Hockey: Argentina hold India 1-1 in second hockey ‘test’

Profligate forwards squandered chances galore as India, despite dominating the proceedings, settled for a 1-1 draw with Argentina in the second of the four under-21 hockey ‘test’ match at the Club Ciudad de Buenos Aires here.
India dictated terms for most part of the match but could score only once through a solo by right winger Mandip Antil in the 44th minute.

Argentina, to their credit, waged a grim battle and the reward came in the 61st minute when Santiago Montelli scored the equaliser from a penalty stroke.

The hosts began aggressively, trying to break the ice as their rivals took time to settle. They forced two penalty corners in quick succession but while the first flick went wide, the second was well taken by Indian custodian Mrinal Chaubey.

India soon got their bearings and mounted sorties with regularity. They dominated the midfield and created openings around Argentina’s semi-circle with crafty interchanges and off-the-ball running. However, they failed to find the target, especially with the opponent goalkeeper Ezequiel Olivero doing a good job under the bar.

Hockey: Birthday boy Diwakar’s hat-trick gifts India winning start

Birthday boy and captain Diwakar Ram struck a hat-trick to gift India 3-2 win over World Champions Argentina in their opening Under-21 Test match at the Ciudad Club de Buenos Aires here.
India had some early scares with Argentina exhibiting electric forays, unnerving the visitors’ defence but they soon came to terms with the opposition stepping up their pace with flair and fluency.

Diwakar scored his first goal in the ninth minute and consolidated their position just 10 minutes later through a penalty corner conversion. India led 2-0 at the lemon break.

After changing sides, India increased their lead to 3-0 in 55th minute while the Argentines only reduced margins by sounding the board in the 64th and 67th minutes of the game.

Earlier, India forward Jay Karan was set up by midfielder Vikas Sharma inside the striking circle before he was obstructed by Nahuel Salis.

The resultant penalty corner was sunk in by Diwakar with a low dragflick past goalkeeper Ezequiel Olivero in the ninth minute.

Stung by this reversal, Argentina tried to find an equaliser and earned their first penalty corner when a breach was committed inside the crowded circle by full back Innocent Kullu.

However, even though custodian Mrinal Chaubey warded off the attempt from Augustin Cabrera the umpire ruled it illegal resulting in a penalty stroke.

Sports: The credit crunch places a question mark over key events

The credit crunch places a question mark over key events. The global credit crunch has taken its toll on Formula 1, and now on golf in India. Close on the heels of auto major Honda’s decision to pull out its team from F1, the Indian Masters golf tournament, scheduled to take place in February in New Delhi, has also been cancelled due to finances as well as “security concerns”.

It is said that the golf tournament has been called off more due to monetary reasons. The last edition’s winner, SSP Chowraisa, pocketed a cool Rs 1.6 crore as prize money. This year’s main title sponsor was Emaar MGF. The promoter of the company that organises the tourney, Golf In Dubai, was quoted as saying: “The current economic uncertainty, coupled with security concerns, made it impossible for us to present the tournament in a manner that we would wish to for world-class golfers.”

Finding sponsors for an event of this scale seemed tough, and the decision has been made to do away with this year’s edition. Also interesting is the fact that a women’s golf tournament to be held in Bangalore this month was also cancelled — and it was being sponsored by the same title sponsor.

The story of Honda is no different. It was said to be spending close to £200 million per year to keep its F1 team humming, and now the team is up for sale. Its race-winning drivers Jenson Button and Reubens Barrichello find their future uncertain, considering that the company has also decided to stop supplying engines.

A statement issued by the company said: “Honda must protect its core business activities, and secure the long term as widespread uncertainties in the economics around the globe continue to mount.” The company mentioned that it would be looking for potential buyers, and F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone sounded confident of a deal coming through.

It will be interesting to see whether the financial crisis will impact the other auto majors in F1 — BMW, Mercedes, Ferrari, Renault and Toyota — as the cost of maintaining a competitive team has always been pretty high.

