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| England surrender to BCCI, will play Tests at proposed venues LAHORE, Nov 25: After days of sulking, England have apparently agreed to play at the venues suggested by the Indian Cricket Board for the three Test matches early next year. However, England would not accept the centres recommended for .......more Inzamam
key to Pakistan LAHORE, Nov 25: Former Pakistan captain Imran Khan today was all praise for Inzamam-ul-Haq, saying the current skipper had played a major role in reviving the country's fortunes in international cricket..............more Lankans
face wet start BANGALORE, Nov 25: Sri Lanka's tour opener against Board the President's XI may be a non-starter with the city experiencing intermittent rains. Sri Lankan captain Marvan Atapattu, who had a look at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, said he did not think play would be possible tomorrow on .....more Magnificent
Lara hits ADELAIDE, Nov 25: Brian Lara produced the big innings Australia feared was brewing as he singlehandedly carried the West Indies with a majestic unbeaten double-century on the ....more |
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J&K on the verge of defeat Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Nov 25: With already eight wickets down in the second innings and a-day’s play remaining, host Jammu and Kashmir seems to be at the verge of defeat at the hands of Jharkhand in the Ranji Trophy match being played at M A Stadium, here.......more 4th day
play under After facing the ‘wrath’ of advocates on the second-day of Ranji Trophy play between J&K and Jharkhand, the fearsome office-bearers of Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA) today urged the police-men to remain in the ground ......more Kamal,
Jaideep, Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Nov 25: Semi-finals line-up has been drawn with all the three top seeds winning their matches in the senior billiards in the 15th State Billiards and Snooker Championships underway at MA ............more Saba
enters sub-jr girls Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Nov 25: Saba Singh today won her semi-final to set the stage for an interesting final with Nitani Bakshi’s, who has already qualified for title clash, in ......more |
England surrender to BCCI, will
play LAHORE, Nov 25: After days of sulking, England have apparently agreed to play at the venues suggested by the Indian Cricket Board for the three Test matches early next year. However, England would not accept the centres recommended for the two practice games ahead of the series, a top England and Wales Cricket Board offical said. "We have decided to play the Tests on centres recommended by BCCI but the venues for the two practice matches are not acceptable to us and the team. We would press the BCCI to change them," the official told PTI on the condition of anonymity. The BCCI has slotted the two practice matches at Jamshedpur (February 25-27) and at Agartala (March 2-4) while the Tests have been scheduled at Ahmedabad, Nagpur and Mumbai. "The venues have been discussed in detail with the Players Association and with the players and we have unanimously decided that Jamshedpur and Agartala are not acceptable," he said. "We want the BCCI to move the warm-up games from those centres and slot them in cities where there are better hotels and less travel hazards," the official said after his meeting with Michael Vaughan's men in Faisalabad. Asked if England would prefer playing the warm-up games in Pakistan instead of Jamshedpur and Agartala, the official said it was premature to comment on that. "We would not like to put Pakistan in an awkward situation. But we have our options open and would prefer to play practice games in India but on better venues and not in smaller cities like Jamshedpur or Agartala." The ECB official also said that it was wrong to suggest that the itinerary had been finalised. "The impression being given that the itinerary has been finalised is wrong. It's still in a discussion stage. "But we want to finalise it sooner than later because with the team comes our supporters and media and we would like to cater to their requests. You have to understand that India is a big country and the Barmy Army and Media would like to finalise their tour plans as early as possible." He said England were keen to get over the itinerary issue so that they could concentrate on their home series against Sri Lanka and Pakistan. "Besides, the ECB also wants to get over with this so that we can move forward and start preparing for the home season which is tough and long as we are hosting Sri Lanka and Pakistan for seven Tests," he said. The BCCI also came under flak from a PCB official for not approving the itinerary for the Indian cricket team's tour of Pakistan starting in January. "Only six weeks are left before the Indian team arrives and they have not approved the itinerary. BCCI did the same in 2004 when they gave thumbs-up only 10 days before the tour," a PCB official said. "What they don't seem to understand is that huge logistics is involved and we are already facing plenty of pressure from the broadcasters who want to know where and when the matches are being played," he said. The Indian cricketers are proposed to arrive in Lahore on January 1 where the first Test is scheduled to be played from January 5. The tour has been planned to conclude in Karachi with the fifth one-dayer on February 16. (PTI) |
