There is no gender bias in  Cue sports in India: Billiards, snooker and  pool games, 

Why, one wonders. The reason is not difficult to understand: lack of  exclusive tournaments for women. There have not been many competitions for women, but for the national championships at senior level.  This is driven home by the fact that after a gap of eight years, a private club in Chennai (The Suguna Vilas Sabha) is organising an All India Invitation Ladies Snooker tournament from December 16-19, for the highest prize money so far for a ladies event (Rs 82,500). The winner will take home Rs 25,000.

But this being examination season, talented junior women cueists are unable to take part and benefit from learning by competing against seniors. And it is not surprising that the reigning top cueists like Chirtra Magimairaj – a two time world billiards champion and multiple national champion, Vidya Pillai- multiple national champion in snooker, Judi Walia, Aarantza Sanchez the current national champion in six red snooker, Uma Devi –  the current world billiards champion and Neena Praveen – current India no 2 in snooker,  are all competing in this tourney.

“Exclusive competitions for them are what India’s women cueists have been advocating to keep women’s cue sports from becoming extinct,” said  Sunil Mathews who is the organising committee chairman of this event. R B Ganesh, an upcoming player who had switched to refereeing and evolved into an international referee, having officiated in world championships and Asian Games, also laments the fact that there are no sponsors in general for billiards and snooker tournaments for men, and more so for women, who have also been emerging champions at international level.

Being conducted with recognition from Billiards and Snooker Federation of  India (BSFI), the All India Invitation snooker tournament is meant to  sustain  women’s cue sports in the country. This comes eight years after the Madras Cricket Club (MCC) in Chennai, which is also known to  do a great deal of service for the development of sports especially cricket, tennis and  squash, conducted  an exclusive prize money snooker tournament for women. The prize money for that event was small.

This time too, after the customary press conference to announce the field, the event which was being held as the Chennai Open ever since the Tatas pulled out sponsorship is again looking for sponsors by the Tamil Nadu government, headed by Jayalalitha. It was this sports-loving Chief Minister who had ensured that the prestigious ATP Tour event stayed in Chennai, arranging a consortium of sponsors between 2005- 09 and again from 2010-12( three years) with telecom service provider Aircel as title sponsor. And as the field headed by two top ten world-ranked players, Tomas Berdych and Janko Tipsarevich, was announced for the 2013 edition to be held from December 31st with the Indian challenge to be headed by wild card Somdev Devvarman, the foremost question was what the future of Chennai Open is, or if it has already been moved to China – a newspaper announced dramatically the day after the press conference, albeit speculatively.

However, when contacted by this writer, a spokesperson of  Reliance IMG, the event manager for this event said, “There is no story on this yet. When there is, I shall let you know or we will make the announcement. The truth is that there are other Asian countries like China who have been wanting  this ATP Tour event to happen on their soil”.

However even Reliance IMG, like the host Tamil Nadu Tennis Association, as well as the state government and tennis aficionados want the Chennai Open to stay. In the corridors of the Tamil Nadu Tennis Association office, part of the picturesque Nungambakkam stadium – the venue which has witnessed many a thrilling Centre Court battles including one between Spaniards Carlos Moya and Rafael Nadal, both of whom were title winners here; plus Somdev becoming the first Indian to make it to the singles  finals in 2010 – this speculation about the event staying here echoes!

Will it be curtains for Chennai Open? It will be known during the 2013 edition as the tennis fans keep praying.

