Lanka
agrees to play 5 ODIs in Pakistan
KARACHI, Mar 20: Sri Lanka has
agreed to play an unscheduled five-match
one-day series in Pakistan from April 23
to May 5, official sources confirmed here
today.
Pakistan
invited Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to play
bilateral one-day rubbers after security
apprehensions prompted Australia to
postpone their tour of the country for a
full series which was due to start from
March 29.
"Talks
between the chairmen of the Pakistan and
Sri Lankan boards, Nasim Ashraf and
Arjuna Ranatunga, were successful today
and the Lankans will tour from April 23
to May 5," a Pakistan Cricket Board
source said.
Bangladesh
had earlier given its nod for a one day
series from April 6 to 22.
The PCB
source said venues for the series against
Sri Lanka had been decided and would be
announced later. (PTI)
Sania-Mattek
march ahead
INDIAN WELLS (USA), Mar
20: Sania Mirza and her American
partner Bethanie Mattek stunned
formidable Taipei duo of Yung-Jan Chan
and Chia-Jung Chuang to book a doubles
semifinal berth at the USD 2,100,000
Pacific Life Open WTA championships here.
The
Indo-US combine prevailed 7-5 4-6 11-9 in
a gruelling quarterfinal encounter of the
Tier I event, last night.
Chuang and
Chan are world number nine and 10 while
Sania and Mattek stand at 25 and 36 in
the wta charts, respectively.
The
winners next take on Chinese third-seed
pair of Zi Yan and Jie Zheng, who
defeated Czech-Polish combine of Iveta
Benesova and Agnieszka Radwanska 6-0 6-4
in their last eight encounter.
Meanwhile,
Indian challenge ended in USD 3,589,000
men’s master series event with the
straight set defeat of Mahesh Bhupathi
and his partner Mark Knowles.
The sixth
seed Indo-Bahamas duo lost their
quarterfinal match 3-6 4-6 to fourth
seeds Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram of
Israel.
Leander
Paes and his Australian partner Paul
Hanley had also crashed out in the
quarterfinals. (PTI)
State
Football Championship
DFA Anantnag, Young
Heroes seal wins
Excelsior
Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 20: DFA Anantnag and
Young Heroes notched up wins today in the
ongoing State Football Championship being
played at Jammu University Football
Field.
In the
first match, DFA Anantnag got the better
of Engineers XI by 4-3 goals in an
eventful encounter which saw fortunes
fluctuating from one team to the other.
The winner
was decided in a tie-breaker after both
teams failed to score in the allotted
time.
For DFA
Anantnag, Rouf Ahmed, Raes, Umar and Adil
scored goals in the tie-breaker while
Maqsood and Amin missed their targets.
Kapil
Gurang, Naveen Thapa and Arun were the
goal scorers for Engineers XI while
Tushar Gurang, Monu and Jagtar found
their shots out of the goalpost.
In the
second match, Young Heroes cruised past
battling Young Star by 2-1 goals.
Young
Heroes went into the lead in the very
first minute with Varun opened the
account.
Young
Heroes then surged to a 2-0 lead as
Stanzin produced a beauty in the 22nd
minute.
Young Star
had their chances in the first half but
lack of coordination eluded them time and
again to score a goal.
They
(Young Star) finally managed to pulled
one back in the 42nd minute with Harneel
Singh as the scorer.
Tomorrow,
Young Heroes will cross swords against
J&K Police in a quarterfinal clash.
Painting,
Poster making competition held
Excelsior
Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 20: SOS Herman Gmeiner
School, Gole Gujral in collaboration with
Sai Shyam College of Education, Ghou
Manhasan organised a Painting and Poster
making competition in the school premises
today. Students from different schools of
Jammu participated in the competition.
Prof Usha
Tickoo, Principal, Sai Shyam College of
Education was the chief guest on the
occasion.
