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Friday, November 2, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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PAAA
controversy may jeopardise Games
Hectic
activity to prepare shooting range on time |
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Pitch report annoys SA
coach England’s tour to India on
schedule |
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Dinesh Mongia (178 n.o.) flays Himachal
attack
Organisers worried about
accommodation Sandhu to coach U-19
team Arjun, Simmer enter
finals Haryana bundled
out for 65
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PAAA controversy may jeopardise
Games Chandigarh, November 1 The whole unfortunate episode relates to the administration of the track and field sport in the state which surfaced when the last general house meeting of the association was held at Jalandhar in January this year. Mr Umrao Singh, president of the association, was gheraoed by certain athletes, mostly from Punjab Police, for several hours and the meeting was disrupted. The controversy over change of the stewardship of the Punjab Amateur Athletic Association notwithstanding, the state has been participating in most of the events conducted by the Amateur Athletic Federation of India which is currently headed by Mr Suresh Kalmadi, who also happens to be the President of the Indian Olympic Association, the apex body of sports in the country. The AAFI has been supporting the PAAA. Though both Mr Umrao Singh and Mr Isher Singh Deol claim that majority of the district units are with them in the PAAA, the athletes dispute their contention maintaining that a vast majority of track and field players support a change in the stewardship of the sport in the state. The unfortunate events witnessed on the opening day of the aborted state athletic meet at Guru Ram Dass Academy in Ludhiana reflects the sad state of affairs afflicting the sports administration in Punjab, once the sports arm of the country. The PAAA has informed the AAFI about the events that took place on the opening day of the state meet. The AAFI is expected to take a decision as the athletes led by a former Indian thrower, Amandeep Kaur, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, have also threatened to disrupt the track and field events of the National Games. The PAAA office-bearers maintain that the actual game is different. The whole exercise is to gain control of the PAAA in an endeavour to topple the AAFI leadership in the run to capture the IOA. They name an influential Haryana family supported by a section of the ruling party of the state for the whole trouble in Punjab athletics. The athletes, however, deny these charges maintaining that the present team of the PAAA had been in office for numerous years doing nothing for the promotion of the sport. If the sport was surviving , it was because of some athletes employed by agencies like Punjab Police. The PAAA had done nothing while grooming, training and even employing was done by certain organisations who have little or no representation in the PAAA. Whatever be the reasons, the timing of this controversy may not be to the liking of the Organising Committee of the National Games. The Swimming Federation of India has already fired a salvo threatening to pull out in case the heated pool was not provided for the swimming and water polo events. Now the AAFI may also mount pressure on the OCNG to put down the revolt in the PAAA. The OCNG may not like to get involved or burn its fingers in the fight for the control of the sport in the state. All it wants is that the Games should be held smoothly. The PAAA leadership may not accept any arbitration by the POA in the matter. Only thing acceptable would be the taking over of the administrative control of the sport in the state temporarily to ensure that the National Games were not harmed. This may not be acceptable to athletes up in arm against the PAAA. The PAAA office-bearers maintain that if the revolting athletes had so much support then why all the athletes were attending the coaching camps for the National Games at Ludhiana and Jalandhar. At present 120 athletes were attending these camps. The need is to defuse this crisis for the Games as well as in the interest of sports in general and Punjab in particular. |
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Randhawa advocates change of
guard New Delhi, November 1 Randhawa requested Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal and Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa to intervene and hold elections to the PAAA. He suggested that either Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal or Mr M S Bhullar should be made the president of the PAAA. Randhawa, a finalist in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics in