]]> http://www.sportskeeda.com/2012/11/28/will-the-chennai-open-stay/feed/ 1 11211 http://www.sportskeeda.com/2012/11/04/chika-sports-scribes-favourite/ http://www.sportskeeda.com/2012/11/04/chika-sports-scribes-favourite/#comments Sat, 03 Nov 2012 19:23:22 +0000 venkataramana http://www.sportskeeda.com/?p=914769

If there is one cricketer who never had any problem coping with what the media says or writes about cricketers – harsh or otherwise, it is former India captain and Chairman of Selection Committee Krishnamachari Srikkanth. He underlined this fact on Saturday evening when in his acceptance speech, after being honoured with the Lifetime achievement award by Tamil Nadu Sports Journalists Association (TNSJA), sang  praises of sports scribes saying “I have been lucky to have a kind press”. Pointing to a veteran cricket writer who holds the record of being the only Indian scribe to have covered 100 Test matches, ‘Chika’ said he had always taken that scribe’s criticism and praise in his stride. “It is very difficult to be Chairman of the selection committee in Indian cricket”, the former dashing opener suggested, and owed it to the media for making his life easy in that capacity.

Srikkanth recalled how, as a budding cricketer, he looked forward to his name appearing in the media whenever he did well with the bat. Every human being likes to be recognized. Every sportsperson likes to be praised and awards from journalists who criticise as well as sometimes praise them was special, said Srikkanth, who retired from first class cricket in 1992 after leading India on a tour to Pakistan.

And the encomium to sports media was complete when squash star Deepika Pallikal, who was also among the awardees (Sportswoman of the Year), observed that she had been lucky to have a good media. “That is not easy”, she observed to all round applause from sports scribes and many a national and international sportspersons who were among the audience at the function.

And for the first time, TNSJA announced scholarships for ten budding sports talents in the state in K Premkumar and A Suresh (athletics), S Karthikeyan (Basketball), P Appu (Boxing), J Saranya and Mahalakshmi (Chess), Bhavani Devi (Fencing) U Jayakumar (football), P Dhanu (Hockey) and  P Jerome Vineeth (Volleyball). Each of them will get Rs 25,000 as scholarship, marking them out as future champions.

The awards are being sponsored by Green Valley Shelters Private Limited (GVSPL). GVSPL  Executive Director T Prabhakar described his  company’s association with TNSJA as  a matter of privilege and a great opportunity for it to be involved with sports and inspiring sportspersons to strive to scale great heights.

Not her glamour, but it is her skill on the court that is attracting more attention these days. India’s current squash star, Deepika Pallikal is having a heady time right now. Winning the Arjuna award – only the second squash player to do so – the Chennai sportstar has been achieving much in the sport, and keeping Indian squash in international limelight, so to speak. After making her debut at the age of ten, she did not make any spectacular climb vis-a vis another star Joshna Chinnappa, who had been climbing the ladder of fame faster before injury laid her low for a year after she switched to training with a foreign coach. Deepika too took her squash seriously, and switched to training under former Australian star Sarah Fitzerald, a world champion. 2011 saw her ranking shoot up to No. 14, and she became the highest ranked Indian player, that too at the young age of 19. She became the Asian junior champion.

A pro with Women’s International Squash Players Association (WISPA), Deepika has so far won seven titles and has been a quarter finalist in the World championships. She has five final appearances too. She has already raised the bar for herself, aiming to break into the the top 10 in the world first, and become the world champion as well. Who else but her coach Sarah, in Deepika’s own words, provides the inspiration to greater achievements. She said so during a chat with this writer three days ago, after the squash federation felicitated her for winning the Arjuna award. Squash is attracting youngsters of late like badminton, because we have been performing well on the world stage, like Saina Nehwal , she says.

In tandem with Deepika, Joshna, whose world ranking has slipped to No. 51 or so due to her injury lay off from competitions, has also chalked out an agenda with the objective of rising to the top again. And to add to this, there are a couple of other players – boys and girls – in the sport. And at a time when the Indian President of World Squash Federation, also from Chennai like its rising stars, is leaving no stone unturned to make squash an Olympic sport, talents of the likes of Deepika would certainly help this cause a lot.

The Squash Federation also has a focused training program at its national academy in Chennai, thus ensuring that the talent flow is uninterrupted, and in professional hands, it would be squash that would put Indian sports on the world map.

