Police probing recovery
of money from Lankan skipper’s room

COLOMBO, Dec 21: Police investigators are looking into the discovery of a large sum of money found in hotel room of Sri Lanka’s limited-over squad captain Marvan Atapattu after the team checked out at Kandy last week. .......more

Ganguly’s men ready
for Aussie onslaught

HOBART, Dec 21: Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly is expecting the Australians to come hard on them in the Melbourne Cricket Test but said his team, fired by the motivation to win the series, was ready for a counter-attack. ...........more

Lanka stuns England
with crushing victory

COLOMBO, Dec 21: Spinners Muttiah Muralitharan and Sanath Jayasuriya bowled Sri Lanka to a comprehensive, series-clinching victory by an innings .......more

India’s three-day
game ends in draw

HOBART, Dec 21: Opener Sadgopan Ramesh failed with the bat yet again even as the three-day cricket match between India and Australia ‘A’ ended in a dreary draw here today. Southpaw Ramesh, who opened the innings with Aakash Chopra, followed ...............more

JKPF resents
politics of sports

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Dec 21: Jammu and Kashmir Players’ Forum (JKPF) in a meeting held today expressed its strong resentment over politicisation of sports in the State, especially in Jammu.........more

WAC upsets title holder
MC to meet TC in final

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Dec 21: Last year’s runners-up, Western Air Command (WAC) today defeating defending champion, Maintenance Command (MC) to pave way for the final. This time, WAC will face Training Command (TC) for the ....more

Deepak only Indian to
finish among first ten

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Dec 21: The ‘Strongman’ of India, Deepak Jyoti has obtained sixth place in the recently....more

Karate-Do
Championship begins

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Dec 21: Three-day 8th State Karate-Do Championship, organised by the Amateur.....more

JKCA working committee members question Goni’s position .....

Pawan, Dogra in semis of Badminton.....

Police probing recovery of money from Lankan skipper’s room

COLOMBO, Dec 21: Police investigators are looking into the discovery of a large sum of money found in hotel room of Sri Lanka’s limited-over squad captain Marvan Atapattu after the team checked out at Kandy last week.

The Sri Lankan Police Criminal Investigation Department was informed that 1.1 million Rupees (US$11,500) was found by the Kandy hotel’s staff after the conclusion of the December 10-14 Test match between Sri Lanka and England, which ended in a draw.

"We’re investigating the recovery of a large sum of money from a room in the hotel where the Sri Lankan cricketers stayed in Kandy," an investigator said on the condition of anonymity.

The news about the money’s recovery was made public by the Sunday Observer newspaper, which did not identify the player but said he was a "top order batsman, who has never bowled".

But Atapattu stepped out of the team’s dressing room at the start of the fourth day’s play in the third and final Test match in Colombo to clarify his position to reporters.

"I have nothing to do with that money," Atapattu said.

"I don’t carry such huge amounts of money while playing. I don’t know to whom the money belongs," he added.

"Other people have stayed in that room before me and after I left the hotel."

Atapattu, 33, has represented Sri Lanka for 12 years since making his Test debut against India at Chandigarh in the 1990-91 season.

A veteran of 68 Tests and 201 one-day-internationals, Atapattu has captained Sri Lanka in ODI’s since May, after former skipper Sanath Jayasuriya stepped down to concentrate on his batting.

The Sri Lankan team’s manager, Ajith Jayasekera, said the cricket board has requested a quick probe to clear the picture.

"The cricket board was yesterday informed of the money, and board president Thilanga Sumathipala has asked for the inquiry," Jayasekera said.

Six days have passed since the Sri Lankan team left the Kandy hotel, but Jayasekera did not say when the money was recovered from the room vacated by Atapattu.

The Sunday Observer newspaper reported the money was found "by the room boy who cleaned the room after the team left for Colombo." (AP)

Ganguly’s men ready for Aussie onslaught

HOBART, Dec 21: Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly is expecting the Australians to come hard on them in the Melbourne Cricket Test but said his team, fired by the motivation to win the series, was ready for a counter-attack.

