India unable to cope with pressure, says Gavaskar

LONDON, May 23: Former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar today blamed India’s inability to cope with pressure for their current plight at the World Cup and warned the team can have no excuses if they don’t perform after the return of its best performer Sachin Tendulkar.

India’s excuses will run out today. Tendulkar is back from Mumbai after his father’s death. If the world’s brightest batsman cannot make the difference for his country, it’s team’s stay may be a short one indeed, The legendary batsman told The Times here.

India’s poor nine months leading up to the World Cup has hardly emboldened the side. The rest of the winter was spent as a distinctly second best side to Pakistan, he said.

Gavaskar warned if India were to make an exit next Saturday (at the league stage), there may be a crash. There is so much hype and hope. If they do well sky is the limit for indian cricket. If India’s don’t do well, there is a huge boom at the moment, but I fear a crash would happen.

In an obvious criticism of Indian strategies, he said only those teams which had captains, bowlers and stewards coming up with tactical innovations were doing well.

In this, India is finding itself being overwhelmed, He said and felt there were certain traits in Indian cricket that naturally inhibited their limited-over style.

‘To a large extent the Indian temperament is non-confrontational. It’s a temperament that doesn’t encourage you to take the aggressive step forward,’ he said.

Gavaskar said In one-day cricket you’ve got to make things happen. That’s where Tendulkar makes a difference. He is the one who takes those risks.

He said hosts England too, like India, lacked the killer instinct. I would be surprised if England win this tournament, but wouldn’t rule it out.

To win a tournament like the World Cup, you need either players with flair like Ian Botham and David Gower or you need a team which is going to play consistently, he added.

South African legend Barry Richards, however, said the Indian performance so far had been above many others, even England, with their batsmen so far piling up good runs.

But he also said the flaw was in the tactics. It is the tactics in which they are lacking, he said.

Richards said so far South African skipper Hansie Cronje had proved the best tactician. But his acid test will come against Pakistan, whose bowling attack would put the South Africans under the most serious pressure.

He lauded Pakistan skipper Wasim Akram as a good team leader, but said other teams were lacking in that aspect. (PTI)

Sachin’s return
There is a spring in Indian steps

BRISTOL, May 23: Sachin Tendulkar, who seems to have become a national treasure more than a sporting icon, is back at the World Cup. And things are looking up already. The banners welcoming him back have been written with feeling and even as they are being held up to catch the roving eye of the TV camera at Nevil Road, there is a spring in Indian steps.

A sliver of hope had dawned yesterday when both results in group A were not in any way to India’s disadvantage. With South Africa kicking clear, the chances of an intriguing four-way battle for two places is looming on the horizon. The beating that England got at the hands of the favourite means the net run rate of the home side (minus .43 as opposed to India’s plus .03) is looking ordinary and it is anybody’s race from there.

With India getting busy against Kenya to correct their winless record, each group will have some meaning. There is no going back to the days of the ’96 World Cup which was so ill-conceived in its league stage that the giants could fall to the minnows and still make it to quarter-finals. In this World Cup each point counts and that is why India’s loss to Zimbabwe hurts most.

The Kenyan amateurs were not going to stretch India too much although they have beaten them once after achieving what was their most famous victory. The conditions in this part of the summer are so trying that no win is possible without real depth in batting and sides without the true quality in pace bowling are also struggling to establish control over games.

The intriguing thing about this group a battle for two places is the quality of bowling in about five sides is not really top class and the South Africans themselves struggled until they put their heads together and sorted out the problems of excessive swing and seam movement quickly. There have been some great strike performances like those of Alan Mullaly and Henry Olonga that have won matches while there has been loose bowling too that has lost games.

Others like Srinath and Wickremasinghe have bowled impressively when the Lacquer is still on the white ball but the five teams have not struck the consistency of the strike power of South Africa. And that is one reason why the matches will bring forth wild oscillations.

The scoreboards suggest India has the best top order batting line up that is still a faraway second to South Africa’s depth and it is a matter of putting it all together. Such a task is simplified by the return of Sachin whose hand on the trigger is always a sound one.

There may be no matching the atmosphere of the terraces as England’s historic club side completed the league-cup double. And yet if there is one voice that is promising to wake up the english summer and give it an entirely different flavour, it is the presence of the Asian teams. They add a touch of hot curry to the cold days of late spring and early summer.

A match involving an asian side can be heard miles away. The drums of Sivamani (of Rahman’s troupe fame) beat a tattoo at India’s games. The Indians from Gujarat are a vocal lot. A shout of ‘Patel’ might have half the house looking at the caller. Their faith in the Indian team met with no early reward and yet they are a dogged lot, pursuing the team all through the world cup as if their businesses can take care of themselves when they are away.

