Saturday 9 July 2011

Sachin Taught Me The Slider: Harbhajan

WINDSOR PARK ( Dominica): To make Ricky Ponting a bunny is by itself a huge achievement in any form of cricket and Harbhajan Singh can happily claim he managed that.

But the off-spinner regards the former Australia captain as the best he ever bowled to.

In 2001, just before the series against Australia, Harbhajan said he'd be looking to bowl well against Ponting because he shuffles his feet well and is a great batsman.

Even today, he maintains the same. Among other scalps that keep lingering in his mind, Harbhajan remembers his first Test wicket when he clean bowled Greg Blewett.

"I got Michael Hussey in Bangalore, it was a doosra and he left it from outside off and it came a long way in. Even I was surprised with the delivery. I have only seen Muttiah Muralitharan bowl that kind of delivery," he says.

There has been a collection of great batsmen who he dismissed - Hayden, Lara, Waugh - and the bowler holds them very close to his heart.

Harbhajan thanks Sachin Tendulkar for helping him with his bowling when it came to targetting batsmen who tackled spin exceptionally well.

"Whenever I bowl to Sachin at the nets, I always ask him what is happening and what I should be looking to do on wickets like these, and wherever we are touring, whether it is in Australia or New Zealand, I ask him and take his advice.

"He showed me how to use the slider. It can be very useful in One-day and Test cricket and I have got a couple of wickets with that ball. You hold that ball like an off-spinner but you release the ball with one finger, so it just goes like an out-swinger. But it can happen only with the new ball," he says.

And while Sachin is still around, there's a lot more the bowler is eyeing ahead of the next big assignments coming up. England and Australia is where the focus is right now.

Rahul Gandhi Takes On Mayawati, Says Padyatra Not Drama

ALIGARH: Winding up his four-day 'padyatra' in the battle against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday accused her government of acquiring farmers' lands for golf courses and racing tracks and firing upon poor farmers when they protest.

Addressing a Kisan Mahapanchayat, capping his 70-km foot march through the villages of Greater Noida and Aligarh district, he rejected criticism that he was enacting a "drama", apparently referring to Mayawati's description of his march as "nautanki".

Using some strong words for his rival in the campaign seen as preparations for the next year Assembly elections, Gandhi said that in Uttar Pradesh a farmer gets to know about the acquisition of his land only when the builder comes and tells him that the land belongs to him.

"In UP, we are not against development or making roads. But this land is being taken away to make golf courses, colonies and racing track from farmers and that is why they are angry.

"The farmer says if in Lucknow a rich person's land is taken he is given the market rate but when it comes to a poor farmer he is fired upon, beaten, and government does not talk to us," Gandhi said.

An estimated crowd of about 10,000-15,000 farmers attended the Mahapanchayat, whose venue became soggy in early morning rains, capping the padyatra that began in the villages of Bhatta-Parsaul, the epicentre of a violent agitation against land acquisition in Greater Noida in May.

I Bought Supplements From A Chemist In Patiala: Sacked Ukrainian Coach Ogorodnik

PATIALA: Amidst high drama, sacked athletics coach Yuri Ogorodnik pleaded that he be allowed to immediately return to his native Ukraine as he feared for his life.

The coach said that "contaminated" food supplements could be the reason behind six of his trainees failing dope tests.

Ogorodnik lost his temper when a battery of electronic and print media journalists arrived in the morning to talk to him on the doping fiasco. He started shouting at the reporters and went inside his room, slamming the door on the faces of journalists.

After some time, he came out and broke down before finally giving his statement.

"I do not have food and am not allowed to go outside. I immediately want to go home because I can't continue to live like this. I will die. The federation and SAI will then have more problems if I die here," said a visibly disturbed Ogorodnik.

"The federation shoots me first and asks later. Ask them why they do this?"

"I don't know what is happening and I also want truth to come out."

Ogorodnik, the coach of the six dope-tainted athletes, had been asked to stay put in the country.

The coach also blamed the Sports Authority of India (SAI) for not providing basic facilities, modern food supplements and doctors to the athletes.

"I cannot believe the girls tested positive for the same anabolic steroid. I have never given any anabolic steroid to any athlete. I am not to blame for it. The athletes have taken only food supplements and those could be contaminated," Ogorodnik said.

"I did not play any role in the doping scandal. I have been set up and this is an attempt to tarnish my reputation," he said.

"We bought supplements together. I have given them only food supplements and no other tablets. If somebody mixed something with the food supplements how would you know that?"

Six quarter-milers -- Sini Jose, Ashwini Akkunji, Mandeep Kaur, Juana Murmu, Tiana Mary Thomas and Priyanka Pawar -- who were being coached by Ogorodnik have tested positive for methandienone.

