Johannesburg, October 1
Indians shone at the International Cricket Council awards night here with captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Gautam Gambhir named as the ODI and Test Players of the Year at a glittering ceremony today.

The most coveted Cricketer of the Year Award, however, went to Australian Mitchel Johnson who had a phenomenal year with both the bat and the ball in Test and ODI crickets in the past year.

Interestingly, Gambhir won the Test Player of the Year Award by beating Johnson, Strauss and Sri Lankan Thilan Samaraweera. Gambhir scored 1269 runs from eight matches he played in the voting period with an astronomic average of 84.60 with five hundreds. His captain Dhoni retained the ODI Player Year of the Year Award, which he won last year also. Dhoni played 24 ODIs in the voting period from which he scored 967 with nine fifties at an average of 60.43, the strike rate being 86.63.

The Indian skipper beat strong competition from his own two team-mates in Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag, and West Indian Shivnarine Chanderpaul. Dhoni was also named captain of both the Test and ODI Teams of the Year. Both the world teams have three Indians each with Dhoni being one of them. Besides Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar and Gambhir found place in the world Test Team while Sehwag and Yuvraj figured in the ODI side.

The ICC World ODI Team of the Year is (in batting order): Virender Sehwag (Ind), Chris Gayle (WI), Kevin Pietersen (Eng), Tillakaratne Dilshan (SL), Yuvraj Singh (Ind), Martin Guptill (NZ), MS Dhoni (Ind, captain, wk), Andrew Flintoff (Eng), Nuwan Kulasekara (SL), Ajantha Mendis (SL), Umar Gul (Pak). 12th men: Thilan Thushara (SL).

The ICC World Test Team of the Year: MS Dhoni (Ind, captain, WK), Gautam Gambhir (Ind), Andrew Strauss (Eng), AB de Villiers (SA), Sachin Tendulkar (Ind), Thilan Samaraweera (SL), Michael Clarke (Aus), Shakib Al Hasan (Ban), Mitchell Johnson (Aus), Stuart Broad (Eng), Dale Steyn (SA), 12th man: Harbhajan Singh (Ind).

The selection panel for the awards was chaired by former West Indian captain Clive Lloyd. Other members of the panel included Anil Kumble (India), Bob Taylor (England), Mudassar Nazar (Pakistan) and Stephen Fleming (New Zealand).

The Awards: Cricketer of the Year: Mitchell Johnson (Australia) Test Player of the Year: Gautam Gambhir (Ind) One-Day Player of the Year: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (India) ICC World Test Team of the Year: Gautam Gambhir (India), Andrew Strauss (Eng), AB de Villiers (SA), Sachin Tendulkar (Ind), Thilan Samraweera (Sri Lanka), Michael Clarke (Aus), MS Dhoni (India-captain), Shakib al Hasan (Bangladesh), Mitchell Johnson (Aus), Stuart Broad (Eng), Dale Steyn (SA) and Harbhajan Singh ( 12th man; India).

Twenty20 International Performance of the Year: Tillekratne Dilshan (SL). Umpire of the Year: Aleem Dar (Pakistan) Spirit of Team Award: New Zealand Emerging Player of Year: Peter Siddle (Australia) Associate and Affiliate Player of Year Award: William Porterfield (Ireland) Women Cricketer of Year: Claire Taylor (England). — PTI

We need bowling all-rounders: Dhoni

Johannesburg, October 1
After crashing out of the Champions Trophy, India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni conceded his team made ‘quite a few mistakes’ in the tournament and stressed on the need of having bowling all-rounders to get a better balance in the side. Despite registering a win against West Indies yesterday, India were knocked out of the Champions Trophy after Australia beat Pakistan in another Group A league match earlier in the day.

“We made quite a few mistakes. In the first match, we gave width but that’s a problem which can be solved. We were not good in fielding either. There were a few run-outs as well,” Dhoni said. “I have often said if guys can improve by 15 to 20 per cent, it would help in bowling and fielding. Similar is with run-outs: if your fielding improves, it helps you in running between the wickets.”

