Tendulkar is today''s Bradman, says Lara

Tue, Nov 30 10 11:52 AM

Dubai, Nov 30 (PTI) Saluting the longevity of Sachin Tendulkar, West Indies great Brian Lara has described the Indian batting legend as the ''Don Bradman'' of modern era but refused to the compare the icons of different eras. Lara, himself a legendary left-handed batsman from the Caribbean, said what astonishes him the most about Tendulkar is his longevity. "I don''t think there is any race. Both are great players. Tendulkar has shown the world what he is capable of and his longevity in the game is something to be really appreciated," Lara said. "The time he will spend in the game, records are going to tumble. The fact that someone can be there from the age of 16 and still at the age of 37 perform brilliantly is something that I cherish more than anything else," he said. The West Indies player is of the opinion that Australian great Don Bradman, who ended his career with an incredible Test average of 99.96, and Tendulkar should not be compared as they played and flourished in different eras. "He is our period''s Don Bradman. Forget the difference in averages with Bradman but whoever I have spoken to who have seen very old players in action, they believe that he [Bradman] would not have averaged 99 in today''s cricket. "So I believe that Sachin is our period''s Bradman," Lara, who visited Dubai for a jewelry brand endorsement, told Gulf News. Lara said he has just got back into cricket by playing three games in a Twenty20 tournament in Zimbabwe. He also denied reports that he is becoming Zimbabwean coach but said he will be helping them in the batting department. He said he is fanatical about golf these days and spend time on the course. "I love the game and have been working hard to bring my handicap down to five. I would love to get it a bit more lower. I spent a lot of time today at the Ernie Els Golf Course," he said.

Source: Published>

Deepinder Hooda wants sports university in Haryana

Published>Tue, Nov 30 10 11:38 AM

Chandigarh, Nov 30 (IANS) Buoyed by the success of Haryana's medal-winning sportspersons in the recent Asian Games and Commonwealth Games, parliamentarian Deepender Singh Hooda now wants the central government to sanction a sports university for the state.

Hooda, who represents Rohtak and is the son of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, said in a statement here that the university would be helpful in making the future of sportspersons brighter.

Hooda said he would place the demand in parliament and also before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The Haryana chief minister has already announced the setting up of sports academies in various districts.

Hooda Jr said the state government had created a favourable atmosphere for sports. He added that no talented player in the state would have to make any compromise in pursuing sports due to his economic condition.

'Haryana players have again brought glory to the state and the country by exhibiting their sterling performance in the recently concluded Asian Games, after the Commonwealth Games,' he said.

In the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games, Haryana players claimed 37 out of the 101 medals won by India. Out of the 38 gold medals won, 21 came from Haryana players.

Several players from Haryana have made it big in events like boxing, wrestling, discus throw, athletics, shooting, badminton, kabaddi and others.

In the Asian Games at Guangzhou, Haryana players bagged five gold medals and 10 others.

Their success has brought them the moolah as well.

Haryana players winning gold, silver and bronze medals in the Asian Games will be given cash rewards of Rs.25 lakh, Rs.15 lakh and Rs.10 lakh each respectively.

Commonwealth Games medal winners were given a cash reward of Rs.15 lakh, Rs.10 lakh and Rs.700,000 each for gold, silver and bronze medals respectively. They also got cars ranging from Rs.350,000 to Rs.800,000, mobile phones and up to 101 kg of desi ghee.

Haryana has over 350 sports stadiums in villages, blocks and towns.

Bhiwani district has emerged as a prominent nursery in boxing, producing boxers of international fame like Vijender Singh, who won a bronze medal in Beijing Olympics and gold medal in the Asian Games, Dinesh Kumar and Akhil Kumar.

The small town of Shahbad, 60 km from here, has produced nearly 40 international women hockey players in a short span of 10 years.

The Haryana government has plans to set up a wrestling academy at Rohtak and a kabaddi academy at Jind.

