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CWG taint makes IOA wary of bidding for Asiad
Daredevils whipped, again |
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‘Virat needs to focus more on batting than captaincy’
Young India pacers need much better fitness: Walsh
IPL not a stage to make India comeback: Gauti
Jasjit makes India cut, Sansarpur erupts with joy
27 DAYS to go
Chowrasia best Indian at Manila
Van Gaal set to be new Man U manager
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CWG taint makes IOA wary of bidding for Asiad
New Delhi, May 15 It's not just the July 1 deadline, set by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) for interested countries to send their bid to host the 18th edition of the Games, and the possible delay in getting necessary permissions from the new government, which is worrying the IOA. It is the “nightmarish experience” of hosting the 2010 Commonwealth Games — resulting in massive financial bungling in awarding the contracts and the subsequent arrest of CWG Organising Committee chief Suresh Kalmadi and others on charges of corruption — that has been keeping the IOA's top brass on tenterhooks. In case the IOA goes ahead and joins the race along with Indonesia, Qatar and Malaysia-Singapore (who have made a joint bid) to bring the event to New Delhi, IOA would only look to keep its role limited to organising the Games and offer its expertise on technical-related issues. “For us, it's the case of once bitten twice shy. It's a Catch-22 situation for us whether to go ahead with the bid for hosting the Asian Games or not,” a senior IOA official told The Tribune. “For the IOA, the real issue is not about getting clearances from the Finance Ministry, Home ministry and the Delhi Government before approaching the new cabinet for a final decision... It's the nightmarish experience of hosting the CWG which is concerning us the most. Most of the administrators, whom we approach for their advice on the bid, were of the view that they don't want a repeat of CWG 2010. They fear that the experience of the CWG has made investigating agencies cynical. Even if we approach our work with full dedication, they would still think that we are committing financial bungling.” “The ghost of CWG still haunts us. We discussed the idea of hosting the Asian Games in Delhi with key officials, but they don't want to come on board. We are looking at not getting into the financial aspect of the Asian Games. CWG Organising Committee handled the financial matters and look what happened to it. All the top officials went to jail and have cases pending against them.” “In case we go ahead with the bidding, the IOA will keep itself restricted to the organisational and technical matters,” he said. “We will leave it to the Finance Ministry, Planning Commission and the Delhi government to deal with the money-related matters. If the new government agrees to it, we will go ahead and submit our bid.” “Hosting an event of such a magnitude is a huge financial commitment for the country and requires a lot of deliberation. We have most of the infrastructure in place and only two new indoor stadiums would be required for the Asian Games,” he added. From the original estimate of Rs 296 crore, the 2010 Commonwealth Games finally worked out to Rs 28,054 crore, according to a Comptroller and Auditor General of India report. The Enforcement Directorate had also accused the Organising Committee of violating foreign exchange laws while making payments to a London-based firm that was hired for the Queen's Baton Relay. IOA's secretary general Rajeev Mehta had recently expressed his desire to stage the 2019 Asian Games in India following the withdrawal of Vietnamese capital Hanoi. The OCA will reveal the new venue during the Incheon Asian Games this September. The IOA general body is likely to take a decision in this regard when it meets here next month. “But, it would be tough to get the government approval in such a short time. The new government will have its hands full,” the official said. Delhi had hosted the inaugural edition of the Asian Games in 1951 and then in 1982. The IOA had also unsuccessfully bid for the Asian Games in 2006 (Doha) and 2014 (Incheon).
