 |
|
Change bowling rules, Lanka asks ICC
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Battling Slater says goodbye to cricket
Too many trying to hog limelight
Natwar Singh moots SAARC cricket team
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Anju finishes poor fifth
TFA, Neemuch start with victories
Sunil bows out
30 Haryana players for Athens
|
|
Japan toy with India in World Cup qualifier
Saitama (Japan), June 9 Kubo, who plays for J-League side Yokohama F Marinos, opened the scoring in the 12th minute when he redirected a long forward pass from Alessandro Santos past India's goalkeeper Sangram Mukherjee. Playing before a capacity crowd of 60,000 at Saitama Stadium 2002, Japan doubled the lead just over 10 minutes later when Takashi Fukunishi of Jubilo Iwata gathered a Kubo header in the area and fired a low blast off the post. "We weren't able to score much in previous games," said Japan's Brazilian coach Zico. "But we created many chances in this game and took advantage of those chances and the team played well." Reggina's Shunsuke Nakamura gave Japan an insurmountable 3-0 lead minutes later with a curving free kick over the wall. India, ranked 143rd in the FIFA rankings, were no match for the hosts and had few chances against Japan goalkeeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi. Japan widened their lead to 4-0 early in the second half when Keiji Tamada beat three Indian defenders and rifled a long-range shot past an outstretched Mukherjee. Yuji Nakazawa scored a pair of second-half goals and substitute Mitsuo Ogasawara added another to complete the one-sided rout. Japan were playing without injured Europe-based stars Hidetoshi Nakata of Italy's Bologna, Naohiro Takahara of Germany's Hamburg and Junichi Inamoto of England's Fulham. Japan leads its group in Asia with nine points, following wins over Oman, Singapore and India. India beat Singapore but lost to Oman in its previous matches. Lineups: India: Sangram Mukherjee, Habibur Rahaman Mondal, Despek Kumar Mondal, Climax Lawrence, Samir Naik, Renedy Singh, Jatin Bisht, Shanmugarn Venkatesh, Jo Paul Anchery, Bhaichung Bhutia, Ashim Biswas. —AP |
|
MURALI ROW
Colombo, June 9 Sri Lanka Cricket president Mohan de Silva said he had asked the ICC to increase the tolerance limit to possibly 15 degrees. The tolerance limits set by the ICC are five
degrees for spinners, 7.5 for medium-pacers and 10 for pacemen. “We have written to the ICC today asking them to review the tolerance limits based on a scientific study of bowling action of all bowlers,” de Silva told reporters. “We are not sure there should be one limit for a pace bowler and another for a spinner. A pace bowler can deliver a slow bowl and a spinner can deliver a fast bowl.” “What are the limits to be applied in this case is not very clear to us. We want a thorough review of all this.” De Silva said he had the backing of at least six other Test playing countries in seeking a change of the bowling rules. He, however, declined to name them, only saying that they were mainly “Asian”. He said Sri Lanka Cricket had assembled a team of lawyers to prepare a document for the ICC and the use of a large contingent of legal experts was to show the ICC “that we mean business”. De Silva said Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse dropped the idea of suing the ICC after being advised of the proper procedure to follow by the local governing body of the sport.
— AFP |
|
Battling Slater says goodbye to cricket
Sydney, June 9 The 34-year-old player, undergoing treatment for a rare form of arthritis, played just three domestic first-class matches for New South Wales last season. “The decision has been a painful one, a very tough one given that I still have the desire to play and believe that I still have a lot to offer New South Wales,” Slater told reporters at a press conference. The right-handed opener, popular world over for his breathtaking strokeplay, was a key member of the Aussie side that won 16 consecutive Test matches from 1999 to 2001. In 78 opening stands, Slater and Taylor put up a combined 3,887 Test runs at an average of 51 runs per partnership. The Australian pair was second in the Test rankings for openers behind West Indian greats Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes, who amassed 6,482 runs while batting together in 148 innings. Slater made his Test debut against England in 1993 and was dropped in 2001 after scoring 21 and 16 in a six-wicket loss in the fourth Ashes Test at Headingley. He was replaced by Justin Langer, who has held his spot at the top alongwith Matthew Hayden ever since. Slater scored 5,312 Test runs at an average of 42.8, including 14 centuries, and accumulated almost 15,000 runs in first-class cricket. His highest score was 219 scored against Sri Lanka in 1995-96 in Perth.
