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Dope tests conducted on India, Oz players
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Will look to sign off with a win: Pup
Paras shines in Himachal win over J&K
Sushil to compete in Asian wrestling
ATP Miami Masters: Som wins Round 2
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Aussies’ humiliation could be complete
New Delhi, March 21 Overall, it seems that the final segment of Australia’s tour of misery and horror has arrived. Australia had never lost worse than 0-2 to India in India in the past. They’ve never been whitewashed here in a series with over two Test matches. But it promises to get worse now — the final Test of the series begins tomorrow here. The prognosis for Australia isn’t promising. A 4-0 result is very much on the cards. Michael Clarke, the Australian captain who didn’t bat in the nets today too, spoke brave words of conviction, insisting that the team can return to Australia with one win here. His words didn’t have the ring of truth in them — not when you consider their performance in the first three Test matches. Clarke said today that he’s optimistic; the optimism, though, is built on a pack of cards. They’ve been, deservedly, labelled the weakest Australian team to ever visit India; they’ve also been called, again with truth, the most inexperienced Australian team to come here. They’ve been undermined by problems of indiscipline which, judging by the bans on four players, were significant and grave. Yet, Michael Clarke insists that they can win in New Delhi. It’s difficult to imagine that happening. It’s difficult to see his words being realised. First and foremost, with the most honourable exception of Clarke himself, they don’t have the skill to handle the turning ball. They’ve been unsure how to handle the ball that turns and leaps. They tried attacking, they tried using their feet, they tried sweeping the ball. They’ve failed for the most part. To defend against a turning ball on Indian wickets demands exceptional skill; to attack it here demands skills no less than that of a genius. Kevin Pietersen, the most important factor in India’s defeat to England late last year, has those skills. Even Clarke has those skills. But in the rest of the Australian team, there’s a clear and glaring deficit of that skill against the turning ball. The Australians have managed to make Ravindra Jadeja — we intend no disrespect to his accurate, if less than stellar left-arm spin — look like a world-beating bowler. He heads the bowling averages with 17 wickets, five times the wicket of Clarke himself. They’ve been troubled to a greater extent by Ravichandran Ashwin, who has taken 22 wickets at 21.40. Worse, they’ve been rocked by the newcomer pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who has the knack of making the new ball dart worryingly. With 286 runs, Clarke has been their stellar batsman. If he doesn’t figure in the Test, Australia would be hobbled. If Watson is made captain, he would be in the most amazing, even ludicrous, position of being asked to lead the team after being called team man only “sometimes”. He would also need to play a match-altering innings that only he can play, but hasn’t looked like playing this series. Australia have worries about their bowling, too. They landed here declaring that they’d beat India with their strength, pace bowling. After Chennai, the plan was shelved. They’ve played two spinners in the Tests, they’ve played three pacers, and they’ve played one spinning allrounder and one medium-pacer allrounder. Clearly, they don’t know how to win in India. Or rather, they know how to win, but they don’t have the wherewithal to win. There is one positive here — their best bowler, James Pattinson, one of the evil four who didn’t do their homework and other things, is back. If he’s angered, if roused as he should be after the ban, he could bowl a few very fast spells. If he’s able to swing and revere-swing the ball, too, then he can be a great credit to his team. Squads India: Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar, Ajinkya Rahane, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt, wk), Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Pragyan Ojha, Ishant Sharma, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Ashok Dinda. Australia: David Warner, Ed Cowan, Phillip Hughes, Michael Clarke (capt), Shane Watson, Matthew Wade, Moises Henriques, Peter Siddle, James Pattinson, Nathan Lyon, Xavier Doherty, Mitchell Johnson, Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Usman Khawaja, Brad Haddin.
