Belfast, June 22
A revitalised India will be seeking to launch their lengthy tour of the United Kingdom on a positive note when they take on World Cup giant-killers Ireland in a one-off limited overs cricket match here tomorrow.

India, who will then take on South Africa in a three-match series here followed by a one-off ODI against Pakistan in Scotland and a full-fledged series against England over the next two months, would be hoping that the remote venue of Belfast would set the tone for the gruelling season ahead.

In a country where sports like soccer and rugby are a passion, cricket suddenly seems to have caught the imagination of the people here, thanks to Ireland’s splendid run in their World Cup debut a little over two months back.

The Indians are not only loving their anonymity and the chance to walk down the streets freely, but they are also going about their task in a business like manner.

The few training sessions they have had here in the last 48 hours have been intense with every player keen to shake off the rust and get into the groove at the earliest.

Weather permitting, their opening game against Ireland might not stretch them too much, but after the horrors of the World Cup, Rahul Dravid and his team just cannot afford to take anything lightly.

The return of Sourav Ganguly at the top of the order gives the Indian batting a formidable look with Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh settled in the middle order.

Mahendra Dhoni, who now has the additional responsibility of being the vice-captain, can look to open up his shoulders against the lesser lights.

S. Sreesanth and Ajit Agarkar are vying for a place in the pace department along with Rudra Pratap Singh while Ramesh Powar will be the lone spinner in the side. Ganguly too has expressed his desire to slip in a few overs for the side.

Pace spearhead Zaheer Khan is yet to recover from a groin injury and is a doubtful starter tomorrow.

“Zaheer has had an injury coming here. We are still trying to assess how well he progressed after two days of practice,” skipper Rahul Dravid said today.

On the other hand, the hosts will be looking to rekindle the fond memories of their dream run in the World Cup. Trent Johnson’s supremely fit and committed bunch of cricketers stole the thunder with a sensational tie against Zimbabwe.

More importantly, they went on to knock down Pakistan, who made a shocking first-round exit like India, before upsetting the applecart of another Test playing nation in Bangladesh in their second round clash.

However, while Ireland’s World Cup run has been the stuff dreams are made of, their team has undergone a sea change in the sense that no less than six players from the World Cup would be missing from its ranks for various reasons.

While players like Andre Botha, Dave Langford-Smith and Boyd Rankin have been laid low by injuries, allrounder Peter Gillespie has called it a day since then.

Besides, their two key batsmen in Jeremy Bray and Eoin Morgan have declared themselves unavailable for the match.

“The team is unrecognisable from the World Cup but I hope the boys who have been to the West Indies can led from the front and put up a strong performance,” said all-rounder Andrew White.

Accordingly, skipper Trent Johnson, the O’Brien brothers Kevin and Niall, batsmen William Porterfield and allrounder Andrew White, who once shared the Northamptonshire dressing room with Ganguly, would do well to inspire the green horns in the side to give a good account of themselves in what will certainly be a big occasion for Ireland cricket.

Teams (from): India: Rahul Dravid (capt), Sourav Ganguly, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Dinesh Karthik, Ramesh Powar, Zaheer Khan, S. Sreesanth, R. P. Singh, Ajit Agarkar, Robin Uthappa, Rohit Sharma and Piyush Chawla.

Ireland: Trent Johnston (capt), Kenny Carroll, Alex Cusack, Thinus Fourie, Dominick Joyce, Gary Kidd, Kyle McCallan, Kevin O’Brien, Niall O’Brien, William Porterfield, Roger Whelan, Andrew White and Gary Wilson. — PTI

Colombo, June 22
A man who tried to bleach his hair to look like Sri Lanka’s cricket player, Lasith Malinga, has ended up in hospital with severe burns, a media report said today.

The 20-year-old man in the central town of Kandy was hospitalised after he used two types of acid to try to dye his hair, the Daily Mirror said.

The 23-year-old Malinga was named the sexiest cricketer of the World Cup by the Barbados Sunday Sun newspaper because of his “eye-catching, blonde-streaked curly hairdo, eyebrow ring and tattooed biceps.”

