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2.24 million-dollar que$tion
When Pak peaked
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Lara ‘unaware’ of late-night party
Venues not yet fully ready
West Zone sign off in style
Anand on top of the world
Randhawa settles for tied 8th
Lin Dan does it again
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2.24 million-dollar que$tion
The winners will walk away with $2.24 million (about Rs 10 crore). The runners-up will get $1 million, while the two losing semifinalists get $450,000 each. The team finishing fifth will receive $200,000, while the sixth-placed will take home $150,000. The seventh and eighth places are worth $100,000 and $50,000, respectively. Winners of each of the 24 group matches will pocket $10,000, while the losing teams will get $5,000 each. The action begins on Tuesday with the West Indies-Pakistan encounter at Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica. And when the final is played at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados, on April 28, the Caribbean would have carved a niche among its peers with its organising capabilities. The Ricky Ponting-led Australia, despite missing injured pace spearhead Brett Lee, again start as one the favourites for the title, though Rahul Dravid’s India is not far behind with the form the team has shown lately. Australia are on the verge of making history, having won successive World Cup titles in 1999 and 2003. Four years ago, Ponting’s side defeated India in a one-sided final in Johannesburg. If Australia win again, they will become the first team since the World Cup’s inception in 1975 to win three successive titles. At the moment they are tied with West Indies (1975 and 1979) as both have won two World Cups successively. If Kapil Dev’s Indian team spoiled West Indies’ hat-trick in 1983, this time there is more than one team that will challenge the might of Australia, who are looking a wee bit beatable. South Africa, one of the strong contenders along with India, England, Sri Lanka and the West Indies, have snatched Australia’s No. 1 rank recently, and have also defeated them in high-scoring matches. Even England have beaten Australia, the most notable being in the Commonwealth Bank (CB) tri-series in Australia earlier this year. Australia then also lost all three away matches to New Zealand. Australia open their campaign with a Group A game against qualifiers Scotland at Warner Park, Basseterre, St Kitts & Nevis, on Wednesday. India are also high on confidence, having won two successive ODI series at home, against the West Indies and Sri Lanka, and also the two warm-up matches here with huge margins. Almost all Indian players are in form and look set to top Group B, which also has 1996 winners Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, who stunned New Zealand on Tuesday, and first-timers Bermuda. The top two teams from each of the four groups will progress to the Super Eight stage (or quarterfinals), where they will play against six teams each. The top four sides then advance to the semifinals and eventually the final. Besides putting new talent on the global firmament, the World Cup is expected to open new avenues for the Caribbean to do business with the rest of the world. After all, CARICOM, or the Caribbean Community, has fully backed the tournament right from its bidding in 1998 till today. The political leaders of the various Caribbean islands have thrown their weight behind the cricket organisers despite many impediments. “We have overcome the early challenges,” said Jamaica Prime Minister Simpson Miller recently. “I am very pleased to see the enthusiasm being displayed by so many persons — ranging from young children to corporate citizens. Our CARICOM brothers and sisters have been a tower of strength (and) our global neighbours have given us their support.” The relentlessly hard-working organising committee, headed by CEO Chris Dehring, has absorbed many setbacks on the way, like the damage caused by Hurricane Ivan in Grenada and other islands, and overcome a shortage of cement in the construction of some stadiums. The organisers also had to deal with cynics who had “predicted” that the infrastructure would not be ready in time and that the tournament would be a “disaster”. They may be waiting to eat their words soon. We shall know the true picture as the tournament concludes on April 28.
— IANS
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COUNTDOWN Gopal Sharma
Hats
off to Dinesh Karthik. Odds were heavily stacked against him. But not the one to give up, Karthik worked hard at improving his game. Whenever he got an opportunity, the plucky Tamil Nadu player made it count. Gaining in confidence and winning applause, he is emerging as a gutsy batman having the ability to prosper under pressure.
