New Delhi, Oct 14 (PTI) Eager to help Indian hockey get back on its feet, Australia today pledged support in providing training and scholarships for budding players and coaches here.
Visiting Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith announced that starting next year, two players -- a male and female -- and a coach will get free training at the Institute of Sports and Hockey Facility in Perth.
"India is one of the premier hockey playing nations and we are sad that India failed to qualify for Beijing Olympics.
So, all the hockey playing nations, including Australia, want India to return to its historic place as a great hockey playing nation," he told reporters after visiting the Major Dhyan Chand stadium and the Talkotra Stadium here.
Under the scholarship, the selected trio will get a two-week training stint at the Institute which has been in existence for the past 20 years.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Australia for scholarships to Indian hockey players
Mumbai to host final, two other matches of 2011 WC
Mumbai, Oct 14 (PTI) Mumbai will host the final, along with two other matches, while Mohali will host one of the semifinals of the 2011 cricket World Cup to be organised jointly by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
The Local Organising Committee met here today to finalise the venue-based distribution of the 29 games that India is scheduled to host. The rest of the 20 games of the 49-match event have been awarded to Sri Lanka (12) and Bangaldesh (8).
The committee decided to give two other matches to Mohali apart from the semifinal.
Ahmedabad has been given a quarterfinal and two other games, while Kolkata and Delhi will host one India and three other matches each, BCCI secretary N Srinivas said in a statement.
Jaipur has been left out of the list of venues with Nagpur, Chennai and Bangalore getting one India game each.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Indian ODI squad on October 15
Mumbai, Oct 12 (PTI) The Indian cricket squad for the forthcoming seven-match one-day series against Australia will be picked in Chennai on October 15.
"The ODI squad is to be picked on the 15th at Chennai," Cricket Board sources told PTI today.
The selection is keenly awaited following the team's dismal display at the ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa where it got knocked out in the preliminary stage itself.
The national selection panel, barring chief selector Krishnamachari Srikkanth, that watched the N K P Salve Challenger Series which ended in Nagpur yesterday would have some options to bolster the under performing team.
The ODI series would start with the day encounters at the Reliance (previously IPCL) Stadium in Vadodara on October 25 and end with the final day/night clash at the D Y Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on November 11.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
ONGC edge past BPCL to top pool in Murugappa hockey
ICC suspends WADA’s whereabouts clause
“We need to find a solution to the practical problem India is having, which is a constitutional issue of the country, which is why we decided to suspend the ‘whereabouts’ clause,” ICC CEO Haroon Lorgat was quoted as saying by ‘Cricinfo’ after an Executive meeting of the world body.
The ICC will soon discuss the code with WADA and in a Board meeting scheduled three months from now, it will decide whether to implement the code or not. Until then, the ICC will continue testing players without using the contentious clause.
The clause requires players to give their whereabout details a month in advance for out of competition testing and the Indian players have opposed it, saying it infringes on their privacy and poses a threat to their security.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
India Blue pip India Red by one wicket
Nagpur, Oct 8 (PTI) Suresh Kumar scored a match-winning 87 to help India Blue beat India Red by one-wicket in a nail-bitting contest at the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy cricket tournament here today.
Suresh first shared a crucial 57-run fourth wicket stand with pinch-hitter Harbhajan (36 off 36) and then added 55 alongwith Mahendra Singh Dhoni (37 off 40) to set the platform for the run chase.
Out-of-form Ishant Sharma and leg-spinner Ravindra Jadeja were the pick of the bowlers for India Red. Ishant answered his detractors in style, picking up four wickets for 56 runs from his 10 overs, while Jadeja scalped two victims, giving away 36 runs.
Earlier, riding on Harshad Khadiwale's 51-ball 55 and Ishant Jaggi's 54, India Red posted a competitive 248 runs on the board.
Union Cabinet approves additional fund for CWG
New Delhi, Oct 8 (PTI) The Union cabinet today approved additional fund for the expeditious completion of capital's infrastructure for the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
On a day when the Commonwealth Games Federation delegation inspected proposed venues to take stock of Delhi's preparation for the Games, the cabinet decided to allot more money.
