Mumbai, August 20
Breaking the suspense over its recruitment, the Indian Cricket League today unveiled a list of 50 players for its breakaway multi-million dollar league which will have Pakistan's prolific batsman Mohammad Yousuf and South African cricketers Lance Klusener and Nicky Boje as its star attractions.

Apart from the big guns like Brian Lara and Inzamam-ul Haq, two Pakistani players, Imran Farhat and Abdul Razzaq, were among the seven overseas cricketers to have signed up for the Twenty-20 tournament likely to be held in October-November.

Dinesh Mongia, Deep Dasgupta, J P Yadav, Reetinder Singh Sodhi, Laxmi Ratan Shukla and Thirukumaran, who have represented India in the past, were among the home draw cards announced by Subhash Chandra-owned Essel Group at a media conference here.

Former Indian cricket captain and Chairman of the breakaway Indian Cricket League (ICL) Kapil Dev speaks during a press conference in Mumbai on Monday. — AFP

Significantly, the announcement came just a day before the Cricket Board's Special General body Meeting where they are expected to take a decision on the ICL and the fate of National Cricket Academy chairman Kapil Dev, who also heads the ICL Executive Board.

Although the Essel Group officials refused to divulge the financial details, it is learnt that the Pakistani players have been offered a whopping Rs. 80 lakh per season besides performance incentives.

An average Indian domestic player is being offered Rs. 30 lakh per year, which is six times more than what they might earn if they played all the Ranji Trophy matches in a year.

Pakistan players offered a whopping Rs. 80 lakh per season Indian domestic player being offered Rs. 30 lakh per year Kapil says the ICL has grand expansion plans Kiran More feels the cricket league is a complete package

The BCCI had refused to approve the ICL and said those who join the ICL would stand to lose all benefits they are entitled to from it.

But Kapil Dev said the ICL would not stand in the way of the players dream of representing the country.

Kapil also said the ICL had grand expansion plans for the future.

"There would be around 50 matches (this season). It will be only Twenty-20 cricket this year but in the future there will also be 50 overs-a-side games and three-day matches. There will be all kinds of cricket, lots of cricket," he said.

Mongia, 30, said he had no qualms about joining the ICL although he played for India in the Champions Trophy last year and could get a recall anytime.

While most of the overseas players were either retired or had virtually no chance of representing their country, the signing of Yousuf comes as a surprise as he is still a member of Pakistan team.

Being overlooked for the national captaincy and dropped from the squad for the Twenty-20 World Cup may have prompted the stylish middle order batsman to join the league.

With the Indian Cricket Board making it clear that players aligning with the rebel league would be barred from playing for the country, many of the Ranji Trophy teams have been hit hard by the exodus just before the start of the new season.

Hyderabad, which has lost as many as eight of its players, and Bengal have been the worst hit sides while Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Punjab have lost a few of its key players.

Kiran More, former India wicketkeeper and chief selector, said the ICL was a complete package aimed at making youngsters play for the country.

Those who have taken plunge Inzamam-ul Haq, Mohammad Yousuf, Abdur Razzaq, Imran Farhat, Lance Klusener, Nicky Boje, Dinesh Mongia, JP Yadav, Deep Dasgupta, Dheeraj Jadhav, Ambati Rayudu, Abbas Ali, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Avinash Yadav, Reetinder Sodhi, Hemanth Kumar, Inder Shekar Reddy, Ishan Malhotra, Kaushik Reddy, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Manish Sharma, Mohammad Ibrahim, Monish Mishra, Robin Morris, Alfred Absolem, Ali Murtaza, Shashank Nag, Shib Sagar Singh, Abhijit Shetye, Devendran, Sumit Kalia, Dakshinamoorthy Kumaran, Taduri Prakash Sudhindra, Sarabjit Singh, Thirunavakarasu Kumaran, Ganapathi Vignesh, Devishetty Vinay Kumar, Yashpal Singh, J Hariesh, R Satish, Rajesh Sharma, Ranjeet Khirid, Sachin Dholpure, Shalabh Srivastava, Shreyas Khanolkar, Subhojit Paul, Subhomoy Das, Raviraj Patil, Pushparaj Mohan Joshi and Syed A Ahmed. — PTI

Mumbai, August 20
Stunned by the large number of well known cricketers snared by the Subash Chandra-promoted Indian Cricket League, the Board of Control for Indian Cricket is mulling a number of measures to stop the exodus.

