Brazil’s loss evokes Cup memories
RIO DE JANERIO, Aug 6 — The adversary’s jerseys were green, not blue, and the fans were screaming in Spanish instead of French. Still, Brazil’s loss to Mexico in the final of the Confederations Cup on Wednesday felt like deja vu.

Mahanama retires
COLOMBO, Aug 6 — Veteran Sri Lankan batsman Roshan Mahanama, who was dropped yesterday from both the one-day and Test squads for the forthcoming series, quit international cricket today.

Boxers back with five bronze
CHANDIGARH, Aug 6 — India won five bronze medals in the fourth Brandenburg Cup International Boxing Championships held at Frankfurt, Germany.

Sukhvinder is national coach
CALCUTTA, Aug 6 — The All India Football Federation (AIFF) yesterday appointed Sukhvinder Singh as the coach of the national squad for the forthcoming SAAF Games and Asian Cup to be played at Kathmandu and Abu Dhabi respectively.

Agarwal stuns Sethi, moves into semis
CHENNAI, Aug 6 — In a show of determination and will, India’s Arun Agarwal today made defending champion and compatriot Geet Sethi bite the dust in a nail-biting finish and set up a semifinal clash against former world champion Peter Gilchrist (Eng) in the World Professional Billiards Championship here.

Kirandeep, Jaspreet to the fore
ROPAR, Aug 6 — Jaspreet Singh of Sangrur and Kirandeep Kaur of Ropar secured the first position in the under-19 free style (400 metres) event in the boys and girls sections, respectively, on the opening day of the Punjab State Subjunior and Junior Swimming championships at the Nehru Stadium swimming pool here today.

Top cricketers for golf meet
GURGAON, Aug 6 — A galaxy of international Test stars from major playing countries will provide an evidence of their golf prowess in the inaugural Ambassadors Cup at the Classic Golf Resort from tomorrow.

39 invited for eves coaching camp
MUMBAI, Aug 6 — Thirty-nine women footballers have been invited to attend national coaching camp at Kudra (Bihar) from August 14 to 30.

Course for tennis coaches CHANDIGARH, Aug 6 — An International Tennis Federation level course for the coaches will be conducted at Chandigarh by the Chandigarh Lawn Tennis Association , according to Mr Jai Singh Gill, secretary of the association.

MSK Prasad, Kambli get the nod

BARODA, Aug 6 (PTI) — The national cricket selectors today sprang no surprises as they replaced injured former skipper Mohd Azharuddin and stumper Nayan Mongia with Vinod Kambli and MSK Prasad while retaining the rest of the World Cup team for India’s upcoming limited overs engagements in Sri Lanka and Singapore.

Barring these two changes necessitated by the shoulder and wrist injuries suffered by Azharuddin and Mongia, the five-man selection committee kept faith in all the other members of the World Cup squad in order not to “spoil the team combination”, chairman Ajit Wadekar told reporters after a two-hour long meeting.

“Too many changes will spoil the combination. That is the reason why only the two changes (necessitated by injuries) were made,” Wadekar explained.

The same set of four seamers, who did duty in the mega event where India failed to reach the last four, were retained because “we felt they are the ideal bowlers to use the seaming conditions in the SSC and Galle grounds in Sri Lanka,” the former India captain said.

Team: Sachin Tendulkar (capt), Ajay Jadeja (vice-capt), S. Ramesh, Saurav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Amay Khurasia, Vinod Kambli, Robin Singh, MSK Prasad, Anil Kumble, Nikhil Chopra, Ajit Agarkar, Javagal Srinath, Venkatesh Prasad, Debashish Mohanty.

Coach Anshuman Gaekwad, whose contract expired after the World Cup, has been retained and also team doctor Ravindra Chaddha. Manager for the two tours is to be announced later.

Asked particularly about the reason for retaining Mumbai paceman Ajit Agarkar despite his poor show in the World Cup, Wadekar said that it (poor form) happened to all bowlers at some time or the other.

But the selection committee chairman said the tailenders, who did precious little in the World Cup with the bat, will be told by captain Sachin Tendulkar to come up with useful runs.

“We discussed the lack of runs from our tailenders and have asked the captain to tell the tail that it should start wagging,” Wadekar said.

The selectors have, however, looked ahead to the future in naming Andhra wicket-keeper MSK Prasad as the replacement for the injured Mongia, who dropped out of contention citing injury through a letter to the board here yesterday.

