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Badminton
World Championships Saina hardly broke sweat while beating Olga Golovanova 21-5, 21-14 . — File Photo
Make fixing a criminal offence, says Dravid
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Five from Punjab make India A squads
Jiwanjot Singh, Rahul Sharma, Sarabjit Ladda and Mandeep Singh congratulate each other on their selection to India ‘A” squads. — Vicky Gharu/Tribune photo
KP fumes at ‘cheating’ claims, ICC says no probe
SC refuses to stay Bombay HC ruling on BCCI panel
Dhoni’s tips helped me lead the side: Virat
Drunk Panesar comes close to doing a full Monty
Players must conquer Oak Hill for PGA glory
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Saina, Sindhu make it India’s day
Both register contrasting wins to make it to the third round; men’s doubles team goes down fighting
Guangzhou, August 7 Saina, who took to the court for the first time after her quarterfinal exit at the Singapore Open Super Series in June, began her campaign with a few conservative rallies before stepping up the pressure and took 13 points in a row to pocket the first game. “It was a good match. I was playing her for the first time but it went on pretty well,” said Saina. Saina’s citymate Sindhu won her debut World Championship match and reached the pre-quarters after having to dig deep against Japan’s Kaori Imabeppu, beating her in one of the longest matches of the day. The 10th seed won 21-19, 19-21, 21-17 in one hour and 11 minutes to take a 2-0 lead in career meetings over the Japanese. However, the 18-year-old next faces an second seed and defending champion Yihan Wang of China. “I am feeling good with the way I played today. It was a good match. I could have won the second game but few errors cost me. I have already played Yihan once in Sudirman Cup. I had taken the match to three games. I will give my 100 percent tomorrow and hopefully will do well,” Sindhu said. Easy for Kashyap
Having endured a tough opening round match, men’s singles 13th seed Parupalli Kashyap got a breather Wednesday when his opponent Petr Koukal retired after just 11 minutes. The Czech retired when the Indian was leading 14-5 in the first game. Koukal had injured his knee in the opening round and felt that he could not continue further. Speaking about his third round encounter against Hong Kong’s sixth seed Yun Hu, Kashyap said, “He has very good strokes. But I have prepared well for the championship and I am looking forward to tomorrow’s match. It should be good and I will give it my best.” However, it was the end of the road for Ajay Jayaram who started the tournament on a promising note. He lost to Spain’s Pablo Abian 9-21, 17-21 after ousting Hong Kong’s 12th seed Wing Ki Wong in the first round on Monday. India’s doubles campaign also came to an end as Tarun Kona and Arun Vishnu also lost their men’s doubles second round match. Indonesian 15th seeds Alvent Yulianto Chandra and Markis Kido beat the Kerala shuttlers 21-15, 13-21, 21-17 in 40 minutes.
— IANS 2nd round
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Make fixing a criminal offence, says Dravid
New Delhi, August 7 Dravid suggested a two-pronged approach to curb the menace of match-fixing and spot-fixing, saying making these illegal activities a criminal offence and educating cricketers at the junior level should be the first step. “My personal belief is that education and counselling at a junior level is really important,” Dravid said in an interview, around three months after three of his Rajasthan Royals' team-mates were arrested for alleged spot-fixing in the sixth edition of the IPL. “I think we've got to start early, we've got to start young. But that part of it is already being done. I know that India has its own ACSU and even for Ranji Trophy teams this education is given,” he added. The 40-year-old former cricketer said along with creating awareness, it was important to make stringent laws to create fear among potential fixers. “I don't think only education can work, policing it and having the right laws and ensuring that people when they indulge in this kind of activities are actually punished. People must see that there are consequences to your actions. That will create fear for people,” Dravid said. “For example, look back on the doping in cycling. Everyone knows it's wrong and it's frightening having read a little about it and the number of cyclists who were doing it. Surely everyone knows it's wrong.” “So the only people cyclists were scared of was not the testers, not the (cycling) authority, they were scared of the police. You read all the articles, the only guys they were scared of was the police and going to jail. So the only way that people are going to get that fear is if they know the consequences to these actions and the law that will come into play. It has got to be a criminal offence,” he added. Dravid said such scandals can diminish the reverence and respect that cricketers enjoy from their fans and if it happens it would be very a sad thing for the sport. “I think cricketers in India were always celebrities. I think they still are and we still are. But apart from being celebrities there's a huge amount of respect associated with being cricketers and a certain amount of reverence and honour associated with representing India,” he said.