"There are certain areas in which the organisers are lagging behind and that's why the cabinet decided to allot some extra fund so that infrastructure is ready well in time," a source told PTI.
The money is especially for the Nehru Stadium, which will host the opening and closing ceremony besides athletics, lawn bowls and weightlifting competitions and Jamia Milia Islamia, venue for rugby and table tennis.
The Commonwealth Games are scheduled to be held from October 3 to 14 and over 6000 athletes from 71 countries are expected to take part in the mega event.
CGF delegates happy with CWG facilities: Bhanot
New Delhi, Oct 8 (PTI) Commonwealth Games Organising Committee secretary general Lalit Bhanot today said that all the visiting CGF delegates are satisfied with the facilities and exuded confidence that all infrastructure related to next year's mega-event will be completed before the deadline.
Delegates from all the 71 member nations of the Commonwealth Games Federation are presently in the Capital for the CGF General Assembly to be held here on October 12 and have inspected a few under-construction venues and the Games Village today.
"We could have completed the stadiums two years back but it would have been of no use. But there are still 360 days to go for the Games and I can assure you that everything will be completed much before the deadline.
"Most of the delegates are very impressed with facilities. We have addressed all their queries.
Duminy's brilliance dump Bangalore in CL opener
Bangalore, Oct 8 (PTI) J P Duminy dazzled with the bat with a blistering unbeaten 99 to guide Cape Cobras to a five-wicket victory Royal Challengers Bangalore in the high-scoring opening Group C match of the inaugural Champions League Twenty20 cricket tournament here today.
Not a single Bangalore bowler was saved from Duminy's pyrotechnics as the left-hander struck eight fours and five sixes in his scintillating 52-ball knock to power the South African side home with two balls to spare.
Apart from Duminy, Henry Davids (27 off 21) and Ryan Canning (20 off 18) were the other notable scorers for Cobras.
Praveen Kumar was the pick of the bowlers for Bangalore, picking up three wickets for 32 runs.
Earlier, Robin Uthappa made a brisk 51 off 39 balls while Taylor scored an unbeaten 53 off 24 deliveries to help Royal Challengers post a formidable 180 on the board.
India placed with South Africa, England in 2011 World Cup
JOHANNESBURG: India have been placed in Group B -- along with England and South Africa -- for the 2011 World Cup in the sub-continent, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced on Wednesday after a Board meeting.
"In Group A there will be Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Canada and Kenya. In Group B there will be India, South Africa, England, West Indies, Bangladesh, Ireland and Netherlands," the ICC said in a statement.
The meeting also approved the schedule for next year's Under-19 World Cup scheduled in January in New Zealand.
"The full schedule will be posted on the ICC website shortly," the statement read.
Apart from this, the meeting also discussed ways to promote cricket and decided to have more research on the concept of day/night Tests.
"A competitive analysis of other sports and entertainment products will be carried out by a working group and there will be further research carried out into various proposals for product development and variation of Test cricket, such as day/night Test matches," the ICC said.
"The working group will be chaired by ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat and will include a representative from each Full Member as well as the ICC General Manager - Commercial, Campbell Jamieson and ICC General Manager - Cricket, David Richardson," it added.
Group A: Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Canada and Kenya
Group B: India, South Africa, England, West Indies, Bangladesh, Ireland and Netherlands.
WSG signs up Gautam Gambhir in a three-year deal
Mumbai, Oct 8 (PTI) Indian opener and ICC Test Cricketer of the Year Gautam Gambhir has been signed up by leading Asian sports marketing firm World Sport Group for three years.
The exact figures that the left-handed Delhi cricketer would reap from the deal with WSG, which has Sachin Tendulkar among its clients, were not mentioned in the statement issued by the company, but it's understood to be worth in crores.
WSG CEO Venu Nair said Gambhir is the second Indian cricketer after champion batsman Tendulkar to be signed up by the group.