The Pakistanis bring a certain fervour to the support of their ‘home’ team. They are people who will happily fail the tebbit test of national loyalty. The intensity of their support is an awesome phenomenon that is well capable of raising the cricket of Wasim

Akram’s side even further. Shoaib Akhtar and Wasim Akram cannot but feel the atmosphere is uplifting as they come in to bowl, so loud is the cheering.

The Sri Lankans are not convinced they are seeing the World Cup winners in England and still they are loud in their support of Arjuna Ranatunga and his defending champions, their voices sometimes drowning even in the decibel levels of the Barmy Army at Lord’s on the opening day. Their flag waving is a tireless act. The Bangladeshis may or not win a game but the support they have is astounding. If the owners of ‘Indian’ restaurants and balti houses in the UK were to try to get into the ground there would be no place for all of them at the minority county venues at which they have been slated to play.

This is a far cry from the stiff upper lip and polite applause of the members of the MCC. And although the barmy army can be loud in its inebriated support of England, there is no doubt the loud Asians bring a touch of the football terraces into cricket but without too much of the taunting abuse and other bad practices of the followers of the people’s game. But then this is cricket, a synonym for fairplay and all that is decent in life. (UNI)

Swimming classes at MA Stadium from today

By Sanjeev Sharma

JAMMU, May 23: The only swimming coaching centre in the State at MA Stadium here ,is all set to start its training classes from tomorrow for the current season.

The pool has been filled to its capacity and fresh trainees have started throning to the Manager stadium for inquiries.

The session has been delayed this year for a fortnight for lack of flow of water into the pool. According to sources, earlier, it was scheduled to start the classes from the first week of May.

The supply of water remained disrupted for several days due to some faults in the concerned Public Health Engineering (PHE) pumping station. According to sources, the pool has a capacity of seven lakh gallons of water.

The pool which is totally devoted for imparting training among the budding swimmers of the state, also used for re-creational purposes by the selected Jammu Club members, the sources disclosed.

But, the State Sports Council in contrary to this gives preference to only freshers as well as regular swimmers who participated in the competitions.

The centre already has around 300 regular members inclusive of all age groups.

Talking to this correspondent, the Manager MA Stadium, Mr Ajit Singh said that during the present session, the Swimming pool will remain open for the complete six months and will be closed at the end of October.

Different age groups have been given different timings in the morning and evening sessions.

The main coaching classes for freshers and regular swimming will be in the evening session. For girls, it will be from 5 to 6 pm, whereas, for boys it is from 6 to 7 pm.

Other seniors, who are interested in evening session can swim between 6 to 8 pm, besides, the members of Jammu Club.

The morning session has been totally devoted to the senior swimmers of the state, he further said.

The coaching will most probably be given by Mr Tripathi, SAI coach, who has also given training last year.

Anand recaptures Chess Oscar

MOSCOW, May 23: Grandmaster Vishwanathan Anand has captured the prestigious Chess Oscar for the second straight year for his outstanding performance in the year 1998 adding another bronze statue of ‘the enchanted wanderer’ to his trophy collection.

This prestigious international prize is awarded by the Russian chess magazine 64-chess review to the best chess player of the year on the basis of his ‘real merit and strength’ and not titles.

The Chess Oscar is awarded on the basis of hundreds of individual ‘subjective’ ratings of the top chess specialists, a sum of which gives the real, objective rating of a chess player, a single tournament is unable to provide this, Moscow daily ‘Izvestia’ noted.

Anand topped the list of best chess players of 1998 by bagging 3278 points, followed by 21 year-old Russian Alexander Morzevich (2146) on the basis of poll among several hundred Grandmasters and sports journalists from 57 countries.

World chess champion Garry Kasparov was third in the list with 1993 points, trailing behind him were Vladimir Kramnik (1865) and Alexy Shirov (1853). Fide world champion Anatoly Karpov dropped from the 5th place to 10th earning only 764 points.

Last year Anand had virtually snatched the coveted prize from the world champion Garry Kasparov when over 300 gms and chess media experts from more than 50 countries named him as the world’s best chess player. (PTI)

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Vajpayee congratulates Tendulkar

NEW DELHI, May 23: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today congratulated Sachin Tendulkar for his stupendous performance to notch up the first century of the 1999 World Cup in a group ‘A’ match against Kenya in Bristol.

It was a wonderful century, made unforgettable especially by the tragic circumstances in which you scored it, Vajpayee said in his message to the batting maestro.

Not only did you let the deep personal loss caused by your father’s demise deter you, but you actually used it as an inspiration to scale yet another summit in cricketing excellence, he said

The whole of India is proud of you today. You have showed the entire nation, especially the Indian youth, how to serve the nation by overcoming each and every adversity, Vajpayee said.

