Sohail Abbas is the king of penalty corners: Taekema

Published>Tue, Mar 02 10 03:16 PM

He is one of the most lethal drag-flickers the world has ever seen, but for Taeke Taekema Pakistan's Sohail Abbas is the "king of penalty corners" just by the sheer magnitude of his conversion rate.

Sohail's has more than 300 international goals to his name and Taekema feels the veteran Pakistani drag-flicker is the most prolific scorer the world has witnessed. He also lavished praise on Indian's Sandeep Singh, who according to him has made remarkable improvement in his drag-flicking skills.

"Sohail Abbas is the king of penalty corner because of his goal scoring record. He scored the most goals from penalty corners, so definitely he is the best in the world," Taekema said.

"But Sandeep is very talented and has improved his skills. Both the players played in the Dutch league, so I have seen them a lot," he said. Taekema yesterday registered the first hat-trick of the on-going World Cup by converting three penalty corners in their 3-0 win over Argentina at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium here.

With this hat-trick, Taekema is just one goal away from equalling legendary country-mate Floris Jan Bovelander's 17 World Cup goals record, but the 30-year-old drag-flicker said what matters to him is team's performance and not individual goals.

"I don't have any personal goal for the World Cup. If I were after individual goals, I would have played a game like tennis, not hockey. My job is to convert penalty corners and I always try to do my best," said Taekema, who was the highest scorer of the 2006 edition of the quadrennial event in Monchengladbach with 11 goals.

"Penalty corners are small part of the game besides that I am a defender also. I have to do well in the defence also." Asked about the recipe behind his success, Taekema said there is no alternative to practice.

"It's just practice, years of practice. That's the main thing. If you keep on practising one thing day in and day out for the last 15-16 years, you are bound to master it. You also need to fine-tune your skill and then getting the right rhythm is also very important," he said.

"If the push and trap is spot on, it makes my job easier."

Taekema is only the third player after Australia captain Jamie Dwyer and German player Christopher Zeller to have got a hockey stick produced in his name by sportsapparel maker Adidas.

Taekema struck record 16 goals, including a double hat-trick against Belgium in the semi-final of the 2007 European Championships in Manchester. And in celebration of his record breaking feat, Adidas introduced its limited edition TT10 hockey stick, which has Taekema's initials and jersey number incorporated in it.

"It's just that I work together with Adidas to create the sticks and they put my initials and jersey number in it," said the modest Dutch player, who won the Champions Trophy four times with his national team.

He feels the Dutch will have to come out with an improved showing in their remaining matches if they desire to pocket their fourth World title.

"We played a very hard game against Argentina in the first match. The goalkeeper (Guus Vogels) played terrific. He saved us on quite a few occasions. So we need to perform much better in the next matches," he said.

"We definitely have to perform better to have a chance in the tournament," added Taekema, who was member of the Athens Olympics silver medal winning Dutch side.

Source: Web Search

Women's team denied permission to cheer men in blue

Published>Tue, Mar 02 10 03:08 PM

It is the ultimate insult. The women's hockey team wanted to come and cheer their male counterparts in the World Cup, but were denied permission by the organisers, apparently due to security reasons.

Confirming the incident, chief women's coach Maharaj Kishen Kaushik said the team is not going to come to the Capital now. Speaking to Mail Today from Bhopal where the women's team is currently practising, Kaushik said that he had sent a proposal to the Sports Authority of India (SAI) and Hockey India about the women players being keen to come and cheer for the men's team.

"I had personally written to the SAI and Hockey India that the women's team wanted to come to the Capital on March 10 and stay on till March 13," he said.

Kaushik added that his wards also wanted to avail the poly grass practice pitches. "We felt it was a good opportunity to come to the National Stadium as our team will soon leave for Japan and China to play a Test series.

"But then due to security reasons, out team was refused permission," he said. The team will now come to Delhi on March 16 morning and leave for Japan the same night. The opening Test against Japan is on March 18 in Tokyo. "We would have loved to cheer our team. Also, we would have got a good chance to practice on poly grass turf. "We are very disappointed that we could not watch the World Cup live and will have to be content with watching it on TV," said a player.

Meanwhile, Kaushik was satisfied with the practice sessions the team had in Bhopal. "Our team has been having intense training sessions for the last one month. The girls are really performing well and I have am sure they will give a good account of themselves in the Test series against Japan and China," he said. Kaushik was of the view that fitness was the one area where the team had really improved upon.

"Without doubt, improving fitness has been our main focus. The fitness of our players has improved tremendously. They have put in a lot of hardwork and it is showing now," he said. On the upcoming Test series against Japan and China, Kaushik said the series against these two teams would be a test of strength for India. "These teams, especially China, are very good. So it will be a real test for our women," he said.

Source: Web Search

Financiers plan 1 bln stg bid for Man Utd - papers

Published Tue, Mar 02 10 02:48 PM

A team of British financiers is working on a 1 billion pound ($1.5 billion) bid for English soccer club Manchester United, but the club's owners are not interested in selling, media reported on Tuesday.

Newspapers said a group calling themselves the Red Knights and including Keith Harris, former chairman of the Football League and executive chairman of investment bank Seymour Pierce, met on Monday at lawyers Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer to discuss a possible bid.

Other members of the group include Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill, Freshfields partner Mark Rawlinson and Paul Marshall, co-founder and chairman of hedge fund Marshall Wace, they said.

The Daily Telegraph, however, said Manchester United's billionaire U.S. owners, the Glazer family, were not interested in a deal.

"Manchester United is simply not for sale. Nothing has changed," it quoted a spokesman for the family as saying.

