Mumbai, February 1
Weighed down by the pressure of expectations four years ago, the Indian squad crashed out of the World Cup at the preliminary stage itself but current captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni is confident his team would handle the burden better in the upcoming mega-event. "We take pressure as an added responsibility. We will stick to the basics and prepare well. We have the potential to do well in the tournament.

For a change we will not be the underdogs," said Dhoni at a promotional event here. The Ranchi-born wicket-keeper batsman, however, refused to predict whether India will go on and regain the coveted crown after a gap of 28 years. "I never predict what will happen in cricket. We believe in each other and we believe in the process. We will take each game in the right frame of mind," said Dhoni ahead of India's campaign in the Febrary 19-April 2 showpiece event.

Dhoni brushed aside concerns about India's opening match against co-hosts Bangladesh in Dhaka after what had happened in the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies when the Rahul Dravid-led side got knocked out following a shock defeat at the hands of their eastern neighbours. "The past is past. I am more optimistic than you," he said referring to the lung-opener against Bangladesh on February 19.

Dhoni refused to agree with England batsman Kevin Pietersen, who criticised the World Cup schedule for long gaps between matches and preferred to look at it as an opportunity to recover from niggles and relax.

"I don't know about other sports but we criticise a lot in cricket. When we have tight schedule we say there's too much cricket and when there are gaps we say there's too little. It's difficult to prepare a perfect schedule," Dhoni said. "We would utilise these breaks to relax and get over whatever niggles we have," he added.

India play their second match in Group B, against England at Bangalore, eight days after they kick off the mega-event in Dhaka against Bangladesh. Later on, Dhoni and his men play three matches in close succession — against Ireland, the Netherlands and South Africa — between March 6 and 12 and in different centres, all at home.

Pietersen had criticised the scheduling of the tournament in the British media. "How can the England team play once and then in six days' time play again, and then in six days' time play again. It's ridiculous but there's nothing we can do about the schedules," the England player was quoted as having said.

Dhoni also did not agree to the view reportedly expressed by 1983 World Cup-winning team member Mohinder Amarnath that the Indian squad should have had a frontline left-arm spin bowler. "Its difficult to accommodate everyone. One can say there is no second wicket-keeper too. For me the 15 players selected would have an impact on the World Cup," the Indian captain retorted. — PTI

Napier, February 1
Misbah ul-Haq made a career-best 93 not out to steer Pakistan to a two-wicket win over New Zealand in the fourth one-day cricket international today to lead 2-1 in the six-match series. New Zealand made 262-7 in its 50 overs, batting first after winning the toss in conditions at McLean Park described as "heaven for batsmen" by Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi.

Pakistan stumbled several times in its run chase, losing wickets at crucial moments, but Misbah steered his team home with an over to spare. The loss was New Zealand's 13th from its last 15 ODIs, continuing its ragged preparation for the World Cup, which starts in little more than two weeks.

The outcome of the match hung on a dramatic batting power-play called by Pakistan after 42 overs, during which the initiative changed hands on several occasions. Pakistan was 194-4 when the power-play was called, needing 69 to win from 48 balls. Misbah had already reached his half-century from 62 balls and was in command of Pakistan's innings. — AP

Patiala, February 1
C. Rajesh of Railways bagged first position in the Elimination Race (men’s) on the first day of the 63rd Senior and Junior and 26th Sub-junior men’s and women’s, National Track Cycling Championship, at the Punjabi University Cycling Track, here today. Atul Kumar of SSCB and Sabu Ginigar of Railways stood second and third in the race.

Only one event was completed today, whereas for various other event categories, the qualifying rounds were held. As many as 354 cyclists from different States and departments are participating in the event.

Earlier, presiding over the inaugural ceremony, Punjab PWD Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa asserted that Punjab cyclists would be provided with good equipment and training in order to prepare them for the national and international cycling events. 

London, February 1
Fernando Torres joined Chelsea from Liverpool for a reported 50 million pounds (USD 79.5 million) today, a British-record transfer fee on the final day of the biggest spending January transfer window for English clubs. More than £215 million was spent this month by Premier League teams, smashing the previous biggest outlay of £181 million in 2009 despite Britain being currently in the midst of a severe economic downturn.