“We thought there was no sense going backwards,” Wadekar replied when queried why Prasad was preferred in place of more experienced Syed Saba Karim of Bengal to don the gloves.

About Azhar’s chance of making a comeback into the team once he is fit, Wadekar said: “It will depend on the combination of the team. We thought we had the nucleus and did not want to change the entire combination.”

He also said Tendulkar, who attended the meeting with coach Anshuman Gaekwad “looked happy after the meeting”, when queried how the master batsman reacted to the selection of the squad.

About the decision to retain Amay Khurasia and S. Ramesh, the chairman said that while the former did not get any chance to play in the World Cup, the left-handed Tamil Nadu opener got runs whenever he managed to find berth in the playing eleven.

About India’s problems with the fifth bowler, Wadekar said it will arise only when the team’s regular bowlers did not bowl properly and not otherwise.

On Kambli’s selection, he said it was felt the Mumbai left-hander’s experience at the international level was needed to offset the absence of Azhar.

Other players considered for selection were Baroda’s Jacob Martin and Karnataka seamer Dodda Ganesh, who did well in last domestic season.

The team will leave for Colombo from Chennai on August 20 after a four-day camp from August 16 to 19.

Kiwis restrict England

MANCHESTER (England), Aug 6 (Reuters) — Tailender Peter Such recorded the second slowest duck in Test history as England fought resolutely for a 199 total on the second day of the third Test against New Zealand today.

New Zealand were 40 for no wicket in their first innings by tea.

Such faced 51 balls without scoring and batted for 72 minutes before he fell to Daniel Vettori. His stay was second only to the 101 minutes spent by Geoff Allott in making nought for New Zealand against Sough Africa in Auckland in March.

Remarkably, Such shared the second highest partnership of the innings — 31 for the ninth wicket with Mark Ramprakash.

Ramprakash’s unbeaten 69, his highest in a home Test, came at a good time for himself and his team after a poor run of form.

It also gave England a reasonable total to defend on an unpredictable Old Trafford pitch.

Their total took more than 109 overs to compile, with only 29 coming from the first 20 overs of the day.

During that period, Chris Harris, playing for the first time in the series, dismissed nightwatchman Dean Headley for a stubborn 18 and wicket-keeper Chris Read for a duck in the space of four balls.

Harris then ran out Andy Caddick for 12, before Such and Phil Tufnell — 30 minutes for one run — stuck while Ramprakash pushed England towards 200.

England were denied an early reward in the New Zealand innings when Graham Thorpe dropped Matthew Horne off Caddick before he had scored.

Horne, who refused to become bogged down like his opponents, had 34 to his name off 11 overs by the break. Opening partner Matthew Bell was on four.

A Caddick off-drive was partially stopped by Roger Twose and Harris pounced on the loose ball and returned to wicketkeeper Adam Parore, who broke the stumps with Caddick well short of his crease after hesitation by both batsmen over a second run.

Ramprakash, who offered a difficult chance from a skied drive to deep mid-on when he was 38, was left to prolong the innings with Peter Such, yet to score at lunch, and last man Phil Tufnell.

England (Ist innings)

Butcher c Fleming b Cairns 5

Atherton c Parore b Cairns 11

Stewart c Parore b Nash 23

Thorpe c Bell b Vettori 27

Hick lbw b Nash 12

Ramprakash not out 69

Headley c Fleming b Harris 18

Read b Harris 0

Caddick run out 12

Such c Bell b Vettori 0

Tufnell b Astle b Nash 1

Extras: (b-6, 1b-10, w-5) 21

Total: (all out in 109.1 overs) 199

Fall of wickets: 1-13, 2-54, 3-60, 4-83, 5-104, 6-133, 7-133, 8-152, 9-183.

Bowling: Chris Cairns 34-12-72-2; Dion Nash 31.1-15-46-3; Nathan Astle 11-5-14-0; Daniel Vettori 25-7-35-2; Chris Harris 8-4-16-2.

Cuban lifter sets world record

WINNIPEG (Manitoba), Aug 6 (Reuters) — Cuban weightlifter Hidalberto Quintero Aranda hoisted 205.5 kg to set a world record for the clean and jerk in the 77 kg weight class yesterday at the Pan American Games.

Quintero Aranda, (24) beat the world standard of 205 kg set in 1998 when weight categories for lifters were reclassified.

