Punjab Cricket Association President I S Bindra today said that he fully stood by his claim that Sri Lankan Board had withdrawn a report which had mentioned an Indian player allegedly violating anti-corruption rules during the 2010 tour on pressure from the BCCI.
     "I have seen the press release issued by Sri Lankan Board of June 3 contradicting my assertion made in my blog dated 1st June. I reiterate and fully stand by what I had said," Bindra said in statement after SLC refuted his claims.
     "I would like the ICC or any other independent body to hold a probe into the matter and take action on the basis of this probe. I undertake to provide full information and details to an independent probing agency," he said.
     Earlier in the day, SLC refuted Bindra's claims that a BCCI official had arm-twisted the Sri Lankan Board to withdraw a report which had mentioned an Indian player allegedly violating anti-corruption regulations during the Indian tour in 2010.
     "Sri Lanka ...

Bindra says he stands by his allegations

PTI Automatic

The A-Licence Course conducted by All India Football Federation successfully ended at the Father Agnel Sports Complex in Navi Mumbai.
     The course which was attended by 24 coaches from all across the country ended with a series of Practical Exams and a discussion about the role of A-License coaches in Indian football.
     "At the outset we discovered there was big gap as far as the contents of the former course and the new content was concerned. The participants took a bit of a time to settle down but very soon understood about our match-related approach," course conductor Robert Baan, Technical Director of AIFF, said.
     "As we progressed, we had some very interesting discussions between the Participants and Instructors," he added.
     "The most significant point was that all the participants agreed to improve the level of football in the country. Very often it's seen that coaches holding degrees go back to their Public Sector Organisations and not devote their knowledge for ..

A-Licence course successfully ends

At the age of 15 years and seven months, Raghav Joneja from Moradabad became the youngest Indian to scale the Mount Everest when he along with his five schoolmates summited the fifth highest peak in the world.
     Raghav broke the record set by Manipur's Nameirakpam Chingkheinganba, at 16 years seven months and 11 days, as recently as last month, surpassing Arjun Vajpai's feat by a week.
     A student of Lawrence School, Sanawar, Raghav achieved the remarkable feat on May 21 after embarking on an arduous 56 day-long journey.
     In the process, the team from one of Asia's extant boarding schools, in Kasuali, became the youngest group and the first school team in the world to reach the top of the 8,848 metres (29,029 ft) mountain range.
     "It feels really good to become the youngest Indian to summit such a tough peak. We trained for around eight months for this expedition. Climbing the peak with my schoolmates made it little easier," Raghav said of the expedition supported by ...

Sanawar boy becomes young Everest climber

Terming the BCCI's Emergent Working Committee meeting in Chennai a sham, former spin legend Erapalli Prasanna today said that money is ruling the sport now and it is no more a gentleman's game.
     "The entire controversy is not going to affect the popularity of cricket in India as we have seen packed stadiums in IPL. Followers of the game are immense here but I can see the gentleman's approach in the game is zero now," Prasanna told PTI Bhasha.
     "Money is ruling the game now and it hurts as cricket has been a glorious game of uncertainties. During our times if a batsman was out but umpire was in dilemma, the batsman himself used to walk out. That was called a gentleman's game but now nobody is bothered.
     "Cricketers think that umpires are paid well and it is their duty to judge. The whole approach has been changed," the former off spinner, who has taken 189 wickets in 49 Tests between 1967 to 1978, said.
     Prasanna insisted that BCCI's working committee meeting yesterday .

Cricket no more a gentleman's game: Prasanna

Led by the talented Virat Kohli, Indian batsmen will look to continue the good work done against Sri Lanka, as they take on Australia in the second and final warm-up game tomorrow ahead of the Champions Trophy.
     The match will also be a dress rehearsal of sorts for the 'Men In Blue' as skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni will more or less decide on his likely playing XI based on the performance of the two warm-up games.
     It will be a test for Kohli and Co against Australian seamers who are relatively better than the Lankans. The left-arm seam troika of Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Johnson and James Faulkner could prove to be a handful if conditions favour swing bowling.
     While Starc is coming back from an injury, Johnson and Faulkner have been in fantastic form in the recently concluded IPL in which both were among the top-five wicket-takers.
     Team India would surely take a lot of confidence from the fact that it successfully chased down a mammoth Lankan total of 333 with ...