As far as golf in India is concerned, experts feel that it doesn’t face too much of a threat. A senior marketing executive of a lifestyle brand says: “There might be one-off cancellations, but golf is a great platform for luxury brands to get associated with. We expect that to be the case in the future as well.”

Shooting: Sodhi takes a dig at Bindra

Abhinav Bindra’s Olympic gold is of no help to the country’s other shooters, who are still an ignored lot, feels world record holder marksman Ronjan Sodhi.

“The Olympic gold will do wonders for Abhinav personally but what good it has done to shooting in India as such?” asked Sodhi. “Ordinary shooters still have to beg and borrow for the guns and cartridges,” he told PTI as he practiced here for the National Shooting Championships at the Jagatpura.

The double-trap marksman, who missed the wild-card for the Beijing Olympic just by a whisker, also felt that Abhinav’s historic feat of winning the first individual Olympic gold would also be forgotten soon.

“It has happened before too. People forget too soon,” said Sodhi, who equaled the world record twice in the ISSF World Cup at Belgrade, Serbia, in June. Criticising the laxity of officials in the country, Sodhi said a lot more was required to be done for the sport of shooting in terms of better utilisation of facilities.

“You have a world class range at Jagatpura but it’s unlocked for us only now. I feel that all ranges should have guns and pellets for upcoming shooters. This would broaden the base of shooting in country. The facilities are not being utilised properly,” he said.

The 29-year-old shooter, however, lauded NRAI for whatever it was doing for the sport. “It was hard to import the gun and pellets but now once you achieve a certain score you can easily import an air gun and pellets,” he said.

Boxing: Mary Kom can still hope for an Olympic gold

The undisputed queen of women boxing, MC Mary Kom can still hope to realise her childhood dream of winning an Olympic gold after the possibility of the inclusion of women’s boxing.

The International Boxing Association (AIBA) has filed an application to the IOC for the inclusion of women’s boxing into the 2012 Olympic Games. A decision on this application will be made at the end of 2009,” said Richard Baker of AIBA PR & Communications

Earlier, it was reported that women’s boxing is not going to be part of the Olympic programme and if the discipline is bestowed the honour, it would only be in 2016. Mary would be 33 years old then.

MC Mary Kom had re-asserted her status as the world’s most successful woman boxer by clinching an unprecedented fourth successive gold medal at the fifth AIBA World Championships on 29 November 2008.

The Manipuri boxer had remained away from the ring for two years to take care of her twin babies after completing a hat-trick of World Championship golds in New Delhi.

The pint-sized pugilist returned to don the gloves this year at the Asian Championships in September where she failed to retain her gold and settled for a silver.

She claimed the National title earlier this month before leaving for the World Championship to achieve the spectacular feat.

Shooting: Red carpet welcome for Bindra

Kerala rolled out a red carpet welcome to Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra here on Tuesday.

The 25-year-old who put an end to the Indian gold medal drought in individual events at the Olympics in Beijing during August was virtually moved by the rousing State reception accorded to him by the State Government and the Kerala State Sports Council at the V.J.T. Hall in the evening.

In fact, this was reflected when Bindra himself admitted: “I know I am in the midst of people of a sporting region of my country. Kerala, without doubt, has been a powerhouse for sports persons of India for decades. Right from P.T. Usha to T.C. Yohannan, Suresh Babu, Shiny Wilson, K.M. Beenamol, M.D. Valsamma, Anju Bobby George, the footballers V.P. Sathyan and Jo Paul Ancheri and not to miss the feisty cricketer Sreesanth, we all know that under no circumstances would this beautiful State stop producing India’s shining stars.”

“I personally owe a deep debt of gratitude to the State which has also produced the National shooting coach, Prof. Sunny Thomas, who has coached our shooters since 1993 with great dedication and skill. He has been a guiding force for many of us,” Bindra said in reply to the praise heaped on him by the Kerala Chief Minister, V.S. Achuthanandan, who was the chief guest at the function.

The Chief Minister, who presented a finely crafted memento, a target in which a bullet (weighing 10 gold sovereigns) was attached, to Bindra had equated the success of the ace shooter in air rifle at the Beijing extravaganza as a “land mark achievement.”

