NEW DELHI, Nov 7: India would field a 17-member squad for the second World Cup cricket for the blind, a Six-nation Tournament, which kicks off on December third in Chennai.............more

Sunita Rani doping case
Salwan committee to
submit report in next
three days

NEW DELHI, Nov 7: The one-man Sushil Salwan enquiry committee, set up by the Amateur Athletic Federation of India to probe into the Sunita Rani doping scandal, has completed the enquiry process but will........more

Chess Olympiad
Indian women outshine
their male counterparts

BLED (Slovenia), Nov 7: Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman brightened her medal chances by continuing.........more

Surjit Hockey Tourney
Signal, PSB, CISF and
Punjab Police win
their matches

JALANDHAR, Nov 7: Corps of Signal, Punjab and Sind Bank Academy, Central Industrial Security Force.........more

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Nov 7: Pallav Gupta has become new State Junior Snooker Champion, whileas Kamal Rohmetra and Gautam Lakra have sailed into the final of Senior Billiards in the 12th State..........more

Another ton by Inderjeet
guides MAM to semi-finals

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Nov 7: After hitting unbeaten double century against Degree College Kathua, Inderjeet Singh again showed his excellent form making another hundred against ..........more

All India Air Force Hockey Championship
Host WAC upsets title
holder Maintenance
Command in opener

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Nov 7: Last year’s ranked fifth and hosts of the All India Air Force Hockey Championship, Western Air Command (WAC) today defeated the defending..........more

BCCI condemns crowd behaviour....

Jeev, Arjun look good to qualify at US PGA Tour ....

Four Bangladesh cricketers hurt ....

World Cup for blind in Chennai from Dec 3

NEW DELHI, Nov 7: India would field a 17-member squad for the second World Cup cricket for the blind, a Six-nation Tournament, which kicks off on December third in Chennai.

Ramkaran Sharma of Delhi, a member of the previous World Cup, will lead the team, Association for Cricket for the Blind in India (ACBI) president George Abraham announced at a press conference here today.

Announcing the squad along with six stand bys, Mr Abraham said Karnataka’s Vishal Kumar will be the vice-captain of the team.

Apart from hosts, Australia, England, Pakistan, South Africa and Sri Lanka will also participate in the 12-day event.

India had also hosted the first World Cup for the blind in New Delhi in 1998.

The tournament will be held on a league-cum-knock out basis under the aegis of the World Blind Cricket Council (WBCC).

The matches will be 40 overs a side. The semi-finals will be played on December 12 at the Chemplast IIT ground and the CPT Indian Pistons ground and the finals will be at the M A Chidambaram Stadium on 14th.

ACBI has been the prime mover behind the formation of the World Blind Cricket Council (WBCC). This Council comprising of seven major cricketing nations was responsible for formulating the rules of the game which will be followed in all future tournaments.

The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) is the official sponsor of Indian team the for this tournament.

The team: Ramkaran Singh (Delhi), Vishal Kumar (Karnataka), Inder Singh (Delhi), Pratap Bisht (Delhi), Rajesh Singh (Delhi), Sanjeev Kumar (Haryana), Rajendra Verma (Rajasthan), Chandra Sekhar (Karnataka), Manvinder Singh (Delhi), Sushil Gaur (Delhi), Mahesh (Karnataka), L Adhikari (Bengal), Amandeep (Uttaranchal), B Nanaji (Andhra), Purshottam Patel(Gujarat), Shekar Nayak(Kar), Nirmal Kumar (Raj).

Stand bys: S Pushparaj (Andhra), Karsan Zala (Gujarat), Ravi Shastri (Jharkhand), M Dyaneshwar (Kar), Hande (Maharastra). (UNI)

Sunita Rani doping case
Salwan committee to submit report in next three days

NEW DELHI, Nov 7: The one-man Sushil Salwan enquiry committee, set up by the Amateur Athletic Federation of India to probe into the Sunita Rani doping scandal, has completed the enquiry process but will still need three or four days more to submit the report.

"The enquiry process is over, but I will need three or four more days to compile everything and submit the report," salwan told PTI here today.

Salwan said compiling all the documents and findings in such a short time was a "tough task" but he would try to submit his report as quickly as possible.

Salwan, who is also one of the vice-presidents of AAFI, had initially been given one week’s time to submit the report but had been granted ten more days since "it was not possible to complete the entire process in such a short time".

