Indian team is involved, as per the government’s December, 2005, guidelines.
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National Games on schedule: Assam CM
New Delhi, January 29 Addressing a crowded press conference here today, Mr Gogoi said ULFA was a misguided outfit with little sympathy among the people. He said insurgency and killings by the ultras would be effectively countered by the About 8,000 sportspersons and 2,000 officials from 32 states and union territories are expected to converge on Guwahati for the National Games, which Mr Gogoi promised, would be the best-ever, even surpassing the record set by Hyderabad, which hosted the 32nd edition in 2002, with 28 events. “We would provide foolproof security cover to the participants and spectators as 20 companies of additional security forces would be detailed for the games,” he said. Mr Gogoi said the 33rd edition would feature 32 events spread across 20 venues. “We have incurred an expenditure of around Rs 330 crore for erecting world-class stadiums, other infrastructure and for importing equipment for the games,” he noted. “We wanted to organise the best-ever National Games, both in terms of conduct and infrastructure. So we waited till we were satisfied with all our preparations,” Mr Gogoi said, when asked about the several postponements of the games, which were originally slated to held in 2004. (The games are supposed to be a biennial event, though the schedule has rarely been adhered to). Competitions would be held in athletics, boxing, lawn bowls, aquatics, volleyball, basketball, hockey, football, wrestling, table tennis, rugby7s, taekwondo, judo, equestrian, netball, sepak takraw, rowing, gymnastics, badminton, kabaddi, kho-kho, fencing, handball, archery, cycling, shooting, tennis, wushu, weightlifting, The CM said the charge of the venues have already been handed over to the Army to ensure adequate security and patrolling as security concerns had been raised by several agencies following threats to contractors and suppliers when the stadiums were being built. “But we have fully addressed all the security concerns and there is no need for worry,” he assured. Mr Gogoi rubbished the allegation that the Assam Government had offered Rs 10 crore to ULFA to buy peace, and threatened legal action against some local newspapers in the State for spreading “false, negative and baseless allegations. He said he would “quit politics” if such allegations could be proved with an iota of “The people are with us as they want the games to be held successfully. ULFA is an isolated outfit and the people have no love for it,” the CM stressed. “There are several militant outfits operating from the state as well as from the entire North-Eastern region, but except for ULFA, nobody has given a boycott call of the games,” he explained. Mr Gogoi said his government had urged the ULFA leadership to give up the boycott call as the successful conduct of the games would be in the best interest of Assam as well as its people. He said 32 states, including Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, had confirmed their participation. He said the opening and closing ceremonies would be spectacular events “fully reflecting the culture and ethos of Assam.” Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh will be the guest of honour at the closing ceremony, while United Progressive Alliance Chairperson Sonia Gandhi will inaugurate the games. “We will not be cowed down by the violence unleashed by anti-social elements as the people of Assam are fully geared up to play the ideal hosts to all participants and officials,” added the genial Gogoi, who maintained a cool countenance despite many provocative questions.
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La Jolla (USA), January 29 Woods fired a six-under-par 66 here on the Torrey Pines South course yesterday for a 15-under total of 273 for 72 holes at the $ 5.2 million event. Playing partner Howell closed with a 68 for 275 while tour rookie Brandt Snedeker, who had led or shared the lead after each of the first three rounds, finished with a 71 for sole possession of third place on 276. In addition to winning this event for the third time in a row and fifth time overall, Woods also stretched his US PGA win streak. The run, stretching back to the British Open at Hoylake in July, is the second longest in US tour history behind Byron Nelson’s legendary 11-tournament winning streak in 1945. — AFP
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New Delhi, January 29 The 20-year-old Hyderabad girl defeated Ukrainian Olga Savchuk in the first round before going down tamely to Japan’s Aiko Nakamura to bow out of the singles draw in the first tennis Grand Slam of the year. Shikha Uberoi, the next highest Indian in the rankings, dropped 20 places to be 228th. Australian Open champion Serena Williams has a steep climb from 81st to 14th place while beaten finalist Maria Sharapova of Russia took over the top ranking from Belgian Justine Henin-Hardenne. — PTI
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Strong reply by Himachal Cuttack, January 29 Himachal had a fine start with captain Sandeep Sharma and Monish Gupta putting on 119 runs for the opening stand. The hosts, however, regained some lost ground towards the end of the day’s play by capturing three wickets, all falling to lbw decisions. Sharma batted solidly for nearly four hours to make 76, which included 10 fours and a six. Gupta scored 39. Orissa skipper Pravanjan Mullick made several bowling changes to break the stand. Left-arm spinner Sourav Sehgal achieved the breakthrough when he had Sharma trapped in front. Ten runs later, offie Sanjay Satpathy struck again when he claimed Gupta’s wicket. Himachal were dealt the third blow when Sangram Singh was sent back for three by pacer Debasis Mohanty on the last ball of the day. At close, Paras Dogra (29) and Vishal Bhatia (0) were at the crease. Earlier, resuming at the overnight score of 276 for seven, Orissa were bowled out after adding 41 runs to the total. Left-arm spinner Vishal Bhatia polished off the Orissa tail to return figures of six for 84.
— PTI |
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Surjit Academy bag hockey title
Ludhiana, January 29 The final got off on a brisk pace with Jaskaran of Surjit Academy scoring in the third and 17th minutes. Prabhdeep Singh made it 3-0. Sangrur XI forced a penalty corner and Amandeep converted it to reduce the margin. In the 43rd minute, Karanpal converted a penalty corner to enhance the lead (4-1). In the 52nd minute, Gursahib scored a field goal to make it 5-1. With just two minutes to go for the long whistle, Amanpreet of Sangrur XI scored an opportunistic goal. In the third-place match, Ranjit Singh Academy, Amritsar, routed PAU Academy, Ludhiana, 6-0.
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Chandigarh, January 29 The most absorbing contest was between the seasoned Chandigarh Football Academy, Chandigarh, and Sports Wing Mahilpur, in which the former triumphed 3-0. — TNS
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