The New Nation - Internet Edition

Wari Club blank Arambagh KS 2-0

UNB, Dhaka

Wari Club blanked Arambagh KS in the relegation league match of the Metropolis Senior Division Football at the Bir Shreshtha Shaheed Sepoy Mohammad Mostafa Stadium at Kamalapur Thursday.

Absar and Layek scored one goal each in the 46th and 53rd minutes for the winners.

In the day's other match, Youngmen's shared points with Sunrise SC playing to a 1-1-goal draw in the super-six match at the Bangabandhu National Stadium (BNS).

Touwidul Alam Sabuj put Youngmen's Club ahead in the 20th minute while Aziz Rubel scored the equalizer for Sunrise SC in the 89th minute.

Today's matches: Victoria SC vs Dhaka Wanderers Club (BNS) and Dipali Jubo Sangha vs City Club at Kamalapur, both at 4pm.

Bangladesh Airforce plays goalless draw with Mirpur Academy

UNB, Dhaka

Bangladesh Airforce played to a goalless draw with Mirpur Academy in the Dhaka Bank Independence Day Hockey Tournament match at the Maulana Bhashani National Hockey Stadium on Thursday.

Both the teams launched several attacks that ended in futile.

West Bengal clinches Women's Kabaddi title

UNB, Dhaka

West Bengal clinched the title of the Fresh Independence and National Day Women's Kabaddi Championship beating strong Japan by 17-12 points with one credible "lona" in the final at Outer Stadium Kabaddi Court on Thursday.

The match was locked 6-6 in the first half.

Bangladesh Kabaddi Federation president IGP Noor Mohammad was the chief guest on the occasion and distributed the prizes among the winners.

Moushumi of West Bengal team and Kaneko of Japan were adjudged best players while Sato of Japan received best catcher award in the match.

China's shooters offered $1.4m reward for 5 golds

Reuters, Beijing

The largest producer of China's favourite tipple has promised the country's shooting team a 10 million yuan ($1.42 million) bonus if they bag five gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, state media reported on Thursday.

The Wuliangye Group, which distils the fiery alcoholic drink baijiu, has also offered a 1.5 million yuan ($212,600) prize if a Chinese shooter nabs the first gold medal awarded at the Aug. 8- 24 Games, said a Xinhua report.

According to a draft Games schedule, the women's 10m air rifle is likely to be the first event in which medals will be decided on the morning of Aug. 9, making defending champion Du Li the favourite for the reward.

"I think the gold medal and honour are more important," Du told Xinhua.

But Gao Zhidan, director of China's shooting and archery administration, warned that the big rewards might have a negative impact on shooters.

"In shooting, a sport in which the psychological factors play an important, even vital role, we should reduce their pressure as much as possible, and let them train calmly," he said.

China's first Olympic gold medal came at the 1984 Los Angeles Games when Xu Haifeng won the 50m pistol and in 2004 in Athens China won four golds in the sport.

Chinese gold medallists in all disciplines will be handsomely rewarded for their efforts.

The Chinese General Administration of Sports paid each Olympic champion 200,000 yuan ($28,350) in Athens and that is likely to be higher for Beijing. They can also count on additional bonuses from provinces and cities.

Hong Kong's Fok Ying-Tung Foundation has also rewarded every Chinese gold medallist with 1 kg of gold and $80,000 since 1984.

Umpire Hair plans to communicate better with players when he returns

AP, Sydney

Darrell Hair says he hopes to communicate better with the players when he returns to international test cricket umpiring after an absence of nearly 18 months.

"I've always been a little bit t standoffish in that I've always preferred to let them play the game themselves and only get involved when things go overboard," Hair told a Sydney radio station Thursday.

Hair, reinstated as a test match umpire this week by the International Cricket Council, had been banned since November 2006 because of his conduct during a test between Pakistan and England that led to the first forfeit in test cricket's 129-year history.

"I won't say my whole attitude to umpiring has changed but I think I have picked up a few things that are going to be very helpful to me in the future," he said. "Probably just t having a broader understanding of what everybody else is thinking and the old communication issue of making sure that what you say and what you

want is understood by the other people."

His return comes after he completed a so-called "rehabilitation program" him handed him in September when he agreed to drop a claim of racial discrimination by the ICC.

Hair accused Pakistan of ball tampering and, when the team refused to take the field after a break, he and fellow umpire Billy Doctrove awarded the forfeit.

The ICC declined to say if the 55-year-old Australian could umpire any match involving Pakistan. Hair's position will be reviewed at the end of March 2009, the ICC said.

On Thursday, Hair said the incident "caused me a lot of stress. I suppose it caused a lot of people some stress along the way."

"The laws now have been changed to take those decisions out of the hands of the umpires and I fully support the way that that's going to happen in future," he added. "So, it's time to move on.

Hair said he would be available to umpire in Pakistan. "Part of my contract is that I'm available now to umpire test matches and one-day internationals," Hair said. "Now whether that (umpiring in Pakistan) is going to happen I think you'll need to ask

the people who make the appointments."

Inter-club booters transfer May 15-30

UNB, Dhaka

Inter-club booters transfer for the Metropolis Football League will take place May 15-30.

The decision was taken in a joint meeting of Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) and eight club representatives at BFF Bhavan Thursday.

