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CWG 2010
INDIA-AUSTRALIA
ODI Series
Ankur to lead Punjab Ranji team
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‘MSD will take India higher’
Allan Border
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India receives Queen’s Baton Relay
Faraz Ahmed writes from London
Setting at rest all the controversies and doubts surrounding the preparations for the Common Wealth Games, the Indian sports fraternity presented a picture of unity as Queen Elizabeth handed over a specially crafted technological marvel of the games baton to President Pratibha Patil in the fore court of the Buckimham palace. Before the Queen and Patil arrived for the main ceremony an overwhelming crowd inside and outside the palace fore court was treated to a variety of Indian classical, semi classical and popular music, dance and other cultural items.
An array of Indian and Indian origin atheletes and sportsmen, both past and present, were there to participate in the relay that began with three rounds of Queen Victoria’s statue outside the palace. PTI adds: The Queen placed her message into the baton after receiving it from Commonwealth Games Federation Michael Fennell as a host of dignitaries watched the proceedings beamed live in India. President Patil passed on the baton to Sports Minister of India M S Gill, who handed it over to Organising Committee Chairman Suresh Kalmadi. From Kalmadi baton reached the hands of first baton- bearer Abhinav Bindra, India’s only Olympic Gold medallist. With Indian music playing in the background air rifle shooter Bindra began the relay-run and handed over the baton to legendary middle-distance runner Lord Sebastian Coe, waiting just outside gates of the Palace. Coe is also Chairman of the Organising Committee of the 2012 London Olympics. The baton passed through the hands of Legendary Indian cricketer Kapil Dev, the most successful female tennis player Sania Mirza, flying sikh Milkha Singh, Olympic bronze medal winners - boxer Vijender Singh and wrestler Sushil Kumar - and England’s first Sikh cricketer Monty Panesar among other Indian sports personalities. The Queen’s Baton for the 2010 Commonwealth Games is a delicate mix of aesthetics and technology with an in-built location tracking system and a camera capable of sending images to the Games website. Built with Aluminium and Gold, this piece of art has Queen Elizabeth’s message engraved on a miniature 18-carat gold leaf that is symbolic of the ancient Indian palm leaf ‘patras’ using laser technology. Designed by Michael Foley of Foley design along with Titan Industries and Bharat Electronics, it will have an embedded system to receive SMSes sent by enthusiasts from across the world. These SMSes can be viewed when baton is docked on its special stands or on the website of the Commonwealth Games. The torch, which will cover about two lakh kilometers across the world in its 340-day journey through air, sea and land, will remain connected with the headquarters through a GPRS system. The visuals around the runner will be captured using a miniature camera which will keep updating on the Games website on a real-time basis. After travelling to different member countries of the Commonwealth, the Baton will enter India through Wagah Border along Pakistan, 100 days before the start of the Games. It will then be taken to all state capitals of the country before reaching the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Delhi for the opening ceremony of the Games on October 3, 2010. Soil from different nation countries is set in channels on the surface of baton. Earlier, dance, dresses and drums from different parts of India virtually turned the majestic Victoria Memorial into a mini-India at the start of Relay. A bunch of British students joined the celebrations chanting the Sanskrit verses from ancient Rig Veda. As the sanskrit prayers speaking of unity and humanity of these students from St James school revereberated in the forecourt of the Buckingham Palace, the crowd joined in with encouraging cheers and claps for their effort.
