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Monnday, 16 January, 2012
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lahore too good for Delhi in Rugby Cup LAHORE STAFF REPORT
Lahore Rams claimed narrow win over Delhi Lions Club in the Lahore-Delhi Rugby Cup here at the DHA Stadium on Sunday. Despite cold and inclement weather the match was watched by a jampacked audience and the clash lived up to all the billing. The Lahore Djuice Rams, playing with their full side which included national team players Sair Riaz, Umer Usman, Manan Naseem, Fauzan Wain, Arslaan Zahid, Khuram Haroon, Shakeel Ahmed, Umer Butt, M Babar, Haji Anwaar ul Haq Zafar and Imran Rashid gained score inch by inch while the visiting team offered the maximum possible resistance to make things tough for the hosts. The match carried all the hype and excitement of an India-Pakistan match and both the teams showed hunger to be called the Lahore-Delhi Rugby Cup Champions. even good luck messages were streaming in on Facebook. Sarib Qazi who won the man of the tournament award in the 7s tournament on Saturday, left a message before the match. “Its Raining "Chilly" Morning -Today we play the final game of our Pakistan Tour! It all comes down to this - All eyes will be upon
Arsenal shocked by Swansea, debut loss for Hughes
Lahore rams and Delhi Lions players in action the rugby match at DHA Stadium. STaFF PhOTO us - We've got to take it away from them, in their own home ground”. Delhi Lions took early advantage of the territorial superiority and after the third successive penalty got an easy kick beneath the posts which Sarib Qazi from Kashmir took easily for a 3-0 lead. Devender was the most notable of the Delhi Lions players, with Pranay and Vijay
doing well at key positions. Lahore Rams got some good possession in good areas but each time they kicked away good possession and could not convert possession into points. They got a penalty in the centre of the field 40 yards from the goal but FULL-back Mannan Naseem’s kicks went wide, and the Delhi Lions led 3-0 at the break.
Lahore continued to hold the possession advantage but a lot of lateral runs made sure the game was played mostly at the half line. After a couple of failed runs, Umer Usman finally had a dummy that worked and took the ball into the Delhi 22 metre line. The Lahore Rams forwards piled in and continued to batter the Delhi Lions who defended bravely. Prashant made a number of crunching tackles. Lahore claimed a try but it was disallowed by referee Fawzi Khawaja as the ball appeared held up. Then Khurram Haroon came on as a substitute and on his very first run broke a couple of tackles and slid across the line for a try that was awarded after consultation with the touch judge. That made the score 5-3 to Lahore as Anwaar missed the conversion attempt. Delhi Lions tried to fight back but the wet and cold conditions made the ball handling very hard, and upon gaining possession Lahore kicked it out to seal the narrow win 5-3. The crowd gave a wonderful ovation to the visiting team as they came through the tunnel. Jun Jun Bhasin, the President of the Delhi Lions Club, congratulated Lahore on their win and expressed his delight on a very successful tour. Lahore Djuice Rams are now planning to have a return visit to India in March.
Butt’s term a nightmare for Pakistan, says Shoaib LAHORE
F SWANSeA: Arsenal's Johan Djourou (L) vies with Swansea City's Sinclair (r) during their english Premiership match. aFP LONDON AFP
Arsenal lost ground in the race to secure a top-four finish as the Gunners slumped to a surprise 3-2 defeat against Swansea City, while Mark Hughes' debut as QPR boss ended in a 1-0 loss at Newcastle United on Sunday. Arsene Wenger's side needed a win at the Liberty Stadium to keep pace with fourth-placed Chelsea, but Danny Graham's second-half winner condemned the north Londoners to their second successive league defeat. Fifth-placed Arsenal, beaten by Fulham in their last league outing, are now four points behind Chelsea and 10 behind Tottenham in third. Wenger left Thierry Henry on the bench despite his match-winning cameo role against Leeds United at the start of his brief return on loan from New York Red Bulls. It did not look like Henry would be missed as Robin van Persie put Arsenal in front in the fifth minute. After a magnificent 2011, this was van Persie's first goal of the new year and the Dutch forward took it in style, running onto Andrey Arshavin's pass before clipping a cool strike past Swansea goalkeeper Michel Vorm at his near post. But Swansea have lost only once at home since winning promotion from the Championship and the Welsh club drew level in the 16th minute when Scott Sinclair converted a penalty after Aaron Ramsey was harshly ruled to have tripped Nathan Dyer. Swansea took the lead in the 57th minute when Ramsey allowed Joe Allen to steal possession and slip a pass to Dyer, who punished Arsenal's poor marking with a ferocious strike past Wojciech Szczesny. Henry made his return to the Premier League after a five-year absence in the the 63rd minute and the Gunners drew level thanks to Theo Walcott's composed finish six minutes later. However, Arsenal's defensive frailties were exposed less than 60 seconds later as Swansea striker Graham found space to drill a superb shot into the far corner of Szczesny's goal and secure the hosts' first win over their visitors since 1982.
