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| India sink to another low in New Zealand QUEENSTOWN, Jan 4: The poor run continued for the world’s richest cricketers as the Indians gifted yet another match and the one-day series to New Zealand who demolished them easily in this resort town today.................more We have
let the people QUEENSTOWN, Jan 4: Unable to hide his frustration at the team’s run of demoralising defeats in New Zealand, Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly today said the continued poor show was a reflection of the state of mind of his players and admitted that......more India not
to revive CHENNAI, Jan 4: Sports Minister Vikram Verma today maintained that Indo-Pak cricket series will not be revived unless Pakistan gave up "cross border terrorism," but said India will play its matches.................more Final test
heading SYDNEY, Jan 4: Michael Vaughan scored an unbeaten century for England today after Adam Gilchrist blasted a hundred for Australia to lay the foundations for a thrilling end to the fifth and final Ashes test.......more |
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J&K Bank 69th Senior Billiards
and Snooker Championships Alok, Yasin, Rafath top their pools Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Jan 4: Defending champion, Alok Kumar, former champion, Yasin Merchant and title contender....more North-Zone
U-25 Cricket Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Jan 4: The DDCA defeated Jammu and Kashmir by 139 runs in the North-Zone under-25 Cricket Tournament....more North-Zone
U-19 Football Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Jan 4: Haryana today registered a big win over Himachal Pradesh in a group-A match of the ongoing North-Zone under-19 Football Championship..........more JK
Junior-A, BSF Kashmir-A Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Jan 4: The JK Junior-A and BSF Kashmir-A today reached the final of the Amit Memorial Volleyball Tournament being organised by Pir Panchal........more |
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Bank Football team to take part in Bank’s
Olympiad... Sachin Sant wins Snooker title .... Sharma declares open Amit Koul Memorial Volleyball tourney.... |
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QUEENSTOWN, Jan 4: The poor run continued for the world’s richest cricketers as the Indians gifted yet another match and the one-day series to New Zealand who demolished them easily in this resort town today. Their batting nightmare continued as the visitors were shot out for 122, a target the New Zealanders overtook comfortably to win by seven wickets and go 4-0 up in the seven match series. The Indians had lost both the test matches and now continue to remain winless on the tour. A substantial crowd and beautiful surrounding hills witnessed another embarrassing display of mindless batting by the Indians who failed for the fourth successive time in the series to last their allocated 50 overs. Unlike the seamer-friendly wickets in the earlier matches, the strip here was good for batting. But the Indian players, who have become enormously rich selling soft drinks, tv sets and other goodies to cricket crazy millions at home, were unwilling to learn any lessons from their previous failures on this disastrous tour. They batted poorly to inflict another humiliating defeat on themselves. Unlike in the previous games, the Indians got off to a good start after being put in to bat by New Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming. But a familiar middle-order collapse, triggered by irresponsible shot-making and some fine bowling and fielding performance from the hosts, saw the platform being wasted. India were shot out in 43.4 overs, the longest that they have lasted in this series. Medium-pacer Andre Adams celebrated his return to the New Zealand side with a career-best five-wicket haul. His 5-22 from 8.4 overs was also the best figures by a New Zealand bowler against India. Once again not a single Indian batsman could reach even the 30s with Yuvraj Singh’s patient 25 being the top-score of the innings. Virender Sehwag (23) and Rahul Dravid (18) were the other useful scorers for the team that once again lacked the services of its star batsman Sachin Tendulkar, missing the fourth consecutive match due to a sprained ankle. In contrast, New Zealand raced to their target in just 25.4 overs with Fleming signalling a return to form with a strokeful 47 which included five