Karthik is the latest wonder boy of Indian cricket. What also increases his utility to the side is his agile fielding - perhaps as important a factor in determining the chances of a player getting berth in the Indian team as his batting or bowling. Ever since Mahinder Singh Dhoni burst on to the international stage it ended Team India’s perennial quest for a reliable wicketkeeper-batsman. But for wicketkeepers like Parthiv Patel, Karthik and others it meant curtains as far as playing for the country was concerned. Not the one to be disheartened, Karthik started slogging it out in the nets to improve his batting. If doors were shut for him as a wicketkeeper he could always secure his place in the team as a batsman. This was the theory he believed in. Soon he notched up a 400 plus knock in domestic cricket. This proved that he was well and truly on course. Karthik got his opportunity to prove his mettle on the tour of South Africa. His scintillating unbeaten 31 in the only Twenty20 match ended India’s losing streak in one-day matches. He was included in the squad in the third Test due to injury to Dhoni. With regular opener Virender Sehwag out of form, Karthik was asked to open with Wasim Jaffer. Displaying sound technique Karthik strung together a three-figure stand for the opening wicket with Jaffer. Karthik scored 63 useful runs. More than the runs, it was the manner in which they were scored that was worth appreciating. The knock won him plaudits, among others, from coach Greg Chappell and the skipper Rahul Dravid. Playing as a specialist batsman against the West Indies in the recent ODI series, Karthik (63) top scored for the team in a low-scoring game and
It was but natural that Karthik was rewarded with a berth in the World Cup squad. In the warm-up match against the hosts, Karthik scored 38 not out, while chasing a victory target of 86, as India raced to a morale-boosting win. An in-form Karthik is a good sign for the team which should boost India’s chances of doing well in the mega event.
— TNS
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When Pak peaked
I
was
privileged to watch the evolution of the World Cup, from an event that not many took seriously, into an institution that players eagerly wait for. I made my international debut in 1975, in the very first World Cup, in the round-robin encounter against the West Indies. It was a traumatic experience. The West Indies were 203-9, chasing 267, and their last pair knocked off the runs. Had we won, who knows what may have happened?
Our 1992 campaign was in many ways similar to that performance by the West Indies. We were nowhere in the picture at the halfway stage. When England skittled us out for 74 in a league game, we were for all practical purposes on our way home. But divine intervention came to the rescue. The match was rained off and we got one point instead of a humiliating defeat! People continue to ask me to identify the turning point in the campaign. I guess it was the realisation, after we got that one point, that every subsequent game was a do-or-die affair. We had to win to stay in the race, and hope for the best from other encounters. Our resurgence in the second half of the tournament had a lot to do with the performance of other sides. We beat Australia, Sri Lanka and New Zealand, and then waited for the verdict of the game between Australia and the West Indies. If Australia won, we would be through to the semis. That is just what happened. We managed to control things that were within our control, and in the process, things that were beyond our control worked in our favour. We were the overwhelming underdogs when we took on New Zealand in the semifinal at Auckland. They batted well and put up a competitive score, and we got off to a poor start. The key batsman of a team should stay in the middle as long as possible, and the others should bat around him. The longer the key man stays out there, the greater is the pressure on the opposition. Since they are human, they are bound to react adversely to it, if not crack completely. Being the key player for my team, I had made up my mind to bat till the end. Every cricketer should cultivate the ability of thinking on his feet. While fielding, I would put myself in the opposition batsman’s shoes and try to anticipate how he would react to a particular situation. I would then alert Imran Khan, our skipper, and our bowlers accordingly. The best of plans made on the eve of the game can come undone once the action begins. In such a situation, you need to be flexible enough to alter your strategy, as bowler, fielder or batsman. The stiff required rate in the semifinal never bothered me. I knew that the Eden Park was a small ground and getting 15-20 runs per over at the crunch would not be too much of a problem. As it turned out, I didn’t have to take any risks, with Inzamam-ul-Haq playing the innings of a lifetime. Moin Khan continued from where he had left off and finished the game. Everything went right for us in the final. Many people were mystified and even infuriated with the manner in which Imran and I batted after we had lost two early wickets. Our logic was simple; there wasn’t much experience after us in the batting order, and we believed that we possessed the bowling resources to defend any total. It was far more important to consolidate in the middle overs and build a solid foundation. Our plan worked to perfection, and Inzamam and Wasim Akram exploded in the slog overs. A total of 249 was hugely respectable, and we knew that it would take an outstanding effort from England to beat us, their experience notwithstanding. I will never forget Wasim’s twin strikes off consecutive balls, which virtually sealed the match in our favour. Brought back for a second spell when Neil Fairbrother and Allan Lamb had put together a partnership, he blew away Lamb and Chris Lewis with beauties that will be talked about for a long time. What did we feel when we lifted the Cup? I guess every World Cup winner will tell you that it is indescribable. If the 1986 Australasia Cup final was the greatest individual moment of my career, then this was the greatest team moment.
— PMG
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Lara ‘unaware’ of late-night party
Montego Bay, March 11 “I don’t know anything about it. But I doubt that with the sort of importance of this tournament, that would have been the case,” Lara said. “Until proved, that is not the case, I am going to say the source from where the information came may be wrong. I don’t belief it happened,” he added. Lara said if at all that was the case, he would have been definitely informed by the team management or the cricket board.
