SAI cannot be blamed for Usha's ill-treatment: Gill

NEW DELHI:

NEW DELHI: Sports Minister MS Gill on Tuesday said Sports Authority of India cannot be blamed for the ill-treatment meted out to legendary

athlete PT Usha in the 49th National Open Athletics in Bhopal since the event was organised by the Madhya Pradesh state government.

Gill wondered why Usha had blamed SAI after she had been offered a shabby accommodation in Bhopal, prompting the red-faced state government to shift her to a hotel.

"I have a special place for PT Usha. What I learn now is that she has come for the national athletics organised by the state government and their minister came on TV to apologise. If there was any drawback, it was on their part for whatever happened last night," Gill said.

"The SAI centre, in any case, offered her accommodation, the best they had to offer, and gave a car to transport her. I'm not clear why she had to suddenly talk of the SAI centre," Gill said.

Usha was offered an accommodation at the SAI hostel in Bhopal which she found sub-standard and the legendary athlete was in tears as she criticised the SAI officials for their apathy.

"The Industry Minister of the state government took her to the hotel and said some mistakes had happened. They were good to apologise. It was surprising that SAI was dragged in the issue," Gill said.

Watson stars in Aussie win

ICC Champions Trophy
Australia were crowned the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy winner after Shane Watson's unbeaten century, guiding the defending champions to a six-wicket victory over a depleted New Zealand in the low-scoring final match here tonight.

Watson hit an unbeaten 129-ball 105 (10X4, 4X6) and starred in a 128-run stand with Cameron White (62) under tremendous pressure as Australia, chasing 201 against New Zealand's never-say-die pacers, overcame a wobbly start to reach 206 for four in 45.2 overs.

Earlier, a rudderless New Zealand, sans their injured skipper Daniel Vettori, fumbled and faltered their way to 200 for nine.

The Kiwis had just two decent partnerships in their innings but Martin Guptill (40) and Aaron Redmond (26) took 15.1 overs to raise 61 runs for the second wicket, while Neil Broom (37) and James Franklin (33) added 65 in 14.1 overs, which underlined their struggle in the middle.

For Australia, Nathan Hauritz claimed three for 37.

Considering Australia's batting might, the match seemed to have all the ingredients of a lop-sided show but for Shane Bond and Kyle Mills, who injected drama by dealing early blows that jolted Australia out of any complacency they had.

Shane Bond's second delivery removed Tim Paine (1) and Mills then trapped in-form Ricky Ponting (1) in the next over to reduce Australia to six for two wickets inside three overs.

And New Zealand pacers maintained the same pressure as Australia crawled to 34 for two after 15 overs, an austerity they are not accustomed to.

Watson and White did not panic and ran hard between wickets, while helping themselves to the occasional boundary.

The duo paced the chase with utmost maturity, first weathering the crisis and then opening up.

Mills eventually returned to remove White but the stand had yielded 128 precious runs by then and even Michael Hussey's (11) wicket came too late as Australia had pocketed the match by then.

Watson wrapped it up in style, hitting two successive sixes to romp home.

Earlier, Vettori's last minute pullout with a hamstring injury was just the start of New Zealand's woes and they never got going after opting to bat first at the SuperSport Park.

As if losing Jacob Oram, Daryl Tuffey and Jesse Ryder at different stages of the tournament was not bad enough, the Kiwis walked out in the middle without their inspirational captain and man-in-form Vettori.

This was a mighty blow for the Kiwis as Vettori was New Zealand's leading wicket-taker in the tournament with seven scalps under his belt besides leading their batting averages.

In his absence, Brendon McCullum took over the captaincy reins and Jeetan Patel was drafted in the playing XI but New Zealand were clearly not the same force.

McCullum opted to bat first but to his horror, by the time the match was into its 27th over, the Kiwi top order was cooling their heels in the hut.

McCullum himself let the team down when it mattered most. Not a single run came off the bat in the first two overs as McCullum scratched around before returning for a duck when Peter Siddle ended his 14-ball struggle to get off the mark.