fours and one six. The dangerous Nathan Astle was out for 15 but Fleming and Matthew Sinclair, who remained unbeaten on 32, put on 73 runs for the second wicket to ensure that New Zealand’s road to victory was smooth. Srinath, who claimed all the three wickets, dismissed Fleming and out-of-form Craig McMillan (0) in quick succession but with just 20 more runs required, the hosts were hardly under any threat. Sinclair and Scott Styris, who remained not out on eight, knocked off the remaining runs without much problems. The Indians couldn’t have asked for a more idyllic setting or a better pitch to bounce back into the series. The visitors left out a struggling V V S Laxman for Dinesh Mongia and even excluded Harbhajan Singh to accommodate an extra batsman in wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel who made his one-day debut today. But it hardly made any difference to their fortunes. Ironically, the tourists had their best start of the series so far. Dravid, India’s most impressive batsman on this tour, was surprisingly sent to open the innings with Sehwag and the two gave a cautious start putting on 38 runs. Sehwag became the first victim of Adams, being caught in the slips after making 23 and Dravid followed him 17 runs later, clean bowled by the same bowler. That triggered an all-too-familiar collapse that saw Mohammad Kaif, Mongia and Sourav Ganguly being dismissed for the addition of 14 runs. Kaif, who was promoted in the batting order, played a nice-looking shot but straight into the hands of McMillan at mid-wicket to be out for nought while Mongia wasted a promising start when he fell into a trap and hooked a short delivery from Adams to be caught at fine leg by Daniel Vettori after making 12 runs. But the crown for the most rash stroke of the innings was taken by Ganguly himself when the captain made a wild slash at a widish delivery from Daryl Tuffey to give a simple catch to Kyle Mills at deep backward point. Ganguly made only two. Patel and Yuvraj Singh put on a small partnership of 25 runs, the diminutive wicketkeeper contributing 13 of those before being bowled off an inside edge off mills. That once again left Yuvraj Singh to bat with the tail-enders. Yuvraj Singh showed a desire to stay at the wicket and batted sensibly before flamboyant instincts got the better of him. He pulled Scott Styris to mid-wicket fence where he was caught specuffey. New Zealand openers Astle and Fleming put their team on the fast track to victory, mindful of the clouds that had started gathering over the picturesque stadium. The fall of Astle in Srinath’s third over did nothing to reduce the urgency of the New Zealanders who batted comfortably on an easy-paced wicket. Fleming, who had so far struggled to time the ball, got going today and hit a few flowing drives and also a six off Agarkar to the fine leg boundary. Fleming and Sinclair brought up the team’s 100 in the 20th over before Srinath struck twice in quick succession. Srinath finished with figures of three for 35 from 9.4 overs. SCOREBOARD India V Sehwag c Astle b Adams 23 R Dravid b Adams 18 D Mongia c Vettori b Adams 12 M Kaif c McMillan b Adams 0 S Ganguly c Mills b Tuffey 2 Yuvraj Singh c Tuffey b Styris 25 P Patel b Mills 13 A Agarkar run out 0 Zaheer Khan c McCullum b Tuffey 1 J Srinath not out 10 A Nehra c McCullum b Adams 0 Extras (lb-1, w-11, nb-6) 18 Total (all out, 43.4 overs) 122 Fall of wickets: 1-38, 2-55, 3-57, 4-67, 5-69, 6-94, 7-100, 8-107, 9-118. Bowling: Tuffey 10-1-36-2, Mills 10-2-28-1, Oram 10-1-28-0, Adams 8.4-1-22-5, Styris 3-1-5-0, Vettori 2-0-2-0. New Zealand: S Fleming c Sehwag b Srinath 47 N Astle c Dravid b Srinath 15 M Sinclair not out 32 C McMillan b Srinath 0 S Styris not out 8 Extras (b-1, lb-3, w-14, nb-3) 21 Total (for 3 wkts, 25.4 overs) 123 Fall of wickets: 1-28, 2-101, 3-103. Bowling: Srinath 9.4-1-35-3, Zaheer Khan 2-0-21-0, Nehra 10-1-37-0, Agarkar 4-0-26-0. (PTI) |