The Prime Minister concluded his message cup saying: I join all my countrymen in wishing you, and the Indian cricket team, all the best in the rest of the World Cup.

Tendulkar, who flew to Mumbai to attend his father’s funeral, rejoined the Indian squad yesterday to give a boost to his beleaguered teammates. (PTI)

Manchester United takes FA Cup 2-0

WEMBLEY, May 23: Three doubles in five years has only left Manchester United one win away from a historic triple crown after a 2-0 win over Newcastle in the FA Cup final with its appetite whetted.

Manchester United is trying to become the first english team to win the league, F.A. Cup and Europe’s Top Club Trophy in the same season. Bayern Munich is also after the German triple.

"It has been a tremendous season the lads were fantastic again," striker Dwight Yorke said yesterday. "We’ve got two trophies now so we can go all out for the third."

Awaiting is Bayern in Wednesday’s European Champions Cup final in Barcelona, which the reds have won only once (1968).

"The hunger is still there for Wednesday and the Champions Cup final," striker Andy Cole said. It’s another big game but this final hasn’t taken anything out of the lads. Roll on Wednesday.

"I have sympathy for newcastle. It’s two years on the trot at Wembley with nothing to show for it."

Defender Gary Neville summed it up. "All along we have said the other games are important, but Wednesday really is the big one for us."

When Prince Charles handed over the trophy to reds’ captain Roy Keane, it marked the traditional end of the english soccer season and time to go for the 80,000 sellout here. But for Manchester United "it was only a tantalising prelude".

But it was an anti-climax for Newcastle, which lost its second straight F.A. Cup final 2-0 last season to Arsenal with rumours rife that coach Ruud Gullit will leave for a rich deal on the continent. The magpies finished in mid-table this season and have not won a domestic title since 1955.

The reds are unbeaten in 32 games and the F.A. Cup was the side’s record tenth, giving Scotsman Alex Ferguson his third league and cup double of the decade to go with 1994 and ’96.

"That’s fantastic three doubles in five years. The boys were marvellous," Ferguson said. "This has been a tremendous season and once again the players produced it when it mattered."

"Some of the players have never been at this level before," added Ferguson, who would make english history with a victory in spain. "But they have shown all season in games against Bayern, Barcelona, Juventus and inter Milan that they are capable of winning."

Sheringham gave Manchester United a 1-0 lead in the tenth minute

the Reds’ first shot of the match as he slipped the ball through the legs of sprawling Newcastle goalkeeper Steve Harper after passes from Scholes and Cole.

Sheringham, benched at the start, came on after Keane limped off with an ankle injury in the ninth minute following a slashing tackle from Gary Speed.

After a Lacklustre first half, Newcastle pressured early to open the second half behind substitute Duncan Ferguson. But Scholes stopped the momentum, taking advantage as Nicos Dabizas passed blindly deep in his own end as the reds were threatening.

Scholes took advantage of the error and scored on a low shot from 18 metres off a pass from Sheringham.

Out-manned throughout as England international striker Alan Shearer seldom saw the ball, newcastle had a chance to creep back in in the 83rd when substitute Silvio Maric missed a wide-open shot from 15 metres that had beaten Reds’ goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel but went wide. (AP)

Betting and match-fixing

BRISTOL, May 23: The World Cup today plunged into a betting and match-fixing scandal with several participating nations expressing outrage amidst the mounting speculation that three Pakistani cricketers had been found guilty of being hand in glove with bookies in an inquiry back home.

The names of three Pakistani cricketers doing the rounds, even as the World Cup action is hogging the limelight, threatens to tear the cricketing world apart.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) inquiry, headed by a Supreme Court judge, has been on for a while and its verdict has been eagerly awaited by the cricketing world. Some of the players named in the inquiry as being involved in match-fixing have, of late, reclaimed their places in the national squad.

The inquiry took a back seat as the focus shifted to the World Cup where Pakistan are among the favourites.

But the speculation that at least three players have been judged guilty has triggered off an angry backlash, demanding that the culprits be booted out.

Pakistan is not disclosing the three players’ names even though their names were openly being branded about in World Cup circles, according to the British media.

Dr Ali Bacher, head of the United Cricket Board of South Africa, wants the Pakistani inquiry report discussed.

"This matter must be discussed in the open, however painful it might be," Bacher said. "The truth must come out." The International Cricket Council (ICC) has recently formed a commission to look into the match-fixing malice. The panel’s first meeting will take place only on june 23, three days after the World Cup final, and some countries are expressing the fear that the report might get suppressed in Pakistan perform exceptionally well in the world’s premier one-day competition.

Pakistan are among the odd-on favorites for a crack at their second World Cup crown.