The schedule was announced on heels of booters sharp reaction to the postponement of players transfer set for March 15 to April 15 because of BFF election on April 28 and camping of national booters training.

Booters on Tuesday announced their decision to boycott the league and tournament matches protesting the postponement of player transfer.

Independence Day Cycling Competition tomorrow

UNB, Dhaka

The Independence Day Cycling Competition, organised by Bangladesh Cycling Federation, will be held in and around the streets of Bangabandhu National Stdium (BNS) here Saturday from 2:30pm.

Interested participants have been requested to enlist their names by Friday at the Federation office.

Dhoni says policy of youth vindicated

Reuters, India

India's one-day captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni says the tri-series victory in Australia has vindicated his decision to leave out premier batsmen Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid from the competition.

India beat world champions Australia 2-0 in the finals earlier this month after the selectors pitched for youth at Dhoni's behest and controversially dropped former captain Ganguly despite the left- hander's consistency at test level.

Ganguly and Dravid, who was the first to feel the heat of the one- day shake-up late last year, are two of just three Indians to score over 10,000 runs in one-day cricket.

"I was pretty clear about the players I wanted in the side," Dhoni told Cricinfo web site."That's what I said to the selectors as well. You can see the kind of team I got."

The axing of Ganguly and Dravid set off a nation-wide debate in cricket-mad India given the challenge of playing in Australia.

"It's very important because the process and the timing were criticised a lot," Dhoni said. "But sometimes it is very important to send the message across, because sometimes people neglect the answer."

Dhoni, 26, was made one-day captain after Dravid quit following the England tour in September last year and guided a young team to a surprise triumph at the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup.

Dhoni said he had asked his players in Australia to stand up with questions being raised about his team selection.

"What now? Why are people not asking the same questions now? Because if the result was not in our favour, what would have happened?" he said.

Nadal rallies to beat Tsonga in rematch of Australian Open semifinal

AP, Indian Wells

Rafael Nadal came back to win the final five games and beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Wednesday in an intense, crowd-pleasing rematch of their Australian Open semifinal.

Nadal, the defending Indian Wells champion, avenged his lopsided loss in Melbourne with a scrappy 6-7 (4), 7-6 (3) 7-5 victory in the fourth round of the Pacific Life Open.

After Tsonga, a hard-hitting Frenchman, went up 5-2 in the third set, Nadal held serve the rest of the way and broke Tsonga's serve in the ninth and 11th games to take a 6-5 lead.

No. 1 Roger Federer, bidding for his fourth Indian Wells title in five years, cruised to a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Ivan Ljubicic to also move into the quarterfinals.

Maria Sharapova ran her 2008 record to 18-0 and gained the women's semifinals with a 7-6(2), 6-1 victory over defending champion Daniela Hantuchova. Sharapova won the tournament in 2006, and Hantuchova has taken the title twice, the first time in 2002.

James Blake took a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Richard Gasquet, and Mardy Fish beat two-time Indian Wells champion Lleyton Hewitt 7-5, 3-6, 7-6(4) to advance to the quarterfinals.

With the crowd beginning to cheer even as he set up for the shot, the Spaniard capped the match by slamming an overhead past Tsonga. The 22-year-old Tsonga, who has vaulted from 212 in the rankings in 2006 to No. 17, upset No. 2 Nadal 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 in the Australian Open semis before losing to Novak Djokovic in the final.

Nadal insisted he wasn't out for revenge, but acknowledged that the match was significant in another way.

"He is going to be one of the rivals for this year, will try to be in the top positions, so I try to win. These matches are very important always," the 21-year-old Spaniard said.

He believes Tsonga has the potential to move into the top three or four spots, saying, "He has an unbelievable forehand."

Tsonga considered the match important for another reason.

"I would like to show everybody my run in the Australian Open was not luck," he said. "I want to prove to everybody I can play at this level, so I'm disappointed about this."

Tsonga played brilliantly at times in the rematch against the 21-year-old Nadal, but mistakes cost him at other times.

After ending a long rally when both hit several outstanding shots, Tsonga ended it with a drop shot that Nadal somehow managed to hit back, then a bang-bang volley that left Nadal lying on the ground at the end of the point. That brought Tsonga back from a 15-40 deficit to deuce in the 11th game, but he quickly followed that with a double-fault, then hit a forehand long to lose the game.

Driving powerful forehands down the lines, Tsonga had 47 winners overall - but made 56 unforced errors. The far more consistent Nadal finished with 27 winners and 27 unforced errors. Tsonga, who had 18 aces when he stunned Nadal in Australia, had 11 against him at Indian Wells, but also double-faulted seven times.

The match lasted 3 hours, 3 minutes, and the crowd seemed rapt, reacting loudly to practically every point. Some fans yelled "Go, Ali!" a Tsonga nickname alluding to his resemblance to boxing great Muhammad Ali, and others screaming, "You can do it, Rafa!"

In other matches, Djokovic advanced with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Guillermo Canas; Tommy Haas edged Andy Murray 2-6, 7-5, 6-3; and David Nalbandian beat Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-2, 6-2.

In a women's quarterfinal, Svetlana Kuznetsova beat Agnieszka Radwanska 6-2, 6-4.