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We have let the people down, says Ganguly QUEENSTOWN, Jan 4: Unable to hide his frustration at the team’s run of demoralising defeats in New Zealand, Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly today said the continued poor show was a reflection of the state of mind of his players and admitted that his team had let down the fans back home, the coach and everyone else. "Its got to be in the minds. We can’t be out of form for so long," a grim-faced Ganguly said, having run out of excuses to explain the humiliating defeats on this tour. "It all boils down to personal accountability. None of us have managed to score any runs on this tour." After being blanked 0-2 in the test series, India lost their fourth consecutive one-day match today to give New Zealand a winning 4-0 lead in the seven-match series. "We are letting the team down, we are letting the coach down, we are letting the physio and trainer down, we are letting people back home down. All of who come to watch us, we are letting them down," said Ganguly in his post-match outburst. "We have been pretty poor on this tour. We have tried everything and I am surprised at how badly we have played after having such a good year." Ganguly also admitted that he was going through his "worst phase" after taking over captaincy. "It’s been the worst since I have taken over as captain. I have been captain for three years now and it is the worst phase of our cricket," he said. Today’s result left the remaining three matches - all day-night affairs - inconsequential but Ganguly said his side would certainly like to salvage some pride by winning those. "We have really been poor in this series. But we have to find some ways to stop this because the series is lost but there are three games to play for pride." Even though he held the batsmen as the main culprit in this debacle, he said they could not be found guilty of playing too many strokes. "The batsmen are in poor form. It is eight innings now. None of us has fired. "(But) in one-day cricket, at some stage you have to play your shots. It is not that they (the batsmen) tried to hit out at good balls’’ "A lot of us just picked the fielders. Sehwag’s was a short ball, mine was a rank short ball outside the stumps. Mongia’s was too. We just kept picking the fielders," he said. For a change, Ganguly, who has been highly critical of the pitches in New Zealand, was happy with the track at the John Davies Oval here. "It was a fantastic surface. We loved playing here," he said. "It was a very good one-day track. We just have to forget it to come out of this mess." (PTI) |
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India not to revive cricket series with Pak CHENNAI, Jan 4: Sports Minister Vikram Verma today maintained that Indo-Pak cricket series will not be revived unless Pakistan gave up "cross border terrorism," but said India will play its matches against that country in multi-lateral tournaments including the coming ICC World Cup. "There is no question of reviving the series (with Pakistan) now, or after the World Cup," Verma told reporters here, making it clear that there was no change in the centre’s policy on this issue. However, India will play Pakistan in multi-lateral tournaments, he said. India has been drawn in Pool ‘A’ along with Pakistan for the World Cup and they are scheduled to play a league match on March 1 at centurion. On the British and Australian Governments asking their teams not to play their matches in Zimbabwe, citing security reasons, Verma said India would play its World Cup matches in Zimbabwe. "When that country is playing matches here, why should we not play there," he asked. (PTI) |
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Final test heading for thrilling finish SYDNEY, Jan 4: Michael Vaughan scored an unbeaten century for England today after Adam Gilchrist blasted a hundred for Australia to lay the foundations for a thrilling end to the fifth and final Ashes test. Vaughan made 113 not out to help England finish the day on 218 for two in their second innings after Gilchrist made 133 to guide Australia to a first innings total of 363, just one run ahead of England’s 362. With England 217 runs ahead with eight second innings wickets in hand and two days still to play, the match seems headed towards a tight finish after Australia easily won the first four games. Vaughan overtook Matthew Hayden as the leading runscorer in the series (563) with his third hundred following his 177 in Adelaide and 145 in Melbourne, becoming the first Englishman since Chris broad in 1986-87 to make three tons in an Ashes series. The 28-year-old Vaughan made a duck in the first innings but responded with a classic second innings knock that featured 16 fours and a six to every part of the Sydney cricket ground. He reached his fifty off 66 balls then hit Damien Martyn for successive fours to pass 100 from 147 deliveries. He was dropped by Justin Langer on 102 but survived to fight another day, sharing an unbroken 94-run partnership with his captain Nasser Hussain (34 not out). Vaughan was well supported by the rest of England’s top order with first innings centurion Mark Butcher (34) and opener Marcus Trescothick (22) making valuable contributions against an Australian attack badly missing Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne. (AGENCIES) |
