Salman Butt fined
Posted on October 12, 2007 - Filed Under Sports | Leave a Comment
50 percent of the match fee has been imposed on Salman butt the Vice-captain of Pakistan for condemning the judgment during the current second Test against South Africa.
According to an ICC spokesman “Butt has been charged under level two of the ICC (International Cricket Council) code of conduct for criticizing match officials after a hearing with match referee Alan Hurst”.
Hurst said: “Butt has been charged under the ICC code of conduct 2.3 which relates to the player publicly criticizing or making inappropriate comments on a match related incident or official”.
In an interview Butt said, “The third umpire gave me out when it was a bounce catch”. He also criticized the decision against Pakistan’s ace batsman Mohammad Yousuf in the first innings of the second Test. He said, “I don’t think Yousuf was out. When you lose your premier batsman like that, one decision can make a lot of difference to the team”.
Pakistan, chasing a massive 457 to level the two-Test series, were 108-1 on the fourth day requiring another 349 runs to win or bat out 90 overs. South Africa won the first Test in Karachi by 160 runs.
Shahar Peer Advances to the Second Round
Posted on October 10, 2007 - Filed Under Sports | Leave a Comment
Shahar Peer of Israel has advanced to the second round of the Bangkok Open after defeating Melinda Czink of Hungary in the Thai capital on Tuesday.
Third seed Peer made double blunders in the ninth game to give Czink a 5-4 lead and early control in the first set. World number 16 Peer jumped ahead in the second set and held off a late charge to claim a 7-6 (3), 6-4 win.
She will now face Russia’s Anastasia Rodionova who defeated Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan with 6-4, 6-3.
But the Jerusalem native was not satisfied with her win. She said “I played pretty bad tennis especially in the first set, I like Thailand and I like to play here. Usually I am playing good, so I hope every round will be better than this round”.
Minister keen to bring Atapattu back
Posted on October 10, 2007 - Filed Under Sports | Leave a Comment
It is believed that the Sri Lankan Sports Minister Gamini Lokuge is very keen to bring back former captain Marvan Atapattu into the team. In the coming month the Sri Lankan team is scheduled to go to Australia.
Spokesperson Kapila Bamunuarachchi told AFP, “The minister hopes to see Marvan in the next few days to hear his side of the story. He is keen to see an end to the present row between him and the selectors”.
Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) have already named their team for the two Test matches in Australia, but the sports minister’s consent is required to make it official. On Tuesday Lokuge met the selection panel, together with the Chairman Asantha de Mel, to settle the problems.
According to the SLC sources the minister wanted De Mel to cordially settle the issue with the former captain. In the past Atapattu had lashed out at the selectors, saying he had no confidence in them even though he intended to play for at two more years.
De Mel wanted to meet Atapattu to settle differences, but Atapattu said he was not interested to meet the officials.
‘Do or Die’ Situation for India
Posted on October 8, 2007 - Filed Under Sports | Leave a Comment
After the attempt of blowing first, Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat first against Australia in the fourth one-day international at Chandigarh on Monday.
At present it’s a do-or-die situation for the host country. This is because the Indian team lost the last two games and trail pushing Australia to a two points lead in the seven-match ODI series. The first game in Bangalore was to be cancelled due to rain.
In the Indian team Saurav Ganguly returns to replace Gautam Gambhir who is injured and RP Singh replaces S Sreesanth. Left arm spinner Murali Kartik, who replaced Ramesh Powar in the team, has also been included. He has replaced Rohit Sharma.
In the Australian team, Nathan Bracken has replaced Stuart Clark.
Serena Williams Out of WTA Tournament
Posted on October 6, 2007 - Filed Under Sports | Leave a Comment
The whole world including Serena Williams were baffled by her exit from Stuttgart’s WTA tournament. At the same time world number one Justine Henin was happy with her performance to reach the last four.
Sixth-seed Williams suffered her first loss to Sveltlana Kuznetsova when she won their quarter-final clash 6-3, 6-3 on Friday evening.
Serena said “I don’t quite know what went wrong out there; I was spraying balls all over the place and just couldn’t find my rhythm”.
In 2004 Kuznetsova had lost both her matches with Williams. She will now face France’s Tatiana Golovin in the semi-finals on Saturday. Kuznetsova said, “I am looking forward to playing Tatiana she beat me earlier in the year in Toronto when I was coming back from a break and I want revenge”.
This was definitely a very shocking match for Serena Williams who has been ruling the roost for a long time.
Venus Williams Defeats Denmark’s Caroline
Posted on October 5, 2007 - Filed Under Sports | Leave a Comment
Venus Williams has proceeded to the finals of the Japan Open by defeating Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki with 6-3, 7-5 on Friday. Williams is ranking No. 8 in the WTA rankings. She was in full form and had her hands full with the 17-year-old Wozniacki.