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Daredevils whipped, again Ahmedabad, May 15 Kevin Pietersen completely read the pitch wrong as he invited Rajasthan Royals to bat first on a wicket that slowed down a lot in the second innings. Rajasthan, though, made the most of the generous invitation as they piled up their season's best score of 201 for six. Ajinkya Rahane (64), Sanju Samson (40), Kevon Cooper (32) and James Faulkner (23) all made merry against a below par Daredevils attack. In reply, Daredevils batsmen didn't show the required technique and temperament to win a match on a pitch that got slower with each passing over. Eventually, they could manage just 139 for nine and slumped to their ninth defeat including six losses at home. Manoj Tiwary (61) fought well for his side but the Daredevils were never in the game. Mayank Agarwal (17) was done in by a slower one from James Faulkner as the stand-in captain Steve Smith grabbed an easy catch at mid-off. Dinesh Karthik (3), who was bought for a whopping 12.5 crore, again flattered to deceive, mistiming a pull off Dhawal Kulkarni to be caught by Ben Cutting at fine leg boundary. JP Duminy (8) hit Pravin Tambe for a six but the ‘Grand Old Man’ of the tournament had his revenge with a googly which Duminy played into the hands of Karun Nair standing at point. Kevin Pietersen (13) should have been adjudged run-out when he was on three as he was caught short of the crease with substitute Unmukt Chand hitting the stumps. Umpire S Ravi shocked everyone as he didn't even consult the third umpire. Pietersen's agony increased as the pitch got slower and soon he had his stumps disturbed by Rajat Bhatia. Earlier, Rahane anchored the Royals’ innings to perfection while Samson played another flamboyant knock as Rajasthan Royals piled up 201 for six. Rahane scored a stylish 64 off 50 balls while Samson smashed his way to 40 off only 25 deliveries. The duo punished the opposition scoring as many as 74 runs in 6.3 overs for the third wicket partnership. Royals, with 14 points, have steered clear by four points from their nearest rival Kolkata Knight Riders, who are on 10 points. — PTI Scoreboard Rajasthan Royals Delhi Daredevils
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‘Virat needs to focus more on batting than captaincy’
New Delhi, May 15 Under Kohli's captaincy, RCB has lost six out of 10 games and one of India's finest captains feels that it has got to do with the kind of pressure Virat is taking on himself. “Probably, it's time he (Kohli) sat back and thought about his captaincy. I had a word with Gautam Gambhir seven-eight days back, asking him to look at captaincy in a different way. And I feel it is time for Virat also to look at captaincy in a different way,” said Ganguly. According to Ganguly, the rigours of captaincy at some point of time affect everyone subconsciously. “All of us get caught up with captaincy — need to get the team right, team meetings, need to set this right and set that right etc. Somehow subconsciously we get so much caught up with captaincy that our own game takes a backseat.” “Therefore my good advice to Virat would be to concentrate on scoring runs and think about captaincy only when he leads the side onto the field. T20 cricket in any case is a very short format and an innings ends in an hour and 15 minutes. From my own experience, I developed a policy of taking on-the-spot decisions while leading the side,” Ganguly said. Ganguly said in no uncertain terms that captaincy has a direct correlation with the individual's performance. “Captaincy is directly related to how you perform. Look at Gautam Gambhir's performance. Look at the first three matches and the last three matches when he has scored runs. He has looked authoritative, taking decisions and looked confident. It has huge connection with his performance in the last three games.” Ganguly believes that for Kohli, who has been India's best batsman in all formats across last four years, it will be a “minor mental adjustment” which he can do. “T20 is a game where an innings ends in an hour and 15 minutes. In any case, you can't make too many changes as you can in a Test match. For a young captain like Kohli, he should focus on his batting as too much planning can get you mentally tired and I can see that happening with Kohli. “It's a minor adjustment, something you learn as captain, nobody is a born captain. You learn to adjust and look at things differently. Probably, he can work with the likes of Daniel Vettori, Allan Donald, who can keep him fresh before the start of the game. — PTI
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Young India pacers need much better fitness: Walsh
