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Asian Champions Trophy
Humbled Hockey |
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England beat India by 3 wickets
Marsh, Hussey prop up Aus
All set for Italian GP
Himmat Rai in joint lead
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Asian Champions Trophy
Ordos, September 9 While the 2-2 draw was enough to give Pakistan a berth in the final, India's passage came only because Malaysia came from the dead to beat Japan 3-2 in their last league game. Malaysia was required to get the better of Japan to help India reach the final. Unbeaten in the tournament, India dominated the barren first half but conceded two goals in two minutes to trail 0-2 by the 42nd minute only to come from behind to draw the match under chilly and windy conditions. Pakistan took a 2-0 lead through Muhammad Waqas (40th minute) and Muhammad Irfan (42nd) but India responded immediately with Rupinder (46th) finding the target from an indirect penalty corner while Danish Mujtaba scored the equaliser in the 53rd minute. Pakistan on 10 points and India with 9 points will battle for supremacy in the final on Sunday. Japan and Malaysia will now again play for the 3rd/4th position as they finished on an identical seven points. Korea will play China for the 5th/6th position. Korea has seven points but an inferior goal difference (-1) pushed them down the table. The India-Pakistan clash turned out to be a thriller as both teams played their hearts out. Mujtaba's equaliser, a deflection from his stick, was a tad controversial as New Zealand umpire Simon Taylor did not initially award a goal. But the Indians appealed and the South Korean umpire, after consultations with Taylor, let the goal stand. Under seven degree temperature and chilly wind blowing, both India and Pakistan started off slowly testing each other on the flanks and in the midfield. No quarter was given by both the sides in the first five minutes. Slowly India increased the tempo as the right flank stretched the Pakistan defence creating openings in the centre. Danish Mujtaba, Gurwinder Singh Chandi, Ravi Pal and Sunil sent some perfect crosses into the Pakistan striking circle. But the forwards were either bunched up or not in the file where they could have latched onto the cross. Once captain Rajpal Singh sped down the right flank but Yuvraj Walmiki and Sunil stood together and could not pick up the cross that beat the Pakistan goalkeeper Imran Shah. The Indian midfield was outstanding except a few errors that came under pressure. Ravi Pal and especially Gurbaj Singh were the players who kept the Pakistan defence under pressure. If there was a man-of-the-match, it should have been Gurbaz who played defensive hockey and when the need arose kept the right flank and the forwards well fed with through balls. India's penalty corner weakness was again exposed when they had two in succession in the 20th and 21st minutes but both were way off target. It was critical to hit the corners of the net but for some reason Rupinder Pal and Raghunath went for the middle and straight to the Pakistani goalkeeper who saved them effortlessly. In the 23rd minute, Pakistan had their first look at the Indian goal when Shafqat Rasool found himself face-to-face with Bharat Chettri in the Indian goal. Shafqat shot straight to Bharat who padded it away to safety. At the break, both the teams were locked goalless. Five minutes after resumption, Waseem Ahmed intercepted an Indian move and won an infringement just outside the Indian striking circle. His cross into the circle went straight to an unmarked Muhammad Waqas. The Pakistan striker had enough time to send in a first timer that beat Indian goalkeeper Chhetri. It was India's first defensive lapse and they paid heavily. Two minutes later, Shakeel Abassi and a host of Pakistan forwards moved in and won Pakistan's first penalty corner. Muhammad Irfan sent a flyer into the right corner of the net to notch up Pakistan's second goal. — PTI
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Humbled Hockey
The Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) has a valid grouse that it was unfairly sidelined to create Hockey India (HI) for the specific purpose of conducting the World Cup Hockey Championship in Delhi, in March, 2010, under the overall control of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), headed by Suresh Kalmadi.
