Melbourne, January 25
World number ones Serena Williams and Roger Federer showed little gratitude to their hosts as they knocked out the last remaining home players on Monday to reach the quarter-finals of the Australian Open. Federer, his confidence and form growing with each match, extended his winning streak against Lleyton Hewitt to 15 with a 6-2 6-3 6-4 victory in less than two hours, while Williams showed no mercy against Samantha Stosur, winning 6-4 6-2 in a little over an hour.

At the forefront of her country's batch of leading players is Zheng Jie, who gave the world a glimpse of the changing face of tennis when she made the semi-finals at Wimbledon two years ago. The 26-year-old has been joined in the quarter-finals time by Li Na, who defeated Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki 6-4 6-3.

Li's next opponent is Venus Williams, who booked her place in the quarter-finals with a 3-6 6-2 6-1 win over Italian Francesca Schiavone.

New Delhi, January 25
Explosive cricketer Virender Sehwag, star boxer Vijender Singh and ace shuttler Saina Nehwal are among the six sportspersons who were selected for the Padma Shri awards today. Apart from the trio, country's only Formula One driver Narain Karthikeyan, hockey player Ignace Tirkey and cricket coach Ramakant Achrekar -- whose notable pupils include Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli — were also selected for the award.

Incidentally, wrestler Sushil Kumar is the only Beijing Olympic medallist to miss out on a Padma award. While Vijender — who won bronze in Beijing — won it this year, Olympic gold medallist shooter Abhinav Bindra had been awarded the Padma Bhushan award last year.

Talking to PTI, Vijender, who is leaving for exhibition bouts in China, said he expected the honour earlier but had no issues with it coming late. "Better late than never. Every time I go out for a tour, I get a good news. I got a call this morning from the Ministry and told my parents and coaches about it," he said.

"I'm happy and would celebrate when I return from China," added the Haryana boxer. Saina, on her part, said country's highest civilian awards would goad her to greater glory. "I would like to dedicate this achievement to my parents and coaches who have helped me a lot to improve my game," Saina said.

"It's really a big honour, which also comes with a lot more responsibilities. It will certainly give me a lot of encouragement. I am very happy," said the shuttler from Hyderabad.

Coimbatore-born Narain Karthikeyan also boasts of an illustrious career, being the first Indian Formula One driver even though he was plying his trade in A1 GP of late. Ignace Tirkey is the lone hockey player in the list and the award is a recognition of the midfilder's contribution to Indian hockey.

Ramakant Achrekar is the only coach to get the award. the 78-year-old legendary coach, who runs an academy in the Shivaji Park area in Mumbai, has produced players like Tendulkar, Kambli, Pravin Amre, Ajit Agarkar and Ramesh Powar. — PTI

New Delhi, January 25
Hockey India secretary-general Narinder Batra said here today that the World Cup Hockey Championship will be held as schedueld at the National Stadium in Delhi from February 28 to March 13, as it will have no bearing on the elections to Hockey India (HI).

He said the “outbursts” of Hockey Punjab secretary-general Pargat Singh “were not only unwarranted, but absolutely out of context” and could only vitiate matters. Batra also accused the Sports Ministry of putting “pressure” in giving affiliation to Hockey Punjab.

He said the World Cup would be conducted by a society, which is already in existence, and not by Hockey India. The World Cup Society Governing Body consists of members from the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and the International Hockey Federation (FIH), including IOA president Suresh Kalmadi and FIH president Leandro Negre, both joint-chairmen, IOA secretary-general Randhir Singh, Batra himself, IOA vice-president Lalit Bhanot and Hockey India adviser Anupam Gulati.

Batra, who was the treasurer of HI, said he was appointed the secretary-general and Vidya Stokes the president by the HI board following the resignation of HI president A.K.Mattoo. (The HI board consists of Mattoo, Aslam Khan, Batra, Vidya Stokes, Harish Sharma, Rajeev Mehta and Mohd. Mustaq Ahmed).

Batra said Hockey India had no hidden agenda to postone the HI elections, as it was necessitated following the Rajasthan High Court’s directions.

“Unfortunately, Pargat Singh sees a design in that. Under no circumstances, the office-bearers of HI were interested in continuing in the posts they are currently holding”, stated Batra. The HI secretary-general also refuted Pargat Singh’s charge that Hockey Punjab was given affiliation to HI after he was made to run around for 10 days.

“Hockey Punjab’s affiliation was given within 24 hours after due process with immense pressure coming from the Sports Ministry, despite there being disputes in the State unit. In fact, in no other case has the Ministry been so keen. This goes on to show a systematic calumny against Hockey India and its office-bearers”, Batra stated.

He said the Ministry of Sports acted more like the “Ministry of Sports, Governmnet of Punjab than the Ministry of Sports, Government of India”. He said Punjab’s application for affilication was received by HI on November 30 after elections to HI were announced.

Batra said he wanted to put it on “record” that it was Pargat Singh's “ambition” to become the secretary-general that had forced him to make wild allegations against Kalmadi and HI officials. Batra said there were complaints from the women’s hockey association of Punjab that it was not involved in the affiliation process and that proper meetings for the merger of the different hockey bodies in Punjab were not held as they were all “forced meetings”.

He said the sole aim of HI since its inception under the direction of the FIH was to bring all State unites (men and women) together under one umbrella called Hockey India and conduct elections to the apex body as early as possiblle.

“Hence proper notices were sent to all legally approved affiliates in the States and the date announced (February, 7, 2010) for elections until the Rajasthan High Court stay”, Batra elaborated.

