Chandigarh, Tuesday, April 20, 1999
Chandigarh, Tuesday, April 20, 1999 |
Aravinda scores 8000 runs By S. Pervez Qaiser Sri Lankan middle-order batsman Aravinda de Silva became the third batsman in the history of one-day internationals to complete 8000 runs. He achieved this milestone during his 55-run knock in the fifth match of the Pepsi Cup against India at Pune on March 31, 1999. It was the 247th innings of his 254th one-day international match. Indian TT players
“improving” Will
Indians pass ‘Tebbit test’? The
sport of tent-pegging |
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Aravinda scores 8000 runs Sri Lankan middle-order batsman Aravinda de Silva became the third batsman in the history of one-day internationals to complete 8000 runs. He achieved this milestone during his 55-run knock in the fifth match of the Pepsi Cup against India at Pune on March 31, 1999. It was the 247th innings of his 254th one-day international match. At 33 years and 165 days, Aravinda de Silva is the youngest player to reach this milestone. He took 14 years and 364 days to complete his 8000 runs, second fastest after Azharuddin. The first batsman to complete 8000 runs in one-day internationals was West Indian Desmond Haynes. Haynes achieved this landmark in the 219th innings of his 220th match against Pakistan at Johannesburg on February 27, 1997. Haynes was 37 years and 12 days old when he completed his 8000 runs. He took 15 years and six days to reach this milestone. Indian Captain Mohammed Azharuddin who holds the record of the highest number of runs in one dayers — 8873 runs in 312 matches — was the second player to attain this distinction. Azharuddin completed his 8000 runs in the 257th innings of his 278th match against Australia at Delhi on April 14, 1998. Azharuddin was 35 years and 65 days old when he reached this milestone. He took 13 years and 85 days to complete his 8000 runs. Pinnanduwage Aravinda de Silva who was born on October 17, 1965, made his international debut against New Zealand at Moratura on March 31, 1984. He has completed his 1000 runs in the 48th innings of his 50th match against Australia at Sydney on January 19, 1988. In the 74th innings of his 77th one-dayer against India at Nagpur on December 1, 1990, Arvinda de Silva completed his 2000 runs. At Colombo on July 25, 1993. De Silva completed his 3000 runs in 108th innings of his 112th one-day international match. Arvinda de Silva’s 4000 runs came in the 141th innings of his 146th match against Pakistan at Centurion on December 4, 1994. The small attacking batsman entered the 5000-run club during his 145-run knock against Kenya at Kandy on March 6, 1996. It was 173rd innings of his 178th one-day international match. Arvinda de Silva completed his 6000 runs during the 194th innings of his 200 match against Zimbabwe at Sharjah on April 3, 1997. On November 8, 1997 against South Africa at Lahore, Aravinda de Silva attain the distinction of completing 7000 runs. He played 216 innings of 222 matches to reach this milestone. Aravinda de Silva scored
2224 runs at 45.39 in 62 matches played in Sri Lanka and
5796 runs in 192 matches played outside Sri Lanka. India
is the second best venue for him. He made 1438 runs at
44.90 in 37 matches played in India. He is the only
batsman in one-day internationals to score more than 2000
runs against Pakistan. He made 2155 runs at 35.92 in 65
innings of 67 match against Pakistan with three centuries
and 12 fifties. |
Indian TT players
“improving” Kamlesh Mehta, the former national men’s table tennis champion sees a lot of talent in north India and complimented the excellent performance of the Punjab players at national meets. “The table tennis hall in Sector 23 is one of the finest,” said Kamlesh. Chandigarh can host good quality tournaments which can popularise the sport, thus encouraging the players. Kamlesh was here in connection with the All-India Inter-Bank TT Tournament organised by the Banks Promotion Board jointly in the the Dena Bank at the sector 23 hall. Kamlesh joined Dena Bank in 1981 and is presently working as a Senior Manager with the bank. He is also the official coach of the Indian table tennis team which is at present undergoing a training camp at NIS Patiala to take part in the World Cup TT Tournament. Kamlesh affirmed faith in the Indian players, who in his view are progressing in the right direction, and made special mention of Chetan Baboor, Arup Basak and S.Raman, who have performed exceptionally well in International tournament also. Chetan Baboor is ranked 81st in world and had beaten a few of the top Asian players also. When asked about the sponsorship pattern in the Indian table tennis circuit, Mehta said a new generation of sponsors have stepped in and today the main sponsors are Railways, Petroleum boards, Airlines and various banks. Dena Bank was the first to provide employment to the deserving players