Mumbai, May 15 Walsh, who formed a lethal fast bowling pair for West Indies with Curtly Ambrose in the 1980s and 90s, said India has got some talented fast bowlers but the challenge was to keep them playing and save them from injury early in their career. “Couple of years ago, you had some young fast bowlers who burst on the scene and within a year after that, the injuries started creeping in,” Walsh told reporters at the Superpacer event here. “Umesh Yadav, one of the promising guys I saw, looked good after one or two Test series, but then they started to get injured. That is where we have to maintain or manage that these guys get fit and strong so that they can go through the rigours of international cricket.” Asked about the reason for these injuries, he said, “I personally feel they are not fully prepared for the work load. There is lot of cricket being played and as a fast bowler you have to work twice as hard as some of the batsmen would. “I don't think some of fast bowlers realise how important it is and by the time they realise the workload that is required, they have already picked up an injury or two. In today's game, you have to be strong. That is the demand.” He said that it was a similar problem in West Indies cricket also. “We have fast bowlers and main problem is we can't keep them in the park. We have Tino Best, Jerome Taylor, Fidel Edwards, Shanon Gabriel, Ravi Rampaul, but the problem we have had with them is keeping them in the park,” Walsh said. “Every one of them has got an injury over the last six to eight months. They play five or six test matches and then they get injured. Someone is rested for a year or six months or three months and that is the main problem we have. “I won't say we are lacking in fast bowlers. What we are lacking is keeping them all playing. Because everybody is getting injured, competitiveness dies down a little bit and they are not as sharp as they should be,” he said. — PTI
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IPL not a stage to make India comeback: Gauti
New Delhi, May 15 The Indian team discard started this IPL season with three consecutive ducks but has certainly led by example in the last few games. He, however, said that he doesn’t take IPL as a comeback platform. “I still stand by my thought that the IPL is not a platform for comebacks but it is a great tournament, which I thoroughly enjoy playing and I am doing my best for the team,” Gambhir, who last played an international match against England in Dharamshala in January 2013, told PTI in an interview. When asked if India’s tour of England in June and the World Cup Down Under are on his radar to make a comeback, he said he was not thinking about it right now. “Right now I am only focused on the immediate future and doing well for the team. If my performances are good enough I am sure people in charge — selectors —will make the right decision,” he said. He also said that he believes in responding through performance as far as critics are concerned. “As a player you realise that criticism is always going to be there, especially if the results are not going your way. I personally feel the best way to respond to it is by going out there and performing to the best of your ability,” said the opener. — PTI
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Jasjit makes India cut, Sansarpur erupts with joy
Jalandhar, May 15
Incidentally, Ravi Pal was the last player from Sansarpur to make the World Cup squad in 2010. He broke the 35-year long barren run for the village as the last World Cupper before him was Ajit Pal Singh who had led India to triumph in 1975. While India has lowest Olympic medals per person in the country, it’s, ironically, home to a street, in Sansarpur village, having the highest per person Olympic medals with virtually every second home adorned with the name of an Olympic medallist. Now With Jasjit making it to the World Cup squad, the residents of this tiny hamlet are hoping for their medal count to rise from the World Cup and maybe even the Olympics. As soon as the news of Jasjit making it to the reached the village, the mood there turned festive. Children, with their handmade hockey sticks, gathered at the village ground and celebrated the moment. The elders gathered at the village Gurdwara and performed ‘Ardaas’ for the team’s win at the World Cup. “He has done us a proud. He has reclaimed the legacy of the ‘Kular clan’ after long 39 long. After Ajit Pal Sing won us the World Cup in 19075, he’s the first “Kular” to make the India squad. The team is destined to win the World Cup with a Kular in its ranks,” said an elated Col Balbir Singh (retd), president of the Sansarpur Hockey Asociation. The entire team of the Sansarpur Hockey Association and the relatives gathered at the player’s residence in the morning. “He has done us proud. He has been dreaming of this since he was three years old,” said Jasminder Singh, Jasjit Singh’s father. “It is in our blood. We are born to play and win. Our built and determination has made us winner in hockey since the beginning. The Indian Hockey team lost its winning streak after 1976. You may call it a coincidence, but after 1976 no one from Sansarpur was included in the team,” said Popinder Singh Kular, a hockey player who also published his PhD dissertation on “Social, cultural and educational ethos of sports: A case study of Sansarpur village in Punjab”. He said Sansarpur had till date given 14 Olympians, 19 internationals who represented India and other countries, 110 national-level players and another 132 who represented various military teams. “The village is shortly going to have its 15th Olympian in 2016,” said the jubilant Popinder Singh.
