CIUDAD DEL ESTE : Brazil's supporters cheer their team prior to an America's Cup semifinal soccer game against Mexico in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, on Wednesday — AP/PTI

Brazilians celebrate victory RIO DE JANERIO, July 15 — Brazilians celebrated their 2-0 semifinal victory over Mexico last night with the feeling the Copa America was already theirs for the taking. With each goal, cheers erupted out of buildings and on to streets that were mostly deserted thanks to colder than usual weather.

Shakti, Anil, Pramod hog limelight
CHENNAI, July 15 — Services sprinter Anil Kumar and and Pramod Kumar Tiwari set new national records in men’s 100 metres and hammer throw to hog the limelight in the fourth and final leg of the AAFI international circuit meet here today.

4 Indian shuttlers lose; Parul wins
NEW DELHI, July 15 — Parul Priyadarshini saved the blushes for India as she put up a strong show beating Singapore’s Melissa Claire in straight sets while four others crashed out on a highly forgettable day for India in the Asian Junior Badminton Championships in Yangoon, Myanmar today.

Lankan cricketers’ move backfires
COLOMBO, July 15 — A move by some senior Sri Lankan cricketers to obtain signatures from their team-mates in order to nullify allegations made by former cricket coach Bruce Yardley about ill-treatment of players, has backfired, media reports here said.

Football team leaves for Bangkok
CALCUTTA, July 15 — The 20-member Indian football team, led by Bengal striker Dipendu Biswas, left for Bangkok today morning for their pre-Olympic Asia Group-9 match against Thailand.

New move hits Kasparov
NEW YORK, July 15 — World chess champion Garry Kasparov has been hit by a novel move that has quickly created a double-edged, dynamic position in the game he started last month against all comers on the internet.

Prominent players for eves Fed Cup
CHENNAI, July 15 — Prominent players, including the members of the silver medal winning Indian squad at the Bangkok Asian Games, will be seen in action in the sixth Women’s Federation Cup Hockey Tournament to be held in the temple town of Tirupati from July 19 to 26.

Indian captain to be named on July 28
MUMBAI, July 15 — The captain of the Indian cricket team for the triangular one-day series to be held in Sri Lanka from August 22 to 31 between India, Australia and Sri Lanka will be chosen on July 28 at Nagpur.

• Indian Oil tennis
  

Brazil, Uruguay in title clash

CIUDAD DEL ESTE (Paraguay), July 15 (AFP) — Defending champions Brazil coasted into Sunday’s Copa America final with Uruguay, beating central American guests Mexico 2-0 in a semifinal here last night.

First half goals from Amoroso and Rivaldo proved enough for the five-times Copa winners and favourites in a match they territorially dominated.

Now only an inexperienced and transitional Uruguay can prevent Brazil from lifting the oldest surviving prize in international football.

Mexico, who lost 2-1 to Brazil in a group match, were completely outplayed in their second showdown with Brazil, who must now be hot favourites to win their first tournament under the stewardship of new coach Wanderley Luxemburgo.

Brazil were quickly into their stride and Mexican goalie Jorge Campos had to make a flying save from Emerson after a seven-man move. From the resulting corner defender Antonio Carlos saw his header headed off the line.

Mexico’s main threat in the early stages came from Cuauhtemoc Blanco, restored to the line-up after serving a ban. Twice he had the Brazilian defence on the backfoot with some superb dribbling skills.

But after 14 minutes Campos came to the rescue again for the underdogs with another good save from Ze Roberto. And just a minute later Rivaldo produced the beat stop yet.

Then Ronaldo screwed a shot wide after being set up by Antonio Carlos and Amoroso. The striker was winning his 50th cap for his country — and at 22 he is the youngest Brazilian player ever to reach that milestone.

But then Mexico launched a raid and a superb run and shot from Blanco forced a save from Brazil keeper Dida.

But Brazil were stretching Mexico and it was no surprise when the defending champions went ahead after 25 minutes.

Emerson found Ze Roberto whose cross was headed out to Rivaldo whose header came back off the bar. But Amoroso reacted instantly to put the rebound into the net.

