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Double blow for Pak
COUNTDOWN
ICC to conduct target tests
Speaker’s
advice |
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B’desh win tri-series
Saina bows out
of German Open
Viren Rasquinha (centre) of Maratha Warriors in action during the PHL match against Chennai Veerans at the Sector 42 Hockey Stadium in Chandigarh on Thursday. The Warriors won 3-2. — Tribune photo by Vicky Gharu
Indian eves lose to Kiwis
Iraq blank India 3-0
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Double blow for Pak
Karachi, March 1 Ending days of speculation on the fate of the two fast bowlers who were in London consulting doctors on their injuries, Pakistan Cricket Board said they have failed to recover in time for the World Cup even as the squad left for cricket’s showpiece event. Chief selector Wasim Bari said that medical reports from London had shown that both the bowlers needed another two to three weeks to recover from a knee and elbow problem. “We now don’t have the time to wait on them. So we have decided to replace them with Mohammad Sami and Yasir Arafat,” he said. Bari expressed confidence that the two youngsters would do their best to fill in the huge gap created due to the ruling out of Shoaib and Asif. However, sources in the PCB indicated that the withdrawal of the two bowlers had more to do with their having failed private dope tests in London than anything else. “I think the Pakistan Board’s decision to drop them from the squad today has been taken in light of a statement made by the International Cricket Council (ICC) Chief Executive, Malcolm Speed that both bowlers could face dope tests as soon as they arrive in the West Indies,” one well-informed source said. He said Speed had also conveyed clearly that no replacement would be allowed for any player sent home from the World Cup for testing positive. Shoaib and Asif tested positive for banned
steroid, Nandrolone last October before the Champions Trophy in India. Both the players were recalled from the Champions Trophy and then banned for two and one year, respectively, by a drugs inquiry commission of the Board. But an appellate committee hearing their appeals against the ban exonerated them of doping offences and set aside their bans. Speed said in his statement that the fact that Shoaib and Asif continued to play despite testing positive had caused the game a high level of embarrassment. “Both players had apparently gone to London to clear their systems of the banned steroid but it didn’t work out after which the board decided to drop them,” the source said. Pakistan coach, Bob Woolmer said it was not an ideal situation for the team to lose two of their best players for such an important tournament. Pakistan has also lost all-rounder, Abdul Razzaq for the tournament due to a freak injury and his replacement Azhar Mahmood left with the team after getting clearance from the ICC. Meanwhile, captain Inzamam-ul-Haq and allrounder Shahid Afridi have cleared their dope tests, a PCB official said.
— PTI
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He is getting older and there were murmurs that he had lost a bit of pace and bite. But that was momentary and Shaun Pollock has recovered his passion well in time and is back to what he does best - bowling his heart out - and putting to rest all speculations as to who is South Africa’s No. 1 seamer.
Charging in without betraying any emotions, Pollock has the knack for making batsmen’s lives miserable with his guile as well as ball control. Pollock is a thinking bowler. On target all the time, he makes his deliveries come on to the batsman with an awkward bounce, keeping them on tenterhooks. It is very difficult for the batsmen to detect which delivery he will bowl next. Cricket, in fact, runs in his blood. Son of fast bowler Peter Pollock and nephew of legendary South Africa left-handed batsman Graeme Pollock, cricket came to him naturally. Pollock has been in the business for over a decade with tremendous success. Ever since he made his ODI debut in 1996, Pollock has been a force to reckon with. He never had the pace of the Allan Donald nor he is overtly aggressive like Andre Nel. Pollock is a gentleman bowler, who believes in taking wickets purely on the basis of his innate skill and effort. His record proves that his wicket-taking ability is comparable to the best in the business. He is also a gritty batsman, which makes him indispensable for his side. Pollock, the batsman, has rescued his team on numerous occasions. When the cricketing world was hit by match-fixing controversy in 2000 and Hansie Cronje had to make a disgraceful departure, it was Pollock on whom the responsibility of leading South Africa fell. Initially, South Africa got mixed results under Pollock. The team dished out a disappointing performance in the 2003 World Cup. Despite being the hosts and among the pre-tournament favourites, they failed to qualify even for the Super Six stage. Graeme Smith took over the reins of the team from Pollock after the poor showing by the home team in the World Cup. But, Pollock is back with a vengeance after a lean patch. Having regained his bowling rhythm, Pollock repeatedly ambushed the Indian batting line-up in the recent series. Such was his control with the ball that the much vaunted Indian batting line-up failed as the visitors were humiliated and lost the one-day series as well as the Test series. Immediately thereafter, Pollock tormented the Pakistan batsmen no end and again emerged as the most successful South African bowler. In the process, he bagged his second successive Man of the Series award. With 373 one-day wickets in his kitty, the World Cup provides Pollock a wonderful opportunity to capture
400 wickets. Given the type of form Pollock has displayed in the previous two series, it should not be much of a problem for the wily bowler to reach the coveted landmark. Even if he comes close to that, South Africa stand to gain a lot!