STAFF REPORT
ORMeR fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar believes that Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammed Amir were given harsh punishments in the spot-fixing scandal. In his first interview on a Pakistani channel since his retirement after the 2011 World Cup, Akhtar said he still felt for the three players and their families. "I thought the jail term was too harsh in context of their crimes. In england, even a murderer is out on bail. I thought after imposing ban on them, the jail sentences were very harsh," Akhtar said. The controversial speedster, who was touring with the national team for the ODI series that followed immediately after the spot-fixing scandal that broke out on the 2010 tour to england, said he had witnessed up close the image of Pakistan cricket take a beating. "I don’t know but after they were banned, the ICC virtually ended their careers. After that it would have been better if the court had imposed fines and sentenced them to some social work instead of sending them behind bars," he added. Akhtar said it didn’t help the image of cricket to have their international players in jail. "What happened was very bad for Pakistan cricket. even now I don’t want to think about it, but I feel for the families of these players. I even went to meet them," he said. Akhtar also added that he considered the tenure of former PCB chairman Ijaz Butt as the worst he had seen in Pakistan cricket. "Was it good to see some of our top players being asked to or forced to appear in courts. Was it good to see Shahid Afridi appearing in court. Such things really harmed Pakistan cricket." He pointed out that it was a bad time for Pakistan cricket because players were not given the respect they deserved from the board in Butt`s tenure. "You had some lawyer with an inferiority complex deciding on our fates. It was awful," he added.
Whatmore to meet zaka today
LAHORE STAFF REPORT
Dav Whatmore, who is in Pakistan to take over as coach of the Pakistan team met PCB COO Subhan Ahmed and the coach selecting committee chief Intikhab Alam on Sunday. It was learnt that all the details of the contract with Whatmore have been finalsied but the final approval of his job will be given by PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf. Whatmore will be meeting the chairman on Monday and only after that meeting things would get a clear shape. Whatmore has not interacted with media since his arrival, on Saturday and only after things are finalized then he would likely be brought before the media. The PCB committee before called Whatmore for a meeting, finalised its recommendations and gave it to the PCB. A source said that all the paper work has been completed as Whatmore being the next head coach of Pakistan but one-to-one meeting was necessary before signing up of the contract. The final appointment would take place after england series. The coaching vacancy got created after former fast bowler Waqar Younis resigned as head coach on health issues and since then the team was being maintained by interim coach Mohsin Khan, who is also running from dusk to dawn to get a permanent coaching job. Whatmore, who played seven Tests and one one-day international for Australia in 1979, was in talks with the PCB through another former captain Ramiz Raja, who assisted the committee. Whatmore, who recently resigned as the coach of the Indian Premier League side Kolkata Knight Riders, had a colourful coaching background. Pakistan has a history of sacking coaches and has had six in the last ten years. The PCB showed door to first foreign coach Richard Pybus of South Africa after the 2003 World Cup, and sacked former Australian paceman Geoff Lawson in 2008. But former england batsman Bob Woolmer had a successful stint from 2004 before he died in mysterious circumstances in the West Indies, a day after Ireland upset Pakistan in the 2007 World Cup. england's former county player Julian Fountain is in contention to take over as fielding coach, while former Pakistan paceman Aaqib Javed -- already on UAe tour -- is the likely bowling coach.
Warner gives India T20 treatment in Test ExPERT cOMMEnT
IAN CHAPPeLL
S
O much for all the talk about David Warner being a Test player. He proved at the WACA that he's a 20-over specialist. It's what he does. He has made back-to-back centuries in the Champions League and a hundred in the Big Bash League, both Twenty20 competitions. His latest century also took him 20 overs, but this time it was in a Test match and against the new-ball bowlers of a team that was recently ranked No. 1 in the world. Now
that really is some 20-over specialist. Warner's batting is attuned to T20 cricket but it translates into the Test match arena because he has the skill to compete at that level and the nerve to play his natural game. His innings at the WACA was like something out of a movie - a Warner Brothers flick. The irony of his knock was that it was played against Virender Sehwag, a man who told Warner he'd be a better player in Test cricket because the close fielding positions would suit his aggressive style. Warner's belligerent century not only demoralised an already flustered Indian side, he also remastered a few thrills from other memorable knocks at the WACA. The diminutive Warner reminded me of the flamboyant West Indies opener Roy Fredericks, who thrashed a hundred in 1975-76 in just 71 balls of mayhem. Warner beat that incredible performance by two balls. Another West Indies opener, this one more burly, Chris Gayle, bludgeoned a hundred off just 70 balls at the WACA.
Gayle hit a monstrous six that travelled 104 metres, but he did it off a spinner. Warner, the muscled marauder, beat Gayle to the century by a ball and managed to hit one of the Indian fast bowlers a massive 98 metres into the stands. These blistering centuries stand out because the batsmen concerned were openers facing international new-ball attacks. That takes as much nerve as skill. Another such innings, 37 years on, remains etched in Australian cricket folklore. Dashing Doug Walters hit a six off the last ball at the WACA in 1974-75 to complete a century in a session in an Ashes Test. It wasn't the last ball of the day but Warner reproduced that drama when he clouted Vinay Kumar for six to bring up his electrifying century. The reception Warner received when the ball landed over the ropes was one reserved for batsmen who play with entertainment uppermost in their mind, no matter the form of the game. Many cricketers have received standing ovations but Warner is one of the rare
ones who experienced an outpouring of unbridled joy at the pleasure of witnessing something extra special. His response to the applause was full of emotion and fuelled by the adrenaline required to play an innings of such adventurous audacity. That Warner is mentioned in the same breath as Walters, Fredericks, Gayle, and also Adam Gilchrist, who scored the second-fastest century ever in a Test at the WACA, is not an exaggeration. And yet his greatest achievement is to have played an innings of such daring in a Test match. Two centuries in five Tests is an incredibly good start to an international career. Warner will have other days where things are not so good, and there'll be occasions when he questions his method of playing. I just hope that on those occasions he recalls this century at the WACA, and that the memory also remains vivid in the selectors' minds. That innings was Test cricket as you rarely see it - a long knock played in a short time. (Cricinfo)