Mohali, December 13
Leading India to a convincing win over Sri Lanka in the second and final T20 International here, star batsman Yuvraj Singh, who turned 28 yesterday, said that it was his “best birthday” so far.

“This is my best birthday till now. I am very happy the way we played, especially the batsmen,” Yuvraj, who scored a blistering 60 of 25 balls and took three crucial wickets, told reporters at post-match conference here.

Yuvraj said that after being set an imposing target of 207, Indian openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir had given a good start to the team. Playing on his home track, Yuvraj who has not had many knocks in the past here which he could cherish much, said, “now, I am happy to turn it around today. But frankly I was not expecting to score 60 of 25 balls.”

Yuvraj gave a lot of credit to coach Gary Kirsten, saying the South African is like a “father figure” to the team. “He is the best coach that I have ever played under. He understands the game and the pressure,” he said, adding that he had also made some gestures toward the coach when he was playing well.

Yuvraj admitted that the team will need to raise the bar in the fielding department. “We are not happy the way we fielded in the last two games. We missed some catches today, otherwise we could have restricted them (the Lankans) to 150-160 runs,” he said.

Before coming to the press conference, Yuvraj straight away apologised for arriving late, which he said was because of the birthday celebrations which were going on in the dressing room.

“There was lot of cake on my face. Dhoni held my hands and the rest of the players kept applying it all over my face and I could not see who all were the culprits. But I will take revenge once I come to know their names,” said Yuvraj, who himself does not let go the opportunity to paste the cake over the faces of his teammates at occasions.

When asked that different players were known by different names including Rahul Dravid being called as “The Wall” and the left-hander had come to be known as “Sixer King” because of his lusty hitting, Yuvraj said, “naam to achha nahein hein, badey matlab nikaltay hein (the name Sixer King is not good, many meanings emerge from it). But as long as you are doing well for the country, I don’t mind whatever name I am given”.

On teammate S Sreesanth testing positive for swine flu, he said, “It was sad that he tested positive. We wish him speedy recovery. We have also been asked to be careful and take precautions.” — PTI

In the backdrop of speedster S Sreesanth being diagnosed with Swine Flu, the Saurashtra Cricket Association has approached two hospitals here asking them to be prepared for any eventuality ahead of the first ODI.

“We have approached the Sterling Hospital and Civil Hospital in the city and asked them to be ready to deal with any emergency or Swine Flu,” SCA secretary Niranjan Shah said.The SCA has also asked the authorities to reserve necessary beds for the Indian and Sri Lankan players, Shah said. — PTI

Salta (Argentina), December 13
India’s hopes of booking a berth in next year’s Champions Trophy were shattered as they went down fighting to arch rivals Pakistan 3-6 in a thrilling semifinal encounter of the Champions Challenge I hockey tournament here.

In-form India, who were Group A toppers with an unbeaten record, failed to find the bearings at the last four match. They dominated for most part of the match but failed to convert the chances that came their way.

As is often happened in Indian hockey team, the opponents scored from the few chances they got and Pakistan were 3-1 up at the end of half time.

India now face Argentina for the third-place play-off. Pakistan play New Zealand in the summit clash and winner will qualify for the 2010 Champions Trophy in Germany. New Zealand had beaten Argentina 3-2 in the other semifinal.

All the Indian goals came from penalty corners through Dhananjay Mahadik (eighth and 62nd minutes) and Diwakar Ram (67th minute). For Pakistan, Rehan Butt (2nd, 29th and 64th) scored a hat-trick of field goals while Sohail Abbas (32nd, 70th) found the target twice and Haseem Khan (58th) got one.

As early as the second minute, goalkeeper Adrian D’Souza failed to stop a seemingly harmless shot by Rehan Butt to concede the lead to Pakistan and from then onwards India were doing the catch-up job.

India though equalised quickly in the eighth minute with Dhananjay Mahadik sounding the board with a well-executed penalty corner. India were then playing with one-man advantage with a Pakistani player cooling off for five minutes at the bench for a dangerous foul.

Adrian made up for his initial mistake by stopping Rehan at the top of circle. But there was little he could do on a phenomenal shot by Rehan in 29th minute which gave Pakistan the lead.

