Thailand shocked Sri Lanka into a 54-39 defeat in the final game of the two teams yet to record a win at the Junior Rugby Asiad 2011 at the Hong Kong Rugby Football ground in Hong Kong yesterday.
Sri Lanka’s dreadful performance which had them as the only team to have registered three straight defeats has relegated them to the Division II in the Asian championship next year. At half time Thailand led by 36-17.
The Thais, at the cost of mistakes made by the Sri Lankan players, scored freely. Sri Lanka made unusual changes and fielded a relatively new team than the teams they played against Japan and Hong Kong, according to sources.
Key players who were performing well had been rested for the crucial game which was a must-win encounter for Sri Lanka to survive in the top league. Sri Lanka lost all their games at this year’s Junior Rugby Asiad Competition. Japan and Hong Kong were the remaining teams in the group.
India 229-3 against West Indies
BRIDGETOWN, July 1 (Reuters) - India were 229 for three in their second innings, leading West Indies by 240 runs, at the close of play on the fourth day of the second test at Kensington Oval in Barbados on Friday.
India 201 all out (Vangipurappu Laxman 85, Suresh Raina 53, Ravi Rampaul 3-38, Devendra Bishoo 3-46, Fidel Edwards 3-56) and 229-3 (Vangipurappu Laxman 72 not out, Rahul Dravid 55);
West Indies 190 all out (Marlon Samuels 78 not out, Ishant Sharma 6-55)
PCB to discuss ICC rule with government
KARACHI, July 2, 2011 (AFP) - Pakistan's cricket administrators will hold talks with the government on how to implement a ban by the sport's governing body on political appointments within the game, an official said Saturday.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), whose chairman Ijaz Butt was appointed by the president of the country, is directly hit by the ruling from the International Cricket Council (ICC) executive board on Thursday.
Sri Lanka and Bangladesh will also be affected by the decision.
The ICC gave cricket boards 12 months to free themselves from governmental and political interference, with a further 12 month grace period to enact the changes before any sanctions would be considered.
PCB chief operating officer Subhan Ahmed, who along with Butt attended the five-day meeting in Hong Kong, told reporters on his return: "How we implement this reform will depend on our talks with the government."
Pakistan held discussions with arch-rivals India on the sidelines of the ICC meeting, he said.
"We have talked to India on February-March tour of 2012, and will hold negotiations with them to try to finalise that tour as soon as possible," said Ahmed.
Pakistan have four series with India due in the Future Tours Programmes from 2012 to 2020, he added. "One is in 2012, 2013 and 2015, they (ICC) have given the slots but number of matches have not been decided," said Ahmed.
No major national team has toured Pakistan since gunman attacked the Sri Lankan team bus in March 2009, and Ahmed that "a number of boards were sympathetic with us" over the issue. "They have assured us to try to tour Pakistan but that's linked to security situation in our country," he said.
Sri Lanka's sports ministry on Friday dissolved an interim committee running cricket affairs in the country, a day after promising it would abide by the new ICC reform.
Assistant Manager of the Men’s Volleyball Team resigns
The crisis hit national volleyball selections took another turn as the Assistant Manager of the men’s national volleyball team, tendered his resignation citing foul play by the national selectors. He has further alleged that this set of selectors are ruining the sports career of talented and promising volleyball players due to their hidden agendas.
Earlier various allegations were raised by the volleyball fraternity with regard to the bias and unclear selection policy adopted by the national volleyball selectors in choosing men and women pools for 16 Asian Senior men’s and women’s Volleyball Championships to be held in Iran and Chinese Taipei respectively.
Earlier, exclusion of Jagath Senadeera, Kasun Amaraweera, Pradeep Fernando and Hiranya Kesala from the 18 member men’s residential pool shocked the volleyball circles since these players had performed exceptionally well both in locally as well as internationally. Besides, all these players are at their peak performance levels and it is reliably understood that the Assistant Manager of the national team has strongly objected to their omissions along with HAD Sanjeewani and Nadeeka Athukorala from the women’s team.
Both these women players played brilliantly at the recently concluded national championship and it is a great surprise to see their omission from the 18 member residential pool.
Mr. Lalith Pium Prerea is the Manager of the national men’s volleyball team while Wing Commander Padman De Costa was his Assistant Manager. The experienced national coach Mr. Kumar Wendakoon is in charge of the team as its Head Coach. |
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