Source: Web Search

Miandad game to be batting consultant of Pak cricket team

Tue, Nov 30 10 11:22 AM

Karachi, Nov 30 (PTI) Former Pakistan captain Javed Miandad today said he cannot take up the job of a full-time batting coach with the national cricket team but is ready to work as a batting consultant. Miandad, who returned from China after witnessing the cricket tournament as cricket ambassador of the Pakistan government, said he was always ready to help the team. "I have never refused in the past to do anything that can prove beneficial to Pakistan team. The same is the situation now if the board wants me to work as batting consultant I am available for this assignment," Miandad said. The former captain who is director-general of cricket in the Pakistan Board done the coach duty thrice in the past, the last time being in 2003-2004. "At the moment due to my other commitments I am not in a position to work in any fulltime capacity with the team but I am there to help the players as batting consultant," Miandad said. He said that in the past also he had worked for a short time with the players in the national camp. "This time also I will do my best to help them out and fine-tune the batsmen keeping in mind the conditions they will most likely encounter in the tour to New Zealand," he said. Miandad felt that there was plenty of batting experience and talent in the national team but it just needed to work in the right direction and more consistently. "I think I can help them out with my experience and I know where the fine tuning is required," he said. Miandad said that keeping in mind that the World Cup was few months away it was necessary for the batsmen to start hitting form consistently. The former skipper made it clear he had no intention of interfering in the domain of the chief coach or management and would focus on his work as batting consultant. He also lauded the organisation of the first cricket event in the Asian Games. "I remain confident China will soon come up as a strong cricketing nation because the interest in the sport is there and one could see that everyone in China was happy to see their team playing for the first time in such a major cricket event." He said with time and more technical and coaching expertise, Chinese players would improve and they had the backing of their government to go far ahead.

Source: Published>

CBI raids premises of OC officials Bhanot, Verma

Published>Tue, Nov 30 10 10:36 AM

New Delhi, Nov 30 (IANS) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Tuesday raided the homes and offices of Commonwealth Games Organising Committee (OC) Secretary General Lalit Bhanot and Director General V.K. Verma.

The raids against the two top aides of OC Chairman Suresh Kalmadi are on at 11 places in various parts of the capital, a top source in the CBI told IANS. Further details are awaited.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) last month questioned Verma for his alleged role in the financial irregularities in the Queen's Baton Relay in London in 2009.

Three other aides of Kalmadi -- T.S. Darbari, Sanjay Mohindroo and M. Jayachandran -- are already under custody for their alleged involvement in the Queen's Baton Relay scam.

The OC is understood to have paid AM Films - a sister concern of AM Car - over 450,000 pounds for services during the Queen's Baton Relay function in London in October 2009 without following proper tendering procedures and paper work.

Kalmadi had Monday claimed he had not committed any offence and was ready to answer all CBI questions.

'I welcome the investigations (into the financial irregularities in the Commonwealth Games). I will give a statement in parliament and I have met Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and she said whenever the house runs I can make the statement,' Kalmadi said.

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CWG, Asiad inspire girls to take up sports

Published>Tue, Nov 30 10 10:22 AM

Varanasi, November 30 (ANI): Young girls in Uttar Pradesh have been inspired by the recent Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, wherein the women athletes displayed remarkable performances.The young enthusiasts are undergoing the regimen of tough practice at the temple city of Varanasi to carve out a career in sports. Nilu Mishra, a former national athlete, is training these female aspirants. These girls have come out of the rural homes to get better training facilities hoping not only to represent India, but even win medals for the country.

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NBA - Miami's 'Big Three' click and Heat scorch Wizards

Published>Tue, Nov 30 10 10:08 AM

Finally, the 'Big Three' made big contributions and the Miami Heat crushed the Washington Wizards 105-94 on Monday with LeBron James scoring 30 points and Dwyane Wade adding 26.

With Chris Bosh, the third member of the Heat's leading trio, chipping in with 20 points, it was the kind of night Heat fans had hoped for after the franchise's free agency coup.