Wozniacki had full hopes of reaching the finals as she was with a two-game lead.
She said “I was thinking I was closer to winning the set but Venus played really well, she was making great shots and really raised her game so there wasn’t much I could do”.
Williams who has been a Wimbledon champion broke the record with Wozniacki to go up 6-5 and served to win the final game.
This is the first time Williams is playing in the US$175,000 (123,000) tournament. She is waiting for her fourth title of the season. On Sunday Williams won the Korea Open.
She said “It’s been a while since I won two in a row and I’m thinking can I do this? It’s exciting”.
Lewis Hamilton to Concentrate On His Last Races
Posted on October 4, 2007 - Filed Under Sports | Leave a Comment
In an interview Lewis Hamilton said that he is trying not to think about the championship and is mainly concentrating on the next two races which are scheduled for this weekend in China.
he McLaren driver, who may perhaps make Formula One history this weekend by becoming the first driver to secure the Drivers’ title in his draftee year,. He only needs to finish ahead of team-mate Fernando Alonso.
He said “We are going into these races with a really tight Drivers’ battle with only 12 points between me and Fernando. Anything is still possible but I am feeling confident and very determined and I hope we will have another couple of exciting races.
The 22-year-old has never participated in Shanghai or Interlagos, but Hamilton is certain that he can master both circuits.
Advances to the Third Round
Posted on October 3, 2007 - Filed Under Sports | Leave a Comment
Top seed Tommy Robredo has advanced to the third round of the Open de Moselle by defeating Andreas Seppi of Italy with 6-4, 6-2.
Robredo is definitely looking forward to reach his second successive ATP final. In the Beijing open He lost to Fernando Gonzalez in three sets. Evgeny Korolev of Russia has also advanced by defeating Marc Gicquel of France with 6-4, 7-6 (3).Second-seeded Guillermo Canas and eighth-seeded Igor Andreev won in
the first round. Canas defeated Mikhail Ledovskikh of Russia with 7-6 (1), 6-4, and Andreev defeated Fabrice Santo with 6-3, 6-3.
Nicolas Mahut, Nicolas Lapentti, Michael Llodra and Sebastien Grosjean also won in the first round.
Saurav Ganguly the Best Indian Captain
Posted on October 3, 2007 - Filed Under Sports | Leave a Comment
Saurav Ganguly who has made a come back has been named India’s ‘Best Captain’ in 75 years of Test cricket at the 10th Castrol Awards for Cricketing Excellence in Kochi.
In addition to Ganguly, Late CK Nayudu, Late Vinoo Mankad, Nari Contractor, Chandu Borde, Ajit Wadekar, Bishan Singh Bedi, Sunil Gavaskar, Gundappa Viswanath, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid were the skippers especially chosen for the appreciation.
Nayudu’s daughter Chandra and Mankad’s son Atul received the awards on behalf of their famous fathers.
Nayudu was honored as the ‘Best Indian Cricketer’ of the first era 1932-47 while Mankad received the honor for 1947-61.
Former captain Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi received the award for the 1961-71 eras. He couldn’t make it to the awards party, but in a recorded message he congratulated the Twenty20 World Champions.
Gavaskar was awarded the first batsman to score 10,000 Test runs, and Kapil Dev was awarded the first Indian bowler to take 400 Test wickets and he also won the award for the 1971-81 and 1981-1997 eras respectively.
Dravid and Tendulkar shared the award for the sixth era - 1997-2007.
Members of the victorious Twenty20 team were also felicitated.
Gilchrist Promises To Play Well
Posted on September 29, 2007 - Filed Under Sports | Leave a Comment
After loosing to India in the semi-finals of the T20 world cup Australia’s Adam Gilchrist promised to make up for Australia’s Twenty20 disappointment. Australia is set to take over India in the seven-match one-day international series which starting on Saturday.
Gilchrist is leading the Australian team in the absence of Ricky Ponting. Ponting has been ruled out of the first one-dayer due to a hamstring injury.
The Indians are on cloud nine ever since their surprising victory at the Twenty20 world championships in South Africa. The Indian team received a wild welcome and non-stop celebration marking their return home.
Gilchrist told reporters “We have enough preparation leading into this series. We were probably caught short at the T20 tournament but there’s no excuse now”.
The fact that Michael Hussey, Shane Watson and Nathan Bracken are not participating proves to be a week point for Australia. Michael Hussey and Shane Watson are not a part because of their injury and Nathan Bracken is awaiting the birth of his first child.
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