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Rafa, Murray in quarters
Rome, May 15 And the Spaniard blitzed through the remainder of the match to seal victory and stay on course for a fourth title. Earlier, Murray defeated Jurgen Melzer 7-6(1) 6-4 to reach the last eight. Murray was forced to battle back in the opening set after immediately surrendering serve, but he drew level at 3-3 before saving a flurry of break points to force a tie-break which he took comfortably 7-1. And the Wimbledon champion shrugged off a mini second set wobble to progress in one hour and 41 minutes. German veteran Tommy Haas issued a reminder of his claycourt skills with a third-round victory over Australian Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka. Haas recovered after trailing by a set and a break of serve to win 5-7 6-2 6-3 and reach the last eight at the Italian event for the first time since 2002 when he lost to Andre Agassi in the final. In the women's Italian Open also being played at the Foro Italico, second seed Li Na snapped her career-long jinx against Australia's Samantha Stosur, winning 6-3 6-1 having lost their previous six meetings. The 36-year-old Haas, who reached the French Open quarterfinals last year for the first time in his career, produced some inspirational tennis to frustrate Wawrinka. Haas next plays Tomas Berdych or Grigor Dimitrov in the quarterfinals. Also through is big-serving Canadian Milos Raonic who saw off Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-6 6-4. Maria Sharapova was sent tumbling out of Rome by Ana Ivanovic, who trounced the Russian 6-1 6-4 in the third round. The Serbian 11th seed beat Sharapova, seeded eighth, for the first time in seven years with a blistering display of power to reach her sixth quarter final of 2014. Ivanovic will face Carla Suarez Navarro in the semis after the Spaniard was granted a walkover against fourth-seeded Romanian Simona Halep, who pulled out with an abdominal strain. The last time Ivanovic, 26, beat the Russian was in the semi-finals of the 2007 French Open. She went on to lose the final to Justine Henin. Results: (Round 3): Andy Murray bt Jurgen Melzer 7-6(1) 6-4; Jeremy Chardy bt Ivan Dodig 6-3 6-2; Milos Raonic bt Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-6(5) 6-4; Tommy Haas bt Stanislas Wawrinka 5-7 6-2 6-3; (Women's): Ana Ivanovic bt Maria Sharapova 6-1 6-4; Agnieszka Radwanska bt Francesca Schiavone 6-4 6-1; Sara Errani beat Petra Cetkovska 6-4 7-6(3); Li Na bt Samantha Stosur 6-3 6-1; Carla Suarez Navarro bt Simona Halep walkover. — Agencies Bopanna, Qureshi knocked out
Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi yet again failed to go past Mike and Bob Bryan as they lost in straight sets to the American brothers in the second round on Thursday. They suffered a 5-7 1-6 defeat against their top seeded rivals in the euro 3,452,415 clay court tournament, the second last event in the run up to the French Open.Bopanna and Qureshi could break the American twins only one time while they dropped serve four times in the match. Meanwhile, Sania Mirza and Cara Black have reached the quarterfinals of the women's event being held simultaneously. The fifth seeded Indo-Zimbabwean pair recorded a 6-3 6-4 win over Daniela Hantuchova and Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in one hour and 70 minutes in the second round of the euro 2,120,000 premier WTA event. |
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Brazil deny claims of having requested Barca to rest Neymar
Rio de Janerio, May 15 According to reports, an appeal had been made by Brazil to Barcelona to leave the forward out during a crucial title deciding game against Atletico Madrid at Camp Nou. However, the Confederacao Brasileira de Futebol was quick to deny these media claims. They said in a statement that the information was incorrect and opposite to the thinking of members of the technical committee of the Brazilian national team. “The information, in addition to being incorrect, is completely opposite to the direction and thinking of the members of the technical committee of the Brazilian national team,” it read. Spain’s Thiago out of World Cup with knee injury
