Melbourne, September 12
Volatile all-rounder Andrew Symonds, who has made headlines for controversies in recent times, was today dropped from Australia's 15-member Test squad for next month's tour of India on disciplinary grounds.

The burly Symonds, who created a flutter earlier this year for claiming that India's Harbhajan Singh had racially abused him, has been given time for "introspection" so that he can decide on his future.

National selection panel chairman Andrew Hilditch said Symonds, who was sent packing after his "gone fishing" saga in Darwin during the one-dayers against Bangladesh last month, is now in a process of introspection and will be considered once he is fully fit.

"Andrew Symonds was stood down for disciplinary reasons in Darwin and is now going through a process managed by Cricket Australia designed to give him time to assess whether he is fully committed to all of the things needed for a cricketer to be a member of the world's number one team," Hilditch said.

"Cricket Australia has told us that selectors will be advised once Andrew can be considered again for selection and we hope we can look forward to that advice in due course because as we all know, a fit and fully-committed Andrew Symonds can be a world beater," he added.

Left-arm chinaman bowler Beau Casson also has been dropped while spinner 36-year-old Bryce McGain has been included and is set to make his debut against India.

Right-arm spinner Jason Krejza have also been given a ticket and Hilditch feels the spinners will do well in Indian conditions.

"We are pleased with the balance achieved in this squad. We have selected two internationally inexperienced spinners but we feel they are the right kind of spinners for the conditions and have faith they will both do very well when given opportunities," he said.

"Bryce McGain was the standout leg-spinner at interstate level last year and we think he is really well suited to the Indian conditions and bowling plans.

"Jason Krejza had a good season for Tasmania last year but is a selection very much for Indian conditions. The selectors felt right-arm finger spinners would perform well in India," he added.

Among the pacers, youngsters Doug Bollinger and Peter Siddle have been given a chance to play for Australia, while all-rounder Shane Watson has been included to provide extra flexibility to the team.

Batting mainstays Ricky Ponting and Matthew Hayden are also recovering fast from injuries and Hilditch expects the duo would be fit and play a pivotal role in the Series which starts on October 9 in Bangalore.

The 15-member squad: Ricky Ponting (C), Michael Clarke (VC), Doug Bollinger, Stuart Clark, Brad Haddin, Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey, Phil Jaques, Mitchell Johnson, Simon Katich, Jason Krejza, Brett Lee, Bryce McGain, Peter Siddle, Shane Watson. — PTI

Sydney: Andrew Symonds must be wondering what hit him after being dropped from the Australian squad for the four-Test series in India.

He must be ruminating his own words he uttered during the Harbhajan Singh appeal hearing last summer: "A Test match is no place to be friendly with an opposition player".

Symonds and vice-captain Michael Clarke were cricket's most effective offside fielding team and got on well socially, but things got soured of late, reports The Australian.

The pair allegedly had a blow-up in a hotel bar in the West Indies. Clarke, the team's vice-captain and one of the more dedicated cricketers on or off the field, chipped Symonds one night when he found him drinking in the bar with former West Indies great Brian Lara.

He is said to have suggested that Symonds had better be in good shape to take the field the next day, a suggestion not taken in good humour.

Symonds blew up and the pair had a very heated argument. They later patched things up, but relations have again become strained with Clarke leading the charge to have the belligerent all-rounder sent home from Darwin last month and placed on notice about his cricketing future.

The Australian team has been concerned about Symonds for some time, but things have grown worse of late and missing a team meeting for a fishing expedition was the last straw.

When disciplined by his peers, Symonds showed no contrition.

"I have had some time to reflect on the events that took place in Darwin," Symonds said a few days after his ejection.

"I would like to say thanks for the many messages of support that I have received over the past day or so. I appreciate your best wishes. I've been asked to think about what is important to me and I will take this time to do that."

No matter how hard you read his prepared statement you will find no apologies, expressions of regret or acknowledgement that he may have erred.

He did, however, go as far as to suggest that it would be nice if he was left alone.

When Symonds showed up drunk before a one-day match against Bangladesh in Cardiff in 2005, he infuriated captain Ricky Ponting on two fronts.

The captain was upset that he would be so "disrespectful to himself, his team-mates, his opponents and his country by turning out in that state".

Writing in his Captain's Diary, Ponting said he became even more angry with the way Symonds reacted when told he was out of the game.

His relationship with Cricket Australia has been strained for some time as Symonds is still upset at reports that a number of board members wanted him sacked over the 2005 incident.

