The Star Online: Sports
The Star Online: Sports |
- India may lose hosting rights to Champions Trophy
- Top-seeded Nicolas Almagro advances at Swiss Open
- India reach 24-1 at stumps vs. England
| India may lose hosting rights to Champions Trophy Posted: 29 Jul 2011 05:56 PM PDT NEW DELHI (AP) — The International Hockey Federation threatened Friday to strip India of the right to host this year's Champions Trophy and February's Olympic qualifiers following a row between two Indian hockey bodies. The FIH, hockey's international body, said it did not recognize the settlement brokered on Monday of a turf war between Hockey India and the Indian Hockey Federation. The two groups agreed to form a joint executive board until the end of 2012 following mediation by India's sports ministry. However, the FIH said a country could only have one ruling body for the sport, and that it only recognized Hockey India. "It is a fundamental and non-negotiable requirement of the Olympic Charter and the FIH Statutes that there can only be one governing body for a sport in each country with exclusive authority and responsibility to govern, organize national competitions and to enter national teams in international competitions," it said in a statement. As a result, the FIH announced it was halting all discussions about tournaments in India, including the men's Champions Trophy (Dec. 1-12) and both the men's and women's Olympic qualifiers (Feb. 15-26). "The FIH Executive Board has decided that it is neither possible nor appropriate to continue with the discussions with HI to host tournaments in India over the next four-year cycle, particularly the FIH Men's Champions Trophy and the FIH Men's & Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournaments." The FIH also said it has written to Indian Sports Minister Ajay Maken, calling on him to have an urgent meeting with Hockey India and the Indian Olympic Association on the issue. Eight-time Olympic gold medallist India failed to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and is yet to ensure a place for London 2012. Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by Used Car Search. |
| Top-seeded Nicolas Almagro advances at Swiss Open Posted: 29 Jul 2011 05:54 PM PDT GSTAAD, Switzerland (AP) — Top-seeded Nicolas Almagro of Spain put in a double shift at the Swiss Open on Friday, advancing to the semifinals after beating Jarkko Nieminen and Feliciano Lopez. Almagro rounded off the action at Roy Emerson Arena against fifth-seeded Lopez, defeating his compatriot 6-4, 7-5 with the only breaks of serve in the match to clinch each set. The 10th-ranked Almagro had opened play by resuming a rain-delayed second-round match with Finland's Nieminen. Almagro, who trailed 3-2 in the first set overnight, completed a 7-6 (3), 6-3 victory within an hour to book a double-duty return against Lopez. In Saturday's semifinals, Almagro will play No. 4 seed Fernando Verdasco of Spain who beat Frenchman Julien Benneteau 6-4, 5-7, 6-1. Second-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka disappointed the Gstaad crowd by losing 6-3, 6-2 to eighth-seeded Marcel Granollers of Spain. Wawrinka, the Swiss No. 2, last reached the final at his home tournament in 2005. Granollers will face Mikhail Youzhny of Russia in the last four. Third-seeded Youzhny beat 70th-ranked Austrian Andreas Haider-Maurer 6-4, 5-7, 6-4. Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by Used Car Search. |
| India reach 24-1 at stumps vs. England Posted: 29 Jul 2011 05:53 PM PDT NOTTINGHAM, England (AP) — India reached 24-1 at stumps on day one of the second test against England at Trent Bridge on Friday after a superb counterattacking 64 from Stuart Broad helped the home side recover from 124-8 at tea to 221 all out. India trailed by 197 runs at the close, with VVS Laxman unbeaten on 13 and Rahul Dravid on 7 not out after Abhinav Mukund had been caught by Kevin Pietersen off the first ball of the innings from James Anderson (1-10). Broad, whose innings took 66 balls and included nine fours, put on 73 for the ninth wicket with Graeme Swann. "At tea it was 100 percent India's day so we're delighted to have wrestled our way back into the game," Broad said. "You can't blame too many of our batsmen for throwing away their wickets, I thought there were some good deliveries in there. We had a little chat at tea and thought we needed