Bayern Munich and Spain midfielder Thiago Alcantara will miss the World Cup for the defending champions as well as this week's German Cup final after tearing a knee ligament this week that will need surgery, the club said on Thursday. The 23-year-old was named in Spain's World Cup squad, has been out since March with a different ligament injury in the right knee and was hoping to play in the Cup final against Dortmund. — Agencies Barca, Atletico set for La Liga showdown
La Liga is set for one of its most thrilling finishes when Barcelona host leaders Atletico Madrid in a winner-takes-all showdown at the Nou Camp on the final day of the campaign on Saturday. Only twice in the history of Spain's top flight has the title been decided with a direct head-to-head clash on the last day and when the calendar was set last year few would have expected Atletico to be competing with vastly wealthier rivals Barca for the championship at this stage. Real Madrid, the world's richest club by income ahead of Barca, were in contention until last weekend when they were beaten at Celta Vigo but it is the capital's second club, who have about a quarter of the resources of the big two, who are close to pulling off a remarkable achievement. Atletico have not been in contention in La Liga since they last won in 1996. |
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Chowrasia best Indian at Manila
Manila, May 15 Chowrasia, a two-time winner of co-sanctioned events with Europe, turned in a one-under 71, while Lahiri’s troubled day ended at the 56th place. Among other Indians in fray, Manav Jaini (73) was tied 29th, while Abhijit Chadha, Sujjan Singh and Angad Cheema were tied 56th with Lahiri. Himmat Rai (77) and Abhinav Lohan (78) were struggling further down, while Amardip Malik (79) and Digvijay Singh (80) were certain to miss the cut. Chowrasia said, “I have been starting well, hitting well, but somehow I have not managed to finish tournaments properly. I have had two top-five finishes and was 11th at Singapore, but I feel some good results are just around the corner.” Meanwhile, Lahiri needing to get into top-60 had a tough time. “It was a frustrating round. I don’t think I played horribly. I just made some poor decisions and struggled on the greens. The greens are a bit grainier than what we’ve played on this year,” said Lahiri. “I double bogeyed the eighth hole but it wasn’t only about that hole. I misjudged the wind there and hit it to about five yards too far.” — PTI
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Van Gaal set to be new Man U manager
London, May 15 Van Gaal, 62, quickly emerged as the favourite to become United’s next manager after David Moyes was sacked last month and is reported to have held a meeting with player-coach Ryan Giggs in Holland on Wednesday. Giggs, who was appointed interim manager following Moyes’s dismissal, was pictured in Van Gaal’s hometown of Noordwijk and is thought to have been offered the chance to work as the Dutchman’s assistant.Van Gaal would not comment when approached by a reporter from British television station Sky Sports News as he left a book launch in Amsterdam. Van Gaal, who has also previously coached Ajax, Barcelona, AZ Alkmaar and Bayern Munich, is currently preparing the Netherlands squad. — Agencies
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Rajasthan Royals comprehensively crushed the favourite whipping boys Delhi Daredevils by 62 runs in a one-sided encounter to consolidate their chances of making the play-offs, on Thursday.
Sansarpur, the Mecca of Indian hockey, is back to doing what it does best – produce hockey player for the country. The latest to don the India colours from the village will be 24-year-old Jasjit Singh Kular, who will play for the country in the World Cup be held in Netherlands from May 31.
Ahead of the FIFA World Cup, Brazil have denied reports that they have requested national striker Neymar to be rested from Barcelona’s final La Liga game.