Randhawa said “Umrao Singh has done a yeoman service to Indian athletics in general and Punjab sports in particular, but since he is not keeping good health, he should step down”. Randhawa also asked the “old associates of Mr Umrao Singh, who have outlived their utility” to pave way for new faces who can contribute more for the growth of athletics in the State. He suggested to the Punjab Olympic Association to place on record “its deep sense of gratitude to Umrao Singh” for his contribution to Punjab sports. Randhawa said whoever occupies the top slot in the PAAA should have enough time to devote to athletics, and he should also provide more facilities and proper recognition to the achievements of the athletes. Randhawa expressed “deep concern” at the lacklustre attitude of the Punjab Sports Department, “which is not providing proper facilities to athletes to train and participate in major meets”. He recalled that during the Sixties Punjab athletes could do extremely well because of the personal interest taken by then Border Security Force director-general Ashwani Kumar in the promotion of sports. Randhawa attributed “whatever Punjab athletes are today” to the efforts of Mr Mehal Singh Bhullar, additional director general of Punjab Police, who has gone out his way to provide employment to promising sportspersons. Randhwa termed the threat by a few “immature and misguided athletes” to boycott the forthcoming National Games in Punjab as “uncalled for”. He advised the Punjab athletes to “refrain from sports politics, as whatever is going on in Punjab is a political game”. |
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Hectic activity to prepare shooting range on
time Chandigarh, November 1 A visit to the range today saw the hectic activity going on with the Secretary-General of the Punjab Rifle Association, Mr K.S. Sidhu, who made efforts during the past two years to have a range in this region have borne fruit, interacting with Markfed engineering personnel, who are entrusted with the civil works of this new range. Mr Sidhu was accompanied by renowned rifle coach Jagir Singh Dhillon, Mr M.S. Bhogal, Vice-President, PRA, and renowned shooter Ajit Chhabra, among others. The range will have facilities for 25 metre pistol events (centre fire, sports), 50 metre rifle (prone, 3 position), indoor 10 metre air weapons with 24 base stations (both rife and pistol) according to the specifications of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF). The range will also have the facility for trap and skeet events. Manavjit Singh, Zorawar Singh, Birinder Sodhi, Hari Sandhu, all from Punjab had to practice in Delhi due to absence of any range for trap and skeet events in the region. Sidhu, a former shooter himself said the imported trap event equipment from Germany, which was lying unused at Patiala for the past many years, had been serviced and checked by the experts at Delhi and was expected to reach SAS Nagar in a few days. Electronic scoreboard pulleys required for 10 metre air rifle events will reach tomorrow from Indore. On the security concerns voiced experts for the trap and skeet events, Mr Sidhu said as the range was in north-east direction, so there was no threat to
adjoining habitations since the pallets and birds would fall in the choe at the back of the range. Moreover, he said the shooters will shoot at a height of 15, so there was no question of anyone hitting the boundary wall which is 5 ft high. In the skeet events, both, high and low house have been constructed according to international rules. He said seven base station, each at an equidistance of 19.2 metres from the centre station, were being put up. The objection regarding the spectator gallery have been removed as the distance has been increased to 8 ft from 6 ft. The administrative block consists of a strong room for ammunition and other valuables storage a conference-cum-media room, changing rooms and toilets. On Punjab’s chances he said they expect between 10 to 15 medals in different events. The main medal hopes are, Manavjit, Zorawar, Hari Sandhu, Birinder Sodhi (trap and skeet); Abhinav Bindra, Jaspreet Dhaliwal, Sukhmanpreet in men air rifle; Sabeeha Dhillon, Jasmine Brar in women air rifle and pistol women shooters from Badal. The 37th Punjab State Shooting Championship will be held from November 9 to 11 at the above venue and a camp will follow the meet. It will conclude at National Games events. |
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Pitch report annoys SA coach Bloemfontein, November 1 Concerned that the pitch, which has a reputation of being batsmen-friendly, may help the Indians who have a strong batting line-up as well as two of the world’s best spinners in Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh, Ford called upon the groundsmen to use their ‘expert knowledge’ to prepare the pitch which suited the tourists so well. Stating that there was no reason for South Africa to host their opponents on sporting tracks when other countries prepared pitches according to their choice in their home series, Ford said he would have preferred to start their Test campaign on a lively pitch such as the one at Kingsmead in Durban. But the United Cricket Board