Hunt for Indian grand slam champion gets off ground

The ambitious Mission 2018 Challenge, aiming to give the country its first-ever grand slam singles champion, rolled into the city today with Mahesh Bhupathi conducting a camp to select promising under-14 tennis players for the programme.

A brainchild of corporate giants Apollo Tyres, which plans to pump in Rs 100 crore over the next 10 years to spot and groom talents for the big stage, the programme was set rolling two weeks back in Banglaore where 10 kids were preliminarily screened. Nine more boys and girls made the cut from the second regional camp at Mumbai last week.

“After today’s camp and the one in Delhi next week, we will spot a total of around 40 boys. From them, around five to ten kids will be shortlisted for the programme at the national camp in Delhi on December 23,” Bhupathi, the consultant for the scheme, said.

The selected kids would be enrolled with the Foundation for Indian Sporting Talent, the academy run by Bhupathi in Bangalore, and put through a rigorous training programme.

“It will be a residential programme. We will provide them top grade international standard equipment. We will do everything to provide them world class training. We are thinking about arranging for their school education. To give them proper exposure the programme also includes a three-month training session abroad in the first year itself,” said divisional head, corporate marketing group of Apollo Tyres Hemant Kaul.

“Besides on-court training, there would be regular sessions on Yoga. There would be stress on fitness. Dieticians would be there and so would be programmes for making them mentally tough. For injury management, there would be good physios,” said Bhupathi. Similar zonal camps would be held next year and the entire programme reviewed from time to time, Kaul said.

Asked if some kids could be dropped at a later stage if they failed to cope with the rigorous schedule, Kaul said they were yet to decide on that. But since the entire programme is performance-based, such things cannot be ruled out.

Federer and Henin get top ITF awards

The International Tennis Federation (ITF) announced on Monday that world No.1s Roger Federer and Justine Henin were the 2007 ITF World Champions.

Federer, who won the Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open titles to bring his Grand Slam haul to 12, took the award for the fourth year running, while Henin, who won the French and US Open titles was named for the third time overall.

The 26-year-old Federer, who also won the season-ending Masters title in Shanghai, said: “It is an honour to be named ITF World Champion for the fourth year running.

“Each year brings new challenges, and I am proud that I have been able to raise the level of my game when needed. It gives me great satisfaction to have won another three Grand Slam titles and maintained the number one ranking.”

Henin becomes Women’s World Champion for the second year running, having also received the honour in 2003.

The 25-year-old Belgian also followed her Grand Slam triumphs with a win in the season-ending WTA Championships in Madrid.

“This has definitely been the best season of my career so far and I am delighted to be named ITF World Champion once again,” Henin said.

“It has been a very challenging year overall, but I have stayed positive and proved that nothing is impossible if you work hard. I still think my best tennis is yet to come.”

ITF President Francesco Ricci Bitti commented: “Roger Federer and Justine Henin both enjoyed outstanding seasons to maintain their status as the world’s number one players.

“In particular their record in Grand Slam events saw them emerge as the clear choices for ITF World Champions.”

The ITF also announced that American twins Bob and Mike Bryan (USA), and the Zimbabwe/US pairing on Cara Black and Liezel Huber were the 2007 ITF Doubles World Champions.

The Bryans are men’s Doubles World Champions for a record fifth successive year.

The pairing won a career-high 11 titles during 2007, including the Australian Open, and were runners-up at Wimbledon.

They were also unbeaten for the US team that won the Davis Cup for the first time since 1995.

Black and Huber are women’s Doubles Champions for the first time in their first complete season together.

The duo won nine events during the year, including two Grand Slam titles, the Australian Open and Wimbledon, and the season-ending championships.

Ricardas Berankis of Lithuania and Urszula Radwanska of Poland were named as 2007 ITF Junior World Champions.

India rise two places in FIFA rankings

India climbed two places to 143rd in the latest FIFA rankings and was placed 26th in Asia.

The rankings released by football’s world governing body finds Bob Houghton’s charges with 158 points.

The rankings show that India has made some progress in the last 12 months as it was ranked 157th around the same time last year.

The improvement can largely be attributed to the title triumph in the Nehru Cup football tournament at home. However, the team led by Bhaichung Bhutia could not maintain the momentum and went down to Lebanon in the first round of the 2010 World Cup qualifiers.

India has still a long way to go to reach its best ever FIFA ranking of 94 held in February 1996.

There is no change in the top 20 of the world rankings which are headed by Argentina ahead of South American rivals Brazil and world champions Italy.

Japan is the highest ranked Asian team at 34th place ahead of Iran (41st), South Korea (42nd), Australia (48th) and Saudi Arabia (61st).

At 26th place among Asian Football Confederation members, India is just a point behind Vietnam.

India have potential to win in Australia, says Kumble

India have the potential to end Australia’s 14-test winning streak and clinch their first series victory in the country during their upcoming tour, captain Anil Kumble said on Sunday.

“The last time around we came pretty close to winning the series. We have the potential in the team to go out there and do it again,” the leg spinner told a news conference ahead of the team’s departure on Monday. “That will be the aim.”

India drew a four-test series 1-1 on their previous tour of Australia in 2003-04 after going 1-0 up. However, the hosts have not lost a test since August 2005 in England and could better their record of 16 wins during the four-match series which starts in Melbourne on Dec. 26.

