Jimmy Adams

Cricket corruption
may never be
cleaned up: Adams

PERTH, Nov 4: West Indies cricket captain Jimmy Adams today questioned whether the corruption which had blackened the game’s image, could ever completely be removed.........more

34th Chess Olympiad
Indian men poised to
cross 10th rank barrier

ISTANBUL, Nov 4: The Indian men are having the best of times. And they are poised to break their all time best of 10th position in the Chess Olympiad if their exploits in the ongoing 34th Edition of Chess Olympiad are any indication.......more

Mahindra United thrashes
TFA, Salgaokar hold Bagan

NEW DELHI, Nov 4: Salgaokar Sports Club Goa held Mohun Bagan to a goalless draw, while Mahindra United pumped in five against the ..........more

62nd junior national Table
Tennis championship
to begin on Nov 9

NEW DELHI, Nov 4: Arunava Ganguly of PSCB Academy and Sushmita Roy (Bengal) have been top seeded in the boys..........more

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Nov 4: With two titles in hand, promising Chandpreet Kour will take on defending Women’s champion Bhavna Arora tomorrow to make............more

Chandan Singh named
captain for Inter
University Handball

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Nov 4: International Handball player, Chandan Singh Chowhan of the Department of Law has been named as captain.........more

Qayoom leading
J&K in Ranji tie
against Punjab today

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Nov 4: All-rounder Abdul Qayoom has been made captain of the Jammu and Kashmir team which will take on Punjab in its second test of the Ranji Trophy Tournament at.......more

Under-14 Cricket
Gourav helps Delhi
trounce J&K by
inning and 21 runs

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

KATHUA, Nov 4: Delhi today defeated the host Jammu and Kashmir by an inning and 21 runs on the third and final........more

Girls cadets of Government Degree College, Kathua, who attended the National Integration Camp which was held at Udaipur, posing with Principal, Dr O S Soodan and officer Tejinder Kaur. Senior Under Officer Mamta acted camp senior and the college team also won second prize in cultural events

Cricket corruption may never be cleaned up: Adams

PERTH, Nov 4: West Indies cricket captain Jimmy Adams today questioned whether the corruption which had blackened the game’s image, could ever completely be removed.

Will the root problem ever be solved? He asked as his side arrived here at the start of their Australian tour, embracing a five-test series and a triangular one-day contest also involving Zimbabwe.

Will you ever get to a point where people (cricketers) will never be approached (by bookies)? How do you solve that? you will always have gambling. And that is the root problem. How do you remove that?

Adams was commenting on the explosive Indian report issued this week claiming West Indies star batsman Brian Lara was among a group of international stars to have been paid money by an Indian bookmaker to fix matches or provide information.

Lara, who is alleged to have taken 40,000 US dollars to under-perform, refused to talk to the media here after the side’s arrival.

Team Manager Ricky Skerritt said Lara had placed the matter in the hands of his lawyer in England who had told him not to add anything to statement issued there categorically denying he had taken money to under-perform in two games in 1994.

Brian has been keeping his chin up in the circumstances, Adams said. I don’t think anybody enjoys going through what he is going through, but he is in a pretty pleasant mood. (AFP)

34th Chess Olympiad
Indian men poised to cross 10th rank barrier

ISTANBUL, Nov 4: The Indian men are having the best of times. And they are poised to break their all time best of 10th position in the Chess Olympiad if their exploits in the ongoing 34th Edition of Chess Olympiad are any indication.

A welcome rest day today must have given ample time to the new-look Indian team to prepare sound strategy before taking on Bulgaria in the seventh round tomorrow.

Germany leads the table in the men’s section with 18.5 points while China has maintained the lead in women’s event with 14 points.

Having placed themselves on a tie from 8th to 17th places with 15.5 points out of a possible 24, India’s men’s team is sitting pretty having played very tough opposition so far.

The only loss came against England when IM Surya Sekhar Ganguly could not hold to his own and went down to grandmaster Emms.

Incidentally, of all the games split into six players, there has been only one loss besides Ganguly’s. That of GM Sasikiran who lost to highly regarded GM Peter Leko after a tough fight.

The other four players in the team GM Abhijit Kunte, GM Dibyendu Barua, IM P Harikrishna and IM D V Prasad have not lost any game so far and should this trend continue, the vibrant team might even find itself among medal winners.

National champion Abhijit Kunte has been particularly impressive from the Indian perspective. Kunte has scored 4/5 and that includes two memorable victories over GM Zoltan Almasi of Hungary and Gregory Kaidanov of USA. In his early twenties, the Indian Oil employee has gone from strength to strength and he will have to score a few more big victories for his team here.

Sasikiran has been his usual self. A score of 3/5 is commendable, considering the opposition he has faced. His draw against Nigel Short was a tactical skirmish, a clear indication that he is working hard on his deficiencies.