— PTI |
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Five from Punjab make India A squads
Chandigarh, August 7 Punjab skipper Mandeep Singh, opener Jiwanjot Singh, leggie Rahul Sharma, Sarabjeet Ladda and medium-pacer Sandeep Sharma have made it to the squads. While Jiwanjot and Sarabjeet have been included in the squad for three-day and four-day games,
Mandeep, Rahul and Sandeep are part of the One-day squad. Another pacer, Siddharth
Kaul, is already in the squad for India A tour of South Africa. In the light of a fair number of selections it would not be wrong to say that Punjab has become the conveyor belt for delivering raw talent to the national side. One big reason for the spate of selections has been Punjab's domineering show in the domestic tournaments last year. They were the Ranji Trophy semifinalists in 2012-13 season. In Twenty20, they went one step ahead by reaching the final. In the one-day tournament (Vijay Hazare Trophy), they had to be content with being the quarterfinalists. There have been a couple of outstanding individual performances too: Jiwanjot in his debut season scored 995 runs in 10 matches to emerge as the top run-getter in the tournament. Kaul bagged 44 wickets in nine matches to become the second-highest wicket-taker. Sandeep bagged 41 wickets, emerging as the fifth highest wicket-taker. Credit has to go to Punjab Cricket Association for keeping the players in top fitness levels by holding conditioning camps from time to time. In their own words, players often dread these camps as 'Commando Training'. When everything is going fine it does no harm to have a member, Vikram
Rathour, in the national senior selection committee also. Patiala pacer Sandeep Sharma said, “No doubt individual performances have been good but when the team is doing good over a period of time it naturally comes under the spotlight. The past year has really been good for Punjab and I guess we are reaping the benefits. All the players who have been selected are in top fitness. Though we have not got much match practice but our confidence is high. The comfort level is also high when so many players are travelling together on a foreign tour.” The 19-year-old player said he is focusing more on U-23 ACC Emerging Teams Tournament in August and will think about the New Zealand series later. Opener Jiwanjot has finally got a nod from the selectors after an eternal wait after the successful Ranji campaign. “The India A tour has again raised my motivation level and I am very excited and anxious about performing overseas,” he said. The series will be played in Visakhapatnam and the tour kicks off with the three-day match starting August 31. India A ‘Test’ squad: Abhishek Nayar (capt), Jiwanjot Singh, Unmukt Chand, Vijay Zol, Manprit Juneja, V. Jagdish, C.M. Gautham (wk), Dhawal Kulkarni, Imtiaz Ahmed, Aniket Choudhary, Shrikant Wagh, Jalaj Saxena, Rakesh Dhruv, Sarabjeet Ladda. |
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KP fumes at ‘cheating’ claims, ICC says no probe
London, August 7 Australia's Channel Nine TV reported on Wednesday that the ICC was investigating the use of silicone, amid increasing controversy during the five-test series between England and Australia over the inconsistency of the Decision Review System (DRS). “These media reports are totally incorrect,” ICC chief executive Dave Richardson said in a statement on its website (www.icc-cricket.com). “Geoff Allardice (ICC general manager cricket) is meeting with both teams and umpires to see how we can best use the DRS and the available technology going forward in the next two test matches. It has nothing to do with any players.” The Channel Nine report had suggested Richardson was to investigate attempts to cheat the effectiveness of Hotspot, which uses infrared cameras to determine whether the ball has struck the batsman, bat or pad, with any contact supposed to show up as a bright spot on the image. Pietersen furious
Later in the same match, England batsman Kevin Pietersen was also given out, caught behind, but again the Hotspot failed to pick anything up. The outspoken batsman was angered at being linked to the use of silicone and sent out a series of angry tweets. “Horrible journalism yet again! My name brought up in hotspot crisis suggesting I use silicon(e) to prevent nicks showing! Such hurtful lies,” Pietersen wrote. “I am never afraid of getting out! If I nick it, I'll walk.. To suggest I cheat by covering my bat with silicon(e) infuriates me,” he added. “How stupid would I be to try & hide a nick when it could save me on an LBW appeal, like in 1st innings where hotspot showed I nicked it.”
