New Delhi, November 25
It’s official. The show-piece Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium will be ready only three months before the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Dr M.S.Gill stated in the Rajya Sabha today, in response to a calling attention motion, that the Nehru Stadium will be completed only by June 30, 2010. This, in effect, means that the trial games for athletics will not be held at the Nehru Stadium, if at all it's held. The other option is to hold the trial games for athletics at the practice ground at the Games Village.

In other stadiums, there would be no facility for athletics like synthetic running tracks etc. The opening and closing ceremonies, as well as the athletic events, would be held at the main Nehru Stadium while weightlifting and lawn bowls will also be held at the Nehru Stadium complex, though facilities for these disciplines would be ready by February 15 next. The trial games for all the 17 disciplines are slated to be held in March-April, 2010.

The Government and the Organising Committee had categorically stated some time back that the last deadline for the completion of the stadiums was March 31, 2010. Though the information given by Dr Gill still insists that rest of the stadia would be ready by March, the deadline for the completion of work on the Nehru Stadium has been extended by a further three months.

Out of the 17 sports disciplines for the Commonwealth Games, nine will be held in the stadia under the Sports Authority of India (SAI), four in the stadia of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), and one each at the venues owned by the Delhi Government, New Delhi Municipal Council, Delhi University and the All India Tennis Association.

The estimated cost of the competition and training venues under the aegis of the SAI is Rs 4,100 crore, which is expected to escalate furter. Dr Gill said work on the SPM Swimming pool, Dr Karni Singh shooting range and the Cycling Velodrome had delayed starts due to design snags “though all possible measures are being taken, including increase in the number of staff and labour” to ensure the timely completion of these stadia.

Dr Gill said the Organising Committee (headed by Suresh Kalmadi) will be responsible for the conduct and delivery of the games, which includes all logistical and stay arrangements for about 8,000 sportspersons from 71 countries, as well as technical officials and media persons. The OC will also be responsible for the technical conduct of the sports events, sponsorships, ticketing, merchandising, closing and opening ceremonies.

The Government has sanctioned Rs 1,620 crore for this purpose. The Games Village, on the banks of the Yamuna River, adjacent to the Akshardham Temple, is being developed by the DDA on Public-Private partnership model, with the work being closely monitored by the Ministry of Urban Development.

Dr Gill said the stadiums will be state of the art venues, and a revenue-generation mechanism was also being evolved, which will ensure the upkeep and maintenance of these facilities at optimum levels, and their use for sports activities after the games. A budget of Rs 678 crore has also been sanctioned for the training of 1064 core Indian athletes under the guidance of 158 Indian and 24 foreign coaches.

The Minister said "the Government of India and the Organising Committee are fully committed to complete all preparations for the games in good time, and to train our athletes for a good performance”. 

Bathinda, November 25
Strange are the ways of India’s sports officialdom. On the one hand crores of rupees are being spent on organising the Commonwealth Games while on the other hand the Sports Authority of India (SAI) mandarins do not deem it fit to provide even the basic medical facilities to wrestlers attending the National camp in preparation for the Commonwealth games at the Sonepat SAI centre.

The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) has taken strict notice of this development which is forcing top grapplers to go to New Delhi for treatment and has asked SAI to immediately provide sports medicine experts for the campers. 60 free style and Greco roman wrestlers are slugging it out at the Sonepat SAI centre training hard for the Commonwealth games. However, leave alone a sports medicine expert, the campers neither have neither trained physiotherapists nor masseurs, which are so essential to this sport.

Said a worried Kartar Singh, Secretary General, WFI, “ I have asked SAI authorities so many times to provide proper medical facilities to my grapplers. Injuries to the upper limbs are frequently reported in wrestling. Generally these injuries are caused by a combination of leverage and twisting. Most often forces act on a joint, which sustains the injury. The most commonly injured area in the upper extremity is the shoulder.”

