Sports India

Skipper Rahul Dravid has thrown his weight behind Twenty-20 cricket, saying there was space for the instant version of the game in domestic cricket.

The Indian Cricket Board (BCCI) has constantly opposed the latest version of the game, which was introduced among the first-class teams in England two years ago.

But Dravid believes the latest concept was welcome provided it was played without diluting the conventional 50-50 limited overs game.

“For an event like this to play for the victims of the earthquake was fantastic. But we’ve got to be careful Twenty20 doesn’t dilute 50-over cricket,” Dravid told BBC Sport.

“We don’t have a domestic competition and I think it (Twenty-20) has a place in domestic cricket,” he added.

The Indian captain played a Twenty-20, which was reduced to 10 overs a side due to inclement weather, alongside international stars including teammates Sachin Tendulkar and Mahendra Singh Dhoni and West Indian genius Brian Lara for charity at the Oval yesterday.

The International XI lost to touring Pakistan.

Seventh seeds Leander Paes and Martin Damm appeared off colour as they went down to Frenchman Fabrice Santoro and Serb Nenad Zimonjic in the men’s doubles semifinal of Wimbledon Grand Slam Tennis championship.

It took the sixth seeds just over 90 minutes to sweep the match 6-2, 6-1, 7-5, making short work of the Indo-Czech duo yesterday.

Paes and Damm were defending their half of the court well, registering some good winners, but the Indian struggled to get his serve into any sort of groove in the first set.

In contrast, Santoro and Zimonjic were in sterling form, having dropped just a single set in the tournament and even beating second seeds Jonas Bjorkman and Max Mirnyi in straight sets in the quarters.

Zimonjic served a couple of aces in the opening game which set the tone for the rest of the match.

They also ran away with second set, with Damm and Paes unable to pose much resistance.

In the third set, Paes-Damm tried but in vain to find some of the will that enabled them to put out 4th seeds Paul Hanley and Kevin Ullyett in a four-hour quarter-final match.

They took the lead, but Damm was unable to serve out the set. Santoro and Zimonjic drew level 5-5. Another break of Paes service and Zimonjic was able to close proceedings in the next game.

In juniors’ section, Rupesh Roy and Hsin Han Lee of Chinese Taipei pulled off a brave 7-6 (7/5) 6-7 (7/4) 6-4 win in the boy’s doubles quarterfinal.

They beat Luka Belic and Antonio Veic of Croatia to enter the semifinals where they will meet second seeds Martin Klizan and Andrei Martin of Slovakia.

A MISSED final hole birdie made all the difference as Jeev Milkha Singh narrowly missed out on the British Open while finishing tied-fourth at the Smurfit European Open Golf Championship at the K Club on Sunday.

Jeev carded an excellent two-under 70 but it proved to be not good enough as he needed to finish second to book a ticket to one of four majors. That excellent finish, however, should inspire faith in the Chandigarh lad as one last British Open berth remains to be taken coming week. Anthony Wall (73) of England achieved what the Indian failed to, with a birdie on the final hole and finish tied second with Jose Manuel Lara (74) while the title went to Stephen Dodd (70).

Welshman Dodd, who won his second title this season in Ireland and can now hope for a place in European team for Ryder Cup, also scheduled to be held in Ireland at this same K Club. He had a winning total of nine-under par 279. He took a cheque of US dollars 578,792 as the winner.

“Missing out on the open berth was disappointing but then I am happy that I fought well to come fourth,” said Jeev, who moves to Loch Lomond for the Barclays Scottish Open this week. Jeev’s 70 saw him total six-under-par 282 for the week and he ended three shots behind winner Dodd.

Jeev earned over 126,000 Euros and moved from 36th to 31st place in the European order of merit. This season Jeev, currently leading the Asian Tour’s UBS order of merit, has achieved nine top-10 finishes including a win in the Volvo China Open. The other Indian in the fray, Jyoti Randhawa, was tied 61st after signing off with a 78. He had two double bogeys including one on the final 18th, which he had birdied on the first three days.

Thai star Thongchai Jaidee also enjoyed a solid week, closing with a 71 to earn tied 15th place in the European tour event.

