USOC
convenes to begin Salt Lake bid probe
SALT
LAKE CITY, Dec 29: Officials from the 2002
Winter Games Organizing Committee will not be in
attendance when a US Olympic Committee panel
probing bribery allegations holds its first
meeting today in Washington, DC.
But the Salt Lake
Organizing Committee will be closely monitoring
the Special Commission, which will examine the
methods used by salt Lake bid committee officials
to obtain the games.
No agenda for the
meeting has been released, but it probably will
involve planning and scheduling for the
Commission’s actions over the coming weeks.
A press briefing is scheduled for Tuesday.
Former Senate
majority leader George Mitchell, the co-chair of
the USOC Ethics Committee, was appointed by USOC
President Bill Hybl to chair the Special
Commission, which is expected to review any past
improprieties and make recommendations for rules
on future bid and selection processes.
"The USOC
must respond quickly and credibly to the
allegations and issues," Mr Hybl said in a
statement yesterday.
The panel plans to
submit a report to the USOC by Feb. 28, and any
criminal activity uncovered will be referred to
the Justice Department, officials said.
"We
considered all the options, but it was clear that
the USOC needed to step forward quickly to
provide independent oversight review," Mr
Dick Schultz, Executive Director of the USOC.
The USOC probe is
one of four investigations which will be under
way by January. Last week, the US Department of
Justice announced its intention to determine if
sloc’s actions constituted violations of
feeeral law, including tax fraud or corruption
laws.
The International
Olympic Committee also has created a Special
Committee to probe the allegations and its
organization’s role in the process, while an
independent Salt Lake Ethics Committee will
examine the bid committee’s actions.
The IOC’s
11-member executive board plans to meet Jan 24 to
review its investigation’s findings. The
USOC and the independent local committee plan to
finish their investigations by February.
The Justice
Department’s probe could last much longer
and has the potential to be the most damaging,
because the Justice Department has the power to
subpoena witnesses and compel testimony and to
hand out indictments.
Salt Lake bid
officials allegedly paid for scholarships for
relatives of International Olympic Committee
members, provided IOC members with free medical
services, and gave numerous gifts in violation of
IOC rules.
Sloc officials say
they will cooperate with all of the probes and
get back to preparing for the games. (AP)
One-day
replacements being named tomorrow
NEW
DELHI, Dec 29: The Cricket Board today decided to
hold back names of those who would be flown to
New Zealand as replacements for the one-day
series to be held from January 9 to 18 as the
second test was still in progress at Wellington.
The national
selectors who met here today to finalise the
Wills XI and Board President’s XI teams for
the Wills Trophy one-day tournament to be held in
the East Zone, were also to decide the issue but
put off the announcement of names to December 31.
‘We have
discussed the issue. But since there is one more
day left in the Wellington test, we decided to
announce it on December 31,’ Board secretary
Jaywant Lele told.
Lele said he would
have a discussion with Selection Committee
chairman Ajit Wadekar tomorrow and the latter
would give out the names the following day.
He did not specify
how many changes would be made in the team for
the one-day series.
The Wills Trophy,
to be held from January 11 to 17, will form the
basis for shortlisting 30 probables for next
year’s World Cup to be held in England.
Those names will be announced at Calcutta in the
second week of January.
India will play a
five-match series against the Kiwis at Auckland
(Jan 9), Hamilton (Jan 12), Napier (Jan 14),
Christchurch (Jan 16) and Wellington (Jan 18).
The Board Working
Committee will meet here tomorrow to finalise the
itinerary for the Pakistan tour of India to come
off early next year. (PTI)
Haryana
draw with Services
NEW
DELHI, Dec 29: Former champions Haryana
entered he Ranji Trophy super league from North
Zone, edging past Services by a lone point after
the last league match between the two ended in a
draw at the Harbaksh stadium here today.
Haryana claimed
three points from the tie after conceding a
90-run first innings lead, but logged 22 points
to move up as the third team from North Zone
behind Delhi and Punjab.
Services needed a
win to advance and despite gaining five points
from this outing, could muster only 21 points to
finish fourth and go out of reckoning. (PTI)
Foreign
coach for football team
BANGALORE,
Dec 29: The All India Football Federation
(AIFF) today decided to relieve coach Nayeemuddin
of his duties and hire the services of a foreign
coach in preparation for pre-Olympic tournaments.
Making the
announcement here, AIFF president Priya Ranjan
Dasmunshi said the contract with Nayeemuddin
ended with the Asian Games. Indian performance in
Asiad, though they failed to make it to
quarterfinals, was good but lack of international
exposure let them down. There was no doubt about
the commitment Nayemuddin had for the game, he
added.
