New Delhi, December 28
It was a year of turmoil for Indian tennis, which was marked by more controversies and less successes. Sania Mirza slipped out of the top 100 in the world ranking and Leander Paes faced revolt from his teammates.

Prakash Amritraj, Rohan Bopanna and Mahesh Bhupathi refused to play under Paes' captainship. And though the All India Tennis Association (AITA) managed a brief truce between the players Paes was forced to quit as skipper few months later.

The Paes-Bhupathi spat showed no sign of ending and India's campaign for an Olympic medal in tennis ended in a disaster.

The Indian pair lost to the eventual gold medal winning duo of Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka.

Injury-prone Sania Mirza went to Olympics with support staff which could have been the envy of a champion, but the unfit Hyderabadi girl could not complete her match as she conceded her first-round fixture to Czech Republic's Ivein Benesova due to wrist injury.

It was a highly forgetable year for Sania who played barely 12 WTA events and her best showing was reaching last eight of the Hobart tournament.

On the other hand, Paes won one Grand Slam title this year - US Open mixed doubles with Cara Black. He also claimed one ATP title and ended runners-up with Lukas Dlouhy at four events including the US Open.

While Bhupathi, in partnership with Bahamian Mark Knowles, won three ATP titles - Memphis, Dubai and Basel and was runners-up five times, including three Masters Series events.

He made it to the mixed doubles final of the Australian Open with Sania Mirza and semifinals in the men's doubles with Knowles.

However, not all was bleak for Indian tennis. Raising hopes for the future was young and promising Somdev Devvarman.

Somdev, based in USA, turned pro this year, and moved up fast to become the top player for India replacing Prakash Amritraj.

The total lack of bench strength in Indian tennis was evident that Somdev, still out of top 200, is being hailed as the next best thing for the game in the country.

He played 13 Tour events and showed glimpses of being a good player. It remains to be seen whether the youngster will live up to the promise he has shown this year.

Rohan Bopanna also moved into the top 50 in doubles rankings as he won the tournament at Los Angeles. He finished runners-up in two other tournaments.

As the year started with controversy it ended with yet another controversy. The governments policy, that only Indian citizens would represent the country in international events, has created problems for Prakash Amritraj, Sunitha Rao, Shikha and Neha Uberoi, all US passport holders.

In between AITA landed itself in a controversy when it questioned the motives of the ad campaign; Apollo’s Mission 2018 project.

The Mumbai Open was postponed with organisers citing security concerns and
the AITA slapped a ban on private companies from organising ATP events in the
country. — UNI

Ahmedabad, December 28
Mumbai firmly placed themselves in the driver’s seat in the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal against Himachal Pradesh having reduced their opponents to 200 for five in their second innings on the third and penultimate day of the four-day match here today.

Mumbai resumed their first innings at 405 for six and were all out for 495 and then left Himachal trailing by huge 245-run margin at Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera.

Scoreboard

Himachal Pradesh (1st innings) 250

Mumbai (1st innings)

(overnight 405 for 6)

Bahutule b Malik 34

Agarkar b Mehta 50

Powar c Sangram b Sarandeep 28

Kulkarni c Sangram b Mehta 3

Shaikh not out 20

Extras (b 15, lb 11, w 7, nb 21) 54

Total (all out; 124.4 overs) 495

FoW: 1-53, 2-114, 3-141, 4-254, 5-334, 6-349, 7-436, 8-440, 9-444.

Bowling: Thakur 15-5-42-0, Malik 22-2-62-2, Mehta 19-4-87-3, Sarandeep
31.4-2-104-2, Bhatia 31-0-154-3, Thakkar 3-1-6-0, Mukesh 1-0-7-0,
Sangram 2-0-7-0.

Himachal Pradesh (2nd innings)

Thakkar c Samant b Agarkar 4

Sangram lbw b Agarkar 58

Indulkar c Jaffer b Powar 24

Mukesh c sub b Nayar 8

Dogra not out 82

A Mannu c Powar b Bahutule 6

Sarandeep not out 2

Extras (b 4, lb 2, nb 10) 16

Total (5 wickets; 56 overs) 200

FoW: 1-4, 2-61, 3-82, 4-151, 5-187.

Chandigarh, December 28
Basic issues that prompted the Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports to withdraw all assistance given to Persons of Indian Origin or Overseas Citizens of India look both arbitrary and illogical as this assistance granted earlier had in no way come in the way of promotion of sports in the country.

This is the unanimous opinion of a score of Olympians, international players, both past and present and some veteran sports organisers and promoters.

“Now when the world is shrinking into a global village and even advanced and developed countries have been increasing patronising and encouraging players from amongst landed immigrants or permanent residents (not citizens) to represent them in Olympics and World championships, India has taken a step backwards,” says a former all-India Inter-University player who later represented Kenya in Olympic Games and is now settled in England.

Most of the Olympians, international players and sports organisers are still not clear about the new advisory sent out to the Indian Olympic Association and various National Sports Federations.

The reaction of the IOA secretary-general Randhir Singh and office-bearers of various NSFs to the advisory was expected.

Looking back at PIOs or OCIs that have represented country in Olympics or World Championship during past four decades the number hardly runs into double figures.

Now banned, expatriates, some of whom had retained Indian citizenship till they represented the country in Olympics, Commonwealth Games, Asian Games or World Championships, represented India in track and field, tennis, swimming and shooting.

It all started with Jaipal Singh being called from England to be a member of Indian hockey team in the 1928 Olympic games. At that time, citizenship was no issue as India was a British colony.