Tatattattat…..! This recurring sound in many households on a boring afternoon may disturb grandma’s sleep and invite her curses. But to many young and older people, it used to relieve them of boredom – “time pass”, they would say. Perhaps, it is the most popular ‘amateur’ sport in many households and one would be amazed to see some pocketing the ‘whites’ and ‘blacks’, not  to forget the the ‘most valuable’ red being pocketed with great skill. Carrom has been a competitive sport since quite some time too, with state and national level competitions being held regularly like other sports such as hockey, football, volleyball or badminton.

And starting from the 90s, a lone man,  a  ’celebrated ‘ player answering to the name Bangaru Babu, who settled in Chennai, single handedly and with devotion   worked for the flourishment of the sport at international level too, even in countries like Germany. He established the International Carrom Federation and the Commonwealth championships too. Anu Raju, Mariya Irudayam and later another Chennai girl Ilavazhagi -daughter of  a  cart puller – became world champions. States like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, where the sport was a very popular leisuure activity, responded to the efforts made by Bangaru Babu, who while tirelessly working for the growth of Carrom as a popular sport at competitive level also, even became bed ridden for some time literally exhausted from his tours around the globe. There appeared to be a quick rise in the popularity of the sport, with many youngsters including college and school going girls, taking to  it. Competitions at district, state and national level became a regular feature, throwing up quite a few talents who could  don national colours.

But  for a few years now, the growth of carrom has been dwindling. Many who were associated with the efforts made by Bangaru Babu in lifting the sport, attribute this to lack of employment opportunities for talented state and national level players. A senior woman player mentioned above also aired the opinion that it would do the sport a great deal of  good if the government as well as private sponsors or corporates come forward to encourage the players, giving them employment opportunities. Arguably, ‘firing’ or scoring a slam – (clearing all the coins on the board – white or black at one strike, as it were, is as spectacular or a difficult task as scoring a six  of all the six balls in an over in cricket, or a hat trick of goals in hockey or football!) But what chance does a sport like carrom -entertaining but not exactly a spectator sport – stand with potential sponsors in this era of  IPL and other forms of cash rich cricket,  wonder  some organisers of  carrom. No wonder the development of carrom has taken a back seat.

Two off spinners in the playing XI again, both  ace tweakers at that: yes, are talking about Bhajji (Harbhajan), the come back man and ‘hero’ on the rise Ravichandran Ashwin. Both failed to bamboozle the Aussies on Friday night in Colombo as Aussie Shane Watson showed in the T20 game. But that’s cricket. The question is, is history repeating itself in Indian cricket? The days when two ace off spinners were battling out for a place in the XI: Erapali Prasanna and S Venkataraghavan, both engineer turned off spinners from neighbouring states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu nee  Mysore and Madras in their hey days.

The running debate then was, who is better  - ‘Pras’ or ‘Venky’?  Some used to root for Prasanna as the classical offie,  full of guile, ready to buy his wickets, attacking the batsman as the batsman would go for a heave. Some others would say Venky was better, tying down the batsman, more economical wicket taker vis a vis his  ’rival’ for a place in the XI. The debate used to rage endlessly as the selectors picked them or dropped them according to the situation. But Venky sympathisers used to argue the Madras talent used to get the stick more than Prasanna unfairly. But as any true cricket follower understood the nuances better, both these talents only complimented each other and had great respect for each other.

Is Team India heading for a similar situation again what with Harbhajan  having made a come back into the  XI after being dropped for poor form one year back? With lot of cricket to come for Dhoni’s  Team India after the T20 World Cup, the Bhajji-Ashwin race will unfold more intensely. And it also appears that the two left arm tweakers – the senior P Ojha and the upcoming Harmik Singh, if the latter matures to expectations,  would compliment the Bhajji-Ashwin  race. And with the spin wealth of Indian cricket set to recapture the  years  gone by, exciting days are here again. Remember, a parallel debate in Indian cricket, alongside the Pras-Venky talk, was the Bedi-Dileep Doshi-Shivalkar-Rajinder Goel  debate – that Doshi was more economical and that Shivalkar and Goel had to languish in the shadow of Bedi, not getting a  break to don the national colours despite their prodigious talent.

