LANKAN PLAYERS SHOT IN LAHORE

Six members of the Sri Lankan cricket squad were wounded and five policemen killen when around a dozen gunmen attacked their bus as it drove under police escort to a stadium in the Pakistani city of Lahore.

Lahore Police chief Habib-ur-Rehman said five people were killed in the attack by the unidentified gunmen, who fired AK 47s and rockets and hurled grenades as the team bus drove to the 60,000-seater Gaddafi stadium in the eastern city.

A Sri Lankan foreign ministry official confirmed that two players - Thilan Samaraweera and Tharanga Paranavitana - were hospitalized. He said three more players were slightly injured and that the head coach, Australian Trevor Bayliss, also sustained minor injuries. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

"Police are chasing the terrorists," police chief Habib-ur-Rehman said. "They appeared to be trained men."

The attack had echoes with one on the Indian city of Mumbai in November which led to the Indian cricket team cancelling its planned tour of Pakistan.

India blamed that attack on Pakistan-trained militants and the incident sharply raised tension between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

Sri Lanka, which had been invited to Pakistan after India pulled out, immediately cancelled the rest of the tour.

Champions League Cricket in October, 2009

Champions League Twenty20 Cricket tournament 2008 was cancelled due to busy international schedule and the first edition of Champions League will be held in October, 2009. Winners of the 2009 Twenty20 leagues from 6-7 countries (12 teams) will participate in the event. Young players of 2008 teams missed a wonderful chance to exhibit their skills on international arena. Officials from the cricket boards of Australia, India and South Africa took this decision following a conference as they failed to find dates for the tournament in the busy international schedule.

Champions League tournament was scheduled to be held from December 3 to 10 but was cancelled due to Mumbai terrorist attacks. The Twenty20 cricket tournament was originally due to run from late September but was delayed due to Champions trophy one day cricket.


This is a huge monetary loss for teams and players as it carries prize money $5 million. 8-12 T20 teams will participate in the first edition of Champions League in 2009. Champions Trophy cricket will be held from September 24 while Champions league will be held in October.

Chennai Test: Day 2

Zeecric Bureau

Chennai, Dec 12: Some clinical performances by the five-man English bowling attack reduced India to 155/6 at stumps on Day 2, still 161 runs adrift of visitor’s first innings total. All the Indian batsmen were guilty of throwing away their wickets at crucial junctures, succumbing to soft dismissal after initial hard work was done.

In reply to England’s first innings score of 316, India got off to a poor start as Virender Sehwag failed to provide an encore of his last Test innings in Chennai, when he had hammered the Proteas for 319 runs in just over a day. The Delhi Dasher fell early for just 9 runs when he dragged an away going delivery from Steve Harmison back onto his stumps.


With the early impetus conceded, Indian batsmen Gautam Gambhir and Rahul Dravid went into a defensive shell as the visitors cut down on all scoring opportunities. The sustained pressure on the batsmen paid off when debutant spinner Greame Swann announced his arrival on the Test stage in a spectacular fashion. Just over a month after Australia’s Jason Krejza had made his baptism into Test cricket by fire in this country, Swann too created a flutter in the Indian ranks with wickets of Gambhir and Dravid in his very first over.

After trapping an indecisive Gambhir LBW for 19, he trapped Dravid, playing the wrong line, LBW for 3, to leave India reeling at 37/3 at tea.


It was left to the old stalwarts- Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman to dig India out of the deep hole they found themselves in. The duo batted sensibly and displayed much needed serenity. Inch by inch they tried to rebuild the Indian innings. While Laxman donned the mantle of sheet anchor, Tendulkar was the aggressor as the hosts’ desperately tried to wrest the momentum back from England.


Turning back the clock to his glory years, Tendulkar looked in an ominious touch as hit some glorious drives and cuts through the off-side. He also heaved a mighty slog sweep of Swann for a six over mid-wicket.


