Greater Kashmir

SRINAGAR | July 9, 2014, Wednesday

SPORTS

epaper.GreaterKashmir.com

Golf: PGTI Kashmir Masters to
tee-off at Royal Springs today
Jyoti Randhawa, Rashid Khan among top contenders
Srinagar, July 8: The PGTI
Kashmir Masters organized by
Professional Golf Tour of India
(PGTI), the official sanctioning body of professional golf
in India, will start at world
famous Royal Springs Golf
Course here on Wednesday.
A handout issued by the
organizers said the tournament, the third of seven Super
Series events scheduled in
2014, carries an attractive
prize purse of Rs. 50 lakh. The
Pro-Am event will be played
on July 13.
As per the handout, the
tournament will feature a
galaxy of Indian stars such
as former Asia no. 1 Jyoti
Randhawa, reigning Rolex
Rankings champion Rashid
Khan and Asian Tour regulars SSP Chowrasia, Himmat
Singh Rai, Rahil Gangjee
and Chiragh Kumar. The
other leading Indian golfers
in the field include Shamim
Khan, Mukesh Kumar, Chikkarangappa and Shubhankar
Sharma, to name a few.
The foreign challenge
will be led by Sri Lankan
Mithun Perera, who is currently ranked second in
the Rolex Rankings. The
other top foreign profes-

I played here before
turning professional:
Randhawa
sionals in the field are Sri
Lankans K Prabagaran,
N Thangaraja, Australian
Kunal Bhasin, Shivaram
Shrestha of Nepal and Bangladesh’s Md Zamal Hossain Mollah.
The tournament will also
feature six professionals
and five amateurs from the
host state. The professionals
are Bhawani Singh Parmar,
Showkat Maqbool Pandow,
Fayaz Ahmed Langoo, Shabir
Pandow, Rafiq Pandow and
Raghav Wahi. The four local
amateurs are Majid Khan,
Sanjeev Singh, Zubair Hasan
Zargar, Naseer Kachroo and
Sanjay Wahi.
Seven events will be staged
as part of the PGTI Super
Series in 2014 with a total

prize purse of Rs. 4.5 crore.
Points are allocated for each
event of the Super Series. The
player with the highest points
at the end of the seven Super
Series events stands to earn
a bonus of Rs. 30 lakh. Shubhankar Sharma, the winner
of the season’s second Super
Series event, currently leads
the Super Series points table
with 1115 points. Anirban
Lahiri is in second place with
968.5 points followed by Rahil
Gangjee in third place at 686.3
points.
On holding of the event,
Danish Aman, Director,
Kashmir Events Organization
(KEO) said :, “I feel that professional golf is the best way
to exhibit the fabulous golf
courses we have in Kashmir

Following criticism, DCL
reverts 'icon-player' cap
Srinagar, July 8: After facing
criticism from some of its
franchisees, the management
of the Downtown Champions
League T20 has rolled back
some of the recently made
decisions that include raising
the cap for icon players cap to
one player per franchisee.
As per a statement issued
here, the DCL managing body
held a meeting of its organizing committee and team
owners on Monday in which
several decisions were made.
“Each franchise can have
only one Icon player and
rest of the 15 players are to
be taken in bidding. The
maximum bidding price for
any icon player can’t exceed
beyond Rs 25000. KDCL-T20

Botham tips England
to beat India
London, July 8: The legendary England allrounder
Ian Botham has tipped
Alastair Cook's side to beat
India by a 3-1 or a 2-0 margin
in the upcoming five-match
Investec Test series.
The war of words is on.
Despite England's on and off
field struggles, Botham feels that
The Three Lions will exploit the
weaknesses in the touring side
to beat them evens. "It's got to
be an England win for me," Ian
Botham was quoted as saying
in his special feature Beefy Bets
onskysports.com. "India's batting is very strong but it's their
bowling department where they
are weak. "They (England) aren't
playing well but I think India's
bowlers will struggle and with
home advantage England will
have the edge."

