LONDON, Jun 10 (UNI): The English counties have defied the BCCI diktat that teams having ICL players should be disqualifiedfrom the inaugural Champions League and are determined to field their best squads in the international Twenty20 tournament.
A spokesman of Lancashire, which has an ICL player Lou Vincent in their ranks, said in absence of any clear instructions from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), the position was quite unclear.
"If it is up to Cricket Australia (CA) to come up with rules and regs, then maybe they would like to get a wiggle on because this thing is about to start," he was quoted as saying by "The Times".
"Our priority is winning the Twenty20 Cup, which means picking our strongest team, including ICL players." "If we get to the final, it will be up to the tournament organisers whether we play in the Champions League.
If they do not want to see Andrew Flintoff and James Anderson out there, that is up to them," he added.
Earlier, Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner and chairman Lalit Modi had warned that the teams with Indian Cricket League (ICL) players in their ranks will not be allowed to play in the Champions League.
But that seems to be a tall order for the county teams with Essex, Middlesex and Somerset the only ones without ICL players in their ranks.
Four teams for Maintenance Command hockey CHANDIGARH, Jun 10 (UNI): Maintenance Command Inter Area Hockey Championship 2008-09 was inaugurated at the 3 BRD( 3 Base Repair Depot) Air Force sports ground by Air Commodore SC Luthra, Air Officer Commanding (AOC) 3 BRD here today.
Four teams namely Delhi area, Devlali area, Kanpur area and Nagpur area would be contesting the tournament which would go on till June 13.
Being conducted on behalf of Maintenance Command IAF, the aim of the championship is to select the Maintenance Command hockey team to for the forthcoming Inter Command Hockey Tournament which would also be held at Chandigarh.
The championship will be conducted as per the rules and regulations laid down by the Indian Hockey Federation.
Eesha maintains sole lead KOZHIKODE, June 10 (UNI) :Fourth seed Eesha Karvade of Maharashtra maintained the sole lead with 5.5 points when she drew with Nisha Mohota (five) of the Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) after the sixth round of the 35th National Women "B" Chess Championship here today.
The Pune girl had outwitted Bhakti Kulkarni of Goa to emerge the sole leader in the fifth round yesterday.
Aarti Ramaswami (TN), Mary Ann Gomes (WB), Swati Ghate (LIC) and Nimmy George (Ker) were in the second spot with five points each, apart from Nisha.
Important results: Eesha Karvade 5.5 (Mah) drew with Nisha Mohota 5 (PSPB), Aarti Ramaswami 5 (TN) drew with Mary An Gomes 5 (Goa), Swati Ghate 5 (LIC) bt Bhakti Kulkarni 4 (Goa), Nimmy George 5 (Ker) bt Swati Mohota 4 (WB), Krithika N 4.5 (TN) drew with Kruttika Nadig 4.5 (Mah), Padmini Rout 4.5 (Ori) bt Sangeeta M R 4 (TN), Raghavi N 4 (TN) drew with Sai Meera 4 (TN), Alka Das 4 (Jhar) drew with Preethi R 4 (TN), Amrita Mokal 4.5 (Mah) bt Devangi Patankar 3.5 (Mah), Supriya Maji 3.5 (WB) lost to Niji A 4.5 (Ker).
Gill not to be put on dock, says Aslam BHOPAL, June 10 (UNI): Hockey Selection Committee Chairman and former Olympian Aslam Sher Khan today said former IHF President K P S Gill would not be put on the dock for his shameful act of sending a letter to Poland showing incapability of Indian team to take part in the four-nation tournament slated in Poland capital from today.
"This act of Gill lowers the dignity of Indians at international scene and declined the morale of players preparing for the tournament in Sonepat," Khan told UNI today, adding that there was no doubt that he misused the official documents.
He said "Gill would now face the consequences as we would use this concrete evidence against him in the case which he filed against the government".
Gill filed a case in the court alleging that he was sacked from the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) without any "show cause notice".
"There is no need of dragging the accused to the court as a case was already being heared by the court involving both the parties," Aslam said.
The Olympian rued that the misdeed of Gill could not be forgiven by the Indian public.
Indian Hockey Team Captain Dilip Tirkey said though he would not comment on the matter such incidents obviously disappointed players.
"If players got more opportunities to play at international level then they will learn a lot and gain the confidence to bag the laurels to the country," he said.
"Putting aside all the issue had been preparing for the Asia Cup scheduled at Hyderabad from July 8, Tirkey added.
Liu"s "accident" leaves him short of races BEIJING, Jun 10 (Reuters): World champion Liu Xiang"s disqualification from the 110 metres hurdles at the Prefontaine Classic at the weekend was accidental and his hamstring injury is not serious enough to stop him training, according to his coach.
Sunday"s third false start in as many races caused further disruption to the world record holder"s preparations for his Olympic title defence in Beijing in August, where he is China"s best hope of an athletics gold medal.
"It was a relatively small accident, he was just too eager to run well," coach Sun Haiping told the Oriental Sports Daily.
"Over the next month, we will focus on his start in training." A tight hamstring forced Liu to withdraw from the only other race he planned to run in the US, the Reebok Grand Prix in New York the previous week but Sun again played down its seriousness saying at most it would take one to two weeks to clear up.
"His leg injury will not affect our training." he told the Wenhui newspaper.
The disqualification left the 24-year-old with the prospect of starting the Olympics without having had a full run-out against a quality field this season as his original training schedule had him spending the remainder of his time in Beijing.
Sun said there were plans to try and provide Liu with practice under race conditions in the Chinese capital, probably in July.
"We will organise two open simulated meetings at an appropriate time," he said.