However, just when it seemed that the Indian innings had been anchored to safety, Monty Panesar struck with the wicket of Laxman. After getting his eye in, the stylish Hyderabadi displayed a rare moment of uncertainity, when his hard hit drive was latched on to by Panesar of his own bowling, spelling former’s doom for 24 runs. He hit 3 fours.


Calamities for India seemed to be striking in pairs as in the very next over, Tendulkar was felled by Andrew Flintoff, caught and bowled again, for 37 as India slumped to 102/5.


Birthday boy Yuvraj Singh was the last wicket to fall on what was undoubtedly a miserable day for Dhoni’s men. Making a comeback into the Test team, Yuvraj failed to display the grittiness his predecessor at the number 6 spot, Sourav Ganguly was renowed for, falling for 14 to Harmison. His unnecessarily extravagant drive outside the off-stump landed into the safe hands of Flintoff at second slip as Mahendra Singh Dhoni was left stranded in company of tail-enders.

Earlier in the day, a gritty unbeaten half-century from England’s stumper Matt Prior (53) nullified any advantage India might have gained from Flintoff’s early dismissal. After the Lancashaire all-rounder fell to Amit Mishra’s guile without adding to his overnight tally, Prior hug around, ably supported by the tail-enders, to take England’s score to a healthy looking 316.


Having done all the right things on the second day, England would be now looking to polish off the Indian tail as early as possible, before setting India a massive target on the wicket expected to aid spinners heavily.


Indians meanwhile, would look back at the day with disappointment. However, they cannot refute the claim that they themselves were to be blamed for the mess they are in. An ‘England-like’ determination is the need of the hour if hosts hope to crawl back into the match.

Chennai Test: Day 1

The opening day of the first Test resembled more a chess duel rather than a cricket encounter. England dominated a major chunk of the day’s proceedings, two sessions to be precise, only to fritter away their hard earned advantage in the final session. England were 229/5 when the stumps were drawn.

For England, the day’s hero was undoubtedly Andrew Strauss, who, with his marathon 123 run knock, held their innings together. Pacing his innings to perfection, Strauss adopted a textbook style approach to the Test match as he blunted the Indian bowlers with consummate ease. However, just when he seemed to have done the hard work, he threw away his wicket rather tamely, holding out a simple return catch to Amit Mishra, minutes before the close of the day’s play.

In the morning, England captain Kevin Pietersen won the toss and not surprisingly, elected to bat first, against India in the first Test match. The visitors inducted two spinners- Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann in the team.

Strauss, along with his fellow opener Alastair Cook, provided a solid start, putting up 118 runs for the first wicket. The duo adopted the ‘dead bat’ approach against Indian new ball bowlers Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma initially, content to leave anything even marginally outside the off-stump.In face of some determined batting by openers, Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni had introduced his trump card off-spinner Harbhajan Singh in the 9th over itself. But the move proved futile as both Strauss and Cook played the waiting game to perfection, while dispatching any loose deliveries to the fence.

By lunch, they had anchored England safely to 63 without loss. After the break, both batsmen stepped up the scoring rate, bringing up their half-centuries.

Finally, it was left to Harbhajan to provide India the much-needed breakthrough as he removed Cook for a well compiled 52. Strauss ensured no further hiccups for England in their most productive session, as they went to tea at 164/1.

The opening day, which until then, had been meandering along for the Indians, swung in India’s favor rapidly in the final session.

First, India`s pace spearhead Zaheer struck with his second ball after tea, trapping Ian Bell plumb in front of the wicket for 17 runs, with a classical in-swinger. He soon followed it up with a caught and bowled dismissal of England captain Kevin Pietersen for just 4 runs to put a break on England’s progress.

Soon after, Paul Collingwood, who was hardly comfortable against Harbhajan, eventually succumbed to sustained pressure, scooping up a simple catch at short-leg to Gautam Gambhir for 9 runs.

Centurion Strauss was the last wicket to fall in the day as Mishra rounded up a perfect comeback for India.

