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India in australia
Usha Ladies Golf |
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‘Cut down meaningless ODIs’
WSH still enthuses players
Punjab on top
PSD coaches to meet Sukhbir
Sportspersons want preference on CWG flats
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India in australia
Canberra, December 14 India are high on confidence after their 2-0 and 4-1 wins in the Test and ODI series against the West Indies and they would straightaway get down to their task of getting a feel of Australian conditions that would be much different from what they had faced at home. Sniffing India's best chance to beat a weakened and demoralised Australian side at their own backyard, captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni had stressed upon the importance of acclimatising to the conditions as fast as possible in these 12 days ahead of first Test starting in Melbourne on December 26. The Indian cricket board had also sent seven players, including the trio of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, five days in advance to train in Melbourne, and to prepare for what would certainly be their last tour of Australia. The remaining players, including Dhoni and coach Duncan Fletcher landed in Australia on Tuesday night and straightaway left for Canberra for the first warm-up game. It is to be seen if India will roll out a star-studded team for the first warm-up match at Manuka Oval, given that there is a three-day game starting on Monday against another CA Chairman's XI boasting of Australian players like David Warner, Usman Khawaja and Phil Hughes. With the tour coming in four years after the acrimonious series in 2008, Dhoni had indicated that the team management would want to use the 12 days before the first Test as much as possible and in that case he would want to use as many players as possible from his 17-man squad. One concern though would be not to rush players like pacer Zaheer Khan, on whom the Indian team could rely on heavily in the tour in the bowling department. From what coach Fletcher had said in Chennai before departing for Australia, Zaheer could be rested for the first game tomorrow and fielded in the second game starting on Monday. "Zaheer has got these two games. It will be preparation for him. We do not want to rush him too quickly. The one three-day game there will be important for him before the first Test," Fletcher had said. Dhoni had also said that remaining injury-free would be crucial in the Test series, more so after pacers Praveen Kumar and Varun Aaron have been ruled out due to injuries after being named in the touring squad. "We had enough time for some preparation also before the start of the first Test. Looking good as of now. Hopefully we do not have too many injuries before the start of the Test series," he had said before team departure. Most of the batsmen are among runs in the Test and ODI series against the West Indies at home with the likes of Virender Sehwag and Virat Kohli fresh from impressive show in the limited-overs format. Tendulkar, who is just one short of a historic 100 international tons, was below-par against the West Indies considering the high standards he sets for himself and he would be eager to knock down some runs before he gets into the groove for Test series. The same would be the case for Laxman, who has also not been in his best form against the West Indies. Dravid, who was the stand-out performer against the West Indies and England before that, would want to straightaway be in the thick of things. In the bowling department, Ishant Sharma would be raring to go for the first warm-up game tomorrow as he would look for another memorable tour after an impressive show three years ago when he tormented Ricky Ponting to no ends in Perth. India's opponents tomorrow do not have many prominent Australian cricketers with Test hopeful Ed Cowan being replaced by Queensland opening batsman Ryan Broad at the last minute. Broad will captain the side, which has no Australian Test player and is composed of players not involved in the Big Bash Twenty20 League. It won't, however, be easy for the visitors to be at their best under cold conditions and seaming wicket expected to be found at Manuka Oval. Team India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Capt.), Virender Sehwag (vc), Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Gautam Gambhir, Zaheer Khan, Virat Kohli, Abhimanyu Mithun, Ravichandran Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha, Ajinkya Rahane, Wriddhiman Saha, Ishant Sharma, Rohit Sharma, Vinay Kumar, Umesh Yadav. — PTI
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Usha Ladies Golf