“But we also need our bowlers to bat better. If you look at the Australians, they have Brett Lee and Mitchell Johnson who can bat well. It helps their side. If we can have a bowler who can bowl seam up and bat, it would help us to play, perhaps two spinners and five bowlers,” he said.

Dhoni wasn’t also inclined to rate the Champions Trophy fiasco worse than the one his team suffered in the Twenty20 World Cup in England in June. “It’s difficult to say which was worse but I feel here, we won one and lost one while a game was rained off. In England it felt worse because we got enough games and our performance was not good enough,” said Dhoni.

India was handicapped by the absence of Sachin Tendulkar who suffered from food-poisoning before the game against the West Indies. “I came to know about it at 10-11 am. He was still feeling weak. In fact, it happened to five or six of our players,” said Dhoni.

Dhoni said his side was keeping a close eye on the match between Pakistan and Australia being played out at the Centurion earlier in the day. “Of course we wanted Pakistan to win. That was our best chance of qualifying. The climax was good and quite a few of us kept following it on television at the break, unfortunately, the openers had to go in (and thus missed the closing minutes of play).”

“That game was more important to us, especially since we had got the West Indies out for 129 runs,” he said. Dhoni brought himself to bowl in the 17th over and he promptly got a wicket for himself with his fourth delivery in one-day internationals.

“I thought if the (West Indies) innings lasted till the 50th over, we would need part-timers to bowl three or four overs. Knowing these conditions, I thought it was best if I could try myself for 3 or 4 overs,” Dhoni said. — PTI

Centurion, October 1
Having sneaked into the semifinals with a last-ball victory over Pakistan, Australia will have to plug their batting loopholes when they take on their traditional rivals England in the first semifinal of the Champions Trophy here tomorrow. Chasing 206 against Pakistan yesterday, Australia’s middle order collapsed from a comfortable position before they struggled their way to the semifinal and skipper Ricky Ponting will have to ensure his men do not repeat the same mistakes.

Match starts 5.45 pm (IST) on ESPN

Australia had recently registered a convincing 6-1 victory over England in the ODI series in England and Ponting will hope his team draws inspiration from that series and comes up with a similar performance tomorrow.

“We had a very good series against England over there but its different conditions here and I think they are playing really good cricket. We have to make sure we play well in the next match on Friday,” said Ponting yesterday.

Australia does not seem to have any chink but yesterday’s match showed their vulnerability to quality bowling specially at the end overs. Australia’s top order have so far fired with Tim Paine, Ponting and Mike Hussey leading the way for the team. However, opener Shane Watson’s poor form will be a cause of worry for the Aussies.

Also the absence of middle order mainstay Michael Clarke, out of the tournament because of back injury, is likely to hurt the Australians as they fancy their chances of reaching the Champions Trophy final for the second time on the trot.

Clarke’s ouster will give a chance to David Hussey to make himself counted and claim his spot back in the squad, especially with the ODI series against India round the corner. Among the bowlers, Mitchell Johnson, Watson and comeback man Brett Lee have troubled the opponents with their swing and pace and in Nathan Hauritz they have a crafty spinner.

England, on the other hand, had an unbeaten run before New Zealand spoilt their party in their last match. Although skipper Andrew Strauss had blamed the bad pitch for the debacle, he will have to ensure their batting doesn’t crumble again against the Aussies.

Paul Collingwood and Owais Shah have been the leading run scorers for England but skipper Strauss himself has not been among the runs. However, Ravi Bopara and youngsters Eoin Morgan have showed enough sparks. Meanwhile fast bowler Stuart Broad is doubtful for the semifinal due to a buttock injury. Broad complained of tightness following England’s four-wicket loss to New Zealand on Tuesday. England wicketkeeper Matt Prior is also doubtful after missing the last two games due to a virus.