It meant that the man who recently left Udinese to join Serie A rivals Parma joined his strike partner Ronaldo as top scorer in the Copa with four goals each.

Then superb play by Brazil skipper Cafu set up Ronaldo whose shot wrongfooted Campos but was deflected wide by the trailing leg of a Mexican defender.

Then defender Rafael Marquez had Mexico’s best chance yet but headed wide at the near-post from a Blanco corner with not a defender in sight.

Three minutes before the interval Brazil took 2-0 lead. Ronaldo held the ball up but was wrestled to the ground but — rather than wait for the freekick — Rivaldo raced in to crash the loose ball past Campos from the edge of the box.

After the break Brazil dominated possession.

But the first real fright for Mexico came when Cafu almost caught Campos in possession after the extrovert goalkeeper had dribbled out of the box.

After a while a bit of complacency began to set in for Brazil and the whole defence backed off allowing Mexico’s Ramon Ramirez to fire inches wide. Still the favourites were dominating possession with Emerson, Rivaldo and Ze Roberto always busy in midfield.

Then a superb move saw Ronaldo set up Roberto Carlos who drove a cross across the face of the goal with Rivaldo just failing to get the vital touch. Mexico’s Miguel Zepeda missed the target narrowly from the edge of the box but even when they were shooting Dida was never really troubled.

Another Brazilian raid saw Amoroso set up Ze Roberto but a third goal was proving elusive for the dominant Brazilians and he missed the target.

With 15 minutes remaining Luxemburgo, aware that Ronaldo had received a yellow card already in the tournament and was risking a suspension, withdrew his striker bringing on his namesake Ronaldo Gaucho — also known as Ronaldinho.

Luxemburgo also gave Flavio Conceicao and Amoroso an early bath, bringing on youngsters Beto and Alex.

Brazil seemed to take their foot off the pedal, and Luis Hernandez almost set up Daniel Osorno with Dida just managing to smother the ball in the goalmouth.

Then Blanco had time and space to shoot but delayed allowing Brazil to scramble the ball away.

But Brazil’s superiority could not be disputed and the side ranked by FIFA as the best in the world duly booked their place in Sunday’s final in Asuncion.

As the game drifted into injury time a delightful chip from Ronaldinho set up Barcelona midfielder Rivaldo who lobbed Campos successfully but the referee from Ecuador Byron Moreno ruled out the goal out — correctly — for offside.

Brazilians celebrate victory

RIO DE JANERIO, July 15 (AP) — Brazilians celebrated their 2-0 semifinal victory over Mexico last night with the feeling the Copa America was already theirs for the taking.

With each goal, cheers erupted out of buildings and on to streets that were mostly deserted thanks to colder than usual weather.

Then when the final whistle blew, the ecstatic cheer was like the whistle on a tea kettle that had been building to a boil for over 90 minutes. Brazil now face unheralded Uruguay in Sunday’s final

“Mexico was the hard part. After them Uruguay is going to be easy,” said Miriam Cohen, 26, who watched the game at a street corner bar in the upscale Ipanema district.

Television commentators tried hard to keep a lid on their high spirits, remarking that Uruguay might not be the team it once was, but it still retained a formidable soccer tradition and had certainly risen to the occasion in the Copa America.

Others worried about holes in Brazil’s defence, especially in the aerial game, but most people were swept up in the heady emotion of being one step away from taking the Cup.

Ronaldo’s lacklustre performance in last night’s game gave rise to some gripes. Many here seemed to agree with the stadium crowd that spent a good part of the game cheering for Brazilian soccer’s latest revelation, Ronaldinho Gaucho, to enter the game.

“They have to put the new Ronaldo in, he’s the one who has something to prove,” taxi driver Edinaldo Silva Soares said.

But mostly the spirit was one of unabashed confidence.

“We’re definitely going to beat Uruguay, 1-0 I’d say,” predicted 24-year-old Max Duarte.

