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Robust display by India
Ganguly: Wait for WC to start exasperating
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Ponting: WC not for minnows
Windies fails to woo Indian fans
World Cup controversies
Nimbus notice: BCCI calls emergency meeting
Shers fined 50 pc of prize money
Mohindra clobber Nabha college
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Trelawny (Jamaica), March 6 Brief scores: India 300 for 9 in 50 overs (Dravid 74, Tendulkar 61, Sehwag 28, Pathan 25 not out; R Doeschate 5/57, P Borren 2/45). South Africa survive Irish scare Top-ranked South Africa suffered early batting blues before posting a 35-run victory over debutants Ireland in a World Cup warm-up match here. All-rounder Andrew Hall rescued South Africa with bat and ball and scored an unbeaten 67 to prop up South Africa’s innings of 192 and then took three for 26 as Ireland were dismissed for 157 to lose by 35 runs. Australian-born fast bowlers Dave Langford-Smith and Trent Johnston shared seven wickets to hold the South Africans to their mediocre total. The Irish, who are playing in their first World Cup, bowled with penetration on a responsive pitch and fielded aggressively. Langford-Smith dismissed Graeme Smith, AB de Villiers and Jacques Kallis cheaply before Johnston reduced South Africa to 66 for seven by removing Herschelle Gibbs, Ashwell Prince, Shaun Pollock and Loots Bosman in quick succession. South Africa dwindled to 91 for eight before Hall and Robin Peterson rescued the innings with a partnership of 85. Langford-Smith took three for 30 and Johnston claimed four for 40. Ireland’s reply never caught fire and their only noteworthy scores came from William Porterfield (37), Andre Botha (40) and Kevin O’Brien (33). Fast bowler Charl Langeveldt supported Hall well to take four for 31. Samuels guides Windies home TRELAWNY (Jamaica):
Jamaican batsman Marlon Samuels struck a century and West Indies showed confident pre-World Cup form with a victory in their warm-up game against Kenya on Monday. Brian Lara’s side reached a total of 268 for four but non-test playing Kenya, coached by former West Indies international Roger Harper will be pleased with their response as they ended 21 runs short at 247 for seven. Opening batsman Chris Gayle laid the foundations for a solid West Indies total, the left-hander striking a fifty off 66 balls, in the inaugural game at the new Trelawny stadium, before he was bowled by Hiren Varaiya for 75. There was a small crowd at the 10,000 capacity venue, which will host the opening ceremony on March 11 but the stay-away fans missed some fine stroke-playing from local boy Samuels who hit nine fours and two sixes in his 91-ball century. After taking the attack to the Kenyans, Samuels retired on exactly 100 with three overs remaining to allow 19-year-old debutant Kieron Pollard some time at the crease. Kenya, surprise semi-finalists four years ago, struggled at the start of their reply with Daren Powell making two early breakthroughs, claiming the wickets of Morris Ouma and David Obuya, but the Africans’ most accomplished batsman, Ravindu Shah, steadied the ship with a well crafted 41. Collins Obuya made an impressive 54 not out but with little support for him Kenya were unable to maintain the necessary run rate to make a really threatening late surge. England trounce Bermuda KINGSTOWN:
Jon Lewis took three wickets to help England skittle out Bermuda for 45 to win by 241 runs in their first World Cup warm-up match today. England used the 13-player-a-side format to employ all five of their pace bowlers and spinner Monty Panesar but their workout only lasted 22.2 overs because of the minor cricket nation’s abject batting. Lewis and James Anderson at least proved their fitness after picking up ankle and back injuries respectively during England’s victorious tri-series campaign in Australia. Lewis trapped Kwame Tucker lbw with his first ball, removed Clay Smith for nought and then bowled Saleem Mukuddem when the Bermudan left a straight delivery. Anderson bagged two for eight and Andrew Flintoff two for three off 2.2 overs. Bermuda, who will be making their first appearance in a World Cup, started brightly with 21-stone Bermudan policeman Dwayne Leverock weighing in with the dismissals of Paul Collingwood and Kevin Pietersen in England’s 286 for eight. Jamie Dalrymple top-scored with 76 to steady the innings after England had been 132 for five. England, who face Australia in a final warm-up on Friday, play New Zealand in their first World Cup group match on March 16. Bermuda’s first group match is against Sri Lanka the day before. Lanka cruise to victory Bridgetown (Barbados):
Sri Lanka has cruised to a comfortable 172-run win over Scotland at the Three Ws Oval here in their opening World Cup warm-up match. Sri Lanka chose to bat first here yesterday and posted a daunting total of 294-7 off their 50 overs with veteran opener Sanath Jayasuriya hitting 77. He shared a first wicket stand of 117 with Upul Tharanga who made 70, which laid the foundation for the total. Top scorer was Kumar Sangakkara who made 81. The Scots never recovered from losing three quick wickets and were all out for 122 while never looking like they would threaten the Sri Lankans. — Agencies |
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COUNTDOWN
What
is common between Adam Gilchrist and M.S. Dhoni? Besides being more than adequate behind the stumps, they are natural stroke makers and they like to attack at the first possible opportunity. When in flow, a bowler would prefer to stay away rather than bowl to these swashbucklers.