— Reuters |
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SC refuses to stay Bombay HC ruling on BCCI panel
New Delhi, August 7 A two-member committee set up by the BCCI and the IPL governing council had given a clean chit to BCCI president N Srinivasan’s son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan and Raj Kundra, co-owner of Rajasthan Royals, observing that they had no role in betting or spot-fixing. However, the Bombay High Court declared that the probe panel was illegal as it had been set up in violation of BCCI’s constitution. The Board had come to the top court challenging the high court verdict. Rejecting the plea for a stay on the HC verdict, a Bench comprising Justices AK Patnaik and JS Khehar, however, agreed to hear its appeal and issued notice to the Bihar Cricket Association which had challenged the setting up of the panel in the high court. The Bench asked the association to file its response in two weeks and posted the next hearing for August 29. The high court had delivered the verdict on July 30, just two days after the BCCI panel report had come in. The panel, comprising two former judges of the Madras HC — Justices T Jayarama Chouta andR Balasubramanian — had given a clean chit to all those against whom the probe was conducted. The panel was set up following reports on the betting and fixing scandal. |
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Dhoni’s tips helped me lead the side: Virat
New Delhi, August 7 Kohli had captained the Indian side in three One-dayers in the West Indies when Dhoni was sidelined after hurting his hamstring in the first match of the tri-nation series. “He (Dhoni) is a guy who doesn`t say much. But I keep talking to him about different situations and what I could do and how should I keep myself calm in pressure situations while captaining the side. It helped me chatting to him in the West Indies when he wasn`t playing and I was captaining the side. All the tips he gave me really helped me,” Kohli said when asked about Dhoni`s influence on him as a leader. Kohli said he had not been able to speak to Dhoni after Zimbabwe win since Dhoni is presently enjoying a break. “When he goes away for a holiday it is very hard to contact him. I guess I`ll be seeing him soon and speak to him about it (Zimbabwe win),” Kohli said at a promotional event here.
— PTI |
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Drunk Panesar comes close to doing a full Monty
The 31-year-old spinner had been partying at the Shooshh club on Brighton's beachfront. However, when a group of women complained he was hassling them, Panesar was asked to leave, Sun reported. Panesar proceeded to the promenade above the club and relieved himself on the bouncers standing below. The bouncers then chased Panesar until he was cornered in a nearby pizza parlour, according to the report. The bouncers dragged Panesar back to the club and called the police. He was fined 90 pound sterling by the Sussex police. A Sussex police spokesman said, “A 31-year-old man received a fixed penalty notice for being drunk and disorderly after being seen urinating in public near the Shooshh Club in King's Road Arches, Brighton, around 4.13 am on Monday.” Panesar later released a statement, through his spokesperson, offering an “unreserved apology” for his behaviour. “Monty would like to apologise unreservedly for any offence caused.” The cricketer's spokesperson has since apologised on his behalf. Sussex County Cricket Club has launched an investigation into the incident. — Reuters — Sussex Cricket Club, Panesar’s Club Cricketers in pub brawls
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Players must conquer Oak Hill for PGA glory
"The golf course is in fantastic shape,” Tiger Woods said. "It's dry now, it's got some speed to it, and the rough is certainly up. It's clumpy. It's imperative to hit the ball in the fairways and hit the ball on the greens, because it's going to be tough to get up and down." Asked how he felt the par-70 layout set up for his game, Woods said: "Well, I like it. I liked it when I played here in '03. It's tough. It's right in front of you. There are really no surprises out there. You just have to play well. This is one of those courses where you've just got to hit the ball well." Phil Mickelson was lavish in his praise for Oak Hill after playing a practice round on Tuesday with fellow Americans Rickie Fowler, Peter Uihlein and Brooks Koepka. "The golf course here is just in incredible shape," Mickelson said. "It's one of the best setups I've ever seen.” "The way the PGA has set it up with the graduated rough, the way they have rewarded good shots, and they haven’t overly penalised poorly struck shots. I just think it's very well thought out and should identify the best player this week. The golf course is a fair, difficult test that you want, without going over the edge and without trying to protect par." For Masters champion Adam Scott, the major threats stem from the graduated rough and the green complexes. "The rough is long and that's the challenge here ... to keep it in the short stuff to give yourself a chance to score," said the Australian.
— Reuters |
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Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu and Parupalli Kashyap advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of the World Championships in their respective categories at the Tianhe Indoor Stadium here on Wednesday.
Former Indian captain Rahul Dravid on Wednesday called for making match-fixing and spot-fixing a criminal offence since only a strong law can serve as a huge deterrent to potential fixers.
Dravid suggested a two-pronged approach to curb the menace of match-fixing and spot-fixing, saying making these illegal activities a criminal offence and educating cricketers at the junior level should be the first step.
With the inclusion of five Punjab Cricket Association
(PCA) players in the India A squad for the unofficial ‘Tests’ against New Zealand in
Visakhapatnam, the Mohali stadium is turning out to be the cradle of several India prospects.
Punjab skipper Mandeep Singh, opener Jiwanjot Singh, leggie Rahul Sharma, Sarabjeet Ladda and medium-pacer Sandeep Sharma have made it to the squads.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) today failed to get any relief from the Supreme Court over the charges of betting and spot-fixing in the IPL tournament.
A two-member committee set up by the BCCI and the IPL governing council had given a clean chit to BCCI president N Srinivasan’s son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan and Raj
Kundra, co-owner of Rajasthan Royals, observing that they had no role in betting or spot-fixing.
London, August 7
Rochester (USA), August 7