The dropped  ’selector’  Jimmy Amarnath may have spewed venom calling  the selectors  ”a bunch of  jokers” in the past: but such a salvo cannot be fired at  Krishnamachari Srikkanth. Not that he did not have his share of bad moments in the hot seat as the Chairman of the selection committee during his two terms. Like his  batting, an expression of  his natural flair to smack the red cherry no matter what the reputation of the bowler who was hurling it at him, this Chennai talent often called the ‘master blaster’  and  a contrast to his illustrious batting partner Sunil Gavaskar at the other end in his hey days as opening batsman, Srikkanth’s outlook as the chief of the selection committee was also ‘no holds barred’.  He went on conviction about picking a player, within the boundaries of  the thumb rules- form and fitness of the the candidate he was looking at with other selectors.

And  he would blast away before television channel reporters whenever he faced them after a key selection committee meeting or whenever they would go to him for a comment about the performance of a team he had chosen. His reactions were all straight from his heart. And he would not hesitate to admit if  he felt some part of the selection was erroneous.  His  comment to news persons  after selecting the squad especially for tours abroad was  ”we have chosen the best team”. Thus after the white wash Team India suffered on England and Australian tours (8-0  washout in Tests+), it was also the same, only it went with a rider saying the selectors  could not help it some key players were injured. Perhaps those debacles on the England and Australian tours was  the “lowest point”, so to speak,  in  this engineer-cricketer’s  stint as Chairman of the selection committee

But  the broad minded and positive cricketer he was, Srikkanth took it in his stride. Nor did he go overboard when  Dhoni’s men lifted  the World Cup in Mumbai last year  after the ‘Kapil’s Devils’  first did so  at the Lord’s  cricket ground in 1983 when he himself had played a significant  role in that triumph.

He, rather predictably,  said  that it was his best moment in the hot seat. It was his ‘open mindedness’ again that restrained him from reacting  to strong criticism from ‘Dada’  when  the Very Very Special Laxman  announced that he was hanging up his boots after being informed that the  Hyderabad Test against the Kiwis  in a couple of months ago, would be his last although the Hyderabadi was  named in the squad for both the Test matches. In fact, when reporters asked him after a selection committee meeting in Chennai to pick the ODI squad after the white wash in Australia if the axe would fall on Laxman or whether he would be asked to retire, Srikkanth merely said  the decision would be entirely Laxman’s He did not  lose  his cool even for a minute.

But there were two instances when Srikkanth did appear to lose his cool when  questioned about selection of  the squad saying ” I am prepared to step down.”   Surely,  the BCCI head who is from his home town (Chennai)  would have cautioned him on that.  When that comment of  his was flashed  by the media Srikkanth (vulnerably) retracted  his words indicating that he was misquoted.  And he too had his dose of criticism of favouritism when the selectors picked his younger son Aniruddha for an  India A squad. There have been a few colourful  and at times controversial  chairmen of  the selection committee in the past in Indian cricket like say a Vijay Merchant or a Raj singh Dungarpur- the former noted for casting vote against the captain Pataudi (jr) and the latter for reportedly asking Azharuddin “kaptaan banoge”? But  those who know Srikkanth well  would  say  he was  only  colourful,  atleast not overtly controversial!

Twenty five years after one of the most feared pace bowler in the sport founded it, the MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai is all set to enter into a new phase, aspiring to carry forward the good work it has put in. Dennis Lillee founded, shaped and transformed India’s first university that has been giving out talented pace bowlers to Indian cricket. This was the dream of the former MRF Chairman and Managing Director Vinoo Mammen, to ensure that Indian cricket too should have pace bowling attack, especially so after the famed spin quartet of E A S Prasanna, B S Bedi, B S Chandrasehar and S Venkataraghavan faded out. And when Lillee was approached, the Aussie pacer had his own doubts whether this dream could be turned into reality. Why, because Indian conditions and the tradition of its cricket never made it posible for genuine pace bowlers to emerge, and the  pitches always “rolled out” specially for spinners, were the biggest hurdle for true pace bowlers to grace the team.