Shakti, Anil, Pramod hog limelight

CHENNAI, July 15 (PTI) — Services sprinter Anil Kumar and and Pramod Kumar Tiwari set new national records in men’s 100 metres and hammer throw to hog the limelight in the fourth and final leg of the AAFI international circuit meet here today.

Anil Kumar scorched the tracks to clock a superb 10.33 seconds in coming second behind Sri Lankan star Chintaka de Soyza, who made it four-in-a-row by winning in 10.29 secs.

In a dramatic race which saw the starter’s gun fail eight times, the Bangalore-based Anil Kumar erased the previous national mark of 10.43 seconds set by Rajeev Balakrishnan at the same Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium track last year.

Pramod Tiwari hurled the hammer to 67.43 metres in his very first try to improve upon his own record of 67.26 metres set in the 1997 South Asian meet held in New Delhi.

Thrower Shakti Singh clinched his fourth golden double in a row by claiming both the men’s shot put and discus events. Pramod Tiwari along with woman discus thrower Neelam J. Singh stamped their authority by completing golden sweeps.

Shakti Singh was adjudged best athlete of the circuit meets for his effort.

Among women, Saraswati Dey proved she was the fastest in the country by sprinting away to her fourth straight 100 m gold. It was also a grand double for former Asian junior 800 m champion K.M. Beenamol, who won the 400-800 double.

Anil Kumar, who has set his eyes on the SAF Games scheduled in Kathmandu this September, also claimed the 200 m title when the Madras Engineering Group (MEG) havildar won the event clocking 21.08 secs.

Anil Kumar who had won the 200 m in Bangalore two days ago by clocking the fastest electronic-timed effort by an Indian (21.06 secs) once again put up a superb effort, taking full advantage of the fast track.

In the 100 m, Anil Kumar said he decided on a cautious start due to the confusion over the gun failure and felt but for that he could have beaten the Sri Lankan.

Railwayman Pramod Tiwari touched his best in his very first attempt and then produced a second best effort of 66.12 metres after two fouls. Istag Ahamad of Petroleum Sports Control Board came second (66.29 m) and Virender Punia finished third (64.87).

USA meet Australia in Davis Cup today

BOSTON, July 15 (Reuters) — To play Pete Sampras in singles or not play him that is the big question ahead of today’s draw for this weekend’s historic Davis Cup quarterfinal between the USA and Australia.

Sampras, a late addition to the team, says he has signed up for doubles duty only, loathe to steal the thunder of the players who saved the US team from defeat against Britain in the first round.

The Australians seem convinced that the Wimbledon champion will loom large in tomorrow’s opening matches in the centennial celebration at Longwood Cricket Club.

Australian captain John Newcombe set the tone for the visitors’ slant on the Sampras factor.

“I would be very surprised if he didn’t,” Newcombe said this week. “Why would they have Pete sitting on the bench? I’m not trying to force him to play. I hope he stays on the bench for three days.”

Patrick Rafter, poised to claim the world No 1 ranking from Sampras a week after the Davis Cup matches, said: “I think we are thinking that he (Sampras) still might play. I don’t think he’s come all this way to sit on the sideline and watch.”

Sampras originally ruled himself out of the Davis Cup, saying he preferred to focus on finishing another year as No 1. But seeing Todd Martin and Jim Courier, whose stirring five-set win over Greg Rusedski in the fifth match clinched the first-round tie in Birmingham, moved Sampras to rejoin the team.

“To be honest, what Jim and Todd did in England was an inspiration to myself,” Sampras said. “If Todd or Jim got hurt and they couldn’t play, then I would play. But unless that happened, I don’t think it’s right. I think those guys deserve to play singles and it’s their show.”

Besides the singles question, there is the doubles question. If Sampras plays doubles, it is not clear who he would be teamed with, having played doubles with both Martin and Courier in the past but not with the fourth member of the US team — doubles specialist Alex O’Brien.

PAU (FRANCE): France, weakened by an injury to Jerome Golmard, are seeking World Cup inspiration in their Davis Cup quarterfinal against Brazil.

