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India target clean sweep
Sehwag’s poor run worries Dravid
Lanka lose Moody to WACA
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SA offers to host Zim-Oz series
Jamaican police insists Woolmer was murdered
BAI-players
row
Good start for young side: Carvalho
Boxers win four medals
Six shooters out of World Cup team
HPCA honours Maj Nayyar
Ambala karatekas excel in state meet
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India target clean sweep
Chittagong, May 14 Captain Rahul Dravid also announced that Uthappa would bat at the number three position, a slot Mahendra Singh Dhoni occupied in the first two ODIs. “Sreesanth has an injury and Zaheer, too, will not play tomorrow. Robin and RP did not play in the first two matches but they will definitely play tomorrow,” Dravid said. “Robin will bat at number three because soon you have the Test series and Dhoni already had to shoulder a lot of workload,” he said. After winning the first two ODIs in Dhaka, India have the series in the kitty but they are eyeing a clean sweep tomorrow to get a psychological boost ahead of the tougher assignments in the coming months. "We are very keen to make it 3-0. That was one of our goals when we started the one-day series. We still have one game to play and that still remains our target,” Dravid said. However, he said the Indians were not taking anything for granted as they had to play “very good cricket” to finish the series on a winning note. Tomorrow’s match at the Bir Sreshta Shahid Ruhul Amin Stadium provides India an excellent opportunity to test their strengths and weaknesses and experiment with the line-up before setting sail for England. Dravid has already spoken on similar lines. “It will help us to be positive in the days ahead. There are tough challenges ahead of us. We will use this win as the springboard to face up to them,” he said. Stop-gap manager Ravi Shastri wants to keep the team’s adrenaline level high and thundered, “There will be no let-up. Bangladesh should not expect any mercy from us.” However, the Indian team management would do well to take a long, hard look at the various negatives which have come to the fore during the series. The unpredictability of several of the batsmen, the continued failure of Virender Sehwag particularly his tendency to throw his wicket, the shoddy fielding and the waywardness of the pacers, are some glaring shortcomings that need to be addressed immediately. Bangladesh, on the other hand, received a jolt with vice-captain Mohammed Ashraful being ruled out of the match with fever. Ashraful had to be hospitalised on Saturday night and the Bangladesh selectors are now hoping that he recovers in time for the first Test. For the hosts, the match provides an opportunity to salvage some pride by putting it across India. Teams: India (from): Rahul Dravid (c), Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, Dinesh Karthik, Dinesh Mongia, Piyush Chawla, Ramesh Powar, Munaf Patel and RP Singh. Bangladesh (from): Habibul Bashar (c), Javed Omar, Tamim Iqbal, Shahriar Nafees, Aftab Ahmed, Saqibul Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mashrafe Mortaza, Syed Russel, Abdur Razzak, Shahadat Hossain, Mohammad Rafique and Farhad Reza. — PTI Rain threat
Chittagong: The final ODI between India and Bangladesh is likely to be affected by rain as constant showers have hit the port city since last night. Meteorological Department sources said, “The weather forecast for the next 24 hours is squalls with spells of heavy rain.” If the weather continues to be this bad, there is every chance of a truncated match or a delayed start tomorrow. Rain gods have been chasing the two teams throughout the series as it rained before both matches in Dhaka, forcing these to be truncated by three overs and one over, respectively. However, the disadvantage of this stadium is that the ground is very close to the sea and is affected by the rain-bearing wind. Moreover, the soil and sub-soil used in the ground is clayey, which makes fast drying-up impossible.