Liverpool replaced Torres by breaking the club's transfer record twice in the space of a few hours to bring in Andy Carroll from Newcastle and Luis Suarez from Ajax - for a combined fee of £58 million.

"I am very happy with my transfer to Chelsea and I am looking forward very much to helping my new teammates this season and for many years to come," said Torres, a World Cup winner with Spain last year and the scorer of the only goal in the European Championship final against Germany in 2008.

Chelsea also spent a reported £25 million to sign Brazil defender David Luiz from Portuguese side Benfica, bringing the total figure of those four transfers alone to £133 million.

Previous transfers this month have seen Edin Dzeko join Manchester City from Wolfsburg for about 27 million pounds (USD 42 million) and Darren Bent move to Aston Villa from Sunderland for a fee that could rise to £24 million.

This month's outlay easily eclipsed the 30 million pounds (USD 48 million) spent by English clubs in the 2010 January window. The rest of Europe generally settled for loan signings today. Chelsea's amazing outlay of about £75 million came on the day the club announced losses of £70.9 million last season, despite winning the Premier League and FA Cup.

Torres' move from Liverpool is the third most expensive transfer in the history of world football, bettered only by Real Madrid's purchases of Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka in 2009.

It is similar to the fee reportedly paid to Inter Milan by Barcelona the same year for Zlatan Ib rahimovic, with Samuel Eto'o joining the Italian club as part of that deal.

Such was the frenzied activity at Liverpool, comfortably the busiest mover on deadline day, that the club even had to temporarily change the page layout of its website to safeguard its stability. The Reds had unprecedented levels of traffic on the site, with 1.1 million fans having visited it by 2200 GMT, generating a record 8.5 million page impressions. — AP

New Delhi, February 1
If Ajay Maken has his way, he will soon cleanse Indian sports, through proper legislation, of the many wrongs it is currently surrounded by. The Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports (independent charge) announced here today that the Government would frame a National Sports Development Legislation soon to put Indian sports on a clean and transparent path.

Living up to his promise made immediately after taking over his new ministry last month, that he would address the media on the first of every month, Maken made this important announcement while interacting today with reporters at the Sports Authority of India headquarters, adjacent to Nehru Stadium.

Explaining the roadmap of a comprehensive sports legislation, he said the Sports Ministry will put on its website the draft bill on February 20, and invite suggestions from the stakeholders and public for one month before giving the bill the final push.

Maken’s predecessor M.S. Gill had initiated the process of disciplining errant sports federations, and despite facing many roadblocks, he persisted with his plans to bring some sort of rule of law among the federations. Gill was insistent that there should be a tenure and age-limit for the office-bearers of the Indian Olympic Association and the National Sports Federations, and his efforts were bearing fruit, when he was shifted out of the Sports Ministry in the recent Cabinet reshuffle.

Maken said the proposed comprehensive legislation would be broadly based and would incorporate the Basic Universal Principles of Good Governance (BUPOGG), the IOC (International Olympic Committee) Charter, good international legislative practices, anti-doping laws, measures against sexual harassment and age fraud detection.

Elaborating, Maken said some of the core principles enunciated in the BUPOGC, as adopted by the 13th Olympic Congress of the Olympic Sports Movements, include: Elections to sports bodies should be governed by clear, transparent and fair rules (including a clean electoral roll, independent returning officer and secret ballots); the term of office should be of limited duration, in order to allow the renewal of office-bearers on a regular basis; co-operation, co-ordination and consultation with the Government to preserve autonomy and involvement of athletes in decision making with full voting rights; and the anti-doping law would be in compliance with WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) regulations.

Maken said the measures against sexual harassment would aim at ensuring that the guidelines laid by the Supreme Court in the judgment of the Vishakha vs the State of Rajasthan case are implemented and taken into the prospective while contemplating protection of women in sports from sexual harassment.