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Inzamam key to Pakistan revival, says Imran Khan LAHORE, Nov 25: Former Pakistan captain Imran Khan today was all praise for Inzamam-ul-Haq, saying the current skipper had played a major role in reviving the country's fortunes in international cricket. "Inzamam has revived the team's fortunes and, the way he batted in the second Test, he has proved he is the best batsman under pressure," Khan told AFP. Inzamam hit a century in each innings of the second Test at Faisalabad which ended in a draw yesterday. He not only broke former batting great Javed Miandad's Pakistani record of 23 Test hundreds, but also became the country's second batsman to score twin hundreds in a Test against England. Hanif Mohammad is the only other batsman to have achieved this feat, at Dhaka in 1961-62. Inzamam, who has so far played 104 Tests, is now 877 short of surpassing Miandad's Pakistani record of 8,832 runs 124 matches. Khan said Inzamam was a better batsman than even Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar when it came to batting under pressure. "No batsman in modern era, including Lara and Tendulkar, can play better than Inzamam when the chips are down," said Khan. Both Lara and Tendulkar have completed 10,000 Test runs. Inzamam rose to fame under Khan's captaincy, playing a vital role in his team's 1992 World Cup triumph in Australia. Khan said he believed Inzamam could serve his team better if he batted higher in the order. "Inzamam is playing with the tail, so I think he needs to bat at number four instead of six. It is better to avoid a crisis than play in one," he said. Khan, who criticised Inzamam's captaincy during Pakistan's tour of Australia early this year, said things had changed as the current captain was now playing a more active role. "What I said has been proved correct. Inzamam needs to lead from the front. He has become a more active captain with the tour of India and is improving with each match," said Khan, who played 82 Tests for Pakistan. The Inzamam-led Pakistan upset all calculations by levelling a three-Test series 1-1 against India early this year before winning the one-day series 4-2. Khan said England were thrown off balance in the first Test after missing their captain Michael Vaughan through a knee injury. "Inzamam took full advantage of Vaughan's absence in Multan and that has proved decisive in the series," Khan said, referring to Pakistan's 22-run win at Multan. He said Pakistan should continue playing attacking cricket in the third and final Test, starting here from November 29. "Pakistan need to put more pressure on England rather than going defensive," he said, adding Inzamam had handled his bowlers well in the first two matches. "He has exploited his bowling resources well, but I think paceman Mohammad Sami has been struggling and needs direction from someone like Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis or Aaqib Javed," he said. (AFP) |
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Lankans face wet start in India tour opener BANGALORE, Nov 25: Sri Lanka's tour opener against Board the President's XI may be a non-starter with the city experiencing intermittent rains. Sri Lankan captain Marvan Atapattu, who had a look at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, said he did not think play would be possible tomorrow on the ground due to the wet conditions. Over the past one week, Bangalore has been experiencing intermittent showers. The Lankans, who arrived here on November 23, in fact practised indoors yesterday and today, confining themselves to the National Cricket Academy here. "Hopefully, we will get two days of good practice," Atapattu said. "If the sun does not come out now, I don't think we will have play tomorrow." The Board President's XI will be led by Y Venugopala Rao. The Indian outfit has in its ranks Dheeraj Jadhav, Shikhar Dhawan, Robin Uthappa, S Sriram, Neeraj Patel, Parthiv Patel, Munaf Patel, Amit Mishra, Ranadeb Bose, Gagandeep Singh and Kulamani Parida. The first Test starts in Chennai on December 2. (PTI) |
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Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Nov 25: With already eight wickets down in the second innings and a-day’s play remaining, host Jammu and Kashmir seems to be at the verge of defeat at the hands of Jharkhand in the Ranji Trophy match being played at M A Stadium, here. Earlier, conceding a 90-run first innings lead to Jharkhand, J&K could not give fillip to their innings and were struggling at 155 for eight at the end of day-three play. Hope, the remaining two wickets of J&K could survive for first two-hour of play bringing the total lead to over 100 runs mark, it would be an interesting contest in the two post lunch sessions. With 155 runs on the board, J&K had only 65-run lead and if Jagtar and Abid will lose their wickets early, the host could not survive upto the lunch, say experts. Earlier, Jharkhand resumed their innings from overnight score of 226 for four and were bowled out for 361 playing 111.3 overs in total. It was Sameer Khajuria’s excellent bowling that