 |
|
|
Sunil
Gavaskar Writes... |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Historic Sudhar’s hockey story told
Vijay Hazare Trophy
Sikander out to conquer the world
Sikander Mann practices at the Punjabi University shooting range
in Patiala on Wednesday. Tribune photo: Rajesh Sachar
|
|
I am responsible for loss: Srikkanth
New Delhi, February 10 India lost the match by an innings and six runs yesterday and former players and critics felt the team desperately missed a specialist batsman in the absence of the injured duo of Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. “As the chairman of the selection panel, I am willing to own up responsibility. It's a lesson learnt and from now on, we will not select players who are not 100 per cent fit,” he said, referring to Laxman's selection in the squad despite the uncertainty over his availability ahead of the match. Nagpur: The flat decks in India no longer worry pacers, said South Africa captain Graeme Smith as he attributed Dale Steyn's devastating form in the first cricket Test against India to a changed mindset of not letting conditions dictate bowling. Smith said the changed mindset of his fast bowlers is one of the reasons for their success. "I think mindset is crucial coming here. If you come here thinking I would bowl one spell as best as I can and (that for) the next spell…the wicket is flat and the spinners should be doing the job...(then you are will not succeed). I think it's about taking responsibility for your position. It's not always it's going to come off," he said. India have optional nets session
After suffering a crushing defeat in the opening Test against South Africa, some members of the Indian cricket team today had an optional training session here which was skipped by senior players like Sachin Tendulkar and Zaheer Khan. Some members of the team, including skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, practiced at the VCA stadium in Jamtha on what was the scheduled fifth day of the first Test.
— PTI |
|
SA have come with the intent to
win
How else can one explain why they were made the scapegoats and dropped from the squad for a loss by the playing eleven? That has always been the case in India. When a team loses the fringe players and the reserves get the boot even though they may have done what was expected of them. So Saha finds himself out of the squad presumably because he let the ball crash onto his off stump with his bat held aloft while others who did that with not many runs under their belt either are still in the squad. India selectors seldom confront reality and prefer to go around a problem than tackle it head on. That’s why the easy way out of axing the reserves and picking a 15 member squad for a game in India. South Africa have come all the way with no reserve keeper but in India we need a keeper in the reserves. Even granting that it is not easy to replace a keeper if anything goes wrong fifteen minutes before the toss like it happened with Rohit Sharma in Nagpur at least the venue where the game is played can be considered before selecting a squad. Wriddhiman Saha is from Kolkata and so can always be called up if Dhoni suffers from back spasms on the morning of the match unless the selectors are now telling us that, no, he is not good enough as a wicketkeeper but was so only a few days ago. They pick teams for limited overs competitions based on Ranji Trophy performances and for Test cricket on domestic limited overs deeds. South Africa despite the turmoil of losing their coach and selection panel just before they left for this trip have shown that they have come here with intent to wrest back the number one position. Their batsmen have shown determination and patience for Test cricket is a five-day game and they ground India’s bowlers to the dust with that approach. Then while their quicker bowlers Steyn and Morkel tried to blast the Indian batsmen out with pace and swing, Parnell and Harris played on their patience. It was a planned clinical approach and it resulted in a massive win. Now they cannot lose and are a few days away from the number one ranking. India can come back only if some players put their hands up and show that the India cap means somethin and play as if their lives depend on it. — PMG
|
|
Historic Sudhar’s hockey story told
Chandigarh, February 10 Balkar Singh Bajwa, a javelin thrower of yesteryears, who after retiring as principal from Sudhar, has taken upon himself the onerous task of tracing hockey roots of the town where he spent 36 glorious years of his life. He has come out with an illustrated book on hockey stars of Sudhar, tracing the origin, rise and growth of hockey in the town that was visited by the sixth Guru, Guru Hargobind. It is why most of the education institutions, including a postgraduate degree college, an institute of pharmacy, college of education and a senior secondary public school, are named after the sixth Guru. Legend goes that Guru Hargobind gave his shoes to Bhai Jawanda ji for wearing, who kept them as a valued gift. His descendants still have those shoes and people from all over Punjab and India visit Sudhar to see those