Ever since Gilchrist made his ODI debut in 1996-97, he has played some breathless knocks. With ferocious cuts, pulls and effortless drives between mid-off and mid-on, he can make the best of bowlers look ordinary. Though copybook most of the time, he can be unorthodox if he needs to accelerate. Impatient, he wants to play shots too many and too early. Always eager to dominate, he is done in by his own recklessness. Mark Waugh recently admonished “Gilly” to reign in his aggression to be able to bat longer. Australia’s continued domination at the top and the aura of invincible they have enjoyed is largely due to players like Gilchrist. He hardly changes of style be it Test or a one-day match. His 57-ball century in the third Ashes Test at WACA in December 2006 is a case in point. Now at the fag end of an illustrious career, this World Cup being his last, Gilchrist is unlikely to fade without a sparkle. Even after playing ODIs for over a decade and scoring 8585 runs, his scoring rate is incredible 96 plus. Ever since, Dhoni got an opportunity, he has not looked back. Blessed with a sound head over his powerful shoulders, his ability to hit the ball a long way makes him matchless. The latest batting sensation may be hailing from a state like Jharkhand counted among the lesser-developed states in the country. But his batting is most innovative and exhilarating. Ever since he savaged Pakistan in his fifth ODI at Visakhapatnam and hit a scorching 148 in April 2005, Dhoni has not looked back. His first three-figure knock came in the fifth ODI. This was the third highest score ever by a wicketkeeper in the history of the ODIs. Proving his skeptics wrong, who thought that the knock was just a flash in the pan, Dhoni continued to delight the cricketing world with his amazing stroke play until he grabbed No 1 ODI ranking. When India enjoyed an unprecedented fruitful run in ODIs notching up 17 successive win while chasing, Dhoni’s contribution was there for all to see along with Yuvraj Singh. During the period, he played an unforgettable knock of 183 not out, highest by a wicketkeeper in the history of one-dayers, against Sri Lanka in Jaipur enabling India overtake a victory target of 299. Dhoni hit 10 sixes and smashed a string of records. The new trait he showed during the recent series against Sri Lanka in which he donned the role of an anchor and kept the lure of big strokes under check until only when the team needed, should be gratifying for Dravid and coach Greg Chappell. The next month and a half will decide who among them will emerge saviour for his team.
— TNS
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Ganguly: Wait for WC to start exasperating
Montego Bay (Jamaica), March 6 “It is pretty long before the first game, especially in conditions which are similar to our country. The sooner we start the tournament the better,” Ganguly said here on Monday. Having landed in the Caribbean on March 1, the Indians play two practice matches, against the Netherlands today and the West Indies on March 9 at the Trelawny stadium. They are scheduled to play their first match of the tournament proper on March 17, against Bangladesh in Trinidad. The quadrennial event begins on March 13 with the hosts taking on Pakistan in Jamaica. But Ganguly, who led India to the World Cup final in South Africa in 2003, said the team could not afford to get distracted by matters not under their control. “We must stop worrying about things which are not in our control - injury, time, weather. It is the World Cup, so everyone must prepare well,” he said. India are placed in Group B with Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Bermuda. The 34-year-old, playing in his third World Cup, said winning the practice matches would give the team a momentum.