Among the steps include possible legal action against some big names like former Indian captain Kapil Dev and Rohan Gavaskar, son of former batsman Sunil Gavaskar who have joined the ICL. BCCI sources say, the

board's fresh course of action will be decided at the meeting of its office-bearers later tonight. The BCCI will also hold a meeting of its working committee on Tuesday. Both meetings will be chaired by president Sharad Pawar, sources said.

The BCCI has already obtained legal opinion on the possible action that could be taken against those joining the rebel league, sources say. The Board will now examine whether it could stop retirement benefits and payments made to the defectors.

Simultaneously, the BCCI has decided to loosen its purse strings so that players at the Ranji Trophy level do not defect.

Southampton, August 20
The enduring excellence of the famous four - Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman - denied Yuvraj Singh a comeback into the Test XI. But in the one-day international (ODI) series in this country five years ago, this classy, Punjab left-hander provided ample indication of his pedigree.

Now, as India embark on the final leg of their two and a half month tour of the British Isles, he has an opportunity to emphasise his qualities as a finisher in the shorter format.

Indeed, India start as favourites in a seven match series, the first of which - a day/night edition - propels into action on Tuesday near this port city on the English Channel.

In the three encounters with South Africa at Belfast in June, India adopted a bold strategy - incidentally advocated but not always implemented by India’s former coach Greg Chappell - of experimenting with only six specialist batsmen, thus accommodating five regular bowlers.

The strategy worked, for India defeated South Africa, who are second only to Australia in the LG ICC ODI rankings.

This win was, in fact, rather creditable, for conditions patently favoured South Africa’s superior, six-pronged pace attack; whereas India, because of a virus affecting a number of their players, were compelled to field two spinners in freezing, not exactly helpful weather for slow bowlers.

While still a dodgy summer in Britain, there is now greater rationale to indulge a pair of spinners, with off-break exponent Ramesh Powar, who was ignored in the Test matches, despite bowling admirably throughout the visit, fully deserving inclusion.

Besides, the promising 18-year-old leg spin and googly bowler Piyush Chawla also needs to be encouraged so as to instill him with experience to cope with sterner challenges.

Based on their showing in the decisive third game against South Africa, Zaheer Khan, Rudra Pratap Singh and Ajit Agarkar should be automatic choices, especially after Munaf Patel’s noticeably lacklustre showing versus England A on Saturday. His lack of fitness was one of the reasons for India’s defeat in the Test series in South Africa last winter. So, is he adequately fit?

In batting, Gautam Gambhir has performed consistently in tour matches; but he and Robin Uthappa may at least initially have to carry the drinks. The old firm of Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly are expected to continue business at the top of the order, while Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Dhoni and Dinesh Karthik are likely to constitute the middle order.

An early wicket or environmental friendliness to faster bowlers will probably instigate Dravid to come in at first drop. Otherwise, the heavy hitting propensities of Dhoni could be unleashed at number three. Karthik, meanwhile, has progressed by leaps and bounds, with an ability to instantly shift gears, if need be.

After a period of alleged neglect under their previous coach Duncan Fletcher, England are in more of a transitional frame than India, with a relatively new captain in Paul Collingwood and a number of comparatively inexperienced hands in the line-up.

But if all-rounder Andrew Flintoff, back from ankle surgery, delivers to his potential, this could narrow the odds for the Englishmen, who, without him, could not get the better of the West Indies earlier in the season.

The 1st, 2nd (at Bristol) and 4th (at Manchester) engagements will be day/night affairs, where, if the atmosphere is chilly, dew towards the end of the match could be a factor.

All in all, though, it promises to be a whirlwind, 19-day spin around England. And if at the end this, the Indians emerge victorious, it will crown an immensely successful sojourn.