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Dope tests conducted on India, Oz players
New Delhi, March 21 Therefore, it came as no surprise when it was learnt that dope tests were conducted among the Indian and Australian players, ahead of the fourth Test, starting at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground here tomorrow. A source said while samples of some of the Indian players were taken at their hotel, the samples of four Australian players were taken at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground.The source said though the BCCI was not against dope testing per se, it’s objection was on the contentious “whereabouts clause”, which made it mandatory for the players to inform their round-the-year itinerary to the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) for random out of competition tests. Earlier, the BCCI had taken a strident stand, asserting that it will not comply with the fiat of the Indian Government on dope testing. (The Government wanted the cricketers to fall in line, like other sportspersons in the country, regarding dope testing). The BCCI had introduced dope testing in domestic cricket when a team of doctors, led by Dr Vece Paes, conducted tests on players during the Vijay Hazare Trophy at Visakhapatnam this year. The other doctors in the panel were Dr PSM Chandran, Dr Abhijit Salve and Dr Jayaprakash. The BCCI has also been conducting dope tests on players in the IPL and the Champions League T20 Championships for the past five years, but international cricket was still far from its radar, mainly because of objection by top players, who felt that making public their whereabouts during off season would be a threat to their security. Dope tests were conducted by the International Cricket Council on Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh before the T20 World Cup in Colombo, September last year. Harbhajan has been tested many times, though no top Indian cricketer has tested positive yet, except leg-spinner Rahul Sharma. He tested positive for drugs during a rave party in May 2012, along with Wayne Parnell of South Africa, when the IPL season was on. South African fast bowler Dale Steyn, who played for Royal Challengers Bangalore, got an adverse finding during the second IPL season, though the positive test was attributed to pain killers. The ICC became a WADA signatory in 2006 and implemented out of competition tests a year later. But the BCCI stalled the process after 11 Indian cricketers, including Sachin Tendulkar, refused to reveal the required information citing security concerns. The players’ objection was to the clause that the cricketers nominated to an international testing pool would have to reveal to an ICC-appointed officer before every quarter details of their location for the next three months to facilitate out of competition testing. |
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Oz cannot play well in India: Ishant
“When we went to Australia, we struggled a lot and everybody said we can`t play away from home and now you can see that even Australia can`t play here. So, the advantage of home conditions is quite big. Our home conditions suit spinners and Australia is weak against the spinners, so that has been a big advantage for us,” said Ishant. As India stare at a 4-0 whitewash of Australia, Ishant said the boys are determined to reclaim the No.1 spot in Tests again. "Sometimes you play well and you win, but sometimes you play well and yet you don`t end up winning. I think it is important to give your 100 percent and not worry about results. We always try to improve as a team and our goal is to become No.1 team in the world again and if we work towards our goals then we will definitely become the top team again,” he said. Asked about the possible playing eleven, Ishant said, "We haven`t been told as to who will make his debut in this match. We have a team meeting in the evening after which only we will know the playing eleven." Ishant said the team is riding high on confidence after three consecutive wins by huge margins against Australia. "The mood in the camp is good and the confidence of all the players is quite good because we are leading 3-0 against a team like Australia. We have won the matches by a big margin, so the confidence of the team is high and we will carry into the Delhi Test," he said. "Hopefully we can continue the form and play the way we have been doing in the last three Test matches." On the possible absence of Michael Clarke, Ishant said, "I think the Australian team will need to handle the issues related to their team as to what they think or what affects their team. So we only focus on what we have to do and not about things which is not in our hands." Ishant said his role is the side is that of a defensive bowler. "When you play in India, your role is different. Your role is to contain the flow of runs so that the spinners can attack from the other end. You got to hunt in a pack and bowl in partnerships like how you bat in partnerships, similarly you have in bowling," he said. Ishant was all praise for Bhuvneshwar Kumar. “I feel Bhuvi`s bowling is different to mine. Bhuvi is more effective with the new ball because he can swing it both ways. I don`t get much swing in Indian conditions and I have to wait for the ball to get a bit old so that it reverse swings and only after that I can attack.”
— PTI Arthur shouldn't be made scapegoat for debacle: Warne
Shane Warne defended Australian coach Mickey Arthur despite the team's dismal show in the ongoing four-Test rubber, saying the South African should not be made "scapegoat" after the series. "Making Arthur a scapegoat for the poor performance of the Australian team would be unfair on him. The entire team is responsible for this debacle," Warne said when asked if Arthur should be sacked. Guys will be richer in experience after tour: Ponting
Former captain Ricky Ponting says he himself failed repeatedly before learning to perform in India and the bunch of Australian cricketers playing there will be able to handle the conditions better next time. Those guys on that tour will be a whole lot better off next time they go there and are confronted with conditions like that. We'll keep our fingers crossed and hopefully they can finish on a winning note this week,” he said.
