Melbourne, March 8
There was no need to panic or over-react to Australia's shocking tri-series defeat against India, according to chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch who said the world champions would analyse their mistakes and bounce back.

Hilditch said Australia had also lost last year's tri-series final to England but bounced back to clinch an unprecendented hat-trick of titles at the World Cup.

"In retrospect, it (losing to England) was a good thing. It probably got rid of any complacency and we went on to win the World Cup a month or two later, so you can't overreact to any of these things," Hilditch said.

The chief selector said overall the season was positive for Australia but they would still analyse what went wrong during the tri-series.

"Like after the 2005 Ashes, we're going to do a detailed analysis of where we can improve. We'll do that again this year. But often you can overreact because the result can come down to playing well on a couple of days in one-day cricket.

“The general view of the season is remarkably positive," he was quoted as saying by 'The Australian'.

Hilditch also quashed the theory that India's 'youth-only policy' might have been a reason for their loss in the just-concluded one-day series.

The average age of the Australian squad which lost 0-2 against Indian in the best-of-three tri-series finals, was around 33, the oldest to represent Australia in a one-day series.

Hilditch said Australians have had a glorious run for over a decade with similar sides and it would be "far too much of a generalisation to say that the side was too old" against a young India.

"Once you lose a game you can sit back and analyse all sorts of reasons and nobody can prove anything right or wrong," Hilditch said.

"But I certainly don't think in any way, shape or form that age was a factor. In fact, I'd be positive that's not the case.

"The side is basically the same, with obviously a couple of critical changes, to the one which won the World Cup and repeated that standard of performance in India in extremely difficult circumstances, where they played really well," he added.

"And we were comprehensive in the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy. It's far too much of a generalisation to say the side was too old. The facts are we had some key players not scoring runs at critical times and that can happen in cricket," he said. This season it is three in a row after Australia also unexpectedly lost the last league match, a dead rubber against Sri Lanka in front of just 22,000 or so at the MCG. 
— PTI 

Chandigarh, March 8
Former New Zealand fast bowler Shane Bond, who has threatened earlier to take legal course on banning the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL) players by the cricket boards, now is in no mood of taking such step.

Bond, who arrived here today with his ICL team ‘Delhi Giants’, said, “Undoubtedly, banning of professional cricketers is totally unfair on the part of the boards but I am not going to take legal course.”

Miffed over bar on the ICL players by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) for playing in counties, Bond held that he did not know about the status of his contract with Hampshire.

“I am not aware whether my contract with Hampshire stands or it’s cancelled”, said Bond, who claimed 79 wickets in 17 Tests and 125 wickets in 67 ODIs.

Bond, who had signed up with Wocestershire, switched over to Hampshire last month in place of Shane Warne. But the condition of the ECB that the county players have to submit NOC (no objection certificates) of their respective boards put his county contract in uncertainty.

However, he claimed that New Zealand Cricket Players Association has been backing the ICL players.

Bond, who struggled with injuries mostly during his seven-year career, claimed that he was fully fit and raring to go for his ICL team.

“I am fully fit now and looking forward for my ICL matches”, said Bond maintaining that Pakistani players consisting ‘Lahore Badshah’ would be the toughest team in the edition. Delhi Giants will face Mumbai Champs on March 10 under floodlights. 

Chandigarh, March 8
There never was any doubt about the talent of feisty Gautam Gambhir. He always was enterprising with the bat and the one not to be overawed by the reputation of bowler. He had a rich repertoire of strokes, scorching pulls being his main weapon, to frustrate bowlers.

Unfortunately, more often than not, impetuosity got the better of the Delhi batsman as he would often fritter away breezy starts by playing an extravagant stroke when a little discretion could have served him better. Though he made his ODI debut in 2003, an aggressive Gambhir, looked like wasting his talent for sheer lack of discipline.

The disastrous World Cup campaign early last year again provided Gambhir a window of opportunity to showcase his batting talent. Things started to fall in place for the swashbuckling batsman.

In scorching form in the domestic circuit for the last two decades, Gambhir stunned one and all by his exploits in Twenty20 ICC World Championship in South Africa last year. As if to make the moment his own, the 26-year-old batsman batted like a man possessed. He capped his superb run with the bat with priceless 75 in the final against arch rivals Pakistan and India stunned the cricketing world as well as the fans back home emerging champions. Gambhir was the second highest scorer in the inaugural tournament.

A shoulder injury meant Gambhir had to miss the bus for the Test series against Australia. Fitness regained, Gambhir slammed centuries in the semifinals as well as final as Delhi emerged Ranji Trophy champions.

The just-concluded Commonwealth Bank triseries could well prove to be a turning point in his career. Continuing his irresistible form, Gambhir proved a flesh in thorn of the rival bowlers. Notching up two centuries, 102 vs Sri Lanka at Gabba in the rain-hit tie and career-best 113 against Australia at Sydney, - the lone batsman to achieve the feat - Gambhir emerged the highest run-getter in the triseries with 440 runs at an impressive average of 55.00. Sachin Tendulkar with an aggregate of 399 at 44.33 in 10 ODI innings was the second best batsman.

During the triseries, Gambhir looked a transformed batsman. ‘Monkeygate’ and then the rancour and acrimony due to Matthew Hayden dubbing Harbhajan an “obnoxious weed” meant attention was more on the avoidable incidents rather than on the game being played in the middle.

The focus was also on the now-famous Ishant-Ponting battle, the poor form of Yuvraj and the announcement of retirement by peerless Adam Gilchrist and then by Brad Hogg. Then came IPL auctions in between, which fetched astronomical sums to some of the players. All these ensured that the brilliant performances from those like Gambhir and others never were highlighted. On his part, a studious Gambhir soldiered on in an anonymous fashion.