of South Africa decided to have the first Test in Bloemfontein. “The International Cricket Council regulations do not allow us to prescribe to groundsman how they should prepare their pitches. Since we returned to international cricket, we have followed that regulation to the letter, but the same cannot be said for other countries. They make sure their pitches are prepared to benefit the home team,” he said. “Has South Africa ever played on a pace-friendly strip in India?” Ford asked. “The UCB wants every Test centre to have an equal chance of hosting a Test. That is fine, but if we want to become the top Test playing nation in the world, everybody — the groundsmen, the media and the administrators — will have do their bit. “Regarding the groundsmen, they should use their expert knowledge to prepare surfaces that do not suit the Indians so well,” Ford said. Ford said he was convinced Goodyear Park groundsman Nico Pretorius would do everything in his power to prepare a pitch with pace and bounce, but admitted his team should be able to beat any opposition on any track. “In the end, we should be able to beat any team on any surface and under any circumstances. We have succeeded in doing that remarkably well over the past few seasons. South Africa is the country with the best away record in the world, so we have proved that we are not intimidated by tame pitches”. Ford was not bothered by criticisms that the South African bowling attack lacks variety that the Indian team has. While the Indians have a right-arm seamer (Javagal Srinath), two left-arm fast bowlers (Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan), a leg-spinner (Anil Kumble) and an off-spinner (Harbhajan Singh), South Africa have a host of right-arm seamers and pace bowlers and a solitary left-arm spinner. “People have been complaining for years about the lack of variation in the South African attack. But these same players keep on performing, thereby showing that the criticism is unfounded,” Ford said. “This apparent shortcoming is no cause for concern. India have a well balanced attack, but in the end it depends on the chosen bowlers to do their job.”
PTI |
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England’s tour to India on schedule
Kolkata, November 1 The ECB team had a three-hour meeting with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) officials. Speaking to newspersons here tonight, BCCI President Jagmohan Dalmiya said. There was never any doubt about the tour. We discussed the security arrangement and they were satisfied. "The ECB will announce a squad at 14 in a day or two and the final squad will definitely be with us by November 5," he added. Dalmiya said the tour would go on as scheduled barring a couple of minor changes in the itinerary. “The date of one or two matches may be changed by a couple of days. The itinerary has been agreed upon by both the boards a long time back.” The BCCI chief said the ECB delegation was told that the tour had been cleared by the Government from all angles and the team had nothing to worry on the security front. “In India, security is provided by the Government unlike in some other countries where private security arrangements are made. I told them that the Government clearance was the last word as far as BCCI is concerned,” he said. Asked whether the ECB had asked for any specific arrangement during the tour, Dalmiya said “no such request was made during the meeting.”
UNI, PTI |
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Dinesh Mongia (178 n.o.) flays Himachal
attack SAS Nagar, November 1 Mongia, not long ago a part of the Indian one-day squad, gave an authoritative batting display, and along with skipper and former international Vikram Rathore, who also notched up a flawless century, put Punjab in a strong position. By the time stumps were drawn for the day the hosts were sitting pretty on 330 for the loss of four wickets. Undoubtedly, Rathore and Mongia were in their element for the most part of the day and played superbly. But they were helped in the run feast to a large extent by an innocuous Himachal bowling attack, which virtually posed no threat. Barring debutant left-arm pacer Ashok Thakur, who claimed two wickets including that of Yuvraj Singh, none of the bowlers looked like getting wickets. In the morning Himachal found themselves in a comfortable situation as Thakur combined with fellow medium pacer Rahul Panta at the start of the day’s play to reduce the hosts to 18 for three. But the joy proved short-lived as Mongia, who was more authoritative, exposed the rival bowling attack. The left-hander revealed a rich repertoir of strokes. Stroking the ball elegantly on the either way of the wicket the two subjected the rivals to a virtual leather hunt. Mongia and Rathore made merry adding 269 runs for the fourth-wicket stand in 273 minutes before their progress was put to an end by part-time left-arm bowler Raja Ali, who induced an edge off Rathore’s blade to first slip. This was Rathore’s 20th century in 83rd match.