England lacks a quality spinner as Graham Swann have so far looked a shadow of himself and skipper Strauss will hope he comes good. — Agencies

Tokyo, October 1
Maria Sharapova breezed past Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic to keep on course for a potential final against Jelena Jankovic at the Pan Pacific Open today. The Russian former world number one, champion here in 2005 but unseeded this time around, shrugged off a service break down in each set before scoring a 6-4, 7-5 victory to advance to the semis.

Sharapova, who lost the opening game after a double fault, hit an easy forehand winner at the net to make it 4-4 in the eighth before taking the following two games and the set. The 22-year-old again struggled with her serve in the second set, relying instead on a number of sizzling winners from Benesova’s second serve.

Seventh seed Serb Jankovic, another former world number one, powered her way through to a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Marion Bartoli, putting an end to her match-losing streak against the French 14th seed.

“Sometimes I dropped service games but I held many of them, and broke her serve a couple of times. I thought I did quite well,” said Jankovic, reducing her record against Bartoli to 4-5. “She is a good returner. Sometimes I hit good serves, but she broke back and used my power. So I tried to hit so hard first serves and mixed it up at times, which was the difference today. I put pressure on her when I was returning,” said Jankovic.

In the semifinals tomorrow, Sharapova will play either Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland or Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia, while Jankovic will meet the winner of the tie between China’s Li Na and Victoria Azarenka of Belarus. Jankovic and Bartoli traded breaks three times each and Jankovic managed to pull of one more in the 10th game to take the first set.

Bartoli soon found herself 0-3 down and then 1-5 in the second set, but fought back to break Jankovic in the seventh game for 2-5 and then 3-5, but Jankovic took a commanding 40-15 lead in the following game. Bartoli charged to the net on a short ball to fire a forehand winner on the first match point but her backhand return betrayed her on the following point to surrender the match. — AFP

Patiala, October 1
Basketball might be the fastest growing sport in the world but in India, the sport is only just picking up. Basketball started its journey in India many years back and is now slowly and gradually gaining popularity among youngsters.

Punjab, the country’s sports hub, has given special importance to basketball too, which initially was only restricted to men. But with the passage of time, even Punjabi women have come forward and are making it to the Indian squad. Many Punjab women have already represented India but the latest sensation is Harjeet Kaur.

Harjeet, a 21-year-old from Patiala, has been putting in outstanding performance off-late and she was also part of the team that played the first senior Asian Basketball Championship that concluded in Chennai, recently. Though the team finished sixth and only managed to stay in the upper pool of the championship, Harjeet for sure made a mark for herself.

Born in Patiala to Gulzar Kaur and Jagga Singh, a constable with Punjab Police, Harjeet’s family had never imagined their daughter would end up playing basketball, forget represent India. She was studying in Class VIII when her principal Balbir Kaur noticed the potential and asked her basketball coach Amarjot Singh to take her into the team.

Harjeet said she was shocked when her coach called her and asked her to join the basketball squad. “I came from a very conservative family and they didn’t approve of a girl playing basketball. Like others, they wanted me to study hard and take up a good job. So my coach and principal had to really convince them to give me chance,” she added.

Then she started her training at Polo Ground and Police Line Ground and from then on, there was no looking back. Talking about her entry in Delhi, Harjeet informed that after she started training at Ludhiana, the Delhi team offered her a chance to play for them and she gladly accepted, “because in order to grow one has to move on”.

She further adds, “Moreover, I started training with the best in the country that helped me improve my game. Talking to The Tribune, Harjeet said, “My height is my biggest advantage. On most of the places I got picked up because of this and now I have made it my strength. There are many good players. Its just that the height gives me that extra edge.”

Harjeet played for her school, college and then Delhi University and won various laurels. She has already represented India in the junior Aian Basketball Championship twice and entry into the senior team is the latest achievement.

Harjeet has recently been offered a job as a Upper Decision Clerk in Railways and is soon joining the squad consisting of the best women cagers in India. When asked what she had to say to other young players in Punjab, she said hardwork was the mantra. “Also the government must provide facilities at the ground root level so that more and more girl players could come forward. My younger sister too is all set to follow my footsteps,” she added.