Chandigarh, August 30
“It was expected,” says Tarlochan Singh, former Rajya Sabha member and a senior member of the Indian Olympic Association while former Union Sports Minister Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa wondered at the “urgency” of taking the Bill to the cabinet without even holding a meeting with the National Sports Federations (NSFs).

“If they want to take it out on Suresh Kalmadi, how can they target all NSFs that have been working in a transparent manner. The obvious intention of the Bill is to make the working of the NSFs more transparent.

“Since all the NSFs with the exception of the BCCI are not only already covered under the Right to Information Act, they hold their elections in a transparent manner in the presence of the Union Government observers.

Further, the selection committees of all the NSFs have Arjuna awardees as members and their accounts are audited annually. What else is required to make the functioning of the NSFs more transparent,” asks Tarlochan Singh saying that Government was trying to control the NSFs. He says that in case the government had gone through with the Bill, there was every possibility of the International Olympic Committee disaffiliating India as it has done in case of Kuwait.

The Punjab Olympic Association chief and the President of the Gatka Federation of India Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, however, says that there are some good points in the Bill.

“But what prevents the government from holding a meeting with all the national Sports Federations and discuss all points threadbare there before approving the final draft. Intentions of the government become suspect when they want to keep the NSFs out while making a new Bill in regulating the sports administration in the country.

“I favour reservation for sportspersons in the NSFs. Some of the clauses of the Bill, like fixing terms and upper age limit for office-bearers, need a debate as without continuity India would lose its representation in International Sports Federations,” adds Dhindsa.

Punjab Director of Sports Pargat Singh, however, was all in favour of the Bill saying that fixing term and age limit for office-bearers, reservation for sportspersons in the NSFs are all aimed to bring more transparency besides making the sports administration in the country efficient and accountable.

Bringing the BCCI under the purview of the RTI as well as the Doping Control, he said, are welcome. He was hopeful that the Sports Ministry would soon come up with the new draft without compromising with the spirit of the proposed Bill. 

New Delhi, August 30
Former Australian player Dennis Meredith, a member of the International Hockey Federation (FIH) panel of tournament directors, has been appointed technical director for the World Series Hockey (WSH), to be held from December 15 to January 22.

The WSH, with a prize money content of around $ 2 million, will be held under the aegis of the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF), and will involve 176 leading players from India and abroad. The event, a multi-city franchise-based league will have 61 matches. The players will be allocated to the teams based on the international accepted and practised ‘draft’ system.

The Indian players expected to feature in the league are Rajpal Singh, Sandeep Singh, Adrian D’Souza, Sardar Singh, Prabhjot Singh, Arjun Halappa, Diwakar Ram, Bharat Chetri, Dhananjay Mahadik, Shivendra Singh, Mandeep Antil, S.V. Sunil, Roshan Minz, William Xalxo and Prabodh Tirkey.

Pakistani players Rehan Butt, Zeeshan Ashraf, Mudassar Ali, Tariq Aziz, Adnan Maqsood, Waseem Ahmad, Syed Imran Warsi and Shakeel Abbasi have also confirmed their participation. The first edition will comprise eight teams with matches across eight cities, spread over Delhi, Punjab, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. The other two venues will be selected from among Bhopal, Pune, Rourkela, Ranchi, Manipur, Lucknow and Kolkata.

As technical director, Meredith will be responsible for all the “hockey” elements in the WSH. He first visited India as an umpire in the 1982 Asian Games in Delhi. After his playing days, Meredith switched over to officiating and had the honour of umpiring in Olympic and World Cup matches, before being appointed as the umpires’ manager and technical delegate at FIH tournaments.

Daegu, August 30
India's Vikas Gowda finished seventh after a creditable effort of 64.05m in the men's discus throw but Mayookha Johnny failed to qualify for the finals in women's triple jump in the World Athletics Championships here today.

