New Delhi, February 17
Hockey had served Indian sports so well that for many decades it was the only game India could bank upon in the Olympic arena, to deliver medals of many hues. But the introduction of astro-turf changed the way Indians played hockey, and things have never been the same again.

The Olympic Qualifying Tournaments for men and women, starting at the Dhyan Chand National Stadium here tomorrow, has great significance for Indian hockey, and being the hosts, and having comparatively weak opponents, the Indian men and women start as favourites to secure the two slots available for the Olympics. It is certainly advantage India, but the hosts would not take their opponents lightly.

In such a scenario, having a foreign coach to guide the fortune of the game in the country, is a welcome augury as his focus would be to ensure that the country qualify for the Olympics. Michael Jack Nobbs, the former Australian international, who replaced Jose Brasa of Spain as the chief coach of the Indian men’s team seven months ago, has been quietly training the players for the past few months, focussing on the Olympic qualifiers as his first major target.

Nobbs was sceptical of India’s chances when he took over the team, but after being with the team for quite some time now, and having participated in two major tournaments, the Australian, assisted by his Perth-mate physiotherapist David John, has become familiar with the way the game is played and administered in the country.

Without ruffling too many feathers, the Aussie duo have been silently working on the team, and Nobbs had no problem dropping some senior players so as to pick a fit and ready 18-member squad for the Olympic qualifiers.

The fitness, performance and discipline of the players in the Champions Challenge Trophy held in South Africa (FIH gave India a slot in this tournament as a sop for taking away the Champions Trophy from New Delhi) and the Test series against South Africa, played here a few days ago, were factored in while picking the squad for the Qualifiers.

Many eyebrows were raised when the Hockey India selectors dropped former captain Rajpal Singh, Vikram Pillay and Bharat Chikkara, and relegated Arjun Halappa and V.S.Vinay to the stand-bye slot, while giving the captaincy to experienced goalkeeper Bharat Chetri, with Sardar Singh as his deputy.

Sardar Singh is the mid-field general, and a huge responsibility rests on his shoulders of marshalling the attacks, and if need be, to fall back and defend. He will be ably helped by another experienced midfielder - Ignace Tirkey.

The inclusion of three drag-flick experts to excel in penalty corner conversions - Sandeep Singh, V.R.Raghunath and Rupinderpal Singh - and some drastic changes in the team point out to the way Nobbs thinks, as eventually, the aim is to top the six-team league to qualify for the Olympics.

Nobbs believes in attacking hockey, and his style of coaching has been a fine blend of Australia’s aggression and India’s oriental magic. He doesn’t hold back the dribbling skills of the players, but eventually, every player should fall into the mould of the overall strategy for the collective good of the team.

No flagging of stamina in the closing stages of a match, and no last-minute relapse to concede goals. His strategy has worked well for the team so far, and under Nobbs, young talents like Yuvaraj Walmiki and Kolthar Singh have flourished.

Indian men play the weakest team, Singapore, in their opening match tomorrow night, and then take on another soft team, Italy, before they bump into tough customers like Canada, France and Poland. Home ground, weather and crowd support will give a decisive edge to the hosts, and they are sure to cash in on these factors to make the Olympic cut.

The Indian women had played Olympic proper only once before - 1980 in Moscow - and they see another chance to qualify, under captain Asunta Lakra. The Moscow Olympics was also the last time when the Indian men struck the gold, under captain Vasudevan Bhaskaran.

Like the men’s team, the women too face an easy field, barring 12th ranked South Africa. If they take South Africa in their stride, it would not be difficult for them to ride past Canada, Italy, Poland and Ukraine to grab the lone Olympic spot available from this tournament.

South Africa, the African champions, boast of 10 Olympians, but they know well that taking on India in their own backyard would be a tough call, despite the visitors’ higher ranking.

The 2012 Olympic qualification tournaments will be the last under the present structure as the qualification process will undergo a fundamental redesign as in future, the qualification will be through the FIH World League - a newly-introduced competition which kick-starts at the end of this year. There will be six matches every day-three in the men’s and as many in the women’s section.

Saturday’s fixtures: 
Men: Canada vs Italy (2 p.m), France vs Poland (4 p.m), India vs Singapore (8 p.m). Women: South Africa vs Poland (10 a.m), Italy vs Canada (12 p.m) and India vs Ukraine (6 p.m). 

London, February 17
An English cricketer who claimed to have been lured into a spot-fixing scandal by Pakistan international Danish Kaneria was today jailed for four months.

Former Essex player Mervyn Westfield had admitted receiving £6,000 ($9,200) to bowl badly so that 12 runs would be scored in the first over of a 40-over match between Durham and Essex in September 2009.