— Agencies |
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Sachin Tendulkar’s last Test at home, probably
New Delhi, March 21 Another lad, younger, declared his love for Virat Kohli, batting in the adjacent practice pitch. Old men loved Sunil Gavaskar, their sons loved Sachin Tendulkar, their grandsons love Virat Kohli. It’s a generational thing. The old order changeth, making way for the new... Or does it? Sachin Tendulkar, the child prodigy, spent most of his life proving people right; now, an old man in sporting terms, he’s trying to prove people wrong, he’s raging against the fading of the light. Yet, it’s quite possible that over the next five days, Sachin Tendulkar would play for India in India for the one last time. Tendulkar turns 40 in just over a month. He’s already retired from One-day cricket. Over the next 19 months, India are scheduled to tour South Africa, New Zealand and England to play Test matches. After this Test against Australia, their next Test at home is scheduled to be in October 2014, when Tendulkar would be 41 years and six months old. It’s possible that Tendulkar would still be playing Test cricket; it’s probable that he won’t be. The end beckons Tendulkar, he spurns it with insistence and conviction and stubbornness. Intimations of mortality have rarely touched him, so consumed he is by his love for cricket. Cricket has truly been his life. His life’s work represents a singular, almost unparalleled devotion to one’s craft in any human endeavour. He was found as a boy genius in the 1980s. He was proclaimed the next big thing after Sunil Gavaskar retired. He has lived most of his life living up to expectations. He waxed with brilliance, he waned with grace and, more recently, a degree of crustiness. He’s done it all with fewer missteps than one could in a life spent in blinding public glare from adolescence to 40 years of age. Tendulkar, having made his debut in Karachi in November 1989, played 10 Tests out of India before his first home Test. That was against Sri Lanka in the old stadium in Chandigarh, in November 1990. After that, he had to wait over two years for his first full series in India, against England in 1992-1993. He averaged 100.66 as India blanked England 3-0. A rollicking journey was on, and he reached dizzying heights over the last 20 years. There have been lows, but none so dispiriting, so hopeless as the recent ones. He averaged 31.50, 43.60, 21.00 and 18.66 in the last four series at home, against New Zealand, West Indies, New Zealand and England. He was seventh, fifth, sixth and eight, respectively, among Indian batsmen in those series. Overall, among all batsmen from these competing teams, he ranked still lower — in the nether regions inhabited by the tailenders and the bits-and-pieces players and the stragglers. A man who answers to the name Sachin Tendulkar doesn’t belong there. Outside India, Tendulkar has averaged 34.12 and 35.87 in his last two series, when India got hammered 0-4 and 0-4 by England and then Australia. Over his last six Test series — during which, unfortunately, he seemed to be deeply affected by the hype over his 100th international century — Tendulkar-mania has diminished. Tendulkar-bashing has increased. But the love for the boy genius who could play strokes of genius at age 14 hasn’t entirely disappeared. The Ferozeshah Kotla tomorrow, and over the next four days, could witness the last act of a neverending affair at home. |
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Will look to sign off with a win: Pup
New Delhi, March 21 “We will look to sign off with a win. If we play to our potential, if we play our best cricket, I have no doubt that we can win this Test match. We will look to get a result in our favour,” Clarke said. “We know the conditions well, we know the opposition and we know the areas where we need to improve. So, we would like to leave home winning the last Test,” he added. Having already lost the four-match series 0-3, Aussies have a last chance to salvage some pride, and Clarke said it's time that his players show some stomach for fight. “Every single player has learnt from this tour. It's been a learning curve for all our players who haven't toured India (before). It's been a challenging tour. “Guys are trying their best to get results. Efforts have been there but things are not turning up in our favour. We need to play some good cricket to get the result in our favour. It would be about scoring as many runs as we can,” insisted Clarke. Meanwhile, the skipper preferred to keep the cards close to his chest, refusing to disclose the playing XI. “We would announce the playing XI tomorrow,” said Clarke. “Shane is a good player. He is someone we always love to have in our team. So, hopefully he can perform well and help us win the last Test. Johnson is bowling well in the nets, he is bowling really fast. I know how much he loves the opportunity to bowl in the Test,” Clarke said. “It all depends on what is best for the team. We need to get the combination right. It's about winning the Test here and heading back home with a win under our belt,” he added.