— TNS
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ICC to conduct target tests
Cape Town, March 1 The target tests will be in addition to the ICC’s commitment to randomly test four players - two from each side - in 17 of the 51 matches in the 16-nation event. The tests may take place at any time tomorrow onwards, when the tournament’s support period starts ahead of the warm-up matches. “Both Shoaib and Asif have played for Pakistan over the past few months despite testing positive for prohibited substances last year. That is a fact neither player has disputed and it is also a fact that has caused the game a high level of embarrassment as a result,” said Malcolm Speed, chief executive officer of the ICC, during a board meeting here. He said the ICC wanted to make sure that all players who take part in the World Cup are free from banned substances. “From an ICC perspective, having the option to target-test as well as the already-scheduled tests in place means that if a player does have anything in his system then there is a very strong possibility he will be caught out,” said Speed. Speed went on to add that the ICC was committed to maintain zero tolerance of drugs in the game and were loyal to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Code, to which they signed in July last year. “Since signing the WADA Code we have produced a DVD on the ICC’s anti-doping policy that was distributed to all teams at the Champions Trophy,” revealed Speed. “The DVD has also been sent to the six other teams taking part in the World Cup and it has been translated into Hindi and Urdu.” Speed said the ICC had embarked on a mission to help all its members to educate the players and officials and empower them to introduce a WADA-compliant policy.
— IANS
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Speaker’s advice
New Delhi, March 1 “Let the players not follow us,” the Speaker, who led the Lok Sabha in wishing the team good luck for the championship, responded when a member said the Indian team should win the World Cup. “Let us convey our best wishes to the team,” he said, drawing support from all members in the House. The Speaker also congratulated industrialist and Congress MP Navin Jindal for winning medals in shooting championships. Jindal won a gold medal in the skeet shooting at the 5th Sardar Sajjan Singh Sethi Memorial Masters Shooting Championship last month in Jaipur and a silver medal at the National Games in Guwahati in January. — PTI
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B’desh win tri-series
St John’s, March 1 Hasan struck 14 boundaries in an undefeated 134 off 152 balls to help Bangladesh post a competitive 278 for five from their allocation of 50 overs yesterday. Canada, who famously beat Bangladesh at the 2003 World Cup, fought hard but were restricted to 265 for seven from 50 overs as Bangladesh won the series, which had also included Bermuda. Canada made a shaky start, when opener Abdool Samad retired hurt with only one run on the board, then Ashish Bagai was dismissed for a duck to leave his side on one run for one wicket. A stand of 178 between Ian Billcliff, whose 93 off 114 balls including six fours and a pair of sixes was the top score, and Geoff Barnett, who made 77 off 123 balls which contained six fours and two sixes, put the Canadians on track. The wickets of Barnett and Canadian captain John Davison to Saqibul, as well as the dismissal of Billcliff in the space of a few overs, rocked Canada and set them back on 195 for five. Though Asif Mulla scored 44 at better than a run-a-ball to give the Canadians hope, Abdur Razzak snuffed the life out of their fightback with three wickets for 51 runs off 10 overs to be the most successful Bangladeshi bowler. Saqibul completed a fine all-round performance with two wickets for 36 runs from his allotment of 10 overs. Earlier, Bangladesh also endured a poor start, when they slipped to 30 for three, after Anderson Cummins, the former Barbados and West Indies medium-fast bowler, snared two wickets in the space of three balls. Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar joined Saqibul Hasan at the wicket and they consolidated their side’s innings with a stand of 132 for the fourth wicket. Bashar struck six fours in 57 from 75 balls, and when he was caught behind off Samad, Mohammad Ashraful appeared and played with some enterprise to collect seven fours in 60 from 45 balls to beef-up the Bangladesh total. The win was a timely boost of confidence for Bangladesh, as they played through the competition unbeaten. Canada finished second with one win, and Bermuda ended without a win in the three-match series. Bangladesh and Bermuda have been drawn alongside India and Sri Lanka in Group B of the World Cup. Canada face England, New Zealand, and Kenya in Group C. The World Cup officially opens on March 11 at the Trelawny Stadium in Jamaica, with the first match of the competition between hosts West Indies and Pakistan being played on March 13 at Sabina Park in the Jamaica capital, Kingston.