Lillee nevertheless, took up the challenge. A play field in one of the famous schools in Chennai that encourages sports, was  taken. Lillee picked boys aspiring to be fast bowlers from different schools in the country and shortlisted them to 14 trainees. He didn’t give up even though the progress was slow and media doled out cynicism towards the ‘seemingly’ impossible task.  Results started showing gradualy with one or two making it to Team India. Then to raise the fitness levels of his trainees, Lillee started adding the correct infrastructure at the foundation, most importantly a modern gym and a swimming pool. Then the results started flowing, the likes of Javagal Srinath, Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan, S Sreesanth and Munaf Patel donned Indian colours and became the modern day pace sensations in Indian cricket. And the foundation turned international as it signed MoU with Australian Cricket Acedemy, and various cricket boards. The likes of Glenn McGrath and Bret Lee also owed their success to their training with Lillee at the MRF Pacer Foundation.

And now his job and mission completed, Lillee earlier this month handed over the baton to Glenn McGrath, who feels he is honoured to assume charge as Director. He said his job at the Foundation would give him the right opportunity to make a comeback to cricket, giving to the sport something back. While Lilee said he had to surmount a big challenge in finding real pace bowlers for Indian cricket, McGrath said it would even be a tougher task for him to  keep the numbers growing. But cricket would not be exciting at all without fast bowlers. Like Lillee who was assisted by former India pacer from Tamil Nadu T A Sekhar, McGrath will be helped along in his task by former Tamil Nadu all rounder M Senthilnathan. Can one say ‘Jai Ho’ to McGrath in his new role as coach, which he said while taking over from Lillee, he loves. Like his predecessor, McGrath will also be making periodic visits to the Foundation to assess the 14 trainees and coach them.

If the two young cricketers, the subjects of this article, live up to their expectations, then Indian cricket could have twins playing for the national team like the Bedser brothers of England and the Waugh siblings of Australia, who brought glory to the team in the recent past.

Chennai, which has given many a talented cricketer to Indian cricket including the likes of C D Gopinath, S Venkataraghavan, K Srikanth, W V Raman, Robin Singh, and R Ashwin, is at the threshold of developing more young talents, the most prominent among them being B Aparajith, who has been making waves with all round performances for India A. His twin brother B Indrajith is also rising to prominence a few steps behind his brother, and made it to the junior national team after coming into limelight through inter school tournaments, and the highly competitive Senior division league cricket in Chennai in the last one-two years. He made it to the junior national team with stunning performances in the quadrangular tournament last year at Visakhapatnam. Then he made it to the Under-19 World Cup and performed credibly along with new left arm spin talent Harmikh Singh of Mumbai and his captain Unmukt Chand of UP. But having chosen to be a master in the difficult art of leg spin, Aparajith”s brother Indrajit, though doing well in bigger competitions,  is confident that he too would be there along with the former.

Aparajith’s deeds on the cricket field for India have turned the focus on his doctor dad Baba, who is also the media manager on BCCI  ’rolls.’ His joy knew no bounds, as the cliche goes, when Aparjith made it to one of the teams to compete in the Challenger trophy, even as he was busy making arrangements for the media in the plush media centre at the M A Chidambaram stadium on Sept 10 for the T20 international between India and New Zealand  the next day.

Likewise, although not biologically,  the current star off spinner R Ashwin may also soon have an off spinning ‘sibling’ , so to speak, M Ashwin, at least in the Tamil Nadu Ranji trophy team in the near future. The other Ashwin is making rapid strides, bamboozling batsmen in the senior division and junior state competitions. Already M Vijay with his sterling century for Rest of India in the Irani Trophy, is knocking at the doors, as they say in cricketing parlance, of national selectors again. Tamil Nadu Cricket Association is in a happy frame of mind now, what with so many young bloods coming into focus. This is in sharp contrast to the days when a common scene in the corridors of TNCA office was discussion or rather ‘grievance’ that in spite of the high standard of cricket in the state, ‘ Tamil Nadu talents’ were being given a raw deal.