The southpaw revealed a refreshing eagerness to adapt. He made better use of feet while standing up to the likes of Muttiah Muralitharan. He played closer to the body. Besides, he reined in his adventurism early on and was willing to stay longer on the field. India created history Down Under and Gambhir deserves a bigger share of credit for it was he, who emerged India’s batting mainstay.

The maturity he displayed at Gabba and at Sydney underline the emergence of a new Gambhir - a batsman, who was willing to shoulder more batting responsibility.

A natural stroke player and not a grafter as No 3 batsman is a huge plus for any team. The stupendous success the teams like Australia and Sri Lanka have gained in the slang-bang variety of the game can well be attributed to the likes of Ricky Ponting and Kumara Sangakkara as top-notch No 3 batsmen capable of taking the attack to the rival camp.

Gambhir as an audacious batsman at this key position augurs well for the Indian team. And if greenhorns like Uthappa and Rohit are able to chip in along with Gambhir and other senior batting pros as well, Indian team is sure to be a major cricketing force in the days to come!

Linares (Spain), March 8
World champion Viswanathan Anand asserted his supremacy at the Morelia-Linares tournament for the second time on the trot after settling for a facile draw with former world champion Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria in the 14th and final round here.

Anand ended this category-21 tournament with 8.5 points and finished a half point clear of nearest rival Magnus Carlsen of Norway who played a draw with Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan in his last game.

Levon Aronian of Armenia signed peace with Peter Leko of Hungary while Alexei Shirov of Spain could not break the ice and reached the same result against Ukrainian Vassily Ivanchuk making it an all-draws affair in the final round.

For the records, Aronian and Topalov tied for the third spot on 7.5 points, Radjabov finished fifth on 7, Ivanchuk ended clear sixth a half point behind while Shirov and Leko tied for the seventh spot scoring just 5.5 points apiece.

It was an encore of Anand's last year's result here but the gap was a bit narrower. In the previous edition too, Anand had won the title scoring 8.5 points but was a full point ahead of nearest contenders.

In the final round Anand, white, had little troubles against Topalov as the Indian knew that his half point cushion was going to be tough for Carlsen to jump over.

It was a Sicilian Najdorf by Topalov wherein Anand, as demanded by the tournament situation, played it safe and allowed Topalov to get away with an easy equality in the middle game.

After a few minor pieces and a couple of pawns had changed hands the players arrived at a middle game with heavy pieces and Bishops of opposite colours where the peace was a just result.

Anand owed his success to his consistency in the tournament, "I had a turbulent first half but I caught up by the fifth round with a score similar to last year, after that I had two draws before flying over (to Spain from Mexico). I feel in Linares people (other players) were tired. I think I was the most stable person here while others were going through roller coasters," the champion said after winning the tournament.

Speaking about how he would compare his performance in this unique event played over two continents Anand said," I scored a half point more at Morelia but its basically the same tournament, I think at Morelia I played interesting games".

The Indian ace singled out his first round win over Shirov as his best effort in the tournament, "I really like my win over Shirov, it was a great start to the tournament".

The Indian star ruled out his participation from the FIDE grand-prix this year and will next play in the Amber blindfold and rapid chess tournament before taking a break.

After Anand had drawn the onus was on Carlsen to match the world champion and he tried quite hard against Radjabov.

Playing white, the teenaged sensation from Norway even managed to win one of Radjabov's pawns but the latter remained aptly alert in the endgame to force a draw after 69 moves.

Statistics have it that Carlsen will jump to at least 5th place in world ranking in the next rating list scheduled to release on April 1st or could even be fourth which would be his best world ranking so far. — PTI

World number 11 Serena beat Venus, the number seven, 6-3 3-6 7-6 in a thrilling semi-final that lasted just over two hours and 10 minutes.

Left-handed fourth seed Schnyder had dispatched China's Yan Zi 6-3 6-4 in 75 minutes in the first semi-final.

The Williams sisters, who have won 14 grand slam singles titles between them, were playing for the first time since the 2005 U.S. Open fourth round.

Serena played more consistently to win the tie-breaker after the sisters had won a set each.

Swiss Schnyder broke Yan, who stunned top seed Jelena Jankovic in the quarter-finals, in the fifth and ninth games to wrap up the first set.

World number 54 Yan, who has won two grand slam doubles titles, staged a recovery in the second set to level at 3-3 but Schnyder broke her opponent twice more to seal the match.

"Except my first serves, everything worked well today," Schnyder told a news conference. "I like the high balls and it took a while to get used to. I really had to push each shot."

Chandigarh, March 8
Lucknow pro Sanjay Kumar set the Classic Golf Resort greens ablaze in Gurgaon today as he shot a superb round of 12 under par 60 to lead among the professionals after the first round of the BT Honda Pro-Am of Champions, the only stand-alone pro-am on the domestic golf tour.

With the professionals also playing from the amateur tees, it proved to be easy meat for the aces as there was a shower of birdies and eagles much to the delight of the accompanying amateur partners in the team.

Delhi pro Arjun Singh with a round of seven-under 65 was second while Singapore pro Lam Chih Bing shot a six-under 66 to share the third place with Ashok Kumar, Rahul Ganapathy and Sujjan Singh.

Sanjay Kumar whose last victory on the domestic circuit was the SRF Match-play championship two years ago, made a fiery start shooting five birdies and an eagle on his front nine to be seven-under. The stocky pro added five more birdies on his back nine to finish with a blemish-free card of 12-under par 60.

A cream of corporate world mingled with the top professionals of the country who are fighting for a total prize money of Rs 12 lakh. The second and final round will be played on Sunday.