Kartar admitted that many of the wrestlers had to travel to Delhi to get proper medical treatment. Earlier, the SAI authorities had a tie up with a local doctor but for some inexplicable reason this arrangement came to an end. Sources reveal that recently Beijing Olympics bronze medallist Sushil Kumar was forced to go to Delhi to seek medical treatment. In another case, one of the country’s most talented grappler in the free style category, Mausam Khatri, had to go all the way to Delhi to get treatment for an injury he sustained in the camp.

Scoreboard

India (1st Innings)

(overnight 417/2)

Dravid run out 144

Tendulkar c Samaraweera b Mendis 40

Laxman c Dilshan b Herath 63

Yuvraj c Sangakkara b Mendis 67

Dhoni b Herath 4

Harbhajan b Herath 5

Zaheer c M Jayawardene b Herath 1

Sreesanth lbw b Herath 0

Ojha not out 1

Extras (b-4, lb-11, nb-4) 19

Total (all out; 154 overs) 642

Fall of wickets: 1-233, 2-370, 3-464, 4-511, 5-613, 6-619, 7-639, 8-641, 9-641

Bowling: Welegedara 26-4-103-0, Mathews 17-2-49-0, Herath 33-2-121-5, Mendis 38-3-162-2, Muralitharan 37-0-175-2, Dilshan 3-0-17-0.

Sri Lanka (1st innings)

Dilshan c Ojha b Khan 0

Paranavitana batting 30

Sangakkara batting 30

Extras (b-4, lb-1, nb-1) 6

Total (for one wicket in 24 overs) 66

Fall of wickets: 1-0.

Bowling: Zaheer 7-3-14-1, Sreesanth 6-0-29-0, Harbhajan 7-3-9-0, Pragyan 4-2-9-0. 

Mohali, November 25
For someone looking at the scorecard only at the call of stumps today, the overwhelming feeling would have been that hosts Punjab batted on a different strip than the one that wrecked havoc in Gujarat’s innings yesterday. In stark contrast to the twelve wickets that fell on day one in the ongoing Ranji Trophy Elite “A” encounter between Punjab and Gujarat here at the PCA stadium, Punjab only lost three batsmen to reach a position of dominance from where they can dictate terms to the opposition in the coming two days.

Thanks to gritty and opportune efforts by Rahul Sharma (95) and later on Taruwar Kohli(100 not out), hosts were sitting pretty at 361 for 5 in 127 overs, having amassed 201 runs lead when umpires called it a day. Gujarat had survived for only 45 overs yesterday and managed 160.

Though the visitors tasted early success in the first session with Kaul misjudging an inswinger from Trivedi, the night-watchman Rahul Sharma grabbed the opportunity provided to him with both hands and made a well composed 95 in his more than four hour stay at the crease. Though the lanky leg spinner missed his maiden ton by a whisker, unlike Kohli who reached the milestone in the last over of the day, he did enough to frustrate the bowlers by keeping one end safe.

Brief Scores

Gujarat 160

Punjab 361 for 5 (Kohli 100*, Rahul Sharma 95; Yadav 2 for 96, Mehul 2 for 104).

HP fight back

Himachal Pradesh gacve a strong reply to Tamil Nadu’s 293 for 8 (decl) in their Ranji Trophy match today. The hosts scored briskly to cut the deficit to just two runs at the end of day 2, by reaching 291 for 4 at stumps.

Thakkar top-scoresd for Himachal with a gritty 83, and was ably helped by Indulkar who got 71. At stumps Mukesh (68) and Diwan were at the crease.

Brief Scores:

Tamil Nadu (1st innings): 293 for 8 (decl)

Himachal (1st innings): 291 for 4 (Thakkar 83, Indulkar 71; Balaji 2 for 66, Mukund 1 for 10).

Chandigarh, November 25
Pitches are like wives, you never know which way will they turn runs a famous saying. But with the pitches for Sri Lanka’s tour, at the Motera, Ahmedabad and then in Kanpur turning only the batsmen’s way, the 22-yard strip has once again become the hot topic.

“The way these wickets have been prepared shows that the local cricket associations did not want to take chances and over-prepared the wicket in order to suit the batsmen only,” laments Daljit Singh, BCCI’s chief curator.

