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Gambhir best cricketer
Mumbai, December 7
Amarnath who followed in the footsteps of his illustrious father Lala was bestowed with the Col CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award, comprising a trophy and Rs 15 lakh. Former India captain Lala Amarnath was the first recipient of the prestigious award in 1994. Left-handed batsman Gambhir, who missed the third and final Test against Sri Lanka to attend his sister’s wedding, received the Polly Umrigar Award for being India’s best cricketer between October 1, 2008 and September 30, 2009. The Delhi batsman, who received a trophy and a cheque for Rs 5 lakh, scored 1269 runs from eight Tests at 84.6 (inclusive of five hundreds), during this phase with memorable efforts of 206 against Australia at Delhi, and a match-saving ten-hour marathon worth 137 against New Zealand at Napier. He also scored 670 runs from twenty-one ODIs, and 177 runs from eight T20 Internationals, during this period. Special awards in the form of mementos were given to Indian team stalwarts Rahul Dravid (for taking the most number of catches) and Sachin Tendulkar (for completing two decades of international cricket). Ranji Trophy heroes Rajinder Goel and Amarjit Kaypee, the highest wicket-taker (640 wickets) and scorer (7623 runs) respectively in the first seventy-five seasons of the championship that has (1934-35 to 2008-09), were also felicitated, along with 38-time title-winners Mumbai. Amish Saheba, member of the ICC’s International Umpires’ Panel, was conferred with the newly instituted “Best Umpire” award by the BCCI. The other award winners were: Wasim Jaffer (Mumbai) - Madhavrao Scindia Award for scoring the maximum runs in 2008-09 Ranji Trophy. Dhawal Kulkarni and Ravindra Jadeja - Madhavrao Scindia Award for taking the maximum number of wickets in 2008-09 Ranji Trophy - Trophy and cheque for Rs. 1 lakh each. Chirag Khurana (Maharashtra) - M A Chidambaram trophy for best under-16 cricketer of 2008-09, Trophy and cheque for Rs 50,000. Harpreet Singh (Madhya Pradesh) - Chidambaram trophy for best under-19 cricketer of 2008-09, Trophy and cheque for Rs 50,000. Neelkanth Das (Bengal) - Chidambaram trophy for best under-22 cricketer of 2008-09, Trophy and cheque for Rs 50,000. Reema Malhotra (Delhi) - Chidambaram trophy for best woman cricketer (sr) of 2008-09, Trophy and cheque for Rs 50,000. Poonam Raut (Mumbai) - Chidambaram trophy for best woman cricketer (jr) of 2008-09, Trophy and cheque for Rs 50,000. Mumbai and Punjab Cricket Associations - Best overall performance in 2008-09, Trophy each. — PTI
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Joshi elected new president
Defeats Lalit Modi by six votes Perneet Singh Tribune News Service
Jaipur, December 7 Joshi got elected as the RCA president, bagging 19 votes, while Modi managed to get only 13. This has come as a huge setback for Modi who lost the second RCA elections in a row in less than a year. Earlier, he had lost to IAS Sanjay Dixit, who had the support of CM Ashok Gehlot in March this year. What has further jolted the Modi camp is the fact that a majority of those who made it to the RCA executive belong to the Joshi camp. Dixit too has won the elections, this time for the post of secretary, defeating Rajendra Singh Rathore of the Modi camp by six votes. Earlier, the cricket politics touched a new low when the voting began on a violent note with the supporters of Modi and Joshi clashing with each other. A brawl broke out when Ameen Pathan, who was Modi group’s candidate for the post of treasurer, and his voters were reportedly stopped from voting by the alleged Congress supporters. Condemning the incident, Pathan said, “We came to cast our vote, but the Congress supporters started beating our voters. We did not have any Modi supporters with us, they were just voters. The police was witnessing the drama as a mute spectator.” The tempers ran high again when Modi’s bodyguards were evicted from the RCA premises and somebody threw a stone at him while he was leaving the RCA office after casting his vote. The supporters of both the groups again came to the blows and the police had to use minor force to disperse them. Later, talking to the media, Modi alleged that his supporters were being intimidated and stopped from casting their votes. “I don’t understand why people are not being allowed to cast their votes. It is unfortunate for the game of cricket.” Interestingly, Modi neither blamed the state government nor the Congress for the violence, but said some “unruly elements who have no connection with cricket” are behind it. Taking a dig at his rival, Joshi questioned the need of bringing along one’s bodyguards while casting vote at the RCA premises, though he termed the incident as “unfortunate”. Meanwhile, with Joshi at the helm of affairs at the RCA now, it would be interesting to see as to how he brings back the game of cricket back to the rails in Rajasthan. The RCA was in total mess for the last eight-nine months with infighting reaching its zenith and the BCCI refusing Rajasthan team participation in various events, besides shifting one international match after the other out of Jaipur.
