More heartbreak for India

New Delhi, Sep 2: The disappointment continued for Indian boxers at the World Championships with Asian bronze medallist Jitender Kumar being disqualified during his bantam weight (54kg) opening round in Milan, Italy today.

Up against old nemesis and sixth seed Yunusov Anvar of Tajikistan, Jitender was disaqualified after being given the mandatory three warnings for three different offences. The 22-year-old Indian, who created a flutter last year by making the quarterfinals of Beijing Olympics, was first warned for clinching his opponent in the opening minute of the eventful bout.

The second warning came in the next round when he was penalised for “pushing and downing” Anvar. The third one, that led to his disaqualification, was given in the deciding round for a right upper cut. Jitender was trailing 7-17 when the referee disqualified him. “It’s heartbreaking. It’s difficult to keep your composure once you have been warned.” (PTI)

Sehwag wants to play more Tests than T20

Mumbai, Sep 2: The public might be enchanted with the Twenty20 format but swashbuckling Indian opener Virender Sehwag prefers to play Tests and ODIs more than the shortest form of the game that has taken the cricket world by storm. “Personally I would like to play more Tests and ODIs than T20 games which I know have become extremely popular. I would like to play at least eight to 10 Tests in a year,” Sehwag said at the media conference here to announce the list of nominees for this year’s LG-ICC annual awards. Sehwag batted for all three formats even as some past cricketers, including spin legend Shane Warne, have written the epitaph of the 50-over game.

Dhoni, 9 other Indians nominated for ICC awards

Mumbai,
Mumbai, Sep 2 (PTI) India's splendid run in Test and one-day cricket in the past one year was Wednesday amply reflected in the ICC's Annual Awards nominations as captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and nine other cricketers were listed in various categories.

Dhoni was nominated in three categories - ICC Cricketer of the Year, Test Player of the Year and ODI Player of the Year awards- while Gautam Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Sing and Yuvraj Singh were some of the other top players to make the list in different categories.

Gambhir and Harbhajan Singh were the other Indian nominees for the prestigious Cricketer of the Year award.

VVS Laxman joined the trio of Dhoni, Gambhir and Harbhajan to be in the line for the Test Player of the Year award while Yuvraj and Sehwag were also in the fray for the honour of ODI Player of the Year.

TOI

Opening ceremony of 2011 WC in Bangladesh:ICC

Mumbai,

Mumbai, Sep 2 (PTI) The opening ceremony of the 2011 Cricket World Cup will be held on February 17 in Bangladesh and the first match would take place on February 19 in the same country, the ICC announced Wednesday.

The ICC had earlier said both the opening ceremony and the opening game would be held on February 19 in Bangladesh.

But the full match schedule with venues would be announced on November 9, it was decided by the Central Organising Committee (COC) of the mega event that met here Wednesday to continue preparations for the tournament.

The venues where the matches would be held in the three host nations ? India, Bangladesh and Sri Laka - would be inspected in October/November, the COC decided.

Tournament director Ratnakar Shetty said the meeting was a productive one and the organisers were operating at a brisk pace to make it a great success.

PTI