With faster cars in the grid this year, the JK Tyre-Federation of Motorsports Clubs of India (FMSCI)  National Racing Championship 2012 will begin the 2012 edition with the flagging  off of competitors at the Kari Motor Speedway in Coimbatore on Saturday. The final races will take place on Sunday – July 8.

Almost 100 seasoned and new drivers will be driving for honours, so to speak, in different categories of races that will include JK Tyre – VW Polo R Cup, Indian Junior Touring Cars, Indian Touring Cars. The Formula LGB 4 (earlier known as Formula LGB Swift) will be held from Round 2 with 30 new cars lined up,  Mr Sanjay Sharma, Head-Motorsport – JK Tyres & Industries Limited announced in Chennai on Friday.

The competition will be spread over six rounds, the first two rounds  being  held in Coimbatore and the remaining four at the Madras Motor Race Track in Sriperumbudur in Chennai. As part of the endeavor to raise the bar every year,  this time the championship will witness faster cars. In the third round of JK Tyre – VW Polo R Cup, Polo Cars with petrol engines will be introduced, making the car faster and more powerful. An international driver – Diego Duez sponsored by JK Tyres will also be seen in action in this category.

Chennai’s only woman driver Alisha Abdullah would be the only female driver on the grid. The event has been helping to unearth potential talents in motorsport in India which has produced two Formula 1 drivers in Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandhok as also talents like Sailesh Bolisetti.

Players from 29 countries will initially battle in the individual championships from July 7 to 12. This will be followed the biennial Men’s World Junior Team Championship. India coach Cyrus Poncha said Double Asian Junior Champion Anaka Alankamony and Junior National Champion Mahesh Mangaonkar will be the cynosure of Indian challengers and have been seeded 5/8 in the individual event. But the Egyptian’s Marwan El Shorbagy and Nour El Sherbini, who had exhibited their skills in the Indian Squash Academy in Chennai that hosted this event before in India, being given the top billing, are expected to hog the limelight.

Mahesh Mangaonkar will lead India’s junior men in the team Championship and will hope to better the previous performance of fifth position they had achieved in Ecuador in 2010. But Cyrus was not over optimistic as it were. He observed that as there would be many new talents on view this time, it would be a bit premature to guess the performance of Indian players. The Indian team members are scheduled to leave for Qatar tomorrow.

Squash is one sport, perhaps after chess, in which India’s talent has been making waves in the international arena. Like many Asian and a few world champions in chess, the junior talents in squash especially in Asian championships, have been bringing laurels to India and the Tamil Nadu Squash Rackets Association (TNSRA) formed in mid 90s is singularly responsible for the development of the sport, thanks to the initiative taken by the current President of the World Squash Association Mr N Ramachandran.

With another amateur squash player Srivatsan Subramaniam, Mr Ramachandran established the state association along with a state of the art national  academy, which is now producing talented players with the help of a foreign coach, Malaysian (Retd) Major Manikan, a former international player. Manian is being assisted by former national player Cyrus Poncha as the national coach.

In this background, Mr Ramachandran felicitated India’s medal winners Anaka Alankamony, who won the Asian junior title for the second year in succession, Kush Kumar(gold winner) and Dev Vazirani(silver medal) in Chennai.

“Squash will definitely make it as an Olympic discipline in near future, in which case, you will be representing India in this ultimate sporting contest” , Mr Ramachandran told the players in his academy, now known as  Indian Squash Academy, who turned up for the felicitation function.

Ramachandran  exhorted Anaka, who he described as  a future star for India, to strive for a hat trick of titles winning it next hear also and create a record.

“Nobody has done it to my knowledge except may be Nicole David (world champion from Malaysia) perhaps”, he observed.