shoes and seek blessings. It is Sudhar that produced Olympian Jaswant Singh Gill besides a large number of national and state level players. Two of other outstanding players of this town - Darshan Singh Gill (stand by for Mexico Olympic games) and Avtar Singh Ghuman (reserve for the 1971 World Cup in Barcelona) just missed donning national colours. Three times Olympic gold medallist Balbir Singh Senior in a message to Balkar Singh Bajwa not only appreciates his long research effort in compiling this book but also acknowledges the association of his one time contemporary in world hockey, Tochy Sandhu of Tanzania, who officiated in a number of Olympic games. Tochy Sandhu had been a student of Sardara Singh, a physical education teacher in the Sudhar School. Sardara Singh has been credited as a missionary as most of outstanding hockey players of both pre and post-partition periods were his trainees. Balkar Singh, though an athlete, also had a great passion for hockey and he even dabbled his hand in the stick and ball game on the playfields of the college from where he got his degree in education and later served the college for more than three decades. Balkar Singh Sandhu has written about some of the outstanding hockey players, including Sardara Singh, Sukhdev Singh Gill, Harnek Singh Gill, Ajaib Singh Gill, Bant Singh Gill, Bant Singh Gill, Darshan Singh Gill, and also Karamjit Singh Brar. Interestingly, Balkar Singh Bajwa, who took to computers only after retiring from the academics, did use the information highways and various search engines to trace many of heroes of yesteryears before mentioning them in the book. He has also gone through the little hockey literature, including biographies, available in the country.
|
|
|
Delhi beat J&K in opening match
Sushil Manav Tribune News Service
Sirsa, February 10 Batting first after winning the toss, Jammu and Kashmir scored 244 runs for the loss of 8 wickets in their quota of 50 over. A strokeful innings of 47 runs of 42 balls by Dhruv Mahajan was the highlight of the Jammu and Kashmir innings, while Imraz Thakur (43) and Parvez Rassol (47) also made useful contributions. For Delhi, Rajat Bhatia was the best bowler, who took three wickets conceding only 16 runs in his 10 over, two of which were maidens. Punit Mehra and Pradeep Sangwan took two wickets apiece. Delhi batsmen batted steadily chasing the Jammu and Kashmir total without showing any undue haste. For the Jammu and Kashmir team, Samir Ali took two wickets, while Sammiullah Beh and Manik Gupta took one wicket each.
|
|
Sikander out to conquer the world
Patiala, February 10 He was merely 15 when one of his friends noticed his passion for the game and took him to shooting coach Swaran Kaur. On meeting her, Sikander decided to take up shooting as his career and has never looked back. He started practicing with Kaur at her home, where she has her own shooting range. He became a professional shooter, aged just 16 and won various medals in state meets. Sikander, who is a 10m Air Pistol shooter, came into limelight when he made it to the Indian squad and contributed in India’s silver medal win at the Asian Air Rifle Championship held at Doha from December 16 to 22 last year. His recent gold medal at the SAF Games in Dhaka has strengthened his chance to be a part of the Commonwealth squad too. Talking about his future, Sikander said he was currently focusing on the 2010 Commonwealth Championship. “There are many good shooters in India and to make it to the top is a challenge. I will leave no stone unturned for these trials. I am soon leaving for Germany for higher training before the Commonwealth trials,” he added. On being questioned about his education plans, Sikander, who is a class XII student, says he wanted to join the Civil Services. Throwing light on his other interests, Sikander said he was very fond of volleyball as well. “As far as my favourite player is concerned, it is none other than Abhinav Bindra. Not only because he is an Olympic gold medallist but because I have never seen a more focused player. Despite being from such a well-to-do background, he has given up everything for this game and that’s what has made him what he is today. I too hope to follow his footsteps,” he said. Despite his young age, Sikander has understood the value of money and that is where he feels that the Associations and the government have to step in. Being an expensive sport, the shooters require expensive setups to go all out in their training and have to bear all the expenses too. This is one aspect of the sport he feels, which needs to change.
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
Patiala, February 10
If Indian selectors have learnt anything from the loss it doesn’t appear to manifest itself in the selection of the squad for the second Test at Kolkata. Two of the reserves in the squad, seamers Sudeep Tyagi and Mithun have been left out after the heavy loss to South Africa in the first Test. They must not have got the right energy drink to the bowlers or the right bat to the batsmen or they simply didn’t respond quickly enough when a player was waving for something from the field.