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ODI Series Lee could have made the difference: Ponting
Nagpur, October 29 Paine, who himself was a second-choice after regular Brad Haddin who is already on the injured list and is not with the touring party, suffered the injury while trying to collect a bouncing delivery from speedster Peter Siddle in the eighth over of the Indian innings. Talking about the comprehensive 99-run defeat suffered by his team today at the hands of the hosts, Ponting said Australia were totally outplayed. “India seized the momentum early on. They batted very well, Dhoni and Gambhir initially and then Raina. And once we were 45 for three we were out of the game. Our batsmen had everything to lose and nothing to gain today. Unfortunately, we ended up on the losing side,” Ponting said. Ponting defended his decision to field first as he said batting was his team’s stronger suit today in the absence of Brett Lee and James Hopes due to injuries. “It’s not often that I decide to bowl on winning the toss. I thought our batting was strong and we could chase comfortably. But India upset the calculations,” Ponting said. He said Lee could have made a difference as he had been bowling well. “It could’ve made a difference. Brett has been bowling very well. But it was also an opportunity for the others to showcase their talent. Unfortunately, we came up a bit short,” he said. Ponting lamented the death bowling woes faced by his team after the retirement of pace great Glenn McGrath. — PTI
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Ankur to lead Punjab Ranji team
Ludhiana, October 29 He is the third cricketer from the industrial town to captain the side following the likes of Chamanlal Malhotra and Yashpal Sharma. While, Malhotra captained the team in mid 60s, Sharma captained the team in mid 80s. The development came following his successful stint at the domestic level. Aknur’s name is not new amongst cricketers, as he has been constantly showing his mettle both with bat and ball. While expressing his delight after being nominated as captain Ankur said, “It is very responsible job. Captaining a star studded team like Punjab is tough. I hope I would do justice with my new assignment.” He further thanked the selectors and Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) authorities for showing faith in him. He also expressed gratitude towards the players for supporting him. H.K Kakkar, father of Ankur was feeling at the top of the world. He credited the Ludhiana District Cricket Association (LDCA) members and well wishers for the cricketer’ success. “It was his hard work and support of people like Vinod Chitkara that made him join the illustrious list of captian’s.” Mother Ramesh Kakkar and wife Anu Kakkar were also elated and congratulated him for his feat.
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‘MSD will take India higher’
New Delhi, October 29 “Ganguly was a very good captain of India. He took Indian cricket to a different level. Dhoni will take India to a higher level”, observed Border, who disclosed that he had run a half marathon way back in 1995, but was now seriously into golf and “plays much less cricket”. Border noted that the present Indian team had some exciting players like Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh, though he felt that father time was catching up with Sachin Tendulkar. He said young players should be blooded to develop their skills and give them confidence. “Give young players an opportunity”, Border said. He said Sachin was carrying on because of his “great record”. “He has been around for 20 years...a long journey in sports; works hard, keeps himself fit. He’s No 1. But the pressure of playing in 50 and 20 overs games is getting on him. Father time is catching up with him. But he will do something special”, said Border. He said India’s batting and bowling were good and he was not so sure of the the present ranking system of the International Cricket Council (ICC),as Australia, who are No 1 presently, will concede the top spot to India if they lose the present ODI series being played between the two countries. He said Australia were a good cricketing team who have been excelling for the past 50 years. “The team who have won three World Cups and three Champions Trophies, have to be good”, he said. Border said if he were to make a comparison between the team he led, and the team being led by Ricky Ponting, he would rate the present team higher skill-wise, though had there been players like Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath they would have been a bridge between the past and the present. He said despite the Ashes rout, Ricky Ponting was expected to continue for another two Ashes series. And as for cricket records, Border said “Ponting was breathing down Sachin, but Sachin’s achievements are amazing already”.
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Arsenal, Chelsea reach quarters
London, October 29 But Premier League leader Chelsea yesterday fielded a strong side to easily beat visiting Bolton, while Manchester City also drew upon its experienced players to outclass Scunthorpe 5-1. Six of the Premier League’s top seven teams have reached the quarterfinals. Liverpool was coming off a surprise 2-0 win over Manchester United and Arsenal a disappointing 2-2 draw at lowly West Ham, but the starting lineups yesterday showed a total of 20 changes from those matches to make predicting a result at Emirates Stadium especially tricky. Merida, a 19-year-old Spanish midfielder who has never started a Premier League match, capitalised on a mistake by Andriy Voronin to put Arsenal ahead in the 19th with his first club goal. Voronin gave away possession on Liverpool’s left wing about 20 meters from his own goal line and the ball rolled to Merida, who hit it from the corner of the area past goalkeeper Diego Cavalieri and in off the post. — AP
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Setting
at rest all the controversies and doubts surrounding the preparations
for the Common Wealth Games, the Indian sports fraternity presented a
picture of unity as Queen Elizabeth handed over a specially crafted
technological marvel of the games baton to President Pratibha Patil
Australia’s injury woes deepened today with wicketkeeper Tim Paine being ruled out of the rest of the series after he broke his finger during the Indian innings in the second one-dayer here today. “Tim has a broken finger. He will be going back home and we haven’t decided on his replacement. The replacement should be available for the next match in Delhi,” visiting team skipper Ricky Ponting said after the match.
Ludhiana, October 29
New Delhi, October 29
CARLING CUP
