Daily Excelsior.........sports

Shoaib Akhtar, Mohd
Asif test positive
for banned drugs

JAIPUR, Oct 16: Champions Trophy was rocked today with the startling revelation that Pakistan fast bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif were tested positive for taking performance-enhancing drugs........more

Sania drops to 68th
in latest WTA rankings

NEW DELHI, Oct 16: Sania Mirza continued her fall in the WTA rankings and a first round exit from last week’s Bangkok Open saw her drop seven places to 68th in the latest list issued today.........more

Indian batsmen have
bull-headedness of youth

By Ravi Shastri

You would know India is on the move when Irfan Pathan starts to swing; Munaf Patel hits the channel between two ends of wickets; Harbhajan Singh...more

BCCI pension
scheme for 23 ex-Ranji
players from J&K

SRINAGAR, Oct 16: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has selected 23 ex-Ranji players from Jammu and Kashmir for the pension scheme. According to a release by the Jammu......more

Jammu Distt Open Billiards, Snooker
Gurdev, Amanbir,
Rohit, Atul register
wins in Jr Snooker

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Oct 16: Gurdev Singh today registered convincing victory over Jaideep Nayyer while Amanbir Singh and Atul Tandon defeated their opponents in close contests in the first round of the Junior Snooker in the ongoing 16th Jammu District Open Billiards and Snooker Championship being played at Billiards Hall of MA Stadium..........more

Women sports competition
organised at R S Pura

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Oct 16: District Sports Advisory Boards Jammu in collaboration with J&K Sports Council and Department of Youth Services and Sports organised women sports competition at Bana Singh Stadium, R S Pura. The competitions were declared open by Principal Higher Secondary School R S Pura Natha.......more

PnP wins Golf Tournament

SRINAGAR, Oct 16: Pine n Peak (PnP) defeated Jammu and Kashmir Tourism by a margin of 22 points to win the second Senator Pine n Peak Invitational Golf Tournament at the world famous tourist resort of Pahalgam, about......more

Sania drops to 68th in latest WTA rankings

NEW DELHI, Oct 16: Sania Mirza continued her fall in the WTA rankings and a first round exit from last week’s Bangkok Open saw her drop seven places to 68th in the latest list issued today.

The Indian ace has 382 ranking points after her disappointing show in the tier IV event last week.

Shikha Uberoi is the next Indian in the list at the 210th position, down three places from her last week’s standings, with 128.25 ranking points.

Sisters Sanaa and Ankita Bhambri are separated by almost 300 places with Ankita at the 360th spot and Sanaa way down at the 657th position. (UNI)

Indian batsmen have bull-headedness of youth

By Ravi Shastri

You would know India is on the move when Irfan Pathan starts to swing; Munaf Patel hits the channel between two ends of wickets; Harbhajan Singh and Ramesh Powar produce the skit on two sides of off-spin bowling. This is an area which has haunted India in the past. Never mind if it came against an England side that was never really expected to threaten in this competition.

That India still sports a hangdog expression is due to its pretty ordinary batting yesterday. Much like teenagers in bed, there was more fumbling than purpose. They sure have the bull-headedness or why Pathan would still be coming at number three? he is an option India should use sparingly, more of a surprise commodity. It was an opportune moment to send Yuvraj Singh or Suresh Raina up the order.

Rahul Dravid is the glue for India at number five and that has always been the case in the last 3-4 years. With the experience and ability the man possesses, no side would be able to relax even if it has got early breakthroughs. I wonder if his lack of normal scores (11, 0, 15, 18, 9, 26, 6, 0, 7 and 4 in last 10 innings) could be put down to reshuffles in the order.

Dravid has been an opener in seven of these 10 innings; and number four on the remaining three outings. Never once at number five where his average in the 40s is the best of all his major batting positions.

That being so, it still would serve to be realistic as the home pitches at this time of the year are more like 230-240 run affairs. In most parts, monsoon has lingered long enough to hamper pitch preparations. Tall bowlers, as Munaf Patel, Steve Harmison and James Anderson have shown, would prosper for low bounce on inconsistent pitches would invariably catch batsmen in front of the stumps.

But possibly for Mohali, batsmen could come on to their own only in the final week of the competition.

India, thus, has an effective bowling bench. There is no spearhead — actually never has been but for a Kapil Dev and Anil Kumble, but they would do alright. It’s an attack which is not better than Australia, Sri Lanka or Pakistan but it is handy enough. What they lack in penetration, they can make up in accuracy.

Harbhajan Singh, in my view, would walk straight into a world eleven. He is fiercely competitive and proving well the adage that spinners mature late. He was one of Sourav Ganguly’s favourites and is now emerging the lynchpin of Rahul Dravid’s attack. His transition from one regime to another has been phenomenal if not entirely smooth.

From his outburst at the height of Ganguly affair to now buckling down to serve team India, ‘Bhajji’ has only grown in my esteem. He is also proving a pretty effective bat late in the order.

Compliments are due to team for fielding five specialist bowlers. Ramesh Powar, in my opinion, should always be played unless and until the conditions are overtly against fielding two spinners — in which case Dinesh Mongia could be perfect option. India is lucky to have two quality spinners when most sides, such as South Africa, are struggling to find even one decent tweaker.

And then we have the case of Pakistan and England who continue to heap scorn on the talents of Danish Kaneria and Monty Panesar though I must say Jamie Dalrymple looks a good one-day bet for them.