Mr. Achuthanandan also presented a cheque for Rs. 5 lakh to Sunny Thomas.

The Sports Minister, M. Vijayakumar, in his presidential address, hoped that Bindra would bring back more laurels to the country in the future. The Education Minister, M.A. Baby, while offering his felicitations said that Bindrahas promised to be one of the members of the expert committee to be set by the Government to suggest measures on how to improve sports in educational institutions of higher learning. He also announced that the committee will be headed by Prakash Padukone.

Football: Casual Dempo draw against Mumbai FC

Dempo Sports Club, content with a place in the semi-finals of the 30th Federation Cup, did not mind looking second best to Mumbai FC here at the Barasat stadium on Tuesday, finishing their league matches with a 1-1 draw.

The Mumbai side came into the game with just two points and no chance of advancing to the semi-finals. But they showed the eagerness expected from a team which has nothing to lose. They took all the initiative and looked hungry.

However, it was Dempo who went ahead. The goal was a result of both planning and luck. Joaquim sent the ball across to Clifford Miranda on the right. Clifford headed it to the goal-mouth where Cliffton Gonsalves’s marker had him covered. But he failed to connect and Cliffton managed a touch to send it into the goal.

The brightest moment of the match saw Mumbai FC make it 1-1. They got a free-kick 20 yards from the goal. Alex Ambrose’s right-foot free-kick swung past the wall and went in through the second post leaving the goalkeeper stranded.

Teams

Dempo SC: Abhijit Mondal, John Dias, Creson Antao, Marcus Peixoto, Nascimento Silveira, Climax Lawrence, Jerry Zirsangha (Joe Rodrigues 63), Clifford Miranda, Joaquim Abranches (Peter Carvalho 69), Dominic Noronha, Cliffton Gonsalves.

Mumbai FC: Amit Singha Roy, John Benedict, Anas Edathodika (Sanjay Parte 90), Balpreet Singh, Kamaljeet Kumar, Nishant Mehra (Kutty Mani 64), M. Pradeep (Subhas Chakraborty 80), Jagdish Pappiah, K. Aseem, Alex Ambrose, Felix Abogaye.

Referee: Dhanapati Roy.

Leander plays the ball

Leander Paes was at the Mohun Bagan ground on Tuesday to share his childhood passion with the Bhaichung Bhutias and the Jose Ramirez Barretos. The tennis star spent close to two hours under the guidance of coach Karim Bencharifa.

“I called Bhaichung last evening and wanted to do some fitness training with them. He invited me over after getting the clearance from Karim.

“It was like getting back to my roots as I used to come to this ground with my dad when he played (hockey) for Mohun Bagan… Cross-sport training is good for any sportsperson,” said Paes.

“It was generous of Karim to let me join their training session a few days ahead of a big tournament… He’s a good professional coach.”

Talk inevitably turned to tennis and Paes felt Roger Federer is still not past his prime.

“Roger has had a great year, just lost two major finals and people are making so much of it. Roger’s set such a high standard for himself… I’m sure he has at least a couple more Grand Slams left in him. Maybe he’ll surpass (Pete) Sampras’ record in 2009 itself.”

Federer needs one more Grand Slam title to equal Sampras’ tally of 14.

Paes is pinning high hopes on Somdev Dev Varman. “Somdev is the hardest worker among Indian players. He has a good chance of breaking into the top 100 next year.”

Paes also said that the terror strikes in Mumbai had left him devastated. “The Mumbai strikes were such a terrible act, but it has reunited the country and brought the people together.”

On his own plans, Paes said: “The past season hasn’t been good for me since I changed partners too often. I plan to play with Cara Black in mixed doubles and Lukas Dlouhy in doubles this season.”

Chess: Seven players in joint lead

Adhiban, M. Shyam Sundar, Vishnu Prasanna, Ashwin Jayaram (all Chennai), Rahul Sangma (Del), Vidit Gujrathi (Mah) and Lalith Babu (AP)— shared the lead after the fourth round of the Sri Sai Ram Engineering Asian Junior Chess Championship here on Tuesday.