Jeev began the final round in the tied 12th place and with an opening hole bogey he dropped further down. But he fought back superbly for four birdies in five holes, starting from the fourth and added two more birdies on the 16th and 17th holes for his strong finish. The title seemed to be fought very tightly before Dodd turned the tide with birdies on the 16th and the very difficult par-3 17th. That was followed by a neat par on 18th and it gave him a steady round of 70. The drama on the 18th hole came from wall, who holed from 35ft to claim a share of second place on seven under and the one exempt place on offer for the open at Hoylake.

Till then, that place seemed to be headed towards Jost Manuel Lara, Wall’s playing partner and Jeev Milkha Singh was behind them. Lara made only par and then despite tying with wall lost out because his final round was 74 and wall carded 73.

The tournament did not lack drama, as another dramatic finish came from Paul Mcginley.

The Irishman had left for Dublin airport on Friday afternoon thinking he had missed the cut at two over par and that stage he was 91st. He narrowly made the cut and he was called back from the airport and his luggage had to be retrieved from the hold.

By close on Sunday he finished in a share of fourth place on six under par alongside the English trio of Simon Khan, Graeme Storm, Lee Westwood and Jeev.

Jeev Milkha Singh has taken over the mantle of being India’s highest ranked golfer.

Jeev, who won the Volvo China Open and recently tied for fourth in the European Open, has taken over Jyoti Randhawa and is now placed 144th in the world.

Randhawa began the season well, but is now ranked 159th in the world.

Meanwhile, Shiv Kapur has overtaken Arjun Atwal and moved up to the 176th position.

Harbhajan Singh on Monday predicted a significant role for slow bowlers in the World Cup to be held next year in the West Indies. “During our tour of the Caribbean, most of the pitches were slow and especially in the Test series, during the second innings the ball kept low and ultimately the batsmen were beaten,” he said.

“Wickets in West Indies were similar to those in the Asian countries, which helped us in understanding its nature early,” he said adding the team’s experience would come handy in World Cup.

Harbhajan also felt that he and his senior spin colleague Anil Kumble have also dispelled the myth that spinners are barely effective outside the sub-continent and admitted the side missed Sachin Tendulkar.

The turbanator said his performance in the series, coupled with Kumble’s feat of 23 wickets, had silenced the critics who were saying that spinners were not effective on foreign soil.

On his own performance, Harbhajan said, “The spell in which I took five wickets in four overs was really satisfactory but I think my best spell is yet to come as I continue to improve further and achieve further for the country.”

The attacking offie also felt that Team India missed the presence of Sachin Tendulkar in the series.

“After all, the sheer presence of a legend like Sachin Tendulkar can boost the morale of the team and create pressure on the rivals,” he explained, adding India could have done even better had Tendulkar been in the ranks.

Harbhajan pointed to Tendulkar’s performance for Lashings World XI in London and said it’s a positive sign of fitness and batting form of the Little Champion.

The Punjab spinner was also impressed by Brian Lara’s captaincy and said the southpaw’s leadership made all the difference between even though most people predicted it to be a one-sided affair with India pounding the hosts.

“The West Indies team comprises players from different islands and it’s not very easy to club together the boys from different parts into a winning team. But the inspiration and guidance from Lara made West Indies a force against us,” he added.

Sachin Tendulkar continued his return to international cricket with another stroke-filled half-century, while also featuring in an enthralling partnership with Brian Lara in a charity match at the Brit Oval stadium on Monday.

Facing bowlers of international standards for the first time in more than three months after a shoulder surgery, Tendulkar cracked an unbeaten 50 for an International XI but could not prevent touring Pakistan from scoring a six-wicket victory.

Rain and a lack of floodlights meant that the Twenty-20 match between, in aid of the victims of the earthquake in Pakistan last October, was reduced to 10 overs a side.

But there was no dearth of entertainment for the 20,000-odd crowd as Tendulkar and the other batting stars studded the evening with boundaries and sixes.

The Indian maestro hit eight fours and a six in his 26-ball knock and added 72 runs for the opening stand with Lara as International XI made 123 for one.

Pakistan, however, overhauled the target in the final over.

Shahid Afridi hammered 41 off just 12 balls with fives sixes and two fours.