On whether he would call Sunita Rani to depose again in the wake of reports that there was a "huge difference" in the amount of the banned substance nandrolone in her A and B samples taken after the 1500m event, Salwan said "there is no need to call anyone now".

Sunita, who was stripped of her gold and bronze medals after failing the dope test in the recent Asian Games in Busan, had appeared before the enquiry committee twice and vehemently denied having taken any performance enhancing drugs.

The AAFI, under pressure from the world body to take disciplinary action against the drug-tainted athlete, had said that it will decide its future course of action only after receiving the report from its enquiry committee.

Although Sunita’s fight for proving her innocence has received a shot in the arm after the report which quoted medical expert as saying that the "huge difference" in the nandrolone level in the two tests was unheard of, her fate will largely depend on the Salwan committee report.

Salwan said that his probe will also focus on whether such variations were possible and he would seek medical opinion on all these aspects before finalising the report.

"I will be going into all these matters. I will have to take into account many factors. All these aspects will be covered in the report", he said.

Salwan said eleven persons were asked to depose before the committee. Apart from Sunita, her coach Renu Kohli and Dr Jawaharlal Jain, the doctor who had accompanied the Indian contingent to Busan, appeared before the committee twice.

If Sunita is found guilty, she faces the risk of being banned for a minimum of two years as per the rules laid down by the International Amateur Athletic Federation. (PTI)

Chess Olympiad
Indian women outshine their male counterparts

BLED (Slovenia), Nov 7: Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman brightened her medal chances by continuing to win on the top board against Yugoslavia in the eleventh round of the 35th Chess Olympiad here at the Bled Sports Hall.

As a result of Vijalakshmi’s victory over WGM Natasa Bojkovic, the Indian women obtained a creditable 1.5-1.5 draw against their higher rated rivals, Yugoslavia.

The Indian men had a disappointing day after only managing a 2-2 draw against the 33rd seeded FYR (former republic of Yugoslavia) Macedonia.

Meanwhile the top seeded and leaders Russia increased their lead over the next placed Hungarians to two points after a huge 3.5-0.5 victory over Germany. Hungary, however stayed in line for the silver after defeating England 2.5-1.5.

There was a dramatic change of scenario in the womens section with the leaders Georgia suffering a shock 0.5-2.5 defeat against Poland. This gave china the opportunity to nudge just half a point behind after their 2.5-0.5 victory over Romania.

On the top board, GM Harikrishna took the place of Sasikiran who was rested for today’s game and faced GM Kiril Georgiev with the white pieces.

The game began with the Bogo-Indian defence but soon transposed to the Tarrasch defence. Today too, Harikrishna went in for risky play and moved his pieces to the kingside for attack. This enabled black’s weak ‘D’ pawn to advance forward and turn into a deadly passer.

With no attack on the way, Harikrishna also lost a pawn on the 32th move after which white swapped queens to win comfortably in the endgame.

IM Surya Sekhar Ganguly who has so far scored 5 points from seven games said he played for a possible GM norm after his 59 move draw with GM Vladimir Georgiev with the black pieces. Ganguly employed the queen’s gambit accepted defence and obtained easy equality.

On the 16th move, white traded queens to land his rook on the seventh rank. However in view of white’ undeveloped queenside pieces, Ganguly obtained an edge in the endgame. But after the exchange of both the pair of rooks, it was dance of knights leading to a just draw. GM Abhijit Kunte appeared to have some winning chances in his game against Nikola Mitkov. Playing the English opening, Kunte who a obtained pawn majority on the kingside rightly exchanged pieces to head for a rook and pawn ending where he obtained an extra pawn.

But in spite of his tenacious spirit, he could manage a draw after a long battle lasting 87 moves. IM R B Ramesh playing on the fourth board won over Trajce Nedev when the later blundered a knight in a rook and piece ending.

Behind the black pieces, Ramesh obtained comfortable play in the Moscow variation of the sicilian defence and won a pawn. However the Macedonian won back the pawn and started to bring together his pieces when he in explicable threw away his knight on the 38th move.

Vijayalakshmi continued her terrific run with a crucial victory over WGM Natasa in India’s draw against the seventh seed Yugoslavia today.

Vijayalakshmi playing with black pieces not only had no problems equalising but boldly went in for a winning attempt by opening a blocked position.

This helped her to penetrate white’s position rook and create a passed pawn. In an attempt to create counter white went in for a wrong knight sacrifice and lost in 42 moves. Vijayalakshmi now has seven points after her hat-trick of wins.