Westfield was ordered to serve half the four-month term behind bars while he was also hit with a confiscation order for £6,000 during today's sentencing hearing at the Old Bailey.

Prosecutors had earlier told the court that Westfield, 23, became embroiled in the scam after an approach by Kaneria. Prosecutor Nigel Peters QC said the deal emerged after another Essex player, Tony Palladino, showed Westfield "the most money he had ever seen".

Kaneria was arrested in connection with the case in 2010 but later released without charge. Before Friday's hearing, the identity of the player who had made the initial approach to Westfield had not been disclosed.

Speaking in Karachi, Kaneria's lawyer Farogh Naseem dismissed Westfield's claims. "It is Westfield's words against Kaneria and a lot will depend on what evidences he puts before the court against my client," Naseem told AFP.

Naseem reiterated that Kaneria had not been charged by the police. "At the time of the police inquiry, Kaneria was not charged and cleared. The ICC (International Cricket Council) cleared him so we feel that Kaneria was discharged in the case," he said. — AFP 

Chandigarh, February 17
Kings XI Punjab has tied up with Indraprastha All India Sports Foundation for presenting India’s first ever cricket based reality show. The show aims at providing a platform for budding cricketers to showcase their talent in front of millions of viewers.

There will be a total of 8 teams from Bihar/Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore/Hyderabad, Haryana comprising 15 players each. The greats of the cricketing world would mentor each team after selecting them from amongst thousands of participants from each region.

To ensure that each team gets the best captain, the mentors will shortlist three captains per team, who would undergo various tests to judge their leadership and stress management skills, decision making ability, endurance capacity, out of box thinking and ‘to do’ attitude.

The fate of these players will later rest in the hands of the public/viewers, who can choose their favourite captain out of the three for each team through national voting.

Since the reality show is being powered by Kings XI Punjab, a number of players from the franchisee shall also form part of the proceedings. These players would render their view points on player selection, ability, tasks, game strategy, etc. 

Sydney, February 17
A clinical Sri Lanka rode on captain Mahela Jayawardene's unbeaten half century to register their first win of the cricket tri-series with an eight-wicket crushing of Australia in a rain-affected match here today.

Chasing a revised target of 152 for a win under the Duckworth-Lewis method, Jayawardene (61 not out) anchored the run chase with a solid 67-ball unbeaten knock after opener Tillakaratne Dilshan (45) and Kumar Sangakkara (30) laid the foundation for an easy win at the SCG.

Earlier, electing to bat, Australia were all out for 158 in 40.5 overs after the match was reduced to 41-overs-a-side affair with rain interrupting the tie at the end of the 26th over when Australia were 88 for six.

The target for Sri Lanka was revised to 152 and they chased it down in just 24.1 overs, thereby collecting a bonus point also. They needed to overhaul the target in 32.4 overs to get a bonus point. Sri Lanka got five points (including one bonus point) from today's win and they now have seven points.

All the three teams have played four matches each and India now lead the table with 10 points, ahead of Australia (nine). Each team has two matches left in the series before the finals.

Sri Lanka were in cruise mode from the beginning of the run chase with the openers Dilshan and Jayawardene putting on 74 runs from 11.4 overs before the former was out.

Left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc bore the first brunt of Dilshan's aggression as the Lankan smashed a short of length delivery over square leg boundary for a six in the fourth over. Next over, it was the turn of Brett Lee to face the wrath of Dilshan who hit the veteran pacer for three consecutive fours to take 14 runs from the fifth over.

Lee was taken off by stand-in skipper Ricky Ponting and was replaced by Clint McKay and Sri Lankan batsman scored in singles and doubles to quietly reach 66 for no loss after 10 overs. Dilshan fell in the 12th over to a McKay length ball wide of off stump and the batsman Dilshan threw his bat at it and got a thick edge straight to the slip fielder David Hussey.

Dilshan faced 41 balls and hit four boundaries and a six for his 45. Run rate slowed down a bit after Dilshan's departure and Sangakkara reached his personal milestone to become the 10th batsman in the world and third Sri Lankan - after Sanath Jayasuriya and Jayawardene - to score 10,000 ODI runs with a single off left-arm spinner Xavier Doherty in the 18th over.