Liverpool, August 20
Fernando Torres marked his first appearance at Anfield with an impressive debut goal for Liverpool but it was not enough to earn his club all three points as referee Rob Styles handed Chelsea a controversial second-half penalty in Sunday's 1-1 draw.

Liverpool's record 26.5 million-pound Spanish striker had made a dream start to his home career but Styles harshly judged that Steve Finnan had pushed over Florent Malouda as he attempted to meet Shaun Wright-Phillips' 61st minute cross.

Frank Lampard needed no second invitation to convincingly equalise from the spot.

To add to Styles' unpopularity, in the eyes of Liverpool fans, he also appeared to book Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien for a second time midway through the second half without brandishing the red card that should have automatically followed.

Meanwhile, Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann continued his nightmare start to the season with a second-half error to gift Blackburn's David Dunn an equaliser in a stormy 1-1 draw yesterday.

Lehmann, whose mistake allowed Fulham to score at the Emirates last weekend, let Dunn's long-range strike to slip through his grasp and cancel out Robin van Persie's first-half opener in a game which saw Rovers New Zealand skipper Ryan Nelsen sent off and no fewer than nine yellow cards.

Under the watchful eye of England manager Steve McClaren, Steven Gerrard made light of the fractured toe that will almost certainly exclude him from playing for his country against Germany in midweek by setting up Torres' debut goal in the 16th minute.

The Liverpool captain gathered Xabi Alonso's tidy header and sent Torres chasing away down the right with a superb pass.

It still appeared that Chelsea defender Tal Ben-Haim would deal with the danger but the Spaniard showed an electrifying example of his pace and power to surge away from his marker and beat Peter Cech with a perfect right-foot finish.

The game had already been nicely set up by Manchester United's early afternoon defeat at Manchester City, a result greeted pre-match with great enthusiasm by both sets of supporters.

The early goal merely served to add to the intensity of a fixture. — AFP

Mainz (Germany), August 20
Viswanathan Anand lifted his 10th Grenkeleasing Rapid Championship title after defeating Armenian Levon Aronian in a cautiously played final here.

The Indian beat Aronian 2.5-1.5 to complete an unbeaten run en route to another memorable performance on his favourite hunting ground.

“I am very happy to lift the title for the 10th time. This was a very tiring championship. I had to play 14 games with Aronian (8 in Chess 960 and 6 in Rapid) but I am happy to win.” “In my last game Aronian was better in the opening, but as the game developed my knights became more powerful blocking all his pieces, there was no other way left for him,” Anand said in the post match press conference after donning the winner’s black jacket.

Anand will now have a three-week break before the World Championship in Mexico.

Anand proved superior to Aronian in the fourth game of the final after the first three games ended in draws. Aronian, who had fought well till the last game of the championship, collapsed when put under pressure from an innocuous position. — PTI

New Delhi, August 20
Captain Baichung Bhutia tapped in from an acute angle when the game was just four minutes old to help India defeat Bangladesh 1-0 in the ONGC Nehru Cup International Football Tournament at the Ambedkar Stadium here tonight. India, who swamped Cambodia 6-0 in the opening match of the tournament, thus kept their slate clean while Bangladesh blotted their copy book by suffering their second defeat, having lost to Syria 0-2 earlier.

The match was considered as a sort of "revenge" encounter for Bangladesh coach Syed Nayeemuddin, who was the coach of the Indian team when they finished fourth in the 12th edition of the Nehru Cup played at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in Cochin in 1997.

Bhutia is the only player from that Indian team to figure in the present squad, and Nayeemuddin had asserted here yesterday that he had some definite plans worked out to bottle up India's ace scorer. But before the Bangladesh coach could execute his plans, Bhutia played the comeuppance act to catch the rival defence defence napping with a 
surprise goal.

But India were lucky to escape unscathed, thanks to the fine goalkeeping of the 32-year-old Subroto Paul, who was expectedly adjudged the man of the match, which fetched him a cash award of $300.