Youngster Sebastien Grosjean is likely to stand in for Golmard, ranked 24 in the world, in the singles and he has sported a “les bleus” shirt during practice this week.

Brazilian No 1 Gustavo Kuerten played down any idea of revenge for Brazil’s World Cup final defeat by France in Paris.

“I’m sure people will talk about it,” he said. “But we already have enough things to think about without adding another.”

Grosjean and veteran Cedric Pioline are expected to square up to clay court specialists Fernando Meligeni, a French Open semifinalist this year, and former Roland Garros champion Kuerten in the opening singles at the Pau sports hall on Friday.

France have decided it is to their advantage to play on a fast indoor surface, rather than clay, despite the tie being played in mid-summer.

The hall, home to French basketball champions Pau-Orthez, should be packed and provide the French team with an atmosphere they hope will unsettle the Brazilians, whose weak point is the doubles on Saturday.

Kuerten and Jaime Oncins lost their doubles in the first round tie against Spain in Lerida in April. Kuerten beat Alex Corretja and Carlos Moya in the tie’s singles matches.

MOSCOW: Injury-hit Russia have gambled by choosing to tackle Davis Cup giant-killers Slovakia on clay in their world group quarterfinal on Friday.

Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Marat Safin were both defeated by Dominik Hrbaty at the French Open in May. But the Russians will play Karol Kucera, ranked 13 in the world, and 19th-ranked Hrbaty on clay at the Olympic sports complex.

“If Kafelnikov can play on any surface, the clay is better suited for Safin,” said team captain Shamil Tarpishchev.

“I think our chances are much better if we play on clay rather than on a faster surface.”

Russia, who reached the Davis Cup final in 1994 and 1995, defeated Boris Becker’s Germany 3-2 in the first round with Kafelnikov winning both his singles in Frankurt.

But injury and loss of form have hit team members and Russia will have to be at the top of their game to beat Slovakia, surprise 3-2 winners over defending champions Sweden in April, and reach the semifinals for the first time in four years.

Safin, ranked 37th, has not played since his loss to Hrbaty because of a serious elbow injury. He had won just three matches out of nine on clay before the French Open, where he reached the last 16.

Kafelnikov is still nursing a nagging hamstring pull which forced him to quit his third round match at Wimbledon against Cedric Pioline of France.

Ranked four in the world, Kafelnikov has had a strange year, winning the Australian Open before losing his first match in six successive tournaments. World No 1 in May, he has lost more matches on clay this year than he has won.

4 Indian shuttlers lose; Parul wins

NEW DELHI, July 15 (PTI) — Parul Priyadarshini saved the blushes for India as she put up a strong show beating Singapore’s Melissa Claire in straight sets while four others crashed out on a highly forgettable day for India in the Asian Junior Badminton Championships in Yangoon, Myanmar today.

The fleet-footed Parul thrashed Melissa 11-4, 11-2 to storm into the third round (pre-quarterfinals) of girls’ singles event.

In the round of last 16, Parul will face Chinese Taipei’s Chiu Yi Ju, who beat Wong Pei Tty (Malaysia) 11-5, 5-11, 11-3.

Four Indian girl’s however, tumbled out of the event after being humbled by their opponents in straight sets.

India’s top-ranked u-16 Mugdha Bhagwat lost 6-11, 1-11 to Joo Hyun Hee of South Korea while promising Trupti Murgunde went down to Indonesia’s Enny Entangga 8-11, 5-11.

A. Vahini, who got a walkover in the first round yesterday was overwhelmed 1-11, 0-11 by Korean Hwang Yoo Mee.

Pooja Patil provided some resistance before going down 10-13, 2-11 to another South Korean Kim Hee Jung.

In the boys’ doubles event, the pair of Abhishek Bakshi and Pallav Kumar Deka moved into second round without hitting the shuttle.

The Indian pair got a walkover from Iranian duo of Ali and Farhad and now face top-seeded Japanese combination of Kohei and Yuichi in the second round.