and it was the pioneer in starting the scholarship scheme for upcoming players. A player is chosen, watched for full one year, and according to the performance at various levels, he or she is inducted into the main stream of employment. Deepak Thukral, the winner of men’s singles title in this tournament and who was also instrumental in enabling his bank to win the team championship, was first considered for the scholarship scheme of the Dena Bank. After joining the bank, Deepak has been able to take part in various international tournaments and the bank has also come to his financial rescue. Kamlesh said the game was dominated by the Asian countries but, Indian players had, beaten a few top players from these countries. Mehta felt satisfied with the number of tournaments organised at the national level and besides the national championships for various age groups, the number of major tournaments conducted at different levels, are quite adequate for players to improve their match temperament, confidence level and killer instinct. Mehta said in the international arena the competition in the men’s section is less as compared to the women’s. Bengal has emerged as the table tennis nursery of India. A fresh crop of table tennis players from this state could be seen at the National championships. Kamlesh is of the view that if the Indian players improve their speed and the concentration level, they would be amongst the best in the world. Other countries have an edge over India as in foreign countries. There are professional players and the stress is laid on building of speed and sports doctors take care of the diet and the fitness of the players. This year the Chandigarh
Table Tennis Association has been allotted the National
Junior Championship by Table Tennis Federation of India,
which would boost the growth of table tennis in this
region. |
Will Indians pass
‘Tebbit test’? The cricket World Cup will be testing time for people of Indian origin in Britain — time again to face the Tebbit test. The test was invented by Conservative lawmaker Norman Tebbit. It said the test of loyalty of Indians in this country was which team they supported in a match between India and Britain. The underlying political suggestion was that if Indians live in this country and have taken British nationality, they had better support England in cricket against India. When India won their first Test series against England in this country in 1972, English players grumbled that India had the advantage of playing before a home crowd”. The expatriates’ support to the Indian team was famous to Indians, notorious to the likes of Tebbit. The times front-paged the picture of a banner at the last Test between India and England at Lord’s: “We fail the Tebbit test, and we are proud of it,” it said. Supporters of the Tebbit test think it’s all changing now. “You watch the younger lot,” Lord Jeffrey Archer, writer and former chairman of the Conservative Party, told IANS. “Don’t expect them to grow up in India thinking of England,” he says. “They’re just not doing it.” Lord Archer says the typical young person of Indian origin now is a girl he met at Oxford. “If I’d closed my eyes I’d never have guessed she’s Indian,” he said. “She had such a Surrey accent.” The usual Indian response to such observations — even among the young — is that the accent might be from Surrey, but the heart is Indian. The match at Edgbaston will say something; those studying the Tebbit question might well watch the crowds and not just the play. Birmingham took a lot of Indian migrants through the ’50s and ’60s. Their children were born British and grew up in Birmingham with a lot of fellow Indians and, of course, a large number of white British children. They’ve had the choice between being as British as they like, or as Indian as they want. “It is interesting that the Tebbit test is applied usually to Indians and not to Pakistanis,” says Jimmy Sahota, a computer consultant in Birmingham. “Because everyone expects the Pakistanis to support the Pakistani team anyway.” The reason behind that could lie partly in the vastly different profiles of the Indian and Pakistani communities in Britain, Sahota says. Indians and Pakistanis are often at extreme ends of the spectrum. According to government surveys, Indians have the highest achievements in education, Pakistanis have the lowest. Indians have the highest home ownership, Pakistanis some of the lowest. Indians are least dependent on social support, while recourse to social support is the highest within the Pakistani community in Britain. As a result, large numbers of Indians have moved out of what once were considered ‘Indian ghettos’. A substantial part of the Indian community lives in white neighbourhoods. Younger Indians have grown up by and large in a far more British environment, British enough to pass the Tebbit test if they choose to. Loyalties to