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J&K Bank 69th
Senior Billiards and Snooker Championships Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Jan 4: Defending champion, Alok Kumar, former champion, Yasin Merchant and title contender Rafath Habib topped their respective groups with all wins in the league round of the 69th Senior Snooker Championship being played at Hari Niwas Palace Hotel, here today. In the meantime, out of a total of eight different groups, five groups have cleared their qualifiers for the next round of pre-quarterfinals. Group-A has sent Alok Kumar and Kanishk Jhanjharia (MP) to the next knock-out round, while Dharminder Lilly (Punjab) and junior star Pankaj Advani (Karnataka) have made it. Rishab Thukral (Delhi) and Brijesh Dhamani have sailed into last 16. With three wins each, both will take on each other tomorrow to clear the topper and runners-up in their group. From Group-E, Railwaymen, Rafath Habib, Asian Games doubles gold winner and Varun Tanjeja (Railway) have qualified. In group-E, both Kamal Chawla (Bihar) and Sourabh Kothari (WB) have found berth in the pre-quarters, but with one remaining game between them. As for as the hosts cueist are concerned, Kamal is one match away to finish second in group-C, while Vishal Abrol, in group-F, and Abhimanyu Arora, in group-A, are no more in the contest. In his fourth and last league match, Kamal will face Harpeet of Himachal Pradesh tomorrow at 10 am. Earlier, in today’s group-C league match, Yasin Merchant had an easy win over Farooq Ibrahim. Yasin win in straight frames, with excellent play in the fourth frame. The last frame witnessed just one turn from each side. In his first attempt, Farooq got only six points with once blue, while Yasin made a clean sweep with a break of 79 including seven black. In group-B match between junior champion, Pankaj Advani(Karnataka) and R Loganathan (TN), Pankaj had a narrow escape in the well contested match making it a 4-3 win. Both played excellent game. In one frame, Pankaj spared no ball for Loganathan blanking him 120-0. Pankaj got befitting reply in the fifth frame losing it 1-60. The results: Group-A: Alok Kumar (Punjab) bt K Jhanjharia (MP) 50-62, 138-0, 68-38, 81-8, 67-57; Alok Kumar (Punjab) bt Munish Behl (UP) 63-25, 43-48, 75-45, 74-21, 96-21; Manish Behl (UP) bt Abhimanyu Arora (J&K) 63-72, 58-19, 78-9, 56-43, 70-13; Alok Kumar (Punjab) bt Abhijoy Ghosh (HP) 110-5, 84-2; 69-25, 85-8. Group-B: Dharminder Lilly (Punjab) bt R Loganathan (TN) 57-36, 64-43, 40-48, 77-39, 89-12; Dharminder Lilly (Punjab) bt Jeet Das (Orissa) 85-6, 70-3, 97-1, 83-27; Pankaj Advani (Karnataka) bt Jaswinder Singh (Rajasthan) 75-46, 70-33, 92-32, 71-27; Deepak Goel (Haryana) bt R Loganathan (TN) 75-24, 39-70, 17-57, 62-29, 60-10, 36-56, 61-45; Jaswinder Singh (Rajasthan) bt Jeet Das (Orissa) 86-21, 94-0, 65-13, 17-45, 64-24; Pankaj Advani bt R Loganathan (TN) 46-59, 78-45, 120-0, 64-10, 1-60, 51-58, 67-31. Group-C: Farooq Ibrahim (AP) bt Harpeet (HP) 57-34, 41-77, 16-61, 56-79, 55-39, 58-51, 53-46; Yasin Merchant (Maharashtra) bt Farooq Ibrahim 68-17, 72-26, 97-29, 79-6. Group-D: Aman Bhasin (Haryana) bt Deepak Kamra (UP) 56-13, 22-68, 54-28, 80-45, 19-63; 31-71, 73-17. Group-E: Varun Taneja (Railway) bt Lucky Vatnani (AP) 56-19, 76-11, 65-23, 63-64, 52-34; Rafat Habib (Railway) bt S T Butia (WB) 69-46, 63-53, 97-15, 84-33. Group-F: Shyam Jagtaini (Railway) bt Vishal Abrol (J&K) 91-33, 74-26, 47-52, 64-36, 85-24; Viney Katrela (Karnataka) bt Anuj Uppal (Delhi) 38-67, 2-73, 71-25, 71-43, 62-61, 80-35; Anuj Uppal (Delhi) bt Vishal Abrol (J&K) 82-21, 61-27, 64-34, 28-57, 65-39. Group-G: Neeraj Kumar (Bihar) got walkover Rupesh Shah (Gujarat); Kamal Chawla (Bihar) got walkover Rupesh Shah (Gujarat). Group-H: Rajat Taneja (Delhi) bt Devendra Joshi (Maharashtra) 60-46, 47-43, 72-37, 49-9; Siddharth Parekh (Railway) bt A Haque (Orissa) 49-41, 62-8, 57-49, 43-60, 67-41; Davindra Joshi (Maharashtra) bt Jai Ganesh (TN) 72-62, 100-18, 69-32, 21-52, 68-22. |
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North-Zone U-25
