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India defeat Pakistan HYDERABAD, Oct 31: India continued their domination over arch rivals Pakistan with a convincing 3-1 victory in a fast-paced encounter to clinch the gold medal in the men’s hockey of the inaugural Afro-Asian Games here today.........more ICC set to
freeze MELBOURNE, Oct 31: The International Cricket Council (ICC) plans to freeze payments of millions of dollars to the teams that competed at this year’s........more CAP D’AGDE (France), Oct 31: Viswanathan Anand lived up to his reputation of being the best in rapid chess and toppled top seed Vladimir Kramnik of Russia 1.5-0.5 to win the World Rapid Chess Championship that concluded here...............more Indian
challenge NEW DELHI, Oct 31: India’s challenge at the Hong Kong open badminton tournament came to a tame end when national champion Abhinn Shyam Gupta and Chetan Anand lost to their higher rank opponents at the Queen...........more |
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Inter-college cricket Kapil’s ton sails PG Law and Sciences into semis Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Oct 31: Heroic captain’s knock by Kapil today guided Post Graduate Departments of Law and Sciences to a seven wickets victory over Degree College.......more Ist
Banarsi Dass memorial tourney Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Oct 31: Young Hero today trounced NGR Club by four goals to nil to advance into the ongoing Ist Banarsi Dass......more 4th
consecutive Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Oct 31: Jammu and Kashmir Bank today registered its fourth consecutive win in the prestigious Durand.........more Youth Club
Khayzar Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Oct 31: Youth Club Khayzar defeated Youth Club Sarthali in the final of a cricket tournament organised......more |
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Of Media, Corporates and Sports...... India ready to face Australian backlash..... |
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India defeat Pakistan 3-1 to lift hockey gold HYDERABAD, Oct 31: India continued their domination over arch rivals Pakistan with a convincing 3-1 victory in a fast-paced encounter to clinch the gold medal in the men’s hockey of the inaugural Afro-Asian Games here today. The third straight victory over their Asian rivals gave India their second major title in as many months. India has last month defeated Pakistan 4-2 in the final of the Asia Cup in Kuala Lumpur. Arjun Halappa (7th minute), Len Aiyappa (34th) and Gagan Ajit Singh (56th) scored for the hosts while half back Gazanfar Ali scored a consolation goal for the Pakistanis in the 14th minute. The Indians, leading 2-1 at half time, sealed the fate of the match in the 56th minute when star forward Gagan Ajit made a probing run into the Pakistani area and slotted home the winner after wrong footing two defenders. In the first half, both the teams started cautiously trying to get the measure of their opponents. With the game gaining momentum, India started making a few good moves and were rewarded immediately when Halappa gave a beautiful pass to Deepak Thakur, who was obstructed on the goal mouth with the referee giving India a penalty stroke. Halappa made no mistake to give India the lead. But the Pakistani’s came back strongly as they launched a relentless attack on the Indian goal earning two penalty corners in a span of seven minutes. While the first was well saved by Indian custodian Devesh Chauhan, full back Ghazanfar Ali made no mistake in converting the second to restore parity. The Indians were immediately forced on the back foot when Viren Rasquinha was shown the yellow card for bringing down Rehan Butt. The Pakistani’s tried to take advantage of the one man advantage as they pressurised the Indian defence. After Rasquinha’s return Indians changed the tempo and earned three penalty corners in quick succession with Len Aiyappa scoring through an indirect conversion with the third in the dying moments of the first half. Trailing at the break, Pakistan came out firing on all cylinders in second half as their half line created numerous opportunities for the forwards. But the Indian defence led by skipper Dilip Tirkey and Harpal Singh stood firm and showed tremendous resilience to thrawt every move of the opponent. The Pakistani forwards did not help their cause either as they missed many chances due to bad shooting. The champions trophy bronze medallist, missing the services of Sohail Abbas, also wasted as many as six penalty corners in the second half to negate any chances of a fight back. Victory a boost for India ahead of crucial assignments: Coach Terming India’s victory in the Afro-Asian Games final against Pakistan today as "historic", coach Rajinder Singh said the performance here would stand the team in good stead for the crucial tournaments ahead. "This is a historic win. We have won the gold in the first Afro-Asian Games in an emphatic fashion. This is a memorable victory and this will give a big boost to the players ahead of several crucial tournaments," Rajinder Singh told reporters after India drubbed Pakistan 3-1 in the final at the Gachibowli Stadium here today. FOOTBALL: Uzebk spoil India’s party, take football gold Innomov Islam scored