— AFP
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Saina bows out
of German Open
Mulheim an der Ruhr, March 1 The world number 33 Indian began with a flourish and took the first game 21-16 against her opponent, ranked five places higher to her. But Saina succumbed to relentless pressure from the German, who took the next two games 21-19, 21-19 and won the match in 48 minutes last night. Saina’s loss followed the early exit of Chetan Anand, who was upset by Erwin Kellhoffner of France in the first round. Chetan, seeded 13th in the tournament, lost 18-21, 20-22 to the Frenchman ranked more than 40 places below him. Two other Indians, P Kashyap and Nikhil Kanetkar, also fell to their more fancied opponents in the other first-round matches. While Kashyap gave a semblance of a fight to world number 33 Kaspar Oedum of Denmark in his 16-21, 20-22 loss, Kanetkar went down tamely 16-21, 14-21 against ninth seed Lee Hui Kendrick of Singapore. However, Anup Sridhar and Anand Pawar saved the day for the Indians in the singles and sailed into the second round after overcoming early jitters. Sridhar clawed his way back from one game down to beat Indonesian qualifier Andreas Adityawarman 18-21, 21-9, 23-21 in a 44-minute contest, while Pawar overcame Malaysia’s Sairul Amar Ayob 19-21, 21-14, 21-18 in 48 minutes. In men’s doubles, the Indian duo of Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas also won their opening match, beating the German pair of Kristof Hopp and Ingo Kindervater 19-21, 21-12, 23-21. Shruti Kurian and Jwala Gutta needed just 20 minutes to send Australian pair of Susan Dobson and Tania Luiz packing 21-10, 21-13 in women’s doubles.
— UNI
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PHL
Chandigarh, March 1 The win enabled the winners to tally 19 points, while the Veerans ended up sixth with 13 points. Starting on a sedate note, the match picked up pace with the first goal through Hardeep Singh of the Warriors in the 20th minute. Taking advantage of a defensive lapse from the
Veerans, forward Shivendra Singh extended the lead in the 33rd minute with a solo effort. At half-time, the Warriors were leading 2-0. If the Warriors dominated the second quarter, the third was totally controlled by the
Veerans. Their efforts bore fruit in the fourth quarter when the team scored two goals in four minutes.
Kuhan Sanmuganathan opened the account for the Veerans, converting a penalty corner in the 61st minute. It was Sendhil Kumar who drew parity for the team just after four minutes. Keeping their cool, the Warriors forced a penalty corner in the 67th minute. Warsi made no mistake to secure a 3-2 victory for his team. The Veerans got six penalty corners and could convert only one, while the Warriors also converted only one penalty corner out of three. Tomorrow, Orissa Steelers will take on Sher-e-Jalandhar in the first final at 7 pm.
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Indian eves lose to Kiwis
Chennai, March 1 Set a big target of 273 in 50 overs, the Indian batswoman started the chase in right earnest with a half-century first-wicket stand, before they ran out of steam and folded meekly. The moment Karuna Jain (14) and fellow opener Jaya Sharma (29) fell in a space of three runs after adding 52 for the first wicket in 12.4 overs, it was a virtual procession thereafter. The win, with a bonus point, ensured the Kiwis a place in the final on March 5 with an unassailable 17 points in five matches. This was the second successive loss for India against the Kiwis in the tournament. India have 13 points from five matches, one behind Australia, who defeated England today. The last league match between India and Australia on March 3 would be a virtual semifinal.
— UNI
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Iraq blank India 3-0
Amman (Jordan), March 1 India denied their fancied opponents any goal in the first half but succumbed to relentless pressure from the Athens Olympics semifinalists in the second half at the King Abdullah Stadium. Mustafa Karim (51st minute), Alaa Abdulzahra (68th) and Aboodi Haidar (70th) scored for Iraq.
— UNI
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Karachi, March 1
He is getting older and there were murmurs that he had lost a bit of pace and bite. But that was momentary and Shaun Pollock has recovered his passion well in time and is back to what he does best - bowling his heart out - and putting to rest all speculations as to who is South Africa’s No. 1 seamer.