Kanpur as a Test venue had come had come under the scanner after the India-South Africa Test match in March 2008. The match had ended within three days and the visitors had submitted a strong report to the ICC.

“There is an ideal time to roll the pitch, which though it depends on the conditions and the venue, should be around 10 hours to have a balanced track. But these pitches have been rolled for around 18 hours and have been over compensated, which is why they are behaving in the manner they are. Moreover, this is the start of the season and it is only the second match on this strip, which means the wicket does not break much.”

Though this is an open secret that host captains always want to have the pitch talior-made to suit their strength, Daljit begs to differ as far as MS Dhoni is concerned. “Dhoni does not say anything about the pitch preparation. Dravid was also in the same league,” quips Daljit.

So is the BCCI coming up with measures to ensure balanced pitches to attract more spectators? “The BCCI from this season has introduced Pitch Quality Forms, which the match refrees will be entrusted with. This is a step in the right direction and there will be a paradigm shift in the coming two or three years,” he said. 

BRIEFLY

Federer floors Murray to seal no.1 spot
LONDON: Roger Federer beat Andy Murray at the ATP world Tour finals to guarantee finishing the season as the world number one. The Swiss won the Group A round-robin match 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 in one hour and 57 minutes before a capacity crowd of 17,500. The win earned Federer enough ranking points to ensure he cannot be overtaken by Rafael Nadal at the season-ending tournament of the world’s top players in the British capital. — AFP

Gold medalist Maiya Maneza of Kazakhstan competes in the women’s 63 kg Group A snatch competition in Goyang, north of Seoul, on Wednesday. — Reuters

Nadal picked for Davis Cup final
LONDON: Rafael Nadal has officially been chosen to play for Spain in the Davis Cup final against the Czech Republic. The second-ranked Nadal missed last year’s final win over Argentina with a knee injury. He last played for Spain in March, when the team beat Serbia in the first round. Nadal and Fernando Verdasco, who are both playing at the ATP World Tour Finals in London, will lead the Spanish team. — AP

We will win Europa League: Gerrard
LONDON: Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard has said that after the disappointing Champions League exit, he wants the Liverpool to win the Europa League. Liverpool crashed out of European football’s biggest tournament despite beating Debrecen 1-0 in Hungary. “Of course it’s disappointing. Hopefully, now we'll be in the Europa League, so we'll try to win that,”Gerrard was quoted as saying. — ANI

Liverpool assure Benitez his job
LONDON: Liverpool have assured Rafa Benitez that his job is secure despite the club joining the Champions League also-rans. While the five times kings of Europe switched their focus to winning the second-string Europa League, managing director Christian Purslow gave the Spaniard a vote of confidence. “This has absolutely no bearing on Rafa whatsoever,” he was quoted saying. — Reuters

Sachin, Dravid to get BCCI awards
MUMBAI: Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid will receive special mementos, while Gautam Gambhir will be rewarded for an exceptional year at the annual BCCI Awards Ceremony here on December 6. While Tendulkar will be honoured for completing 20 years in international cricket, Dravid would be felicitated for creating a world record in the number of catches held in Tests. — PTI

Gabba gets tough on boozers
BRISBANE: Crowds watching cricket at the Gabba here, will be subjected to some very tight restrictions, including a blitz on drunks and hooligans. One-third of the ground will be alcohol-free for Australia’s first Test match against the West Indies, starting on Thursday. A ban has been imposed on backpacks and entertainment items like whistles and beach balls. — ANI

Punjab face ITBP in finals
JAMMU: The Punjab police and Indo-Tibetan Border Police will be locking horns in the finals of 10th All India Police Lawn Tennis (team) Championship on Thursday. In the semifinal on Wednesday, ITBP defeated CRPF 2-1 and Punjab got the better off Andhra Pradesh by 2-1. Earlier in the quarterfinals, Punjab scored a win against BSF, in a one sided match, by 2-0 and Andhra Pradesh easily beat SSB by 2-0. — TNS