— UNI
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Sehwag’s poor run worries Dravid
Dhaka, May 14 “Definitely for someone of Sehwag’s calibre, we truly believe that he should go all the way and play bigger innings,” David answered when asked whether the absence of a big innings from Sehwag was a cause for concern. Dravid pointed out that the opening batsman was getting the starts but not building on them. “He is getting starts and he is not carrying on. That is definitely something we know that Sehwag should do. Sehwag himself knows that he must start converting those starts into meaningful contributions for the team.” After scoring 95 against the West Indies at Port of Spain in May last year, Sehwag has managed to post only one century (114 against Bermuda) and a fifty (65 against Australia) in his last 18 innings. During this time, he has aggregated 440 runs at an average of 24.44. His sequence of scores since the Port of Spain knock has been 9, 8, 1, 10, 9, 17, 65, 0, 18, 11, 19, 12, 46, 2, 114, 48, 30 and 21, the last two knocks coming in the ongoing series against Bangladesh. Despite his poor run over a long period, it was at Dravid’s insistence that Sehwag was included in the World Cup squad, chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar had revealed later. Incidentally, when the issue of Sehwag’s poor form was brought up after the second match of the ongoing series, Dravid had said, “People have roles. Everyone in the top order has a role to play. The top order has to go out and hit, and in the process they can lose wickets. We have to accept that.” — PTI
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Mumbai, May 14 The other members of the board include former stumper and ex-chief selector Kiran More, former England captain Tony Greg and Australian cricketer-turned-commentator Dean Jones. While making the announcement, Himanshu Modi, Business Head of Zee Sports, said more positions would be finalised later. Kapil said he was delighted to be associated with the league and would utilise his experience to nurture young talent. “It’s great pleasure to lead the Executive Board of the ICL, the first Professional League. I will try and utilise my experience of motivating and guiding players, both as captain and coach, to take the young talent to the pinnacle of success,” said country’s lone World Cup winning captain. The primary duty of the Executive Board would be to professionally create, manage and run the League, which would be played parallel to other domestic tournaments. “The format, the playing conditions and most importantly the mindset of the players will be our focus,” Kapil said. The World Cup winning captain said the aim of the League was to provide more opportunity for the players to represent the country. “We have to give more opportunities to the players to represent India. We need to improve our domestic cricket and field the cricketers so that they can represent the country. The BCCI will also get players from the Indian Cricket League,” he said. Asked whether he had sought the BCCI’s permission before getting associated with the ICL as he was the Chairman of the National Cricket Academy Board, Kapil said “the BCCI are not giving me a job. “I am not working for anybody. I don’t think that I need to ask them (BCCI) for this,” he said. Kapil said the ICL would be an eye opener for the BCCI as it would work at the grass root level to find the talent. “The Board has done well, but perhaps as a cricketer we have not given enough emphasis at the ground level, that is where the ICL may be an eye opener for the board,” he said. “If the competition is there, the results would be good. It will be beneficial to all. I don’t think the BCCI will not accept it because it will be helpful for them. Our work is to give opportunity to players. If the board doesn’t give them a chance, then its their decision.” About whether they would be able to acquire grounds from the BCCI for the ICL matches, Kapil said “we are going to all the local associations. There is no reason why the BCCI will say no. We will ensure that cricketers will get the best possible pitches.” Former national selection panel chief Kiran More said “I am happy to be part of Indian Cricket League Executive Board. “This will provide a platform to millions of budding cricketers and it will be my job to ensure that we showcase to you the best that India has to offer in terms of cricket talent”. He said what was crucial was that the Indian cricket will be benefited by it. — PTI
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Melbourne/Colombo, May 14 Moody was much in demand after his impressive stint with the Lankan side, which reached the World Cup final. While Sri Lanka were keen to retain the towering Australian, Moody decided to join Western Australia, a team he once led, for the next three seasons as its manager and head coach. Interestingly, WACA also chose the occasion to announce its partnership with Indian industrialist Vikas Rambal and the Rambal family, who will be its first coach sponsor. Moody brings with him Trevor Penney, who has been appointed assistant coach after two years in a similar role with Sri Lanka. Moody recorded a high rate of success with the Lankan team, particularly its performances overseas since he took up the job in May, 2005. He guided Lanka to drawn Test series in England and New Zealand and is largely credited with carrying Mahela Jayawardene’s team to the World Cup final against Australia. He was the fourth Australian to be in charge of the Sri Lankans after Dav Whatmore, Bruce Yardley and John Dyson. WACA chief executive officer Graeme Wood said securing the services of Moody and Penney was a major coup for cricket in WA. — PTI
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SA offers to host Zim-Oz series
Melbourne, May 14 The three-match series runs the risk of being scrapped altogether after the Australian government banned its cricketers from travelling to Zimbabwe in protest against the Robert Mugabe regime in the trouble-torn African nation. Subsequently, Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland floated the idea of having South Africa as a possible neutral venue. Sutherland’s South African counterpart, Gerald Majola, said the CSA would be happy to host the event, provided both teams agreed to the proposal. “I haven’t heard anything from anyone,” Majola said, adding that, “Obviously, Australia and Zimbabwe would have to agree to move the tour first. If the two parties agreed to play there, then we would be fine with that,” Majola was quoted as saying by The Age. ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed, who backs the idea for a neutral venue, said, “Given the choice between that and the matches not taking place at all, we would obviously prefer them to be played. “That will be for the two boards to work out but we would encourage them to look at all options,” Speed said. “From an ICC perspective, we will work with Zimbabwe Cricket and our members to try to ensure the game there gets the support it needs in order to continue at this difficult time,” he said. — PTI
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Jamaican police insists Woolmer was murdered
Kingston, May 14 The police statement came in reaction to a media report that claimed that the Scotland Yards sleuths, who assisted local police in the death probe, had concluded that Woolmer died of natural causes and not manual strangulation, as claimed by the Jamaican Police. In the statement, the Jamaican Police dismissed the claim and said such media speculation was likely to cause more distress to the bereaved Woolmer family, besides hampering the probe. Insisting that Woolmer had been murdered, Jamaican Police spokesman Karl Angell said, “That will remain our position until the results of the investigation are known.”