to get the momentum back and we did that by playing our natural game." Sreesanth, who took three wickets on his return to the side, said Broad's innings hadn't deflated India. "That's how test cricket goes," he said. "There was always going to be one partnership and all credit to them for taking their chances." Swann made 28 from 35 balls with three fours, after England had collapsed from 69-2 at lunch, losing six wickets in a frantic afternoon session. Praveen Kumar was India's best bowler with 3-45, while Ishant Sharma claimed 3-66 and Sreesanth 3-77. Sreesanth was booed by a section of the fans after claiming a catch that had clearly bounced, but he said that merely encouraged him. "It's a typical English wicket and honestly I had fun," he said. "Most of the time it happens and it's better than being left alone. I ended up giving my very best so thanks to them for cheering me up!" Sreesanth also enlivened the news conference by giving an engimatic quote reminscent of former French footballer Eric Cantona. When asked why he didn't say much on his twitter feed, he replied: "Silence is the speech of a spiritual seagull." The tourists won the toss and chose to bowl, with the ball expected to swing in the overcast conditions. The controversy over India's refusal to allow the Decision Review System to be used for lbw calls in this series was also reignited. In the fifth over Praveen Kumar was denied the wicket of Alastair Cook when he hit him on the pad, but an over later Cook was given lbw to Sharma for 2. Replays suggested that both decisions were marginally incorrect, although there was no argument over Trott's departure, in Sreesanth's first over. Trott made just four runs before he edged Sreesanth to Laxman at third slip. Batting looked difficult, until Kevin Pietersen swatted fours from successive Sreesanth balls. Pietersen then survived an appeal for lbw from Kumar, to a ball that would have clipped the bails, a decision that so angered Kumar he had to be ushered away from umpire Marais Erasmus by his teammates. Strauss and Pietersen completed their 50 partnership with the fourth ball of the afternoon session, but Pietersen was out to the next delivery, edging Sreesanth to Suresh Raina at slip. Kumar then struck twice in the 37th over, getting Strauss caught at slip by Raina for 32 and Eoin Morgan lbw for 0. Matt Prior lasted just four balls before he was caught by Rahul Dravid off Sreesanth for 1. It could have been worse for England when Bell, on 22, was dropped by Dravid off Kumar, though Dravid partially redeemed himself by catching Tim Bresnan (11) off Sharma. Bell's reprieve was cut short in the session's final over as he wafted at a Sharma delivery and was caught behind off a bottom edge. Yet although India was on top at tea, Broad and Swann revived the hosts, scoring rapidly at the start of the evening session. They batted for 49 minutes before Swann gloved a lifting delivery from Kumar to Abinhav Mukund in the slips. Swann was subsequently taken to hospital for an x-ray on his hand which confirmed he had suffered a hairline fracture, but one that will not prevent him from bowling. Anderson further irritated India by hanging around for long enough to first allow Broad to steer England past 200 and then bring up his 50, from 56 balls, by smashing Kumar straight back over his head for four. The last-wicket pair added 22 runs before Broad holed out to Harbhajan and was caught on the midwicket boundary by Sachin Tendulkar. India's reply got off to the worst possible start when Anderson had Mukund caught at gully by Pietersen with the first ball of the innings. England wasted a review when the DRS upheld Asad Rauf's decision not to give Dravid caught behind to Anderson in the ninth over. India will be happy to have batted through to stumps without further loss, after both Dravid and Laxman came close to playing on towards the end of the session and Dravid gloved a Broad delivery just short of Prior. Broad said England's bowlers are "chomping at the bit" to get started again on Saturday. "We're all excited about what can happen in the morning session," he said. "We were certainly going to have a bowl if we'd won the toss. We're hoping for a shade of cloud cover and hopefully we'll get some nicks." Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by Used Car Search. |
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