Bhakti Kulkarni of Goa overcame World under-14 girls’ champion Padmini Rout of Orissa. Bhakti joined Shalmali Gagare and Kruttika Nadig in the lead with 3.5 points from four rounds.

Tied for the fourth place on three points are defending champion Mary Ann Gomes, Divyasri, Meenu Rajendran, Shristi Shetty.

Leader Shalmali let defending champion Mary Ann Gomes escape with a 79-move draw in a rook ending after having winning material in her side.

Raghavi tasted her first defeat, losing to the experienced Kruttika Nadig in 32 moves.

Bhakti checkmated Padmini Rout on the 59th move with black pieces and used the pair of bishops to dominate the knights and win in style.

The winner will be awarded the International Master title and along with that a nine-game Grand Master norm.

Important results (fourth round):

Boys: M.R. Lalith Babu 3.5 drew with B. Adhiban 3.5; P. Karthikeyan 3 drew with Ashwin Jayaram 3.5; M. Shyam Sundar 3.5 bt T. Purushothaman 2.5; Rahul Sangma 3.5 bt K. Priyadarshan 2.5; Vidit Gujrathi 3.5 bt G.A. Stany 2.5; Pranav Shetty 2.5 lost to Vishnu Prasanna 3.5; P. Saravanakrishnan 2 lost to S.P. Sethuraman 3; Sagar Shah 2 lost to S. Nitin 3; Anwesh Upadhyaya 3 bt Minhazuddin Ahmed (Ban) 2; Shyam Nikhil 3 bt V.A.V. Rajesh 2; Debashis Das 3 bt J.S. Daklia 2; T. Abhay 2 lost to M.G. Gahan 3; Tejas Ravichandran 3 bt Navin Kanna 2.

Girls: Mary Ann Gomes 3 drew with Shalmali Gagare 3.5; N. Raghavi 2.5 lost to Kruttika Nadig 3.5; Padmini Rout 2.5 lost to Bhakti Kulkarni 3.5; Ch Divyasri 3 drew with Kiran Mohanty 2.5; R. Preethi 2 lost to Meenu Rajendran 3; P. Uthra 2 lost to Shristi Shetty 3; Supeshala Thilakawardana (Sri) 2 lost to P. Sivasankari 2.5; A. Soumya 1.5 lost to J. Mohana Priya 2.5; Supriya Joshi 1.5 lost to R. Bharathi 2.5; S. Harini 1.5 lost to Michelle Catherina 2.5.

Belated news: Golf:Indian Masters golf cancelled

The Indian Masters, co-sanctioned by The European Tour, the Asian Tour and the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) and set to be played at the Delhi Golf Club, New Delhi, from February 5 to 8, will not take place on The 2009 European Tour International Schedule and Asian Tour Schedule.

Mohamed Juma Buamaim, vice-chairman and CEO of ‘golf in Dubai’, said: “We have done everything possible to ensure that the second edition of the Indian Masters was played in 2009 but with this tournament we considered that the current economic uncertainty coupled to security concerns made it impossible for us to present the tournament in the manner that we would wish to for world class golfers.

“The inaugural edition of the Indian Masters played earlier this year created quite a buzz in India with the home-grown talent SSP Chowrasia beating a strong field to take the honours. The tournament, the first on The European Tour to be played in India, provided the home players an opportunity to hone their competitive skills in the company of some of the world’s finest players and we are confident that we will achieve this again in 2010.

“We are grateful to the Indian Golf Union, the PGTI and The Asian Tour for extending all their support in putting together the inaugural Indian Masters and we thank them for their patience, support and understanding as we do to the Delhi Golf Club to where we look forward to returning.”

George O’Grady, Chief Executive of The European Tour, said: “We share with ‘golf in Dubai’ their disappointment that the Indian Masters will not be played in 2009. We understand, however, the economic challenges they face with title sponsorship and we are optimistic that this event which was such a success when first played in 2008 at the superb Delhi Golf Club will return to the schedule in 2010 co-sanctioned by The European Tour, the Asian Tour and the PGTI.”