“It’s a legitimate world record,” said Pan American Games’ weightlifting competition director and international referee Jeff Roehn.

The Cuban’s first lift of 190 kg was good enough to take the gold medal but he moved on to 200 kg to prepare himself for the world record attempt.

Few were expecting world records in any sport at these Pan American Games, so news of the feat by Quintero Aranda of Santiago de Cuba brought cheers from organisers.

Weightlifting’s weight classes were reduced from 10 to eight for men, and seven for women last year.

The games mark the first time female weightlifters have been included in regional games. Next year in Sydney, they will make their first appearance in the Olympics.

US swimmers churned to both women’s gold medals on offer at the games and Brazil’s men also won two golds, just as they had the day before.

Staciana Stitts was the USA’s star performer last night, setting a Pan American Games record on her way to gold in the 100 metre breaststroke. Stitts swam the distance in a time of one minute, 09.16 seconds, 1.14 seconds faster than the previous mark.

In the 100 metre butterfly, stitts’s team-mate Karen Campbell won in 1:00.05.

Morgan Knabe added one more gold to Canada’s haul, winning the men’s 200 metre breast-stroke in 2:14.73, 0.77 seconds faster than any Pan American Games swimmer before him.

Until last night, US swimmers had claimed just three gold medals in 15 races, while Canadians had pocketed eight. US women had won just one gold midway through the six-day competition.

Brazil’s Luiz Lima outswam the field in the men’s 400 metre freestyle to claim gold in a time of 3:52.25.

In the final race of the night, Brazil’s Fernando Scherer, Cesar Quintaes, Andre Cordeiro and Gustavo Borges set a Pan American record in the 4x100 men’s freestyle relay. Their time of 3:17.18 sliced more than a second off the earlier mark.

Cuba’s dominance of the Pan American Games boxing continued as four more of their fighters won semifinal bouts.

Yesterday’s victories mean that Cuba will be represented in nine of the 12 boxing finals which begin today.

Other contenders for boxing gold include five Canadians, four boxers from the USA, two each from Argentina and Brazil and one apiece from Venezuela and Mexico.

Alexis Rubalcaba led the Cuban charge. His super heavy weight bout against Brazil’s Claudio Silva was stopped after 64 seconds when he sent his opponent flying.

Jorge Gutierrez won the light middle weight gold, Humberto Savigne the light heavy weight and Yudel Jhonson the feather weight.

Cuba was hoping for a boxing clean sweep but that dream was shattered on Wednesday when Gerald Tucker of the USA beat Waldemar Font on points in the bantam weight category.

Agassi trounces Chang, enters last eight

MONTREAL, Aug 6 (AP) — Andre Agassi, whose first-round match was washed out by rain, won twice to move into the quarterfinals of the du Maurier Open tennis tournament.

Agassi opened yesterday with a 6-7 (5-7), 6-0, 6-3 victory over Richey Reneberg in a match postponed from the previous day because of rain.

Last night, Agassi eliminated Michael Chang 6-2, 7-5.

Also yesterday, Patrick Rafter, the No. 1 seed from Australia, reached the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Jiri Novak of the Czech Republic.

“To play twice and get through it is a big step forward,” said Agassi, who also won twice in one day in last year’s du Maurier. “I didn’t have the same stick in my game that I usually have, but I’ll be fine.”

Agassi, who won in Canada in 1992, 1994 and 1995, has reached the quarterfinals in nine of 10 appearances.

Defending champion Rafter, who trailed in the second set until overpowering the unseeded Novak with his service, called it a tough match against the world’s 41st-ranked player.

Third-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia also advanced with a 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) victory over South Africa’s Kevin Ulyett.

Sixth-seeded American Todd Martin, another whose opening match was postponed by rain, beat Italy’s Laurence Tieleman 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 and then stopped Vincent Spadea 6-3, 7-6 (7-3).

Jim Courier continued his strong play of late with a 6-7 (3-7), 6-4, 7-5 victory over South Africa’s Wayne Ferreira.

CARLSBAD (USA): Martina Hingis lost just seven points on her serve in the second set and beat Dominique Van Roost 6-2, 6-4 on Thursday in the quarterfinals of TIG Classic.

Hingis broke Van Roost twice in rolling through the first set in 31 minutes.

