Mumbai, May 29
Despite fitness concerns over pace spearhead Zaheer Khan and the players' fatigue factor looming large, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni was today optimistic about India retaining the World T20 Championship in England.

"We have a very balanced side, very strong in batting. We bat right down to eight or nine. This is not to say we lack in bowling. We have a strong bowling attack too," he told a press conference here before departing with teammates for London by an afternoon flight.

"We have some outstanding talents in our team and we need to focus on playing to our potential without worrying about the result. We have to give 100 per cent and hopefully we can defend the title," he said about the team's prospects in the tournament starting June 5.

Dhoni said the team's most experienced pacer Zaheer Khan was less than fully fit and hoped the injured left-arm bowler would be available for the holders lung-opener against Bangladesh on June 6 at Trent Bridge, Nottingham.

"Zaheer is not one hundred per cent fit, but we hope he would be fit by the time of our first match. We are hoping he would get fit by the 2nd or 3rd (of June)," the flamboyant wicketkeeper-batsman said.

Zaheer hurt his bowling shoulder during the Indian Premier League on May 3 in South Africa and underwent a scan that showed inflammation in the joint. He has not played competitive cricket since then.

Though fears have been expressed in some quarters, including by team coach Gary Kirsten, that his players may be jaded after playing non-stop since the beginning of the tour to New Zealand, Dhoni brushed them aside by saying every Indian player would now be used to this.

"We are all used to it by now. I came into international cricket in 2004 and have slowly got used to it. The weather in India is such that we can play cricket almost right through the year at various parts of the country. It's not a concern," he expressed confidently.

Dhoni said he was very pleased that he had plenty of options with regard to non-regular bowlers, especially in the spin department and that all his players have the experience of handling pressure by playing in the IPL.

"We have plenty of options with our part time bowlers, especially spinners. We have Rohit Sharma and Yuvraj Singh who have taken hat-tricks in the IPL. We also have Suresh Raina. Yusuf Pathan is there too," he said.

"International cricket is about handling pressure situations well and the team that handles pressure better would do well. We have someone like Ravindra Jadeja with limited international experience but with high talents. He has played against some top fast bowlers and spinners in the IPL and has learned to handle pressure," Dhoni said.

The India skipper was not too concerned about the team's opening combinations due to the indifferent form of opening batsmen Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir and bowlers Ishant Sharma and Zaheer Khan.

"I am not at all worried. Both the openers (batsmen) are very talented. As regards opening bowling combination we have not yet decided who will do it. You have seen spinners too opening the bowling in the IPL. Teams have to take gambles," Dhoni said.

He said the team members would have to make best use of the days they have at their disposal after reaching England prior to India's opening match. — PTI 

Paris, May 29
A tortured and tormented Venus Williams whimpered out of the French Open today while Portuguese teenager Michelle Larcher de Brito made a very noisy departure from the big stage.

After labouring through her first match, surviving a match point in the second, American third seed Williams was finally put out of her misery in the third round when she was tossed out by rising Hungarian Agnes Szavay 6-0, 6-4.

But the tournament's first real shock could not match the commotion created by a 16-year-old grand slam debutante. Fans scrambled for their earplugs at Roland Garros when the decibel level went up several notches before France's Aravane Rezai finally silenced Larcher de Brito 7-6, 6-2.

While Larcher de Brito deafened fans, top seeds Rafael Nadal and Dinara Safina made serene progress.

Four-times champion Nadal barely broke into a sweat as he overcame potential banana skin Lleyton Hewitt in a 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 hammering to extend his Paris record to 31-0.

Russian Safina set up a last-16 date with Rezai by thundering past teenage compatriot Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2, 6-0 and holder Ana Ivanovic pulled off an equally emphatic 6-0, 6-2 drubbing of Czech Iveta Benesova.

Men's fourth seed Novak Djokovic wasted little time in finishing off Ukrainian qualifier Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-3, 6-4, 6-1 in their interrupted second round match.

Paes, Bhupathi move up, Sania loses

It was a mixed day for India at the French Open as Leander Paes sailed into pre-quarterfinals of the men's doubles but Sania Mirza crashed out of the women's doubles event. The 14th seeded Sania and Taipei's Chia-Jung Chuang were knocked out 6-4, 6-7 (5), 3-6 by the unseeded Polish pair of Agnieszka and Urszula Radwanska here today. Third seeds Paes and Lukas Dlouhy staged a brilliant comeback to make their way into the last 16, defeating James Cerretani and Sergiy Stakhovsky 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles began their French Open campaign in the men's doubles event with a comfortable 6-3, 6-2 win over local pair of Josselin Ouanna and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. — Agencies

New Delhi, May 29
Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Dr Manohar Singh Gill assured here today that a new unified democratic hockey body, by merging the men’s and women’s associations, would be put in place very soon to enable India to host the 2010 Hockey World Cup without any hitch.

Dr Gill said this while interacting with a select group of reporters immediately after taking over as the Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports at his Shastri Bhawan office here today.

Dr Gill was Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports with independent charge in the previous Congress-led UPA Government from April 6, 2008 to May 15, 2009 and did much for the wheels to move on the Commonwealth Games front.

