NEW DELHI, Mar 13:After India’s disastrous AFC Challenge Cup campaign ended with a 0-4 loss against North Korea in Kathmandu today, the AIFF bosses have decided that technical director Rob Baan will now take a final call in zeroing in on Savio Medeira’s replacement as senior team coach.
India went into the AFC Challenge Cup as defending champions and conceded eight goals in three matches and a dip below 160 in FIFA rankings is certain.
“We don’t have any matches till May 31 so whether Savio Medeira stays or goes becomes irrelevant. It’s all about whether AIFF is keen on paying him salary for couple of months or not. That amount isn’t that huge that parent body won’t honour his contract. But certainly, he will not get an extension after this dismal show,” a senior AIFF official preferring anonymity told today.
AIFF technical director Baan has concentrated more on the junior squad till now but he will entrusted with greater responsibilities as far as senior squad is concerned.
“The AIFF has full faith in Rob Baan’s abilities. He will be the man who would decide on a good and affordable foreign replacement. If you look at the standard of Indian coaches, it’s not very encouraging. We certainly need a good foreign coach to take us forward,” he said.
Medeira’s credentials as a coach is nothing much to write about as under his tutelage Salgaocar were relegated from I-League (National football League then) in 2005-06. (PTI)
Junior shuttlers to participate in Int’l Championship
NEW DELHI, Mar 13:A nine-member Indian Junior team will participate in the Hungary International badminton tournament at Pecs, Hungary from March 15 to 18.
The boys in the team include, G Gopi Raju of Air India, Shivam Sharma of Uttar Pradesh, Abhishek Yeligar of Karnataka, Shlok Ramchandran of Maharashtra and Shyam Prasad of Kerela.
Among the girls, J Meghna of Andra Pradesh, Rasika Raje of maharashtra, Riya Pillai of Maharashtra and K Vijetha of Andra Pradesh will feature in the tournament.
M Nagarjun of SAI, Bangalore and Anil Mehrotra of Uttar Pradesh will be the coach and manager of the team, according to a release issued by Dr Vijai Sinha, General Secretary of Badminton Association of India (PTI)
INDIAN WELLS, Mar 13:World No 1 Novak Djokovic continued his domination over Kevin Anderson, rolling over the South African 6-2, 6-3 in the third round of the ATP-WTA Indian Wells tournament.
Top seed Djokovic has now beaten Anderson four straight times, including three matches in 2011. After winning the Australian Open, defending champion Djokovic is now 12-1 on the season in his third tournament.
He will be hard-pressed to match his performance of last year when he had one of the best seasons in the history of the sport, but he is showing no signs of slowing down either.
The 24-year-old Serb advances to the fourth round, where he will play Spaniard Pablo Andujar, who beat countryman Albert Ramos 7-6 (7/5), 6-4.
Djokovic had five aces, was a perfect three-for-three on break points saved and won 67 percent of his first-serve points in the 97-minute match.
Djokovic broke Anderson twice in the first set and once in the second to go up 4-2. He celebrated his victory in the ninth game of the second set when Anderson smacked a forehand wide on the first match point.
Australian qualifier Matthew Ebden surprised Mardy Fish, beating the eighth-seeded American 6-3, 6-4 to advance to the fourth round.
The 24-year-old Ebden said the win over the US No. 1 was the biggest win of his career.
Ebden got a break in the ninth game of the second set when the umpire called a hinderance penalty against Fish, who was serving at 4-4.
Fish lost his cool with the umpire and Ebden ended up breaking Fish to go ahead 5-4 and then served for the match, winning all four points in the final game.
The Durban, South African-born Ebden, who now lives in Perth, Australia, is ranked 91st in the world and came into the tournament with a modest 4-5 record.
Ebden will next face another American, John Isner, who beat Juan Monaco of Argentina 7-5, 7-5.
It was a mixed day for the Aussies on Monday.
Playing for the first time since their epic three-hour, 16-minute match at the US Open last year, Nadia Petrova outlasted Australia’s Samantha Stosur in another three-set marathon.
This time, Petrova won on the third match point but she needed two hours, 46 minutes to defeat sixth-seeded Stosur 6-1, 6-7 (6/8), 7-6 (7/5).