In the mixed-doubles event, Indian pair of V. Diju and A. Vahini lost to second seeded Chinese duo of Zheng and Wei 5-15, 1-15. Diju/Vahini were the only Indian pair in the mixed event.

Lankan cricketers’ move backfires

COLOMBO, July 15 (UNI) — A move by some senior Sri Lankan cricketers to obtain signatures from their team-mates in order to nullify allegations made by former cricket coach Bruce Yardley about ill-treatment of players, has backfired, media reports here said.

According to the Daily Mirror, the signatures were to be presented at a media panel discussion scheduled for tonight in which sacked skipper Arjuna Ranatunga would be speaking publicly for the first time after he was removed from captaincy of the team which gave a dismal performance at the World Cup in England. The panel discussion is to be telecast live by a private channel.

The move to enlist the signatures had to be abandoned as several members representing Sri Lanka refused to sign. A few others had not wished to go against the people behind the document, the report said.

Yardley, during a Press interview in Australia last week, charged that Ranatunga and his former deputy Aravinda De Silva had treated members of the team as “servants”. Yardley, a former Australian offspin bowler, was himself sacked as coach of the Lankan team two years ago, he claimed his sacking was the result of his view aired two years ago that Sanath Jayasuriya should replace Ranatunga as captain.

At a subsequent Press conference here on Monday, Jayasuriya declined to comment on Yardley’s remarks saying he (Jayasuriya) also read such news and he was only looking forward to a future.

Meanwhile, counsel for the deposed president of the Board of Cricket Control of Sri Lanka said Sports Minister S.B. Dissanayake’s action in appointing an interim board was illegal and in excess of the powers of the minister.

Challenging the appointment of the interim committee to manage the BCCSL, Mr K.N. Choksy argued before the court of appeal yesterday that the decision of the Sports Minister to appoint an interim body was ex-facie illegal and could not stand. He asked the court to quash the decision.

Football team leaves for Bangkok

CALCUTTA, July 15 (PTI) — The 20-member Indian football team, led by Bengal striker Dipendu Biswas, left for Bangkok today morning for their pre-Olympic Asia Group-9 match against Thailand.

The team, which underwent a 15-day coaching camp at the SAI Sports Complex here, was seen off at the airport by a senior All India Football Federation officials.

Apart from chief coach P.K. Banerjee, the team is being accompanied by project Director, P.P. Lakshman, manager Mohan Raj and the three other coaches, K. Sampat, Shankar Moitra and P. Sridharan.

The Indians will play their away match against Thailand at Bangkok on July 17 and return to the city for the home match to be held at the Salt Lake Stadium on July 24.

Due to the last minute withdrawal of Singapore, Brunei and Laos from the tournament, the Asia Group-9 has been reduced to just two teams — Thailand and India.

If India manage to qualify to the next round, they would be clubbed with Kuwait and either China or Saudi Arabia.

Sachin ‘sleepless’ on eve of Pak tie

MUMBAI, July 15 (PTI) — Master batsman Sachin Tendulkar confessed here yesterday that he spent a sleepless night on the eve of India’s World Cup Super Six clash against Pakistan.

“I have spent sleepless nights on many occasions, like on the night before the recent World Cup India-Pakistan match,” Tendulkar said while participating in a panel discussion ‘beyond cricket’, with Indian cricket board President Raj Singh Dungarpur and former Test star Sanjay Manjrekar.

Explaining how pressure often gets the better of even the best of players, the ace batsman disclosed how he had spent the entire night before the match at Old Trafford on June 8 contemplating how to go about it.

“Ultimately one had to just go out there and deal with the game,” he said adding that under pressure even small things, like positioning of sightscreens, distracts the player’s attention.

Tendulkar’s modesty came to the fore when he said, “I am just a cricketer. My contribution is not even one-tenth of our jawans.”

New move hits Kasparov

NEW YORK, July 15 (Reuters) — World chess champion Garry Kasparov has been hit by a novel move that has quickly created a double-edged, dynamic position in the game he started last month against all comers on the internet.