Many Sri Lankan men have been trying to copy Malinga’s unkempt style, although the stylist behind the hair said he took two days to create the distinctive bleached-blond corkscrews. — PTI

Mumbai, June 22
The proposed India Cricket League (ICL) has roped in former Test batsman and national coach Sandeep Patil into its fold but the appointment may cost the ex-player the monthly pension he’s entitled to receive from the BCCI.

“Yes, Sandeep Patil has joined the ICL and will be coaching one of the six teams,” the league’s creative head Ajay Kapoor told PTI.

The 50-year-old, who played in 29 Tests and 45 ODIs for India in the 1980s, took the plunge to join the rebel league yesterday, according to sources close to him.

But the Mumbai stalwart, who has represented Madhya Pradesh in Ranji Trophy and then guided Kenya to the semifinals of the 2003 World Cup as coach, may have kissed goodbye to the monthly pension he’s receiving from the BCCI along with two other former India and ICL colleagues Kapil Dev and Kiran More.

“The board has decided to stop all the entitlements to any current or former player, official or umpire who is connected to the ICL. A letter to this effect will soon reach all those who are receiving such remunerations from the board”, according to BCCI sources.

Former players and umpires are receiving Rs 25,000 to Rs 35,000 from the board every month as pension depending on the number of matches they have played for India or represented their state association in domestic cricket.

Kapil, the current chairman of the National Cricket Academy, is heading the ICL’s executive board while former stumper and selection panel chief More is on the same board even while holding the post of Baroda Cricket Association secretary.

The BCCI Working Committee had severely criticised both these former cricketers for associating themselves with the rebel body at its meeting in Delhi earlier this month but stopped short of giving show-cause notices to them.

“Though we did not decide to show cause them, Kapil would soon be conveyed the message, while the Baroda Cricket Association (BCA) will take up the matter with More,” one member had said after the meeting on June 12.

Essel chief Subhas Chandra launched the ICL in April promising a $1 million prize money and names like Brian Lara, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, all recently retired from international cricket, are being linked to the event.

The ICL is proposing to commence with six teams playing in the Twenty20 format later this year. — PTI

London, June 22
Sania Mirza faces a tricky opening-round encounter at Wimbledon as she has been drawn to play her Bangalore Open conqueror Yaroslava Shvedova of Russia.

The 20-year-old Indian might be the favourite on paper as she is ranked 30 places above her rival in the WTA Tour rankings but she would very well remember Shvedova’s come-from-behind victory in the quarterfinals in Bangalore earlier this year.

The Hyderabadi girl, should she put it past the Shvedova, could be in for an even tougher second round awaits as she will probably be up against another Russian, 11th seed Nadia Petrova, who faces American Vania King in the first round.

Sania, however, beat Petrova 6-2, 6-1 in the only time they had clashed in 2005.

In doubles, Sania has teamed up with Shahar Peer and the Indo-Israeli pair has been seeded 16th. Sania and Shahar will take on the Swedish-American pair of Sofia Arvidsson and Lilia Osterloh in the opening round.

Sania has had an ordinary build-up to the grasscourt Grand Slam starting on Monday, crashing out in the first round of this week’s Ordina Open.

In men’s doubles, Leander Paes and his Czech partner Martin Damm have been seeded fifth and will start their campaign against Chris Haggard of South Africa and Marcin Matkowski of Poland.

Mahesh Bhupathi and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek have been seeded 11th and will take on the German-Austrian duo of Christopher Kas and Alexander Peya in the opening round. — PTI

Mumbai, June 22
The BCCI has decided to do away with the Vijay Hazare Trophy inter-zonal one-day competition for under-19 cricketers from the forthcoming domestic season. However, the trophy in memory of the former Test captain will now be awarded to the Ranji one-day champions.

The BCCI has also increased the duration of matches in the Cooch Behar (U-19) Trophy and Col CK Nayudu (Under-22) Trophy from three to four days each.

In another major change decided at the BCCI’s Tours and Programmes Fixtures Committee meeting held earlier in the week, the board has split the Polly Umrigar Trophy under-15 tournament into the Elite and Plate format on the lines of the Ranji Trophy.

This year, there will be a tournament for under-19 and senior women, said BCCI’s chief administrative officer Ratnakar Shetty.