— PTI |
|
Too many trying to hog limelight
New Delhi, June 9 An array of sports and film stars, and ‘achievers’ from other fields, have been listed to run the distance with the Indian
Olympics Association, the Delhi Government and sponsors Coca Cola and Samsung drawing up their own quota of names, there was some sort of confusion prevailing. Some of the top names in the fray are Kapil Dev, Rahul Dravid, Karnam Malleswari, Mahesh Bhupathi, Anjali Bhagwat, Anil Kumble, Irfan Pathan, Baichung Bhutia, Virender Sehwag, Aishwarya Rai, and a whole lot of others, who do not have even a remote connection with sports. The corporate sponsors have even included the names of two editors of prominent publications. The IOA list contains people connected with sports, though the ‘qualification’ of some of the listed runners to hold the torch is open to debate. |
|
Natwar Singh moots SAARC cricket team
New Delhi, June 9 “Let’s have a joint cricket team of SAARC to play against the Rest of the World”, mooted Mr Natwar Singh, adding that even in such a team, Indian cricket star Virender Sehwag would stand out and emerge as the hero. Mr Natwar Singh did not hide his great admiration for Virender Sehwag, during the launch of a cricket book, “Winning Games and Hearts”, on the Indian cricket team’s recent tour of Pakistan. The book, authored by Delhi-based sports journalist Indranil Basu, was launched by Virender Sehwag in the presence of a galaxy of important people, including Pakistan High Commissioner to India, Aziz Ahmed Khan. Mr Natwar Singh, an avid cricket fan and a keen follower of the game, described Sehwag as a “living cricket legend”. He hoped that sooner than later, Sehwag would rewrite the Test records of West Indian legend Brian Lara. “If anybody who can equal Lara’s record, it’s Virender Sehwag”, he asserted. Sehwag himself was very modest when he formally launched the book. He remarked that he considered it as a “great honour” to launch the book, and requested the fans to read it as it contains “great stories, including my personal story also”. Sehwag, who was recently awarded his graduation certificate by the Jamia Millia Islamia, chose to speak in English, and just about “passed” muster. |
|
Figo back, Seedorf may miss opener
Lisbon, June 9 With David
Trezeguet of France, Portugal’s Luis Figo and England David Beckham
apparently over their injury worries, Seedorf is the first big name
expected to be ruled out of action. The AC Milan midfielder suffered
a hamstring problem during Saturday’s surprise 0-1 loss at home to
Ireland, the team’s last warm-up game before the championship.
Coming on top of that poor performance, the news of Seedorf’s injury
means another headache for coach Dick Advocaate, whose team is in group
D, the toughest of the four groups. “I will have to miss him for at
least a week,” said Advocaat, looking ahead to next Tuesday’s game
against the Germans in Porto. The absence of Seedorf may give
three-time champions Rudi Voeller’s men a stronger chance of winning
and give Germany’s Michael Ballack more influence on the
midfield. The Bayern Munich star is the key to his team’s chances
of a fourth triumph and could be on the move at the end of the
championship. Barcelona vice-president Sandro Rosell said he was
hopeful of signing Ballack after holding talks with Munich and the
player. Ballack is reportedly keen to make the move to Spain although
Rosell said he recognised that Bayern wouldn’t readily give up the
star midfielder. England central defender John Terry is England’s
big doubt for the game against the French as Sven-Goran Eriksson’s
defensive problems continue. Unable to field Rio Ferdinand who is
serving an eight- month ban for failing to take a drug test or
Jonathan Woodgate who has a torn thigh muscle, Eriksson was counting
on Terry to play alongside Sol Campbell. But the Chelsea defender
suffered a hamstring injury near of the end of England’s 1-1 tie
with Japan a week ago and didn’t take part in yesterday’s training
session. Liverpool’s Jamie Carragher or Tottenham’s Ledley King
could replace him. According to England striker Michael Owen,
Liverpool team-mate Carragher wouldn’t let the team down. Owen, who
has scored 25 goals in 54 appearances for England, said his team-mates
shouldn’t be overawed by the French when they meet at the Stadium of
