Sports India

Choicest expletives or artless sledging from hostile bowlers could not provoke him enough to go for an assault and Sachin Tendulkar says he never felt the need to do a Zinedine Zidane, who head-butted an Italian defender in the World Cup soccer final.

Sachin was here on Thursday on a promotional campaign for a mobile service provider, of which he is the brand ambassador and the little champion faced a verbal volleys that ranged from Zidane’s head-butt to his love for music.

‘’I can’t comment on Zidane’s head-butt, for I was in London and he was playing in Berlin,'’ he said, trying to evade the question.

Pressed further whether he was similarly provoked by the opposition team ever, Sachin, admired as much for his cricketing skills on field as for his impeccable demeanour off it, said, ‘’Well, I never felt or thought about head-butting, so far.'’

Facing the chin music is part of his professional hazards but Sachin says he remains a music buff.

‘’Dire strait is my favourite band and my favourite song is ‘Sultan of swing’. Among others, I like eagles and U2. I’m also a fan of the great Indian singers like Mohd Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Asha Bhonsle and Lata Mangeshkar.

Of the current crop, I like Sonu Nigam, Shaan and others,'’ he said.

Incidentally, Tendulkar met dire straits’ lead singer mark Knopfler in Mumbai and exchanged a bat and a guitar between themselves.

‘’I enjoy good music and like it as long as the rhythm is good,'’ Sachin added.

The batting maestro also revealed his love for mobile gaming. ‘’I play with my son Arjun, but most of the time, it’s him who wins it,'’ he quipped.

Asked if he was a techno-savvy person, Sachin said, ‘’Well, to some extent. But I’m not the guy who sees a new gadget in the magazine and getting that becomes his goal.'’

Baichung Bhutia is tired of being the lone ranger for Indian football and wants to retire from international football immediately. AIFF president Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi said the former Indian captain had informed him sometime ago, before the World Cup, that he “wanted to retire and make rooms for others in the Indian team”. And, instead of the star, Dasmunshi made the important announcement on Friday to the media.

The AIFF chief said he had to “put to rest the speculation in the media and to satisfy the football fraternity as to why Bhutia was not part of the Indian team for their first assignment to Vancouver under their new foreign chief coach”. The Indian team will be leaving for Canada on Saturday to play against China, a club team and the Vancouver team. Earlier Bhutia had pulled out of the Vancouver probables camp in June.

Dasmunshi said: “Bhutia had met me before the camp and expressed that he wanted to retire from international football. He was also busy with his TV commentary during the World Cup. I told him that it is the freedom of the player to decide his retirement time but, in the interest of the nation, it is important that he should continue playing till the 2006 Asian Games in December.”

The AIFF chief said he was hopeful that he would be able to convince the star to change his stance at their forthcoming meeting. “Bhaichung assured me that he will consider the matter. Both the coach and I talked to him about playing on for some more time,” said Dasmunshi.

“I have just returned from the World Cup and will be meeting Bhaichung again in Kolkata sometime soon. I hope that he agrees to play for the country till the 2006 Asian Games.”

Bhutia’s retirement could be a serious setback for the new chief coach Bob Houghton, who is just about to commence his first assignment with the Indian team in Canada from Saturday. In his interaction with the media before the team’s training at the Ambedkar Stadium, Houghton said he was all for having Bhutia in his team.

“We need a player like him in the team. I have already met him and requested him to continue till the Games. I am pretty hopeful that he will understand.”

‘A change of mind likely’

Indian football star Baichung Bhutia might revert his decision of retiring from international football after a talk with India coach Bob Houghton.

“I had a talk with Bob and once the team comes back from the tour of Canada, I will announce my final decision,” Bhutia told DNA.

Revealing that his main decision to retire from international football was because of lack of motivation, Bhutia said, “I have been playing for 12 years. There comes a time when you don’t want to do it any more. Besides, in Indian football motivational levels are very low.”

However, Bhutia hinted that he might revert his decision and play in the upcoming Asian Games. “I have time to think over it. The president and the coach insisted that I change my mind. I will have to take that into consideration. It is likely that I might revert my decision.” —Ankita Pandey

A tall task for Indian football
Apart from the job of persuading Baichung Bhutia not to retire, the AIFF has another challenging problem.

Their new chief coach Bob Houghton, who is one of the youngest coaches to take a club into the UEFA Cup finals, has asked the federation to provide him players who are, at least, six-footers.

“At the moment we have three to four players like that but I have passed the request to the president and secretary-general of the national football federation,” said the coach. Houghton’s logic comes directly from the recent World Cup. “Some of the players were giants and they played a crucial role in scoring from set pieces, especially when the ball is within the penalty box.”

However, the AIFF is in a dilemma: most of the talented players in the country are from Manipur, where the average height of the player is 5’6. Dasmunshi is hopeful that he can tackle the issue.

“We will look at talent in North India regions like Punjab, UP. It’s not that we will recruit just anybody who is taller than six feet. In that case basketball players should be invited. We will look at tall players who can be trained and groomed by our coaches to become quality footballers.” —Manish Kumar

Determined to make a big breakthrough this season, Daniel Chopra found himself on top of the leaderboard after playing a near flawless first round of seven-under 64 in the USD 3.8-million John Deere Classic golf.
The Indo-Swede shared the lead with John Senden of Australia and Americans JP Hayes and Zach Johnson.

Though this is the last chance for many to make the British Open with one berth reserved for the top non-exempt player from this tournament, the focus was firmly on Michelle Wie, who, however, disappointed with a six-over 77 that will probably result in a missed cut.

Arjun Atwal’s woes continued as the Indian carded a par 71 with two birdies amd as many bogeys to be placed 93 to be in danger of missing yet another cut.