Stosur, who beat Petrova at the US Open before going on to win her first Grand Slam title, has lost five of seven career matches to the world No. 33 Petrova dating to their first meeting at the 2004 US Open.
Stosur struggled on her serve, making six double faults and winning just 43 percent of her second-serve points.
Just six months ago Stosur became the first Australian woman to win a Grand Slam since 1980 when she captured the final major of the year in New York.
In other third round matches Monday, second seed Maria Sharapova defeated Romania’s Simona Help 6-3, 6-4.
Sharapova, who is chasing the world number one ranking, advances to the fourth round, where she will play Roberta Vinci of Italy.
France’s Marion Bartoli beat Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa 6-2, 6-0 and Lucie Safarova advanced when Italy’s Francesca Schiavone retired from their match after the first set with a virus. Schiavone was behind 6-2 when she pulled out.(AGENCIES)
MIRPUR, Mar 13: Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir cracked sparkling centuries as defending champions India launched their campaign in the Asia Cup cricket tournament with a comfortable 50-run victory over Sri lanka here today.
Put into bat, the Indians rode on the heroics of Kohli (108) and Gambhir (100) to post an imposing 304 for three and then polished off the islanders for 254 in 45.1 overs in a floodlit contest at the Shere-e-Bangla National Stadium.
The highlight of the Indian batting was the belligerent 205-run second wicket partnership between Kohli, who notched up his second successive ODI century, and Gambhir while some lusty hits by captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (46 not out off 26 balls) and Suresh Raina (30 not out off 17 balls) in the slog overs steered India past the 300 mark.
Sachin Tendilkar, chasing a historic 100th international cent
ury, was dismissed for six but the defending champions recovered from the early setback with a solid display on a good batting strip.
Pacer Irfan Pathan was the pick of the Indian bowlers with 4 for 32 while spinner R Ashwin (3/39) and paceman Vinay Kumar (3/55) were the other wicket-takers.Captain Mahela Jayawardene (78) and Kumar Sangakkara (65) were the notable performers but none of the other Sri Lankan batsmen could get going to capitalise on a whirlwind start.
Sri Lanka will take on Pakistan in their next match on Thursday while India clash with hosts Bangladesh on Friday.
The Sri Lankans got off to a flier as both openers Ja
yawardene and Tillakaratne Dilshan unleashed a flurry of strokes, picking up Praveen Kumar for special treatment.
Irfan Pathan struck for his team in the fifth over by evicting Dilshan with a rather poor delivery. Dilshan attempted to pull the short-pitched ball but found Virat Kohli at mid-wicket.
Jayawardene and Sangakkara, who joined the action after Dilshan’s dismissal, scored at a very brisk pace as they plundered runs at will in the initial stages.
Captain Jayawardene was particularly severe against the Indian bowlers as he notched up his half century off just 40 balls while Sangakkara was quite content in taking the singles and giving him as much strike as possible.
The two seasoned pros laid the foundation for the run chase with a superb exhibition of strokeplay.
Just when the second wicket partnership was taking dangerous proportions, Irfan Pathan struck again by removing the dangerous Jayawardene who edged an angled delivery to Dhoni behind the stumps. His knock of 78 came off 59 balls and contained ten boundaries and two sixes.
The young Dinesh Chandimal (13) did not last long as he was consumed by off-spinner R Ashwin to peg back the Lankan charge to some extent.
The runrate dropped down quite a bit after the two quick dismissals, allowing the Indians to come back into the game as the asking rate kept increasing.
With runs drying up, Sangakkara went for a slog-sweep but could not connect the shot properly and Ravindra Jadeja took a tumbling catch in the deep.
The game swung in India’s favour when R Vinay Kumar dismissed Nuwan Kulasekara and Chamara Kapudegera off successive deliveries.
Earlier, Kohli and Gambhir took centrestage with a brilliant exhibition of strokeplay.
The duo added 205 runs for the second wicket at a brisk pace of more than five an over to steer the Indian innings after the early fall of Tendulkar. Both the batsmen, in fact, perished in the 43rd over, dismissed by Farveez Mahroof in the space of just one delivery. Interestingly, both the batsmen completed their tenth ODI hundreds.