— PTI
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Sania top seed at Morocco Open
Fes (Morocco), May 14 The Indian ace, who was out of action for the past two months due to a knee injury, makes her return to court in the Tier IV event and will take on a qualifier, who is yet to be decided, in the first round of singles. Sania has dropped two places down the ladder to 51st in the WTA rankings released today. She was ranked 49th last week. Among other Indian women, Shikha Uberoi remained static at 247th, while Sunitha Rao dropped two places to 253rd. In doubles, 20-year-old Sania has teamed up with American Vania King and the duo will take on the unseeded Russian-Ukrainian pair of Alla Kudryavtseva and Olga Savchuk in the opening round of the claycourt event. Also in the competition is US-based Neha Uberoi, who has reached the last-four stage of qualifiers and will take on Ioana Raluca Olaru of Romania. Neha will also compete in doubles, teaming up with Italian Silvia Disderi against the Canadian-Russian combination of Stephanie Dubois and Alina Jidkova in the opening round. — PTI
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Sports Ministry to try to end deadlock
New Delhi, May 14 National champion Chetan Anand, and top women’s doubles duo of Jwala Gutta and Shruti Kurien had openly revolted against Badminton Association of India (BAI) after the federation stopped their entries in two super series events in Singapore and Indonesia. The players refused to join the ongoing month-long camp in Hyderabad for the Sudirman Cup and also did not report for the trials. But they paid dearly for their anti-federation stance as they were axed from the Sudirman Cup at its recent selection committee meeting in Mumbai. “Madhumita is going to Hyderabad tomorrow and she will speak to the three players and also oversee the facilities in the camp,” BAI sources told PTI. “The ministry has asked her to speak to the players and hear their grievances and also speak to the national coach Pullela Gopichand and then report back on the matter,” the sources said. The move was prompted after the ministry felt that the shuttlers might also be left out of important upcoming events in the Olympic qualification year which will harm the game in the country. “The Ministry took note of the fact that India will field a weak side for the Sudirman Cup and the players might also be left out of important upcoming events, including the World Championship in August,” they said. — PTI
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Good start for young side: Carvalho
Ipoh, May 14 “Reaching the semifinals was a huge boost to our confidence considering that our primary objective was to provide exposure to our youngsters and also to evaluate them. Overall, I am quite satisfied with our performance in this tournament,” Carvalho said. However, the coach warned against harbouring high expectations from the team at this moment and said it still had a long way to go before it could be bracketed with elite teams like Germany, Holland, Spain and Australia. Supporters needed to be patient, he said. “Our focus should be on improvement rather than just results, though in the ultimate analysis, they do matter. However, at the moment, we are trying to develop a young and inexperienced side. We need to be patient, for nothing can be achieved overnight,” he asserted. Reflecting on the tournament, Carvalho felt that given the inherent talent and potential, the team could have made it to the final but for the many missed scoring chances that has been the perennial problem in Indian hockey. “We had our opportunities in virtually every game, especially in the semifinal against Malaysia, but somehow, our forwards simply failed to click inside the striking circle. Though missing chances is part of the game, our forwards need to be sharper,” he said. India’s campaign had begun on a sour note with a 0-1 defeat to eventual winners Australia, followed by a narrow 5-4 win against China. The Indians qualified for the last four defeating Argentina 2-0. However, in the semis, the Indians, despite dominating, lost 1-2 to Malaysia. “The results reflected the team’s potential. Of greater significance was the manner in which the boys played throughout. They sustained a good pace and played attacking hockey right through the tournament. “So, fitness is not an issue, but if we could have a higher percentage of conversion at the finish, then I think, India can become a much stronger force,” the coach said. Carvalho, however, did not rule out changes in the team in a bid to strengthen a couple of key areas that he felt demanded immediate attention. “We might be looking at a couple of forwards, a midfielder and definitely a deep defender. There are still a few grey areas in the team, but then, it is part of the process of rebuilding our team for the 2008 Olympics,” he said. Carvalho replaced Vasudevan Bhaskaran barely a month prior to the tournament and the selectors opted for fresh faces in a bid to revive India’s fortunes that nosedived last year when they finished 11th among 12 teams in the World Cup and a poor fifth at the Doha Asian Games. The coach said he would like to see a tighter midfield though there was no dearth in talent. “We have a few talented youngsters, but there is scope for improvement in terms of quicker ball rotation and release. A little more experience of top-level hockey should see them develop into better players,” Carvalho said. His major concern was the deep defence where full-back Harpal Singh had a bad tournament and penalty-corner specialist V Raghunath has not exactly personified confidence while tackling and covering. Carvalho expressed satisfaction with the development of goalkeeper Baljit Singh, who replaced the more experienced Bharat Chhetri as the No. 1 choice. However, when Chhetri got his chance in the playoff game against Korea, he excelled with three brilliant saves. Carvalho declined to single out any other individual for special mention, but on persuasion, named forwards Bharat Chhikara and Roshan Minz and midfielders Sardara Singh and Gurbaj Singh as the players to watch. Looking ahead, the coach stressed on the need for the team to play top European outfits.