But now that he has been promoted as a Cabinet Minister, he looks forward to contribute substantially for the promotion of sports in the country, by keeping strict checks and balances on the money spent by the ministry.

“During the last one year, several initiatives were taken and I will continue to work with the same momentum”, he said. “Whatever bottlenecks were there in the construction of stadia by the Sports Authority of India (SAI) have been removed and am confident that all timelines will be met,” he added.

Dr Gill said he had taken up with Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president Suresh Kalmadi the urgent need to form a democratic “Hockey India” body with the unification of the men’s and women’s associations, as has been the norm world-wide.

He said he was satisfied with the approach of new foregin coach Jose Manuel Brasa of Spain and will provide whatever technical support he needs.

Dr Gill said he had requested the Finance Ministry to sanction at least Rs 10 crore so that deserving sportspersons could be rewarded. “Imagine an athlete of P.T.Usha’s standing was getting a monthly pension of Rs 4000, which I have doubled to Rs 8000. Athletes like Usha and Milkha Singh should be getting at least Rs 20,000 per month,” he noted.

Chandigarh, May 29
Though not as much as it did in the inaugural edition last year, the IPL-II brought to the fore certain Indian faces who caused quite a flutter with their exploits on the field. Besides, it also provided an excellent opportunity for the players, who had played for the country but lost their way.

While unknown players like Kamran Khan, Manish Pandey, Shadab Jakati, Pradeep Sangwan or Ravindra Jadeja caught the attention, for someone like Ashish Nehra the 59-match extravaganza proved a blessing in disguise as it brought him back into the reckoning to the Indian squad.

Besides, the tournament went a great deal in helping players like Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Pragyan Ojha and Yusuf Pathan in furthering their credentials.

This edition of the tournament brought the best out of Nehra. The Delhi Daredevils bowler proved that he was inching towards the form and fitness that once made him a tough customer with the ball. The left-arm seamer had his moments while leading the Daredevils bowling charge. Pitching the ball in the right areas and getting his outswinger going, Nehra kept his side in the hunt before Daredevils were done in the semifinal by the brute of an innings by Adam Gilchirst (35-ball 85).

As for Nehra, he finished with 19 scalps in his kitty from13 matches (R P Singh got 23 wickets in 16 matches fetching him the Purple Cap).

Going into the tournament with some indifferent form, Rohit Sharma reinforced the opinion that he was a special talent. The explosive half century off 28 balls studded with five sixes, three in an over of Anil Kumble, setting up victory for Chargers was a terrific knock.

Rohit next proved his utility as a bowler completing a hat-trick, the second of the competition after Yuvraj, against Mumbai Indians, prompting comments from his skipper Adam Gilchrist that Rohit should be in reckoning for the Purple Cap and not Orange cap!

Clouting the best of the bowlers out of the park with ease, Suresh Raina, playing for Chennai Super Kings proved how dangerous a batsman he was. With 434 runs he emerged the second most successful batsman from the side after Matthew Hayden, who scored 572 runs, the most by any batsman.

Left-arm spinner Ojha proved a vital cog in the successful Chargers' campaign for choking the flow of runs in the middle order and crucial breakthroughs.

For Royal Challengers Bangalore, an unknown Manish Pandey stunned one and all when he clobbered 114 against Deccan Chargers in the final league match, the first and the only century hit by an Indian player and the second in the tournament, and then notched up a polished 48 against Chennai Super Kings in the semifinal to grab two successive Man of the Match awards.

Before he was ruled out on account of suspect bowling action, rookie seamer Kamran Khan made one sit up and take notice of his raw talent. Skipper Shane Warne gave him the crucial last over against Kolkata Knight Riders and the bowler did not let his skipper down, finishing with figures of 4-0-18-3 in the tied match which Rajasthan won in Super Over.

The performances such as these gave the fans back home something special to cheer besides giving some desi flavour to the tournament.

New Delhi, May 29
Sandeep Singh was the lone Indian to enter the final of World Junior Boxing Championships, thus booking a silver medal at least, while three of his compatriots settled for bronze after losing their semifinal bouts in Yerevan, Armenia today. Opening the day for India, Sandeep (46kg) defeated Javlonbek Eshmatov of Uzbekistan 8-4 to set up a summit clash with Armenian Koryun Soghomonyan.

Soghomonyan ousted Russia’s Mogomed Djabrailov with a comprehensive 10-4 win. “Sandeep fought from a distance. He never allowed the Kazakh guy to come too close,” Indian coach MS Dhaka said.

The Indian had a 5-0 cushion after the opening round and he played it safe thereafter to keep his rival at arm’s bay.

However, there was disappointment elsewhere as Namit Bahadur (50kg), Vikas Khatri (54kg) and Shiva Thapa (52kg) lost in the semifinals to settle for bronze medals at the premier junior event of the International Boxing Association (AIBA). While Namit lost 3-7 to Kazakhstan’s Talgat Bertleuov, Vikas Khatri (54kg) went down 2-5 to Yunior Ernesto Valdes Boleri of Cuba. — PTI