Sports India

The Indians need to rediscover winning ways in the Colombo tri-nation ODI series. The Men in Blue stumbled in the Caribbean. They need to get their act together before the next trip to the West Indies, for World Cup 2007.

The focus has to be on putting together the best possible team for the premier ODI competition. The process of identifying the right cricketers should be done in right earnest. The selectors and the team management need to approach the task with wisdom and foresight.

The comeback of the 29-year-old Dinesh Mongia in the India squad for the competition in Sri Lanka, from August 14 to 29, has to be seen in this context. Are the selectors looking ahead?

Mongia’s form with Leicestershire and his often useful left-arm spin bowling were major factors in his selection, according to selection panel chief Kiran More.

Yet, by dropping promising opener Robin Uthappa, the selectors might have sent the wrong message to emerging cricketers. In the chances that have come his way, Uthappa has done his cause no harm. Sadly, the selectors might have dented the confidence of a young cricketer.

It would have made sense to pick Uthappa, particularly since Sachin Tendulkar is returning from a shoulder surgery. Uthappa could have been a cover for Tendulkar, given the fact that the opening slot is neither the right one nor a long-term option for skipper Rahul Dravid.

The side lacks a genuine left-arm spinner, and Mongia’s bowling, despite improvement, might not measure up to the team’s needs. In any case, Yuvraj Singh, an automatic choice in the XI, can always chip in with a few overs of left-arm spin in times of need. However, recalling Anil Kumble would have been an infinitely better solution, if indeed, the selectors desired a spinner who can turn the ball away from the right-hander. Kumble, without question, is India’s premier bowler, pace or spin.

The sheer intensity of his bowling, his mastery over the fundamentals, and the ability to bring in subtle changes, enable him to create the kind of pressure the Indian bowlers failed to build during the 4-1 drubbing in the ODI series in the Caribbean. Even on those occasions when he does not strike, Kumble can put the batsmen under considerable stress with his persistence, enabling the others to make inroads.

Kumble and Harbhajan, considering that the pitches in the Caribbean have slowed down apart from having an element of double pace, can combine effectively in the World Cup. Harbhajan is a lesser bowler without Kumble; despite a creditable economy rate of 3.91, the off-spinner scalped just three batsmen in five games in the West Indies.

On the odd occasion Kumble tends to stray down the leg-side. But he is someone who can operate with great precision, too. His age, 35, should not be held against this influential cricketer. If not the quickest on his feet, Kumble remains a safe fielder. The champion leg-spinner has to be included soon. The ideal ODI sides have been a blend of experience and youth.

The Indian pacemen do need to regroup after the pounding they received in the Caribbean. Irfan Pathan, whose economy rate was an unsatisfactory 5.59, clearly struggled. According to the legendary Dennis Lillee and former India paceman T. A. Sekar, who have spent considerable time with Pathan at the MRF Pace Foundation, the bowler has to re-work his action. In the West Indies, Pathan’s bowling arm came from behind his right ear. The rotation of his arm before release thus could not be straight and this affected his direction, speed and control.

Since the Indian game-plan often revolves around Pathan’s early strikes, it is absolutely vital that the bowler gets his technique corrected. S. Sreesanth (economy rate 5.47) and Munaf Patel (5.80) too proved expensive in the Caribbean, while left-armer Rudra Pratap Singh has suffered a form slump.

At least in the ODIs — the pacemen showed some improvement in the Test series — the Indian pace attack was found wanting. It is here that Zaheer Khan comes into the picture. He is a senior paceman who knows a thing or two about handling tough situations, and his experience could prove valuable for India in the days ahead. The left-armer’s speed might have dropped, but he remains a compelling seam bowler, who, at this stage of his career, can be more effective in the shorter version of the game.

Zaheer, among the wickets for Gloucestershire, has been overlooked. R. P. Singh will have to consider himself fortunate to have received the nod. Importantly, India requires bowlers at the `Death’ who can achieve reverse swing.

Team India’s batting is its stronger flank. However, the pacing of its innings in the Caribbean came in for criticism. The Indian batting worked in fits and starts. While flexibility in the batting order can often surprise the opponent, India needs to provide its top batsmen consistent spots so that their role definitions are clear and they get into the groove mentally. At the moment, there is far too much reliance on the likes of M. S. Dhoni for quick runs. The Indians need to work the ball around more and sharpen their running between the wickets. The Indian fielding was vibrant in Pakistan and in the home ODI series. In the West Indies, there was a marked decline in standards. It is fielding that often forces mistakes from the batsmen.

