Nehru Hockey Tourney
Meerut, Shahbad record victories

NEW DELHI, Nov 11: B.A.V Inter College, Meerut and D.A.V.School Shahbad recorded contrasting victories over their rivals to complete the semifinal lineup for the 16th Nehru ONGC Sub Junior Nehru Hockey Tournament here today.

B.A.V trounced lowly Adarsh Vidyalaya Varanasi 4-1, D.A.V school waged a grim battle to down Sat Gur Pratap Academy Ludhiana 2-0.

In the semifinals tomorrow B.A.V will take on Birsamunda Vidyapitha while D.A.V faces St.Ignatius High School Gumla. B.A.V finished the super league with six points to be second in pool-1, D.A.V also ended with six points in pool-II. B.A.V did not face much resistance as they humbled Adarsh Vidyalaya after leading 2-1 at half time.

However it was Varanasi school which took the lead in the 18th minute through Tushar but within two minutes Gagan Srivastva drew parity for Meerut side. A minute later Jagdish Yadav put Meerut side in the lead (2-1).

Gaurav Bhardwaj scored the third goal in the 41st minute and Imtyaz Ahmed completed the tally two minutes later.

In the second match, D.A.V School scored two goals in the second half against Sat Guru Pratap Academy Ludhiana to book the semifinal berth.

Manpreet Singh put D.A.V ahead in the 32nd minute and Gurcharan Singh scored the second goal two minutes before the final whistle.

Earlier, Ashraf Ali Slammed five goals to enable Bharati Club Jabalpur crush United Hockey Club Kanptee (Vidhrabha)9-1 in the inter club matches for the 35th Senior Nehru Hockey Tournament.

The winners led 4-1 at half time. Other scorers for the winners were Sanjeet, Ritesh Yadav, Nagarios and Naveen Yadav (one each). Fiyaz Khan reduced the margin for the losers.

In the second tie, Inderjit Chadha scored six goals including a hattrick as rock Rovers, Chandigarh defeated Metro Club, Bangalore9-5.

Rock rovers led 5-1 at half time.

Jasmeet Singh Singh (two) and Jaswinder Singh (one) were the other scorers for Rock Rovers.

Nanda Kumar scored a hatrick while Anup Anthony and Ronald Deepak chipped in a goal each for the losers. (UNI)

India will host first World Cup Cricket for blind

NEW DELHI, Nov 11: India will host the first World Cup Cricket for the blind where seven nations from across four continents will participate in the Kanishka World Cup from November 17 to 28.

Association for Cricket for the Blind in India (ACBI) Chairman George Abraham said the matches would be held in four stadiam of the capital.

The tournament will be played on a league-cum-knockout basis with each country meeting the other once before qualifying for the semifinals.

India take on Sri Lanka on the opening day on November 17 at Karnail Singh stadium while England-New Zealand and Australia-South Africa meet in the other opening day matches.

Pakistan is the other team in the competition to be held at four venues - Palam Ground, Karnail Singh Stadium, Harbaksh Stadium and Roshanara Club.

Palam Ground and Harbaksh Stadium will host the semifinals while the final is to be played at Barbaksh Stadium on November 28.

A formal inauguration (November 17) and closing ceremony (November 28) of the event will be held at the national stadium, former Indian Cricket Board President Madhavrao Scindia, the patron of ACBI said.

The event has been organised to help the public at large to change their respective towards the blind and see the immense ability that they possess, Abraham said.

Most of the players featuring in the tournament are pursuing careers in sciences, computers software and the arts, the ACBI Chairman said. (PTI)

Rios, Kuerten win in first round of Chevrolet Cup

SANTIAGO, CHILE, Nov 11: Top-seeded Marcelo Rios of Chile, still in the race for the no. 1 ranking on the ATP tour, defeated Marcio Carlsson of Brazil 6-2, 1-6, 6-2 in the first round of the 315,000 dollars Chevrolet Cup Tennis Tournament.

The second-ranked Rios, cheered by a highly partisan crowd, yesterday appeared on his way to an easy victory after the first set, but was clearly surprised by Carlsson’s play in the second one.

In the final set, Rios broke Carlsson’s service twice and won the final point with his sixth ace of the match.

Rios, seeking his first title in his hometown tournament after reaching the finals in the last three years, is 605 points behind top-ranked Pete Sampras in the rankings. The Santiago Tournament awards 150 points to the champion.

Fourth-seeded Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil, the 1996 French Open champion, had eleven aces in 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 7-5 victory over Luis Morejon of Ecuador.