— PTI
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Boxers win four medals
New Delhi, May 14 Vipin Kumar and Pramod Kumar claimed silver in the 50 kg and 52 kg categories, respectively, while V Santosh Kumar and Umesh Yadav won bronze medals in 60 kg and 46 kg categories. “These silver medals could have been gold had it not been for some bad judging. We have informed the Indian Amateur Boxing Federation about this,” Vipin and Pramod said. “But we are happy with the performance as earlier no one had gone beyond the bronze medal,” they added. Apart from these medallists, the other three members of the seven-member team - Aman Kumar (57 kg), Praveen Kumar (63 kg) and Durga Rao (54 kg) - managed to reach the quarterfinals of the tournament, which saw participation from 13 teams. “Except for two boys, this was the first international experience for the rest of the team and the performance was excellent,” chief coach MS Dhaka said.
— PTI
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Six shooters out of World Cup team
New Delhi, May 14 Fartade, Ronak Pandit, Sushil Ghaley, Deepak Sharma, Surendra Singh Rathore and Deepali Deshpande have been asked to practise in the country for the Asian Championship, while their compatriots take part in the year’s fourth and final World Cup for rifle and pistol shooters from May 28 to June 4. After the Munich World Cup, the Asian Championship will be the last chance for shooters to book Olympic quota places and there may not be any more ISSF World Cup competitions in 2008, the Olympic year. A National Rifle Association of India official said the shooters’ scores in the ISSF World Cups at Fort Benning (USA), Sydney and Bangkok, apart from Australia Cup in Sydney, were not “up to the mark” because of which for the first time the NRAI acted tough on the players.
— PTI
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HPCA honours Maj Nayyar
Chamba, May 14 Chandu Borde, former Indian captain, was the chief guest at the function held at the Dharamsala cricket stadium on May 12. Nayyar remained the secretary of the HPCA for 28 years. It was during his tenure that Himachal Pradesh got affiliated with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). He was the first captain of the Himachal Ranji team. Later, he was appointed selector for the Indian junior team by the BCCI for three consecutive years. He was the manager of the India under-17 team on its tour to England in 1994. He also visited Dubai and Lahore as a delegate of the cricket board. Nayyar played for Chamba in the state
championship from 1964 to 1988.
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Ambala karatekas excel in state meet
Ambala, May
14 They also won two team trophies - sub-junior team championship and junior team championship. The gold medallists were Utarksh Das, Sahil Salaria, Jatinder, Himanshu Sharma, Ashok Chauhan, Harpal Rana,
Sulekha, Pooja, Priya Rani, Nisha Chauhan, Shalini, Shefali, Divya Tyagi, Gurmail Singh, Bharat Yadav, Karan Sharma, Prashant Kumar, Sandeep Agnihotri, Lovepreet Singh, Ketan Malhotra,
Karamvir, Varun Sharma, Aman Rathala, Harshpreet Singh, Shakti Singh and Parminder. The silver medallists were Akshat, Aryan and
Karamvir, while bronze medals were won by Aryan, Gurmail Singh, Ketan Malhotra,
Gursewa, Suryadev and Nisha Chauhan. — TNS
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India will field Robin Uthappa and RP Singh for the third and final ODI against Bangladesh tomorrow, leaving out left-arm pacer Zaheer Khan and injured S Sreesanth for the inconsequential match.
Dhaka, May 14
In video (
Melbourne/Colombo, May 14
The third-place finish at the 16th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament was satisfactory given the youth and inexperience of the Indian team, coach Joaquim Carvalho has said.
“Reaching the semifinals was a huge boost to our confidence considering that
our primary objective was to provide exposure to our youngsters and also to
evaluate them.
Major
SC Nayyar, former secretary of the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA), was honoured by the association with the lifetime achievement award in recognition of his contribution to the game as well as to the association.
Chandu Borde, former Indian captain, was the chief guest at the function held at
the Dharamsala cricket stadium on May 12.