Computer users playing in the “Kasparov vs. the world’’ game on Microsoft Corporation’s www.msn.com web site voted for an unusual queen move on their 10th turn with the black pieces in a variation of the Sicilian defence.

The move set the stage for a sequence in which both sides will capture material but leave an unpredictable outcome.

“It’s a brand new idea,’’ Russian grandmaster Kasparov said from his summer vacation and chess training camp in Croatia yesterday. “It doesn’t promise me a lot but it puts some pressure on black. It’s a very unusual position, a broken balance.’’

The match moderator, English grandmaster Daniel King, described the contest as “a genius vs a committee.’’ Kasparov (36), is considered the strongest player in the history of the ancient game.

On the 12th move yesterday,Kasparov had black’s king in check with a knight and was poised to capture black’s queenside rook once his opponents moved the king. In exchange, black was likely to capture a second of Kasparov’s pawns and the knight.

Although black’s pawn captures would have restored the material balance, the world team’s king could have been vulnerable because it was stuck in the centre of the board, while Kasparov had castled on his kingside.

Chess players from all over the world have been logging on to Microsoft’s gaming web site, www.zone.com, since June 21 to discuss moves with a team of young experts from the USA, France and Germany, who in turn provide analysis and advise the public on which move to vote for. Each side makes a move every 24 hours according to a schedule that allows for time differences across the globe.

Microsoft said its internal tracking showed the site averaging 250,000 users per day, with an average of 10,000 voting per day on moves.

“Some people are taking it very seriously on the chat sessions I host on the site,’’ King said from his home in London. “It’s a brilliant way of learning, just trying to predict Kasparov’s moves.’’

The rules allow for the world champion, the experts and playing public to use chess computer software programmes in their decision-making. Kasparov played two historic matches against IBM supercomputer “Deep Blue” in 1996 and 1997, winning the first in philadelphia and losing the second in New York.

In this match he has made his moves via electronic mail while travelling in the USA and Europe. Kasparov said he was pleased the world team had selected the unpredictable sequence.

“It makes the game very exciting,’’ said Kasparov, who agreed to the contest as an experiment to test and gauge the popularity of interactive chess on the internet.

Prominent players for eves Fed Cup

CHENNAI, July 15 (PTI) — Prominent players, including the members of the silver medal winning Indian squad at the Bangkok Asian Games, will be seen in action in the sixth Women’s Federation Cup Hockey Tournament to be held in the temple town of Tirupati from July 19 to 26.

Besides four-time cup winners and reigning national champions Indian Railways, seven other teams which qualified from last year’s senior nationals are in the fray in the tournament, being held after a gap of two years.

Andhra Pradesh, by virtue of being the host, would be the ninth team to take part in the current edition to be held on a league-cum-knock out basis, Andhra Pradesh Women’s Hockey Association secretary A Prasanna Kumar Reddy told a press conference here on Tuesday night.

The teams have been drawn into two groups with pool ‘A’ comprising Railways, Punjab, Bihar and Chandigarh and pool ‘B’ Haryana, Mumbai, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.

He said the tournament, which went off the annual schedule after the 1996 edition at Ranchi due to lack of sponsors, among other reasons, was being revived with Nutrine coming forward to bear the entire expenses estimated at Rs 7.5 lakh.

Executive director of Nutrine K Siva Mohan Reddy said the company was associating itself with the women’s hockey as part of its continued efforts to promote sporting talent in the country by chipping in with their bit, apart from the government’s efforts.

Prasanna Kumar Reddy said the Doordarshan authorities had been approached for live telecast of the tournament from the semifinal stage.

The national broadcaster had completed preliminary inspections and was expected to take a final decision soon.

It may be noted that Doordarshan has a tie-up with the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) to telecast senior nationals, Federation Cup and international fixtures.

The league phase comprising 16 matches would be completed by July 23 as directed by the Indian Women’s Hockey Federation and two top teams from each pool would qualify for the semifinals.

Four matches — two in the morning and two in the evening session — have been scheduled for each day, he said. Though no matches had been scheduled for July 19, the inaugural day, if need be, a match might be fixed for the day so as to comply with the federation’s directive to complete the league phase by July 23.