Soon after reaching the milestone, Sangakkara punished Doherty again with a four and a six in the same over but two overs later, he fell to Lee caught by Doherty at mid-on while trying for a bit hit. — PTI 

Scoreboard

Australia (41 ovrs)

Warner c Maharoof b Malinga 13

Wade run out 15

Ponting c & b Maharoof 2

Forrest c Mathews

b Maharoof 16

Mike c S’kara b Mathews 13

David c Thirimanne b Perera 58

Christian lbw b Perera 6

McKay lbw b Herath 3

Lee run out 0

Starc run out 17

Doherty not out 2

Extras: (lb-2, w-11) 13

Total: (all out, 40.5 ovrs) 158

Fall of wickets: 1-21, 2-37, 3-37, 4-60, 5-74, 6-81, 7-95, 8-104, 9-153

Bowling: Malinga 8.5-0-42-1, Kulasekara 8-1-29-0, Maharoof 8-1-18-2, Mathews 4-0-26-1, Perera 7-1-29-2, Herath 5-1-12-1.

Sri Lanka (41 ovrs)

Jayawardene not out 61

Dilshan c David b McKay 45

S’kara c Doherty b Lee 30

Chandimal not out 6

Extras (lb-5, w-5) 10

Total (2 wkts,

24.1 overs) 152

Fall of wickets: 1-74, 2-133.

Bowling: Lee 7-0-42-1, Starc 4-0-32-0, McKay 6-1-23-1, Christian 5.1-0-32-0, Doherty 2-0-18-0.

Brisbane, February 17
India medium pacer R Vinay Kumar is not on anyone's mind and he would just like it the way it is as long as his skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni keeps turning to him and batsmen keep nibbling at his swinging deliveries.

The Karnataka medium-pacer has impressed with nine wickets at a staggering average 20.11 - a wicket every 25th ball - in the ongoing Commonwealth Bank one-day series. With the likes of Lasith Malinga and Ryan Harris in the fray, his is the case of the meek who has inherited the earth.

Oh, he must have bagged tail-enders. Or, his economy rate must be atrocious. Surely, the scalps are to catches in the deep when the batsmen are going for maximum. All wrong, for he has mostly got Pontings and Jayawardenes and Warners; his economy rate is 4.89 and the catches are unerringly the pouches in the slip cordon.

This is his best moment yet but selectors have very little to do with it. He was not an original selection to Australia till last-minute injury to Varun Aaron put him on plane to Down Under.

He was also way down the pecking order when WACA Test beckoned last month. Yet, Dhoni decided to go with four quicks and Vinay earned his Test cap.

The euphoria lasted only four hours. Brought in to bowl the sixth over of the innings, the 28-year-old saw a Warner hit sail over his head into the stands in his very first over.

The pocket-dynamo opener was to smash one more six and take 43 runs off his 36 balls on way to a blistering 180 runs. His dream had turned into a nightmare all too swiftly.

Fortunately, Dhoni believed in him. The Indian captain surely can't have enough of Vinay in shorter formats of the game. He was put through his pace in two Twenty20 encounters and then preferred, at times, to proven quality of Praveen Kumar in the one-day triangular series. — PTI 

Sydney, February 17
Australia captain Michael Clarke will miss his second successive tri-series match after being ruled out of Sunday's fixture against India because of his hamstring injury.

"Michael Clarke is progressing well in his recovery from a right hamstring injury but remains unavailable for selection in Brisbane," team physiotherapist Alex Kountouris was quoted as saying in a Cricket Australia (CA) statement on Friday.

Ricky Ponting, who led Australia in their eight-wicket defeat by Sri Lanka in Sydney on Friday, will remain in-charge for the match against India in Brisbane while Tasmanian George Bailey was added to the squad as a standby batsman.

"While it is not ideal having to take George away from the Sheffield Shield match currently underway in Hobart, we feel it is important we have sufficient batting cover in our squad," Australia coach Mickey Arthur said.

Victorian Jon Holland, drafted into the squad after fellow left-arm spinner Xavier Doherty suffered back spasms, will remain with the team. Australian squad for Sunday's ODI. — Reuters 

Gurgaon, February 17
Anirban Lahiri and Shamim Khan kept the Indian flag flying high in tied seventh, but it was Peter Whiteford of Scotland, looking for his maiden win, carded a four-under 68 to move two clear at the end of the second round of the Avantha Masters here today.

Whiteford was two ahead of Thailand's Prom Meesawat, whose stunning round of eight-under 64 saw him make the biggest move today. Whiteford is now 10-under for two rounds, while Meesawat is at eight-under 136.

Four others are at seven-under 137 as the leaderboard was crowded, setting the stage for an exciting finish over the weekend at the DLF Golf & Country Club.

India's best came from Anirban Lahiri, who gave ample evidence of the calm that a recent meditation camp has brought in him. One over after five, he turned in even par and then had a hat-trick of birdies from 13th to 16th. He was playing with two former Indian Open champions, David Gleeson who missed the cut, and Liang Wen-chong, who made it on the cut line.