a long-range goal in injury time as Uzbekistan stunned India 0-1 in the football final of the inaugural Afro-Asian Games at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium here tonight. In a keenly fought final, favourites India failed to score against Uzbekistan who played well despite having come with their U-20 squad to halt their winning streak. Uzbekistan held the ball possession for most part with good interceptions and made several forays into the Indian goal area, keeping them under pressure. But the defence and keeper Sangaram Mukherjee held their nerves till Islam surprised with the right footer from long range just as the seconds were ticking away in the one minute injury time. BOXING: Akhil and Jitender Kumar win gold; India lose in other finals Akhil Kumar and Jitender Kumar won two gold medals for India in boxing on the final day of competition but five other indian boxers had to settle for silver medals. Akhil beat Philippines’ Volitio M Payla 20-16 in the fly weight final and Jitender outclassed his Kazakh opponent Beibut Shvmenov before the referee stopped the contest in the light heavy weight final. TENNIS: India makes complete sweep India comfortably won all the three tennis titles that were at stake on the final day today to finish a complete sweep of all the tennis gold at this meet. After winning the team event in both men’s and women’s sections and bagging the titles in the women’s singles and men’s doubles earlier, the hosts today clinched the gold in the women’s and men’s doubles besides emerging the winners at the mixed doubles. In the women’s doubles, the first event of the day, teenage sensation Sania Mirza and Chennai-based Rushmi Chakravarthy set the trend winning the event against the Indonesia pair of Stephanie Rosa Maya and Septi Mende after a tough fight 7-6(7-2), 6-3. WEIGHTLIFTING: Indian eves win two golds, China creates world record in jerk Indian women won two bronze medals while Sun Dan of China created a world record in clean and jerk category and Iran dominated the men’s event in weightlifting on the final day today. Twenty-two year old Geeta Rani lifted a total of 222.5 kg in the 75 plus kg category to win the bronze while sun dan broke the record of her compatriot Tang Gong Hung by lifting 168.5 kg in the clean and jerk. She aggregated 278.5 to lift the gold. Musa Balkisu of Nigeria claimed silver with an effort of 225 kg. (AGENCIES) |
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ICC set to freeze World Cup payments MELBOURNE, Oct 31: The International Cricket Council (ICC) plans to freeze payments of millions of dollars to the teams that competed at this year’s World Cup in Southern Africa. Despite making massive profits from the hugely successful tournament, cricket’s world governing body will refuse to pay the 14 competing nations their share. A source told on condition of anonymity that the ICC board, which is currently meeting in the West Indies, would confirm on Saturday that it was holding back the payments. "All the World Cup countries currently have money withheld," the source said by telephone from the West Indies. The source said the sport’s governing body had frozen the payments because the Global Cricket Corporation (GCC), the ICC’s commercial partner for the World Cup, was demanding 47 million to compensate players for loss of earnings during the tournament. The dispute with the GCC could take up to two years to resolve, the source added. The council would consider paying the teams before then but only if they agree to repay the money if the ICC is forced to pay the compensation claim. "If the auditors believe the icc should give some money back they may be able to access it, but only if the council get the bank guarantee they want," the source said. "The ICC are deciding A) should they release any money, B) if they should release any money, exactly how much, and C) before they release any money, any country effectively needs to give a bank guarantee they’ll cover the liability that might arise if things go wrong concerning the body’s dispute with the GCC. The ICC is also withholding money from New Zealand and England for boycotting matches. The Kiwis refused to travel to Kenya and England pulled out of a match in Zimbabwe, both citing security fears. Beaten finalists India have been leading calls for the ICC to pay the teams now, asking for 6.5 million, but the source said their demands would not be met. "They are saying strict conditions need to be met before any money would be returned to the World Cup countries," the source said. "India have come to the table banging their fist saying they want their money back. India are making the most noise and the ICC have said no." (AGENCIES) |