“For some of the senior players this will be the last tour of Australia. It will be a great challenge for all of us,” said Kumble.

It will be the final tour of Australia for batsmen Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly and Vangipurappu Laxman, as well as the skipper. India are next due to visit Australia in 2011.

“If you look at the quality in the side, the people who have been playing, the experience in the side, we have the ability. to adjust,” said Kumble, who led India to a 1-0 home series victory over Pakistan this month after being handed the test captaincy in September when Dravid quit the job to concentrate on his batting.

“If you look at our middle order, we have about 30,000 runs there. That’s a lot of test runs and experience that we have.

“If we can do that consistently (put runs on the board) we have the bowling to pick up 20 wickets,” added the 37-year-old.

India’s bowling attack has two inexperienced pacers in Ishant Sharma and uncapped Pankaj Singh but Kumble was confident of their ability.

“We have the experience in Zaheer (Khan) and RP (Singh). Irfan’s (Pathan) played in Australia before. Ishant is very promising and Pankaj is exciting. He’s tall, hits the deck hard and a good option to have,” said Kumble.

India recalled explosive opener Virender Sehwag on account of his experience even though he has struggled for runs in domestic cricket.

India open with a three-day tour match against Victoria from Thursday. The four tests will be followed by a one-day tri-series also involving Sri Lanka.

Chennai Superstars are the champions

Chennai Superstars won the inaugural Indian Cricket League (ICL) 20:20 Indian Championships with a 12-run victory over Chandigarh Lions in the final at the Tau Devi Lal Stadium in Panchkula on Sunday.

Batting first after losing the toss, the Chennai Superstars made 155/8 in their stipulated 20 overs, largely due to useful contributions from their two Aussie imports — opener Ian Harvey making 36 off 31 balls and captain Stuart Law making 34 off 28 balls.

Daryl Tuffey was the most successful bowler for the Chandigarh Lions with figures of 2/32.

In reply, the Chandigarh Lions could muster only 143/8.  Tejinder Pal Singh top scored with 35 off 33 balls while South African all-rounder Andrew Hall was left unbeaten at 30 off 27 balls.

Pakistan seamer Shabbir Ahmed impressed with the ball for the Superstars with figures of 4/23 while Harvey completed an all round effort taking 2/26.

BCCI okays $400,000 sign-on fee for Warne

Shane Warne will be the Indian Premier League’s most expensive signing, at a cost of US$400,000 for the first season, set to kick off in April 2008. The finance committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India met in Mumbai on Friday and approved several decisions taken by the IPL’s governing council regarding payment of its players.

The fee quoted for Warne is the signing amount for him to be part of the player pool from which franchises will bid for the rights to employ players within their ranks. With Brian Lara reportedly being paid US$1 million to appear in the Indian Cricket League, and the market heating up over the two rival leagues, Warne and similar big-ticket signings could rope in well in excess of US$1 million, sources revealed.

The second-highest signing-on fee has, not surprisingly, been paid to Glenn McGrath, whose nifty line-and-length bowling see him join up for US$350,000. Stephen Fleming, whose agents flirted with the ICL but in the end held back – to the extent that Fleming was one of those present at the IPL’s launch – also nets US$350,000.

Mohammad Yousuf, who had reportedly signed with the ICL before being lured away by the Pakistan board – which made no effort to stop Inzamam-ul-Haq, Abdul Razzaq or Imran Farhat from joining the unrecognised league – has signed up with the IPL for US$330,000. A surprise entrant in the top five – and at the moment the list does not include current Australian or Indian cricketers – is Shoaib Malik, who is guaranteed US$300,000.

The ICL, which is nearing the end of its inaugural edition, will hand out approximately Rs 18 crore [approx. US$4.5 million] in total prize-money for its 16-day tournament.

The fees have been decided for only 34 of the 49 cricketers signed up by the IPL, sources said, and, of these, only 11 have received [partial] advance payments. The only player to receive payment in full is Yousuf, not surprising given that he was once a dead certainty to join the ICL. It is understood that McGrath is among those who have been given a sizeable advance.

The 29 others who have received contracts:

[All amounts in US$]
Australia Justin Langer 175,000
Sri Lanka Farveez Maharoof: 150,000, Kumar Sangakkara: 250,000, Mahela Jaywardene: 250,000, Muttiah Muralitharan: 250,000, Sanath Jayasuriya: 250,000, Nuwan Zoysa: 100,000, Dilhara Fernando: 150,000, Chaminda Vaas: 175,000, Lasith Malinga: 200,000
Pakistan Mohammad Asif 225,000, Shahid Afridi: 225,000, Shoaib Akhtar: 225,000, Younus Khan: 225,000
West Indies Shivnarine Chanderpaul 175,000
New Zealand Daniel Vettori 225,000, Jacob Oram 200,000, Scott Styris 150,000, Brendon McCullum 175,000
South Africa Loots Bosman 150,000, AB de Villiers 175,000, Albie Morkel 200,000, Graeme Smith 225,000, Herschelle Gibbs 225,000, Shaun Pollock 200,000, Ashwell Prince 150,000, Makhaya Ntini 175,000, Mark Boucher 175,000, Jacques Kallis 200,000.