 |
|
|
Still in a fix!
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Maka Trophy
Federer, Clijsters lead parade of champions
Suspend Pak: Speed
|
|
But the Aussie skipper insisted that he never suspected anything fishy during the 36-run win over Pakistan in January in a match, which saw nine wickets of the visiting side fall for 89 runs. "Not at the time, no, I had no idea about anything like that at all," Ponting told 'ABC Radio'. "The way we won was one of the more satisfying moments that I've had on the cricket field. And now when some of these things come to light is when you start to slightly doubt some of the things that have happened. It's not up to us to worry about that anyway," he added. But after the sting, Ponting said he fears the individual efforts by his players to notch that unlikely win would stand tainted. "The thing that I'm most worried about if any of this is proven to be true is some of the individual performances that took place in that game," he said. "You look at Mike Hussey's second innings hundred and Peter Siddle's batting and the way he was with Mike Hussey that day and Nathan Hauritz taking five wickets on the final day to win us the game. "All of those individual milestones will be tainted as well," he added. Atherton: Blame the sub-continent
LONDON: Sub-continent is the hub of corruption in cricket because of the game's popularity and financial might there, former England captain Mike Artherton said. "The sub-continent is where betting on cricket is at its fiercest with hundreds of millions of dollars wagered on each one-day international. It is for that reason most of the corruption in cricket has sprung from there (sub-continent)," Atherton wrote a commentary in The Times. He was of the view that India is the only place where bets are placed on particular elements of a match, known as 'spot-fixing'. "The only bookmakers who offer markets on elements of the game open to so-called micro-manipulation are those in India, where bookmaking is illegal and designed to avoid tax and service the black market," Artherton said. "Ladbrokes (Britain's leading betting company) wouldn't give you a price on Mohammad Amir bowling a no-ball in his third over." the former opener said. Artherton said the advent of cash-rich Twenty20 tournaments like the Indian Premier League was one of the reason behind the revival of corruption in cricket. "Two factors made resurgence of corruption more likely. One was the rise of Twenty20: franchise tournaments in India such as the Indian Cricket League and Indian Premier League were unsupervised by the ACU and, with franchise holders having spent millions on buying their franchises, rumours abounded of match-fixing," he wrote. "Second, there was a change in betting patterns. It was no longer necessary to fix the result of a match, rather a specific element. For example, a batting team might determine how many runs they would score in five overs in a one-day game; or, as the allegations this week suggested, a bowler might suggest how many no-balls he would bowl and when. It is this so-called micro-betting that is at the heart of any corruption now," he added. Scandal is for ICC, PCB to deal: BCCI
New Delhi: The BCCI today chose to remain mum on the 'spot-fixing' scandal involving Pakistani players, saying the matter is for the ICC and the PCB to deal with. "The PCB and ICC should look into this matter and they are capable of handling it," the BCCI's media and finance committee chairman Rajiv Shukla, who is also a Congress MP, told reporters here. Bookies made £20m from Pak tour: Report
London: The shocking match-fixing scandal, involving the Pakistan team, turned out to be a money spinner for the bookies with reports suggesting that the fixers may have raked in at least £20 million from Pakistan's matches in England this summer. According to a report in the Daily Mirror tabloid, match-fixing crooks have so far earned at least £20 million from Pakistan's tour to England, which also involved a Test series against Australia. "And the cut to players involved in the alleged scam could be around £6 million," a police source told the tabloid. "There are huge amounts of money involved. A well-organised gang could easily have bagged tens of millions in a world-wide gambling operation," the tabloid quoted an expert as saying. — PTI Cricket bookie Mazhar Majeed, who was arrested by the police, has revealed that the betting syndicate made £830,000 from the controversial Test early this year between Pakistan and Australia. "Let me tell you the last Test we did. It was the Second Test against Australia in Sydney. Australia had two more wickets left. They had a lead of ten runs, yeah. And Pakistan had all their wickets remaining." "The odds for Pakistan to lose that match, for Australia to win that match, were I think 40/1. We let them get up to 150 then everyone lost their wickets. That one we made 1.3. But that's what I mean, you can get up to a million. Tests is where the biggest money is because those situations arise," said Majeed. —
IANS |
|
Hockey favourite among ticket buyers
New Delhi, August 30 Despite the country’s unimpressive performance in hockey for long, the game is the most popular sport among ticket buyers followed by gymnastic, athletics, swimming, boxing, lawn tennis and then badminton in that order, director, ticketing, Monica Jolly told The Tribune. However, the sale of tickets for different sports, 17 in total in the CWG, has been on the slower side. CWG Organising Committee officials had hoped that tickets would fly off the shelf once their sale began online and 12 retail outlets from the first week of June. But like most of their hopes, it too proved misplaced. The OC is, though, tightlipped about the overall sale figures, sources said only a small fraction of sport tickets had been sold so far. Officials , though, expected the sale to pick up in coming days after the sale of real tickets began from August 25 across 30 outlets, which would go up to 46 across the national capital region in the coming days. Until August 25, buyers at retail outlets and CWG website were issued vouchers against their purchase which they could redeem from the outlets after August 25. Among all events, it is the tickets for opening followed by closing ceremonies which are most sought-after, especially the economy ones. The cheapest opening and closing ceremonies tickets are at Rs 1,000 and Rs 750, respectively, and they are selling like hot cakes. The sale of tickets for both ceremonies is anywhere between 25 and 30 per cent of the total ticket sale. The figure for hockey ticket sale is not even half of this. Meanwhile, the officials added that there was no truth in concerns that economy tickets have run of