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CAP D’AGDE (France), Oct 31: Viswanathan Anand lived up to his reputation of being the best in rapid chess and toppled top seed Vladimir Kramnik of Russia 1.5-0.5 to win the World Rapid Chess Championship that concluded here. In the two games final, Anand drew the first game and brilliantly outplayed Kramnik in the return game to win the coveted title for the first time. Anand’s best was visible in the second game as he crushed the sharp Sicilian Sveshnikov, an opening that had been troubling him for some time. This championship adds to Anand’s splendid run for over a year now. Earlier this year Anand had won the Corus Super Grandmaster tournament at Wijk, Ann Zee, Netherlands, Melody Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament in Monte Carlo and had beaten world’s best woman player Judit Polgar of Hungary in an engrossing 8-games match in the Mainz Chess Classics in Germany. The ‘Tiger from Madras’, as he is nicknamed in chess circles, Anand tamed Kramnik for the second time in a rapid match after defeating him in Mainz Classics in 2001. The victory in the second game came easier than many might have thought. The opening gave Anand a tangible advantage as Kramnik failed to cope with enormous pressure on the queenside. As Anand threatened to penetrate along the queen file Kramnik had little choice but to part with his queen for two rooks, generally a good exchange. However with Kramnik’s pieces not coordinating at all, Anand’s task was quite simple. With his light square bishop spitting fire over the board, Anand seized control with a routine queen manoeuvre and made some fine prophylactic moves to pocket the full point in 46 moves. Earlier in the first game of the match, Anand, black, surprised Kramnik with his choice of Scheveningen variation in the Sicilian defense and equalised comfortably as the latter chose an old line that did not give any advantage. The peace was signed in just 19 moves. (PTI) |
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at Hong Kong Open comes to a tame end NEW DELHI, Oct 31: India’s challenge at the Hong Kong open badminton tournament came to a tame end when national champion Abhinn Shyam Gupta and Chetan Anand lost to their higher rank opponents at the Queen Elizabeth Stadium, Hong Kong. Gupta was defeated by seventh seed Anders Boesen of Denmark 7-15 4-15 while anand went down to 15th seed Chunlai Bao of China 9-15 15-13 in the second round yesterday, according to information received here today. In the first round, Gupta had defeated 75th ranked Eric go of USA 15-6 15-5 while Anand thrashed local boy Chun Yie Leung 15-2 15-5. In the women’s section, national champion Aparna Popat could not live up to the expectations collapsing in the first round. Popat, winner of women’s singles title at the Asian satellite badminton event in Jaipur earlier this month, lost to Yao Jie of Netherlands 2-11 10-13. (PTI) |
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Inter-college cricket Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Oct 31: Heroic captain’s knock by Kapil today guided Post Graduate Departments of Law and Sciences to a seven wickets victory over Degree College, Udhampur, thus entering into the semi-finals of the inter-college cricket tournament being held at University grounds, here. Kapil made unbeaten 117 runs off just 102 deliveries hitting bowlers to the fence 16 times. Earlier, Degree College Udhampur won the toss and decided to bat first. They were bowled out for 183 runs in 36.1 overs. Arun Sharma was the top scorer with 54 runs facing 52 balls with seven fours. Deepak Kumar and Bupesh Singh contributed 29 and 22 runs respectively while Sudharth, Amit Kumar and Gourav added 21, 14 and 13 runs respectively. Sanjay, who bowled 7.1 overs took three wickets for 34 runs for PG Law and Sciences. Ajay Pal also took three wickets but gave away 26 runs in seven overs he bowled. Kulbushan and Atul shared two and one wicket respectively. Later, chasing a target of 4.5 runs per over, PG Law and Sciences reached the required target in 33.4 overs losing three wickets. Besides Kapil, Shalinder Slathia also played valuable innings of 39 runs off as many balls including six fours. Atul and Shamsher Singh contributed 13 runs each to the score. From Udhampur College, Varinder and Ravi took one wicket each while third batsman was run out. Now, in the two-day semi-final, to be played tomorrow, PG Law and Sciences will take on Degree College Kathua at 9 am. |
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Ist Banarsi Dass
memorial tourney Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Oct 31: Young Hero today trounced NGR Club by four goals to nil to advance into the ongoing Ist Banarsi Dass memorial football tournament being played at Science College ground, here. To make it a big win for the hosts, Rajinder Abrol struck twice while Rohit Heer and Shabaz Khan made one goal each. Rohit Heer opened Young Hero’s account netting the ball in the 6th minute through header on a pass from Rajinder Abrol. After masterminding first goal, Rajinder struck twice himself and bring team’s score to 3-0. Rajinder’s first goal came in the 12th minute when he made a direct hit from on the top of the D. Later he added second goal to his credit in the 43rd minute on a pass from Daniel. Shahbas Khan made it a big win adding fourth goal in the 88th minute. This time Rakesh Kumar (substitute) passed the ball to Shahbas who did no mistake in converting that into the goal. Today’s match was officiated by Kushey, Suresh Gupta, Nazir Ahmed and Chaman Lal. |