Lahiri was tied at seventh, the same as Shamim Khan (70-68). The cut came at even par and 67 players made it. Of them, there were 12 Indians, and two from the neighbourhood, who play on the Indian PGTI Tour, Mithun Perera (Sri Lanka) who shot 70-72 and Mohd Siddikur (Bangladesh) who carded 72-73.

The Indians who made it included Himmat Rai, who overcame a triple bogey on 12th, his third hole of the day, to finish at 72 and at four-under he was tied 25th.

Vivek Bhandari, who stunned himself with a first round 69, was rattled with three bogeys in a row from 15th to 17th on his first nine after starting from the tenth. He recovered and finished at par to be tied 30th. Also tied at 30th were Jeev Milkha Singh, Shiv Kapur and Vijay Kumar.

SSP Chowrasia made the cut comfortably with his second round 72 despite two bogeys in his first three holes. He had three birdies in his last four holes that also included another bogey. He was tied 43rd. — PTI 

Sirsa, February 17
Sportspersons from Haryana and Punjab dominated in basketball and wrestling championships being played under the PYKKA Sports here today. In basketball (men), Haryana defeated Madhya Pradesh by 50 points to 17, while Punjab defeated Himachal Pradesh by 54 points to 22. In other matches, Jammu and Kashmir defeated Karnataka by 55 points to 22.

In the women’s category, Haryana defeated Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh defeated Jharkhand, Punjab defeated Kerala and Karnataka defeated Himachal Pradesh.

In the first round of women wrestling, Sneh Lata of Orissa, Santoshi Chandra of Chhatisgarh, Sheetal Sokar of Maharashtra, Komal of Delhi, Prema of Karnataka, Pinky of Haryana and Prerna of Punjab emerged victors in the 38 kg category. In 40 kg category, Harwant Kaur of Punjab, Raman Yadav of Madhya Pradesh, Mandka of Maharashtra, Savita of Jharkhand, Yamuna of Chhatisgarh, Raj Bala of Delhi, Poonam of Haryana, Surina of Orissa, Anjusha of Kerala and Basira of Karnataka carried the day by defeating their rivals.

In 43 kg category, Harmony Sahu of Orissa, Nandini of Maharashtra, Pinky of Haryana, Megha of Karnataka, Vipina of Kerala, Porba of Uttar Pradesh, Madhu of Jharkhand, Rama of Chhatisgarh, Nisha of Delhi, Manpreet Kaur of Punjab, Kuthowabu of Nagaland emerged victorious.

In 46 kg category, Swati of Maharashtra, Banina of Orissa, Ragini Yadav of UP, Priyanka of Delhi, T.B. Kalompuri of Mizoram, Samarjit Kaur of Punjab, Shohida of Karnataka, Vichitra of Kerala, Rokhi Trikho of Jharkhand, Monika of Haryana, Kokharivinu of Nagaland and Kari Mamta of Madhya Pradesh prevailed upon their opponents.

In the first round of men wrestling competition, Sudhir Kumar of Bihar, Manpreet of Punjab, Prabhat Bhor of Chhatisgarh, K.B.Lal of Mizoram, Anikesh of Orissa, Naved of Uttrakhand, Monu of Haryana, Chanderkant Sindh of Maharashtra, Palak of Karnataka, Abhishek of Delhi, Ajay of Kerala and Jia Parsad of UP were declared victorious in 42 kg category.

Gaurav (Uttrakhand), Sisodia (Gujarat), Sukesh (Kerala), Sonu Singh (Jharkhand), Kailash (Haryana), Sukesh (Delhi), Rajwinder Singh (Punjab), Ashish (MP), Rajesh Chander (J&K), Vinayaka (Karnataka), Arvind Yadav (UP) and Vishal (Maharashtra) got victory in 46 kg category.

Kolkata, February 17
In a memorable day for Indians, seven of them made in the semifinals in different categories of the first Asian Grand Prix archery in Bangkok today.

According to information received here, Mangal Singh Champia made the men's individual recurve semifinals after 2007 to set up a last four clash against Spain's Elisa Cuesta.

Another team player, Chekrovolu Swuro will take on Bishindee Urangungalay of Mongolia in the women's recurve semifinals.

Three Indian compound archers moved into the last four stage. National champion Rajat Chauhan will take on Nguyen Tien Cuong of Vietnam, while Chittibomma Jignas and Ritul Chatterjee will play each other in the semifinals.

If Chauhan manages to prevail over the Vietnamese, it could be a clean sweep for India for the first time at a continental meet.

In the women's compound section, veteran Jhano Hansdah and young Gagandeep Kaur will meet Ngeain Aung of Myanmar and Fatin Nurfatehah Mat Salleh of Malaysia, respectively. Semifinals and the finals will be played tomorrow. — PTI