Striking a didactic note, the Chennai based sports administrator, who has come in for much praise for putting squash within the reach of the middle class picking trainees from schools with the help of Major Manian and training  them, said  that in every sphere of life, dedication and hard work will enable sports persons to become world beaters.

That it how Mr Ramachandran had moved the headquarters of squash to Chennai from Mumbai when it was seen essentially as a rich man’s sport, is common knowledge.

]]> http://www.sportskeeda.com/2012/07/03/olympic-inclusion-of-squash-certain-says-confident-wsa-prez-ramachandran/feed/ 0 01051 http://www.sportskeeda.com/2012/06/29/turmoil-in-sports-journalists-association-as-it-faces-battle-of-identity/ http://www.sportskeeda.com/2012/06/29/turmoil-in-sports-journalists-association-as-it-faces-battle-of-identity/#comments Fri, 29 Jun 2012 12:23:07 +0000 venkataramana http://www.sportskeeda.com/?p=413220

State Associations fielding two teams, each claiming that it is the officially recognized body, has been a common occurrence in Indian sport. But a Sports Journalists Association ‘fielding’ two groups, each claiming that it is the ‘real association’ is being witnessed for the first time at the AGM of the national body: Sports Journalists Federation of India (SJFI). The AGM, where election of office bearers  is scheduled to  take place, is slated for tomorrow in the capital city of God’s own country – Thiruvananthapuram.

The ‘battle of identity’ was set off after some members of the Sports Journalists Association in one of the southern states elected a new set of office bearers comprising scribes representing the four English dailies in the captial city of this state plus a few others from a news agency, one or two vernacular dailies and a vernacular sports magazine.

The ‘rebellion’ by these members started when the sitting office bearers, headed by a veteran sports writer of a prestigious English daily as the President and the Secretary, representing a national news agency, resigned. The group that elected new office bearers had been claiming that the Association was limping along without any activity, and it was time to ‘infuse life’ into it. After electing the new office bearers, they sought to legitimize it by getting the news published in the four English dailies in the capital city, and then decided to attend the next day’s SJFI meeting and vote. But the President and Secretary who had resigned termed  the election of new office bearers ‘ad-hoc’, and the Secretary turned down their request to  hand over the right to operate the bank accounts.

Both groups have hired the services of lawyers to ‘represent their case’ at the SJFI meeting tomorrow. Meanwhile it is understood that the SJFI has decided not to allow either group to vote in the elections.

Note: The identity of the Association in question has been kept anonymous.

Leg spinners  are  rare breed especially match winners. If    Anil  Kumble  is behind Indian cricket, a  recent set  back  though,it is even  worse for Tamil Nadu, which had in the  past  given Indian cricket  a devastating young talent in L Sivaramakrishnan  in the 80s though  it  was shortlived.  But the loss of Sivaramakrishnan to  Indian cricket  was even worse for Tamil Nadu cricket. The senior  state team, believe  it or not has been going without a match winning leg  spinner since then(late  80s).  Siva, whose guile  and  style  deserted him suddenly due to varied reasons that  did  the r ounds at that  time,  did give  a try  in the 90s to make a come b ack. But that  proved  to be   his last   ditch effort.

“Yes,  it is right to say that  Tamil  Nadu’s Ranji t rophy team is sorely missing    a leg spinner. Indeed,  it has been so after  Sivaramakrishnan faded out, says vetern V V Kumar, who after  a  short  stint  with India’s Test  team, had  captured a record  four hundred  wickets  in Ranji  trophy for Tamil Nadu as one o f the greatest leg spinners in  I ndia. He  was even compared favourably to the proverbial best leggie  Subhash Gupte, who had  bought glory to Indian  cricket before Kumble and the unorthodox B S Chandrasekhar.