Sri Lanka will be hard to beat, while South Africa, even without a few of its key players, could prove competitive. The spinners should call the shots in the day/night games at the Premadasa Stadium, a Lankan bastion. The day matches on the often lively Sinhalese Sports Club pitch could see the pacemen making their presence felt.

Finally, there is the Sourav Ganguly question. The former India captain, picking up the pieces in English county cricket, is going through a testing phase. Yet, it would be premature to rule out his chances. Come to think of it, he is a far more influential cricketer than a utility man like Mongia.

Team India will explore novel ways of training as the cricketers set off for a surprise destination outside Bangalore city tomorrow to kick off the conditioning camp for next month’s tri-series in Sri Lanka.

“Tomorrow morning, the team will leave for a place outside Bangalore for teaming up and doing a lot of physical training. It will not be open to the media,” trainer Gregory King told reporters today.

King said the team management favoured adopting new techniques of training keeping in view its usefulness.

“It is a team management decision to try out new techniques. In the past too, we tried out a few new things which produced positive results,” he said.

“I want to keep the players unprepared at what we are going to do in next three days. It will not be very different from the camps we had in last three years. We would like to try out something different,” he said.

The players will be back to the NCA premises in Bangalore on July 28 evening.

The next morning, they will be put through medical and skill assessments apart from body composition assessment.

King said since the three-day training session would be very demanding in nature, there would be a recovery session – yoga, swimming and teki – for the cricketers in the evening on July 29.

“Teki is also a good method of training. It is all about balance and focus. The players won’t have normally encountered these activities before,” he said.

So far, Irfan Pathan, Suresh Raina, V V S Laxman, Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh have reported at the camp.

Coach Greg Chappell, who is currently holidaying in the US, will join the team on August 4

aggregate of 1161 one-day runs in the last one year and three Man of the Series awards - Yuvraj Singh has finally arrived after his initial years of promise.

However, he is not exactly happy at the moment since his Test form was not as expected in the West Indies.

As a new season begins with the tri-series in Sri Lanka next month, ‘Yuvi’ wants to set the record straight so that he can continue to be a potent force in both form of the games. Excerpts from the interview:

GULF NEWS: Another tour to Sri Lanka is on the cards. It was from there last season that your purple patch begun. How does it feel after a great year?

Yuvraj: I am happy with what I have done in the one-dayers, but I believe I should have done better in Tests. I tried my best, but there are still a few more things to be done in Tests to make my mark.

What are your expectations from the tour of Sri Lanka?

We really played well in one-dayers in the last one year. We had done well despite the slower wickets of the West Indies and in Sri Lanka too, the wickets should be of similar nature.

We shall be having two conditioning camps before the tri-series and hope to carry on the good work.

While you had a reasonably successful one-day series against the Windies with 183 runs, India had lost the series 1-4.

That is why in a team game, the most important thing is the team’s win. You may perform individually, but the whole team’s showing is far more important. However, I feel we were really unlucky to lose the four close matches on trot.

In the second match, you were out when the team needed just one run to tie the match.

I just could not sleep that night. Dwayne Bravo had chosen the right moment to deliver that killing blow at the right place and time. What a slower it was!

I was batting on 93 and could not believe I could be out without winning the game.

Indians were expected to do better in the Test series, but you could only win the last Test for a narrow series win.

I feel we should have won at least one, if not two more Tests. We were sitting pretty from where we should have won the Test, but we could not capitalise on it. We will have to convert the near-things on more occasions in future.

Your team did not chase a feasible target in the second Test, closing the shutters as soon as Dhoni departed.

Rahul told me to go easy since I was not hitting the ball well and we did not want to risk it. To lose a Test is not worth it, especially when you have the option of drawing it.

If I were hitting the ball as sweetly as I am used to, we would have gone for it. Our intentions were clear: we tried by promoting Dhoni who wanted to go after the bowling.

If he had succeeded, the story would have been different.

In a candid chat with After Hours, Yuvraj Singh talks about his hopes for an Arjuna Award, masti in Mumbai and his Bollywood aspirations.

Yuvraj Singh is on a roll and that big smile on his face is saying it all — he’s currently the top ODI batsman in the world and has been nominated for an Arjuna Award. “It’s an honour because it’s such a big award. And you get to meet the President,” he says earnestly. “I was nominated for the last two years, but I didn’t get it. Hopefully, this year it’ll become a feather in my cap.”

In town for just a day to shoot for the Autumn-Winter catalogue of Westside, a fashion label he endorses, he takes to the cameras like a pro with Muzammil Ibrahim and Sheetal Mallar. With time, he’s loosened up considerably, and now he even keeps the momentum going with some gags thrown in for good measure. But his only complaint is that he’ll hardly have time catch up with his friends in the city.