Dress rehearsal for Indian batsmen as they face Oz seamers

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) today refuted claims by Indian cricket administrator IS Bindra that a BCCI official had arm-twisted them to withdraw a report which had mentioned an Indian player allegedly violating the anti-corruption regulations during the Indian tour in 2010.
     "Sri Lanka Cricket read with surprise, an account of an incident that supposedly lead to the filing of an anti- corruption report during the Indian tour of Sri Lanka in 2010 and the subsequent withdrawal of the said report due to 'arm twisting' by the BCCI.
     "We wish to state that such an incident did not take place as alleged and no report was submitted to the Indian Team Manager nor was an incident report filed with the Anti Corruption Unit of the ICC who were present during the series. The allegations that follow are therefore not pertinent," a statement issued by the acting CEO, Ashley de Silva said.
     Bindra had claimed yesterday that during India's 2010 tour to Sri Lanka an official travelling with ...

SLC refutes Bindra arm twisting claims

Leander Paes kept the Indian challenge alive in the mixed doubles event of the French Open by moving to the second round along with partner Jelena Jankovic.
     The unseeded Indo-Serbian pair registered a 7-5 6-3 win over Galina Voskoboeva and Daniele Bracciali in one hour and 16 minutes.
     Paes is now only Indian surviving in the event as Sania Mirza, Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna have all exited with their respective partners after suffering first round defeats.
     Sania's defeat with new Swede partner was shocking as they were given the top billing. They lost to Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi and Cara Black.
     Paes and Jelena saved eight of the 10 break chances and that proved decisive in the outcome of the match.
     In the next round they face eighth seeded pair of American Liezel Huber and Brazilian Marcelo Melo.

Paes, Jelena in mixed doubles 2nd round of French Open

Former India skipper Krishnamachari Srikkanth, who is one among the 13 contestants on the sixth season of TV dance reality show 'Jhalak Dikhla Jaa', is deeply saddened by the IPL spot fixing scandal and hopes that the mess will be sorted out soon.
     "I am sad, hurt and shocked. Everybody loves and is passionate about cricket. It is very unfortunate that because of a few cricketers who did this stupid mistake, the whole thing turned out to be so sad," Srikkanth told PTI.
     The Special Cell of Delhi Police had arrested Sreesanth, his Rajasthan Royals teammates - Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan - on May 15 for allegedly indulging in spot-fixing in atleast three IPL matches held this season.
     Later, Bollywood actor Vindoo Randhawa, son of late wrestler-actor Dara Singh, was arrested in connection with the IPL spot-fixing scandal followed by CSK's team principal Gurunath Meiyappan, former players and several bookies.
     But the ex-chief selector is happy that the police and ...

Hope cricket will return to normalcy soon, says Srikkanth

Hunting for an International Master norm, Sagar Shah played a solid game to hold Grandmaster Yuri Solodovnichenko of Ukraine while former Junior World champion Abhijeet Gupta recovered to score his first victory in the second round of Grand Europe Albena chess tournament here.
     After an eventful draw in the first round Gupta made some recovery of sorts at the expense of Bulgarian veteran Metodi Stoinev and inched himself up to 1.5 points from his two games.
     It turned out to be another good day for three Indian Grandmasters-in-waiting as they all scored needful victories over lower ranked opponents.
     Vishnu Prasanna who made his third and final Grandmaster norm recently did not face many troubles and accounted for talented Indonesian girl Irine Kharisma Sukandar and Ashwin Jayaram outwitted Mario Vutov of Bulgaria.
     Turkish Yildiz Cavusoglu found a strong opponent in Anurag Mahamal while Swapnil Dhopade warded off the challenge of Dimitar Marholev. On the flip side ...

Sagar Shah holds Solodovnichenko, Gupta scores win

Pacer Rudra Pratap Singh today denied being managed by Rhiti Sports, the firm in which Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has a 15 per cent stake, raising questions of a possible conflict of interest.
     A newspaper today reported that Dhoni has a 15 per cent stake in the company, which, the report claimed, manages R P Singh, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja and Pragyan Ojha.
     Interestingly, two of these players -- Raina and Jadeja -- are part of the same IPL franchise, the Chennai Super Kings, which is also captained by Dhoni.
     "Don't know what exactly is running in the news but just to clarify I am not with Rhiti Sports," tweeted R P Singh after the report came out.
     R P Singh has played 14 Tests and 58 ODIs for India. He has taken 40 wickets in the longer format and has 69 scalps in the one-dayers.
     He has been out of favour for some time and has not played a Test or ODI since 2011.
     Rhiti Sports is owned by Arun Pandey, a close friend of Dhoni. In 2010, 

Not managed by Rhiti, claims R P Singh

New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum said his side had showed how "good a team we can be" after wrapping up a one-day series win over England.
     Martin Guptill's New Zealand record 189 not out -- the opener's second successive unbeaten hundred -- was the cornerstone of the Black Caps' total of 359 for three that was behind an 86-run win at Southampton yesterday.
     That gave them an unbeatable 2-0 lead in a three-match series ahead of Wednesday's clash at Trent Bridge and followed a five-wicket win at Lord's on Friday where Guptill scored an unbeaten 103.
     This latest victory was just the tonic New Zealand needed after being whitewashed 2-0 by England in the preceding Test series and left them full of confidence heading into the one-day Champions Trophy tournament in the UK that starts on Thursday.
     "It's very, very special for the guys involved in the team -- and something we will savour," said McCullum, who rediscovered his batting form with an unbeaten 40 in an ...