Davis cupper Jasjit Singh used to come from the US to represent India in 70s. Now we have Parkash Amritraj, Uberoi sisters, Sunita Rao and a few other tennis players who may have already represented India or were eyeing a place in the national contingent in future ITF events abroad.

There are some other US tennis players of Indian origin who never sought to play for India. Some of them have been performing well in international circuits.

Shooting is another sport where India has a history of allowing expatriates to represent the country.

Soma Dutta, for example, not only became the youngest shooter in the 1984 Olympic games, but also continued to represent India in 1988 and 1992 Olympic games while staying in the US.

Track and field stars including triple jumper Mohinder Gill and Geeta Zutshi had been at some stage of their participation in international sports meets residents of the US. Mohinder Gill is now settled in the US while Geeta returned to the country after 17-year stay in US.

Sunita Puri in swimming also came from the US to represent India in the 1996 Olympic games. Shikha Tandon had been another expatriate to represent India in Olympic swimming.

If these sportsmen and women represented India, they did not deny any Indian national chance to represent the country.

In Olympics, World Championships and even invitational sports meets like Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, only those who attain a pre-determined level, called qualifying mark, can represent the country.

As such if these expatriates represented India, it was primarily because they had met those qualification marks by training abroad and not in India and no one else from India could have substituted them.

If participation of 20-odd expatriates over a period of 30 years is considered a hindrance in development of sports or nurturing of talent in the country, then no one can help Indian sports.

Against these 20-odd expatriates who had represented India, at least three times sportsmen and women (PIOs) had represented different countries in Olympics and world championships.

Much before Abhinav Bindra, Alexy Singh Grewal, born of a Punjabi father, won the 192 km road race gold for the US in the 1984 Olympic games.

Intriguingly, Ministry does not want expatriates to carry the flag of India or walk under it but it has no problem in allowing foreign coaches, doctors, physiotherapists and other trainers to carry or walk under the same national flag.

Chandigarh, December 28
Anurag Thakur took over as Himachal Pradesh Olympic Association secretary and J P Nadda as its president following recognition granted to the group from the Indian Olympic Association.

Thakur, also president of the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association, circulated among newsmen a copy of the letter signed by Suresh Kalmadi, president, Indian Olympic Association, recognising his group as the HPOA today.

Thakur said a meeting of the state Olympic association was held on August 10 in Bilaspur. There were some issues concerning the state athletic and gymnastics association on which Ram Lal Thakur, the then president of the HPOA, walked out where he (Anurag Thakur) was unanimously elected as secretary of the HPOA and J P Nadda, state forest minister, as president. Rajiv Mehta attended the meeting as IOA observer.

He maintained that the most of affiliated sports associations and three district Olympic association were with them. “The IOA took the decision after hearing both the groups.”

Thanking all the state associations for his election, Thakur said he was committed to the upliftment of sports in the state. “Here in HPOA with all those involved in sports assuring support, I am looking forward to working for improvement of sports in the state,” Thakur, a BJP MP from Hamirpur constituency, said.

To begin with, dates of the state games would be announced soon. “We have announced the laying of synthetic tracks at Hamirpur and Dharamsala,” he said.

“A sum of Rs 40 crore has been earmarked for sports during the next four years,” he revealed. Corporate houses will be involved for improving infrastructure in the state and 12 state-of-the-art stadia will be constructed during the period.

Citing his experience of working and overseeing the development of cricket, Thakur said when he took over as the HPCA head the budget of the association was Rs 20 lakh, which now stood at Rs 14 crore per annum. “A cricket stadium worth Rs 20 crore was in place in Dharamsala.”

“The state cricket team, which used to struggle to win even a single Ranji Trophy match had qualified for the Elite group after topping in the Plate group,” he said.

The Himachal Ranji team stunned one and all with the superlative display in the national championship registering impressive wins. The team was currently engaged in quarterfinal clash with Mumbai in Ahmedabad.

“Besides, our junior cricket team playing in the age-group tournaments were doing exceptionally well,” he said.

“Indira Gandhi Stadium in Simla will have a shooting range for the benefit of the shooters,” he said.

Quizzed why only 15 state sport associations existed in the state when the number of events was so large, Thakur said all the support will be extended to other associations and they will be granted affiliation.

“More coaches will be appointed for grooming the talent which was there in abundance in the state,” he added.

Nabha, December 28
Defending champs BSF dream to lay their hands on the coveted title for the seventh time blossomed like a rose on a warm December afternoon at the Government Ripudaman college grounds here today as the curtain came down on the 33rd All India Liberals hockey tournament here today.

Today’s final, played in front of a packed house under an azure sky, was a repeat of last year’s summit clash and BSF did an encore by out stroking last year’s runners up EME 5-4.

However, in the midst of some enthralling and absorbing hockey displayed by both teams, a discordant note was struck when the chief guest PWD Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa arrived at the venue nearly two hours behind the scheduled time.

This late arrival forced harried organisers to postpone the final of one of the most prestigious and oldest tournaments of north India by more than 90 minutes.

From the first half itself the dice rolled favourably for BSF as they forced a series of penalty corners in the first quarter of the match.

Much against the run of play EME forged ahead in the 16th minute when Bijay Dhingra sent in a stinging reverse shot, the speed of which completely blinded the BSF custodian.

Things heated up in the second half and after the BSF coach made a couple of substitutions, midfielders started feeding the frontline with some precise passes.

The equaliser came when defender Gurmeet Singh scored off a penalty corner, shot being as clean as a whistle although the goal was protested by the EME players.

The tie breaker had to be resorted to to break the 1-1 deadlock and finally BSF triumphed 5-4.