The Glazers bought Manchester United in 2005 against a wave of opposition from supporters and have attracted fresh criticism as the club's debts have swelled to 716.5 million pounds ($1.1 billion).

A growing number of fans have been protesting by shunning the side's red and white colours and sporting green and gold, worn when the team was known as Newton Heath in its early days.

None of the parties mentioned were immediately available for comment.

Source: Web Search

Cook not included in England 20-20 World Cup squad

Published>Tue, Mar 02 10 02:16 PM

London, Mar. 2 (ANI): England stand-in skipper Alastair Cook has been dropped for the World Twenty20.

According to The Sun, the Essex batsman failed to make a provisional 30-man squad for the tournament in the West Indies.

Cook only has four international T20 caps but was included in last week's squad for the two games with Pakistan.

He is currently leading the Test and ODI side, although it was Paul Collingwood who took the reigns for the shortest version of the game.

The opener may have thought he had done enough to force his way in after a blistering 64 against Bangladesh yesterday. ut national selector Geoff Miller revealed Cook's game needs to change if he wants a way back in.

"He has to prove us wrong. He's played very well in Bangladesh and if he can carry his career into that area then we'll reassess. But at the moment we don't see him as a Twenty20 player, and that's why he's not in," Miller was quoted, as saying.

Five uncapped players have been named in the squad, which will be whittled down for 15 for England's first game on May 3.

Steven Finn, Michael Lumb, David Wainwright, Peter Trego and Chris Woakes have all been given the nod after impressing for the Lions.

The England squad is as follows:

P Collingwood (captain), J Anderson, I Bell, R Bopara, T Bresnan, S Broad, S Davies, J Denly, S Finn, C Kieswetter, M Lumb, S Mahmood, D Mascarenhas, E Morgan, G Onions, K Pietersen, L Plunkett, M Prior, A Rashid, O Shah, A Shahzad, R Sidebottom, G Swann, J Tredwell, P Trego, J Trott, D Wainwright, C Woakes, L Wright, M Yardy. (ANI)

Source: Web Search

Germany rally late to draw against South Korea

Published>Tue, Mar 02 10 02:06 PM

Holders Germany rallied after being outpaced early on by South Korea to draw their opening league match 2-2 at the men's hockey World Cup on Monday.

The top Asian outfit scored two goals in the first 15 minutes to put Olympic champions Germany under pressure in the absence of several experienced players.

Florian Fuchs and Benjamin Wess scored in the second half for Germany, the world's top-ranked team who are aiming for a third straight world title.

Penalty corner specialist Taeke Taekema scored a hat-trick to lead Netherlands to a 3-0 victory over Argentina and New Zealand beat Canada 3-2 in the other two pool A matches at the Dhyan Chand National Hockey Stadium.

Hyun Hye-sung put the Koreans 1-0 up through a penalty corner in the third minute and Lee Nam-yong scored off a spectacular reverse hit in the 15th minute to stun the Germans, who squandered five penalty corners in the first half.

However, Germany, who lost 5-3 to Korea in the Champions Trophy in December, found their bearings after regrouping at the break.

Fuchs scored an opportunistic goal and Wess knocked home the equaliser with 12 minutes remaining as Germany took advantage of Korea's defensive approach in the second half.

Ryan Archibald scored a stunning field goal with four minutes left to give New Zealand a dramatic victory over Canada after trailing 2-1 at half time.

Taekema was in spectacular form as he converted three penalty corners to give the Dutch a winning start.

Source: Web Search

Taekema hat-trick helps Dutch drub Argentina 3-0

Published>Tue, Mar 02 10 01:48 PM

Veteran drag-flicker Taeke Taekema scored the first hat-trick of the tournament as the Netherlands blanked bottom-ranked Argentina 3-0 in their Pool A hockey World Cup match in New Delhi.t

Taekema struck in the 14th, 35th and 61st minute as three-time champions the Netherlands stamped their class against Argentina who are the lowest ranked team in the 12-team tournament at 14th.

With the hat-trick on Sunday, Taekema is just one goal away from equalling legendary country-mate penalty corner specialist Floris Jan Bovelander's 17 World Cup goals.

The Dutch won three penalty corners in the first half and Taekema, who took all of them, converted two. He then added another goal to his kitty in the second half to score the first hat-trick of the tournament under floodlights in front of a handful of spectators at the Major Dhyan Chand Stadium.

Taekema, one of world's best and most experienced drag-flickers, scored of the first penalty corner when he smashed the ball to the right upper corner of the Argentine net in the 13th minute to notch up his first goal.

His second goal came in the third penalty corner of his side which he sent to the bottom right corner of the Argentine goalpost in the 34th minute.

In between, Billy Bakker had a golden opportunity to score from close range for Argentina but the ball hit the crossbar in the 21st minute.

Source: Web Search

Capello bans players from talking about Terry scandal

Published>Tue, Mar 02 10 01:36 PM

London, Mar 2 (ANI): England manager Fabio Capello has banned players from talking about the John Terry scandal.

The Italian manager told players it was time to move on and focus on winning the World Cup in South Africa.

Capello fears the scandal will tear the team apart. Several players are said to blame Terry after Wayne Bridge quit the squad last week, The Sun reports.

An England insider said: "Fabio called everyone for a ten-minute chat. Splits in the camp would be a disaster. Players were told to see him if they have a problem. He doesn't want any whispering in corners."

Chelsea star Terry reported for England duty yesterday for the first time since he lost the captaincy over his affair with Bridge's ex Vanessa Perroncel.

Ace striker Wayne Rooney yesterday urged fans not to boo Terry during England's friendly against Egypt at Wembley tomorrow. (ANI)

Source: Web Search