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India’s Tour of England
3rd Test: preview Sachin Tendulkar stretches during a practice session at the Edgbaston cricket ground in Birmingham on Tuesday. — AFP
My career’s toughest tour, says Dhoni
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Sehwag will be tested: Strauss
Club vs Country: Pune refuse to release Subrata, Jeje
Doda stadium a distant dream
The grassless ground and incomplete pavilion at the sports stadium, Doda. Tribune photo: Raju William
Meghna dreams of India colours
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India’s Tour of England
3rd Test: preview
Birmingham, August 9 Given England's resounding wins thus far, India's revival looks difficult after a spate of injuries - the latest being the ankle and hamstring problem of pace spearhead Zaheer Khan which has ruled him out of the entire series. With limited bowling resources at his disposal, Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni will look up to his fit-again openers to quell the charge of England's bowlers and reduce the 2-0 deficit. The Indian team management will have to give a good thought to the composition of the team considering the conditions at Edgbaston. With Harbhajan Singh ruled out, leg spinner Amit Mishra may get the nod while Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar and Munaf Patel may have to shoulder the pace bowling responsibilities. Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, India's most successful opening pair ever with 3551 runs at 59.18 per innings, once again come together to lead India's resistance against a rampant England attack on a green Edgbaston pitch over the next five days. Recent history shows no visiting team ever does well in England without a successful opening pair and so the onus is squarely on the two Delhiites to stem the rot and keep India's status, however tenuous, intact as world's best Test side. Test to go on despite riots
Despite the spiralling riots in London and neighbouring areas, the third cricket Test between India and England will go ahead, officials said here today. All important sporting events in London and around, including a football friendly between England and Holland, have been postponed but officials at Edgbaston where the third Test starts tomorrow said the match will go ahead as
scheduled. Tremlett to miss 3rd Test
England paceman Chris Tremlett was today ruled out of the third cricket Test against India, starting tomorrow, as he has failed to recover from a back injury. Tremlett had also missed the second Test, which England won by a huge 319-run margin at Trent Bridge, due to back spasm and a hamstring
problem. ECB said on its website that Tremlett is not available and will receive ongoing treatment ahead of the fourth Test, scheduled to start at The Oval, his home ground, on August 18. India are also grappling with injuries as Zaheen Khan, Harbhajan Singh and left-handed batsman Yuvraj Singh are ruled out. — PTI |
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My career’s toughest tour, says Dhoni
Birmingham, August 9 The tour has placed extraordinary demands on the mental faculties of Indian cricketers, more so on Dhoni who has been on the road for almost a year and who has the added responsibility of keeping and leading the side. "More than that, it's the physical aspect. However, more and more you play, the more experienced to you get to train your mind to get out of it; the measures what needs to be done. Of course, it's not easy... there are different ways for different individuals. Some prefer to have extra nets while others prefer to take mind off cricket. It's what suits an individual," he said. He did not outrightly reject the idea of fielding four medium pacers on a green track at Edgbaston in the third Test. "The wickets so far haven't assisted spinners. It pushes us to think if we can play four fast bowlers — the slow over-rate doesn't bother us, what's important we select the eleven suited to the track," said the Indian captain. India presently have four fit medium-pacers in
Sreesanth, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar and Munaf Patel. RP Singh, the replacement for Zaheer Khan, is yet to join the squad which actually restricts the options for the tourists. — PTI |
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Sehwag will be tested: Strauss
Birmingham, August 9 Sehwag is returning from a shoulder surgery with very little preparation besides the 25-ball-8 he made against Northamptonshire last week. Although they are on the verge of becoming the Top Test natioon, Strauss and his boys are in no mood to take things lightly as Indians have the ability to bounce back. "It can actually have a galvanizing effect (on them). India are a very strong side and in the last two Tests, we had our backs to the wall. We are not expecting anything different and we have to work very hard." — PTI |
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Club vs Country: Pune refuse to release Subrata, Jeje
New Delhi, August 9 “We had conveyed our decision to AIFF in writing earlier and the decision taken by the AIFF Emergency Committee on Monday does not change the stand we took.” He was critical of the workload that both his players have had to endure. “Jeje has been playing non-stop for the past 18 months and needs rest more than anything else, while Paul needs to recover from a niggle that he has been carrying for some time now.” (Paul had missed India’s home tie against the United Arab Emirates here on July 28). The AIFF meeting here, chaired by president Praful Patel, decided that the clubs had a “clear and unequivocal obligation to ensure players are released for National duty as enunciated in Article 13 (J) of the AIFF Constitution and Article 37 (2) of the Players’ Status Regulations”. The team leaves for the Caribbean islands on August 12 to play three international friendly matches with Barbados (Aug 17), Trinidad and Tobago (Aug 21) and Guyana (Aug 24). The team returns on August 26, leaving nearly three weeks for the players to join their clubs for camps before the Federation Cup, starting on September 17. The AIFF said the friendlies with Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago had already been posted on FIFA’s website while the match with Barbados was expected to appear there “soon”. Refuting the AIFF argument, Pune FC noted that the FIFA calendar clearly stated that August 10 had been reserved as a FIFA friendly match day, and Sept 2-6 as “international match day”. “Thus, as per the FIFA calendar, the tour matches in the Caribbean and the UK do not list under any of the two proscribed dates of official matches,” they argued. The AIFF also announced that the Indian Under-23 team will go for an exposure trip to the UK where they will play an international friendly against Pakistan and matches against the England U-23 and Scotland U-21 teams. Pune FC said if the matches in the Caribbean were in any way going to benefit India’s move up the FIFA rankings, they would have released the players. “However, in this case, both the trips are inconsequential, and hence the stand.” Quoting Article I-Point 3 of the FIFA regulations for the status and transfer of players, the club stated, “It is not compulsory to release players for matches scheduled on dates not listed in the coordinated international match calendar”. However, the AIFF asserted that in the interest of developing football in India, “The committee expects full co-operation from the concerned member associations and clubs for release of the players”. But National coach Armando Colaco, who has expressed his willingness to continue in the post though his initial appointment was only for three months, felt that “Such exposure trips are made in the interest of developing Indian football and the clubs should co-operate”. Perhaps Colaco’s continuance as National coach is the bone of contention as Pune, being strong contenders for the coming I-League, cannot accept Colaco’s dual role as the chief coach of Dempo, as well as the National team. The AIFF Executive Committee also decided to rename Indian Arrows as Pailan Arrows (the Kolkata-based Pailan company has now adopted the club) and formally appoint former National coach Sukhwinder Singh as technical director of the club. |
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Doda stadium a distant dream
Doda, August 9 The local sports enthusiasts claim that there was no sincere follow-up of the announcement made by Union Health Minister and former Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad that the stadium would be completed in two years. Five years have passed but this Rs.4.44 crore project is far from completion, they said. “I and my club members visit the stadium on daily basis to see the progress of work, but it is a pity that extremely slow pace of work has resulted only in incomplete pavilion building whose tin roof was laid last month instead of February or March this year,” rued Manzoor Ahmed, chief patron of the Young Star Cricket Club here. “The ground is grassless. Gates are yet to be fixed and that allows stray animals and dogs to come in.” The matter was put on the agenda of proposals requiring funds in the meeting of District Development Board, Doda, held on July 26, 2011. The project needs Rs.147.52 lakh more and everyone is keeping fingers crossed about the availability of these funds. “We have already had Rs. 50 lakh released by the Chief Minister for this purpose. We hope that the project will be completed by the end of 2012,” said Deputy Commissioner, Doda, Farooq Ahmed Khan. The prevailing skepticism about the official assurances does not seem misplaced as the president of J&K Cricket Association and Union Minister Farooq Abdullah had announced in 2008 and 2011 that the needful would be done, but the matter is still hanging fire. He had given assurances on both occasions while presiding over the final matches of the annual Gurfan Memorial cricket tournament here. The lack of a proper ground is a big discouragement for budding cricketers as this has deprived them of an opportunity to see National-level players in action in this popular tournament. “This time the current IPL and former Indian T20 player Joginder Sharma has refused to come and play due to the condition of the ground,” Manzoor Ahmed added. “He had played here last year for a club team from Reasi. He had also assured to motivate several first-class cricketers to come here, but sadly this is not going to happen.” |
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Meghna dreams of India colours
Chandigarh, August 9 One such upcoming player is 17-year-old Meghna Kakaria, who won gold at the 45th Hero Honda Haryana State Table Tennis Championship 2011 held at Rohtak. A student of Sacred Heart Senior Secondary School, Sector 26, Chandigarh, Meghna was also honoured with the Youth Girls Title (U-21) along with a cash prize of Rs. 18,500. Defining her passion for the sport, Meghna says, “I love playing table tennis. I began this sport when I was 10 and since then, I regularly practice for three to four hours a day. I first participated in 2002 junior nationals.” She then won bronze in the Indian Junior Pro Tour in 2008 at Pune. Since then, she has made her winning ways consistent. Meghna has been training under Rajeev Kaushal and Harmanpreet Singh at the Sector 23 coaching centre. She says that she wants to represent India at international events in future. “Poulomi Ghatak is the player who inspires me the most. Her confidence level and her style of play have taken her to a high level in table tennis and I want to follow her footsteps to give shape to my career.” All praise for her daughter, Davinder Kakaria said, “I want her to pursue table tennis as a career. Though she is very good in studies as well, yet I see her excelling in sports. Also, I am very happy that the Haryana government supports her whenever she comes up with a medal for her State.” |
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Their reputation in tatters after two humiliating defeats, injury-ravaged India face an arduous task to retain their number one status when they go into the third cricket Test against England here tomorrow with serious concerns over the form of their famed batsmen.
His injury-ravaged team down in the dumps with back-to-back defeats and some key players experiencing indifferent form, Indian skipper Mahendra Singh today conceded that the current England Test series is one of the most difficult tours of his career. "If you consider injuries, fitness, form, everything, there are quite a few things to worry about.
Doda, August 9
Chandigarh, August 9
Shaq goes 'hand in hand'