Appearing in his maiden discus throw finals in World Championships in three attempts, Gowda hurled the disc to his season's best of 64.05m, which he recorded in his third attempt, though it was below his national record of 64.96m.

Germany's Robert Harting won gold in 68.97m while Gerd Kanter of Estonia and Iran's Ehsan Hadadi bagged the silver and bronze with 66.95 and 66.08 respectively.

Another Indian in the fray, Mayookha failed to qualify for the finals in triple jump as she finished 19th with an effort of 13.99m, which she attained in her second effort. — PTI

New York, August 30
Maria Sharapova survived an early scare at the U.S. Open Monday after Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova had been knocked out of the year's final grand slam, which began on time and in perfect conditions after a week of wild weather in New York.

It was business as usual at the National Tennis Center in Queens as the earthquake that rattled the U.S. East Coast last week and the deadly hurricane that killed at least 21 people were momentarily forgotten.

As a former champion and a sweetheart of the New York crowds, Sharapova was given the honor of being one of the first players on Arthur Ashe center court and, as expected, the Russian made it through to the next round. But her 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 win over British teen-ager Heather Watson was an unconvincing performance from the former world number one, who won last week's lead-up event in Cincinnati.

Czech Kvitova, the fifth seed, left the Louis Armstrong court almost sobbing after falling 7-6, 6-3 to unseeded Romanian Alexandra Dulgheru. Kvitova has been a marked woman since her surprising win at Wimbledon in July but this time she was the architect of her own downfall. — Reuters

Galle, August 30
Australia and Sri Lanka were searching for the right combination to tackle a bone-dry wicket as they prepared for Wednesday's first cricket Test in Galle.

Sri Lankan captain Tillakaratne Dilshan and his Australian counterpart Michael Clarke expected spin to dominate at the Galle International Stadium, leaving selection headaches for both teams.

"The wicket looks more dry than what we got in previous matches in Galle," said Dilshan, who leads Sri Lanka for the first time in a home series. "It will be a bit slow and I think it will turn after tea on the first day itself."

Clarke, who begins his reign as a full-time Australian Test captain, also foresaw a trial by spin for his batsmen. "I hope I win the toss. It will be harder to bat as the game goes on. Our biggest challenge in the series is how we are going to play spin bowling. It is going to be a tough battle," he said.

Clarke's predecessor Ricky Ponting is the only one in the touring party to have played a Test match in Sri Lanka, way back in 2004 when Australia won 3-0. — AFP

Barcelona, August 30
Cesc Fabregas and Alexis Sanchez marked their home debuts for Barcelona in La Liga with goals as the champions crushed Villarreal 5-0 in their opening match of the campaign on Monday.

World Player of the Year Lionel Messi netted twice and Spain Under-21 midfielder Thiago Alcantara was also on the scoresheet for Barca in their bid for a club record-equalling fourth consecutive Spanish title.

The victory was an impressive response to title rivals Real Madrid after Jose Mourinho's side inflicted a 6-0 demolition on Real Zaragoza on Sunday when Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo scored a hat-trick.

With 75,000 fans packed into a sultry Nou Camp, Barca coach Pep Guardiola opted to leave Spanish World Cup winners Xavi and David Villa on the bench and started with Fabregas in midfield alongside Alcantara, Andres Iniesta and Seydou Keita.

With a number of defenders missing, including injured centre backs Carles Puyol and Gerard Pique and the suspended Daniel Alves, he deployed Sergio Busquets in a three-man defence with Javier Mascherano and Eric Abidal. — AFP

Patiala, August 30
Adding a feather in the cap of Patiala sports fraternity, bodybuilder Sukhneet Singh has made it to the ‘World Top-10’ list during the 28th World Bodybuilding Championship that was held at Sao Paulo, Brazil, as he fulfilled his dream of holding the title Mr. World, 2011.