As is the practice, the season will commence with the Irani Cup tie between last year’s Ranji Trophy winners Mumbai and Rest of India at Rajkot from October 1-5.

The NKP Salve Challenger Series would follow from October 24 to 27 at an yet undecided venue.

The Elite and Plate divisions leagues of the Ranji Trophy will be held from November 4-December 25 and November 4-December 9, respectively, leading to the knockout rounds starting from January 2 and December 15.

The Elite and Plate finals are scheduled from January 13, 2008, and December 26 this year, respectively.

The Duleep Trophy league is to follow from January 24 to February 12, 2008, and its final is slated between February 17 and 21. — PTI 

Dubai, June 22
Cracking the whip on the five-man playing control team that had reduced the World Cup final to a farce, the International Cricket Council (ICC) today decided not to appoint them in the ICC Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa in September.

On-field umpires Steve Bucknor and Aleem Dar, reserve umpires Rudi Koertzen and Billy Bowden and ICC match referee Jeff Crowe were made to pay for the blunder that saw Australia beat Sri Lanka under the Duckworth-Lewis system in semi-darkness to lift the World Cup in Barbados.

The unit had incorrectly ruled that after a stoppage for bad light, the match would have to be completed the following day even though the minimum 20 overs in the second innings had already been bowled.

“In the wake of what happened ICC manager (Cricket) David Richardson carried out a full investigation which included seeking the interpretation of all five officials. The result is the penalties imposed,” the ICC said in a statement today.

“It would have been easy to let sleeping dogs lie and pretend nothing happened,” said ICC chief executive officer Malcolm Speed.

“But the reality is that the playing control team made a serious and fundamental error that caused the final of our flagship event to end in disarray and confusion,” Speed said.

The ICC, however, did not name match referees and umpires for the Twenty20 World Cup. — PTI

Los Angeles, June 22
Joshna Chinappa upset seventh seed Aisling Blake of Ireland to enter the quarterfinals of $23,000 Epstein Becker and Green LA Squash Open here.

The Indian beat Aisling 9-4, 6-9, 0-9, 9-7, 9-7 in a 68-minute contest to become the only unseeded player to enter the last-eight yesterday.

Joshna took the first game but Aisling rallied to take the lead after blanking the Indian in the third game.

The last two games were hard-fought but Joshna came out on top recovering from 4-7 in the fourth and 0-4 in the fifth to cause the biggest upset of the tournament so far.

“I just lost rhythm in the third, I was trying to win a few cheap points and you just can’t afford to do that, especially against Aisling, who is fit and will take advantage of anything loose.

“I controlled well for four games, which were close, I played a lot of thinking shots, trying to make her turn as much as I could, and I didn’t for one, which I lost badly,” Joshna said after the match.

The Indian has another tough match on hand as she will take on third seed Raneem El Weleily in the quarterfinals.

Weleily brushed aside England’s Jenna Gates’ challenge in just 19 minutes beating her 9-1, 9-1, 9-1.

Another Indian in the fray, qualifier Dipika Pallikal, lost to sixth seed Manuela Manetta of Italy in the first round. Dipika went down 9-2, 9-3, 9-7 in 28 minutes. — PTI

New Delhi, June 22
Two Indian youth teams would rub shoulders with their German counterparts in September as Bundesliga plans to take its partnership with the All-India Football Federation (AIFF) one step forward.

Bundesliga plans to give the Indian youngsters an opportunity to play with and against youth teams of various German clubs and provide them the exposure against top level competition in their relevant age groups.

“In September, it is planned that two Indian youth teams will reach here for training camps. We will, on our part, support the organisation of these camps and the Indian teams will play against and practise with German youth teams,” Bundesliga Commercial Director Jorg Daubitzer told PTI from Frankfurt.

The Bundesliga also wants to involve the German clubs more into its strategic alliance with the AIFF.

“The next step on our side will now be to involve our clubs more and more in the realisation of common projects.

“In August, it is planned that a delegation of DFL and club representatives will visit India for a club workshop. Our representatives will most probably speak about topics like fan development, club marketing and youth development to the Indian clubs,” he said.

Daubitzer said an AIFF delegation, in preparation for the first ever professional league in India later this year, visited Germany in April to learn more about functioning of the DFL and the clubs. — PTI