“Usually when I come to Mumbai, it’s for shoots. Earlier, whenever I got the time, I used to head to Fire and Ice, but it’s been closed down now. Olive is another nice place to spend the evening. When Zaheer is here, I usually hang out with him, but I’ve been coming here for a long time so I’ve also got some other friends whom I go out with,” he says.

Ahem! So who is he catching up with this time around? Unfortunately, anything to do with Kim Sharma — marriage plans, her alleged showdown with lensman Vikram Bawa — is strictly off limits. So is anything to do with cricketer pals like Zaheer and Irfan with similar ‘Bollywood connections’. “No controversies boss,” he begs off.

But has he ever thought of having a shot at films himself? “Well I’m not interested in Bollywood at the moment because I’m concentrating on my game. When I finish my career, maybe then…but that’s all in the future,” he shrugs.

So is he leaving it to destiny, just like his career? After all, cricket wasn’t the only sport he loved — he’d dreamt of making it big in football, tennis and even skating.

“I’m not fatalistic but yes, as far as astrological traits go, jaisa Sagittarian hota hai vaisa main hoon — very straight forward. What I’m on the inside is what I am on the outside. I don’t hide anything.”

But then is he also the flirt most Sagittarians are held to be? He shakes his head emphatically: “That’s something I don’t agree with.” We hope that answers somebody somewhere.

A fit-again Sachin Tendulkar will return to the India team for next month’s triangular one-day series in Sri Lanka following the shoulder injury that has sidelined him since March.

Selectors included India’s premier batsman in a 15-man squad on Friday for the series involving Sri Lanka and South Africa to be played in Colombo from August 14-29.

In another other change to the squad that lost a one-day series 4-1 in West Indies in May, left-handed all-rounder Dinesh Mongia was recalled after a year’s absence.

Opener Robin Uthappa and middle-order batsman Venugopal Rao have been dropped.

“We are looking at Mongia as an all-rounder, especially his ability to bowl left-arm spin,” chairman of selectors Kiran More told a news conference.

“We have two off-spinners (Harbhajan Singh and Ramesh Powar) and we want more options in the spin department.”

Leg-spinner Anil Kumble missed out on a recall but More hinted at his possible return in the near future. “We know what we are targeting, we have something in mind for him,” More said.

Kumble, 35, is India’s most successful one-day bowler with 329 wickets but has played little limited overs cricket since the last World Cup.

The team will undergo a two-phased camp in Bangalore before leaving for Sri Lanka on Aug. 10.

India: Rahul Dravid (capt), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wicketkeeper), Suresh Raina, Ajit Agarkar, Irfan Pathan, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, Munaf Patel, Harbhajan Singh, Ramesh Powar, Dinesh Mongia, Rudra Pratap Singh.

Rahul Dravid can well be the second cricketer after Sachin Tendulkar to win the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award after the BCCI nominated the Team India captain for country’s highest sports award.

BCCI has also nominated emerging allrounder Irfan Pathan and dashing southpaw Yuvraj Singh for the Arjuna award for the year 2005-06.

Since its inception, only one cricketer, Tendulkar (1997-98) has succeeded in laying fingers on the Khel Ratna award, while other winners include chess wizard Viswanathan Anand, the first recipient, cue ace Geet Sethi, Olympic medallist lifter Karnam Malleswari, mercurial hockey forward Dhanraj Pillay, All-England title winning shuttler Pullela Gopichand, star long jumper Anju Bobby George and the country’s first Olympic silver medallist, post-independence, marksman Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore.

All speculation has come to an end with regard to Sachin Tendulkar’s fitness, with the BCCI on Tuesday announcing that the veteran of 362 one-day internationals has made satisfactory progress from his shoulder injury. He would be a sure shot selection as an opener along with Virender Sehwag for the tri-series in Sri Lanka when the national selectors meet here on Thursday afternoon at the MCA. This would be the committee’s first meeting after India’s tour of the West Indies.

Karnataka’s Robin Uthappa, who made his one-day debut against England and scored a sparkling half century, was retained for the two-match series against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi and the five-match series against the West Indies, has not been capped more than three times and hence he’s not likely to be displaced from the squad.

The middle order has bulk and a wealth of experience in Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif. The young left-hander, Suresh Raina’s mature display since last winter has come as a boon for Indian cricket. Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Irfan Pathan provide the depth and quality.

