sports
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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2013
INDIA’S TOUR OF SOUTH AFRICA
Resentment continues to linger The arrival of the Windies in a two-Test series will see India batting legend Sachin Tendulkar — the highest run-scorer in Test history — play his 200th and final Test before retirement. South Africa and India will now play just two Tests and three ODIs, both boards said. Lingering anger in India at the way CSA chief executive Haroon Lorgat treated the country during his time in charge of the International Cricket Council (ICC) governing body was blamed for the stand-off. But although CSA said Lorgat had now been “withdrawn” from dealing with India, the chief executive of the South African Cricketers’ Association, Tony Irish, added fuel to the fire by lamenting the curtailed series and blasted the off-field wranglings. “This is a huge blow not only
CAPE TOWN: India’s on-off tour of South Africa was finally confirmed on Tuesday but failed to draw a line under a simmering row between the countries, as a leading players’ body called the shortened series meaningless and harmful to the game. The South Asian giants — currently the world’s leading one-day international side and whose wealthy board effectively holds the global game’s purse strings — had been due to play the number one-ranked Test team from November 18 in three Test matches, seven ODIs and two Twenty20 internationals. But doubts about that schedule emerged when the BCCI announced arrangements for an incoming tour by the West Indies and a tour of New Zealand which clashed with the beginning and the end of the fixtures published by CSA.
BANGLADESH VS NZ
Rain forces early stumps DHAKA: Shakib Al Hasan claimed three wickets as Bangladesh reduced New Zealand to 107-3 on Tuesday before rain forced an early close on the second day of the second Test in Dhaka. A downpour led the umpires to suspend and then call off play after an early tea break with the game evenly poised. New Zealand had dismissed the hosts for 282 early in the morning thanks to Neil Wagner’s maiden five-wicket haul, but Bangladesh struck back through Shakib. He took two wickets in his first two overs, with New Zealand in trouble at 32-2 at lunch before Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor rebuilt. Williamson had to leave the field after Rubel Hossain struck him with a bouncer, but he returned soon afterwards as Shakib removed Brendon McCullum. Rubel took a stunning catch at deep square leg as the New Zealand captain fell for 11. Resuming on 228-5 at start of play, Bangladesh managed to add only 54 more runs in the face of tight bowling. Wagner finished with 564, making full use of overcast conditions to induce some edges from the batsmen, after play resumed 30 minutes early to make up for overs lost on the opening day due to rain. AFP
to the players but also to the cricket-loving public of South Africa,” he said in a statement. “Everyone is now deprived of a meaningful series, especially in the Test format, between the world’s top two cricket nations. “I don’t see how this can possibly be in the interests of either cricket in this country or of the global game. Cricket is the loser, plain and simple.” Irish added that CSA would suffer “massive” financial losses as a result of the row, which would impact on cricket at all levels in South Africa, from the grassroots upwards. “It’s a very sad day when international cricket becomes more about what happens off the field than what happens on it,” he said, referring to the “compromise” deal over Lorgat thrashed out at a recent ICC meeting in London. AFP
COMMUNAL CLASHES
IN THE NAME OF RELIGION
India confident of equalling series: Raina
Vatican launches cricket club
RANCHI: India batsman Suresh Raina Tuesday said that the team will try to level the seven-match series against Australia in the fourth game
Raina believes that India have a good chance of levelling the ODI series against Australia 2-2 when they take on each other today. here Wednesday. “We are focused on the match. Every day is a new day in cricket. The bowlers have worked hard during the practice match,” said Raina at a press conference at Jharkhand State Cricket Association
(JSCA) stadium here. He said “the team will come to field with positive mind. Ishant Sharma has also worked hard in last two days”. Raina spoke about the new ODI rules as they were creating difficulties for the
bowlers. “The two balls from either side are a concern for us. There cannot be excuses and we have to perform well under circumstances,” said Raina. Under new ODI rules, new ball is used from both ends. IANS
VATICAN CITY: The Vatican served up tea and cucumber sandwiches on Tuesday as it launched its own cricket club, challenging the Church of England to a match and vowing to take on Indian Hindu and Muslim clerics. With the coat of arms of St Peter’s as its symbol and the Vatican yellow-and-white flag as its colours, the club will unite cricket-mad priests and seminarians — and perhaps eventually nuns. “The team will be strong enough to beat anyone in the world,” said Father Theodore Mascarenhas, an Indian priest and a mean off-spin bowler, who is the chairman of the new St Peter’s Cricket Club. The initiative brings together the sporting madness of hundreds of clerics — mainly from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka — with a Vatican aim to find new ways to spread the word.
BRIEFS Clubhouse to be named after Sachin Root added to England central contract list MUMBAI: Cricket maestro Sachin Tendulkar will on Nov 11 be honoured with a cricket club in his name - the Mumbai Cricket Association’s new Kandivli clubhouse in north-west Mumbai. “We shall name the Kandivli clubhouse after Sachin. The unveiling will be done there Nov 11 with both the teams of India and West Indies witnessing,” newly-elected MCA president Sharad Pawar said here Tuesday. Sachin will retire from the game at
the end of the forthcoming second India-West Indies Test match - and his 200th, Nov 18. To be held on a grand scale, the function will attendance of top dignitaries including Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and BCCI President N. Srinivasan, and all past cricketers from Mumbai who have played tests and Ranji Trophy matches. Pawar said that the BCCI is likely to felicitate Sachin ten minutes before the start of the Test. IANS
LONDON: Yorkshire and England batsman Joe Root was the new addition when the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) announced their 11 centrally contracted players for 2013/14 on Tuesday. Root, 22, featured throughout England’s recent 3-0 home Ashes series win and scored a Test-best 180 in his side’s crushing 347-run win over Australia in the second match of the series at Lord’s in
July. Now an England regular across all three formats, he replaced Middlesex batsman Eoin Morgan as a centrally-contracted player. The timing of Tuesday’s announcement was significant, coming as it did a day before England are due to fly out to Australia for a return Ashes series starting next month. AFP