Hingis, the No. 2 seed, advanced to a semifinal against the winner of the match between seventh-seeded Amanda Coetzer and Amy Frazier.

Other quarterfinal pairings are top-seeded Lindsay Davenport against qualifier Anke Huber and fourth-seeded Venus Williams against Sandrine Testud, who defeated No. 6 Aranxta Sanchez-Vicario 6-2, 7-5 in the night match.

Testud, a Frenchwoman ranked 14th, won 11 of the last 12 points, including breaking Sanchez-Vicario at love in the 11th game. Testud is in the quarterfinals for the second straight week, having lost to Coetzer last week at Stanford.

Sanchez-Vicario converted just one of 11 break points in the one and half hour match.

Van Roost, a Belgian ranked 15th in the world, pressed Hingis throughout the second set. In the fifth game, she had three chances to win before netting a forehand after the fourth deuce to set up a break point for Hingis. Van Roost then hit a smash long to trail 3-2.

Van Roost held serve after two deuces to trail 5-4, but Hingis won on the second match point when van Roost’s forehand service return went wide.

Hingis, the world’s No. 2 player, is in her first tournament since being knocked out in the first round of Wimbledon a month ago. Coetzer is the only seeded player left in Hingis’ half of the draw after fifth-seeded Mary Pierce lost in the first round and No. 3 seed Steffi Graf retired with an injury from a second-round match.

The crowd at the La Costa Resort backed Van Roost, and booed when line calls went against her in the second set. One fan yelled, “Go home, Martina.”

In a second-round match, Huber outlasted Barbara Schett of Austria 5-7, 6-4, 6-4. Huber got into the main draw through qualifying, the first time she had to do so since 1990.

Huber, ranked fourth in the world in 1996, is now 29th. She surprised eighth-seeded Nathalie Tauziat 6-3, 6-1 in the first round. In 13 tournaments this year, Huber hasn’t advanced past the quarterfinals.

Both players were clearly frustrated throughout the two-hour battle. Huber was warned for racket abuse after tossing it into her chair, while Schett was warned for ball abuse after sending one flying into the crowd at one end of the stadium.

Mahanama retires

COLOMBO, Aug 6 (PTI) — Veteran Sri Lankan batsman Roshan Mahanama, who was dropped yesterday from both the one-day and Test squads for the forthcoming series, quit international cricket today.

Peeved at his omission from both teams for the one-day tri-series also involving Australia and India and the Tests against the Australians, the 33-year-old opening batsman and ace fielder handed over a letter to the Sri Lankan cricket board announcing his retirement.

Mahanama’s omission from the team last year was widely criticised by local media, prompting President Chandrika Kumaratunga to directly take up the issue with the board.

He was subsequently rehabilitated and included in the team that represented Sri Lanka in the recent World Cup.

Mahanama, who like former skipper Arjuna Ranatunga and star batsman Aravinda de Silva was one of the senior players who regularly featured in the Sri Lankan team during the last decade, played 52 Tests in which he made 2576 runs at an average of 29.27 with a highest score of 225, which he made against India in 1997.

He also played in 198 limited overs international matches scoring 5162 runs at an average of 29.05. Known for his superb close-in fielding, Mahanama held 56 catches in Test matches.

He was dropped from the team by the new selection committee along with another senior player Hashan Tillakeratne. Ranatunga and De Silva were axed from the one day team but were retained for Test series.

Sukhvinder is national coach

CALCUTTA, Aug 6 (PTI) — The All India Football Federation (AIFF) yesterday appointed Sukhvinder Singh as the coach of the national squad for the forthcoming SAAF Games and Asian Cup to be played at Kathmandu and Abu Dhabi respectively.

A Sreedharan will be the assistant coach and Brahmanand Salgaocar the goalkeeping coach, AIFF secretary K N Mour told reporters after the executive committee meeting of AIFF here.

AIFF vice-president P P Lakshmanan has been appointed the project director for the two tournaments.

India has been placed in a five-team group in the Abu Dhabi event to be played from November 19 to December 7. Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan and United Arab Emirates are the other teams in the group, Mr Mour said.

The coaching camp for the SAAF Games, scheduled between September 25 and October 4, will begin at SAI, Bangalore, from September 6.

The team will be announced on September 18 and leave for Kathmandu on September 21, he said.

The meeting also decided in principle to appoint celebrated French coach Franz Barriquand to train the Indian football team.

