Mohali, November 6
Vascular surgery can be of tremendous help to diabetic patients and is a very important stream to deal with diabetes related problems such as gangrene and renal failure which are very common in India, said an internationally renowned vascular surgeon, Dr John Wolfe, Head of the Department of Vascular Surgery, St Mary’s Hospital, London, and the Elect President, European Vascular Society.

Dr Wolfe, who has been specialising in vascular surgery for over 25 years, said that some of the other problems he dealt with were strokes, leg ulcers, aneurysm (bursting of the aorta, the vessel that supplies blood to the heart) etc . Several areas of blockage in the lower extremity lead to anything from cold feet to the loss of a limb. Vascular surgeons could either remove plaque build-up in the arteries or could remove clots that threatened the viability of the limb on an emergency basis.

Talking about the scenario in India, Dr Wolfe said diabetes was a big problem in India and as such there was a tremendous need for vascular surgery here. There was an acute shortage of vascular surgeons in India, probably because there was confusion and lack of knowledge between vascular and cardiac surgeons. In India, doctors specialising in cardiac diseases also performed vascular surgeries. In the USA and Europe, this was separated into two different specialities about 40 years ago.

Dr Wolfe, who received an award by the Indian Vascular Society last week in Delhi, said that education of doctors was must to create awareness. There were a lot of options available for the specialisation for a vascular surgeon as vascular surgery dealt with a huge area of the body. The surgeon could specialise in scalpel and stenting or in ballooning and catheterization. Indian doctors were very enthusiastic, however they needed hospital support to flourish .

Dr Wolfe had come to Fortis Hospital here today to address doctors on the latest advancements in vascular surgery. He said that vascular surgery was the branch of surgery that dealt with surgical interventions of arteries and veins. Vascular surgery was done to correct diseases of vessels and involved all blood vessels of the body, except the heart and the brain.

Dr Wolfe has performed surgeries in India, Egypt, the USA and the Middle East apart from Britain. He has written more than 200 books and has also invented the ‘St Mary’s boot” used in distal leg bypass surgeries.

Chandigarh, November 6
With an objective to churn out excellent cricket players, a residential academy under the name of Chandigarh Cricket Academy (CCA) has been proposed by the Chandigarh Administration.

The likely expenditure for setting up this academy at Sector 16 Cricket Stadium, would be to the tune of Rs 1.5 crore for construction and development works. Rs 50 lakh will be required as one-time expenditure for setting up other infrastructure i.e. gymnasium, library, audio/video laboratory, bowling machines, pitch rollers and mowing machines.

Annually, Rs 20 lakh as recurring expenditure will be required for boarding and lodging, education, books, kit, equipment and medical aids.

“We are very serious about setting up a state-of-the-art world class academy in Chandigarh. For the purpose, we have tied up with reputed world class academies at Australia and South Africa,” said Mr Inderjeet Singh Sandhu, Director Sports, Chandigarh.

“There will be an exchange of learning programmes. We will hire their coaches and also send ours there. Similarly, the trainees would be sent abroad to learn the nuances of the game,” he said.

A society, under the name of “Cricket Chandigarh (CC)” has been formed and registered with the Registrar of Firms and Societies under the Registration of Societies Act 1860. The CCA shall not be a distinct legal entity and would function under the aegis of the CC and the administrative control over all the aspects of the CCA will be with the CC.

The UT Administrator, Gen S.F. Rodrigues (retd) will be its President. The other office-bearers are: Mr Lalit Sharma, Advisor to the Administrator — Senior Vice-President; Mr S.K. Sandhu, Finance Secretary — Vice-President; and Mr I.S. Sandhu, Director, Sports — Member Secretary.

Mr Krishan Mohan, Home Secretary; Mr V.K. Bhardwaj, Chief Engineer; Mr S.K. Jain, Inspector General of Police; Mr R.K. Rao, Deputy Commissioner; Mr J.P.S. Sidhu, Joint Director Sports and Mr Satish Joshi, Finance and Planning Officer, are the other members of the society.

“We have also apprised the BCCI president, Mr Sharad Pawar about the programme and seek the Board’s contribution. Recently, on his visit to the city, Mr Pawar met the General Rodrigues and showed a positive approach to make this programme a success,” said Mr Sandhu.

“The administration has upgraded the infrastructure at the Sector 16 Stadium and it was highly appreciated by the BCCI as well as ICC officials. The recent practice matches of Sri Lanka and Bangladesh teams prior to the ICC Champions Trophy is a testimony to this fact,” he said.