— PTI
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Venues not yet fully ready
Montego Bay, March 11
Venue development director Don Lockerbie admitted that several stadiums had not reached 100 per cent readiness but hastened to add that these glitches would not prevent the successful hosting of matches during the March 13 to April 28 mega event. “I think a lot of the venues have waited till the very last moment to get some of the final bits of construction in and as a perfectionist, I’m a little disappointed that I don’t see all the landscaping full out and the roads all paved and things around the stadiums (finished),’’ Lockerbie said. “Construction is very, very difficult in this part of the world sometimes, but I will say we are ready. I will say we can put on a fabulous World Cup at these venues and I look for them maybe to ‘mature’ in the future. “I would have liked to believe we could have had them ‘mature’ now but they are brand new and I almost feel like they are babies that have been pushed out of the nest. But they are all flying so that’s good for us,’’ he said. The Trelawny Stadium in Jamaica’s north-west, the venue of the opening ceremony, hosted some warm-up matches earlier this week. It is one of two venues developed in Jamaica for the tournament, with the historic Sabina Park upgraded to meet its commitments of hosting Group D matches. First-round matches will also be held at Warner Park in St Kitts, Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad and the Beausejour Cricket Ground in St Lucia, all of which were renovated. The Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Stadium in Antigua and the Guyana National Stadium were built from scratch to host Super Eight matches. — UNI
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Deodhar Trophy
Mumbai, March 11 Maintaining an all-win record, West Zone deservingly claimed the honours with 19 points and ended a lengthy drought, having won the title way back during the 1990-91 season. West Zone scored a mammoth total of 308 for nine, which South never looked like surpassing and were dismissed for just 116 in 29 overs. Central Zone, who finished with eight points, claimed the runners-up spot while East (6 points) ended third.
— PTI
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Linares, March 11 A final-round draw over Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine after 31 moves not only saw the Indian superstar regaining the trophy here after nine-long years but also become the FIDE numero uno for the first time in his illustrious career. After notching up 8.5 points out of a possible 14, Vishy ended a full point clear of his nearest rival, Norway’s Magnus Carlsen, who lost to Peter Leko of Hungary to finish on 7.5 points. Despite playing with disadvantageous black pieces, Anand manoeuvred his troops well to split points with the Ukranian. The Spain-based Indian who last won here in 1998, is the first player to have achieved victories in each of the three big chess supertournaments - Corus, Linares and Dortmund. Anand’s performance yesterday translated into an astounding 2816 ELO points for him. This means that the Indian will be number one on FIDE’s April 1 list, something he has been looking forward to and been close to achieving for more than a decade. Bulgarian Vaselin Topalov, who had occupied this place since Garry Kasparov’s retirement, which was announced at Morelia in Mexico exactly two years ago, finished with a dismal 2691 ELO points. In the other matches, Russian Alexander Morozevich beat countrymen Peter Svidler while Veselin Topalov signed the truce with last year’s winner Levon Aronian of Armenia. The biggest surprise in this tournament featuring eight top players has been underdog 16-year-old Magnus Carlsen, who cornered a sterling 2778 performance, and helping himself to the second spot in FIDE rankings. At the start of the tournament, some critics were bemoaning the decision of the organisers to include a “rabbit” in such a great event, but it now seems Norwegian Carlsen transformed into a “tiger” at the end of the event. — UNI
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Randhawa settles for tied 8th
Singapore, March 11 The 34-year-old Delhi golfer was in the thick of things at the turn and had a great opportunity to win the $1.1 million Asian Tour joint-sanctioned event when he made a birdie on the 10th hole to go to 12-under for the tournament. Randhawa, a six-time winner on the Asian Tour, stumbled on the back nine. He made bogey on the par-five 11th, followed by another dropped shot on the par-four 14th, and a double bogey on the par-three 17th signalled the end of his challenge. The tournament was won by China’s Liang Wen-Chong, who parred the first playoff hole to beat Malaysia’s Iain Steel after both added to the drama of regulation play with late double bogeys. “I always said that I was not playing my best golf this week, but was happy to have managed myself well on the course. Unfortunately, I could not do that on the back nine on the final day, which is always the most crucial stretch of any golf tournament,” a disappointed Randhawa said. It was reminiscent of Randhawa’s final round in the Dubai Desert Classic last month, where he played in the lead group with winner Henrik Stenson and Ernie Els, but could not get going. Among the other Indian golfers in the fray, Asia number one Jeev Milkha Singh improved to tied 32nd place with a two-under 70, but Gaurav Ghei and Rahil Gangjee slipped to tied 58th and 67th with identical rounds of five-over 77 each.
— PTI
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Birmingham, March 11 In the semifinal, Lin had outplayed compatriot Bao Chunlai 21-14, 21-16 yesterday. The match was a repeat of the World Championship final in Madrid last year when Lin again came out on top. — Reuters
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COUNTDOWN
Trelawny (Jamaica), March 11