Slowly but surely, India’s bowling combination is emerging: Ajit Agarkar and Munaf Patel; Harbhajan and Ramesh Powar and a swinging Pathan who is the key. What they now need is a strike bowler, somebody like Shoaib Akhtar Andrew Flintoff and Brett Lee who can strike in the middle overs. Middle stretch is the passage when teams can recover from poor starts and give a thrust in the final overs.

I am all for Ajit Agarkar even though his figures in this game do not do him justice. He is extremely competitive, as patel, Bhajji and Powar are. All four of them, incidentally, have come up the hard way and their outlook has been shaped by their backgrounds. They have been through to hell and back. Adversity does bake some tough characters.

Not to forget, Sachin Tendulkar who is now the highest-capped player in one-day cricket. Since his return, he is showing his aggressive intent every-time he walks out to bat. That’s the Tendulkar we know and have come to love. One would like to see him use his feet more against spin and medium-pace. After only 18 years at the top, the man is still the lynchpin of your batting. (PTI)

BCCI pension scheme for 23 ex-Ranji players from J&K

SRINAGAR, Oct 16: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has selected 23 ex-Ranji players from Jammu and Kashmir for the pension scheme.

According to a release by the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA) here, the players were found eligible for the scheme on the basis of number of Ranji matches they had played in their career.

The players are: Vidya Bhaskar (48 matches), Abdul Qayoom Bagow (47), Shahid Parvez (44), Sanjay Sharma (39) Mehboob Iqbal (36), Sant Singh, Nirmal Singh, Sanjeeva Chaudhary and Vijay Sharma (34 matches each), Surendra Singh (33), Ravikant Gupta and Akthar Ajaz (32 matches each), Girdhari Ajay Tikku (31), Tattan Raina and Farooq Mirza (30 matches each), Brijinder Singh and Ashwinder Koul (29 each), Parvez Qureshi and Parvez Kaiser (28 matches each), Narender Sharma (27), Vinod Sharma and Ravinder Pandit (26 each) and Zahoor Bhat (25 matches). (UNI)

Jammu Distt Open Billiards, Snooker
Gurdev, Amanbir, Rohit, Atul register wins in Jr Snooker

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

In the first match of Junior Snooker, Gurdev Singh defeated Jaideep Nayyar by 3-1. In the first two frames, Gurdev Singh registered easy win over Jaideep Nayyar by 69-4 and 52-23 but in the third round Jaideep improved his performance and won the same by 57-33.

Jaideep could not repeat his performance and lost the fourth frame by a margin of 30 points.

In second match, Amanbir Singh defeated Gourav Sharma by 3-2 in a tough competition. The beginning of the Gourav was very impressive as he won the first frame by 76-34 but in the second frame he could not repeat his performance and lost it by 33-65.

Gourav staged a come back in the third frame and won it by 43-31. Once again he could not continue with the same performance and lost fourth frame by 34-61 thereby equalising 2-2 frames.

As the fate of both the cueists was depend on the fifth frame, they posed tough competition to each other. But Amanbir left behind Gourav in making scores and won the fifth frame by 70-48.

Rohit Kapoor got walkover Aman Sharma, who could not turn up for the third match of the Junior Snooker.

In the fourth match of the day, Atul Tandon defeated Rahul Gupta by 3-2 in a close contest. Though Atul Tandon lost the first frame by a margin of 31 points yet he registered impressive wins in the next two frames which he claimed by 65-19 and 49-25.

Rahul Gupta managed to stage come back in the fourth frame and won the same by 54-21 to equalise the 2-2 frames with Atul Tandon. Like Amanbir and Gourav Sharma match, the fate of Atul and Rahul was also decided in the fifth frame which was claimed by Atul by 51-25.

According to the organisors, all the seeded players will start playing their matches from October 18. They said that entries for the Junior Billiards will close on October 21, 2006.

Women sports competition organised at R S Pura

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

The competitions were declared open by Principal Higher Secondary School R S Pura Natha Ram. B N Bhat, District Youth Services and Sports Officer Jammu, Bishamber Singh, Manager MA Stadium, P S Jasrotia, Sports Officer, Geeta Sharma and Dalbeer Mehta were among others who attended the inaugural ceremony.

In Kabaddi, GHSS R S Pura emerged as winner while GHS R S Pura as runner-up while in Kho-Kho, GHS R S Pura bagged winners trophy while GHS Satrayian clinched runners-up trophy.

In Shot-Put, Seema of HSS R S Pura bagged first position, Anupa of HSS R S Pura clinched second position and Konika Chib of Satriyan School bagged third position.

In 100 metres, Madhu Bala of GHS R S Pura bagged first position, Rajni Kour of MS Hill Area bagged second prize and Seema Devi of MS Hill Area clinched third position.

In 200 metres, Anupa of HSS R S Pura, Sunita Kumari of HS R S Pura and Seema Chib of HSS R S Pura bagged first, second and third positions respectively.

PnP wins Golf Tournament

The PnP team secured 320 points as against J&K Tourism’s 298.

The tournament, teed off by Tourism Minister Mohammad Dilawar Mir, saw 48 golfers, including eight from Delhi, battle it out in the posh golf course at Pahalgam.

Few women golfers also took part in the event. Dr Suhail Khanday was declared the overall winner while Arshad Dar and Kamal Mahie finished first and second runner ups respectively.

The prize for nearest to pin was won by Wajahat Khan while that for the longest drive of 315 yards went to Shabir Bhat.

The event was organised by Pine n Peak group of hotels and the J&K Tourism Department to promote golf in Kashmir. (UNI)