Aarthie who had a ppor tournament so far went in for a early draw offer with the white pieces against her higher rated rival Svetlana Prudnikova.

Facing the Sicilian defence, Arthie could not make much progress out of the opening and proposed a draw on her 17th turn which was gladly accepted by her opponent.

Swati Ghate who had the black pieces on the third board against WGM Irina Chelushkina lost in 56 moves after being an exchange down. Swati who had very less space for her pieces, went in for the exchange sacrifice to try and wriggle out of the situation, however her experienced rival had no problems in cashing the point.(PTI)

Surjit Hockey Tourney
Signal, PSB, CISF and Punjab Police win their matches

JALANDHAR, Nov 7: Corps of Signal, Punjab and Sind Bank Academy, Central Industrial Security Force and Punjab Police Academy today defeated their respective opponents in the qualifying rounds on the opening day of 19th Surjit Hockey Tournament at Burlton Park here.

The qualifying first match was played between the teams of Corps of Signal and Rail Coach Factory. RCF played an attacking game from the very beginning but missed the opportunity to sound the board in 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 31st, 38th minutes when they could not convert the penalty corners. Signal also lost a chance in the 33rd minute when they got penalty corner. First half ended goal-less.

In the 48th minute, signal got an early lead when Chanderjit Singh got an excellent cross near the penalty area and successfully diverted it to the net (1-0). RCF got the opportunities in the 61st, 62nd and 69th minutes in the form of penalty corners to score an equalizer but each time missed the target. Match ended in favour of signals (1-0).

Second match was played between the teams of Punjab and Sind Bank Academy and Namdhari Academy and in the 10th minute of the game PSB got the lead when Rajwinder Singh scored a field goal (1-0). Namdharies tried their best to score an equalizer but missed the target in all the four penalty corners. PSB locked the fate of namdharies by defeating later by a solitary goal.

Third qualifying match was played between Central Security Industrial Force (CISF) and Steel Authority of India (SAIL) on the fast note. CISF got an early lead 14th minute when forward G V Khakha scored an excellent field goal (1-0).First half ended 1-0 in favour of CISF.

In the second half SAIL scored an equalizer in the 55th minute when Satwinder Singh did not commit any mistake to convert a penalty corner. After that both the teams tried to get lead but could not get success and score at full time was 1-1. Finally CISF defeated the SAIL in tie-breaker by 5-4.

Fourth match was played between EME and Punjab Police Academy. Although both the teams rubbed their shoulders to score the leading goal but could not get success even till the time of final buzzer. Punjab Police Academy was lucky enough to win the match in tie-breaker by 9-8. (PTI)

12th State Billiards, Snooker Championship
Pallav is new Jr Snooker Champion
* Kamal, Gautam Lakra enter into Sr Billiards finals

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Nov 7: Pallav Gupta has become new State Junior Snooker Champion, whileas Kamal Rohmetra and Gautam Lakra have sailed into the final of Senior Billiards in the 12th State Billiards and Snooker Championship, here today.

It was Pallav’s straight frames victory over Nishant Azad after he (Pallav) made his maiden entry into any final in his career. Pallav, who missed the district Jammu championship due to some unavoidable circumstances, was quite confident of winning the championship. The score: 58-46, 44-33, 69-31.

On way to the final, Pallav had defeated Kuldeep Sharma in the semi-finals.

Nishant, who has won the Junior Billiards title, is also first entry into the list of champions. Last year, both the junior titles were taken away by the Cueists from Srinagar, who this time failed to even qualify for the semi-finals.

Meanwhile, Kamal Rohmetra and Gautam Lakra have made it into the senior Billiards semi-finals thereby setting stage for another nail-biting final. (In recently held District Jammu Championship, Kamal had defeated Gautam Lakra by a narrow margin of eight points to the title for the fourth consecutive time)

In the last league encounters in the semi-finals, Kamal defeated defending champion Vishal Abrol 587-436, while Gautam Lakra downed Sohail Khalid 464-364.

The score on board for the first 45 minutes play in Kamal-Vishal match remained close. But, afterwards Kamal improved his command over the table and managed near 100 points lead which he maintained well till the match ended.

In the second league match of the day, Gautam made another break of 55 points, improving his own feat he achieved yesterday, while taking on Sohail Khalid.

Meanwhile, the senior Snooker semi-finals shall be played tomorrow. In the first semi-final, Kamal will be playing against Sanjeev Gupta, whileas Vishal Abrol will meet Kuldeep Sharma.