Sudesh
Malla, Director, SOS Children’s
Village and Mohd Ayyub, Principal were
also present. Renowned artists Shivashish
Kaul and Satpal Deol were the judges. The
winners were awarded medals and
certificates alongwith cash prizes of Rs
300, 200 and 100 respectively in each
category.
Monika
Koul, vice head girl of the school
presented the vote of thanks.
Winners:
First
Prize (Group A): Brishank Kashyap
Group B:
Sanchit Koul
Group C:
Vinivesh Raina
Group D:
Deepika Pandita
Group E:
Pallavi Viz
Second
Prize (Group A): Jyoti Devi
Group B:
Bhavesh
Group C:
Rahul Kr Dutta
Group D:
Vinay Pandita
Group E:
Reena Gupta
Third
Prize (Group A): Aryan Dhar
Group B:
Ahleena Rafiq
Group C:
Abhik Singh Chib
Group D:
Disha Bali
Group E:
Payalgeet Kour
Legal
wrangles compelled ICC to re-instate Hair
KARACHI, Mar 20: ICC reasoned that
Darrel Hair was "good enough"
to be re-instated in its elite-panel of
umpires, but sources claim that the step
was taken to avoid further legal wrangles
and the subsequent financial loss.
The
Australian umpire was re-instated by the
ICC at its executive board meeting in
Dubai on Tuesday .
ICC
sources said the outgoing ICC CEO Malcolm
Speed briefed the members, at its
executive board meeting, about the
possible legal challenges from
Hair’s lawyer, if he was not
reinstated.
"The
CEO pointed out that ICC had already
spent around USD one million on legal
costs after Hair filed a racial
discrimination case last year against his
suspension from supervising Tests and
one-dayers despite being on the elite
panel of umpires," one source said.
"Speed
said, despite an out-of-court settlement,
there were indications that Hair’s
lawyers intended to initiate more court
proceedings if he was not re-instated and
this would have cost the ICC more and
also forcing some of its top officials
appear in the witness box," the
source added.
The source
said the logic even convinced Pakistani
representative Nasim Ashraf and it was
decided unanimously that Hair should be
re-instated, but only for the next 12
months. "The ICC board felt that the
ICC was in a weak position as per the
brief prepared by its lawyers, on the
issue.
"So
it was decided that his contract be
renewed but only for 12 months and he
will be given minimum number of postings
when possible. The executive board felt
that this was the best way to close this
chapter," the source said.
The source
added that the cricket boards from
Pakistan and Sri Lanka agreed only on
condition that Hair would not be allowed
to supervise matches, involving their
countries.
Meanwhile,
former PCB Chairman Shaharyar Khan
dismissed the ICC reasoning that that
Hair had a strong case to challenge his
suspension.
"I
don’t think so. A lot of details in
the ICC adjudicators hearing didn’t
reflect well on hair and secondly the
fact that he demanded compensation
immediately after the Oval Test to step
down also went against him.
"There
was strong legal ground to accept any
legal challenge from his (lawyers)
team," Khan said.
Khan was
in-charge of Pakistan cricket affairs
when the row with Hair broke out during
the Oval Test in 2006.
He said he
would be writing on the issue very soon
and will bring out undisclosed details
about the Australian umpire. (PTI)
Manchester
United beats Bolton
LONDON, Mar 20: Cristiano Ronaldo
scored twice to give Manchester United a
2-0 victory over Bolton and a three-point
lead atop the Premier League.
In
Wednesday’s other game, Robbie Keane
equalised in the 88th minute and
Tottenham held Chelsea 4-4 to stop the
blues drawing level on points with second
place Arsenal. (AGENCIES)
My
umpiring attitude won’t change: Hair
SYDNEY, Mar 20: After winning back
his position in the ICC elite panel of
umpires, Darrell Hair has made it clear
that his umpiring attitude will not
change drastically but admitted that he
has been learning a few things to improve
his communication.
