Rashid, Mithun joint leaders
New Delhi: India’s Rashid Khan and Mithun Perera of Sri lanka were joint leaders but were left stranded on the seventh and eighth hole respectively after torrential rain suspended the third day’s play in the SAIl-SBI golf tournament here on Friday. Overnight leader, Rashid dropped a bogey at the fifth hole, while Perera fired three birdies on the first, second and sixth holes to turn in three-under for the day. The two were 13-under after the suspended third round here. Heavens opened up in the afternoon leaving the golfers scurrying for cover and with the rain persisting, play was called off, leaving all the golfers stranded. Two-time defending champion Anirban lahiri too set the course ablaze with four birdies in eight holes to be four-under, while Siddikur Rahman was two-under after seven holes and were tied at third place. lahiri picked up strokes on th first, third, fifth and eighth holes, while Siddikur was also flawless, sinking birdies at the first and seventh holes to total 12-under.
SA VS Pak in U19 WC final
Dubai: South Africa will aim to break the title drought when they lock horns with two-time champion Pakistan in the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup final at Dubai International Cricket Stadium, here on Friday. South Africa finished runner-up in the 2002 and 2008 tournaments while Pakistan remains the only side to win back-to-back titles when they triumphed in 2004 and 2006 in Bangladesh and Sri lanka respectively. On head to head, the two sides have met only once in the history of this competition when South Africa defeated Pakistan by 98 runs according to the Duckworth-lewis Method in Kuala lumpur in 2008.
‘Ashwin is going haywire’
New Delhi: Former Indian tweaker Maninder Singh feels off-spinner R Ashwin’s international career is going haywire as he has turned into a defensive bowler after not being handled properly by the team management. Ashwin, who has been struggling for a while, unveiled a new action in the ongoing Asia Cup, raising quite a few eyebrows for bowling full-sleeved. “He has been trying so many variations. It generally happens that when you try too many things then you lose your originality and that is what is happening, and that is the worry for me,” Maninder told ‘ESPN Cricinfo’. “For me, Ashwin is a match-winner. He can win you matches whether they are Test matches or ODIs or T20s. But everything has gone haywire with him. I don’t know what the bowling coach has been doing with him, and what the main coach and captain have been doing with him. If I was around, I would not have allowed (his bowling to slip) that so far that he had to change his action,” he added.
FIFA happy with Salt lake stadium
Kolkata: A FIFA delegation on a visit to inspect venues in connection with the 2017 Under-17 Football World Cup, which India would host, expressed satisfaction with the Salt lake Stadium. “We are very much satisfied with such a massive stadium .... Now we have to sit together to discuss how best we can utilise this,” FIFA delegation chief Inaki Alvarez, Head of Event Management Competitions Division, told a press conference after a two-and-a-half-hour inspection of the facilities. He said that the Salt lake Stadium was the eighth venue in India the delegation visited and that they would undertake future visits to see the preparation for 2017 event. Answering a question about the pitch of the stadium, Alvarez said, “It is in very good shape.” Asked if he had any suggestion to make to the All India Football Federation (AIFF) regarding changing of the surface from the existing artificial to natural, Alvarez said, “I am not a technical person.” He, however, said the stadium has huge space and those facilities available could be improved over time after consultation and discussion with local authorities.
IPl betting probe: cop suspended
Chennai: A senior Tamil Nadu IPS official, who initially probed the IPl betting racket and faced allegations of receiving bribe from a bookie, was on Friday suspended for violation of “conduct rules” and the government set in motion the process to initiate disciplinary proceedings against him. The suspended officer, G Sampath Kumar, had made certain allegations in his deposition before Supreme Court appointed Mudgal Committee that went into IPl scam. “Sampath Kumar has been suspended for violation of conduct rules,” Director-General of Police (DGP) K Ramanujam said. According to the suspension order, disciplinary proceedings were being contemplated against the officer. Also, it said Kumar, currently posted in Tiruchirappalli as Superintendent of Railway police, should not leave his headquarters without Principal Home Secretary’s permission. Whe contacted for his reaction, Kumar declined to comment. The official had probed the betting racket while he was in the Q branch (a state intelligence wing on internal security), before the case was transferred to the CB-CID. later, it was alleged that a bookie had “confessed” to police that he had “collected” money on the “instructions” of the official.
‘Almost all matches are fixed’
New Delhi: A former Railways employee-turned-whistleblower on Friday sought to turn the heat on the cricket fraternity by alleging that almost all international matches are “fixed”. Atul Kumar has published a book in December last year, ‘Bettors Beware’, in which he has claimed that “fixing” was not just confined to the Indian Premier league or other domestic tournaments, but was very much prevalent in Twenty20 Internationals, One-dayers and Test cricket also. Introducing his book to the media, Atul said he has analysed mathematically and proved that “session betting” has been taking place in “almost all international matches”. “Not that only IPl is fixed; all or almost all international matches between any two countries are fixed,” Atul claimed at a press conference here. “In fact, not just players, even the commentators are involved in fixing. “Session betting has to be taken into consideration. I have worked on mathematically on a number of matches. From scoring patterns and analysing those mathematically, I could see how the matches were fixed,” he said.
Pistorius seen shooting in video
Johannesburg: Newly released video shows Oscar Pistorius, who faces a murder trial next week, firing weapons at a gun range before the double-amputee athlete fatally shot his girlfriend last year. Sky News today broadcast footage of Pistorius firing a shotgun and using a pistol to shoot a watermelon, which bursts on impact. Delighted screams and laughter are heard in the background. Sky News is also broadcasting audio of a man it says “sounds very much” like Pistorius who comments on the shattered watermelon. The man says: “It’s a lot softer than brain but... It’s like a zombie stopper.” Pistorius’ trial starts Monday. The prosecution says Pistorius had a fight with girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp before killing her in his home last year. He says he mistook her for a nighttime intruder.