Stay humble, says Cannavaro
Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro believes his country can emulate France by winning the European championships after lifting the World Cup, if they stay humble at Euro 2008.
“If we go to the European championships without too much euphoria, with humility and a desire to take advantage of our qualities, we are in the running,” the Real Madrid defender said.
Randhawa, Kapur for qualifiers
India’s top-ranked golfer Jyoti Randhawa and talented youngster Shiv Kapur will be among 67 players who will tee off at the Sentosa Golf Club next week in a bid to book their spot in the world’s oldest Major, The Open Championship, reports PTI from Singapore.
The other Indians in the fray are Rahil Gangjee, Digvijay Singh, Amandeep Johl and Gurbaaz Mann.
Serbian swimmer gets Euro ban
Serbian gold medallist Milorad Cavic has been banned from further individual events at the European swimming championships for wearing a T-shirt with a political slogan.
Serbia’s federation was also fined 7,000 euros for the breach of rules at the 50M butterfly victory ceremony earlier this week.
Emulate seniors: Pawar’s advice
BCCI supremo Sharad Pawar has told India’s young turks to learn from the seniors about on-field behaviour, reports PTI from New Delhi.
“Often, a group of players from certain teams take a conscious decision to target a particular Indian player to demoralise him,” he said. “It’s a strategy and sometimes our players become victims of it and react. But we ask them ‘Have you heard complaints about Sachin, Sourav, Dravid and Kumble?’ They have set examples for world cricket on how to behave on and off the field,” Pawar said.
County ban on ICL players
The England and Wales Cricket Board has rejected applications of five players to play County cricket next season due to their links with the Indian Cricket League, reports PTI from London.
Andrew Hall, Wavell Hinds, Johann van der Wath, Hamish Marshall and Justin Kemp will would not be able to play for English Counties in 2008.
Anand, Aditi bag titles
National champion Chetan Anand of ONGC won the men’s singles title at the PSPB badminton tournament, trouncing P Kashyap (IOCL) 21-13, 21-6 in the final, reports PTI from New Delhi.
Aditi Mutatkar of BPCL won the women’s title, defeating IOCL’s Aparna Balan 21-19, 21-7.
Absolem powers Heroes home
Powered by a world record bowling spell of seven for 15 by Alfred Absolem, Hyderabad Heroes defeated Ahmedabad Rockets by 52 runs (VJD method) in the ICL’s Twenty20 tie in Hyderabad on Friday.
The Heroes made 175 for four. In reply, Rockets folded up for 127 as Absolem ran riot.
In Panchkula, Hasan Raza made 98 as the Laho-re Badshahs crushed Mumbai Champs by 50 runs.
Brief scores: Hyderabad Heroes 175/4 in 20 overs (J Maher 84, A Rayudu 65) bt Ahmedabad Rockets 127 all out in 17.5 overs (Aziz 35, S Sriram 36; Alfred Absolem 7-15). Lahore Badshahs: 187/5 (Hasan Raza 98, Imran Farhat 40; Ranjit Khirid 2-24) bt Mumbai Champs: 137/7 (Shreyas Khanolkar 29, Johan van der Wath 33; Rana Naved-ul-Hasan 3-16, Mushtaq Ahmed 2-25).