Miami entered Monday's game having lost four of their last five games and with pressure mounting on coach Erik Spoelstra amid speculation the players were unhappy with his methods.

"It is so easy for everyone to push the panic button right now. Panic is probably at an all-time high on the outside. It cannot be on the inside with us," Spoelstra said before the Heat improved to 10-8.

The Heat's lackluster start to the season prompted talk that team president Pat Riley, who won his fifth NBA title as a coach in 2006 with Miami, would take over if Spoelstra could not get the team's season back on track.

But Spoelstra said he was not losing any sleep worrying about his position.

"My job is to prepare this team and to get us ready for the games and continue to help us get better. That keeps my days full, and my nights." said the third-year coach.

After signing James and Chris Bosh and securing the return of Wade, the Heat were expected to challenge the Boston Celtics for dominance in the East and battle the Los Angeles Lakers for the NBA title.

But under intense media scrutiny, the Heat have failed to click as a team and Saturday's loss to the Dallas Mavericks included an incident where James bumped into Spoelstra as he walked to the team bench during a timeout.

The incident became an instant YouTube hit and prompted plenty of media speculation, but Spoelstra and James dismissed it as nothing more than an accident.

"It was really nothing," said Spoelstra. "Incidental contact ... it wasn't intentional or anything."

James met with Spoelstra before Monday's game and the NBA's two-time league MVP shot down reports of a rift.

"If I have something to say to Coach Spo, I'm going to go to Coach Spo. If he has something to say to me, which he's done, he's going to come to me," said James.

"It is nothing I'll take behind his back. I've never done that, I will not do that."

On court it was business as planned against a Wizards team that dropped to 0-8 on the road this season.

Miami led 52-44 at halftime and the only signs of tension came at the end of the third quarter when the Wizards' Hilton Armstrong and Miami's Juwan Howard were ejected.

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Media heaps blame on "clueless" Aussies

Published>Tue, Nov 30 10 09:46 AM

Blame, not credit, was the bitter medicine required after England saved the first Ashes test at the Gabba with a record-breaking second innings, Australia's media decreed on Tuesday.

Led by Alastair Cook's unbeaten 235, England batted through two days to rescue a dire position and take a morale boosting draw on Monday at a venue where Australia traditionally puts tourists to the sword.

Australian captain Ricky Ponting was once again the whipping boy of a media more used to trumpeting winners and champions than explaining why their team had failed to take more than one wicket in two days of cricket.

"Ashes humiliation - Ponting lets Gabba test slip away," read the front page of the Australian, while Brisbane's Courier-Mail splashed the word "Clueless" over an unflattering picture of the Australia skipper.

BUCKETS OF SCORN

"Has Australian cricket really fallen this far? Is the national team really this bad?" Malcolm Conn, who would usually be emptying buckets of scorn over the tourists by this stage of the series, wrote in the Australian.

"Not since Allan Border desperately tried to hold together a rabble gutted by South African rebel tours in the mid-1980s has Australian cricket performed so poorly.

"Anyone who had the misfortune of watching Australia's sad-sack effort in the field yesterday could only worry that we're plumbing those depths again."

It was against Border's weakened team that England last won the Ashes on Australian soil in 1986-87 but since then the contests have not even been close.

Australia's fast bowlers, in particular the wicketless Mitchell Johnson, as well as fielding and even the Gabba pitch all took a hammering too.

The Gabba enjoyed packed houses on the first three days but poor turnouts on the last two saw the home fans outnumbered and outshouted by England's travelling "Barmy Army".

"I forgot where I was for a moment out there today it was like being back at the Oval or something," said Ponting, who was roundly booed by the English fans as he took the field to help bat out the match on Monday afternoon.

"(But) I think 130,000 people or so turned out to watch the match over the five days and that just goes to show where test cricket is at the moment in Australia."

Low turnouts for later days of test matches are not that unusual when the match looks destined for a draw and when they coincide with working days, but the availability of tickets for Friday's first day of the Adelaide test will be of more concern.

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