Team-mates are convinced he had to be disciplined for his attitude in Darwin for they feared what would happen should Symonds be in the same state during the Indian tour.

This time last year Symonds arrived in India, sledged the locals about their Twenty20 World Cup celebrations, clashed with a number of players on the field and then looked to the stands to find fans taunting him with monkey chants. Things went downhill from there and don't seemed to have recovered since. —IANS

New Delhi, September 12
Former Chief Election Commissioner T.S.Krishna Murthy, appointed to enquire into the dope test issue of weightlifter Monika Devi, today submitted his 19-page report to Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Dr M.S.Gill.

The Ministry said it will "take early action based on the findings and recommendations" of the report which has not absolved Monika Devi of the doping charges, and come down heavily on the slack functioning of the official machinery and the national sports federations.

In his report, after collating evidence and submissions from a variety of sources, Krishna Murthy has observed that "the whole controversy surrounding this episode could have very well been avoided had there been a better management of procedures for coaching camps, process of selection of athlete, testing of the samples as well as communications of the results thereof and the appointment of coach".

Krishna Murthy was appointed on August 13 to probe into the dope violations by Monika Devi and her subsequently missing the Beijing Olympic Games.

In his report, Murthy has noted that "weightlifting is the most vulnerable sports discipline affected by dope menace" and Monika Devi's first sample was taken by the Army Sports Institute, Pune on 6 June, 2008 and which was received by the National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL) at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on June 11.

"The report of the NDTL in respect of this sample dated July 10 conveyed 'report will be submitted shortly' which is said to be 'given in case of suspicious cases' ".

This information was conveyed by the Sports Authority of India (SAI), under which the NDTL functions, to the Indian Weightlifting Federation "but there is no indication of it having been communicated to the athlete".

The report said the Monika Devi case was vitiated due to the "undue delay in communication of test result and also lack of co-ordination between the IWF and SAI at the time of selection of athlete and the perceptible differences in the appointment of coach seems to have contributed to an uneasiness in the relationship between the coach, the IWF, athlete and SAI".

"Another contributory factor to the confusion is the selection of a standby athlete for Olympics, which is not the normal practice. The correct position regarding the standby athlete needs to be clarified in future", the report notes.

The commission has also made adverse notings against coach Hansa Sharma, wondering "why no action was taken against a coach reportedly having a bad track record"

The report had stated that "there has been considerable delay in completing the test of the sample of Monika Devi taken on June 6 and in communicating the same to the athlete. Had the testing been done within the stipulated time and the result thereof been communicated immediately thereafter, the disappointment and the mental shock the athlete had by the sudden and abrupt communication especially through the media first could have been easily avoided".

But the report has not absolved Monika Devi of doping violation and Murthy has justified her exclusion from the Beijing Olympics.

"Although withdrawing her from the Beijing Olympics was right procedurally, the athlete did not have any opportunity to rebut the findings as she was not informed of the deficiency in time".

New Delhi, September 12
Virender Sehwag does not hanker after Test captaincy and the swashbuckling opener says as a senior member of the squad, he would keep giving his inputs to whoever leads the side. While ODI and T20 captain MS Dhoni is the favourite to take over the Test reins from Anil Kumble in the future, a section of former players believe Sehwag might be the right choice for the job.

The Delhi batsman, however, made it clear that he does not crave for the job and would keep helping the team as a senior member. “As a senior member, I would keep giving my suggestions. I suggested something to Kumble in Perth and it clicked. Likewise, I would keep giving my suggestions and it won’t have anything to do with whether I’m the skipper or not,” Sehwag told reporters here today on the sidelines of a Neo Cricket channel programme.

In the Perth Test, Sehwag had asked Kumble to persist with Ishant Sharma, who was off-colour till then, and the move paid off with the Delhi speedster removing Ricky Ponting. Told about the view of some of the former players who would have liked to see him as the next Test captain, Sehwag said, “It’s their opinion”. — PTI

Bathinda, September 12
Defending champions, the Railway Sports Promotion Board (RSPB), have retained the Overall Championship title at the 55th Senior Men National Boxing Championship which concluded here today.

Amid an electrifying atmosphere also because of the presence of cine-star Sanjay Dutt, Olympic bronze medallist Vijender, Olympians Akhil and Jitendra, the powerful punches of the Railways pugilists proved just perfect to clinch altogether four gold medals.

The runners-up title was grabbed by the Services as its boxers managed to win three gold medals. Punjab also bagged three gold medals but got the third position in the tourney. Punjab ace boxer Kuldeep Singh clinched the Best Boxer award while the Best Loser award went to Rakesh Kalskar of Services.