"They (Aussies) have not been in this position before," Ganguly said today referring to the fact that Australia have never trailed in a home series under Steve Waugh’s captaincy.

"If we want to win the series we would have to match them. That is why we rested key players in this game. We want them to be fresh for the Melbourne Test (dec 26-30)," Ganguly told reporters here after the three-day match between India and Australia `A’ ended in a draw.

"We are in a good position in the series and don’t get such opportunities often. It is upto us to get our things right for the next Test."

India pulled off a shock win in the Adelaide Test to take a 1-0 lead in the four-Test series and are eyeing their first ever series victory outside the sub-continent.

Ganguly also clarified that he had been misquoted in certain sections of the Australia media vis-a-vis his comments that the Indians had it in them to replace Australia as the best side in the world in future.

The Indian skipper’s comment was interpreted as tall-speak in media, prompting Ricky Ponting to comment one win alone did not make India the best.

"I don’t know what people understood when I said we wanted to be at the top," he said. "We are not the number one. Number one is Australia."

"the way they have played over the last five years has been phenomenal. They have won 16 tests in a row, winning a World Cup without conceding a game, these are huge successes," said Ganguly.

"We want to look at the top because that is the way we can go forward. You also have to give us credit that if any side has competed well against Australia it has been India.

"That is a good sign for us. We are a young side, there are a lot of careers starting in this team. If we can compete with the best side in the world, we should be getting to a stage where we can also be termed as a very, very strong side. But then we have got some high standards to match.

"As a young team we want to be close to what Australia has done. But we also know it requires tremendous consistency. That is what has stood out for them. You can win a game but winning 16 Tests in a row, 11 one-dayers in succession is different.

"That is what I said. We have the ingredients and that is what we hope to become. I am not stupid enough to say we are the number one side in the world. If people read between the lines, I can’t help it."

Ganguly felt the gains from the drawn game was the performance of Lakshmipathy Balaji, Deep Dasgupta and Aakash Chopra.

"Balaji bowled well and that is one of the gains from this game as our fast bowling options are still open. This is the best I have seen him bowl in this series. Deep looked good in both the innings. As for Chopra, he has been doing a good job. He gave us good starts in Adelaide and in Brisbane in the first Test, that is what we are looking at."

"One of the key things in Australia is to see the new ball through. Aakash does help in taking the shine off the ball. I am sure he would convert his starts into a big knock soon."

Ganguly defended his decision to allow Parthiv Patel and Murali Kartik to bat for long in the middle on the second afternoon instead of declaring the innings saying he wanted his bowlers to be fresh in the second innings.

"We wanted to have hits in the middle. Sachin (Tendulkar) had a good hit, so did Aakash and Parthiv. We also wanted to make sure our bowlers are fresh in the second innings," he said. (PTI)

Lanka stuns England with crushing victory

COLOMBO, Dec 21: Spinners Muttiah Muralitharan and Sanath Jayasuriya bowled Sri Lanka to a comprehensive, series-clinching victory by an innings and 215 runs in the third and final cricket Test match here today.

Muralitharan claimed four for 63 and Jayasuriya bagged two for five to fashion Sri Lanka’s biggest triumph in 14 Tests against England.

Trailing by 363 runs in the first innings, England was bundled out for 148 as Sri Lanka improved upon its 2001 Galle Test’s victory margin of an innings and 28 runs.

For England this was the third-worst defeat in 127 years of Test cricket. The only bigger losses have been by an innings and 332 runs against Australia at Brisbane in 1946-47 and by an innings and 226 runs by the West Indies at Lord’s in 1973.

Sri Lanka scored 628 for seven declared in response to England’s first innings total of 265, but England’s dismal batting in its second knock helped the hosts wrap up the match on the fourth day.

England, which won its 2001 tour of Sri Lanka 2-1 and took a 1-0 at home last year, salvaged draws in the previous two Tests through some resolute defence that frustrated the Sri Lankan bowlers.