England, who trudged along at a run-rate of 2.54 in the day, would be banking on Andrew Flintoff as they bid to set a challenging first innings score, while India would be looking to wrap up England’s innings as soon as possible

The day’s proceedings had commenced with Indian and England cricketers observing a minute’s silence in memory of the Mumbai terror attack victims, which had nearly caused the Test series being called off.

Bhupathi to train youngsters

Indian tennis ace Mahesh Bhupathi today said he would put more time in training youngsters to produce talents for the future at the Apollo Tyres Mission 2018 challenge.

Apollo tyres had created a corpus of Rs 100 crore for mission 2018 with the objective of developing the first Indian Singles Grand Slam champion by 2018.

"He had spend lot of time in training young tennis talent especially in Apollo Tyres Mission 2018. He has overwhelmed by the presence of large number of children at the camp.

On the selection part, Bhupathi said that for selection, physical fitness and athletic ability were key criteria for him apart form the obvious tennis talent.

"Tennis at international level is becoming a furiously competitive and an increasing fast game and at that level it is more about survival of the fittest -- physically and mentally", he added.

Apollo Tyres Corporate Marketing Avik Chattopadhayay said the challenge, aimed at selecting promising young tennis talent aged between 6-14 years, had visited Chandigarh and Ahmedabad this November and 21 children have been shortlisted from these two cities.

An eminent panel of judges, led by Mahesh Bhupathi and his father CGK Bhupathi was carefully evaluating each child, he said.

Post-Mumbai seige, Coast Guard increases patrolling in Goa

In the wake of 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai through the sea-route, the Coast Guard (CG) has increased patrolling and number of sorties off Goa coast and initiated intense checking of the trawlers fishing in Arabian Sea.

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"Aerial sorties are conducted through two advanced light helicopters (ALH) and a 'Chetak' covering entire Goa coast and also some areas of neighbouring Maharashtra and Karnataka," CG District Commander M Dangui told reporters.

The intense patrolling follows the possibility of further terror attack through sea-route on the western coast. The security apparatus on the coast has been tightened following the Mumbai attacks in which militants used the sea route to enter Mumbai.

Intelligence inputs had also expressed strong possibility of terrorists attacking coastal states, including Goa, which was specified in the recent State Cabinet note circulated to the ministers.

The Coast Guard, Navy and Goa Marine Police have launched coordinated efforts to keep a strict vigil on all the vessels in the Arabian sea.

INDIAN NAVY CAPTURES 23 SOMALI PIRATES

New Delhi, Dec 13: Taking the lead in the fight against piracy, the Indian Navy on Saturday arrested 23 Somali pirates. An Indian warship, INS Mysore deployed in the Gulf of Aden attacked two boats of pirates after receiving signals from a ship that the pirates were trying to hijack.

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The Indian warship was patrolling in the Somali waters when it rushed to rescue MV Gibe, a merchant vessel flying the Ethiopian flag.

The pirates on two speed boats had surrounded the merchant vessel, when INS Mysore warship intervened and warded off the attack, Navy spokesperson said here.

The pirates had fired at the merchant vessel with their small arms, when it sent out a rescue call and the Indian warship, which was sailing nearby moved its Marine Commandos on an helicopter to help the distressed cargo vessel, he said.

The attack took place about 150 nautical miles off Aden and INS Mysore was about 13 nautical miles away from the merchant vessel when it picked up the SOS call.

The Navy flew its Marine Commandos on helicopters to the scene of the pirate attack and rescued the ship. MV Gibe was later escorted to safety, he added.

The Indian commandos also recovered 12 AK 47 guns, three rifles, two grenades along with other ammunition.

Out of 23 arrested pirates, 12 are reportedly from Somalia and 11 from Yemen.

The Indian warship, the INS Mysore, was dispatched to the Gulf of Aden after a spike in piracy and hijackings off the coast of Somalia, which is caught up in an Islamic insurgency and has had no functioning government since 1991.

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