Light on Sunday. Although Terry looks doubtful for the confrontation
with defending champion France on Sunday, several more players
appeared to winning their fight to play their opening games. Figo
complained of a leg muscle problem and was unable to train on Monday,
prompting fears that Portugal’s biggest star might miss the team’s
opener against Greece in four days’ time. But the nation breathed a
collective sigh of relief when the Real Madrid midfielder joined the
rest of the squad for a workout at Portugal’s training centre 20 km
east of Lisbon. When the French team flew into Porto, Trezeguet showed
no sign of the ankle injury that forced him to miss Sunday’s warmup
1-0 victory over Ukraine. At England’s training session, captain
David Beckham played a full part in the training session having been
troubled for weeks with an ankle injury which became infected. The
championship starts on Saturday with group A matches Portugal vs
Greece in Oporto in the north and Spain vs Russia at Faro on the south
coast. Then it’s Switzerland-Croatia in Leiria followed by
France-England in Lisbon. — AP |
|
Bangalore, June 9 It was first of a series of international meets that Anju plans to take part as build-up events leading to the Athens Olympic Games in August. Anju, currently ranked fourth in the world, was obviously below her best. Last month in Doha, she had collected her first Super Grand Prix gold with a wind-aided 6.82 metres. In the Ostrava meet, Anju was saddled with a tough field. Russia’s Tatyana Kotova, the world No 1, won the gold with her fifth round leap of seven metres, equalling the meet record, according to information received here today. Fellow Russian Tatyana Lebedeva, who jumped to double gold at the World Indoor Championships in March, finished second with 6.91, followed by US track star Marion Jones with 6.65. Anju, bronze medallist in the Paris world championship last year, has made Paris her training base as part of Olympic preparations and is set to move around various international meets from the French capital. Her next stop will be the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene in the USA on June 19. Anju is likely to travel to the USA for training days ahead of this event.
— PTI |
|
TFA, Neemuch start with victories
Mandi, June 9 Taking part for the first time in the tournament, TFA took time to settle down. Gurpreet and Manjit were shown yellow cards while the scorecard was goal-less till half time. The first goal came two minutes after the interval when Hembram rolled past goalkeeper Naveen with a neat placement. Following another attack in the 15th minute, Delhi club defender Major Singh tripped a rival and Arif converted the penalty kick. Midway through Hembram chased a long pass on the right and shot past the Delhi club goalkeeper. Nationals came close to scoring towards the end but a rising shot by Nitin Sharma struck the bar. A couple of other flag kicks proved futile for the Delhi team. The days other match played between Neemuch Football Association and Himachal Police was a one-sided affair where Neemuch boys scored twice to knock out Himachal lads. Hitender failed to click in the first half and the score was goal-less till the breather. Though Amit did well under the police bar and made a couple of good saves but was beaten twice in the second half. Sachin fired both the goals for Neemuch. The tournament was inaugurated by the Deputy Commissioner, Mandi. |
|
Sunil bows out
Indore, June 9 Three other seeds were shown the exit door before the quarter finals. The casualties included third seed Vinod Sridhar, the India number five, who was shocked by former Davis Cup player Prahlad Srinath, a qualifier, 7-5, 6-4. The other two seeds who bit the dust were Estonain fifth seed Mait Kunnap, who fell to Indian qualifier Kamala Kannan in three sets, and sixth-seeded Vishal Uppal of India, the national number 11, who was ousted in straight sets by David Brewer of Britain.
— PTI |
|
30 Haryana players for Athens
Chandigarh, June 9 He said that with a view to give thrust to sports in the state and to nurture sportspersons so they could excel at national and international level, it had been decided to allocate the responsibility of raising of various sports teams to various boards, corporations and departments of the state. |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
Colombo, June 9
In
video (
