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BCB rejects Bacher’s DUBAI, Apr 22: Bangladesh Cricket Board president (BCB) Saber.........more ED grills Krishan NEW DELHI, Apr 22 : Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials continued ..........more Final of Santosh Trophy today THRISSUR, Apr 22: A battle royale is on the cards when hosts Kerala take on formidable.......more South African Police JOHANNESBURG, Apr 22: The South African police today agreed to assist their Indian.....more |
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Bhaskar, Arun clinch victory four
wkts for JCC JCC to meet KCCC in Gurdeep Memorial Cricket final today Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Apr 22: Jammu Cricket Club (JCC) will take on the Karamchand Cricket Club(KCCC) in the final of the Ist Gurdeep Singh Bagru Memorial Cricket Tournament being organised......more Advani hints at possibility GANGTOK, Apr 22: Union Home Minister L K Advani today did not rule out possibility of a.....more Junior men’s Asia Cup NEW DELHI, Apr 22: India will take on Bangladesh in their opening match of the 12 nation 4th.....more Laxman scores ton before MUMBAI, Apr 22: VVS Laxman notched up his eighth Ranji Trophy century of the season.......more |
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BCB rejects Bacher’s statement DUBAI, Apr 22: Bangladesh Cricket Board president (BCB) Saber Hossain Chowdhury has rejected the reported statement of South African Cricket Board managing director Ali Bacher that the Bangladesh-Pakistan match in the last World Cup was fixed. "We showed our mettle in every department of that game and beat Pakistan", he said, adding that "such an allegation will demoralise our cricket". He said the BCB would lodge an official protest if anybody made any specific allegation against Bangladesh. Mr Chowdhury, who was in Dubai enroute Dhaka after his visit to South Africa, told Gulf news that "the International Cricket Council (ICC) is going to take tough measures to stop match-fixing in cricket and a new code of conduct is expected to replace the existing one". He said that in South Africa he had held extensive talks with Dr Bacher on ways and means to clean up the mess in international cricket. "We are going to suggest drastic measures like imposing life bans on the players found guilty and propose a new code of conduct for players so that they are forced to reveal the identity of anyone who approaches them". Asked if he had spoken to Dr Bacher about his recent statement in which he alleged that all betting and match-fixing problems originated from the sub-continent, Mr Chowdhury, who is also a deputy minister in Bangladesh Government, said "Dr Bacher categorically denied making any statement like that. As part of the sub-continent and a cricket-playing nation ourselves, we are deeply concerned. He told me that he had been misquoted". He said Bangladesh was close to attaining test status."We need seven votes out of nine and we are pretty close...As far as the matter of test status is concerned, it is a matter of ‘when’ not ‘if’. He said ‘we have the backing of almost all the members of the ICC to attain test status. Besides, we have an excellent cricketing infrastructure and a solid support base". (UNI) |
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ED grills Krishan Kumar at Tihar Jail NEW DELHI, Apr 22 : Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials continued to grill Bollywood actor Krishan Kumar at Tihar Jail for the second consecutive day today in connection with his alleged involvement in Hawala transactions in the sensational match-fixing case. A team of ED officials who were allowed by the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Sangeeta Dhingra Sehgal to question Kumar on Thursday went to the jail this afternoon, sources in the Directorate said. They said that following the acmm’s order, crime branch handed over voluminious documents pertaining to FERA violations collected by it so far during investigation against Kumar and Rajesh Kalra, a co-accused in the case. Kumar, brother of slain music baron Gulshan Kumar, was earlier briefly questioned by Crime Branch police but ED officials had not interrogated him so far in the absence of materials pertaining to fera violations collected by police during interrogation against him, they said. Kumar was arrested from a private hospital in South Delhi on April 15 by the ED on the basis of statement made by Kalra, the first accused arrested in the case involving South African cricketer Hansie Cronje and four of his team-mates. Meanwhile, Kumar’s anticipatory bail application will come up for hearing in the High Court on April 25. The High Court on Thursday directed police not to arrest Kumar in connection with cheating and criminal conspiracy as he had moved two applications before it seeking interim relief and quashing of proceedings against him by the ED on the ground that he was being harrassed without any basis. (PTI) |
