Saina Nehwal to miss China Open: Pullela Gopichand
Posted on: 23 Aug 2012, 10:22 PM
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Saina to miss China Open: Gopichand
"Saina would not be playing in the Super Series event in China. She wants some more time off. She would take part in the Japan Open," said national badminton coach Pullela Gopichand on Thursday on the sidelines of a function to felicitate four of the Games medal winners by the Olympic Gold Quest.
The Li Ning China Masters 2012, among badminton's super series tournaments, is scheduled from September 11-16 at Changzhou in China.
Saina is now set to take part in the Yonex Japan Open, the next super series event, scheduled in Tokyo from September 18-23.
Gopichand indicated that the country's top men shuttlers, including losing singles quarter finalist in London -- Parupalli Kashyap -- would participate in the super series in China.
India needs to do well in Asia first: hoopsters
Posted on: 23 Aug 2012, 09:11 PM
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Basketball team needs to do well in Asia
"We should first look to improve our standards in the Asian circuit and then concentrate on the world stage," said the seven feet two inch tall Satnam Singh Bhamra.
The 16-year-old along with six other youngsters are currently honing their skills at the IMG Academy in Brandleton, Florida as a part of the academy's tie-up with Reliance, the official partners of the Basketball Federation of India (BFI).
The hoopsters also raised concern about the stark difference in coaching styles.
"The coaching in US is entirely of different level. In India we don't get such facilities besides there are always regional biases here. Even if you are talented you may be left out. But in US they value your skills," said one of the players before flying to Florida.
CEO of BFI, Roopam Sharma said they were taking every step to lift the profile of the sport and recognise talent.
"You see these kids are training in Florida under a scholarship programme. The federation is spending a lot of money on them. We want other deserving kids also to get the same amount of exposure but that is not possible as it requires a huge amount of expenditure. So there is a need to build academies in our own country where we can train these youngsters," Sharma said.
She added that the BFI was working on various incentive-linked plans for the players to make them develop into potential talent for the country.
"During the national championships we pick the 25 best players and make them train under the guidance of our foreign coaches. We also pay them a sum of Rs 30,000," Sharma said.
"Among these 25 we pick the top 12 for the international camp and they again receive a similar amount of money. Besides we are also running 'Train the trainers' programme to teach our coaches," she added.
1st Test: India 307/5 against New Zealand at stumps on Day 1
Posted on: 23 Aug 2012, 05:13 PM
1st Test: India 307/5 at stumps on Day 1
SCORECARD: INDIA vs NEW ZEALAND
Pujara took 169 balls to reach the milestone and smashed 15 boundaries including a massive six in the process.
Cheteshwar Pujara struck a fluent unbeaten half-century as India reached 182 for three at tea.
At tea, Pujara was batting on 54 from 121 balls (6x4) while Virat Kohli was giving him fine support with 32 (64b, 4x4) in India's first innings after the hosts elected to bat first at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.
Hailed as the future of Indian cricket after Rahul Dravid, Pujara lived up to the expectations after being elevated to number three, slamming his second half-century in four Tests.
Pujara, who returned to the Test arena after more than a year, did not panic after the dismissal of veteran Sachin Tendulkar (19) as he along with an in-form Virat Kohli repaired the Indian innings.
The Saurashtra batsman, who returned to action after a knee surgery in London, looked fluent as he along with Kohli put on an unbeaten 57-run partnership for the fourth wicket.
They never seemed to be in any trouble against the Kiwi attack, while against the rookie off-spinner Jeetan Patel, they were at ease.
The Indians lost the wicket of Tendulkar in the second session with the addition of 85 runs in 29 overs.
Playing without the retired duo of Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman for the first time in 16 years, India made a brisk start when the opening duo of Gambhir and Sehwag added 49 runs for the first wicket.
But the duo perished to some reckless shots as Boult gave New Zealand the first breakthrough in the form of Gambhir, who chased an outgoing delivery to be caught behind.
Gambhir looked to score in boundaries before his innings came to an end at 22.
Sehwag, after getting a reprieve on 35, did not last long when he was dismissed by Doug Bracewell, three runs shy of a half-century.
Sehwag gave Martin Guptill an easy catch at the second slip to be out for a 41-ball 47.
In his first match after being elected as a Rajya Sabha member, Tendulkar was watchful to start with.
