The Hindu : Musharraf praises Tendulkar and Balaji

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 18, 2004

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Musharraf praises Tendulkar and Balaji

RAWALPINDI, MARCH 17. Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf, on Wednesday, hosted tea party for both teams at his office in Islamabad.

He showered praises on Sachin Tendulkar's batting skills and Lakshmipathy Balaji's blitzkrieg against speed-king Shoaib Akthar in Tuesday's match. He also congratulated Indian batting maestro for crossing 13,000 runs in limited-overs internationals, a spokesman said.

``I'm sure you will be feeling comfortable (in Pakistan). The way the crowd has responded in the two games shows that the Pakistani people are sports lovers,'' Musharraf told the Indian players.

``We thought you had taken the match away from us,'' Musharraf told Balaji.

Musharraf also praised the way the crowd responded to the two closely contested games.

``They (the spectators) appreciated both teams. Although both games went down to the wire, cricket was the ultimate winner. It didn't matter who won,'' Musharraf said.

``I'm sure both teams will play some more competitive and exciting cricket in the remaining part of the series,'' he was quoted as saying.

Inzamam fined

Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq was fined 80 percent of his match fee for his team's slow overrate during its second one-day international against India, a cricket official said on Wednesday.

Pakistan Cricket Board spokesman Samiul Hasan said Inzaman was the only person fined for his team failing to bowl 50 overs in the allocated 3-1/2 hours.

The International Cricket Council's match referee, Ranjan Madugalle, who had earlier fined both teams and captains during the five-match series' opening game in Karachi on Saturday, imposed the fine.

Ganguly's beamer to Akhtar

Pakistan's Shoaib Akhtar may have put in a fiery performance in front of his home crowd in his 100th one-day International but Indian captain Sourav Ganguly's comments on his bowling action may leave him fuming.

Akhtar helped Pakistan win the second one-dayer against India by 12 runs but his bowling action came up for discussion again.

Asked whether he felt that all of Akhtar's deliveries were legal, Ganguly said, "What do you think, watching on TV? I think we all know the answer, don't we?"

Although Ganguly left it to the media to make its own judgement, it was bound to fuel yet another debate on Akhtar's controversial bowling action.

Sachin is the greatest: Inzamam

Sachin Tendulkar is the `greatest batsman' of the world, and over the years he has proved his cricketing mettle, Pakistani captain Inzamam-ul-Haq said while praising the master blaster for hitting a brilliant 141 off 135 balls.

"There is no doubt he is the greatest batsman," The News quoted Inzamam as saying of Tendulkar, who hit his 37th ODI century.

"In the last 13-14 years, he has worked so hard and has proved to the world that he is outstanding, and when he is playing so well you can only wait to get his wicket," Inzamam said.

Bhandari for Nehra

Delhi seamer Amit Bhandari will replace left-arm paceman Ashish Nehra for the rest of the series in Pakistan, the Indian Cricket Board said.

The decision to send Bhandari was taken after the Board got a request from the team management asking for a replacement for Nehra, who was ruled out of the remaining matches against Pakistan after he cut the webbing on his left-hand in the second one-day match at Rawalpindi.

"The team management today requested for a replacement for Nehra and the selectors have decided to send Bhandari," BCCI secretary and selection committee convenor S.K. Nair told PTI over phone from Thiruvananthapuram. "He should be there before the third one-dayer to be held at Peshawar on March 19," Nair said.

Ready for return trip

Pakistan is keen to play a one-day series in India before taking on the world champion Australia by the yearend.

"If we are invited, we will be happy to go. It will be a good preparation for our tour of Australia scheduled at the end of the year," The News quoted Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief executive Rameez Raja as saying on Tuesday. — Agencies

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport

News Update

Stories in this Section

Cricket

Fans are the biggest winners

`I have not seen a batsman better than Tendulkar'

Gilchrist leads fightback

Musharraf praises Tendulkar and Balaji

Tamil Nadu takes first innings honours

Four TN players for academy training

Tennis

Agassi in last eight

Sukul upsets Mathew

Football

Felix stars in Mahindra's big win

Athletics

Shobha sets National record, qualifies for Olympics

Chess

Ganguly, Gokhale join leaders