Against Leko too he had an unclear position. That he has a long way

to go is anyone’s guess as in the chess fraternity he is already a force to reckon with.

Harikrishna is the surprise package from India. At 14, he has made the best of oppositions gasping for breath. His personal score is 2/3 on board 3. He drew with GM Jonathan Speelman of England and Gyula Sax of Hungary and his solid variety of chess might earn him more impressive results here.

On the fourth board the most experienced member of the team, GM Barua has scored 3/5 while IM D V Prasad has tallied 2/3. The only player without a positive score is Ganguly who has 50 per cent from his three games so far.

Among the women, WGM Vijayalakshmi is holding the front with a fantastic 5/6 score. The team score of 11 points is just about right, taking into account, their opposition. (PTI)

Mahindra United thrashes TFA, Salgaokar hold Bagan

NEW DELHI, Nov 4: Salgaokar Sports Club Goa held Mohun Bagan to a goalless draw, while Mahindra United pumped in five against the TFA boys in Group I quarter final league matches of the Durand Cup here today.

With this win Mahindras have four points and are comfortably placed in the group. They will now play their last league match against Salgaokar.

After their poor outing against TFA, when they scrapped through with a solitary goal win Salgaokar did well today to snatch a point from Bagan.

Throughout the two Brazilian strikers Baretto and Santos threatened the Salgaokar defence with quick anticipation, deft dribbling and nice body feints. But their finishing was their undoing and Juge Siddi under the Salgaokar bar had a splendid game making some fine saves.

In the 23rd minute Santos threaded a fine move with Baretto and passed the ball to R P Singh inside the box but he messed it up managing to take only a feeble shot. Within five minutes they again moved up in tandem but the Salgaokar defence stood firm.

On the other hand the Salgaokar forward line never struck any rhythm. Bruno Coutinho, Climax Lawrence and Denis Cabral failed to impress never threatening the rival defence. Finding the solid Bagan defence hard to crack, they even tried a few long rangers. In the 29th minute Nigerian Gbenga Lawal tried a rasping shot from around 35 yards which hit the post. Climax lawrence failed to score off the rebound.

Bagan pushed hard after the break to score, but came unstuck against some excellent defence by the goans. While Augustine Rodrigues marked Santos, stopper back Covan Lawrence shadowed Jose Barreto.

Bagan came close to scoring in the 59th minute when Baretto dashed down the left flank and found Santos near the penalty box. Santos dodged past two defenders and passed it to R P Singh who only managed to sound the advertisement hoardings behind the goal.

The Calcuttans mounted further pressure and play was mainly in the Salgaokar half. Baretto tried a solo 12 minutes later dodging past a clutch of defenders. But his power-packed right footer went straight to goal keeper Juje Siddi.

With under ten minutes remaining, RC Prakash came in for Basudeb Mondal and almost did a repeat of the previous match when he scored the equaliser against Mahindras in the injury time. He ran down left wing into the box and had two tries at the goal.

For Salgaokar, Bruno had a gilt edged chance in the 88th minute. With a clear look at the goal and inside the box, his shot was smartly saved by Juje.

The match between Mahindra United and TFA turned out to be a tough practical exam for the boys as they were outplayed by a thoroughly professional side.

TFA were down by three goals at the break and conceded two more in the second half. Manjit Singh scored in the 2nd and 43rd minutes, Habib Adekunle in the 30th, Aqueel Ansari in the 67th and M N jeeb in the 89th scored for the winners. (PTI)

62nd junior national Table Tennis championship
to begin on Nov 9

NEW DELHI, Nov 4: Arunava Ganguly of PSCB Academy and Sushmita Roy (Bengal) have been top seeded in the boys and girls sections respectively in the 62nd Junior National and Inter State Table Tennis Championship to be held at Bangalore from November 9 to 14.

Defending champion Bengal has been top billing in both boys and girls team championships.

In the boy’s team championship 24 teams have confirmed their entries while there are 23 teams in girls section. The teams have been divided into four groups. The individual seedings: Boys: 1,Arunava Ganguly, 2.Aditya Mahagaonkar (Mah) 3.Jayanta Chandra 4.Niloy Basak (both Ben) 5.Eric Fernandes(Mah) 6.Birupaksha Saha

7 Sourav Chakroborty(both Ben) 8.Ankur Mahajan (Mhr). Girls: 1.Sushmita Roy, 2.Mousami Paul, 3.Nandita Saha (Bng) 4.S.Sangeetha(TN) 5.Madhuirika Patkar(Mah), 6.Pratima Sayal(Dli), 7.Moon Moon Basak(Bng) 8.M.Aparana(TN)

Teams Seeding (Boys): Group A: Bengal, Delhi, Chandigarh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Pondicherry. Group B:CB Academy, U.P, Assam, Orissa, Goa, Tripura. Group C Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra’b’, Punjab, Kerala,HP, J and K. Group’D’: Maharashtra’a’, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh.

