I guarantee Australian, Pakistani players security in India: Chidambaram

Published>Mon, Feb 01 10 05:40 PM

New Delhi, Feb 1 (IANS) Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram Monday guaranteed 'full secu

PGA Tour money list

Published Mon, Feb 01 10 05:30 PM

REUTERS - Leading money winners on the 2010 PGA Tour on Monday (U.S. unless stated):

Murray's fans confident about his time in the sun

Published>Mon, Feb 01 10 04:54 PM

London, Feb.1 (ANI): Fans of British tennis star in his hometown of Dunblane have said they are very proud of him reaching the Australian Open final, and while sad at his loss to Roger Federer, they say they are confident about him winning a Grand Slam title or titles one day.

"His time will come," said one supporter, adding "Win or lose, we're just terribly proud of him."

In truth, the game did not give Murray fans much to cheer about. Fairly rapidly, as Federer set about their local hero with a master class in clinically unbeatable tennis, any sense that this was to be Murray's day waned.

The tension then became a different kind: not in the possibility of the winning, but in the slow motion, teeth-gritted tenacity of the losing. Roars of approval at Murray's winning shots were so few and far between, that when they came some toddlers burst into tears at the noise.

"My daughter woke me up at 7.30 banging on the bedroom door," said Jaqui Walker, the mother of Chelsea, 11, who together watched the game at the Dunblane centre. "She was desperate to come and watch the game. Everyone in the school has been talking about it.

"There's a real sense of community around here. They care about Andy and they talk about him. It was lovely to be invited down here and although it's sad he was beaten he put up a great fight and I'm sure he'll be back," said another.

"Andy means such a lot to this town," said Ian Conway from Tennis Scotland, watching the game as avidly as any ordinary fan. "I've known him since he was ten, and known the Murray family for 25 years. There's a great loyalty there."

"Last summer, we were short of players for the North of Scotland Tennis team for a game in Eastbourne. I phoned Andy and said to him, 'I have an injury, get your backside down here'.

"He came and played and the next day he was sitting his driving test, and the day after that flying to America, but he still found time to phone and find out how we did. It was akin to a local non-league football team phoning up Wayne Rooney and asking him to play for them." (ANI)

Source: Web Search

Flintoff's evolution from a booze cruiser to a doting father of three

Published>Mon, Feb 01 10 04:48 PM

Dubai, Feb 1(ANI): England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff, the swashbuckling hero of the cricket field and star of famous booze-fuelled escapades has sobered up to be a doting father of three and a devoted husband to wife Rachael.

Flintoff, the man who made a new drinking phrase - to go out and get Freddied - is now clear-eyed and smartly suited.

"I'm not that wild lad any more. I was young, I made mistakes and it was never easy to phone Rachael explaining the latest stories about me and what I'd been up to," The Mirror quoted Flintoff, as saying.

Flintoff also admits that's it his responsibilities and especially his wife, pulled him back from the brink.

"I got wrapped up in all kinds of other nonsense off the field, that was my trouble, I didn't appreciate just what you had to do to maintain your place at the top, and it took Rachael to show me. She's very driven, a very focused kind of person, and I'm a laid-back kind of bloke, so it was always interesting to hear her telling me where I was going wrong," Flintoff said.

"In other words, she would give me a b******ing, and I would listen. I would appreciate what she was saying, honestly. I'll always reflect on those years, but I've done it. In the dressing room culture Freddie Flintoff was one of the lads. Now? He's a dad and a husband," he added.

Rachael says that Flintoff was never a bad person at heart, but he was just a bit of "a rascal, still growing up."

"I never had to threaten him, I never once said, 'Carry on like this and I'm off!', our relationship was never like that. I didn't have to hand out ultimatums, I simply let nature takes its course. He's now got three young children, and every morning at 7am they're jumping on his head, shouting for Daddy to get up and play," Rachael said.

"Andrew has changed over the years, that's obvious. There's less of the Freddie about him now. But actually he's always had a quiet, mellow side, it was just that the public never saw it," she added. (ANI)

Source: Web Search

Now, emergency body to decide ICC's Antipodean candidate

Published>Mon, Feb 01 10 04:40 PM

Sydney, Feb.1 (ANI): The search for an ICC Antipodean candidate grows more farcical by the day, according to cricket columnist Peter Roebuck.

The latest development is that Sir Rod Eddington has been asked to preside over an emergency committee formed to resolve the increasingly testy dispute between Australia and New Zealand over the selection of the candidate to act as ICC deputy chairman in July, rising to chairman in 2012.

Under ICC rules, these countries are obliged to agree on a single nomination for the position, and were supposed to produce a candidate months ago. After weeks of discussions, the talks remain deadlocked, says Roebuck.