The World Cup bid for India was won when
K.P.S. Gill was heading the IHF. But as the event approached, the International Hockey Federation
(FIH), for the express purpose of getting an upper hand in the financial matters of the World Cup, encouraged the IOA to create a new hockey body to take over the game and conduct the World Cup. The FIH stand was that since the IHF and the Indian Women’s Hockey Federation
(IWHF) had failed to form a unified body to run the game in India, both for men and women, the FIH was neither convinced, nor satisfied. This FIH stand came despite the IHF and IWHF technically merging to create the Indian Hockey Confederation
(IHC) for representing the game at the world level. But it was more to do with the quantum of money the world body would stand to benefit by, with a new hockey body in place in India, instead of dealing with the
IHF, which was not prepared to toe the FIH’s line. The reason given for HI’s formation was that India had failed to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Games and for the first time since 1928, India did not figure in an Olympic. On March 9, 2008, India lost to Britain 0-2 at Santiago (Chile) in the final of one of three qualifying tournaments for the Beijing Olympics. With only the winners qualifying for the 12-team Olympic Games, India were eliminated from Beijing. India also finished outside the podium at the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games and as a result, the team will have to once again qualify for the Olympics. So a situation was created that the World Cup would be taken away from India if the IOA did not form a new governing body for hockey, leading to the formation of Hockey India. The IOA appointed a new five-member National selection committee to work in conjunction with the FIH. The panel was headed by Aslam Sher Khan, a former Member of Parliament, and captain of the Indian hockey team and consisted of former Indian captains Ajit Pal Singh, Ashok Kumar, Zafar Iqbal and Dhanraj Pillay. But Aslam soon fell out with the IOA top brass and was replaced by Ajit Pal as the chairman of the panel, though Aslam continued to be a member of the panel. But the
IHF, headed by Gill, alleged that the IOA-FIH nexus had hatched a conspiracy during the Beijing Olympics by signing an Memorandum of Understanding
(MoU), for conducting of the World Cup by a private body called the ‘FIH Hero Honda World Cup Society’ for their “illegal monetary gains”. The IHF also alleged that it was a “dubious act” by the FIH and IOA to form Hockey India and its affiliation with the FIH well before HI was registered in India and accorded recognition by the IOA and the Government (read the Sports Ministry). The IHF also asserted that it alone had come out with a plan to promote and popularise the game and market it so that the players could get the money. Realizing that hockey was a popular game in India and the FIH could make money out of the game, it asked the
IHF/IHC to conduct the World Cup, which the combine accepted. However,
IHF/IHC subsequently alleged that they had “refused to accept FIH’s unfair demands and diktats”, which ultimately led to the world body thinking that the relationship with the IHF would not be smooth. Hence it joined hands with IOA to give birth to HI, with the support of the Sports Ministry. But the IHF was not prepared to concede ground, without a fight and went to court. The IHF contention was that the
FIH, “in its zeal to make money for themselves, not only protected Hockey India, an alter-ego of the
IOA, but also started running the HI with remote control”. |
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England beat India by 3 wickets
London, September 9 Earlier, India made a commendable recovery from a disastrous start to reach a respectable 234 for seven. The visitors, once again put in to bat, were reeling at 25 for four at one stage. — PTI Scoreboard England
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Marsh, Hussey prop up Aus
Pallekele, September 9 The West Australian pair put on 148 for the unbroken fourth wicket as the tourists moved to a commanding 264/3 in their first innings when bad light halted play soon after tea. Marsh was on 87 and Hussey followed his match-winning 95 in the first Test in Galle with another half-century as Australia built a 90-run lead with seven wickets still in hand. The pair joined forces after Sri Lanka had grabbed three quick wickets in the morning session to restrict Australia to 116/3 in reply to their own 174. Former Australian opener Geoff Marsh looked on from the stands as his 28-year-old son mastered the Sri Lankan attack with 11 boundaries after a dour start. Marsh had come into the Test side in place of former captain Ricky Ponting, who had to return home after Galle for the birth of his second child. The knock will help the left-hander cement his place in the team even when Ponting returns for the third and final Test in Colombo from September 16. Marsh drove Suranga Lakmal through the covers and then chipped debutant leg-spinner Seekkuge Prasanna over mid-on to take Australia past Sri Lanka's total. — AFP |