— PTI |
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Paras shines in Himachal win over J&K
Gurgaon, March 21 Opting to bat, J & K's young all-rounder Parveez Rasool top-scored with an unbeaten knock of 44. It was Rasool's unbeaten partnership of 36 runs for the sixth wicket with Nadeem Dar that helped the team reach a respectable total after struggling at 97 for five at one stage. Off-spinner Gurvinder Singh was the best bowler for Himachal, returning impressive figures of 3 for 18. Himachal were off to a poor start in their chase with captain Aakash Chopra being castled by medium pacer Ram Dayal for zero in the first over. Dogra, alongwith Vikramjit Malik (30), stabilised the innings with a 33-run partnership for the second wicket before Malik was trapped in front by Rahil Sambyal. Dogra's knock of 50 came off 44 balls and was studded with five fours and two sixes. Dogra shared a 64-run partnership with Amit Kumar (21) for the third wicket and took Himachal closer to victory, before Dhruv Singh (12) completed the task in the 19th over. Brief scores: Jammu & Kashmir 133/5 in 20 overs (Parveez Rasool 40, Shubham Khajuria 28, Gurvinder Singh 3/18); Himachal Pradesh 136/5 in 18.1 overs (Paras Dogra 50, Vikramjit Malik 30, Rahil Sambyal 2/33). Punjab beat Services by 3 wickets
Punjab eked out a narrow three-wicket win over Services in their Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Twenty20 match, which went down to the last over in Rohtak. In the North Zone encounter, Punjab chased down the target of 115 with five balls to spare at the Bansi Lal Cricket Stadium. Opting to field on winning the toss, Punjab restricted Services to 114 for nine, with leg-spinner Rahul Sharma returning best figures of three for 20 in four overs. There were two wickets apiece for pacer Manpreet Singh and Rajwinder Singh. For Services, opener Sumit Singh top-scored with 25, while his partner Anshul Gupta made 22.
— PTI |
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Sushil to compete in Asian wrestling
New Delhi, March 21 "The Asian championships will be played in front of our home crowd and will be a good opportunity for me to return after injury. I have been training hard at the national camp keeping in the mind the expected competition and I am confident of a good performance," said Sushil. London Olympics bronze medallist Yogeshwar Dutt will also make a comeback in the 60kg freestyle division after fully recovering from a knee injury. Amit Kumar, the 2012 Asian Championship bronze medallist, will also be seen in action in the freestyle 55kg division while 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Narsingh Yadav will be competing in the 84kg category. In the greco-roman style, Asian Games bronze medallist Ravinder Singh and Sunil Rana will lead the Indian charge in the 60kg and 66kg categories respectively. Chief national coach Vinod Kumar believes that the level of the competition in the tournament is going to be top notch and it will not be easy to reach the medal rounds. "Asia did really well at the last Olympics and the continental championship will be one to look for. We can expect to see a number of Olympic and World champions," he said.
— PTI |
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ATP Miami Masters: Som wins Round 2
Miami, March 21 The 254th ranked Indian recorded a 4-7 7-6 (5) 6-2 win over his first-round Russian rival. A stern test though awaits Somdev as he next faces world number 34 Spaniard Feliciano Lopez, who got a bye in his opening round. Somdev has beaten a few top-100 players after making a comeback this season. Victories against world number 39 Benoit Paire and 78th ranked Bjorn Phau were memorable ones. In the match against Donskoy, Somdev saved six break chances in the opening set but failed on one occasion and that let the Russian run away with lead.
— PTI |
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New Delhi, March 21