“We will send a communication to him to know about his terms and condition. I hope, everything will be finalised soon,” Mr Mour said.

All the twenty players, who represented India in the pre-Olympic qualifiers against Thailand, along with 13 senior players, will be called for the SAAF coaching camp.

Mr Mour said Uzbekistan coach Rustom Akramov, who had a stint as chief national coach earlier, would come to India within a month as Director of Coaching, Youth Development. “The Asian Football confederation will pay his salaries while we will take care of the other expenses,” he said.

The AIFF has also decided to request Bangladesh to allow India to field a youth team for the Bangabandhu Cup.

2 die as Mexicans celebrate win

MEXICO CITY, Aug 6 (AFP) — A 10-year-old girl and a teenager were killed in the Mexican capital as crowds took to the streets in celebration after Mexico won the inaugural Confederations Cup, Mexico City authorities said.

Another 20 people were injured as tens of thousands of people gathered overnight at the Independence Monument after Mexico won the Cup, defeating Brazil 4-3 on Wednesday.

A 10-year-old girl was run over by a car in front of the monument while a 17-year-old teenager was electrocuted as he walked out of the Azteca Stadium, where the game was played. He apparently touched an electric cable that had fallen on a pedestrian bridge.

Celebrations lasted most of the night, with tequila flowing freely, mariachi bands striking up frenzied tunes and fireworks lighting up the monument, popularly known as “El Angel.”

Agarwal stuns Sethi, moves into semis

CHENNAI, Aug 6 (PTI) — In a show of determination and will, India’s Arun Agarwal today made defending champion and compatriot Geet Sethi bite the dust in a nail-biting finish and set up a semifinal clash against former world champion Peter Gilchrist (Eng) in the World Professional Billiards Championship here.

Sethi lost the match 999-1001 after missing a red in-off to the left corner of the packet as the 16th ranked Agarwal made his maiden semifinal entry in the world championship.

In the other quarter-final match, favourite Mike Russel got the better of India’s Nalin Patel 1000-720 in about three hours of evenly fought out match. Russel had five century breaks, including three successive ones, while Patel achieved 246 and 149 breaks.

The Agarwal-Sethi match, which resembled a close one-day cricket finish, gave tense moments with both the players fighting for points in the fag end of the match.

Sethi did come up with a valuable 101 to lead 943-826, but it was not his day as he kept searching his winning rhythm all through the match.

Sethi, who later said that he over-faced the last shot, gave full credits to Agarwal for his excellent win.

Brazil’s loss evokes Cup memories

RIO DE JANERIO, Aug 6 (AP) — The adversary’s jerseys were green, not blue, and the fans were screaming in Spanish instead of French. Still, Brazil’s loss to Mexico in the final of the Confederations Cup on Wednesday felt like deja vu.

The mysterious collapse of the favoured Brazilians evoked uncomfortable comparisons with their flop at the World Cup final in France barely a year earlier.

In both games, Brazil were the odds-on pick against valiant but technically overmatched rivals whose only apparent edge was the home-field crowd. As in France, the Brazilian charge again was carried by a brilliant young stricker dubbed Ronaldinho, who failed to deliver in the big game.

And once again, the four-time World Cup champions inexplicably fell apart when it counted.

“The frightened, uncoordinated and apathetic Brazil of the Stade de France in the World Cup final last year resurfaced at the Aztec Stadium last night”, the Rio daily O Globo said yesterday.

Kirandeep, Jaspreet to the fore
Tribune News Service

ROPAR, Aug 6 — Jaspreet Singh of Sangrur and Kirandeep Kaur of Ropar secured the first position in the under-19 free style (400 metres) event in the boys and girls sections, respectively, on the opening day of the Punjab State Subjunior and Junior Swimming championships at the Nehru Stadium swimming pool here today.

Mr K.S. Sidhu, Deputy Commissioner, inaugurated the championships and announced a grant of Rs 25,000 as prize money for the meet.

In the under-17 freestyle (400 metres) event, Devinder Pal Singh of Ropar and Anisha Maheshwari of Ludhiana got the first place in the boys and girls sections, respectively.

In the under-14 individual medley (200 metres) event. Gurpreet Singh of Sangrur and Vibha Babbar of Ludhiana obtained the first position in the boys and girls sections, respectively.