Chopra’s putting was fantastic as he finished the round with just 22 putts and rounded off a great day with an eagle on the par-five 17th.

Chopra had birdies on the second, fifth and sixth on the front nine of the course and then added more on 14 th and 15th and an eagle on the back nine of the layout.

Last week Chopra held sole lead after two rounds and then faded away to tied 30th by the finish.

Wie had six bogeys and a double-bogey against only two birdies and was 13 strokes behind leaders. A year ago, Wie almost became the first woman since Babe Didrikson Zaharias in 1945 to make the cut in a US PGA Tour event, shooting a one-under-par 141 over 36 holes.

Sania Mirza is yet to attain her peak and could break into the top ten in two years’ time, Mahesh Bhupathi said here today.

“Sania is nowhere close to her prime yet. She is now only 19 years old. Her prime will come after two years,” Bhupathi said at a press meet.

“Then she can break into the top 15 and even top 10,” Bhupathi said.

The ace doubles player did not agree that Sania had performed poorly of late.

“She faced an opponent of the calibre of Elena Dementieva in the opening round at Wimbledon. She played well, but her effort fell a wee bit short,” said Bhupathi, whose company Globosport manages Sania.

Sania, now ranked 40th in the world, went down to seventh seed Dementieva 6-7 (5-7) 5-7 in the first round at Wimbledon.

Talking about his plans for the next grand slam, Bhupathi said he was yet to choose a doubles partner for the US Open.

Responding to another query, he rated Martina Hingis as his best mixed doubles partner.

“I have never had problem playing with different partners. I have, in fact, enjoyed,” he added.

Indian tennis sensation Sania Mirza’s best play is still some two years away, Davis Cupper Mahesh Bhupathi said here Wednesday.

‘Not too much should be seen from her early exits (from the international tournaments she plays). She is falling far short of the kind of tennis she is capable of,’ Bhupati told reporters here while announcing Martina Hingis’ participation in the Sunfeast Open tennis championship here in September.

‘But she will improve. She is on an upward curve and in about three years time she will break into the top 10. She has that in her,’ Bhupati, a doubles specialist, maintained.

‘She will be at her prime when she is around 22,’ Mahesh said, whose Globosports company manages Mirza’s career.

Mirza has recently dropped to World No 40 on the WTA rankings after early exits from Roland Garros and Wimbledon. The Hyderabadi dazzler has shown an indifferent form even after brilliant starts and that has cost her a few spots over the last few months

Dashing wicketkeeper-batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni has said the coming tri-series in Sri Lanka would be a challenging one but expressed confidence of a good show by Team India.

“The tour will be tough and challenging, but we are confident of doing well in Sri Lanka,” Dhoni told reporters at the airport here yesterday on his return home after the gruelling two-month tour of West Indies.

The swashbuckling cricketer said the experience gained on the successful West Indies tour should come handy during the World Cup, scheduled to be held in the Caribbeans next year.

On India’s Test series win in West Indies, Dhoni said, “it was a great feeling to win the Test series there after 35 long years. The achievement was a team effort.”

Dhoni, who scored 29 and 20 runs in the third and final Test, would be spending time with his family at home for a few days.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni who has a large number of fan following was recently seen in Jam Shipra, Ghaziabad just after the benefit match in London. After the benefit match he directly visited his friends place Arun Pandey in Delhi. The Dhoni was in the relaxed mood and had fun with his friends in JAM Shipra.

Like every other citizen of India even Dhoni has a passion to see movies. Dhoni with his friends had planned to watch Phir Hera Pheri in JAM Shipra in Indirapuram. Rahul Sharma of Jam Shipra made all arrangements to comfort the growing Cricket star and his friends.

Special screening was arranged for Dhoni to watch Krrish for 20 min, the dashing batsman wanted to continue the movie but unfortunately all his friends had already watched the movie. The next choice left with him was to watch Phir Hera Pheri

After a three hour watch of Comedy movie the passionate Cricketer said “I really enjoy watching
comedy and action films”. Expressing the joy after the West Indies trip he said “I really enjoyed the tour and since the tour was after a long gap it counts as a memorable trip of mine and special because we won the match after 3 decades.

”When asked about his experience while sharing the same Cricket Pitch with the little champ Sachin in benefit match in London he said “I am first person from the team to play with the little Champ and he shows his excellence with which I was thrilled to watch him from the other end. I hope to play with him in next series also. ”

A true sportsman loves to spend his time with his family members and is present in Ranchi to spend 2-3 days with his family and after that Dhoni will further move to Mumbai for his Brand Shoot and preparation of next series.

Praising the multiplex Jam Shipra, he said “it is really proud feeling to watch a Multiplex which is huge, renders best quality and best Cinema Hall which makes it cinema hall equivalent to multiplex in the world. After seeing this I am sure, why the Ghaziabad name came as one of the 10 best city of the world.

Sania Mirza is yet to attain her peak and could break into the top-10 within two years, Mahesh Bhupathi said in Kolkata on Wednesday.

“Sania is nowhere close to her prime yet. She is now only 19-years-old. Her prime will come after two years,” Bhupathi said at a press meet.

“Then she can break into the top-15 and even top-10,” Bhupathi said. The ace doubles player did not agree that Sania had performed poorly of late.

“She faced an opponent of the calibre of Elena Dementieva in the opening round at Wimbledon. She played well, but her effort fell a wee bit short,” said Bhupathi, whose company Globosport manages the Indian ace. Sania, now ranked 40th in the world, went down to seventh seed Dementieva 6-7 (5) 5-7 in the first round at Wimbledon.