— PTI
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Melbourne, March 6 “I’ve always felt there are probably places and times for minnow nations to be playing. I’m not sure if the World Cup and the Champions Trophy is one of those times,” Ponting said. “That’s the way it is, you’ve just got to accept it. It’s not ideal. I’ve never been a great fan for having those countries in. But if it does actually benefit their cricket, and I’m not sure if it does, but if it does help them out and help their cricket become stronger in those nations, then it should be a part of what they do,” he was quoted as saying by The Age. The captain of the two-time world champion team said he remembered playing against the US during the 2004 Champions Trophy in England, when Australia bowled the Americans out for 65 and reached 1-66 in 7.5 overs. “(When) we played USA, I’m not sure if they learned too much about that, and I don’t think it does the game any good.” — PTI
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Windies fails to woo Indian fans
New Delhi, March 6 While tour operators blame it on Men in Blue’s late peaking, the average crowd find the packages beyond their reach. Prem Kumar Maurya, a tour counsellor with FCM Travel Solutions, one of the five ICC-approved travel agencies in the country, believes things would have been different had the team peaked earlier. “The hype generally builds around the team’s performance and Rahul Dravid and his boys peaked too late. The team was not doing well for the major part of the recent past and it dampened the cricket tourists’ spirit,” he rued. Reminded that the side did well in the twin home series against the West Indies and Sri Lanka before leaving for the World Cup, Mr Maurya lamented it was too late. People tend to plan their tours well ahead and the damage was already done. Initially we had expected to cover 500-600 people under three packages but the response is very, very disappointing,” he said, refusing to disclose the exact number. Apart from the team’s poor show, he blamed the lukewarm response to the high expenses involved. “You have to admit that it’s quite expensive. Besides, people also have apprehensions about the accommodation there. You don’t have enough big hotels there and I think all these factors combined to put off an average Indian cricket fan,” he elaborated. FCM Travel Solutions offered three packages starting from Rs 3.6 lakh per head and the trend is unlikely to change, he said. The Trinidad and Tobago High Commission here, however, put up an optimistic face and said they were not unhappy with the response. “The applications are still coming in,” said a spokesman, refusing to disclose the number. Shyam S. Sharma, founder-president of the Dada Army, which often sends its members to root for the Indian team abroad, however, begged to differ and said the response was quite timid. “Some had even bought the tickets planning to go but the huge cost has put them on the backfoot. Still, we’ll have 49 members coming from the USA and UK. Four of us would leave before India’s first match there and six others are likely to join us,” he said. — PTI
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New Delhi, March 6 The upcoming edition in the Caribbean has only kept the tradition alive with the pulling out of Pakistani pace duo Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif, officially due to injuries, surrounded by suspicions of dope. Asif and Akhtar were banned for one and two years, respectively, after testing positive for banned drug nandrolone last year but were exonerated subsequently. The controversy continued to simmer with the ICC challenging the revoking of the ban in the Court of Arbitration for Sport and CEO Malcolm Speed announcing that players would be ‘target tested’ at the World Cup. Then came the withdrawal of the players hours before the team’s departure from Lahore, with the Pakistan Cricket Board saying that the two had not adequately recovered from an elbow and knee injury. Doping was also an issue in the previous edition in 2003, when Shane Warne, who tested positive for a diuretic, was forced out on the eve of Australia’s opening game in the tournament in South Africa. But a bigger controversy was still waiting in Zimbabwe, where some of the players mourned the “death of democracy” by Robert Mugabe’s regime. Andy Flower and Henry Olonga wore black armbands in their opening game as a mark of protest against the situation in the country. The Nasser Hussain-led England refused to travel to Harare to play their pool A match and Zimbabwe were given a walkover. New Zealand also preferred to concede the game to Kenya instead of travelling to Nairobi following a bomb explosion in Mombasa. But the tournament itself was in jeopardy as the Indian cricketers were involved in a row with the BCCI over the ambush marketing clause. The previous edition in 1999, coming as it did an year before Cronjegate rocked the cricket world, was marred by match-fixing claims. Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar alleged that India’s match against Zimbabwe, which the former lost by three runs, was fixed. Later, when the police threw open the lid with their taped conversations between Hansie Cronje and bookie Sanjeev Chawla, South Africa’s loss to Zimbabwe and Pakistan’s to Bangladesh also came under a cloud. The sixth edition of the quadrennial event in 1996, jointly hosted by India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, began with a controversy too. Australia and the West Indies refused to send their teams to Sri Lanka after a terror attack in Colombo. Sri Lanka were awarded points and that helped them in qualifying for the quarterfinals. Then came India’s semifinal against Sri Lanka that was disrupted by crowd violence and the match had to be awarded to the latter. The 1992 edition would be remembered for the infamous semi-final between South Africa and England. The Proteas were engaged in a spirited chase of England’s target and were needing 22 runs from 13 balls when play was stopped briefly due to rain. On resumption, South Africa were asked to score the same number of runs from just one ball, thanks to a strange rain-rule. The 1987 World Cup, staged outside England for the first time, had initially ran into trouble with the Indian government threatening to refuse visas to players who had toured South Africa. In 1983, England, the West Indies and Sri Lanka fielded weakened sides as some of their players were part of rebel tours to South Africa and were banned. The 1979 World Cup too saw teams including Australia not at full strength, thanks to Kerry Packer’s World Series. The blow, however, was softened a bit by a last-minute truce that allowed some of the players featuring in the rival series to take part in the event. Hosts England made the final against a backdrop of lower crowds and indifferent weather. The inaugural World Cup in 1975, held when the limited overs game only four years old, had a lukewarm response from the players and the crowd alike. India, grouped with England, East Africa and New Zealand, had to come in the Top 2 of their pool to advance to semifinals. But chasing England’s 334-4, they crawled to 132-3 with Sunil Gavaskar, opening the innings, carrying his bat to make 36 not out. — PTI
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Nimbus notice: BCCI calls emergency meeting
New Delhi, March 6 Nimbus’ decision to withdraw from the deal, covering matches in India till March 2010, comes after the government issued an Ordinance making it mandatory for private broadcasters to share with Prasar Bharti the live feed of sports events of national importance. The sudden development prompted the BCCI to go into an emergency meeting at board president Sharad Pawar’s official residence here to discuss the issue. “We have received a notice from Nimbus threatening to pull out of the deal,” a top BCCI official told PTI. Nimbus apparently has told the BCCI in its notice to sort out the ‘encryption’ issue with Prasar Bharti. The encryption of live match feed has emerged as a bone of contention with the private broadcaster insisting that PB should take initiatives to encrypt the signals. The recent cricket tournaments featuring India have invariably led to long-drawn courtroom battles on the telecast issue. The series against the West Indies and Sri Lanka had also suffered a similar fate before the Delhi High Court first ordered Nimbus to share the feed with a seven-minute delay and then a simultaneous telecast with Doordarshan. The government then came up with an Ordinance making it mandatory for private broadcasters to share the live feed with DD of all sporting events of national importance. The Mumbai-based Nimbus acquired the BCCI’s telecast rights pipping ESPN-Star Sports and Zee Sports when the rights were awarded in February 2006. Nimbus, which did not have a channel of its own, then launched Neo Sports in the middle of last year and the Challenger Series domestic limited overs tournament in August was the first tournament it beamed. — PTI
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Shers fined 50 pc of prize money
Chandigarh, March 6 Shers who lost the match 4-3, got Rs 15 lakh while winners Orissa Steelers pocketed Rs 40 lakh. Announcing this here, IHF Secretary General Jyothikumaran said “IHF strongly condemned the unruly and disgraceful behaviour shown by Sher-e-Jalandhar team in the fourth quarter in yesterday’s third and deciding final of the third PHL. This sort of behaviour can never be encouraged and therefore the IHF has decided to take strong punitive measures so that similar incidents are not repeated in future.” “It has been decided by the organising committee that 50 per cent of the total prize money will be deducted from the Jalandhar team to set an example to others. The deducted amount would be added up in the total prize money to be disbursed in the next edition of the PHL,” he added. Jyothikumaran said action against individual players involved in this or other such ugly incidents would be taken as per the report given by the PHL Tournament Director Shakeel Qureshi. — UNI
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Mohindra clobber Nabha college Patiala, March 6
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COUNTDOWN
New Delhi, March 6