The following are the results:

Boys section: 400 metres free style (under-19): Jaspreet Singh (Sangrur) 1, Manmohan Singh (Sangrur) 2. Sukhwant Singh (Amritsar) 3, 400 metres free style (under-17) : Devinder Pal Singh (Ropar) 1, Manraj Singh (Sng) 2, Arvind Puri (Ludhiana) 3. 200 metres individual medley (under-14) : Gurpreet Singh (Sng) 1, Harpreet Singh (Ferozepur) 2, Ravinder Kumar (sng) 3.

Girls section:

400 metres free style (under-19) : Kirandeep Kaur (Rpr) 1, Rupinderjit Kaur (Sng) 2, Sukriti Khanna (Lud) 3. 400 metres free style (under-17) : Anisha Maheshwari (Ldh) 1, Neha Bector (Patiala) 2, Himanshi (Sng) 3.

200 metres individual medlay (under-14) : Vibha Babbar (Ldh) 1, Sukhman Deep (Ldh) 2, Harpreet Kaur (Hoshiarpur) 3.

Boxers back with five bronze
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 6 — India won five bronze medals in the fourth Brandenburg Cup International Boxing Championships held at Frankfurt, Germany. The tournament, held from July 29 to August 1 attracted entries from Russia, Litauen, Azabajan, Greece, Kyrgistan, Austria, Poland, Netherlands, Slovakia besides hosts Germany and India.

According to Prof C.K. Jerath, manager of the Indian contingent, Akhil Kumar claimed a bronze in the 48 kg category. The other bronze medals were claimed by Lal Din Sanga (51 kg), Parveen Kumar (60 kg), Dilbagh Singh (63.5 kg) and D. Bhagyarajan, who also in the 63.5 kg category.

Russia won the overall championship while Germany took the second place. The third spot went to Litauen. India, who had fielded a total of 11 boxers, took the fifth spot, according to the team manager.

Majtaba Kamal (51 kg), Mangesh U. Kamble (54 kg), L.Bikramjit Singh (57 kg) and Ankit Kumar (67 kg) lost their bouts in the quarterfinals stage while J. Sandeep Kumar (48 kg) and A.L. Lakra (54 kg) lost their bouts in the prequarter-final stage itself. With a little bit of luck the Indian boxers would have fared even better.

The Indian boxers might have been defeated but were certainly not disgraced. Praveen Kumar won two bouts before losing in the semi-finals. he first beat Germany’s Matuschka Guido on points and then went on to beat Hockwin Msthias, also of Germany, again on points.Similarly, Bhagyarajan beat Sofiyev Grhan of Azabajan in a very keenly contested match. Similarly, Dilbagh Singh fought a good bout against Zbich Sebastian of Germany before the Indian won on points.

According to Prof Jerath the experience picked up by the Indian boxers will stand them in good stead in the future. For most of the boxers this was their first international exposure and he was sure with more such exposures the standard of the sport will go up in the country.he admitted that the general standard of the European boxers was indeed much better than their Indian counterparts.

Top cricketers for golf meet
From Our Sports Reporter

GURGAON, Aug 6 — A galaxy of international Test stars from major playing countries will provide an evidence of their golf prowess in the inaugural Ambassadors Cup at the Classic Golf Resort from tomorrow.

Some of the leading Indian stars had a round of practice at the course which according to participants,was of international standards. “It is great we have had an opportunity to play on this course which is magnificent”, echoed players.

Among the foreign participants are Geoff Boycott, Tony Grieg, Allan Border, Dean Jones, Lance Klusener, Mark Butcher, Craig Evans, Deepak Patel, Jeff Dujon and Desmond Haynes.

Apart from Kapil Dev, other Indian players in the field are Madan Lal, Kiran More and Ajay Jadeja, who is the ‘brain’ behind this meet.

If the weather holds out for the next two days, some of these players will provide an exhibition of their fine golf skill. Some of them are known for hitting a long ball. How accurate are precise they are in putting will be seen tomorrow and day after.

The renowned starts will play a four-ball tomorrow. Each cricket star will be clubbed with three other celebrities from the business world. The system will be stableford.

On Sunday, cricket stars will have another round on a different pattern.

Many stars, who have retired from competitive cricket, play a round of golf quite regularly. “We find golf as absorbing as cricket”, said foreign participants, adding: “It gives all the more thrill because it is played against one self”.