stocks as they put on sale a limited number of tickets and bring out fresh stock from inventory once the earlier lot sells out. They said they would be selling close to 50,000 tickets for both ceremonies which would be held at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium, which has a capacity of over 60,000. The remainder seats would be for different reserved categories. As per figures available until last week, an official said they had sold around 10,000 tickets for the opening ceremony and 8,000 for the closing ceremony. “A lot of tickets are still left.” Rajpal, Surinder to lead hockey teams New Delhi, August 30 Hockey India announced here today that the team was selected after trials conducted at Balewadi, Pune, by Col Balbir Singh, BP Govinda, Government nominees Ajit Pal Singh and Zafar Iqbal, foreign coach Jose Brasa and national coach Harender Singh. The women’s team was selected after trials held at Patiala in the presence of Col Balbir Singh, Sita Mehta, Roopa Saini, Ajitpal Singh and Zafar Iqbal. |
|
Maka Trophy
Patiala, August 30 The occasion assumed special significance as the university scored a hat-trick by virtue of winning the trophy for the third year in succession. The trophy was awarded by President Pratibha Patil at the Ashoka Hall of Rashtrapati Bhawan last evening on the recommendation of the Union Sports and Youth Affairs Ministry. While addressing the gathering, Dr Jaspal Singh said Punjabi University would soon have a multipurpose gymnasium and a fitness centre. An Astroturf is also likely to be fixed with funds being promised by the government, along with university spending some money from its own pool. By winning the trophy consecutively for the third year, we have touched the highest peak and we will spare no effort to sustain this position during the coming years,” he said. Registrar Dr Manjit Singh, president of the PU Sports Committee Dr DK Mann and principals from various colleges were among those who spoke on the occasion. Punjabi University have won following positions in the All-India Inter-University Competitions to establish its stranglehold on the MAKA Trophy: Team events: 1st position in 12 events; 2nd position in eight events; 3rd position in five events. Individual events: 54 gold medals; 31 silver medals and 33 bronze medals. Achievements in the national level competitions: 36 gold medals, 22 silver medals and 31 bronze medals. Punjabi University sportspersons have created nine new records in the inter-university competitions. Nine players of the university have represented India in various international competitions while four of its players have already made it to the forthcoming Commonwealth Games.
|
|
Federer, Clijsters lead parade of champions
Federer won the men’s championship five times on the trot from 2004 to 2008, but will not start the event as the defending champion after his loss to Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro in last year’s final. Del Potro is absent this year because of injury but another Argentine, Brian Dabul, will be in the spotlight when he faces Federer in the first round. “Maybe there is an extra incentive for me to try to win it again after being two points away last year,” Federer told reporters. “It was a disappointing loss for me, I felt like that was one of the finals I should never have lost. At the end Potro played great and deserved the victory. It was a tough one to swallow,” he said. With Potro away, Clijsters is the lone defending champion. She plays Hungarian Greta Arn first up. Clijsters won in 2005, but did not get the chance to defend her title in 2006 because of injury. She missed the event in 2007 and 2008 after taking time out to start a family before a fairytale return last year. “I’m so excited to be back to defend my title. This is a first for me,” she said. Roddick, who won his only grand slam title at New York in 2003, has been plagued by illness in the recent months but the prospect of returning to the centre court has given him a boost. He plays Frenchman Stephane Robert in his first match which coincides with his 28th birthday. “Birthday or no birthday, you come in to try to win one,” he said. “I don’t think too much about age, numbers, whatever. I’ll play till I can, until I feel like I shouldn’t anymore.” Williams, who will fly the family flag after her sister Serena withdrew because of a foot injury, won the US Open in 2000 and 2001 and was a runner-up in 1997 and 2002, has also been troubled by injuries but said she was fit and raring togo in her first match against Italian Roberta Vinci. “Theoretically I’ve had more rest than everyone, I should be fresh,” Williams said. — Reuters
|
|
Suspend Pak: Speed
Melbourne: Allegations of spot-fixing is "endemic" to Pakistan cricket and suspending the entire team is an option, feels former ICC CEO Malcolm Speed. "I think that's (suspension) an option. It's serious," said Speed, who was ICC chief executive officer from 2001 until 2008.
A prominent figure of world cricket, Speed said there were still many such corrupt bookies, who are involving in scrupulous activities. "Corrupt bookmakers and gamblers are still out there," he said. "(It's) great that they've been caught in England where there is a very sophisticated legal system that deals with conspiracy and specifically with cheating in sport. "So I see that as a major positive. I would have liked it to have happened when I was involved with ICC but it didn't happen at that time." —
PTI People come out with donkeys to protest
"This is our way of protesting against such corrupt cricketers and officials. "We want to bring to the notice of the government that they need to punish those who have brought a bad name to the country and made a fool of the millions who pray for the success of the national team all the time," Ahmed Draz, one of the protester, said. — PTI |
| 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 | |
New York, August 30
Melbourne, August 30
New York, August 30
"It looks as though it is endemic that several of the team members are involved and have been for some time," Speed told national radio. "So perhaps they need a rest. It looks a fairly compelling case," added the Australian.
Lahore: In an innovative way to cry down Pakistani players' alleged involvement in the match-fixing scandal, which has rocked the international cricket, a small band of protesters staged a demonstration by coming out with donkeys on the main road here today. The protesters, including children, came out with donkeys each of which had a piece of paper stuck on its forehead with names of accused players and some officials as demonstrators slapped it with shoes and also pelted with rotten vegetables.
Serena plans 3rd school in Kenya
LONDON