The selectors — Ranjib Biswal, V. B. Chandrasehkar and Kiran More — made staggered visits to the West Indies — and the team management have realised that spin is more likely to deliver the goods in the West Indies during the World Cup and also at the R. Premadasa and SSC stadiums in Colombo. Precisely the reason they are thinking of bringing in Dinesh Mongia.

Since Greg Chappell took charge as coach of the Indian team a little over 12 months ago, there has been considerable debate on the utilisation of Pathan as an one-drop batsman and bold steps taken by the team’s think tank. Chappell and Dravid have articulated their views on getting the process and balance of the team right for the ICC World Cup 2007 in the West Indies. They now have a fair idea of the combination that would work in the Caribbean; the results achieved in the tri-series in Colombo and the ICC Champions Trophy would offer them more inputs.

Tri-series schedule: Aug. 14: Sri Lanka v South Africa (Premadasa), Aug. 16: Sri Lanka v India (Premadasa), Aug. 19: India v South Africa (SSC), Aug. 21: Sri Lanka v South Africa (SSC), Aug. 24: Sri Lanka v India (Preamadasa), Aug. 26: India v South Africa (R. Premadasa), Aug. 29: Final (Premadasa).

It was an emotional moment for 123 sportspersons from Punjab here Saturday when they were conferred with the Maharaja Ranjit Singh sports awards.

The awards had assumed significance as they were being revived after 10 years.

The awards, which started in 1978, had been abolished in 1996 by the then Punjab government citing financial constraints. The award carries a cash reward of Rs.100,000.

Chief Minister Amarinder Singh gave away the awards to those who excelled in various events between 1997 and 2004.

Punjab’s sports director and former Indian hockey captain and Olympian Pargat Singh was among those conferred the awards.

Several other sports stars failed to turn up for the function as they were participating in major events or were playing outside the country. Fourteen such players were honoured in absentia.

These included cricketers Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Reetinder Singh Sodhi and Dinesh Mongia, hockey Olympian Gagan Ajit Singh and shooter Manavjit Singh Sandhu.

The highest number of awards went to athletes (22) followed by wrestling (16) and hockey (15). Four cricketers made it to the list.

With The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) bowing to the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) demands that the shortest version of the game so far - Twenty20 format – be included in the domestic calendar, the players, who are already overstretched, may feel the additional burden.

Cricketers world over have already voiced their displeasure about ICC’s scheduling of Test and One-Day matches and have been complaining of too much cricket. In fact many of the players, including the Aussies and the South Africans, who are considered as the fittest, have been hit by injuries due to over exposure.

Nearer home, batting ace Sachin Tendulkar, who is considered as one of the fittest Indian cricketers along with his skipper Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif and Irfan Pathan, has not been spared as well and is still recuperating after a major operation.

Even youngsters like Yuvi and Pathan too have had their share of injuries and with the introduction of the Twenty20, the casualties are bound to increase as the workload on the players will certainly double.

The Twenty20 may also help lose spectators interest for Test matches, which according to hardcore cricket followers is still the real thing even though the present day life makes it difficult for a layman to follow the longer version of the game for five long years.

As it is, the Test matches are losing its popularity after the introduction of One-Day matches as it was quite evident in the recent Test series in Asia and in the West Indies where just a hand full of spectators watched the matches in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the West Indies.

With the introduction of Twenty20 format, the Test matches might take a further beating as the spectator gets what he wants (quick results as well as some action) and he need not wait for five long days to see a match end in a tame draw.

The Cricket Board has recommended the name of Indian captain Rahul Dravid for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, the country’s highest sporting honour, for the year 2005-06.

The BCCI has also put forward the names of paceman Irfan Pathan and left-hand batsman Yuvraj Singh for the Arjuna Award for the same year, Secretary Niranjan Shah said today.

The Khel Ratna was started in 1991 and Sachin Tendulkar is the only cricketer so far to have received the honour (1997-98).

Dravid, who took over captaincy from Sourav Ganguly last year, is currently regarded as one of the finest batsmen and has been in the top three in the ICC Test batting rankings for quite some time.

Pathan has emerged as India’s pace spearhead and had a creditable performance in the period under review while Yuvraj has also been one of the consistent performers for the Indian team, particularly in the shorter version of the game.

The President confers the awards at a glittering function at Rashtrapati Bhawan on August 29 every year. The award carries a scroll of honour and a purse of Rs 5 lakhs.

Chess Grandmaster Vishwanathan Anand was the first recipient of the prestigious award. Geet Sethi, Karnam Malleswari, Dhanraj Pillay, Pullela Gopichand, Anju Bobby George and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore are among the top sportspersons who have received the honour.