the native country are clearly strong among adults,both Indians and Pakistanis. The Lahore Karachi House, the most famous Pakistani restaurant here, holds prayers for the Pakistani team each time it plays a match. The fact that the restaurant is a favourite with Pakistani cricketers helps. Apparently more by design than chance, India does not play Pakistan in the first round. Who plays whom in the super-six matches and then the semis and the finals is anybody’s guess. That’s when the Tebbit test becomes redundant. And there have been signs enough of that before. Live telecast of one-day matches have divided the Indian and Pakistani communities sharply. Indian pubs that have mushroomed around London and also in the Midlands have taken on the style of the English pubs in more ways than one: the busiest fans always go to the pubs to watch matches, shown usually on large screens. During one India-Pakistan match telecast from Toronto, a group of Pakistanis which had been cheering its team all along had to leave when India closed in on a win towards the end. “In fact we saw a little more friendliness between Indian and Pakistani fans in the recent Delhi Test than we see between them here,” said a visitor from Delhi. A match between the two teams in England in the World Cup is likely to bring out the edgiest among fans. Pakistan take on the renewed might of the West Indies and the magic of Brian Lara in their first match to be played at Bristol on May 16, the day after India take on the professionalism of South Africa and the peace of Allan Donald at Hove. The World Cup mood hasn’t quite gripped fans yet; but going by past indications, Indians and Pakistanis would not just want their teams to won but the other to lose. “I expect many of us will work out where to watch the matches on TV if we’re not going to the grounds,” Sahota says. “You need to watch the cricket with your own supporters or it gets too tense to take. As the cricketers are getting ready to play, the fans are preparing for their Tebbit test — and also a test of nerves. — India
Abroad News Service |
The sport of tent-pegging “A horse is something ,which has the strength of a man and the beauty of a woman”. Man’s fascination for the horse goes back to about four thousand years when the tribes inhabiting the steppes bordering the Caspian sea domesticated it for the first time and probably set pace for the conquest of the imperial animal. Over the centuries the horse has changed roles time and again and today we see it in a new guise performing equestrian activities away from its original part, when early man used it mainly to hunt food or to make war. Today we can see glimpses of the courage and stamina of the horse in mounted games devised from battle fields. Tent-pegging, a great entertainer for the crowd dates back to Alexander,s time when his soldiers came galloping on horsebacks with lances in their hands attacking Porus’s camp. They used to uproot the pegs of the army tents from the ground and flatten them before another set of riders came in and set them ablaze. As of now, amidst a loud ‘Sat Sri Akal’ clubbed with the sound of a galloping horse one would see a fearless Nihang picking up the wooden peg fixed in the ground in a flash, making you wonder what kind of stuff is going on. That’s what tent-pegging is in its pure form and can be seen at the Hola Mohalla festival every year. This may sound glorified but tent-pegging has entertained royalties, cavalry officers, and the public from times immemorial. The unflagging dynamism and its competency to exalt excitement amongst spectators has given tent- pegging a new dimension in the equestrian world and today it is a full fledged sport and is hosted under set rules. It is a sheer test of the lance at speed and points are given for every correct wooden peg picked and points are subtracted if the distance of the hundred metre track is not completed within seven and a half seconds. Man and horse have to be in perfect harmony to advertise their skill and both realise the mutual reliance on each other. Today tent-pegging forms part of all the national and international horse shows held in India and has gained recognition in many countries. It is practised in the police and the military academies and proper training is imparted to the officers. Australia, Great Britain and South Africa have been sending teams to India regularly to participate in tent-pegging competitions and so have the Indians visited them to show their skills at war. The South Africans have given a new dimension to this sport and with a few variations have made it all the more interesting. It is known as gymkhana tent-pegging and is conducted under IETA rules. In fact, it is interesting to note that out of all the ancient mounted games which were played to keep horse and men trained for war, tent- pegging is the only surviving cousin. For example the Mongolian baz-kiri, in which the riders tried to wrest from each other a caracass of a goat and carry it of to a goal or the tchigan never underwent the theory of evolution and there are no glances of them in the present set up of mounted games. Punjab today is the leader in tent-pegging and the riders of Punjab have won many laurels for the state both inside India and abroad. But that is not enough. We have to set higher standards for our riders to compete internationally. There are no proper riding academies which breed encouragement and enthusiasm. Financial conditions of the equestrian federations are dismal and there is no government backing up. We may conclude that for