Sini, Ashwini and Mandeep were part of the 4x400 metres relay team that won the gold at last year's Commonwealth and Asian Games. The athletes had blamed the food supplements recommended by Ogorodnik for failing their dope tests.

"I write the schedule but I have never mentioned any anabolic drugs. I am a professional coach. Every month, these girls are tested and their tests have never shown positive."

"I bought supplements from a chemist in Patiala. I can recognize the shop."

Ogorodnik said the athletes had to buy food supplements from outside as supplements provided by the SAI were not up to the mark.

"They (SAI) give us only vitamins and proteins because they don't have money. For the Olympics, you need modern food supplements which are very costly. Here you get only rice and spicy food which is not good for the athletes. The supplements come from China which are not good quality supplements. We don't have a doctor. We do not have food or good supplements. We don't have good places to train. The temperature soars to 40-45 degrees and practice starts at 6 o'clock."

"SAI's protein and vitamin supplements are insufficient. So we bought those from a chemist in Patiala which might be contaminated," said the Ukrainian coach.

"You didn't have modern food supplements, we didn't even have doctors in the academy," he said.

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Thursday 7 July 2011

North Korea Paid Pakistanis For Nuclear Tech, Says AQ Khan

WASHINGTON: The founder of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program claims that in the late 1990s North Korean officials paid kickbacks to senior Pakistani military figures in exchange for critical weapons technology.

Abdul Qadeer Khan has given a United States-based expert documents that appear to show North Korea's government paid more than $3.5 million to two Pakistani military officials as part of the deal, the expert said on Wednesday.

To back up his claim, Khan released what he said was a copy of a North Korean official's 1998 letter to him, written in English, that purports to describe the secret deal.

Khan gave the documents to Simon Cameron of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, an authority on Pakistan's weapons program. He did so because he has been accused by his government of running a covert nuclear smuggling operation without official knowledge or consent.

"He gave it to me because he regarded it as showing that the story, the perception that he had been a rogue operator was false," Cameron said.

The letter, along with a statement by Khan describing the deal, suggests that at least some top-level Pakistani military officials knew early on about some of Khan's extensive sale of nuclear weapons technology to other countries, including North Korea, Iran and Libya.

If that's true, it could deepen the distrust between the United States and Pakistan, which are struggling to set aside their differences and cooperate in the battle against militant extremists in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The significance of the revelation is in dispute. Cameron said the documents prove Khan's claims that his nuclear arms smuggling network had high-level support from the Pakistani government, but others say the letter bolsters the government's claims it didn't know what Khan was up to.

The Washington Post said it obtained the documents and first reported on them on its website Wednesday after a lengthy effort to authenticate them.

The letter Khan released is dated July 15, 1998, and marked "Secret." It carries the apparent signature of North Korean Workers Party Secretary Jon Byong Ho.

The text says, "Please give the agreed documents, components, etc. to a ... (North Korean Embassy official in Pakistan) to be flown back when our plane returns after delivery of missile components."

The letter never mentions the word nuclear. But Khan's written description of the events surrounding the letter, which was not published by the Post, makes it clear that the Workers Party official was referring to components and plans for Pakistani centrifuges used to enrich uranium.

Highly enriched uranium can be used either to make fuel for nuclear reactors or to form the explosive core of a nuclear weapon.

Jehangir Karamat, a former Pakistani military chief named as the recipient of the $3 million, said the letter was untrue. In an email to the Post from Lahore, Karamat said Khan, as part of his defense against allegations of personal responsibility for illicit nuclear proliferation, had tried "to shift blame on others."

The other official, retired Lt. Gen. Zulfiqar Khan, called the letter "a fabrication."

The Post said the assertions by Khan and the details in the letter could not be independently verified.

But the newspaper quoted one senior US official who said the signature appeared genuine and the contents were "consistent with our knowledge" of the events described. Another intelligence official said the letter contained information known only to a handful of people.

Khan has long denied claims that he was working behind his government's back in his covert nuclear technology sales to foreign governments.

"This is a piece of dramatic evidence that Khan did not act as a single rogue agent, but instead was operating at the instruction of others," Cameron said. "I think the main point of this is that Pakistan used this technology to trade for diplomatic advantage."

David Albright, an authority on nuclear proliferation with the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, disagreed, saying the letter and Khan's narrative are evidence he acted alone.

"It shows that Khan was a rogue agent and that he colluded to provide centrifuge components to North Korea without Pakistani official approval," Albright said.