Hair said
he spent "stressful" days since
his dumping from the panel in November
2006. (PTI)
Roshan
Mahanama match referee for Ind-SA series
DUBAI, Mar 20: Sri Lankan Roshan
Mahanama will be the match referee for
India’s three-match Test series
against South Africa starting in Chennai
next week.
Pakistani
umpire Asad Rauf and New Zealander Tony
Hill will officiate in the Chennai Test
(Mar 26-30) while Hill will be joined by
Jamaican Billy Doctrove for the second
Test in Ahmedabad from April 3.
Rauf will
team up with Doctrove for the third Test
in Kanpur (Apr 11-15), according to an
International Cricket Council (ICC)
release here today.
ICC also
named Chris Broad as the match referee
for Sri Lanka’s tour of the West
Indies comprising two Test matches and
three one-dayers.
Simon
Taufel and Billy Bowden will officiate in
the Test series. Taufel will stand in the
entire ODI series as well along with
local appointments. (PTI)
Anand to
meet Morozevich in
fifth
round
NICE
(France), Mar 20:
Fresh from
a day-long break after a disappointing
fourth-round loss, world champion
Viswanathan Anand will take on Russian
Alexander Morozevich in the fifth round
of the Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess
tournament here. (PTI)
Anand
to meet Morozevich in fifth round
NICE (France), Mar 20:
Fresh
from a day-long break after a
disappointing fourth-round loss, world
champion Viswanathan Anand will take on
Russian Alexander Morozevich in the fifth
round of the Amber Blindfold and Rapid
Chess tournament here.
After a
racking start that gave him victories
with black pieces against Vladimir
Kramnik of Russia and Shakhriyar
Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan, the Indian ace
slipped a bit in the standing list when
he lost to Hungarian Leko in the fourth
round but the rest day after that should
help Anand recover.
With seven
rounds still to come in the event that
has one Blindfold and one Rapid game in
each round, Levon Aronian of Armenia,
Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine and former
world champion Veselin Topalov of
Bulgaria share the lead with 5 points
each in the combined standings and Anand
is now sole fourth on 4 points.
In the
Rapid section, Aronian is at the top with
3 points while Anand shares the joint
second spot in this section on 2.5 points
along with Topalov, Leko, and Ivanchuk.
It’s
a four-way lead in the Blindfold and
Ivanchuk, Carlsen, Topalov and Vladimir
Kramnik of Russia are sitting pretty at
the top on 2.5 points each. With 2 points
from four games here, Anand stands joint
fifth.
It will be
a test for Anand against Morozevich. In
the previous two editions of the Amber
tournament Anand has been on the
receiving end against the Russian losing
0.5-1.5 on both occasions. The Indian
will be looking forward to setting the
records right this time especially with
Morozevich out of sorts. (PTI)
Force
India banking on new aero parts
SEPANG (Malaysia), Mar
20: After the Melbourne
heartbreak, Force India will bank on new
aerodynamic parts and Giancarlo
Fisichella’s experience to make a
mark in Sunday’s Malaysian Formula
One Grand Prix at the Sepang
International Circuit here.
Drivers,
who struggled at Melbourne’s
sun-baked Albert Park last sunday, would
find themselves in even more extreme
conditions here and though that remains a
worry, new aero developments and
Fisichella’s vast experience,
including his 2006 win here with Renault,
have boosted Force India’s morale.
So, though
neither he nor his younger German
teammate Adrian Sutil could finish the
race in Melbourne, Fisichella oozed
confidence of making amends here.
"As
we went out very early in Australia, we
could not demonstrate how much closer we
now are relative to the other teams. The
VJM01 feels more consistent and stable,
and now we have some new aero parts
coming for this race. I think we can make
another step forward," Fisichella
said.
"I
have good memories of the race here too.
I won in 2006 with Renault and, although
we will not be in that position now, I do
think we should be able to put in a good
performance," said the Italian.
(AGENCIES)
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