Cricket Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Jan 4: The DDCA defeated Jammu and Kashmir by 139 runs in the North-Zone under-25 Cricket Tournament at the newly laid wicket of GGM Science College grounds, here today. After declaring their innings at overnight score of 249, with a total lead of 285 runs, DDCA bowled out J&K on their home turf at 146 in 56.2 overs in the third and final day of the match which was marked by poor visibility. At one point of time, DDCA were not sure of the victory finding Hardeep Singh (Prince) unbeatable on one end. With six wickets in hand and light continued getting dim, Delhiites were praying for some sunshine so that they could bowl 15 mandatory overs and bowl out all J&K batsmen. Showing their full domination over the DDCA bowlers, Hardeep and Anshuman were batting confidently with runs continued pouring in. J&K had made 104 runs for the loss of four wickets. Ultimately, the one man show ended and Hardeep Singh (Prince) was caught brilliantly by Sonu Vaid on a bat and pad shot in the slip area off Yogesh Sachdeva. Hardeep made highest 69 runs facing 136 delivers with the help of 11 boundaries. The dismissal of Hardeep saw the remaining J&K wickets fell like nine pins and hosts innings concluded at a score 146. In the end, Raman Datta gave some severe thrashing to the Delhi bowlers hitting three boundaries in his 14 runs coming off 19 balls. Delhi’s Puri Singh, who could not get any wicket in the first innings, clinched four wickets for 48 runs in 18.2 overs. Another spin bowler, Yogesh Sharma, who bagged four wickets in the first innings, added five more to his tally of nine in the match. SCOREBOARD DDCA first innings 145 J&K first innings 109 DDCA 2nd innings 249 (declared) J&K 2nd innings Wajahat Majid c R S Gupta b Kuldeep 4 Arshad Hussain c Prem Vir Nagar b Yogesh Sachdeva 9 Hardeep Singh c Sonu Vaid b Yogesh Sachdeva 69 Inderjeet Singh lbw Puri Singh 22 Vivek Singh c N S Negi b Puri Singh 0 Anoop Magotra b Puru Singh 2 Anshuman Sharma c&b Puru Singh 21 Uavid Hamid c Salil Oberoi b Yogesh Sachdeva 1 Sanjay Sharma b Yogesh Sachdeva 0 Raman Dutta c Kuldeep Rawat b Yogesh Sachdeva 14 Umar Alam not out 0 Extras: (b-3,lb-1) 4 Total (all out in 56.2 overs) 146 Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-28, 3-92, 4-96, 5-104, 6-112, 7-118, 8-120, 9-134, 10-146. Bowling analysis: Prem Vir Nagar 5-2-8-0; Kuldeep Rawat 3-0-17-1; Puru Singh 18.2-6-48-4; Yogesh Sachdeva 20-9-49-5; Vivek Khurana 9-2-15-0; Vishal Sharma 1-0-5-0. |
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North-Zone U-19
Football Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Jan 4: Haryana today registered a big win over Himachal Pradesh in a group-A match of the ongoing North-Zone under-19 Football Championship for Dr B C Roy Trophy at GGM Science College grounds, here today. The tough Haryana side blanked Himachal in the 90 minutes long league match after taking 2-0 lead in the first half of the play. Vikram struck the first blood for Haryana in the 21st minute of the match after making a solo effort dribbling the ball from the center line are right to the net. Four minutes later, second goal was added to the score of Haryana by Sanjeev, who making full use of a well judged pass given by Vikram from left side of the goal and kicked the ball right into the net. With two goals lead in the first half, Haryana continued their attack in the second half too and third goal was scored in the 50th minute through Lalit Singh, who made solo effort. Rajesh made fourth goal for Haryana in the 65th minute. Rajesh struck his second goal and fifth for Haryana in the 73rd minute on a rebound from Himachal goal-keeper, Gaurav Sharma. Five minutes later another attempt was made by Dinesh of Haryana on a corner, but failed to convert that into a goal. During the match the only yellow card was shown by Simran of Haryana by the center referee. Mr SA Hamid, general secretary of the Jammu and Kashmir Football Association and member standing committee of the State Sports Council, was special guest in this third league match. In tomorrow’s group-B match, Chandigarh will take on Uttar Pradesh at 2.30 pm. |
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JK Junior-A, BSF Kashmir-A in final of Amit Volleyball Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Jan 4: The JK Junior-A and BSF Kashmir-A today reached the final of the Amit Memorial Volleyball Tournament being organised by Pir Panchal at Government High School, Muthi here today. Earlier, in the semi-finals, J K Junior-A defeated IInd Rajput in close straight sets 25-21, 26-24, 26-24 and BSF Kashmir-A outplayed 62-Engineer again in straight sets 25-11, 31-29, 25-23 in the second semi-final. In the quarter-finals, BSF-A down Tiger-A and JK Junior-A beat BSF Kashmir-B 25-23, 21-25, 25-19, 24-26, 15-13. |
