Sports News

LIKE MOST other boys his age in the country, Sarvesh Kumar too wanted to be a cricketer. He wanted to play for his country, make a name for himself and see his name go up in lights. Always a standout performer at the school level, Sarvesh had been tipped by his coach for great things.

Desperate to break their run of losses, Delhi's batsmen, who had failed their bowlers on more than one occasion in the past, came up with a strong performance after being put in by Hyderabad's Adam Gilchrist, amassing 194 in 20 overs.

INDIA COACH Gary Kirsten is the latest to join the debate surrounding the soul of Test cricket being under threat by the Twenty20 revolution in India. In his newsletter, Kirsten has provided some useful suggestions, which he believes will ensure that Test cricket remains the purest form of the game.

WILL THEY, won't they? That is the question people are asking following Tuesday's serial blasts in Jaipur, the 'home' city of the Jaipur IPL franchise's three Australians: Shane Warne, Shane Watson, and Darren Berry, director of coaching. Especially because the Australians have staunchly followed the policy of 'better safe than sorry' over the years.

Their performance wasn't great till about a week ago, but in a simple example of how unpredictable Twenty20 can be, Kolkata and Mumbai are well and truly in the race for semi-final berths. In popular terms, they should be buoyant going into Thursday's match, given the way they've posted victories in their last and respective matches.

The moment that the cricketing fraternity was waiting for came on Wednesday night when Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya walked out together to open the innings for Mumbai at the Wankhede Stadium.

Polish Grandmaster Michal Krasenkow and India's Koneru Humpy, the top two seeds, made their move at the Mumbai Mayor's Cup International Open Chess Tournament on Friday. The two strongest GMs in the fray recorded twin wins on the last double-round day of the tournament and were sharing the lead with 6.5 points at the end of the seventh round of the event co-sponsored by LIC.

On a day when the weather gods were not kind leading to proceedings being delayed due to heavy rain and dust storms, the Indian challenge also ebbed. Ashutosh Singh, the only one remaining in the singles category, lost his pre-quarter final match, at the SAIL Open, part of the ATP Challenger Series, here on Wednesday.

EAST BENGAL needed to win this match to keep alive hopes of progressing to the quarter-finals of the AFC Cup. But reduced to 10 men, they lost 0-1 to Ahli Sana'a at the Ali Mohsen Al-Muraisi Stadium, Yemen, on Wednesday burying their chances of repeating the 2004 show.

Karnataka state chess champion and National 'A' player M.S. Thej Kumar is going through a purple patch. Thej Kumar came up with a good performance in the Grandmaster Tournament at Kolkata last month to complete his International Master title, the third person from the state to do so.

Georgian Grandmaster (GM) Merab Gagunashvili, the fifth-seed in the fray, became the latest victim of an upset at the Mumbai Mayor's Cup International Open Chess Tournament on Tuesday. Indian veteran B.T. Murali Krishnan handed him a comprehensive defeat in the fourth round at the Goregaon Sports Club as the spate of upsets continued on the third day.

RAHUL DRAVID must have left Chandigarh as a bitter man on Thursday evening.

EVEN THOSE driving along the Marine Drive with their car stereos on full blast could have heard shouts of 'Sachin, Sachin' emanating out of Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday evening.

Under pressure for having under-performed, the last thing the Bangalore team wanted was to play toppers Jaipur here on Saturday with fear in their minds.Tuesday's blasts have already led to a change in travel plan for the bottom-ranked team which has lost seven of its nine games.

IN THE amphitheatre made for drama that is called the Eden Gardens, a larger-than-life Shoaib Akhtar briefly outshone India's most popular actor, Shah Rukh Khan, as Kolkata triumphed over Delhi and moved to 10 points, two clear of the opposition they vanquished, in the search for a semifinal berth. In an emotion-charged defence of a small total, Kolkata prevailed with 23 runs to spare.

"I AM getting more phone calls after being dropped, feeling like a star," said Ranadeb Bose, one of the five players to have been omitted from the Kolkata squad for their last six round-robin matches.

MANPREET SINGH Gony has become a star in Chennai. No sooner than the strapping youngster ventures out of his hotel than he is mobbed by fans. 'I can't move around here without security; people mob me wherever I go. I never thought I would ever get so much love and admiration so far away from home,' Gony said, clearly enjoying his newfound stardom.

Anup Sridhar qualified for the Beijing Olympics despite missing out on crucial ranking points in the last few months due to a heel injury. But the country's top ranked shuttler is aware that making a mark in the Chinese capital would be an uphill task.

The Indian challenge got a heavy dent as Prakash Amritraj, Rohan Bopanna and Harsh Mankad failed to advance to the second round of the singles category in the SAIL Cup, a part of the ATP Challenger series, here on Tuesday.