Chandigarh, December 14 Finishing third in the strokeplay was Gursimar Badwal, also from the north, who scored 76 for a total of 153. Gurbani Singh, the 2009 champion, was fourth with rounds of 79 and 77. The best score for the second day was a 75 by Millie Saroha, who finished fifth at 157. The top 16 girls qualified for the match play which shall start Thursday. There was a play-off between four girls for the last three places and getting eliminated in the process was one of the fancied stars Mehar Atwal. Tvesa Malik, Sukhneer Saini and Nanki Chadha made it from the play-off while Mehar was eliminated. However, Mehar’s less fancied sister, Sehar qualified for the match play. The 16 qualifiers were Amandeep Drall, Vani Kapoor, Gursimar Badwal, Gurbani Singh, Millie Saroha, Nikita Arjun, Astha Madan, Aditi Ashok, Anisha Padukone, Raksha Phadke, Ankita Kedlaya, Rabiya Gill, Sehar Atwal, Tvesa Malik, Sukhneer Saini and Nanki Chadha. The first round matchplay contests will be: Amandeep Drall v Nanki Chadha, Vani Kapoor v Sukhneer Saini, Gursimar Badwal v Tvesa Malik, Gurbani Singh v Sehar Atwal, Millie Saroha v Rabiya Gill, Nikita Arjun v Ankita Kedlaya, Astha Madan v Raksha Phadke, Aditi Ashok v Anisha Padukone. |
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Canberra, December 14
Dravid said he was surprised to see the lack of crowd during the India-England ODI series in October in India and described the sight of empty stands as “alarming”. “The five-match series against England was the first time our grounds were not full for an ODI featuring Indian team. The India v England ODI series had no context, because the two countries had played each other in four Tests and five ODIs just a few weeks before. When India and the West Indies played ODIs a month after that, the grounds were full but this time matches were played in smaller venues that didn’t host too much international cricket. Maybe our clues are all there and we must remain vigilant,” he said, according to espncricinfo.com. The middle-order maestro, who was here to deliver the annual Bradman Oration, the first foreign player to do so, also believed that efforts needed to be put in to bring fans back to the longer form of the game. “Test cricket deserves to be protected, it is what the world’s best know they will be judged by. I don’t think day-night Tests or a Test championship should be dismissed. In March last year I played a day-night first-class game in Abu Dhabi for the MCC - and my experience from that was that day-night Tests is an idea seriously worth exploring. There may be some challenges in places where there is dew but the visibility and durability of the pink cricket ball was not an issue.” — PTI
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WSH still enthuses players
Chandigarh, December 14 Jiwa Mohan has been selected to play for the Chandigarh team, which is undergoing an eight-day practice camp at the Sector 42 Hockey Stadium under coach Harinder Singh. Jiwa, who began playing hockey at the age of 10, aims only at playing better hockey with every passing day. In the WSH too, the midfielder is looking forward to learn more and enhance his game apart from taking away the title. “I am really excited to be here and play in this tournament where we’ll have an opportunity to meet and play with players from across the world,” he said. “It’ll be a great learning experience for me. The WSH is providing us with a platform of global level of competition so I am looking forward to not only show my skills, but also to learn a lot from my team and other players.” The Chandigarh team also boasts of some local players. One of them is Sher Singh, who plays for Bharat Petroleum and is aware of the home grounds and conditions. Hailing from Sirsa, 26-year-old Sher Singh first got into hockey in 1998 and has never gave a thought to leaving it since then. “I had only seen the Punjabi-style kabaddi being played in my village,” he says. “No other sports were being played there. When I was 10, my friends took me to a nearby city, where I first saw the game of hockey. Thereafter, I wanted to learn and play this game professionally.” Asked about the postponement of the WSH, the forward replied, “It would have been so much of fun to be playing in this cold weather, but we have to follow the decision. We’ll get more time to know each other now and make a good team till then. But the players, who are at the Olympic qualifier camp aren’t attending the practice camps here, so this isn’t our complete team. We are only trying to acquaint ourselves with the grounds and other players from outside India.” Harinder Singh is of the view that WSH is not only a platform for the players, but also a good opportunity for the coaches here. “With this tournament, even we coaches will get an opportunity to learn better styles of play and game plans from players of other countries. Also, we hope that with this league, we can make hockey as big and famous as cricket that has only grown with the support of the IPL.”