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4th consecutive win for J&K Bank Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Oct 31: Jammu and Kashmir Bank today registered its fourth consecutive win in the prestigious Durand Cup football tournament being played at Dr Ambedkar Stadium, New Delhi. According to reports reaching here, J&K Bank defeated Delhi based club Tarun Singha by two goals to one. Although the first goal was scored by Tarun Singha taking first lead, but midfielder Rizwan Sheikh equalised the score when Deepak Sangral gave him a sharp pass from centre of the D in the 20th minute. The half time score remained 1-1. However, after the breather host club put a lot of pressure on the Bankmen but strong defence never allowed the ball into the goal post. In the 60th minute, Deepak Sangral converted a well calculated pass coming from Rizwan Sheikh into the goal. With 2-1 lead Bank has to face the pressure and it was Vikramjeet who made brilliant saves in the last minute thereby helping Bank make it a 2-1 win. |
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Youth Club Khayzar wins cricket tourney Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Oct 31: Youth Club Khayzar defeated Youth Club Sarthali in the final of a cricket tournament organised jointly by Khayzar and Panyalag Club in collaboration with Nehru Yuva Kendra at Kathua. In this tournament seven different youth clubs participated. In the final and prize distribution function, Mushtaq Ahmed, Sarpanch, Moti Ram Kalandri were special guests who gave away prizes. Later, Ajit Parshad, president Youth Club Khayzar presented vote of thanks. Of Media, Corporates and Sports By Rajesh Dhar Media and Corporate house are the two big agencies which play a vital role in encouragement, popularity, fillip and exposure of games and players. So, the media fraternity and the corporate house should give a due share to every game and every good player. There-in lies the decency of media, the corporate house and the beauty of sports and games. But in the present era, especially in our country and our state too, the media and the corporates have an inclination towards some games and players and a biased approach towards other. You know, India’s ace golfer Jyoti Randhawa was only the second player in the history of PGA to win the title for consecutive years. And believe it, the oldest golf club in the world outside the British Islands, is in Calcutta now Kolkatta. Randhawa had also finished runners up in the biggest golf event on Asian Circuit, the volvo China Open. He has many more achievements to his credit. Despite these achievements, he has gone unnoticed in India. Reason ? Lack of media exposure. Media’s biased role towards games other than cricket. The mediamen focus not only on cricket but its players, at the same time neglecting the others. Golf, even after all the brilliant performances by Indian golfers – Gaurav Ghei, Jeev Milkha Singh, Ali Sher – and historic background, is still not up there in the big league. Media whether print or electronic, National or local is mostly responsible for such happenings. And such a type of media system is surely going to blow a death-knell for every sport sans cricket in India because cricket is the only game each and every inch of which is covered by the Media. The people are at a loss to understand as to what is special in cricket than other games and sports. Moreover, it is often said that cricket is a gentleman’s game. What about the other games ? Are these games not the games for ‘gentlemen’ like late Hansie Cronje ! Golfers are not the only sufferers. What about Limba Ram (The ace archer), Jaspal Rana (The Versatile shooter), Kunjurani Devi (The lady with iron muscles), Rajiv Bala Krishnan (Once the fastest man in India) Baichung Bhutia (Maradona of India), Jyotirmoyee Sikhdar (The gritty athelete), Lalita Auchat (Best hand ball shooter) and our local handballer — Ranjeet Singh, who captained Indian National hand ball team more than once. All such greats are not given due exposure for which media is mainly responsible. Watch T.V. or listen Radio, more than 70 percent of the sports News is about cricket. Go through newspapers, sports magazines or such other journals, one can see cricket and cricket everywhere. It seems that other sports and games are valueless and insensible. Even many magazines reporting only Cricket matters have come out. This clearly shows how much importance is being attached to cricket in India. What is more shameful rather humiliating is that the sportsperson like Malleshwari, an International steel nerved lifter remains unrecongised and unnoticed in the country like India. Though Sachin Tendulkar’s contribution to cricket in India is matchless, which deserves appreciation, as he came to represent India at a very little age of fifteen years which itself is a great achievement. Being a cricketer, Sachin gets his full share of appreciation, encouragement and exposure. But, what about Rihen Mehta and Nakul Chandak ? Both of them crossed the English Channel and swam in the cold water for almost about 12 hours when their age was just Eleven Years. It is not easy to swim for consecutive twelve hours and that too for the little chaps like Nakul and Rihen. Why these little Heroes are not known to common men is a million dollar question ? This has also been the case with Abhijeet of Karnataka who beat many records in swimming at a tender age of fourteen years. Who knows this national hero ? Hardly some people ! Take the example of Rajeev Bala Krishnan, a boy of middle class family who had to come