four thousand years a horse has been influencing the life
of a man to the best of his ability and today when it is
our duty to influence the progress of the majestic animal
there seems to be a question mark. |
Sport Mail DURING the past few months we have been reading so much about preparation of our cricket team for the coming World Cup. So many players have been called for national duty, dropped without any reason, called again and dropped again without giving them sufficient opportunity to prove their worth. No set combination has been tried for this mega event. The inclusion of Mohanty has surprised everyone except the selectors. A player not found suitable in New Zealand and in India has been directly inducted into the World Cup squad. Players not selected for the World Cup played in Sharjah. The BCCI has spent lakhs on consultant Simpson, physio Kokinol, doctor Ravinder Chadha besides the manager and coach. What are these gentlemen doing when there is no improvement in fielding, running between wickets and mental toughness? VED PRAKASH II The way the Pakistan cricket team has shown supremacy over India in the limited overs and Test matches recently is a cause of concern for cricket fans here. If this is the position against Pakistan what can we expect from them when they meet South Africa in their first encounter in the World Cup. The absence of Tendulkar is being felt. How much the Indian team depends on this young lad has become clear with his absence. I did not understand the idea of experimenting with young players at SAS Nagar just a one month before the commencement of the World Cup. India have played a record number of matches during the past one year. The inclusion of Saba Karim at SAS Nagar is not understood especially when he was not among the probables for the World Cup. In fact during the matches played in the previous year, the selectors and the board tried to sideline some experienced players like Navjot Singh Sidhu and others to make room for others. PRITPAL SINGH Thrilling win India’s thrilling 20-run win over England in their second league match of the triangular Coca Cola Cup at Sharjah came as a consolation after the loss to Pakistan. It was a wise decision by Azharuddin to bat first after seeing the condition of the pitch. The Indian fielding and bowling was superb. The Indian players performed well under the leadership of Ajay Jadeja. Jadeja was observed talking to his team-mates continuously on the field and offering advice. When the match was swinging England’s way, Jadeja took the calculated risk of bowling himself. It will not be a mistake if we call him the hero of the day, because he not only batted well , but also took three wickets in one over. SUNIL DOGRA Azlan Shah hockey Kudos to Pakistan for winning the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup at National Hockey Stadium in Kuala Lumpur beating South Korea 3-1. Pakistan took sweet revenge with a powerful display as they were beaten by the same team in the Champions Trophy at Lahore and the Bangkok Asian games. Mohammed Saqlain, Sohail Abbas and Mohammed Shahbaz were up to the mark. Pakistani skipper Atif Bashir guided his men to victory. ‘Player-of-the-tournament’ Sohail Abbas deserves kudos as he emerged the top scorer in the tournament with 12 goals to his credit . Well done, guys! Dr H.S. SAINBHY Sachin Tendulkar In the absence of Sachin Tendulkar, the Indians were no match for the Pakistanis in all the league matches as well as the final of the Pepsi triangular series. They lost badly to their arch rivals again and again. In fact, the presence of Sachin Tendulkar makes a world of difference to the Indian side. All that the Indians achieved in the recent past has been solely due to the genius of this little master. He is the lone courageous and real fighter in the Indian team. Frankly speaking, without him the Indian side seems to stand nowhere in the world when playing against full-fledged major cricketing sides. I feel he should be completely rested, looked after extremely well and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) should leave no stone unturned to make him fit for the World Cup. ISAAC DAVID |
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