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New Zealand hold India 2-2
Salta (Argentina), December 7 When play resumed, Dean Couzins equalised for the Kiwis in the 47th minute. Shivendra Singh then put India ahead in the 51st minute but New Zealand equalised within seven minutes, this time through Andrew Hayward, to split points. After resting tomorrow, India play China in their next Group A tie on Tuesday and lock horns with Belgium on Thursday. The Kiwis were on the offensive early in the match with Ryan Archibald looking in ominous form. The Indians defence, however, did a neat job, ensuring that Adrian D’Souza was not really troubled under the bar. Still, Phillip Burrows nearly score on one occasion when his deflection from close range missed the mark by a whisker, much to the relief of the Indians. India relied more on counter-attacks at that stage and one such move culminated with Khandker sounding the board. The Kiwis were unrelenting even after the break but the Indian defence looked impregnable till the 47th minute when Dean Couzins converted a penalty-stroke. For India, Shivendra Singh nearly scored from the next attack but his deflection from close range hit the post. Soon, he got a similar opportunity and this time the Indian made no mistake. New Zealand simply refused to throw in the towel and were rewarded for their resilience when Andrew Hayward scored from a penalty-corner. Both the teams then went all out for the winner and played attacking brand of hockey but could not breach each other’s defence. In other matches, Argentina spanked South Africa 6-2, Pakistan edged out Canada 2-1— PTI
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Punjab take on Orissa
Amit Khanna Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, December 7 “We will be playing in the home conditions again and would look to gain full six points to be able to finish in the top three. Our bowlers have delivered every time we needed. With more consistency in the batting department we should be able to win the remaining matches too,” said Punjab skipper Pankaj Dharmani on the eve of the match. Bowling has been Punjab’s strength this season and the triple of Manpreet Gony, Love Ablish and Harmeet Bansal have been in the thick of things right through. While Love has been instrumental in giving the team early breakthroughs, Gony has been able to rip through the opposition’s middle order without muss ado. With 25 wickets from four matches already against his name, India discard has made his case stronger for the national berth. The inconsistency in the batting department has been a cause of concern for the hosts as they only looked good in patches, at the best. Punjab were bundled out for a paltry 186 in the last match and it was once again their pacers who did the trick for them. Vishwas Bhalla, Ravi Inder, Kaul and the skipper himself have been in good knick this season and the hosts would hope to get the house in order before it gets too late. An outright win here will almost guarantee them a place in the next block. Punjab have left out wicket keeper batsman Chandan Madan and Udey kaul will keep the wickets in this match. Gagandeep Singh might also get a look in after sitting out in the last two matches. Punjab beat Himachal convincingly by 8 wickets in the last match before securing an innings win over Gujarat.
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IWF executive body to be reconstituted
New Delhi, December 7 The Indian Olympic Association, which exerted pressure following a series of dope flunks by the Indian lifters in October led to the resignation, on December 5 issued a notification for convening a special GBM on December 27. “The executive committee will be reconstituted on December 27 by the General Body. The IOA have issued notification to convene a GBM on that day,” a top official of the earlier executive committee said. The IOA had said that nobody from the earlier executive body would be allowed in the new committee as they could not stop doping by lifters due to which India now face ban by the international body. But some former executive members are gearing up to be elected again to complete the four-year term which began from mid 2008. Meanwhile, India will not participate in the Asian Youth and Junior Championships to be held in Dubai from December 16 to 23. Incidentally, this Asian junior event was to be held in Pune but since India was facing a ban from the international body, the IWF expressed its inability to host it. The fate of the Senior National Men’s and Women’s Championships scheduled to be held in Udaipur, Rajasthan from January 10-14 is also uncertain. The championships is likely to be postponed by a few days as the new executive committee may take some time to settle down to business. The IWF executive committee had last month resigned en masse following a series of dope flunks by Indian lifters in out-of-competition tests conducted by WADA in September. India is now facing a maximum ban of four years from international competitions but the International Weightlifting Federation is yet to take a decision. —
PTI |
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Two wins on the trot against Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh have Punjab sitting pretty at the second spot with 15 points from their five engagements so far. With entry into the next round still to be decided, Punjab would not let the momentum slip when they take on Orissa here tomorrow in the crucial Ranji Trophy “A” encounter.
Manpreet Gony