After  Kumar or during his  time,  a few  leg spinner in Tamil Nadu did show  some  talent  like W D Balaji Rao, M O  Parthasarathy, P  K Dharmalingam and T S Mukund, picking up a lot of wickets in league and other junior state  games. But  none could  really  evolve into another Vaman Kumar, until  young Sivaramakrishnan did with a sensational debut against Delhi in the Ranji trophy for Tamil Nadu in  t he 80s.    Kumar opines  that   there is  a  lot  of talent in Tamil Nadu.  But many of them lose focus after  reaching a certain  stage in evolving as able leg break bowlers.  They give up too. Right  now,  in the spin  academy set up by Tamil  Nadu  Cricket Association there are one or two young  ta lents in leg spin  bowling. Especi ally one Nirmal Kumar f rom Tiruchirapalli in the  Under 19 age  group. He is being guided  by T  S Mukundan.  “I have been   giving him  a few crucial tips and teaching hi m  finer points.  We expect  him to be blossom into a good  talent for Tamil Nadu”, he told me for Sportskeeda.

Ajay failed to qualify for the Asian Games in China to be held soon, failing in the selection event in the recent 2010 Laser World Championships. He finished as low as 156th in the senior world titles event. His commitment to studies came in the way preventing Ajay from attending the national camps and Asian Games selection trials.

But Ajay Rau ‘s dreams have not drowned, as it were.  He believes that he can qualify for the 2012 Olympic Games. What’s more he has made a positive beginning to  make his dream come true. His match racing team has finished with a bronze medal at the 2010 New University Match Racing Regatta recently and won another bronze medal for Team Racing at the Australian University Games.

If  he gets a possible sponsorship, Ajay will be coached by four time Olympian Allan Julie, who believes that the Chennai lad has it in him to qualify for the 2012 Olympic Games. The training will be for the next one and a half years.

Ajay will also be participating in the 2010 Perth International Regatta, a warm-up event for the 2011 world championships and Olympic qualifiers. Ajay says he has found renewed focus and determination to realize his dream.

The  five-member selection committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) today retained the same 15 member squad which white washed the Aussies 2-0, for the three Test home series against touring New Zealand in November.

The Kiwis are scheduled to play three Tests with the first beginning on November 4 at Ahmedabad. The other Tests will be played at Hyderabad (Nov 12-16) and Nagpur(November 20-24). The Kiwis are also scheduled to play five ODIs at Guwahati, Jaipur, Vadodara, Bangalore and Chennai. The ODI squad, as
is the practice, would be picked later.
The Test squad is:

M S Dhoni(capt), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir,

Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, V V S Laxman, Suresh Raina,

Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma,

Sreesanth, P Ojha, M Vijay and Chateswar Pujara.

Pujara had made his debut against the Aussies and scored a match winning 72 in the second innings at Bangalore, it may be recalled.

BCCI Secretary N Srinivasan announced the team in a press release at the end of the hour-long meeting of the five selectors, chaired  by Srikkanth. Captain M S Dhoni however did not attend the meeting.

The meeting began at the BCCI office in the premises of the M A Chidambaram stadium at 1400hrs.

Krish Srikkanth and his slection committee members will  be pulling out their pencils again to pick Team India for the forthcoming home series against New Zealand between November and December.  The Kiwis are scheduled  to play three Test matches and five ODIs.

The  selection commitee members are scheduled to meet at the BCCI office in M A Chidambaram stadium in  Chennai at 1500 hrs this afternoon.  It is being aired that Srikkanth, who is to receive an Honorary Doctorate from the private Vel’s university on city outskirts after the meeting,  and his ‘team’ of  selectors would be  picking the team just for the first Test match and only two slots if VVS Laxman and Gautam Gambhir are not fit yet, have to be filled.  But it could as well be that the selectors could pick a 14 member squad for all three tests,  making changes in the playng XI before each Test match.

Federation President N Ramachandran announced after the 40th AGM of the Federation in which 45 countries participated at the resort Fishermen’s Cove today.

The last edition was held ten years ago in Holland.

The Federation is making another bid to find squash a place in Olympic Games by the 2020 edition. The Federation is making all efforts to make squash spectator friendly as well as increase its television appeal, Mr Ramachandran said.