It was not a very good start to the proceedings for India as Tendulkar (6) continued his frustrating quest for a 100th international century which has extended for more than a year now.
The veteran right-hander was dismissed off a Suranga Lakmal full toss in the sixth over of the innings after facing 19 deliveries.
Tendulkar pushed it low to short extra cover where Mahela Jayawardene caught him comfortably.
But the Indian felt that it was a no ball as it had gone above the waist. The on-field officials referred the matter to the third umpire, who found it to be a legitimate delivery after going through the TV replays.
But his dismissal hardly affected the Indian innings which accelerated after Gambhir was joined by Kohli, the most successful Indian batsman—the only one to get a hundred—in what was a disastrous tour of Australia.
Gambhir got a life in the 17th over when he was dropped by Dinesh Chandimal in the long on region off Seekkuge Prasanna’s bowling.
The left-hander was on 36 when he chipped one in the air but Chandimal, who ran a considerably to his left to get to the ball, could not balance himself after diving in front to grab the ball, which popped out of his hands as he touched the ground.
Gambhir and Kohli completed a century stand off 123 balls which was the 70th overall for the second wicket for India. Only Australia, with 77 century stands for the second wicket, have more. (PTI)
SRINAGAR, Mar 13:The J&K Rugby Association in collaboration with J&K Tourism Department will organise a two-day State Level Snow Rugby Championship at Golf Course, Gulmarg from March 18.
Teams from Srinagar, Budgam, Ganderbal, Jammu, Kargil, Baramulla, Tangmarg, Pulwama and other clubs are likely to compete in the championship which will be played under the rules and regulations of Rugby Board as well as Indian Rugby Football Union.
A team will consist of 10 persons. All the in charge, coaches and physical teachers have been advised to submit entry of their teams at an earliest.
The championship will be open for both boys and girls and men and women.
JAMMU, Mar 13:Formidable J&K Bank Academy continued its domination as it toppled Churchill Brothers by 2-0 goals today in the ongoing 2nd Rajiv Gandhi Football Gold Cup being played at GGM Science College Ground here.
The first half witnessed an aggressive play by both teams unleashing flury of attacks in a bid to score a goal. Despite numerous attempts by both teams, the first half remained goalless.
In the second half, J&K Bank Academy dominated the proceedings from the word go and finally managed to open its account.
Mohit struck in the 25th minute of the second half through a penalty kick earned by Adnan Ayub when he was unlawfully brought down by the defender of rival team in the penalty area.
Two minutes later, Jamshed made it 2-0 to eventually seal the issue in favour of J&K Bank Academy.
Meanwhile, Chairman, Bank’s Sports Board, Tafazul Hussain, has congratulated the team for splendid performance in the championship.
BHADERWAH, Mar 13:The annual Bhaderwah Snow Festival concluded today at Government Higher Secondary School (Boys), here.
The festival was organised by Bhaderwah Development Authority (BDA) in collaboration with Jammu and Kashmir Tourism Department and District Administration, Doda.
DDC Doda, Farooq Ahmed Khan, was the chief guest on the occasion who said that efforts to explore and develop tourism and adventure/winter sports potential of the region will continue to attract more and more tourists to uplift and strengthen the tourism infrastructure of the district.
School children drawn from various schools of the district participated and presented a colourful cultural programme thereby depicting the rich cultural heritage of the region.
Various adventure sports activities like snow skiing, paragliding, snow biking and tug-of-war besides other adventure sports activities were also conducted in the festival.
Later, DDC Doda distributed mementos amongst the participants of the festival.
Additional DDC Doda, G N Balwan, Chief Executive Officer, Bhaderwah Development Authority, Kalyan Singh Parihar, Assistant Director Tourism, Batote, Tariq Hussain and other officials were also present.
LUCKNOW, Mar 13:Outgoing Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Bahujan Samaj Party(BSP) supremo Mayawati filed her nomination for the biennial Rajya Sabha elections in the Lucknow assembly today.
BSP Rajya Sabha member Munquad Ali, also filed his nomination along with Ms Mayawati.
Both Ms Mayawati and Mr Ali filed two sets of nominations before Returning Officer(RO) and principal secretary(Assembly) Pradeep Kumar Dubey at the Central hall of the state legislature.