Muralitharan dismissed former skipper Nasser Hussain (11), Graham Thorpe (19), Gareth Batty (0) and James Kirtley (12) to take his haul during the current series to 26 wickets, securing him the man-of-the-series award.

Hussain was caught behind as the spinners took control of the match after pace bowlers Chaminda Vaas and Dilhara Fernando rattled the openers.

Marcus Trescothick, who posted a 70 in the first innings, fell in the first over as he cut vaas (1 for 25) to substitute Michael Vandort at point, while Michael Vaughan failed to read Fernando’s slower delivery and sent a catch to Jayasuriya in the covers.

Fernando came back to dismiss Andrew Flintoff (30) and tailender Ashley Giles (13) to finish with three wickets for 27.

Muralitharan had Thorpe and Batty stumped by Kumar Sangakkara off consecutive deliveries, but narrowly missed a hat-trick when skipper Hashan Tillekeratne failed to snap a bat-pad catch from Flintoff at silly point.

Jayasuriya clean bowled Mark Butcher (37) and trapped Chris Read (0) lbw in the space of 10 deliveries as Sri Lanka tightened its grip on the match.

Earlier, resuming at the overnight total of 563 for five, Sri Lanka added 65 brisk runs for the loss of three wickets in 49 minutes, but Tillekeratne Dilshan (83) and Upul Chandana (76) failed to make their centuries.

Dilshan was bowled by left-arm spinner Giles (2 for 190) after adding just four runs to his overnight score of 72.

Vaas was run out for nine and Chandana was snapped by Vaughan off pace bowler Kirtley (2 for 131) in successive overs before Muralitharan’s cameo 21 not out added 22 runs for the unfinished ninth-wicket partnership with Fernando (1 not out). (AP)

India’s three-day game ends in draw

HOBART, Dec 21: Opener Sadgopan Ramesh failed with the bat yet again even as the three-day cricket match between India and Australia ‘A’ ended in a dreary draw here today.

Southpaw Ramesh, who opened the innings with Aakash Chopra, followed his first innings score of four with 22 in the second knock as India, chasing 308 in 41 overs for a win, ended the match at 66 for 2 at the Bellerive Oval.

Deep Dasgupta was batting on 19 and Parthiv Patel was yet to open his account when both the captains — Sourav Ganguly of India and Michael Hussey of Australia ‘A’ — agreed for a draw after 33 overs into the visitors’ second innings.

Chopra, who made 25, was the other Indian wicket to fall on the final day. Ramesh was caught hooking at square leg for 22.

The day truly belonged to Australia’s rising star Michael Clarke who made 131 from 140 balls in four hours of batting, smacking 12 fours and four sixes.

Australia ‘A’ declared their second innings at 241 for seven after their first six wickets had fallen cheaply. When the Indians began their second innings, they were never on the hunt even though Ramesh played a few cracking boundaries during his half-an-hour stay at the crease. (PTI)

JKPF resents politics of sports

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Dec 21: Jammu and Kashmir Players’ Forum (JKPF) in a meeting held today expressed its strong resentment over politicisation of sports in the State, especially in Jammu.

Criticising such sports association, which have indulged in politics without concentrating on the sports, convenor JKPA, Chandan Singh Chouhan said that tournaments were being organised only to show strength to political leaders after inviting them (leaders) as chief guests.

According to a handout, other members attending the meeting said that these political leaders, who are close to those running sports associations, often used sports platform to highlight each other. On the other hand, members said that these leaders even after giving lengthy speeches during such functions did nothing in practical.

These members, who are international and national players, mentioned that they had lot of hopes from the new Government, but till date nothing concrete has been done for the sports.

Those attended meeting under the chairmanship of Chandan Singh Chouhan were Ajay Ratra, Sanjeev Singh, Bhanu Pratap Singh, Gurvinder Singh, Jeetender, Sanal Gupta, Kapil Dev Singh and Rameshwar.