Batra said it was Pargat Singh’s “figment of imagination” that Kalmadi wanted to become the HI president. “I have nothing more to add after Kalmadi himself has refuted Singh’s charges yesterday, except that Hockey Maharashtra was affiliated in August 2009 and from day one, Kalmadi was not a party to HM’s poll processs. If at all there is a role for Kalmadi in HI’s elections, he is doing so as president of the national Olympic body (IOA) whose responsibility it is to be a watchdog and conduct smooth elections to Hockey India”, Batra explained.

(HI recognised nine State units in August, viz Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttrakhand, Assam, Bihar, Mizoram and Kerala while Arunachal Prdesh, Chandigarh, Manipur, Orissa, Nagaland, Tripura, Andaman and Nicobar, Haryana, Meghalaya and Uttar Pradesh, and four institutional units, Services Railways, Universities and Air India, were recognised on October 22).

Batra said Paragat’s desire to get into HI had forced him to join hands with J.B.Roy of West Bengal, but “now finding that Roy will not be able to get him enough support, Pargat Singh is trying to play a different tune and game. In his game of evil designs, he has chosen to accuse each and every one in Hockey India”.

Batra said the HI had called for elections on November 18 after due notices were given in October, “but a systematic tirade by J.B.Roy and party against Hockey India made both the Sports Ministry and the FIH write to us to re-look at all affiliations before announcing the next date for the elections”. He said subsequently, a four-member panel, consisting of Pargat , Amrit Bose, Gurbax Singh and Raj Kumar Jaipal (who obtained the stay order on the HI elections from the Rajasthan High Court), attended the meetings and were part of the process of sorting the affiliations.

“They were also signatory to the affiliation process (to 34 units)”, he added. (Batra supported his argument with a clutch of documents).

Mirpur, January 25
Sachin Tendulkar struck his 45th Test century and Rahul Dravid his 29th as India toyed with the Bangladesh attack to tighten their grip over the second and final cricket Test here today. The Indian top order fired in unison today but the second day's highlight was the 222-run third wicket stand between Tendulkar (143) and Dravid (111), who retired hurt after a Shahadat Hossain bouncer had hit him on the ear guard. India were 495 for five -- 226 runs ahead of their hosts -- when stumps were drawn after Harbhajan Singh's (13) dismissal in the 103rd over of the innings. India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was batting at 22 at stumps.

Scoreboard
Bangladesh (1st innings): 233 all out
India (1st innings):
Gambhir c M Rahim b S Islam 68
Sehwag c M Rahim b S Hossain 56
Dravid retired hurt 111
Tendulkar c I Kayes b S Al Hasan 143
Vijay c Mahmudullah b S Al Hasan 30
Dhoni batting 22
Harbhajan c M Rahim b S Islam 13
Extras: (b-1, lb-5, w-1, nb-9) 16
Total: (for 5 wkts in 102.5 overs) 459
Fall of wickets: 1-103, 2-146, 2-368 (retired hurt), 3-421, 4-436, 5-459.
Bowling: S Islam 17.5-1-70-2, S Hossain 19-2-71-1, R Hossain 23-0-106-0, S Al Hasan 27-0-108-2, Ashraful 4-0-26-0, Mahmudullah 11-0-63-0, Siddique 1-0-9-0.

In sport as in life there is always so much to learn and the Bangladesh batsmen had a lesson for free on the second day of the Test match at Dhaka. Maybe it wasn’t all free since they had to pay for it with runs and not Takas which is the local currency but it would be well worth it if they show in the second innings that they have absorbed something from the awesome display of batting by the two Indian Stalwarts Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar. This is not trying to run the Bangladesh batsmen down, not at all, but having seen the way they have approached the task at hand in three Test innings so far, it is clear that they need to look at one that enables them to spend time at the crease fruitfully.

More than the stroke production it was the manner in which Dravid and Tendulkar built their innings brick by brick that was fascinating. They were patient to start with, taking their time to get used to the pitch. Both had come in to bat after a batsman had been dismissed by a short ball. While that is not unusual it is not often that well-set batsmen are surprised by a short ball.

Sehwag had in fact despatched the previous delivery past the bowler for a boundary and then Shahdat produced a snorter that came 10 kmph quicker than the one hit for a four and took Sehwag totally by surprise. Gambhir too was looking set to join Don Bradman as the batsman to score centuries in 6 consecutive Tests when a bouncer bowled from round the wicket by Shafiul Islam had him fending off for Mushfiqur to take the balooned ball.

It was in such a situation that Dravid and Tendulkar had arrived at the crease. Apart from those two deliveries that just took off, there was nothing in the pitch so they had to be watchful. Encouraged by the success with the short ball, the Bangladesh bowlers tried that a little too often and became predicatble since a bouncer is best as a surprise weapon if a bowler is not express in pace. Even with spin both batsmen took their time though they realised that the weak link was Mahmudullah and so went after him to keep the board moving.

It was not the kind of batting that makes spectators sit on the edge of their seats just waiting to get up but it was where the spectators were also certain that unless another unexpected deliveries were produced these two would not be moved. That’s exactly what happened. Dravid after getting his 29th Test century was in two minds whether to duck or sway out of the way of a short ball and took a blow on the side of the helmet and retired hurt.

Tendulkar got out when he looked set for a double and that started a bit of a collapse with Vijay also getting out shortly thereafter. But while Dravid and Tendulkar were stitching their 222 run partnership it was an exhibition of how Test innings ought to be played.

We will soon find out if the Bangladesh batsmen have learnt anything from these two masters for there couldn’t have been better teachers than Dravid and Tendulkar. — PMG