Penalty-corner specialist Sohail Abbas then found the target three minutes later and Pakistan were leading 3-1 going into the breather. After resumption, India got a couple of chances only to be wasted. Excellent work by captain Rajpal Singh earned them a penalty-corner but India could not convert it. — PTI

Dehradun, December 13
It was the promise of Suranjoy Singh, which he had made to himself to not play defencive again after his early exit at the World Cup in Milan, that helped him bag the gold medal in the 51kg weight category in the AIBA President’s Cup held at Baku on Friday.

“I lost in the World Cup because of my defencive play and I had decided not to do the same again,” Suranjoy who reached Delhi International Airport early this morning told The Tribune over phone.

“In this championship, my strategy was to play aggressive in the first quarter while to play mix of both defence and attack in the third quarter,” added Suranjoy who clinched the title drubbing former world Championship bronze-medallist Nordine Oubaali of France 8-1. Suranjoy was representing Asia-I in the just concluded championship.

He credited his success to all his coaches who helped him after the Milan World Cup. “My coaches told me that I was too defensive. I introspected and trained under the able guidance of different coaches to iron out my drawbacks which has paid full dividend,” said the Manipuri boxer.

The 23-year-old lad who was given warm welcome at the airport by fans and officials said that he didn’t give much importance to these things. “Even though I am the first Indian to win a gold medal at the inter-continental President’s Cup but this is not that important to me, I am not contented with this only. I want to win more such medals,” said the confident pugilist.

“I am looking forward for the 2010 Commonwealth Games to be held in Delhi for which the boxing players from across the country would go for trials in Mumbai,” he added.

Working as a chief PT officer in Navy since 2003, the young boxer is happy with his job there. “It’s good working there, I get support from everyone,” he said.

Elated chief national coach GS Sandhu on the success of his ward said, “It was superb and I couldn’t have demanded more from the God. Suranjoy has done exceptional job and showed what he was capable of.” 

Mohali, December 13
In the backdrop of Copenhagen climate change conference, the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) today announced to undertake greening of its sports facilities across Punjab.

Under the ambitious plan to cut the carbon emission levels at its facilities, the PCA has sought active assistance from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Under a preliminary exercise, the Programmee Officer of the Sport and Environment unit of UNEP, Hartmut Stahl, is on a visit to PCA stadium for the last few days and watched yesterday’s match between India and Sri Lanka.

IS Bindra, President of the PCA, while addressing a press conference here, said the effort was more as part of its social obligation and they would be looking towards directly reducing the carbon emission levels generated during 
cricket events or adopt measures like green technologies or various locally relevant technologies to compensate 
for carbon footprints at its sports facilities in Punjab.

“While government programmes do not reach people at large, through cricket we can reach billions of people. After FIFA, yesterday’s match had the largest audience. The sports can be used for a social cause,” said the PCA president.

Vishvajeet Khanna, vice-president of the association, informed that the administrative committee of the PCA had decided to adopt the policy and a draft has already been prepared to be forwarded to the UNEP for signing an MOU. The MOU would be signed during the IPC match series being held from March 6 to April 18.

Bindra, who recently visited UNEP facility at Kenya, said UN agency would undertake a study to analyse the the carbon emission level generated from the sports activity and suggest measures to check it or reduce it.

All issues like waste management, electricity generation, usage of water and vehicular pollution generated from cricket events would be studied.

After FIFA and IOC, PCA becomes the first social body in the World to adopt 
the policy.

Under the project, the PCA pans to green the cricket structure set up at Bathinda, Patiala, Jalandhar, and Amritsar. The same approach would be adopted at schools where cricket training facilities are being run. By becoming carbon neutral, we can earn points.

Convinced by the initiative, SF Rodrigues, UT Administrator, who was informed about the project yesterday, has evinced keen interest and had called a meeting with the UNEP officials tomorrow.

London, December 13
Manchester United wasted a glorious chance to catch Chelsea at the top of the Premier League, losing 1-0 at home to Aston Villa on Saturday. Gabriel Agbonlahor’s header gave Villa their first league win at Old Trafford since 1983 and provided a welcome boost to Chelsea who had earlier been held 3-3 at home by Everton on a day of surprise results and a breathtaking goal-of-the-season entry by Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa.

Chelsea’s recent defensive fragility continued as they dropped their first home points of the season to extend their run of games without a win to four - a sequence which has seen Carlo Ancelotti’s side leak 10 goals.