Sukhneet won this title under the guidance of Premchand Degra, himself a former Mr. Universe and is Padamshree and Arjuna Award winner. He accompanied Sukhneet to the competition. Born on December 16, 1984, Sukhneet didn’t have any idea about bodybuilding till he joined a gym by chance nine years ago. Talking to The Tribune, Sukhneet said, “I started bodybuilding just to get fit like other youngsters but when regular exercises started yielding results, I started enjoying it more. I happened to meet Premchan Degra and he became my inspiration. I then started training with him and there was no looking back.”

Sukhneet became Mr. Patiala in January 2009, which gave a major boost to his career. Not only this, he also bagged second place in the Federation Cup-2010, held in West Bengal and won third place in Senior Mr. India Championship-2010 in Himachal Pradesh.

Kolkata, August 30
Countdown for the city's date with Lionel Messi began as Argentine footballers including the star forwards Gonzalo Higuaín and Sergio Agüero arrived here along with 19 members of Venezuela team in different batches for their FIFA International friendly on September 2.

The organisers maintained a hush-hush about Messi's arrival, but it was quite clear that the Argentine skipper, who fired in twice in Barcelona's 5-0 rout of Villareal in La Liga yesterday, would land here at around 3:10am tomorrow.

Even as the football-crazy city waited in a bated breath for Messi, the excitement was quite palpable at the airport where hundreds of fans gathered this morning to welcome the Argentine stars who landed here at around 8:15am.

The fans shouted 'three cheers for Argentina', 'three cheers for Messi' as the Albicelestes boarded the team bus that took them to team hotel. — PTI

BRIEFLY

Dhoni wants rotation policy
Manchester: Hit hard by injuries woes in the disastrous tour of England so far, Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni today conceded that the players were overworked as he called for a rotation policy to give them rest. India lost six regular players Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Ishant Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan due to injuries in the four-match Test series which India lost 0-4 and Dhoni hinted that the hectic schedule had exhausted the players. "We will have to rotate. It's important that players get rest. Raina has been participating in all formats. It's more to do with the mental rather than the physical aspect. Good rest helps you keep the injuries away," Dhoni said ahead of the Twenty20 International against England here tomorrow. — PTI

Sharjah to host matches
Lahore: Pakistan have been scheduled to play one Test and a One-dayer against Sri Lanka later this year at the Sharjah International stadium, leading to revival of the facility as an international venue after a gap of nearly eight years. Sharjah hosted the highest number of one-dayers between 1984 and 2003 and also organized the Pakistan Test series against West Indies and Australia in 2002. — PTI

3 Indians in 2nd round
Russia: Grandmaster and 2008 World Junior Champion Abhijeet Gupta rose to the occasion as he outclassed higher ranked GM Rauf Mamedov of Azerbaijan to advance to the second round of the World Chess Cup here. It turned out to be a triple Indian treat as Grandmaster P Harikrishna had little difficulty in obtaining the required draw against Maxim Rodshtein of Israel while Parimarjan Negi made it to the next round after an injury to his opponent Vladimir Akopian of Armenia. This is the first time ever that three Indians made it to the second round of the World Chess Cup which is a part of the next world championship cycle. — PTI

Woods adds Frys.com
San Jose: Ailing Tiger Woods, who fell to 38th in world rankings this week, will tee off in the Frys.com Open in October which boasts the richest purse of the PGA Tour's fall series events. Woods added the Frys.com to his itinerary after saying earlier he would try to add another event to his schedule in order to reverse his fortunes in time for the Presidents Cup tournament. "I'm looking forward to seeing some old friends," Woods said on his website on Monday. — AFP

Pierre a ‘morale boost’
New York: Novak Djokovic will have his beloved French poodle, Pierre, as his moral supporter when he steps into the Arthur Ashe stadium to play his first round US Open match against Indian ace Somdev Devvarman. The world No.1 player was reportedly bogged down when Pierre was denied an entry to the UK during the Wimbledon. But now the pooch, which has its own Twitter account, has been allowed to both enter the stadium and get snapped alongside his master. — ANI