Gills fight was basically against people over 70 years of age contesting for an office-bearer's post in the National Sports Federations and some of the officials hanging on to many sports federations for decades without the fear of being uprooted. Such federations include hockey, archery, athletics, shooting, volleyball, judo, swimming, badminton, and even the IOA.

The sexual harassment case also got prominence when a woman hockey player accused the then chief coach Maharaj Krishan Kaushik of explicit sexual behaviour when he was in-charge of the senior Indian women's hockey team.

BRIEFLY

Somdev wins in SA Open
Johannesburg: Indian tennis ace Somdev Devvarman eased into the second round of the ATP South African Open with a straight-set win over local hope Raven Klaasen in his opening match here. Somdev defeated the local qualifier 6-4 6-3 in his lung-opener of the USD 442,500 event. The Indian faces a tough challenge from here on as his very next opponent could be third seed Serb Janko Tipsarevic, who would be squaring off against the Netherlands' Jesse Huta in his opening match. Somdev, who was a quarter-finalist in the event last year, relied on his powerful serve from the very beginning and did not offer a single break chance to his rival in the opening set. — PTI

Batting form, luck important: Kapil
New Delhi: Batting would be India's strength in the upcoming World Cup but Mahendra Singh Dhoni's wretched luck with the toss will also have to turn for the better if India are to break a 28-year-old jinx at the mega-event, feels 1983 World Cup winning captain Kapil Dev. "Our strength is batting and I feel we should depend on that and have faith. Luck also plays a part...winning the toss in every match. It will be marginally difficult if we lose the toss and the rival team posts a huge total for us to chase a target of 300 or so," the legendary all-rounder told PTI in an interview. — PTI

Miami Heat's Dwyane Wade (L) goes up to score against the Cleveland Cavaliers Joey Graham during fourth quarter of their game in Miami, Florida on Monday. — Reuters

Dhoni is cricket’s ‘Obama’: Praveen
New Delhi: If being inspiring is a measure of leadership skills then Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni is comparable only to charismatic American President Barack Obama, feels all-rounder Praveen Kumar. "He is the Obama of cricket," was Praveen's reply when asked what makes Dhoni a special captain. Lauded for being cool and composed in trying match situations, throwing his weight behind players he believes in and for trying the unconventional, Dhoni's leadership has rarely been criticised since he took over in 2007. — PTI

Sehwag a game changer: KP
New Delhi: Himself a game changer who pioneered the controversial switch-hit, England batsman Kevin Pietersen feels destructive Indian opener Virender Sehwag and West Indian Chris Gayle are the other two batsmen capable of turning a match on its head. "There are a few players I admire as game changers today. Virender Sehwag is one of them, he opens the batting and you know as an opposing player that within 10-15 overs of a test match or 10-15 overs of a one day international, the man can change the game," Pietersen said. — PTI

Mahilpur Academy win
MAHILPUR: Football Academy Mahilpur defeated Football Academy Paldi by 1-0 in the final of the school category finals for under 17 boys in the ongoing 49th Principal Harbhajan Singh Memorial Football Tournament in Mahilpur on Tuesday. Rajvir scored the solitary goal for the Football Academy Mahilpur. In the first semifinals of the college category, SGGS Khalsa College, Mahilpur, controlled the game all through, though their victory margin of 1-0 does not indicate this. They will now meet Chandigarh Academy in the finals. — TNS

Madras Club lift title
NEW DELHI: Deadly bowling by medium pacer Kuldeep Rawat (4 for 41) and a strokeful knock of 70 by Aditya Jain helped Madras Club beat Subhania by eight wickets to lift the title in the 15th Sahibzada Ajit Singh Cricket Tournament played at the Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce ground here today. Kuldeep Rawat was adjudged the man of the match as well as the man of the tournament. Scores: Subhania: 128 (Shekhar Redhu 27, Dhanij Rath 26, Kuldeep Rawat 4 for 41, Ajay Chauhan 3 for 10, Pawan Tewatia 2 for 21). Madras Club: 130 for 2 (Aditya Jain 70, Punit Bisht 41). — TNS