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Bangalore, December 14 Replying to visitors' first innings total of 357, Karnataka lost in-form opener Robin Uthappa (0) to the first ball of the innings. K B Pawan (32), who has been in good nick right through the season, along with skipper Ganesh Sathish (23) then raised 50 runs for the second wicket before the latter was caught by Mayank Sidhana off Bipul Sharma. Thereafter Punjab struck three successive blows, removing Bharat Chipli (14), Amit Verma (4) and Pawan, to leave Karnataka reeling at 100 for five. However, Binny and Gautam steadied the boat and put up an unbeaten 83-run stand together for the sixth wicket till the stumps were drawn. Pankaj shines for Rajasthan
Jaipur: Impressive bowling by seamer Pankaj Singh (4 for 49) helped Rajasthan reduce Saurashtra to 215 for 7 in reply to their first innings score of 396 in their penultimate Ranji Tropy Elite Group A match at Sawai Man Singh Stadium. The hosts, resuming at their overnight score of 369 for 7, reached 396. At stumps, Kamlesh Makvana (batting 10) and Jayesh Odedara (batting 8) were at crease. Debutant Rituraj Singh (2 for 68) too supplemented him extracting help from the wicket. Veteran Sumit Mathur picked up one for 40. It was Pankaj who got the first breakthrough, by having Chirag Pathak (15) caught in the slips by Aakash Chopra and then medium pacer Sumit Mathur came into act getting one through defence of Sagar Jogiyani (8) as the visitors went to lunch at 55 for 2. Jaffer, Shah take Mumbai to 414-9
Lucknow: Wasim Jaffer and Hiken Shah hit twin half-centuries to help Mumbai reach 414 for nine at stumps against Uttar Pradesh on the second day of their Ranji Trophy Elite Group A match here today. Jaffer scored 55 in 104 balls with the help of five fours, while Shah came up with a 114-ball 56 studded with six boundaries to take Mumbai close to the 400-mark. —
PTI |
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PSD coaches to meet Sukhbir
Chandigarh, December 14 The striking officials met Director Sports, Pargat Singh, in Chandigarh today and were happy with the positive response from his end. Pargat assured them that their issue would be looked at seriously and that too at the earliest. Another glimmer of hope comes from the fact that the officials will be meeting Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on Thursday and are hopeful that he would help speed up their quest for a just solution. Earlier, the officials, which included Sports Department employees from all over the State, pleaded with the Government to take note of their salaries and in line with a ruling from the Punjab and Haryana High Court, provide them relief as soon as possible. They had also urged the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, and Sukhbir Badal to take corrective measures. The officials reminded the Government that when the Punjab Sports Department had come into being in 1963, as probably the first department of its kind, at the behest of the then Chief Minister Pratap Singh Kairon and ICS Mr. A.L. Fletcher, the salaries on offer were better than most other jobs. In fact the department employees were paid better than college/school coaches and even the coaches of the NIS (now SAI coaches). It was this very incentive that prompted many of the coaches to opt out of their current jobs and dedicate entire careers and lives in the betterment of the Sports Department. The coaches are also upset over the fact that even the report of the Anomaly Committee, constituted by the State Government to look into the fact as to why coaches were being paid less, was not being implemented. “What is preventing the Government to implement the Anomaly Committee report?” questioned a coach.
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Sportspersons want preference on CWG flats
Patiala, December 14 Notably, Samajwadi Party member Shailender Kumar had demanded the allotment of the flats at the Games village in Lok Sabha on Monday. After this demand was kept, now the sportspersons have come forward stating that even they were ready to purchase these flats and they should certainly be given priority. Talking to The Tribune in this regard, ace discuss thrower Krishna Poonia, first Indian woman gold individual medalist of Commonwealth Games, said the players would be more than happy to buy these flats and the government must give them priority. “I am very much interested in purchasing one of the flats at the rate fixed by government or the market price and hope that the government would consider the players who won medals at the Delhi Commonwealth Games-2010 for the allotment of these flats.” Seconding her opinion, chief coach of Indian Athletics squad, Bahadur Singh said the players deserved preference when it comes to allotment of CWG village flats. He said “The players have brought fame not only to the sports fraternity but entire nation and the government must consider their stake for these flats.”
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Barely four days after a hectic series against the West Indies, India begin their tour of Australia with a two-day warm-up game against CA Chairman's XI on Thursday with focus on acclimatising to conditions ahead of the gruelling Test series beginning later this month.
City golfer Amandeep Drall was in top form as she emerged winner in the two-round strokeplay section of the USHA All-India Ladies Amateur tournament at the Chandigarh Golf Club on Wednesday.
Chandigarh, December 14
“It must scale down this mad merry-go-round that teams and players find themselves in: heading off for two-Test tours and seven-match ODI series with a few Twenty20s thrown in. Since about, I think 1985, people have been saying that there is too much meaningless one-day cricket. Maybe it’s finally time to do something about it...Anything makes more sense than seven-match ODI series,” he added.
Sydney