In other matches, Felix Mantilla of Spain breezed past Mariano Zabaleta of Argentina 6-2, 6-3 Francisco Clavet of Spain defeated Ramon Delgado of Paraguay 6-4, 6-4 Martin Rodriguez of Paraguay beat Guillermo Canas of Argentina 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (9-7) and Mariano Puerta of Argentina beat Fernando Vicente of Spain 2-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-3, 7-2.

Julian Alonso of Spain led 5-2 in the first set when countryman Juan Viloca, withdrew due to injury. (AP)

Advanta Championship
Davenport advances in first round

VILLANOVA, (PENNSYLVANIA), Nov 11: Top-ranked Lindsay Davenport beat Kimberly po 6-1, 6-2 last night to advance into the third round of the Advanta Championships.

Po, who beat Corina Morreau 6-1, 6-3 in her first match Monday, lost the first three games of the opening set and the last four of the second set.

In other matches, Brie Rippener defeated Alexandra Fusai 7-6, 6-2 and AI Sugiyama downed Maria Alejandra Vento 6-1, 6-2.

Eighth-seed Sandrine testud of France withdrew in the third set due to a knee injury, giving the match to Russia’s Elena Likhovtseva.

Fifth-ranked Monica Seles and sixth-ranked Nathalie Tauziat play their first matches today. Steffi Graf, who entered ranked 27th, will play Mary Jo Fernandez.

Defending champion and second-seeded Martina Hingis, third-seeded Jana Novotna and fourth-ranked Arantxa Sanchez Vicario all received first-round byes.

The 450,000 dollars Advanta tournament is the final event on the WTA tour before the Chase championships in New York next week. (AP)

Pakistan Govt suspends power of Sind Speaker

ISLAMABAD, Nov 11: The Government late last night suspended the powers of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker to convene the Sind Assembly session and made the Provincial Governor the only competent authority to call the session.

The suspension of the powers of the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker has, however, minimised the chances of the dismissal of the assembly of which there was great apprehensions, political observes. said.

Immediately after the suspension, the members of the MQM staged a sit-in for more than two hours to protest the non-issuance of notification of convening the session on November twelve.

Sind has been brought under the Governor’s rule admist widespread violence. The Government has started a mass scale campaign to arrest terrorists and the MQM activists involved in criminal activities. The Government has also claimed that it had laid hands on several notorious criminals.

The MQM members of the provincial assembly had requisitioned the assembly session which according to rules of procedure was scheduled to meet on november twelve. (UNI)

Dhanesh to lead Indian ‘B’ team

KOCHI, Nov 11: K V Dhanesh of FC Kochin will lead India ‘B’ in the four-nation Bristol Independence Cup football tournament to be held at Colombo from November 15.

Announcing the 20-member team this morning, A D Nagendra, chairman, Selection Committee, told reporters at the GCDA Ground here that defender Dhanesh, now attending the Asian Games preparatory camp, has been released for the tournament by the All India Football Federation (AIFF).

The team would leave for Chennai this evening and from there would fly to Sri Lanka on Friday.

Besides India, hosts Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Madves would participate in the seven-day tournament.

Team:

Goalkeepers: Naseem Akthar (FC Kochin) Mark Mascarenhas (Mahindra) Sangram Mukherjee (TFA)

Defenders: Bobby Hamilton (IB), A S Firosh, Mahesh Gawli, Prabhjot Singh, Mir Farooq Hyder, Noha Rozario, K V Dhanesh (Captain) (all from FC Kochin), Henry Picardo (AI)

Midfielders: Noel Wilson, Rocky Barreto, Karunakar Raj, Mohammed Shafeeq (all FC Kochin), Jayant Sen (FCI)

Forwards: K Noushad, C V Pappachan (both FC Kochin), Abbas Ali Rizvi (AI) and Manjit Singh (Mahindra)

Coach: A M Sreedharan Manager: Babu Mather. (PTI)

Ronaldo fit

MILAN, Nov 11: Brazilian superstar Ronaldo will be on the starting lineup of internazionale on Sunday as his latest knee injury was not as serious as initially feared.

Club doctors said yesterday that the young Brazilian striker, who limped off the field with a bruised left knee during last Sunday’s Inter-Ac Milan series a match, is going to resume training today and will play the next league game against Sampdoria of Genoa.

He will miss, however, today’s third-round second-leg of the Italian Cup against Castel Di Sangro.

"Medical examinations showed Ronaldo’s knee did not suffer any serious damage," doctor Piero Volpi said.

The Brazilian, who has been off to a troubled season because of tendinitis in both knees, was injured following a tackle by AC Milan Danish midfielder Thomas Helveg.