According to usually reliable sources, Eddington, the former chief executive of British Airways and current chairman of Infrastructure Australia, has agreed to serve as the independent chair of a small group comprising two representatives from each country. In effect, he will decide the occupant of the most prestigious and important office in the game. It is an extraordinary state of affairs. His involvement is merely the latest aberration in an absurd episode, Roebuck adds.

Australia continues to push John Howard's credentials while the Kiwis argue that Sir John Anderson is the right choice. Anderson is a well respected and popular man with a lengthy and distinguished career as a servant of the game. It is difficult to find anyone in cricket with a bad word to say about him. Not that he is a pushover. Among other things, he has served as CEO of ANZ Bank and as chairman of NZ Television and involved himself in wildlife preservation. Oh yes, he has also stood as chairman of NZ Cricket and has represented his country at the ICC for years. It is a formidable CV.

He knows the innards of the game, and could hardly be better qualified for the job. As far as can be told, the only black mark against him is that he comes from the wrong country.

Howard, Roebuck says, has no such cricketing record.

The objections to the former prime minister him are not political. Except that he has more pressing matters in Adelaide, Ian McLachlan, another Liberal, has all the required credentials. He played first-class cricket and has been involved in the game all his life. Contrastingly, Howard lacks cricketing expertise.

"Australia ought to have acknowledged Anderson's qualities and backed him. Instead, it refused to budge and, as a last resort, the countries have now been forced to form an ad hoc committee in an attempt to discover a consensus candidate," Roebuck says, adding that by giving an Australian the casting vote, New Zealand has acted with the generosity missing in its counterpart.

According to Roebuck, Eddington is not a wise choice to sort out the mess.

"His career outside the game suggests that he lacks the judgment and diplomatic skills needed to meet the occasion. At least he is a cricketing man well up in the game and especially fond of watching Test matches. In his youth he played for Oxford University, where he continued his studies after graduating in Perth. A steady left-handed batsman, he was unlucky not to be awarded his blue in 1976, an oversight his captain subsequently regretted," says Roebuck.

Ever since he has steered clear of cricket administration, instead immersing himself in business, where he has been a prominent and controversial figure. His status as a cricketing outsider was part of his attraction.

In every other respect, though, his nomination appears questionable, Roebuck says.

He concludes by saying that New Zealand is entitled to feel flabbergasted by Australia's intransigence, which is well nigh untenable.

Eddington's only option is to back Anderson. (ANI)

Source: Web Search

Paes rises; Sania, Bhupathi slip in Tennis rankings

Published>Mon, Feb 01 10 04:20 PM

Newly-crowned Australian Open mixed doubles champion Leander Paes on Monday rose a rung to seventh in the ATP doubles' ranking, displacing one-time partner Mahesh Bhupathi in the latest list.

Paes has 5575 ranking points, while Bhupathi lost a spot to slip to eighth with 5015.

Paes had made the quarterfinals in the Australian Open men's doubles event with Czech Lukas Dlouhy. He clinched the mixed doubles' championship on Sunday with Zimbabwean Cara Black.

Bhupathi, on the other hand, had a forgettable outing at Melbourne Park, losing in the very first round of the men's doubles event due to a calf muscle injury.

The veteran later pulled out of the mixed doubles' event in which he was to team up with compatriot Sania Mirza.

Sania, meanwhile, also slipped down three rungs to 59th following her second-round exit from the Australian Open.

The Hyderabadi, who recently broke off her engagement with childhood friend Sohrab Mirza, however, rose five places to 33rd in the doubles' chart.

Source: Web Search

Tennis - Men's world rankings

Published Mon, Feb 01 10 04:14 PM

REUTERS - Men's tennis world rankings on Monday (Jan. 18 rankings in brackets):

1. (1) Roger Federer (Switzerland) 11350 points

2. (3) Novak Djokovic (Serbia) 8310

3. (4) Andy Murray (Britain) 7800

4. (2) Rafael Nadal (Spain) 7670

5. (5) Juan Martin del Potro (Argentina) 6400

6. (6) Nikolay Davydenko (Russia) 5290

7. (7) Andy Roddick (U.S.) 4150

8. (8) Robin Soderling (Sweden) 3375

9. (10) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France) 3235

10. (14) Marin Cilic (Croatia) 2970

11. (11) Fernando Gonzalez (Chile) 2870

12. (9) Fernando Verdasco (Spain) 2760

13. (12) Gael Monfils (France) 2520

14. (13) Radek Stepanek (Czech Republic) 2445

15. (16) Tommy Robredo (Spain) 2005

16. (15) Gilles Simon (France) 1915

17. (17) Tommy Haas (Germany) 1855

18. (18) David Ferrer (Spain) 1780

19. (22) Lleyton Hewitt (Australia) 1770

20. (20) Mikhail Youzhny (Russia) 1770

Source: Web Search