The aim is to create, develop and manage infrastructure for the promotion of cricket with a highly specialised residential academy for imparting training to young boys in cricket.

Only 24 trainees (boys only) in the age group of 8 to 9 years, who excel in the game and also in academics, will be inducted in the academy at a time. The Department of Sports, Chandigarh Administration, has been entrusted the responsibility to lay down the modalities.

Elaborating about the selection procedure, Mr Sidhu said, “There will be a transparent selection procedure on an all-India basis. However, the final selection will be carried out at Chandigarh itself. The selected boys will be trained for a period of seven years without charging a single penny from them. But pursuant to imparting training for four quarters ideally coinciding with one academic session of the trainees, they will have to undergo a skill test and those who would not qualify the test would have to leave the place for fresh trainees. In all, we will maintain the total number of trainees in the academy at 24.”

“This is not all, we will make arrangements for the boarding and lodging, diet, equipment, dress, coaching, education at government schools, uniform, books, free transport, medical aid, entertainment, excursions etc. The CCA will be located at Sector 16 Cricket Stadium. However, until such time proper building for hostel and other requirements are not constructed, we will locate the hostels, office or any other facilities at any suitable location within Chandigarh. We will conduct inter-school, inter-college matches also,” added Mr Sidhu.

Chandigarh, November 6
Vipan Kamboj of Panjab University secured the top position (3:59.85 sec) in the Singles Scull event of two-day Panjab University Inter-College Rowing Championship, which commenced at Sukhna Lake here today.

Bittu of DAV College, Sector 10, came second (4:08.75 sec) followed by Kamaljit Singh of Sri Guru Gobind Singh College, Sector 26, (4:14.18 sec).

Only three colleges from the city are participating in the championship. Government College for Men, Sector 11, and Government College of Zira did not turn up to report at the venue.

Other results:

Double Scull (boys): 1 Mangal Singh and Kulvir (SGGSC, Sector 26) (3:53.14 sec), 2 Bittu and Mridul Sunil Kumar (DAVC, Sector 10) (4:51.73 sec), 3 Tejinder and Karun Kumar (PU campus) (5:30.14 sec).

Coxless Fours: 1 Mangal, Shinderpal, Vipin and Sunil Joshan (SGGS-26) (4:49.38 sec), 2 Vipan Kamboj, Gurteg, Tejinder, Karun Kumar (PU campus) (5:20.07 sec), 3 Bittu, Mridul Sunil, Karan Pathania, Gagandeep (DAV-10) (5:38.05).

Double Scull (girls): 1 Kirandeep Kaur and Ramanpreet Kaur (PU campus) (4:07.11 sec), 2 Ishtdeep and Virinda (GCG, Sector 11) (6:15.73 sec).

Pairs Coxless: 1 Ramandeep and Kirandeep (PU) (4:15.33 sec), 2 Nidhi Bali and Kalpana (GCG-11) (5:15.11 sec).

Chandigarh, November 6
Mr Rajiv Bali, Managing Director, Mount Shivalik Breweries, has decided to sponsor Manjeet Singh, an outstanding rower of Chandigarh.

Besides a cash incentive of Rs 10,000 for his recent achievements, Manjeet Singh will receive a monthly allowance of Rs 1000 for meeting his special dietary needs. This financial support would continue year-to-year if he continues with his consistently good performance.

Manjeet comes from a family of modest means of Ferozepore district and is a student of plus two of DAV Senior Secondary School, Sector 8, Chandigarh.

He secured two silver medals in the recently concluded Asian Rowing Championship held at Singapore in July and a gold medal in the SAF Games held at Colombo, Sri Lanka. He is the reigning junior national champion for the past two years.

Manjeet, who is still a junior player, has many years of active rowing in him. The first cheque of Rs 11000 was presented to him at a dinner hosted by the Chandigarh Rowing Association.

Nine other players who won honours in the National Championships were also honoured on this occasion.

Mr T.C. Gupta, President, Chandigarh Rowing Association (CRA), said that the National Championship for 2007 would be held at the Sukhna Lake in October. Preparations for the event have already started in close coordination with the Sports Department of the Chandigarh Administration.

It is learnt that a proposal to upgrade the rowing course from four lanes to six lanes is under the active consideration of the Chandigarh Administration.