He said that in Khan's narrative, which has not been released, the scientist claimed he had assured the military that North Korea would not use the centrifuges for its nuclear weapons program, since it already had more advanced technology for that purpose.

Albright said the claim was false, but Pakistani military officials could have found it plausible.

Indian-American Part Of Team To Flag Questions For Obama

WASHINGTON: Indian-American professor Raman Chadha was among the eight-member team which helped flag questions for US President Barack Obama, as he held the first ever Twitter Town Hall at the White House.

During the period when Obama held the Twitter Town Hall at the White House yesterday, Chadha along with seven others was busy retweeting interesting questions and flagging them for the US President.

Most of his retweets were on economy and job. "Honor to be involved, I learned a lot, and had fun," tweeted Chadha, who works at the prestigious DePaul University's Coleman Entrepreneurship Center, after the conclusion of the town hall.

"After an uncomfortable career in the corporate world and getting an MBA in entrepreneurship, Raman found his life's calling," says a bio of him posted on the website of the DePaul University.

In 1995, he started a consulting firm focused on strategic planning and growth management, working with over 200 clients from start-up to USD 15 million in revenues.

He joined DePaul in 2002 as an adjunct professor, and then helped launch the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center a year later. Since then, he has helped guide the Center's strategic direction, develop its programs, and build the spokes of its community.

He continues to teach in DePaul's highly-ranked entrepreneurship program, bringing his experience, energy, and enthusiasm to the classroom.

Chadha earned an MBA in Entrepreneurship and Marketing from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and a BA in Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Outside of entrepreneurship and his family, Chadha's interests include baseball, beer brewing, the outdoors, southern BBQ and indie rock.

Rupee Gains Five Paise Against Dollar On Firm Local Equities

MUMBAI: The rupee gained five paise on Thursday to close at 44.43/44 against the US currency following bullish local equities amid frenzied capital inflows despite a firm dollar overseas.

At the Interbank foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unit opened higher at 44.42/43 a dollar from the last close of 44.48/49. It later settled at 44.43/44.

Fresh dollar selling by exporters too helped the rupee to rebound from the day's low.

Dealers said the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex' 351.33 points or 1.88 per cent rally to close above 19K-mark after two months, mainly supported the rupee rise.

Sustained portfolio investments by foreign funds too aided the rupee sentiment, they added.

Abhishek Goenka India Forex Advisors CEO said, "It must be noted that even over the USD 2.2 billion foreign fund inflows in equities in the last two weeks have not enabled the rupee to break the crucial level of 44.30."

The dollar index of six major currencies was up by over 0.2 per cent while New York crude oil was trading above USD 97 a barrel in European market.

The US dollar advanced against the euro yesterday as concerns about the debt of European's peripheral countries increased following Moody's downgrade of Portugal.

CBI's Stand On Ambani Questioned; Maran, Baijal Abused Ranks

NEW DELHI: CBI's decision not to chargesheet Anil Ambani, chairman of ADAG Group, in the 2G spectrum scam was today questioned in the Supreme Court by an NGO which alleged that he was making attempts to cover up his involvement by influencing his arrested employees.

"The three persons charge sheeted are just the professional employees of the ADAG and are not the beneficiaries of this scam. The real beneficiary is Anil Ambani, who hold majority stake and is chairman of the group companies.

"There is no possibility of an employee of the company having taken such an important decision of massive investments running into hundreds of crores of rupees," said an affidavit filed by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL).

CBI, which has filed two charge sheets in the 2G scam, has stated that the entire company of Swan Telecom, alleged to be the front company of Reliane Telecom, was held by ADAG companies through the funds raised by Anil Ambani controlled Reliance.

The affidavit said Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair, who are all employees of Anil Ambani controlled Reliance in furtherance of their intention to cheat, created Swan Telecom out of funds arranged from Reliance Telecom for applying for licenses in 13 circles where Reliance Telecom did not have GSM spectrum.

They have been charge sheeted and are in judicial custody in Tihar Jail.

"But Ambani has not been charge-sheeted. ADAG has reportedly claimed that these actions were done without the knowledge of Ambani. If this was true then he should have sacked the three charge sheeted employees," the NGO said adding that instead he visited them and reportedly assured legal assistance.

India Can Beat England In Their Own Backyard: Yuvraj

DUBAI: England are currently playing good cricket but India has the wherewithal to beat them in their own den in the upcoming tour, reckons India's middle-order batsman Yuvraj Singh.

India will play a four-match Test series, five ODIs and a one-off Twenty20 match during the tour, starting July 21.

"England is one of the best teams but we've been maintaining the number-one ranking for two years and we won in England last time, and I'm sure if we play to our best potential we can win again. England are playing really good cricket," Yuvraj said.