Afridi blasted 22 runs off the first four balls and hit two more sixes before Inzamam’s 36 off 17 saw them home off the last ball.

Watched by a crowd of over 20,000 the match raised 250,000 pounds for the charity.

Tendulkar delighted his fans with a huge six over mid-wicket off the seventh ball he faced.

The Indian team sported a confident look on the eve of its departure for the 49th World shooting championship in Zagreb, Croatia. The 44-member strong team, including 15 juniors, was scheduled to leave on Thursday for the World Championship to be held from July 23 to August 5. The team was awaiting the visa for Turkey, as it was booked to fly through Istanbul.

National coach Prof. Sunny Thomas expressed satisfaction with the training at the 20-day camp in Bangalore. “Except for the fact that we did not have the electronic targets much against all the efforts to transfer them from Delhi or to buy new ones, everything went off very well. We had an intense stint and not a single minute was wasted. The weather was excellent and the stay was quite comfortable. There was no room for complaint,'’ said Prof. Thomas.

The chief coach said that the team was leaving early so as to be able to practice with quality ammunition to be brought in Zagreb.

Quality ammunition

“We have quality ammunition for the competition, but did not have the same quality for practice, except for the last four days. We have no option but to buy them'’, said Prof. Thomas.

The coach felt that the Indian shooters stood a good chance to get two or three more Olympic quota places from the championship.

“There is a possibility that we may get medals also, especially in the team events, including the juniors. We have some strong shooters in juniors like Shweta Chaudhary and Harveen Srao,'’ the coach said.

In the last World championship in Lahti, Croatia, only Rajkumari Dhodiya had won a bronze medal in the junior women’s rifle prone event. Shweta missed the air pistol bronze on the count back after having tied for the third place at 382 out of 400.

Jaspal Rana had won the gold with a world junior record in standard pistol in 1994. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore had won the bronze in the shotgun World championship in 2003 and the resultant Olympic quota place had paved the way for him to clinch the silver in double trap in the Athens Games.

In preparation for the World championship and the competitions ahead, Rathore had reached Italy by the middle of last month and has been training there diligently.

The team:

Sanjeev Rajput, Abhinav Bindra, Gagan Narang, Samaresh Jung, Vijay Kumar, Jaspal Rana, Pemba Tamang, Ram Kishen, Ronak Pandit, Vivek Singh, Manavjit Singh Sandhu, Mansher Singh, Anwer Sultan, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Vikram Bhatnagar, Ronjan Sodhi, Amit Sanghi, Naveen Jindal, Mairaj Ahmed Khan, Deepali Deshpande, Kuheli Gangulee, Anjali Bhagwat, Tejaswini Sawant, Avneet Kaur Sidhu, Sonia Rai, Annuraj Singh, Saroja Kumari Juthu, Shagun Chowdhry and Arti Singh.

Juniors: Navnath Farthate, Ful Chand Bangar, Hardeep Singh, Bapu Vanzare, Nikhil Singh, Amanpreet Singh, Zakir Khan, Pushpender Singh, Bikramjit Singh Dhillon, Navdeep Kaur Dhillon, Radhika Barale, Soudaminee Gavankar, Harveen Srao, Shweta Chowdhary and Nausheen Fathima.

India’s hopes of winning their first ever Asian junior badminton title was dashed as starlet Saina Nehwal bowed out in the third round of the girls’ singles event at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The second seed Indian went down against her unheralded Chinese opponent Wen Cheng in a three setter, losing 16-21 21-19 10-21.

The 16-year-old, who shot into limelight after her triumph in the elite Philippines Open last month, came from behind to pull off the second set and level scores but the Chinese rose to the occasion in the decider to seal the matter in her favour.

Indian shuttlers had a generally bad day as none of them tasted success in any of the events yesterday.

Ruth Misha and Gayatri Vartak lost their respective third round matches in the girls’ singles, while in the doubles Misha met a similar luck alongside Nischita.

Among the boys, Akshay Dewalkar was trounced in the third round of the singles and also went down in the doubles where he partnered Jishnu Sanyal.

Misa lost to Megumi Taruno of Japan 12-21 7-21 without any resistance and Vartak was tamed by Stephanie Sugumaran of Malaysia 16-21 21-23.