restricted Jharkhand from making it a big score. Sameer clinched four more wickets in his 11.3 overs bowled today making it five for 104 in 38.3 overs, including 13 maiden. Jagtar also bowled a good spells and bagged three wickets. The remaining six wickets of Jharkhand innings felled for less than 100 runs. Mihir made a quick-fire 50-ball half-century with the help of ten boundaries while other three batsmen could not touch the double figure. In reply, J&K had lost their five wickets to level Jharkhand’s first innings lead of 90 runs and when stumps were drawn, the host had just 65 runs in their account. Left-arm-spinner Shahid Khan emerged as most successful bowler from Jharkhand who dismissed the complete middle order of J&K by clinching all the last four wickets fell in the post tea session. |
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4th day play under police protection After facing the ‘wrath’ of advocates on the second-day of Ranji Trophy play between J&K and Jharkhand, the fearsome office-bearers of Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA) today urged the police-men to remain in the ground to avoid any untoward incident. The ten-member team of the Jammu and Kashmir Police under the guidance of a Sub-Inspector showed their presence felt in the stadium throughout the day. However, there was no sympathiser of those who was not included in the final 16-member J&K team. Jammu Wing missing at Stadium With prestigious Ranji Trophy match already entered its third-day today, the absence of Jammu wing office bearers of the JKCA was felt by senior cricketers. Speaking to EXCELSIOR with a condition not to be quoted, these cricketers said that since match is being played at Jammu, the wing office bearers (vice-chairman Rahul Bharati and joint secretary Sudershan Mehta) are supposed to present at the venue to boost the team moral. |
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Kamal, Jaideep, Sohail, Kuldeep in billiards semis Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Nov 25: Semi-finals line-up has been drawn with all the three top seeds winning their matches in the senior billiards in the 15th State Billiards and Snooker Championships underway at MA Stadium, here. Those, who have qualified for the last four stage include top seed Kamal Rohmetra, Sohail Khalid, Jaideep Manocha and Kuldeep Sharma. Now,in the semi-finals, to be played tomorrow, Kamal will take on Jaideep at 1pm while Sohail will face Kuldeep at 3 pm. In the quarterfinal matches played today, Kamal bt Rashu Gupta 406-277; Jaideep bt Nikhil Kapahi 340-332; Sohail bt Ishan Chowdhary 341-295 and Kuldeep bt Sumesh Turki 370-328. Meanwhile, the junior billiards competition shall start tomorrow. |
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Saba enters sub-jr girls final of State TT meet Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Nov 25: Saba Singh today won her semi-final to set the stage for an interesting final with Nitani Bakshi’s, who has already qualified for title clash, in the sub-junior girls group in the 27th State Table Tennis Championships underway at MA Stadium, here. In the second semi-final played today, Saba defeated Shazer in straight but close sets 11-9, 13-11. Meanwhile, in the cadet boys’ group, Jyesh, Karan Gupta and Pallab Dubey have entered into the semi-finals. In the quarterfinal matches played today, Jyesh beat Mandeep Singh in straight equal sets 11-1, 11-1 and Karan Gupta outplayed Ankit Sharma 11-5, 11-0. In other quarterfinal of the day, Pallab Dubey downed Pranav Mahajan 11-5, 11-4. Other results: Cadet boys’ first round: Pallab Dubey bt Rudraksh 11-6, 11-6; Ankit Sharma (Udhampur) bt Nitin Sharma 11-5, 11-7; Karan Gupta bt Saransh Mehta 11-7, 11-6; Jyesh Singh bt Ayush Mahajan 11-1, 11-3; Mandeep Singh bt Munish Ayub 8-11, 11-4, 11-9; Shory Sharma bt Somya Jain 10-12, 11-9, 11-7; Sumeet got walkover Shivang. |
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Two J&K fencers represent India in World Championship Excelsior Sports Correspondent JAMMU, Nov 25: Two fencers, Rashid Ahmed and Sanjeev Suri from Jammu and Kashmir were part of the Indian team contesting in the Senior World Fencing Championship held at Germany last month. They were selected in the Indian team on the basis of their performance during the last two years. While Rashid is current senior national gold medalist in Sabre, young Sanjeev was gold medalist(Sabre) in junior national held last year. To finalise the Indian team, the Fencing Association of India held three preparatory camps at Manipur, Hyderabad and SAI Patiala. It is important to mention here that both of these fencers had already represented India in the senior world championship held Cuba and Asian Championships held at Thailand on earlier occasions also. In addition, Sanjeev, who has recently become senior, was also picked for the World Federation for International Training Camp at Leipzig in Germany. He was the only player from India and fifth among the Asian nations to be selected for this prestigious training camp. "With this achievement, Sanjeev has become the only second player from India to attend this camp in senior group," informed Rashid. In this camp, 40 players from all over the world were selected, he added. |
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