Life was not easy for Guptill and Redmond either with the Australian pacers maintaining a stifling line and length and their fielders ensuring there were no freebies.

Guptill hit Mitchell Johnson for two fours in the same over in a rare moment of aggression but it took him and Redmond 15.1 overs to raise those 61 runs before they were hit by the next setback with Nathan Hauritz getting a distinctly uncomfortable Redmond stumped.

Situation demanded patience and Guptill had got the start as well but the Kiwi batsman made a complete mess of it, offering a tame return catch to Hauritz to leave his team tottering at 77 for three and the crisis was not over yet.

Michael Hussey took a blinder off Johnson to remove Ross Taylor (6) in the next over and then Brett Lee trapped in-form Grant Elliot (9) to polish off the Kiwi top half.

Broom and Franklin tried to put things in order but both perished just when they had started to open up and New Zealand barely managed the 200-mark.

© PTI

Eden Gardens misses out yet again

The BCCI's internal politicking
The BCCI's internal politicking has ensured that once again, an international tour will go by without a Test match at the venue that has been called "the Lord's of India" - the Eden Gardens at Kolkata.

According to a report on the channel CNN-IBN, the three cities that will host Test matches in the series between India and Sri Lanka are Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

The root of the issue lies in the fact that the Cricket Association of Bengal is led by Jagmohan Dalmiya, who has a long-running feud with the top brass of the BCCI.

This has resulted in the fact that the Eden Gardens have not hosted a Test match since November 2007 when India played Pakistan.

In comparison, since that date there have been 10 Test matches played in India, and the break-up of the cities that have hosted the matches is thus:

Bangalore - 2 matches; Chennai - 2 matches; Mohali - 2 matches; Ahmedabad - 1 match; Kanpur - 1 match; Delhi - 1 match; Nagpur - 1 match.

Even taking into account the rotation policy of the BCCI, it doesn't account for the fact that venues have received two Tests in the period when the Eden Gardens hasn't received a single one, and that all the venues chosen for the Sri Lanka series are from the venues above.

The comparison would be more stark if ODIs were taken into account, since the Eden Gardens has not hosted a single ODI since February 8 2007. Since that time, there have been 22 One Day Internationals played in India, and not a single one at the Eden Gardens.

The break-up of the venues that have hosted ODIs from February 9, 2007 is:

2 matches each: Bangalore, Rajkot, Guwahati and Kanpur

1 match each: Margao, Vishakhapatnam, Kochi, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Vadodara, Nagpur, Mumbai, Mohali, Gwalior, Jaipur, Indore, Cuttack and Delhi.

© Cricbuzz

Watson credits Warne and IPL for revival

injury-ravaged struggler

From an injury-ravaged struggler to being the hero of Australia's second consecutive Champions Trophy triumph, all-rounder Shane Watson has credited the turnaround to his Indian Premier League stint under talismanic spin wizard Shane Warne.

"It (the IPL stint) got my confidence up as a player. It allowed me to come back to the Australian team. It was a massive turning point to play on such a big stage," Watson said after striking his second hundred of the tournament to guide Australia to the title with a six-wicket win over New Zealand.

"The captaincy and coaching ability of Warne was a great learning experience. I learnt how to control my emotions," he added.

The all-rounder played under Warne in the Rajasthan Royals team in the first edition and was the most valuable player of the tournament putting up excellent an performance with both the bat and ball.

Watson rated the 105 he scored in Monday night's final as one of the best of his career.

"In 2007 World Cup semi-finals against South Africa, I was really pumped up but didn't do so well. So it's great to be involved in such a great win. It's one of the real highs of my career and very, very special for everyone in the changing room," he said.

As an opener, Watson has huge boots to fill with both Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist now retired but he has shown the spark in recent months.

"Hayden and Gilchrist are huge boots to fill. They always got off to fliers and they nearly always came good in big events. Hayden was the top scorer in the 2007 World Cup and Gilly scored that memorable century in the finals.

"I'm just trying to be as best I can be," he said.

© PTI