Azlan Shah Cup: India ride on Sunil strike to down Pakistan

June 1, 2012

Azlan

SV Sunil struck in the dying moments as India downed Pakistan 2-1 in a pulsating encounter at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament in Ipoh on Thursday.

But the win may have come a little too late as India ended their campaign with nine points from six games. Two other teams — Argentina (nine points from five matches) and Great Britain (eight points from five) — stand a better chance of making the final against New Zealand, who reached the title round on Thursday with a 4-1 rout of Malaysia.

The Black Sticks are on 12 points with a match to go against Korea on Saturday. Friday is a rest day.

Striker Sunil, who has returned a mixed bag of late, dived to guide the ball into the goal in the 69th minute after Sardar Singh created the opening with a superb pass.

Sandeep Singh scored India's first goal in the 30th minute off a penalty corner but Pakistan found parity when Sohail Abbas returned the compliment with a firm shot in the 59th minute.

Chief coach Michael Nobbs said he had focused on a few extra training sessions to sharpen the players' finishing skills which paid dividends in the game against Pakistan.

"We have been playing well and not finishing. We made more of an effort to rectify this by some extra training sessions which helped," he told TOI.

"It was a typical hard-fought match against Pakistan, the first half we were dominant and were unlucky not to have scored more.


The second half mostly belonged to Pakistan. They had a few shots on goal but goalkeeper Bharat Chetri and the defense were solid and we held them to solitary goal," the Aussie said.

"Our attacks in the second half were fewer but had more potency and we earned more shots and penalty corners. Some brilliant play by Birendra Lakra and Sardar and a wonderful diving goal by Sunil sealed the victory for us. We deserved the victory," he added.

The Indians get a two-day break before the classification matches and final on Sunday.

Results: India 2 (Sandeep Singh 31st, SV Sunil 69th) bt Pakistan 1 (Sohail Abbas 61st). Great Britain 1 (Jonty Clarke 50) bt South Korea 1 (Yoon Sung Hoon 22nd). New Zealand 4 (Ryan Archibald 5, Shea McAleese 16, Nick Wilson 33, Shay Neal 61) bt Malaysia 1 (Hafifi Hafiz Hanafi 45).



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Agencies
June 2,2020

New Delhi, Jun 2: Expressing solidarity with the 'Black Lives Matter' campaign, star West Indies batsman Chris Gayle has alleged that he faced racist remarks during his career and cricket is not free of the menace.

Gayle did not elaborate when he faced racial remarks but hinted it might have been during his stints at global T20 leagues.

"I have travelled the globe and experienced racial remarks towards me because I am black, believe me, the list goes on," he posted on instagram on Monday night.

"Racism is not only in football, it's in cricket too. Even within teams as a black man, I get the end of the stick. Black and powerful. Black and proud," he said.

The big-hitting batsman's comments came in the backdrop of African-American George Floyd's death in the USA after a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, pressed his knee on the handcuffed man's neck as he gasped for breath.

The incident has sparked violent protests across the USA.

"Black lives matter just like any other life. Black people matter, p***k all racist people, stop taking black people for fools, even our own black people wise the p***k up and stop bringing down your own!," Gayle wrote.

Racism in cricket was drew attention most recently last year when England pacer Jofra Archer was abused by a spectator in New Zealand.

New Zealand's top players and the cricket board had offered apologies for the incident to the Englishman.

Also on Monday night, the England cricket team's official twitter handle posted a message denouncing racism.

"We stand for diversity, We stand against racism," the message read.

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Agencies
March 25,2020

Lausanne, Mar 25: The World Archery has hailed as a 'brave decision' the International Olympic Committee (IOC) move to postpone the 2020 Tokyo Olympics until next year due to coronavirus pandemic.

"We commend the conscientious and brave decision taken by Tokyo 2020 and the International Olympic Committee to delay this summer's Games in the face of an unprecedented challenge to humanity," Ugur Erdener, the World Archery president, said in an official statement.

The decision to postpone the Summer Olympics was confirmed by the IOC, on Tuesday, after the organising body for the event and Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed to reschedule the quadrennial event in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"This is not an easy situation, especially for the athletes who had been training hard for Tokyo 2020. I hope that everyone understands why this decision has been made and I urge archers around the world to retain hope and reset for this new timetable," he added.

The IOC has, however, said that the original name of Tokyo 2020 will remain intact irrespective of the fact that it will take place next year.

The Tokyo Olympic Games were slated to be held from July 24 to August 9.

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Agencies
March 26,2020

Karachi, Mar 26: Pakistan's centrally-contracted cricketers will contribute Rs 5 million to the national government's emergency fund to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Ehsan Mani on Wednesday said apart from centrally-contracted players contributing Rs 5 million, the employees in the board, up to the senior manager level, will contribute their one day's salary.

Those employed as general managers or on higher posts will give two days' salary to the fund.

"The PCB will collect all these funds and deposit it to the government's coronavirus fund," he said.

Pakistan has recorded more than 1,000 positive cases of the deadly virus, which has claimed more than 19,000 lives all over the world.

"It is the history of the cricket board that we always stand by the government in difficult times," Mani said.

The PCB has already given its high performances centre in Karachi at the national stadium to be used by paramedical staff working at the special coronavirus hospital set up at the expo centre in the in the city.

Mani said though cricket has been disrupted by the virus outbreak but it was far more important for the nation to stand by the government and also take all precautionary steps during the pandemic.

Pakistan's centrally-contracted players are entitled to monthly salaries ranging from Rs 5 to 12 lakh besides match fee and other earnings.

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