He said
negotiations for a foreign coach were on through
FIFA and expressed confidence of getting a
competent foreign coach by middle of January. A
panel of coaches would be identified afterwards,
he added.
The two-day
meeting of the AIFF discussed the manager’s
role and responsibility in the third National
Football League and evaluated the performance of
the team in the just concluded 13th Asian Games
in Bangkok.
He said Ranjit
Gupta and Armado Colaco would be in charge of
youth development programmes for under 16 and
under 19 respectively. P P Laxmanan would be in
charge of pre Olympic qualifying rounds. (UNI)
South
Africa take series after nine-wicket win
DURBAN,
Dec 29: South
Africa cruised to a nine-wicket victory in the
third test today to take an unbeatable 3-0 lead
over West Indies on their first post-apartheid
tour of the republic.
The home side were
set 146 for victory on the fourth day after
dismissing West Indies for 259 in their second
innings in the sixth over of the day.
Opener Gary
Kirsten, with 71 not out, guided the home side to
victory as they reached 147 for one 45 minutes
before tea.
South Africa won
the first test in Johannesburg by four wickets -
their first test win over West Indies - and the
second in Port Elizabeth by 178 runs, a win
achieved within three days.
West Indies
resumed their second innings on 246 for eight and
quickly succumbed.
In the third over
Ambrose was caught by Hansie Cronje at mid-on for
five, which provided Shaun Pollock with his fifth
wicket of the innings. He finished with five for
83.
Allan Donald
finished with three for 62 after ending the
innings by bowling Courtney Walsh for three.
Ridley Jacobs was left undefeated on 15.
South
Africa’s victory surge was given the perfect
start by Kirsten and Herschelle Gibbs, who put
together a 97-run stand for the first wicket.
The opening pair
were virtually untroubled in taking South Africa
to within 49 runs of victory.
However, two balls
before lunch Gibbs swept a delivery from
leg-spinner Rawl Lewis high into the air towards
mid-wicket where Darren Ganga waited to take what
was a simple catch.
But wicketkeeper
Jacobs came sprinting from behind the stumps to
claim the catch - and spilled it.
The opening
partnership ended 25 minutes after lunch when
Gibbs was trapped in front by off-spinner Carl
Hooper for 49.
Kirsten went on to
score his 17th test half-century, in 126 minutes,
off 123 balls and with six fours.
Franklyn Rose, who
took career best figures of 7-84 in the first
innings, shared the new ball with Curtly Ambrose.
The West Indies
attack suffered a serious blow in the 18th over
when veteran fast bowler Walsh left the field
with an injured hamstring having bowled just four
overs.
South African
batsman Jonty Rhodes was named man-of-the-match
for his defiant 87 in the first innings.
The teams now move
on to Cape Town, where the fourth test starts at
Newlands on new year’s day. (REUTERS)
Trophy
MP
scores 585
INDORE,
Dec 29: Host Madhya Pradesh scored
an impressive 585 runs in the four day Central
Zone Ranji Trophy cricket match against Rajasthan
being played here at the Usha Raje stadium.
On the first day
of the match yesterday, the host team had scored
295 . The team score went up to 585 runs on the
second day with Raja Ali and Abbas Ali
contributing 88 and 70 runs respectively.
As the match came
to a close today, Rajasthan had scored 34 for
loss of no wickets. Rajasthan’s opening
batsmen Anshu Jain (22) and Gagan Khoda were at
the crease.
Madhya
Pradesh’s Amay Khurasia and Abbas Ali, who
had contributed individual score of 143 and three
runs respectively yesterday, took the team score
to 339. However , Khurasia was out as he was
caught by Gagan Khoda from the delivery of
Rajasthan’s medium fast bowler Shamsher
Singh.
At lunch, Madhya
Pradesh had scored 384 runs for loss of four
wickets. Later, Abbas Ali, in partnership with
Chandrakant Pandit, increased the score to 437 .
Abbas Ali (70) was caught and bowled by Tariq
Khan while Chandrakant Pandit had to move out
because of LBW on the ball from Tariq Khan.
Leg Before Wicket
claimed Prashant Dwivedi (20) and Raja Ali was
run out after he scored 88 for the host team.
Rajesh Chouhan (12) was caught by Shamsher Singh
on Rahul Kawat’s bowling.
Rajasthan’s
Shamsher Singh, Tariq Khan and Rahul Kawat took
two wickets each while P Krishna Kumar got one
wicket. (UNI)
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