Yuvraj, who returned to the Test fold after a long gap, said he himself is keen to do well in the five-day version of the game.

"In terms of one-day cricket everything has been good for me but in terms of Test cricket I suppose the graph reads a bit up and down. Cricket is my game though and I am going to give this Test series my level best, I will give my 100 per cent," he told ICC's Cricket World Radio Show.

Looking back at the tough times he went through ahead of this year's ODI World Cup, where he emerged as player-of-the-tournament, the left-hander said that phase only made him stronger.

"There were times when things were harsh but these kind of experiences made me stronger as a person. I don't think if I'd not gone through that phase I would have done so well at the World Cup - I think it helped me to understand how important the Indian colours are for me and I now understand how to get better from here," Yuvraj said.

2G Scam: Union Textile Minister Dayanidhi Maran Resigns From Cabinet

NEW DELHI: A day after he was nailed by the CBI in the 2G spectrum allocation scam, Union textile minister Dayanidhi Maran on Thursday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and handed over his resignation.

Maran's resignation came minutes after the cabinet meeting ended.

According to Times Now, Dayanidhi Maran was the first to leave 7 Race Course Road, Prime Minister's residence, soon after the meeting ended. He is scheduled to fly out to Chennai later this evening.

Maran's resignation comes ahead of a cabinet reshuffle that may happen as early as next week. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was under pressure to drop him to signal a tough stance against a raft of graft cases that have emerged in recent months.

Maran declined to make any comment when television reporters asked him if he had left the cabinet.

Earlier in the day, BJP leader Arun Jaitley had said that Dayanidhi Maran had run out of options and he should quit. He further added that the Prime Minister cannot look away after the developments in connection with the 2G scam.

AIADMK too had said that there was no use expecting Dayanidhi Maran to take responsibility and the Prime Minister should simply drop him.

On Wednesday, the CBI told the Supreme Court that its preliminary inquiry into the allegation of Sivasankaran, a serial entrepreneur known as Siva in business circles, suggested that Maran starved Aircel of new licences to bully him into selling out.

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Monday 4 July 2011

Two More Indian Athletes Flunk Dope Tests

NEW DELHI: The doping scandal in Indian athletics grew in proportion on Monday with two more athletes, including the country's new golden girl Ashwini Akkunji, testing positive for anabolic steroids hours before the departure for Japan for the Asian Championships.

Apart from Akkunji, quartermiler Priyanka Panwar also returned positive for anabolic steroids in the dope tests conducted on June 27 by NADA at NIS Patiala, taking the tally of dope offenders to eight in the last few days.

The development is all the more shocking as Akkunji, who had won gold in Commonwealth and Asian Games last year, and Panwar were to leave for Japan for July 7-11 Asian Championships by an 11:30 pm flight along with 35 other athletes.

Athletics Federation of India has provisionally suspended both the athletes pending a hearing by a NADA disciplinary panel.

"It is sad to announce that two more athletes - Ashwini Akkunji and Priyanka Panwar - tested positive for anabolic steroids. We have provisionally suspended them. Next, they will be called for 'B' sample tests and then the necessary procedure will be followed," Dogra told reporters.

Akkunji and Panwar were named in the 4x400m relay team for the Asian Championships and Dogra said two other athletes in the 37-member team will take their places.

"We cannot send any replacement of the two athletes now but we will field a relay team in Japan. Two other athletes (besides Tintu Luka and Mrudula Korada) from the team will run in the relay," he said.

Both Akkunji and Priyanka tested positive for metabolites of methandienone, which were found in the samples of other CWG and Asian Games gold-winning relay quartet members Mandeep Kaur and Sini Jose as well another qaurtermiler Jauna Murmu.

Another qaurtermiler Tiana Mary Thomas had tested positive for anabolic steroid epimethandiol.

Long Jumper Hari Krishnan Muralidharan and shot putter Sonia were the other athletes who have tested positive in the last few days.

Interestingly, Akkunji and Priyanka's dope flunk came from the tests on 30 samples conducted by NADA for the Asian Championships bound athletes on the request of AFI.

Ashwini was a member of the 400m relay quartet that won gold in the Commonwealth Games. She had returned with two gold in the Asian Games, winning the yellow metal in 400m hurdles and 4x400m relay.

Panwar's best international result was the bronze she won in the South Asian Federation Games in Dhaka last year. She had won a bronze in the 100m sprint in the National Games in Ranchi in February. She made it to the relay team after finishing fourth in the National Inter-state meet in Bangalore.

With the dope flunk of Akkunji, three members of the Indian 4x400m relay quartet that won gold in the Commonwealth and Asian Games last year have tested positive.