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Minister felicitates Thang-Ta contingent Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Jan 3: The Jammu and Kashmir Thang-Ta team, who bagged gold medals in National Thang-Ta championship, held at Rotak, Haryana, was felicitated by State Sports Council at a function held here today. The Housing and Revenue Minister, Mr Ghulam Hassan Mir who was the chief guest on the occasion. Jammu and Kashmir team emerged the champion in the competition and won gold medal by defeating holder Manipur team. Manipur team had continuously held the championship since 1983. It is for the first time that the Jammu and Kashmir team won first place in the game at National level. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Mir complimented the team for bringing laurels to J&K state by topping at the national level and said that the team has "raised our heads high in proud" by winning gold medal in Thang-Ta championship. The minister attributed this to the excellent performance and professionalism in the training of the players and hoped that the team will not only maintain its present standard, but would also strive to bag gold medal at the International Thang-Ta championship, which is scheduled this year in India. Highlighting the importance of games in the modern times, the minister said that the participation of the youth in the games was as important as education, adding that attaining excellency in the games was imperative for an individual to meet successfully diverse challenge of his life. J&K Bank Football team to take part in Bank’s Olympiad Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Jan 4: State champions, the Jammu and Kashmir Bank football team, will leave for Bangalore tomorrow to take part in the Bank’s Olympiad (all India Inter-Bank Football Tournament) to be held from January 18 to 25. Led by Manzoor Dar, the Bank team is comprised of 20 players and three officials. The team: Hilal Rasool, Vikramjeet Singh (goal-keepers), Tajamul, Billo Khan, Feroz Ahmed, Waseem Feroz, Imran Rafiq, Kamaljeet Kumar, Manzoor Dar, Intikhab Alam, Manoj Kumar, Rakesh Kumar, Mohit Verma, Abdul Rashid, Deepak Sangral, Irshad Ahmad, Farooq Ahmed, Shahnaz Iqbal, Majid Dar and Rizwan Sheikh. Manager: Ramesh Chander. Chief coach: S S Hakim. Assistant coach: Abdul Majid Kakroo. The team manager, Ramesh Chander said that the General Manager (HRD, Law and Sports), Mr Shamas Farooq has given all support and help to the team and is a source of inspiration to the team under the kind patronage of Mr M Y Khan, Chairman. Sachin Sant wins Snooker title Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Jan 4: Sachin Sant won the Snooker final beating D P Khajuria 4-2 in the ongoing annual sports meet of the Jammu Club, here. Khajuria won the first frame, but was given fight by Sachin, who equalised the score 1-1. Khajuria again went a head of Sachin making it 2-1 in his favour only to lose the final 2-4. The score: 42-56, 38-31, 21-59, 60-22, 49-16, 66-11. Sansar Singh and Devi Dutta were markers. India to play Pakistan in Asia Cup: Dalmiya KOLKATA, Jan 4: BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya today said the Indian cricket team would be playing Pakistan in the upcoming Asia Cup Cricket Tournament and "there is nothing new to it". "Indian Government has already allowed us to participate in multi-lateral tournaments. We are playing Pakistan in the World Cup. We are also taking part in the Asia Cup and there is nothing new in it," the Indian cricket board president told PTI here reacting to Asian Cricket Council development manager Zakir Syed Hussain’s statement in Islamabad that the Pakistan Cricket Board has received a communication from BCCI in this regard. He said since Pakistan was not holding the tournament there was no problem for the Indian team to participate in it. Though the dates for the tournament are yet to be decided, it is likely to be held either in Sri Lanka or Bangladesh. Besides the four test playing nations in the region -India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh - the tournament will also see Hong Kong and UAE participate for the first time. (PTI) |
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