An unnamed senior cricketer was today quoted as telling "the news of the world" that the ICC would be under tremendous pressure if Pakistan won the World Cup.

"Cricket’s got itself in an almightly mess," the player said. "The ICC will be under immense pressure to supress the probe report for the damage it might do to the game if Pakistan turns out to be the new world champions act in the World Cup match." (UNI)

Pakistan beat Australia in a cliff-hanger

LEEDS, May 23: Fancied Pakistan today beat Australia by 10 runs in a cliff-hanger to virtually assure themselves of a place in the super six and leave the pre-tournament favourites fighting for survival in the World Cup.

In a pulsating tie, Pakistan piled up 275 for eight wickets and then curtailed a brilliant chase by Australia before bowling them for 265 with a ball to spare amid high drama at the headingley ground here.

Pakistan posted their third straight victory while Australia, joint pre-tournament favourites were left with their title aspirations in a shambles.

Australia carried out a superb chase with one-day specialist Michael Bevan top-scoring with 61 after opener Mark Waugh (41), Ricky Ponting (47) and skipper Steve Waugh (49) had kept up the momentum for the difficult chase against the formidable Pakistan attack.

But skipper Wasim Akram captured four wickets for 40 and off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq reiterated his value by claiming three runs to give their side the rich victory.

In a nail-biting finish, Australia were 263 for eight to go into the final over needing 13 runs to win.

But Akram sent down a sensational final over snatching two wickets giving away just two runs to end the fading Australian aspirations.

But crowd trouble reared its ugly head yet again in the tournament as unruly spectators invaded the ground on Martyn’s dismissal and snatched away the stumps. However, order was restored and the match completed.

Put in to bat, Pakistan began sluggishly but Inzamam-ul Haq cracked 81 with young all-rounder Abdul Razzaq, who hit an invaluable 60 in a crucial 118-run fourth wicket partnership to revive the innings.

Yousuf Youhana weighed in with a sparkling 29 and stumper Moin Khan hit pace spearhead Glenn McGrath for three big sixes in making a swashbuckling 31 off a mere 12 deliveries to hoist Pakistan to a huge total.

Pakistan scored 108 runs from the last 10 overs to leave their boistrous supporters ecstatic.

Australia’s chase was built on a 91-run stand between Mark Waugh and Ponting and later an absorbing 113-run fifth wicket stand between Steve Waugh and Bevan raised strong hopes of an Australian victory.

The Aussies needed 70 runs off the last 10 overs, but Akram dismissed Bevan and Shoaib Akhtar comprehensively bowled Steve Waugh with a mighty inswinger.

Under pressure, the 1987 champions lost their way and were left needed 30 runs off four overs but Akram stole the show displaying his bowling mastery.

The match also witnessed some controversy with the Aussie batsmen asking that the ball, which was prodiguously swinging, be changed saying that it was dirty and difficult to spot. (PTI)

SCORE BOARD

Pakistan:

Wajahatullah Wasti c Waugh b McGrath 9

Saeed Anwar c Gilchrist b Reiffel 25

Abdul Razzaq c Fleming b Warne 60

Ijaz Ahmed lbw b Fleming 0

Inzamam-ul-Haq run out 81

Yousuf Youhana run out 29

Wasim Akram c Gilchrist b Fleming 13

Moin Khan not out 31

Azhar Mahmood run out 1

Saqlain Mushtaq not out 0

Extras (1b, 6lb, 15w, 4nb) 26

Total: 275 for eight in 50 overs.

Fall of wickets: 1-32, 2-44, 3-46, 4-164, 5-216, 6-230, 7-262, 8-265.

Bowling: Damien Fleming 10-3-37-2, Paul Reiffel 10-1-48-1, Glenn McGrath 10-1-54-1, Shane Warne 10-0-50-1, Steve Waugh 6-0-37-0, Damien Martyn 2-0-25-0, Darren Lehmann 2-0-17-0.

Australia:

A Gilchrist b Akram 0

M Waugh c Moin b Razzaq 41

R Ponting c Anwar b Saqlain 47

D Lehmann c Moin b Saqlain 5

S Waugh b Akhtar 49

M Bevan c Mahmood b Akram 61

D Martyn b Akram 18

S Warne run out 1

P Reiffel c Akram b Saqlain 1

D Fleming not out 4

G McGrath b Akram 0

Extras (b-5, lb-12, w-14, nb-7) 38

Total (all out in 49.5 overs) 265

Fall of Wickets: 1-0, 2-91, 3-100, 4-101, 5-214, 6-238, 8-251, 9-265.

Bowling: 9.5-1-40-4, Akhtar 10-0-46-1, Mahmood 10-0-61-0, Saqlain 10-1-51-3, Razzaq 10-0-50-1.(AFP)

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