At present, Ms Mayawati is the member of the state legislative council. The tenure of Mr Ali also expires on April 2 next.
The BSP has given names of two candidates who could win in this elections with the present strength of 80 seats in the new assembly.
In 2003 too, Ms Mayawati went to the Rajya Sabha after her government was dislodged following withdrawal of support by the BJP.
Except for these two BSP candidates, no other candidate has filed their nominations so far.
The last date for filing of nominations for the 10 seats of RS biennial polls is March 19 while the scrutiny of papers would be done the next day. Candidates can withdraw their nominations till March 22.
If required, then the elections would be held on March 30 between 0900 hrs to 1600 hrs and the results would be declared on the same day.
The term of 10 RS members from UP would expire on April 2. (UNI)
NEW DELHI/BANGALORE, Mar 13:The Enforcement Directorate has begun a “preliminary enquiry” into the financial transactions that took place in connection with the Antrix-Devas deal.
The Directorate’s zonal office in Bangalore has begun the probe to ascertain if any contraventions with regard to foreign exchange or anti-money laundering laws in the deal have occurred.
The investigation, which the agency will conduct with the help of the RBI and the Income Tax department, will also check the authenticity of the alleged stake of few Mauritius based entities in Devas Multimedia Pvt Ltd which executed the controversial S-band deal with the ISRO.
“A preliminary enquiry has been started after consultations and directions from the ED headquarters in Delhi,” sources in the agency said.
They, however, added that a case will only be registered in the deal once any irregularity with respect to the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) or the stringent Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) is detected.
Antrix, the commercial arm of ISRO, had signed a deal with Devas in January 2005 to provide it with crucial S-Band wavelength which is primarily kept for strategic interests of the country.
The ED probe will also look at the financial dealings of individuals involved in the deal and detect if ‘benami’ or fictitious properties were purchased from illegal proceeds.
The spectrum was meant for running digital multimedia service by leasing 90 per cent transponders on two satellites – GSAT-6 and GSAT-6A.
Following complaints of massive irregularities, the government scrapped the contract in 2010 and ordered an enquiry by the high-powered review committee last February.
Based on the committee’s findings, the government had on May 31 constituted high-level team under the chairmanship of former Central Vigilance Commissioner Pratyush Sinha to further examine the facts and circumstances of the agreement.
The team has found uneven share holding patterns and rise in capital in Devas between the time of its inception in December 2004 and March 2010. The company was established by M/s Forge Advisors-USA with a share capital of Rs one lakh.
According to the report, soon after the signing of the agreement the ordinary share capital had increased to over Rs 5 lakh with 12 shareholders including three members of the FA-USA team who held 60 per cent of the ordinary share capital and the two Mauritius-based entities who held one ordinary share and 50 per cent of the preferential shares each.
It noted as “unusual” the rise in its share capital from Rs one lakh to about Rs 18 lakh in 2010 “with no asset base and no Intellectual Property rights or patent in the relevant technology, and which has been making losses since inception, to collect Rs 578 crore as share premium from foreign investors.”
“In order to get a clear picture of the changing pattern of ownership of Devas, the economic interest of various individuals in Devas and the extent to which the increase in share value has been encashed by individuals, the shareholding pattern of the company and of the Mauritius-based entities needs to be looked into by an appropriate investigative agency,” the high-level team had said in its report made public recently. (PTI)
GHAZIABAD, Mar 13:A special CBI court here today remanded former UP Minister Babu Singh Kushwaha and former BSP MLA Ram Pratap Jaiswal in judicial custody for 14 days in the multi-crore rupee NRHM scam in the state.
The two politicians, arrested on March 3, were produced in the CBI court after the expiry of their 10 days custody with CBI.
The agency sought the extension of their custody for another four days. However, the plea was turned down by the CBI court, which remanded the duo in 14 days judicial custody.
The court also declined CBI plea for the custody of another accused Saurabh Jain, who too had been produced before the court by it after the expiry of his police remand.
Kushwaha and Jaiswal were later taken to Dasna district jail.
Dasna district jail Superintendent Viresh Raj Sharma said Kushwaha and Jaiswal will be lodged in the high security barrack number 7A, where other accused in NHRM scam are also kept. (PTI)