SCOREBOARD Punjab (1st innings): Ravneet Ricky c Raja Ali b Ashok Thakur 5, Munish c Ravi Kant b Panta 4, Rathore c Varinder b Ali 126, Yuvraj b Thakur 0, Mongia batting 178, Dharmanmi batting 9. Extras: ( nb 3, lb 1, b 4): 08. Total: (for 4 wickets in 90 overs): 330. Fall of wickets: 1-8, 2-10, 3-18, 4-287. Bowling: Ashok Thakur 15-2-48-2, Rahul Panta 16-2-67-1, Sandeep Sharma 12-0-43-0, Sangram Singh 1-0-1-0, Vishal Bhatia 21-2-72-0, Nischal Gaur 5-0-26-0, Raja Ali 10-0-30-1, Paras Dogra 3-1-14-0, Varinder Sharma 7-0-24-0. ROHTAK: Unbeaten centuries
by Ishan Ganda (106) and Shafiq Khan (114), and their unbroken fourth-wicket partnership of 169 runs put Haryana in a comfortable position against Jammu and Kashmir on the opening day of the North Zone Ranji League match at Maharaja Aggarsain Stadium here today. At draw of stumps Haryana were 286 for three. Batting first, Haryana had a disastrous start, losing opener Padamjit Sherawat for duck. He was caught by Ranjit Bali off Surinder Singh Bagal. However, his opening partner and debutant Chetan Sharma managed to score 41 before falling before wicket to Surinder Singh Bagal. Ishan and Parinder added 23 runs when Jagtar Singh struck to dismiss skipper Parinder for five. Haryana (Ist innings): Padamjit Sehrawat C. Ranjit Bali b Surinder Bagal 0, Chetan Sharma lbw Surinder Bagal 41, Ishan Ganda not out 106, Parinder Sharma c Kanwaljit b Jagtar Singh 5, Shafiq Khan not out 114. Extras (b-5, lb-2, w-2, nb-11) 20 Total
(3 wickets in 90 overs): 286 Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-94, 3-117 Bowling: Surinder Singh Bagal 21-3-73-2, Vijay Sharma 11-3—25-0, Raju Sharma 3-0-23-0, Jagtar Singh 27-7-63-1, Sameer Khajuria 8-0-48-0, Ashwani Gupta 17-4-36-0, Dhruv Mahajan 3-0-11-0.
OSR |
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Irina tightens grip on
trophy Chandigarh, November 1 After the third round, Irina has tightened her grip on the Quark Trophy. With the winner almost decided, the fight for the second spot will be between Shruti Khanna and Parneeta Garewal who have just a three-stroke margin. In the silver division yet another young girl Mina Johl brought in a commendable card of 86, nett 7 under her handicap. She got this card despite going out of bounds on the 18th hole. In the bronze division Gaitri M.M. Singh narrowed down the margin between herself and the leader Harsharan Kaur to just two strokes. The scores (after round three) Quark Overall Championship: Irina Brar 215, Shruti Khanna 226, Parneeta Garewal 229. Quark Silver Salver (Nett 0-12): Mayali Talwar 213, Irina Brar 215. Quark Challenge Bowl (13-24):
Gross — Manavi Malwasiya 256, Taruna Bhatnagar 264, Kanika Minocha 264. Nett — Mina Johl 206, Kanika Minocha 207. Quark Bronze Plate (25-36): Gross — Harsharan Kaur 310, Gaitri M.M. Singh 312. Nett — Darshi Narang 220, Gaitri M.M. Singh 225. Quark Senior Challenge (above 50): Gross — S. Ratia 260, Harinder Sandhu 278. Nett —Veenu Sandhu 217, Vijay Wadhawan 218. Quark Junior Shield (below 18): Gross — Mayali Talwar 234, Pragya Mishra 241. Nett — Mina Johl 206, Kanika Minocha 207. Quark Subjunior Shield (below 14): Gross — Kanika Minocha 264, Vaishavi Sinha 274. Nett — Kanika Minocha 207, Nitika Jadeja 211. |
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Organisers worried about