It was just as well that India took an early lead as a heavy shower just before the interval, which lasted about 10 minutes, had made the ground slightly slippery which could have put a spoke in the Indian wheel if they were desperately trying for a goal in the latter half of the contest. But Bhutia did not allow that to happen as he made fine anticipation to move into an unmarked area inside the box when Sunil Chetri's lob from the left was headed down by a defender and Steven Dias had a go at the ball, but his rather feeble try was going out when Bhutia ran in to tap home from an acute angle, with the ball hitting the upright before rolling in.

The early goal, however, almost created a complacent attitude in the Indian ranks as they fell back to defend instead of going all out to get another goal, which emboldened the Bangladesh forwards to get into their attacking gear to put the Indian goal under pressure. And in the 26th minute, Bangladesh's hard-working and dangerous forward Mohd. Jahid Hasan Ameli drove high and stiff, which was palmed out by Subrato Paul at the nick of time to avert danger. Off a counter attack, India could have easily scored their second goal.

Chetri ran down the left flank and crossed to Bhutia, who relayed the ball back to Chetri, who had by now moved into the box, dodging a couple of defenders, only to weakly shoot into the lap of rival custodian Biplab Bhattacharjee.

Medio Arman Aziz and Hasan Ameli continued to test Paul with shots of varying distance and intensity, but the Indian custodian came out with flying colours to protect the hosts' slender lead.

In the first quarter of the second hald, India stepped up the pace to mount a series attacks on the Bangladesh goal, but Chetri and Clifford Miranda faced the "too near yet too far" syndrome as either their shots skimmed the bar or slightly missed the mark,while Paul stood between the goal and the Bangladesh strikers like a pillar of strength for the Indian defence.

Kyrgyzstan will take on Syria in the fourth match of the tournament tomorrow night.

New Delhi, August 20
National football captain Baichung Bhutia feels that coach Bob Houghton's reputation is less appreciated in India than abroad because of lack of football culture in the country.

''Bob is hugely respected coach outside the country, we knew it when we recently toured Portugal. He was treated just like coach of Benfica team there,'' Baichung told journalists at the sidelines of a practice session here.

India recently toured Portugal as part of preparation for the ongoing five-nation ONGC Nehru Cup and played friendly matches with Portuguese second division sides, besides visiting the stadium of top Portuguese club Benfica.

Houghton has coached national teams of China and Uzbekistan and reputed clubs of Europe, North America and Asia including Al Ittihad of Saudi Arabia.

Baichung said, ''Al Ittihad is one of the biggest clubs in Asia and you imagine Bob has been its coach. In India, football is not a prime sport, so Bob is not known by many people here.''

''Bob is the best coach I have played under. His understanding of the game, his ideas and training methods will serve the country's football well,'' the Sikkimese added.

Meanwhile, Houghton is all praise for Dempo midfielder Climax Lawrence, describing him as the best creative midfielder in the country now.

''Climax is an important member of the side. He is the best creative midfielder in the country,'' said the 58-year-old Englishman when asked if anybody can take the Goan player's place in the remaining matches of the Nehru Cup.

''He (Climax) has a great football brain. He wins balls, has a good header and can shoot also, so he is a very important member in the Indian team,'' said the former Fulham midfielder.

Houghton was appointed as India coach in June last year for a three-year stint. — UNI

Bhopal, August 20
Mercurial forward Dhanraj Pillay has claimed that if proper publicity is done on a wide scale then it is certain that hockey will be buoyed from inferiority.

''Systematic publicity can save the game. Our media, through proper coverage, can carve a niche for hockey in people's hearts,'' the former national team skipper told UNI over telephone from Mumbai where he is employed as Assistant Manager in 'Indian'.

On being asked about the deteriorating condition of the game in the country, the Padmashri recipient says that a major reason is media which treat hockey as cricket's ''step-sibling.''

''Media only give space to and focus on cricket and never care for hockey,'' the 39-year-old alleges, adding that it is the moral responsibility of media to treat every sport equally and do justice to all.

While discussing the declining glory of hockey, he responds, ''selection is not good in our country and that is responsible for destroying grassroots hockey. If selection became fair then good times may return.'' — UNI