The combination of Vartak and Nischita could do no better against the Thai team comprising Porntip Buranaprasertsuk and Nuttaya Sanlekanun, who won 21-13 21-16.

Dewalkar lost to Lu Qicheng of China 17-21 11-21 in the singles and with Jishnu Sanyal in the doubles he lost to Wong Zi Liang and Tang Yew Loong Johnathan of Singapore 2321 12-21 18-21.

In mixed doubles, Vijay Ram C and Ponnappa Ashwini lost 14-21 13-21 to Chinese duo of Li Tian and Ma Jin in the second round.

India’s hopes of winning their first ever Asian junior badminton title were dashed as starlet Saina Nehwal bowed out in the third round of the girls’ singles event at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The second seed Indian went down against her unheralded Chinese opponent Wen Cheng in a three setter, losing 16-21 21-19 10-21.

The 16-year-old, who shot into limelight after her triumph in the elite Philippines open last month, came from behind to pull off the second set and level scores but the Chinese rose to the occasion in the decider to seal the matter in her favour.

Indian shuttlers had a generally bad day as none of them tasted success in any of the events yesterday.

Ruth Misha and Gayatri Vartak lost their respective third round matches in girls’ singles while in the doubles Misha met a similar luck alongside Nischita.

Among the boys, Akshay Dewalkar was trounced in the third round of the singles and also went down in the doubles where he partnered Jishnu Sanyal.

Misa lost to Megumi Taruno of Japan 12-21 7-21 without any resistance and Vartak was tamed by Stephanie Sugumaran of Malaysia 16-21 21-23.

The combination of Vartak and Nischita could do no better against the Thai team comprising Porntip Buranaprasertsuk and Nuttaya Sanlekanun, who won 21-13 21-16.

Dewalkar lost to Lu Qicheng of China 17-21 11-21 in the singles and with Jishnu Sanyal in the doubles he lost to Wong Zi Liang and Tang Yew Loong Johnathan of Singapore 2321 12-21 18-21.

In mixed doubles, Vijay Ram C and Ponnappa Ashwini lost 14-21 13-21 to Chinese duo of Li Tian and Ma Jin in the second round.

Captaincy is no longer on the agenda of Sourav Ganguly but making a comeback to the national squad certainly is, reveals the former India skipper who is also planning to write a tell-all book on his controversy-ridden cricket career. Clearly stating that retirement was not on his radar, the stylish left-hander also said he expected to be judged on his performance and given a chance to contribute to the side.

“I’ll do what’s in my hands, perform, because at the end of the day you can only be judged by your performances. If I don’t perform I don’t get back. If I perform I expect to get back,” he said. “I am determined to get runs on the board. I had a good domestic season. I got to play in one test match in Pakistan where I was the second highest scorer after Yuvraj (Singh),” he told BBC World’s Hardtime Extra programme.

Ganguly ruled out being captain of Indian team again, saying: “You don’t have captains every six months, if so it’s wrong. I am looking forward to playing as a player.”

Lot to offer

The batsman, currently playing for Northamptonshire in the English county championship, said he would not be disappointed if he does not come back into the team. “I have played 390 games for India, captained 200. I must be one of the lucky few.”

Ganguly said he did not think it was time yet to contemplate retirement. “It’s not just the World Cup it’s even further beyond. I am going to be 33 so I don’t think it’s an age to make a decision yet about cricket.

“I’ll keep on performing. I’ve not even thought about anything at this stage except playing the game. I just want to keep on playing, keep on performing, do what is in my hands, that is, playing the game, batting and bowling and fielding, and not worry about the rest. I just want to keep on playing and I feel that I can contribute to a successful side.”

Talking about the controversy surrounding his sacking as captain and subsequent removal from the national team, Ganguly said he was planning to write a book. “There will be some time when I will correct this. I’m too lazy to write a 600 page book, maybe when I finish or at some stage when I feel it’s the right time I will clear it up. It (the book) will be all about cricket, on the field and some things off the field.”

When asked if it will include a chapter on Greg Chappell, he replied tongue in cheek, “Well, when you read the book you’ll find out.”