Before leaving the field, at the end of the first half, Ronaldo scored the opening goal in the 2-2 draw between the two crosstown rivals.

It was Ronaldo’s third goal in two and a half league games.

Ronaldo’s uncertain form has been cited as one of the major problems affecting Inter Milan, currently seventh in the 18-team league standings, seven points behind leader Fiorentina. (AP)

Ecclestone joins forces with Becker and
Kirch for tennis changes

HAMBURG, Nov 11: Boris Becker and media tycoon Leo Kirch have joined forces with formula one boss Bernie Ecclestone in an effort to reform the sport of tennis after the year 2000, The Sport Bild weekly claimed in its latest edition to be published today.

The report, made available to the German press agency yesterday, said the trio planned a tennis series similar to the formula one world championship and had already made the directors of the prestigious Super-9 tournaments a lucrative offer.

"The whole organisation has to be overhauled. There are too many tournaments and the world ranking system is a joke," Ecclestone was quoted as saying.

Sport Bild said the new alliance of the three-times wimbledon champion Becker, Kirch with his London-based Prisma agency and Ecclestone planned to invest around 175 million dollars into the new series.

"Losing another three years could be deadly for the sport. The lower tennis falls, the harder an improvement will be," the report quoted Becker as saying.

Initial plans of Becker and Kirch were last month rejected by the ATP tour which is the governing body of men’s tennis excluding the four Grand Slams, Grand Slam Cup and Davis Cup. These events are run by the International Tennis Federation.

The ATP tour itself last year decided on drastic changes from 2000 on.

The world rankings will no longer be based on a players best 14 results over a 12-month period. Instead, under an easier system based on the formula one circuit all players start from zero at the start of the year and participation at the showpiece super-9 events will be compulsory for the stars.

In addition, a majority of these tourneys - Key Biscayne, Indian Wells, Monte Carlo, Hamburg, Rome, Canadian Open, Cincinnati, Stuttgart and Paris - are to be turned from one-week events into ten-day competition incorporating the women. So far only key Biscayne and Indian wells are for men and women.

Everyone in the sport agrees that changes are a necessity in times dwindling on-site and television attendance, mainly through a streamlined calendar from a current 77 tournaments.

However, the super-9 organisers at the recent U.S. open agreed on a concept together with the ATP.

Sources denied The Sport Bild claim that the super-9 directors had demanded a better offer from ATP boss mark miles and if rejected would join forces with Becker, Kirch and Ecclestone.

The sources told DPA the super-9 events will be allowed to market themselves, and until the end of the month will decide which agency to sign for this. That could be the new trio, but the isl/octagon group is currently said to to be leading in the marketing race. (DPA)

Distt Billiards, Snooker Champ declared open

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Nov 11: Eighth Jammu district Billiards and Snooker Championship was declared open at Billiards halls, M A Stadium, here this afternoon.

The championship, in which around 40 players in junior and senior categories are participating is being organised by Jammu and Kashmir Billiards and Snooker Association.

All the top seeded players were seen in action on the inaugural day of the championship, wherein only Snooker matches were held in senior category.

In the first match, state Snooker champion, Kamal Rohmetra out-played Manjeet Nagpal in easy straight frames of 69-32, 47-20 and 86-10.

Second match was won by Sanjay Langer 3-1 beating Aditya Malhotra in four frames of 42-27, 59-17, 37-53 and 59-18.

Ankur Mahajan fought well, before he lost to Sannu Khorana 2-3 in a complete five frame game of 10-55, 52-47, 58-46, 30-69 and 16-62 in third match.

K K Khanna won his match defeating Ajay Sachdev in three straight sets of 69-19, 74-14 and 56-35.

General secretary of the association, Mr Sanjeev Gupta said that for the first time in the state, strict dress codes are being followed in the championship. He added that the event is being organised with the active cooperation of the State Sports Council.

Mr Raveez and Surjeet Singh Baloria were the markers on the opening day.

Volleyball tourney from Nov 14

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Nov 11: Third Romesh Memorial Volley Tournament will be held from November 14 to 16 at Gurah Mundian in Hiranagar. The tournament is being organised by the Volley Club of Gurah Mundian under the auspices of Volleyball Association of J&K.

Around 11 teams from with in and outside the state are participating in the two day event. The organisers disclosed that the winners and runners up teams will be awarded with a cash prize of Rs 5,000 and 3,000 respectively. The event which will be held on league-cum-knock out basis is sponsored by Billwara and Chenab Textile mills.