But a stray low delivery from left-arm pacer Boult skidded in to crash Tendulkar's defence and rattled the middle stump.
It would be a huge task to fill in the void left by the retirement of Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, who have a combined tally of 298 Tests and 22,069 runs between them, but the young duo of Pujara and Kohli displayed positive intent.
After being reduced to 125 for three in the post-lunch session with the departure of Tendulkar, Pujara and Kohli played sensibly against an inexperienced Kiwi attack.
The Teams:
India: M S Dhoni (c), Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Virat Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar, Cheteshwar Pujara, Suresh Raina, R Ashwin, Zaheer Khan, Pragyan Ojha, Umesh Yadav.
New Zealand: Ross Taylor (c), Martin Guptill, Brendon McCullum, Daniel Flynn, Kane Williamson, James Franklin, Kruger van Wyk, Doug Bracewell, Jeetan Patel, Chris Martin, Trent Boult.
Haryana CM Hooda takes a jibe at Vijender at felicitation function
Posted on: 23 Aug 2012, 05:08 PM
Haryana CM Hooda takes jibe at Vijender
At a function organised by Haryana police to honour its seven sportspersons for their performance at the London Games here, Hooda took a potshot at Vijender who was sitting among the players who were honoured.
"No doubt Vijender is an excellent boxer...but you (Vijender) stop taking tours (other than boxing) to perform much better," Hooda said pointing to the strapping six-footer during his speech.
Hooda was apparently referring to Vijender's stint in television shows and modelling assignments.
"Tu tour laganey band kar de (you stop taking tours)," Hooda said.
Vijender, the 2008 Beijing Olympics bronze-medallist, who lost in the quarterfinals in the London edition, made light of the comment saying, "He should tell me which tours he is talking about."
"It was just friendly banter," the former world number one middleweight boxer said.
During the function Hooda announced that Jai Bhagwan (boxer) and Seema Antil (discuss thrower) would be promoted to Inspectors in Haryana Police.
However, another puglist Manoj Kumar from Rajaund in Kaithal from the state was conspicious by his absence. Sumit Sangwan (Boxer) and Krishna Poonia too were not present during the function.
Among the sportpersons honoured were Olympic bronze medallist wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt, hockey players Sardar Singh and Sandeep Singh, Seema Antil (Discuss), Vikas Krishan (Boxing).
Later Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) General Secretary Ajay Chautala told reporters that "Hooda instead of giving suggestions to others (like to boxer Vijender) should concentrate on Haryana as a state."
He also lambasted at Hooda for "bias" in honouring the players from the state.
Chautala said that it was only one sportsperson Yogeshwar Dutt from Haryana who had won the medal not only for the country but for the state. Rest five other medal winners in London games do not belong to Haryana.
"The other medal winners (out of whom Haryana claims that four belongs to it) have never represented Haryana at any level in any sporting event," he said.
"Hooda is resorting to pick and choose policy in honouring players from the state," Chautala rued.
Earlier during the funtion, Dutt was announced to be presented with Rs 51 lakh and the other players rs 11 lakhs each.
According to the mentor, the duo hit peak form in 2003. Although they could not eke out the desired results from the 2004 Athens Olympics, they certainly did catch everyone's attention with their skills.
"According to me both Sushil and Yogeshwar were at their peak in 2003 and if you see Sushil has since then being among the top seven-eight wrestlers of the world.
"Although Yogeshwar did not had the same amount of success at the international level but he also has been rated among the best. The credit must really go to them for maintaining that level for so long," said Yashvir, who looked content with the performance of his wards in London.
"We couldn't got the gold that feeling will remain, but I am satisfied with what my wards have achieved," he said, adding that if the two continue with their efforts they have a chance to better their performance in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
"If they maintain their focus there is no reason why they can't better their performance at 2016 Olympics," he said.
Talking about the younger lot, Yashvir said India has got a great future in low weight categories, but expressed his concern when it comes to the heavy weight.
"In low weight -- 55kg to 74kg -- we will continue to do well. Amit (Kumar Dahiya) is a good prospect he will only get better from here. There are few other youngsters who are shaping up well. Praveen Rana in particular is the one who has the potential to replace Sushil whenever he decides to quit the sport," Yashir said.
"But the problem is in the heavy weight category. Unfortunately our boys in the heavy weight get swayed by the amount of money they get from local tournaments. So they don't want to compete in the international events. There needs to be a concerted effort in this regard," he said.
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