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Final
of Santosh Trophy today THRISSUR, Apr 22: A battle royale is on the cards when hosts Kerala take on formidable Maharasthra in the final of the Santosh Trophy National Football Tournament here tomorrow. Kerala enjoy a slight edge since it will have the backing of thousands of soccer fans, who will throng the floodlit stadium to witness the clash between the two footballing giants. Kerala last won the trophy in 1992-93 at Ernakulam, beating Maharasthra 2-0, but since then a title triumph has eluded them. Three-time winners Kerala had been runners-up on five occasions. Their earlier triumps came in 1973-74 at Ernakulam and 1991-92 at Coimbatore. Kerala, seeded straight into the quarterfinal league, have had a tremendous run here. After an impressive 5-2 win over services, they beat fancied Karnataka 2-1. In their last league match, they held 29-time champion Bengal to a 1-1 draw to top their group. Kerala put up a brilliant performance in the semifinals against Goa, defeating them 2-0, dashing goan hopes of making their fifth entry on the trot into the finals. On the other hand, qualifiers Maharashtra look a compact and balanced team, good in all departments of the game and have shown improvement in each outing they had figured in. Maharashtra’s way to the title clash has been impressive. They drubbed Haryana 7-0 in a preliminary group VIII match and had a dream run in the quarter-final league, where they thrashed Tamil Nadu 4-0. They then routed a strong Punjab 2-0, but had to be content with splitting points with Goa after a 1-1 draw. In the semifinals, Maharashtra defeated reigning champions Bengal with a comprehensive 3-1 win to qualify for the summit clash after making their last entry in 1992-93 at Ernakulam. (PTI) |
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South
African Police ready to cooperate with JOHANNESBURG, Apr 22: The South African police today agreed to assist their Indian counterparts in investigating the sensational cricket match-fixing scandal, 15 days after the Delhi Police case rocked the game world over. But a police spokesman told reporters in Pretoria that they had not been given copies of the tapes purported to be conversations between sacked South African skipper Hansie Cronje and an Indian bookie. Delhi Police have registered a case of cheating, fraud and criminal conspiracy and named Cronje, teammates Herschelle Gibbs, Nicky Boje, Pieter Strydom and Henry Williams besides two Indian bookies. Meanwhile, the South African Government today announced that the judicial inquiry into the match-fixing allegations will be instituted soon and the name of the judge to head the panel will be named within the next few days. We are contacting the person and ironing out the details, a Sports Ministry spokesman, Brian Abrahams, said. Cronje has admitted to dishonesty over allegations of match-fixing against him and that he took between 10,000 to 15,000 from a London-based Indian bookie to provide information and forecast on matches during the one-day tri-series in South Africa early this year. Cronje has denied any involvement in match-fixing and returned about 8000 which he reportedly received from the bookie to the South African Reserve Bank. Meanwhile, South African Board (UCBSA) managing director, Ali Bacher, has come under fire for claiming that two matches at last year’s World Cup in England could have been fixed. While the International Cricket Council president Jagmohan Dalmiya has criticised him for making the allegations the local press have claimed it could be a ruse to deflect the spotlight away from Cronje. Dalmiya had said he would seek an explanation from Bacher for going to the media first with the allegations. (PTI0 |
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Junior men’s Asia Cup hockey from May 3 NEW DELHI, Apr 22: India will take on Bangladesh in their opening match of the 12 nation 4th junior men’s Asia Cup Hockey Tournament to be held in Kualalumpur (Malaysia) from May 3 to 14. India is placed in comparatively easy pool B along with Iran, Japan, Bangladesh, China and Uzbekistan. Arch rival Pakistan is in tough pool a with host Malaysia, Korea, Oman, Singapore and Chinese Taipei. International Hockey Federation (FIH) has named India’s Kukoo Walia to officiate as umpire manager in this prestigious tournament in which first three teams will qualify for the junior World Cup to be held in Australia next year. Kukoo Walia, who is international grade I umpire, is the fifth Asian