Mandeep Kaur and Sini Jose had returned positive for the anabolic substances in the tests conducted by IAAF on May 25 and by NADA during the National Inter-state Meet in Bangalore this month respectively. Only Manjeet Kaur remained out of the dope net.

There had been speculation that Akkunji and Panwar could test positive as they shared the same vitamin supplements used by Mandeep and Sini.

Djokovic Beats Nadal To Win Maiden Wimbledon Title

LONDON: Novak Djokovic won his first Wimbledon title on Sunday, dethroning champion Rafael Nadal with a 6-4, 6-1, 1-6, 6-3 triumph to celebrate his coronation as new world number one in style.

In Pics: Djokovic wins Wimbledon

It was the 24-year-old Serb's third Grand Slam title, to add to his 2008 and 2011 Australian Open victories, and 50th win his last 51 matches.

Djokovic, who will succeed Nadal as world number one on Monday, also denied the Spaniard, the champion in 2008 and 2010, an 11th Grand Slam title.

Djokovic went into the final with a 11-16 losing record against Nadal over their five-year rivalry but having won all four of their clashes in 2011 and all in finals.

Serve dominated until the 10th game when from 30-0 up Nadal handed his opponent a set point with a forehand error which Djokovic gobbled up, forcing another wild forehand out of the Spaniard to take the opener after 41 minutes.

The Serb had been the more convincing in the rallies and Nadal, who committed just seven unforced errors in his semifinal win over Andy Murray, was already up to eight by the time Djokovic was 1-0 ahead in the second set.

Djokovic was taking control of the final and was a break up at 2-0 when he brilliantly anticipated a Nadal drop shot before scampering across court to execute a wonderful, wrong-footing backhand.

The Serb broke again for a 5-1 lead when a powerful drive left Nadal scrambling, and off balance, and he could only pat the return wide.

A confident hold to love gave Djokovic the set 6-1 when Nadal found the net.

But Nadal, who had won all five of the pair's previous Grand Slam clashes, carved out his first break points of the final in the second game of the third set to open a 2-0 lead which was soon 3-0 courtesy of a confident love service game.

Djokovic served up a first double fault to be broken again in the sixth game before Nadal pulled off a third successive love game to take the set.

The Serb saved a break point in the first game of the fourth set and made the most of his reprieve with a break to lead 2-0.

But a net cord fell in Nadal's favour and gave him the break back in the third game.

A subdued Nadal then slipped 3-5 down as a brilliant defensive rally from Djokovic forced an error from the Spaniard.

The trophy was the Serb's when on his first match point when Nadal went long with a backhand.

West Indies Drop Sarwan From Squad For 3rd Test

DOMINICA: West Indies have dropped experienced but out-of-form batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan from their 13-member squad for the third cricket Test against India starting on Wednesday.

Kieran Powell has been named to take Sarwan's place in the squad.

The 21-year-old left-hander is the Leeward Islands opener and a regular member of the West Indies A team.

There are no other changes to the squad from the second Test in Barbados which ended in a draw. India hold a 1-0 series lead in the three-match rubber.

Powell has played two one-dayers for the West Indies, both in the Champions Trophy in South Africa two years ago.

In all, he has 5 runs to his name from these two international matches after he made a duck against Bangladesh, and 5 against India.

Sarwan has had a wretched summer with the bat and made only 29 runs from four innings of the first two Tests against India. He was no better against Pakistan in the ODI series, making 54 runs from four innings of two Tests.

"Ramnaresh is having a difficult time and it is best for him to make way and allow a player in better form to contribute to the team totals," said Clyde Butts, Chairman of the Selection Committee.

"We have no doubt about Ramnaresh's class as a batsman, he has proven himself countless times in the past and we are certain that he will return stronger in the near future," Butts added.

"Kieran is young but has been on the first class circuit for some time and is a former Windies Under-19 World Cup player. He did well for the West Indies A and scored an impressive hundred against England Lions in the WICB Regional four-Day Tournament but got injured subsequently."

Powell has been working for the past several weeks at the Sagicor High Performance Center in Barbados under Head Coach Andre Coley and Batting Coach Carl Hooper.

The Third Test will be played at Windsor Park here from July 6. This is the first time a Test is being hosted in Dominica though it has staged four one-dayers -- two each against Bangladesh and South Africa -- in the past.

West Indies squad: Darren Sammy (capt), Adrian Barath, Carlton Baugh, Devendra Bishoo, Darren Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Fidel Edwards, Kirk Edwards, Kieran Powell, Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach, Marlon Samuels and Lendl Simmons.

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