Akhtar in record deal with Notts

ISLAMABAD, July 15 (PTI) — Pakistani speedster Shoaib Akhtar, who touched dizzy heights of popularity during the cricket World Cup in England, has reportedly signed a record deal with English county Nottinghamshire.

Akhtar, dubbed the “Rawalpindi Express” by the British media, has become the highest ever paid Pakistani in county history by signing a one-year contract for around $ 300,000 (US) (approx. Rs 1.29 crore), a media report said today.

Confirming his contract with the Notts, Akhtar told a Pakistani daily over phone from London that he was approached by as many as 11 counties with Lancashire and Nottinghamshire being the frontrunners.

The 23-year-old Akhtar first shot into fame during the Test tour of India and the Asian Test Championship early this year when he rattled batsmen with sheer pace.

Spearheading Pakistan’s attack at the World Cup, Akhtar drew comparison with South African fast bowler Allan Donald.

At the World Cup, Akhtar vowed to become the first bowler in history to break the 100 miles per hour barrier. Though he could not even challenge former Aussie paceman Jeff Thompson’s record of 97 miles, he captured much attention by his ability to bowl consistently fast.

Akhtar, who had stayed back in England after the World Cup, said his contract with Notts would not affect his commitments with the Pakistan team. He apparently has been given the go ahead by Pakistan Cricket Board.

He is expected to return here in a few days to complete his domestic commitments and then travel with the Pakistani team to Australia.

Indian captain to be named on July 28

MUMBAI, July 15 (UNI) — The captain of the Indian cricket team for the triangular one-day series to be held in Sri Lanka from August 22 to 31 between India, Australia and Sri Lanka will be chosen on July 28 at Nagpur.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India, executive secretary Sharad Diwadkar said on July 28 the selection committee would only name the captain. Mr Diwadkar, however, said that the date and the venue of the BCCI working committee meeting had still not been decided.

On the four-nation tourney to be held in Kenya, Mr Diwadkar said the BCCI would take a decision on India’s participation after deliberations in the working committee. South Africa and Zimbabwe other than the hosts have already confirmed participation and only India’s confirmation is awaited. The tourney will be held from September 24 to October 5.

On Gavaskar’s reported statement resigning from the directorship of the National Cricket Academy, he said, “as far as my information goes such an academy has not yet been set up. There is a proposal for such an academy and this will be taken up at the working committee meeting which is likely to be held in the last week of July or the first week of August. Since Gavaskar has expressed that he does not want to be a part of it then the board will not propose his name. As far as the resignation goes, how can a person resign from a post which is not there in the first place, Mr Diwadkar added.

Indian Oil tennis

CHENNAI, July 15 (PTI) — Vinod Sridhar, ranked number six in the country will seek to defend his title in the Indian Oil-Prime Tennis Championship commencing here tomorrow.

A record number of 534 entries had been received and events in men (90 entries), boys under 16, 14 and 12, women (144) and girls under-14 would be conducted.

Powerlifting team

PATIALA (FOSR): Om Parkash of PSEB will lead the Punjab Powerlifting Squad in the men’s section in the National Powerlifting Championships to be held at Bhubhneshwar from July 17 to 19. Narinder Kaur will lead the women’s team.

The teams:

Men: Om Parkash, Rajinder Singh, Gurpal Singh, D.D. Joshi, Harjeet Singh, Sunil Kumar, Jarnail Singh, Surjeet Singh, Vicky, Bhupinder Singh and Gurpreet Singh.

Women: Narinder Kaur, Lovleen Kaur, Rajwinder Kaur, Amrit Kaur, Ramandeep Kaur, Rajwinder Kaur, Varinder Kaur, Mr S.P. Singh and Ms Usha Chadha will be the coach and manager.

Badminton meet

ROPAR, July 15 (TNS) — The District Badminton Championship will be held from July 23 to 25 at the local Services Club, according to Mr Paramjit Singh, press secretary of the Ropar District Badminton Association. Entries close on July 22.