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Roger storms into
semis
New York, September 9 Third seed Federer will tackle top seed and world number one Novak Djokovic for a place in the final after overcoming a 90-minute rain interruption and curtailing the powerful but wayward shot-making of Tsonga. It will be the fourth successive US Open semifinal meeting between Federer and Djokovic and first since the Swiss ended the Serb's 43-match winning run at the French Open in June. "I don't know if what happened in Paris will help him or me. It was a great match and a special win. It was one of the matches of the year," said Federer. "It's the biggest challenge in the sport to face him but I'm up for it and I'm playing well." At the Wimbledon quarterfinals, Tsonga had become the first man to beat Federer from two sets to love down, a streak of 178 matches for the Swiss star. Injured Leander withdraws
India's chances in Davis Cup World Group play-off received a setback after Leander Paes' back spasms during his US Open men's doubles quarterfinal made him a doubtful starter for the tie. He also pulled out of his mixed doubles semifinal with Elena Vesnina. Third-seeded Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, the runners-up in 1999, lost 4-6, 6-7 (7/4) to sixth-seeded Polish duo Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski on Thursday. India are scheduled to play Japan in Tokyo from Sep 16-18 for a place in the World Group next season. The partnership of Paes and Bhupathi for the doubles rubber is key to India's chances in the tie. "Rough day for Leander, back spasms during the doubles. Out of mixed and now in doubt for Davis cup too," Bhupathi wrote on his Twitter account. — Agencies |
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Monza, September 9 The 24-year-old Red Bull driver and runaway leader of this year's title race clocked a best time of one minute and 24.010 to outpace nearest rival Lewis Hamilton of McLaren by 0.036sec. Hamilton was fastest in the morning session with a lap in 1:23.865, when Vettel was left in third place and more than 1.7sec adrift. Michael Schumacher, 42, proved that he knows his way round the famous old Autodromo Nazionale Monza better than anyone — after five wins at the track and seven world titles overall — by winding up third in his Mercedes. Felipe Massa of Ferrari was fourth, behind his former team-mate but ahead of his current partner with the scarlet scuderia, two-time champion Fernando Alonso. This left Mark Webber down in sixth in the second Red Bull, with Jenson Button seventh. — AFP
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Himmat Rai in joint lead
Singapore, September 9 Rai, who is still looking for his maiden win on the Asian Tour, shared the lead with Thai Thaworn Wiratchant (68) and Finland's Kalle Samooja (66) at the Orchid Country Club. While Rai's performance was outstanding, the other Indian challenge was rather weak. Anriban Lahiri (71-68), winner of Panasonic Open (India) this year was the next best Indian in tied 27th place, while Sujjan Singh (71-70), Mandeo Pathania (69-72) and Ashok Kumar (71-70) were tied 49th at one-over. Happy with his performance, Rai said, "My strategy was a little better today. I didn't go for as many tough pins as yesterday which cost me a couple of holes. I basically played more for positions on the greens and it worked out well." — PTI |
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India staged a remarkable fightback to hold Pakistan to a 2-2 draw in their last league match before depending on Malaysia's heroics to set up a summit showdown with their arch rivals in the Asian Champions Trophy hockey tournament on Friday.
Defending champion Sebastian Vettel bounced back after a disappointing morning to top the times in Friday's second free practice session for this weekend's Italian Grand Prix.
The 24-year-old Red Bull driver and runaway leader of this year's title race clocked a best time of one minute and 24.010 to outpace nearest rival Lewis Hamilton of McLaren by 0.036sec.
The IOA appointed a new five-member National selection committee to work in conjunction with the
FIH. The panel was headed by Aslam Sher Khan, a former Member of Parliament, and captain of the Indian hockey team and consisted of former Indian captains Ajit Pal Singh, Ashok Kumar, Zafar Iqbal and Dhanraj Pillay
(pic).
MUMBAI:
Boxers head to France