"Gautam Gambhir - India's opening batsman in all forms of the game currently adds a left hander dimension to the right hander we already represent. The association is a long term one and is for Gautam's worldwide representation rights," Nair said in a media release.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
ICC declares Champions Trophy a huge success
Johannesburg, Oct 7 (PTI) International Cricket Council President David Morgan today termed the just-concluded Champions Trophy "a huge success" and said the event has proved to be a great advertisement for one-dayers.
"I'm delighted with the quality of the tournament and the level of cricket that has been played throughout this competition. It has been a huge success," Morgan said in a statement.
"The cricket was enthralling and the feedback on the event from the players and followers of the game has been overwhelmingly positive. I believe the cricketing world thoroughly enjoyed this re-branded competition as I did," he said.
Morgan said the event, which had been criticised as meaningless by several former cricketers, has proved that it deserves to be there on the ICC calendar.
McGrath replaces Paul Collingwood in Daredevils
New Delhi, Oct 7 (PTI) Australian pacer Glenn McGrath today replaced injured English batsman Paul Collingwood in the Delhi Daredevils team for the Champions League Twenty20 starting tomorrow.
Collingwood will miss the event due to a buttock injury he picked up during the just-concluded Champions Trophy in South Africa.
Retired from international cricket, McGrath will come into the tournament with little match practice as he had warmed the bench during the second edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in South Africa.
Meanwhile, the event's technical committee also allowed South African side Cape Cobras to replace their injured player Richard Levi with Stiaan van Zyl.
Levi is nursing a hand injury he sustained during training in Bangalore this week.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
SAI cannot be blamed for Usha's ill-treatment: Gill
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
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.
Eden Gardens misses out yet again
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.
Watson credits Warne and IPL for revival
"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.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Randhawa, Kapur miss cut at Alfred Dunhill Links
St Andrews (Scotland), Oct 5 (PTI) Jyoti Randhawa and Shiv Kapur missed the cut after returning over-par cards in the third round of the Alfred Dunhill Links Golf Championship here.
While Randhawa carded a two-over 74, Kapur was even worse at four-over 76 in the penultimate round, finishing the rain-hit event outside the top-60 and ties.
At the top, Luke Donald turned in the lowest round of his European Tour career, carding an eight-under 64 to take the lead at the 14-under.
Concessional CL T20 tickets for students
Mumbai, Oct 5 (PTI) In a bid to lure students to watch watch the Champions League Twenty20 matches, the organisers have announced concessional tickets for the October 8-23 tournament in three Indian cities.
Besides, the organisers have also promised to take the international stars to select schools and colleges for interacting with the students, a media release said.
The initiative, termed "Champions in Schools Programme", would see all three host venues - Hyderabad, Bangalore and Delhi - having specially demarcated student stands located in good viewing positions, the release said.
The students would be offered 25 per cent concession on the rate of tickets for block bookings of 500 or more or a 20 per cent rebate for individual bookings upon production of bonafide I-cards.
NZ win toss, elect to bat against Australia in CT
Centurion, Oct 5 (PTI) New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat against Australia in the final of the Champions Trophy here today.
The Kiwis were dealt a big blow just before the match as skipper Daniel Vettori pulled out of the game due to a hamstring injury.
Vettori has been replaced by Jeetan Patel in the playing eleven and in his absence Brendon McCullum will lead the side.
Apart from Vettori, there are no other changes in the Kiwi squad, while Australia preferred to stick to the same playing eleven.
Squad:
Australia: Ricky Ponting (C), Shane Watson, Tim Paine, Mike Hussey, Cameron White, Callum Ferguson, James Hopes, Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee, Nathan Hauritz, Peter Siddle.
New Zealand: Brendon McCullum (C), Aaron Redmond, Martin Guptill, Ross Taylor, Grant Elliott, Neil Broom, James Franklin, Kyle Mills, Ian Butler, Shane Bond, Jeetan Patel.