Tottenham Hotspur, who began the day in fourth place, were beaten 1-0 at home by Wolverhampton Wanderers, their first loss to the Midlands side at White Hart Lane since 1973.

Top-four hopefuls Manchester City could only draw 3-3 at Bolton with Carlos Tevez bagging two goals for City, who had Craig Bellamy sent off but came from behind three times.

Chelsea have 37 points with United on 34 while Villa moved into third place with 29 points. Arsenal, who play Liverpool on Sunday at Anfield, have 28 with two games in hand.

Villa’s first win of any sort against United for 10 years was fully deserved and means that Martin O’Neill’s side have beaten United and Chelsea already this season.

United were lacking invention and striker Michael Owen, left out despite scoring a hat-trick against Wolfsburg in the Champions League, had few chances when he came on after the break as Villa clung on after Agbonlahor's 21st minute effort. — Reuters

BRIEFLY

India win 5th SAFF title
DHAKA: India avenged their last edition title loss as they prevailed over Maldives 3-1 via penalty shootout in the SAFF Championships summit clash to claim their fifth crown here on Sunday. After the match failed to produce any goal in the regulation and extra times, the match was decided in the penalty shoot out. For India, who fielded an Under-23 side, Jibbon Singh, Denzil Franco and Subodh Kumar scored while Nirmal Chhetri missed the target. — PTI

FC Barcelona’s Lionel Messi holds up the new Ballon d’or trophy before their Spanish La Liga match against Espanyol at the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona on Saturday. — AP/PTI

Woods’ wife buys Swedish estate
STOCKHOLM: Tiger Woods’ wife Elin Nordegren has bought a vast beach-front estate on an island near Stockholm that can only be reached by boat, a residents’ association said on Sunday. “Elin Nordegren bought a house on the island, it’s true. She’s the owner since December 1,” Sten-Aake Johansson, head of Faaglaro island’s residents association, said. There are around 140 properties on Faaglaro, which is about 40 kilometres southeast of the Swedish capital. — AFP

COCOM members meet Kalmadi
NEW DELHI: Three members of the Co-ordination Commission of the Commonwealth Games Federation led by Austin Sealy on Sunday met 2010 Games Organising Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi ahead of a three-day meet to take stock of the event’s preparation. Sealy and two other COCOM members, Chris Jenkins and Sharad Rao, visited the headquarters of the Organising Committee. — PTI

Modi to lose IPL top post
MUMBAI: A week after losing the elections of the Rajasthan Cricket Association, Lalit Modi is in a new problem now with the BCCI deciding to remove him from the top post of the IPL. “There is a move within the BCCI to remove Modi as IPL Chairman and Commissioner. The argument is that the IPL is a BCCI event and logically the BCCI president should head it as an ex officio member,” said a BCCI source. — ANI

Chhetri receives two awards
KOLKATA: Indian striker Sunil Chhetri received two awards at the Football Players Association Awards here on Sunday night. Chhetri was conferred with the Best Indian player award and was also bestowed with the Fans Choice Players Award. JCT striker Baljit Singh Sahni was awarded the Best Young Player, while Nigerian recruit Onyeka Okolie Odafa of Churchill Brothers bagged the Best Foreign Player. . — PTI

Sr Boxing C’ship at Chandigarh
CHANDIGARH: 17th Senior Men North Zone Boxing Championship will be organised by Chandigarh Amateur Boxing Association, from December 14 to 16 at PML SD Public School here. The following will represent Chandigarh in the Men’s category. Paramjit (48 kg), Mukesh (51 kg), Anil (54 kg) Inderjit (57 kg), Karambir (60 kg), Vikas Dhaiya (64 kg). Women Team for 4th Women North Zone will comprise Sudesh (48 Kg), Reena (51 Kg), Shivani (57 Kg), Chander (60 kg), Anita (69 kg ), Tejinder (75 Kg ). — TNS

I thought of quitting :Strauss
CAPE TOWN: England skipper Andrew Strauss has admitted that he had seriously thought about quitting after being dropped from the team’s tour of Sri Lanka at the start of last year. “I had been out of form for a long time and kept thinking ‘What am I doing this for?’ I was away from my family and nothing was happening. I was banging my head against a wall,”he said. — ANI