all the way from the USA to represent his State in the national games held in Pune in 1993. He got four gold and one silver medal in atheletic events and was rewarded with the Sobriquet – fastest man in India. Why is this great athelete not known to the people of India ? Perhaps his sin is that he has beaten the Indian record timing in hundred metres sprint race at Olympics and also he is not a cricketer. Who knows Kabaddi, wrestling or Kho-Kho players ? Lalita Auchat is the another player to suffer from the same treatment. She was the captain of Indian handball team which beat England in 1992-93, in one of the matches of which she scored eleven individual goals at the time when she was in a family way (having fourth month of pregnancy). Who knows this versatile handball shooter from Nagpur ? Not only the media but also the corporate houses are indifferent to these games as they see no money in them. The corporate houses invest money only in those games where from they expect money back. That is why they sponsor cricket only in the country because there is enormous flow of money in this game. "Yes I definitely think it will take our traditional game – Kabaddi somemore time to become a commoners game in India as everything at present is done by corporates" says Deepali Thakre, former International Kabaddi player. If corporate houses sponsor other games also and media serves as a covering agency, definitely a sea-change will be observed in the coming years. India ready to face Australian backlash MUMBAI, Oct 31: Having dented the Australian pride with a comfortable win in Gwalior, India may have to brace themselves up for a likely backlash from the world champions when they meet for the second time in the Triangular series one-day match here tomorrow. The Indians will be eager to capitalise on the second-string Australian bowling attack and keep the momentum going in what promises to be pulsating day-and-night encounter at the Wankhede Stadium. After a disappointing start to the series when they were clobbered by Sachin Tendulkar and Venkatsai Laxman for a 37-run day-night defeat at Gwalior last week, the Aussies seemed to have got their campaign back on track with an eight-wicket demolition of arch-rivals New Zealand in Faridabad on Wednesday. The home team was leading the points table with eight points from two matches and a victory against the formidable Australians will help them consolidate their position for a berth in the final. The world champions, on the other hand, were just one point behind the Indians and Ricky Ponting and his men were unlikely to give anything on a platter to the hosts. New Zealand, the other team in the fray, were at the bottom of the table with three points. What must have been particularly pleasing to captain Ponting was the performance of new ball bowlers Brad Williams and Nathan Bracken who sliced through the Kiwi batting line-up in devastating fashion in Faridabad. Coming in as replacements for frontline fast bowlers Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie and Brett Lee who are out due to injuries, Bracken and Williams have proved ponting right when he said on arrival that the fringe players of the three-time world champions were as good as the first eleven. The Aussie pacers got a lot of assistance from the Faridabad track and could find the going much tougher at the Wankhede Stadium which was likely to favour the batsmen. The victory must have given a lot of confidence to the indians and captain Rahul Dravid, standing-in for Sourav Ganguly who is recovering from an abscess on his left thigh, handled the team well. Dravid made some intelligent bowling changes to stem the Aussie onslaught and was flexible with the batting order, by promoting Ajit Agarkar in the slog overs. (pti) Gurvinder of Jammu representing RBI in Bank Olympiad Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Oct 31: Gurvinder Singh of Jammu has been selected in the six-member Badminton team representing the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in the Bank Olympiad 2003-2004 starting tomorrow at two venues of Chandigarh and Patiala. Gurvinder is doubles state champion and presently working with RBI Regional office, Jammu. The RBI team: Rudra Kaushik (Delhi), S Dass (Kolkata), Gurvinder Singh and Rahul Sharma (Jammu) and Chander Shekher (Chennai), M Madhu (Trivendurum). Subroto Benerjee (Kolkata) coach. It may be recalled that last year RBI had finished runners-up in all India Bank meet, losing to Canara Bank in the final. Most importantly, the RBI Jammu team is the winner of team event and runner-up in doubles in all India RBI sports meet held at Jaipur. India eyes third spot with win over Aussies LONDON, Oct 31: India will climb to the third spot on the ICC official ODI rating if they can put it across the world champions Australia in Mumbai tomorrow in the fourth match of the TVS Cup tri-nation series. India has already defeated Australia in their first encounter at Gwalior. Australia are the current ICC ODI table leaders with a rating of 133. Victory over the ICC ODI table leaders will boost India’s rating from 107 to 109, enough to put it clear in third place behind Australia and South Africa with 118, an ICC official statement said here today. (UNI) |
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