New Zealand's McCullum buoyed by England series win

Life might have come a full circle for astute cricket administrator Jagmohan Dalmiya after being appointed the Interim BCCI chief nearly six and half years after he was expelled from the same office, but he does not consider this an individual victory.
	Dalmiya is instead taking this as a challenge to clean the murk maligning cricket in the wake of the spotfixing scam.
	"This is not an individual victory. The need of the hour is to cleanse cricket. That's my top priority. I have very little time to do that. I have to work very fast," Dalmiya told reporters after arriving here from the BCCI emergent working committee meeting in Chennai.
	"I have to prove to the cricket fraternity that cricket is a clean sport. I need to get that confidence back on the people," he said.
	Dalmiya was expelled in December 2006 on charges of misappropriation of funds in the 1996 World Cup as he was forced to step down as the Cricket Association of Bengal president.
	Terming this a big period, Dalmiya said: 

I've proved my innocence: Dalmiya

N Srinivasan, who today agreed to "step aside" as BCCI President under a compromise formula, arrived at the Emergent Working Committee meeting a couple of hours ahead of the scheduled time.
     The meeting was scheduled to start at 2.30 pm.
     Prior to the start of meeting there were speculations in the media that Srinivasan, an orthodox Tamil Brahmin, would arrive at the ITC Park Sheraton Hotel, the venue, between 10.30-11.30 am, considered an auspicious time on this day.
     Bowing to all-round pressure, Srinivasan today agreed to "step aside" as BCCI President under a compromise formula that brought back former Chief Dalmiya as head of a four-member "interim arrangement" to run the Board, more than a fortnight after the spot-fixing scandal rocked Indian cricket.
     Srinivasan refused to heed mounting demands for his resignation as Board Chief at a meeting of the Working Committee. He said there were no charges against him.

Srinivasan arrived at ITC Park two hours ahead of meeting

New Zealand won the second one-day international against England by 86 runs at Southampton today to take an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.
	Martin Guptill made a New Zealand record 189 not out, his second hundred in as many matches after his unbeaten 103 in a five-wicket win at Lord's on Friday, as the Black Caps posted 359 for three batting first.
	England, despite Jonathan Trott's unbeaten 109, never truly threatened to reach their victory target of 360 and were dismissed for 273 with 35 balls of their innings remaining.
	This series concludes with a day/night fixture at Nottingham's Trent Bridge ground on Wednesday.
	   Brief scores:
	New Zealand 359-3, 50 overs (M Guptill 189 no, R Taylor 60, K Williamson 55)
	   England 273, 44.

New Zealand win 2nd ODI against England

Senior BJP leader and BCCI Vice President Arun Jaitley today said N Srinivasan will maintain an "arms length distance" from the probe against his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan in the IPL-6 betting charges.
     "There will be an enquiry which will be on, the charges being criminal will be investigated. There are no charges against him (Srinivasan). We are not going into this matter. Now, if you step aside and discharge no function, then you maintain a complete arms length distance from the cricket administration which he has to maintain," said Jaitley.
     Bowing to all-round pressure, Srinivasan today agreed to "step aside" as BCCI President under a compromise formula that brought back former Chief Jagmohan Dalmiya as head of a four-member "interim arrangement", more than a fortnight after the spot-fixing scandal rocked Indian cricket.
     "Srinivisan will be at arms length distance till such time the enquiry is over. The entire administration will be run by the Working Committee ..

Srini will maintain 'arms length distance' from probe: Jaitley

Although the International Olympic Committee has issued a stern warning to Pakistan that it could face suspension for continued government interference, the warning appears to have fallen on deaf ears.
     The Interim committee constituted by the state controlled Pakistan Sports Board held a meeting in Islamabad today in which heads of national sports federations and participating units were invited to discuss arrangements for the 32nd National Games.
     Asif Bajwa, who heads the interim committee which is opposed to the Pakistan Olympic Association headed by Arif Hasan and recognised by the IOC, said the meeting had given approval for dates of the national games.
     Interestingly the POA has already held the 32nd National Games in Lahore a few months back after which the PSB formed the interim committee saying many affiliated units and federations were not able to take part in the Games.
     The IOC two days back made it clear that it was closely monitoring affairs in Pakistan .