to be included in the umpire manager panel of the FIH. Umpire manager has to ensure that each umpire officiating in the tournament is well versed and preparerd with the latest rules and regulations of the FIH. Umpire manager has also to ensure that officiating officials maintain highest level of uniformity and consistancy. He also has to submit his assessment report about the umpires to the FIH. Following is the schedule of the tournament: May 3: Oman v Malaysia, Pakistan v Singapore, India vs Bangladesh Japan v Iran. May 4: Singapore v Chinese Taipei, Korea v Oman, Japan v China, Uzbekistan v Bangladesh. May 5: Pakistan v Korea, Malaysia v Chinese Taipei, Uzbekistan v Iran, India v China. May 6: Singapore v Oman, Bangladesh v Iran, India v Japan. May 7: Japan v Bangladesh, India v Iran, Malaysia v Singapore, Oman v Chinese Taipei. May 8: Japan v Bangladesh, India v Iran, Malaysia v Singapore, Oman v Chinese Taipei. May 9: India v Uzbekistan, Bangladesh v China, Pakistan v Oman, Korea v Singapore. May 10: China v Iran, Japan v Uzbekistan, Korea v Chinese Taipei, Pakistan v Malaysia. May 11: Rest day. May 12: Pool A -5 V pool B -6, pool A-6 v pool B -5, pool A -3 V pool b -4, pool A-1, V pool B-2, Pool A -4 V pool B -3, pool A-2 V pool B-1. May 13: Qualification matches for 5th to 12the places. May 14: Match for 3rd /4th place and final Former Indian Olympic goalkeeper Muneer Sait has been appointed as tournament director. There are also two Indian umpires M Mohd Muneer for men’s competition and Madhu Yadav for women’s tournament. (UNI) |
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Laxman scores ton before Mumbai tighten noose MUMBAI, Apr 22: VVS Laxman notched up his eighth Ranji Trophy century of the season, a glorious 111, before Mumbai bowlers Ajit Agarkar and Rajesh Pawar tightened the noose around Hyderabad on the fourth and penultimate day of the Ranji Trophy final here today. The visitors - 181 behind Mumbai on the first innings and set an improbable victory target of 591 by the home team last evening, had collapsed to 251 for 7 wickets in their second innings at close today. The unbeaten batsmen at the end of the fourth day’s play were Fiaz Ahmed (11) and Venkatapathy Raju (0), who came to the crease at the fall of Hyderabad skipper Mohd Azharuddin (11) who could bat only at the fall of the fifth wicket as he was off the field throughout yesterday due to an injury. The stylish 25-year-old Laxman, who has been in and out of national team, drove, flicked and pulled his way to his 18th century in the national championship with 13 fours and two sixes besides featuring in a fighting stand of 188 runs for the second wicket with left-handed opener Daniel Manohar. Laxman, who batted for 264 minutes and faced 192 balls, and Manohar (71 in over six hours with 11 fours) fell within the space of 24 balls while only four runs were added to the score after tea which triggered the collapse - seven wickets fell while only 46 runs were added in the last session. Left-arm spinner Pawar grabbed four of these wickets, including that of Manohar, Laxman and Azhar, while Agarkar claimed the other three Hyderabad wickets. Hyderabad started their daunting task this morning on the wrong foot losing opener Nanda Kishore (9) at 10 when the batsman snicked Agarkar to Sachin Tendulkar at first slip. But Manohar, who flopped in the first essay in Hyderabad’s meagre total of 195 in reply to Mumbai’s 376, and Laxman, unfortunately run out for 46 in the first innings, took the attack to the rival camp during their excellent second-wicket stand which lasted for 264 minutes. Mumbai tried several bowlers to break it, but in vain, though Laxman could have been sent back early on had Tendulkar accepted a low catch to his right when the batsman, on 6, snicked Abey Kuruvilla to the slip cordon. Manohar too survived a very difficult chance in the slip cordon, Tendulkar again being the erring player, but thereafter played the ideal foil for Laxman. The latter, at the end of his knock which was his tenth century in first class cricket this season - including two in Australia - had taken his record tally to 1,415 in 9 matches. Laxman raised his half century in style, lofting Pawar to the straight field for a four and a six, in 116 minutes and off 74 balls and embellished with 7 fours and 2 sixes. Hyderabad, 112 for one, at lunch put on another 82 runs in 29 overs in the second session without losing any wicket. Manohar completed his half ton in 212 minutes with 8 fours and Laxman, who had come into this match after a monumental 353 made against Karnataka in the semi-final, reached his three-figure mark in 217 minutes, off 161 balls and with the help of 12 fours and 2 sixes. (PTI) |
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