accommodation Patiala, November 1 At Patiala, where the maximum number of participants (3440) are expected to come, the organisers have chalked out plans to accommodate officials of NSFs in hotels, sportspersons in hostels of various educational institutions and technical delegates in government guest houses. Inquiries reveal that most of the hotel owners were wary of making advance bookings. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the proprietor of a swanky hotel said: “It has been our past experience that whenever the district administration books hotels, payment is difficult to come by, and if at all it comes, it is at a very late stage and that too after repeated reminders are sent to the officials concerned”. Similar sentiments were expressed by almost all the other hotel owners. The organisers have graded hotels under different categories and it has already been decided that observers of the Indian Olympic Association and Presidents and secretaries of NSFs, whose disciplines are scheduled to be held at Patiala, will be accommodated in grade ‘A’ hotels while other office-bearers will be lodged in grade ‘A-1’ hotels. The office-bearers of the All-India Kabaddi Federation (AIKF), the Gymnastic Federation of India (GFI), the Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWF), the Kho-Kho Federation of India (KKFI), the Indian Amateur Boxing Federation (IABF) and the Archery Association of India (AAI) are expected to be here in full strength for the entire duration of the
games. Officials of the Swimming Federation of India (SFI) will also be lodged in swanky hotels once approval for holding aquatic events at the NIS comes through. However, sources disclosed that as the dates of the Games draw closer, the hoteliers, though apprehensive of renting out rooms for the duration of the games, will be left with little option except to relent, fearing the wrath of the district administration. Plans have been chalked out to accommodate sportsmen in hostels of State College of Education, Government Physical College of Education and Punjabi University, while sportswomen will be lodged in hostels of Government Women College, Government Women’s Polytechnic and Punjabi University. The arrangements to accommodate technical delegates have been made at the guest houses of NIS, PSEB, PWD and Public Health. |
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Sandhu to coach U-19 team Bangalore, November 1 The decision was taken at a BCCI meeting held in Kolkata on Tuesday last, National Cricket Academy Director and Karnataka State Cricket Association secretary Brijesh Patel told UNI here today. Balwinder Singh Sandhu, who was part of the World Cup winning Indian team in 1983, is currently the chief coach at the National Cricket Academy here. Sandhu comes in place of Roger Binny. Patel said at the meeting it was also decided to send National Talent Resource Development Officers Committee Chairman Dilip Vengsarkar to New Zealand as a consultant. He said that it had been decided to have a camp in the city from December 8.
UNI |
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Arjun, Simmer enter
finals Amritsar, November 1 Neha Singh and Simmer, both of Chandigarh entered the final. In the semifinals of the girls under-16 category Simmer beat Kamalpreet 3-6, 6-1, 6-3. Her sister Neha Singh beat Isha Toor, also of Chandigarh 6-3, 7-5. Both the sisters will clash against each other in the final. Results: (Boys: U-16): Arjun Talwar b Divesh Shukla 7-5, 6-2; Rahul Verma b Vijit Sehgal 6-2, 6-3. U-14: Vijit Sehgal b Paras Thakur 4-6, 6-1, 6-0, Nitish Raj b Vipal Sabrawal 6-4, 1-6, 6-2. Girls: U-14: Simmer b Sanjana Kapoor 6-4, 7-5; Kamalpreet Bhullar b Vishaka Sheron 6-4, 6-4. U-16: Neha Singh b Isha Toor 6-3, 7-5, Simmer b Kamalpreet Bhullar 2-6, 6-1, 6-3. |
Haryana bundled
out for 65 Patiala, November 1 |
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DRAVID TO PLAY IN
TEST SERIES WILLIAMS TO OPEN MODERN TENNIS ‘BORING’ TOUR CALLED OFF KIWIS HARD TO BEAT |
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