Pakistan not listening to IOC warning

Indian shuttler Chetan Anand today launched his academy - Chetan Anand Badminton Foundation - which will gradually shape into a hub for the sport in the Andhra districts.
     "The main aim in setting up of this academy in Vijayawada is to give encouragement to young talent and also provide world class coaching facilities to them to excel in the sport," Anand said in a statement.
     It was formally inaugurated at Dandamudi Rajagopala Rao Municipal Corporation indoor stadium in the presence of, among others, veteran coach and Dronacharya-awardee Mohammad Arif of Hyderabad.
     "Junior India coach Sudhakar Reddy will be the chief coach and I will also take up training sessions along with my preparations for international tournaments," he said.

Chetan Anand's academy inaugurated

Wasim Akram and Shoaib Akhtar believe Pakistan have a realistic chance of winning the ICC Champions Trophy in England.
     They said the key to success in English conditions would be a collective effort from the Pakistan team.
     "There is talent in the team and there is balance but to win everyone, they will have to contribute on the match day in a big tournament like the Champions Trophy," Akhtar said.
     He also felt that Pakistan's opening match against the West Indies will be the most crucial one for them.
     "Winning the first match is very important as the result will either set the momentum for the team or pull their morale down," he said.
     The fast bowler said the fact that many of the West Indian players had appeared in the Indian Premier League should not be a concern for Pakistan.
     "The West Indians are coming from playing in the IPL but conditions in England are totally different and it will be a different ball game for them in this tournament," he said.
   

Akram, Akhtar back Pakistan ahead of Champions Trophy

Former IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi today termed the BCCI Emergent Working Committee meeting in Chennai the "biggest cover-up in cricket" and said having Jagmohan Dalmiya as head of an interim set-up was not the solution.
     "Biggest coverup in cricket has begun. N Srinivasan with co conspirator Arun Jaitley and Rajiv Shukla," Modi said.
     Bowing to all-round pressure, Srinivasan today agreed to "step aside" as BCCI President under a compromise formula that brought back former Chief Dalmiya as head of a four-member "interim arrangement" to run the Board, more than a fortnight after the spot-fixing scandal rocked Indian cricket.
     "Mr (former president I S) Bindra was the Lone Ranger who asked for Srini's Resignation. Mr Dalmia taking over us not a solution that anyone should accept," Modi wrote on his twitter handle.
     He further said the controversies surrounding Indian cricket at the moment was the biggest of them all.
     "It is probably going to go down as the biggest ..

Biggest cover-up in cricket, says Modi

Cricketer-turned-politician Kirti Azad today called the BCCI's Emergent Working Committee meeting in Chennai a "sham" and said the Board members were not bothered about asking for President N Srinivasan's resignation.
     "If the president is not going to resign, then all this meeting is a sham. All I can say is these people were not bothered," said Azad.
     Srinivasan today agreed to "step aside" till the probe into his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan is completed under a compromise formula that brought back former Chief Jagmohan Dalmiya as head of a four-member interim arrangement to run the Board.
     More than a fortnight after spot-fixing scandal rocked cricketing world, Srinivasan refused to heed mounting demands for his resignation as Board Chief at a meeting of the Working Committee. He said there were no charges against him.
     Azad questioned the decision of the Working Committee to appoint Dalmiya as head of a four-member 'interim' arrangement.
     "If Dalmiya is going 

Azad calls BCCI's WC meeting in Chennai 'sham'

Talented Indian youngsters Fahad Mohamed and Ritwik Anand upset the top two seeds while Adavelli Parthasarathy brushed aside the challenge of the fifth seed in the first round of the ITF Men's Futures Tennis Championships here today.
     These three players along with five others went on to win their second round match to qualify for the main draw of the singles event which begins tomorrow.
     Qualifying Results:
     First Round: Fahad Mohammed (Ind)  beat Anvit Bendre (Ind) [1]  6-3 5-7 6-1 Varun Desai  beat Srinivasa, Darshanvs 6-1 6-0 Sagar Ahuja (Ind) [2] beat  Kapil Ghuraiya (Ind) 6-2,7-5 Rithvik Anand (Ind) beat Shahbaaz Khan (Ind)6-2,6-3 Sagar Manjanna (Ind) [3] beat Rohit Sarwate (Ind)6-4,6-1 Sandeep Tirdala (Ind)  beat  Raghvendra Subramanya (Ind)6-3,6-4 Lakshit Sood (Ind) [4] beat Tarun Nath Surath (Ind)6-3,1-6,6-0; Bruhad Mankad (Ind) beat Bharatram Balajee (Ind)6-4,4-6,6-2; Kumara P Saradhi Adavelly (Ind) beat Arpit Sharma (Ind) [5] 6-2,6-3; Sai Saran Reddy Byreddy ...

Page 5053 -