The organisers had originally said that the venue for the competition would be DLF. Now it is being played at the Classic Golf Resort. The reason for the change of the venue has not been intimated.

Course for tennis coaches
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, Aug 6 — An International Tennis Federation level course for the coaches will be conducted at Chandigarh by the Chandigarh Lawn Tennis Association , according to Mr Jai Singh Gill, secretary of the association.The course will be organised for six days from September 18.

The course will be conducted by two experienced and qualified national coaches and the participants who would pass the same would be awarded the ‘AITA coaching proficiency certificate’. The course intends to upgrade the standard of coaching in India which is becoming a tennis power in the world.

In this course professional coaches as well the distinguished players can join as prescribed by the All India Tennis Association. Moreover as per the AITA decision, only those coaches who have the proficiency certificate would be eligible to become the coaches of various affiliated units.

Those interested may contact the CLTA office and last date for receipt of applications is September 12.

39 invited for eves coaching camp

MUMBAI, Aug 6 (PTI) — Thirty-nine women footballers have been invited to attend national coaching camp at Kudra (Bihar) from August 14 to 30.

The best 20 players in the first camp would then be selected to attend another camp at Patiala next month, the Women’s Football Federation of India (WFFI) said in a release here yesterday.

The following are the names of players for the Kudra camp:

Goalkeepers: Renubala Devi (Mani.), Kanchan Pandev (Bihar), Raziya (Nagaland), S. Mohanti (Ori.) and Kiran (Mah.).

Backs: Poonam Singh (Ori.), Kiran (Bih.), Prabhawati Devi, Vijay Devi and Shandhva Rani (all from Manipur), Hemlata Thakur (Mum.), Salu Gupta (J and K), Mohnar Begum (Ori.), P. Bindu (Ker.), Babita Rathi (Har.), Yasmin (UP).

Mid-fielders: Wazda, Priyanka, Maushmi (all from Bihar), Amita Devi, Vijyanti Devi (both Manipur), Gurudeep (Pnj.), Rajni Sharma (J and K), M Rajani (Ker.), Pinki Gupta (UP).

Forwards: Shakti Devi, Nalvarmai and Memmi (all from Nagaland), Shashi, Rajni, Phutal and Menka (all from Bihar), Ammu Devi (Mani.), Neelakshi (Mah.), Paramjeet Kaur (Pnj.), Kalpana Singh (Raj.), Reshma (Ori.), Pallavi and Lennien (both from Mumbai).

Former Olympian S. Hakkim of Mumbai will be the director, D. Brij Baloria of J and K will be the chief coach. Jeewan Singh of Manipur and Anita Sarkar of West Bengal are the two assistant coaches.

Randev XI beat Sports Club

AMRITSAR, Aug 6 (FOSR) — Fine all-round performance by Tajinder Pal and Ravneet Ricky saw Randev XI beat Sports Club by 103 runs in the semifinal of District League cum Knock Out Championship organised by the Amritsar Games Association (AGA) at Gandhi Ground here today.

Randev XI won the toss and elected to bat, Tajinder Pal and Manbeer Singh opened the innings but Manbeer was soon out for 12. Then Ravneet Ricky and Tajinder Pal got together and put a 120-run partnership before Tajinder Pal finally get out for 57. Ravneet Ricky remained not out on 70 as Randev XI scored 227 runs for four wickets in 35 overs. Ravneet Ricky’s knock included 11 fours and a six.

Brief Scores: Randev XI: 227 for 4 (Ravneet Ricky 70, Tajinder Pal 57, Manmohan Singh 2 for 39, Shami Kapoor 2 for 43).

Sports Club: 124 all out (Rajinder Kumar 36; Tajinder Pal 3 for 25, Sarandeep 2 for 20, Harish 2 for 21, Gagandeep 2 for 21).

Jalandhar b’minton

JALANDHAR, Aug 6 (FOSR) — The Jalandhar District Badminton Championships will be held from August 13 to 17 at Raizada Hans Raj Stadium, here for under-10, 13, 16 and 19 boys and girls; senior and veterans (both men and women) and in the mixed doubles categories.

According to Mr Rajinder Singh Kalsi, secretary of the association, the under-10 event for boys and girls has been introduced by the Badminton Association of India from this year.

Entries close with Ustad Chaman Lal on August 11, 1999. Mr Som Parkash, Deputy Commissioner, Jalandhar, shall give away prizes to the winners.