Supremacy of the Railways could be comprehended well from the fact that its five boxers reached the finals and four of them grabbed a gold. All three Punjab boxers in finals clinched gold medals.

Among all bouts in the finals, the fight in the middle 75 kg category between Kuldeep Singh (Punjab) and Manjeet (Haryana) was fierce as the Punjab boxer, although sustaining cut below right eye, won by a margin of six points.

Final Result: Light Fly 48 kg: Amandeep Deep Singh (Punjab) bt Manwar Hussain (RSPB).

Fly 51 kg: M Suranjay Singh (Services) bt Hemant Kumar (Jharkhand) 19-9.

Bantam 54 kg: Torak Kharpran (Meghalaya) bt S Suresh Singh (CISF) 23-22.

Feather 57 kg: Chhotelal Yadav (Services) bt Manoj Bapu Pagare (Maharastra) 25-8.

Light 60 kg: Amandeep Singh (Punjab) bt Rakesh Kalskar (Services) 29-24.

Light Welter 64 kg: Manoj Kumar (RSPB) bt Vijay Thapa (Meghalaya) 15-4.

Welter 69 kg: Dilbag Singh (RSPB) bt Jai Singh Patil (Service) 16-4.

Middle 75 kg: Kuldeep Singh (Punjab) bt Manjeet (Haryana) 21-15.

Light Heavy 81 kg: Jasveer Singh (RSPB) bt Mahindra Thapa (Services) 16-14.

Heavy 91 kg: Manpreet Singh (Service) bt Narendra (Delhi) 21-5.

Super Heavy + 91 kg: Paramjeet Samota (RSPB) bt Arun Kumar (Haryana) 26-11.

Chandigarh, Setember 12
Pinegrove School, Dharampur, Solan district in Himachal Pradesh is hosting the All-India IPSC Girls’ Cricket Tournament 2008 from September 14 to 20. For the first time in the history of the Indian Public Schools’ Conference (IPSC), the tournament will be played under floodlights. Ten teams of elite residential schools from across the country and as far as Tamill Nadu have confirmed entries.

Members and umpires from the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) will conduct the tournament. The IPSC will send two of its observers to help select the IPSC team to participate in the SGFI Nationals.

The tournament was started by the IPSC eight years ago with an aim to instill confidence among schoolgirls. The IPSC has a permanent seat in the SGFI Games due to its performance at the national-level as also due to the facilities and infrastructure they offer for conducting these games.

Started in 1939 with a few residential schools the IPSC has now a strength of 80 residential schools, including sainik schools and military schools. The IPSC is a confluence of the most prestigious group of residential schools in the country. The primary aim of the member schools of the IPSC is to prepare students for leadership roles in society.

The chairman of IPSC and Principal-Director of Motilal Nehru Sports’ School, Rai, Haryana stated,“Pinegrove is a leading public school in the region and is doing Yeoman's service to society.”

The headmaster of Pinegrove School, Capt AJ Singh told The Tribune that, “The girls at Pinegrove have taken up cricket quite enthusiastically and about 50 per cent girls starting right from standard 7th play cricket in the school. The standard of smartness and levels of discipline has improved tremendously, among girls ever since cricket was introduced for them. The game is helping to shape up their personalities and developing their characters as well. Cricket has become a passion for them.”

The school is also conducting conditioning and coaching camps of HPCA to uplift the standard of cricket in the school and the state of Himachal.

Three girls from Pinegrove have also been selected for the conditioning and coaching camps of the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association in the under -19 team.

The best player of the tournament will get prizes worth about Rs 30,000/- and the best bowler, batsman and wicketkeeper will be getting prizes worth about Rs 15,000/- each.

Anurag Thakur, Member of Parliament and HPCA president, will be the chief guest at the closing ceremony and Sarveen Choudhry, minister for social justice and empowerment, Himachal Pradesh, will be the chief guest at the opening ceremony. JP Nadda, forest minister, Himachal Pradesh, is patronising the tournament.

The following schools are scheduled to take part in the tournament: Mayo College Girls’ School, Ajmer (Raj); YPS, Patiala (Pb); YPS, Mohali (Pb); Ashok Hall, Nainital (U’khand); Maharani Gayatri Devi, Jaipur (Raj); Modi School, Lakshmangarh (Raj); Lawrence School, Lovedale Nilgiris (TN); Daly College Indore (MP) Scindia School, Gwalior (MP); and Pinegrove School, HP. Mayo College (girls’) Ajmer lifted the trophy last year and YPS (Mohali) was the runners-up.