Girls: Group‘A’: Bengal, Maharashtra’b’, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Bihar. Group‘B’: Maharashtra’a’, Delhi, Chandigarh, Gujarat, Pondicherry. Group‘C’: Tamilnadu, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, Tripura. Group‘D’: Assam, Karnataka, Andhra, Kerala, Himachal, Goa.

Draws for the championshp were conducted in the Table Tennis Federation of India(TTFI) office here last evening in presence of TTFI’s secretary general M C Chowhan, Dhanraj Chowdhery and Hukam Singh, Chairman Classification Committee.(UNI)

Anantaditya Aima winner in cadet boys
Chandpreet to meet Bhavna for triple title
in State TT Champ

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Nov 4: With two titles in hand, promising Chandpreet Kour will take on defending Women’s champion Bhavna Arora tomorrow to make it a record triple title win in the 22nd State and Inter-district Table Tennis Championship which will conclude tomorrow at Indoor Complex, M A Stadium, here.

For her first win, Chandpreet Kour outplayed budding Deepinder Kour in in straight sets in the Sub-junior final 21-15, 21-16. For her second title, she defeated her arch rival Rashi Anand 2-1. Although, first set was won by Rashi Anand, but Chandpreet fought back in the remaining two sets to win the match 19-21, 21-13, 21-16.

And to make it a clean sweep in her age group by winning the third final, Chandpreet has to take on defending champion Bhavna Arora in the Women’s final tomorrow.

Earlier, in the Women’s semi-finals, Chandpreet Kour beat Rashi Anand 21-11, 21-12 and Bhavna Arora down fighting Depinder Kour in equal close straight sets of 21-19, 21-19.

To defend his cadet’s title, Anantaditya Aima defeated Abhimanyu Jamwal in straight sets of 21-13, 21-18.

In the Sub-junior boys, Ankit Mahajan and Wasid of Srinagar have reached the final. In the semi-finals, Ankit defeated Arjun Anand 21-11, 21-13, while Wasid beat Ankur Mahajan 21-18, 21-19.

In the Men’s doubles, the pair of Maninder Singh and Naresh Gupta will be meeting I P Singh and Satbir Singh in the final tomorrow. In the semi-finals, Maninder and Naresh beat Vivek and Anil Datta in straight sets of 21-19, 21-18. And in the second semi-finals, I P Singh and Satbir Singh beat Sanal Gupta nd Naresh in equal straight sets of 21-19, 21-19.

In the boys doubles, the pair of Anil Datta and Vishal Ghai will meet Nikhil Kesar and Nitin Kesar for the title clash.

Other results:

Men’s singles Pre-quarters: Maninder Singh beat Digpal Singh 21-17, 21-18; Vivek Gupta beat Anil Datta 21-16, 21-18; Naresh Gupta beat Lokesh Sharma 21-19, 21-19; Naresh Nitu beat Vishal Gupta 21-17, 21-12; Vikram Singh beat Nitin Kesar 21-14, 21-17; Ajay Kumar beat I P Singh 21-18, 21-19; Nikhil Kesar beat Deep Khajuria 18-21, 21-19, 21-19; Sanal Gupta beat Ajay Singh 21-17, 21-12.

Men’s doubles quarters: Maninder and Naresh beat Deep Khajuria and Raju 21-18, 21-19; Vivek Gupta and Anil Datta beat Ratnesh Puri and Rajeev 21-17, 21-19; I P Singh and Satbir Singh beat Digpal and Ashwani 21-14, 21-18; Sanal and Naresh Gupta beat Ajay and Vishal Gupta 21-14, 21-19.

Pre-quarters: Maninder and Naresh beat Abdul Qayoom and Aquib of Srinagar 21-13, 21-10; Deep Khajuria and Raju beat Kewal and Deepak Verma of Udhampur 21-11, 21-9; Nikhil and Nitin Kesar beat Ratnesh Puri and Rajeev 21-14, 21-17; I P Singh and Satbir Singh beat Salil Raina and Daleep Singh of Poonch 21-14, 21-13; Ajay and Vishal beat Rajesh Sharma and V Sadhotra 21-14, 21-18; Digpal and Ashwani got walkover against Vikas and Sunil of Udhampur.

Boys doubles semi-finals: Anil Datta and Vishal Ghai beat Ankur Sachdev and Anantaditya Aima 21-10, 21-14; Nikhil Kesar and Nitin Kesar beat Gurpreet and Aditya Kanwal 18-21, 21-19, 21-15.