2014 edition will only feature
players from Jammu and
Kashmir,” the statement said.
“All players who had not
played in the inaugural edition of KDCL for one or other
reason will feature now in
the second edition,” it further said.
The meeting was held following the criticism by some
of the franchisee owners
regarding certain decision
made which included the
player cap.
“It was a wrong decision
taken by the management
without consulting us. We
don’t have too many high
caliber players in the State
and there was no logic behind
raising icon player cap to four

for each franchisee. The event
concept should be to give
level platform to each team
to raise the standard of the
event,” said one of the team
owners.
“It was also wrong to allow
outside players to take part in
the league that is meant for
promotion of Cricket in JK
and to give platform to our
youth. When we allow outside State players to play in
the event how will our youngsters get a chance to play,” he
said.
Meanwhile DCL T20 statement further said that the
league is likely to start after
Eid and the bidding for players would be held in first
week of August.

Srinagar, July 8: One of
India’s top golfers, Jyoti
Randhawa, who arrived in
the Kashmir valley a week
prior to the Pahalgam event,
expressed delight on getting
yet another opportunity to
play golf in the picturesque
valley.
“I’m delighted to be back
in Jammu & Kashmir for
the tournament. I have very
fond memories of playing
golf in the state. I played
a lot of golf in places such

as Jammu, Gulmarg and
Nagrota, before turning
professional. I also won the
last professional tournament held in J&K 10 years
back”, he said.
“The hills in the backdrop
and the pine trees that line
the fairways, lend the Royal
Springs Golf Course a distinct character. This magnificent venue will help promote
Jammu & Kashmir as a golfing destination,” added Jyoti
a former Asian No 1 golfer.

and I am sure that these tournaments will go a long way
in promoting Kashmir as a
major Golfing destination in
the country.”
Announcing the event,
Padamjit Sandhu, Director,
PGTI, said, “We are delighted
to bring men’s professional

golf back to Srinagar after
a 10-year hiatus. The magnificent Royal Springs Golf
Course is set to witness an
exhilarating week of golf as a
highly-competitive field vies
for the handsome prize purse
of Rs. 50 lakh and vital Super
Series points”.

Islamia College
Sports Festival

Inter-group
badminton
tourney begins

Srinagar, July 8: As part
of the Sports Festival organized by Islamia College of
Science & Commerce, the
Inter-Group Badminton
tournament was inaugurated at college playfield here
on Tuesday.The event was
inaugurated by Prof. (Dr.)
Muhammad Aslam Baba.
The first match of the tournament was played between
ICS Blues and ICS Oranges
in which ICS Oranges
defeated Blues by 2-1 set
In the second match, ICS
Whites defeated ICS Greens
by 2-1. In the semi-finals ICS
Oranges will clash with ICS
Reds and ICS Greens will clash
ICS Yellows on Wednesday.

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Fletcher wants Dravid to
rebuild Team India
New Dehi, July 8:
Chief coach Duncan
On an invitation
Fletcher wants a longer
role for Rahul Dravid from the
for Team India. This is Team India
the first time, an over- management,
seas coach has welcomed an Indian great Rahul Dravid
in the dressing room agreed to be part
and it was on Fletcher's of the dressing
invitation that Dravid
agreed to play the role room till up to the
of a mentor till the first Test starting
start of the first Test in Nottingham
against England from
on July 9. Duncan
July 9. And as India
aim to build a new gen- Fletcher now
eration side, Fletcher wants a longer
wants a longer role for
role for the former
the former Indian Test
Indian Test skipper.
skipper.
Speaking to the
of whom
BCCI website (www.bcci.tv), would be playing a Test series
Fletcher said: "Rahul can in England for the first time
play a role right through. in their careers. Having lost
His approach and his char- the 2011 series in England
acter is so good. I've really 4-0, India are taking every
enjoyed talking cricket with precaution to look the hosts
Rahul. I really rated him and in the eye. India are withwanted him back in the side out a VVS Laxman, Sachin
for some time now. We've Tedulkar and Dravid this
had some chats since he got time and much of the responhere and discussed various sibility will lie on Virat Kohli
ideas and possibilities. What and skipper Mahendra Singh
I also like about him is that Dhoni. Dravid was the only
he can relate to the players one who stood amid the 2011
culturally. Also, if a player ruins.
gets the same message from
During this transimore than one person, he is tion period, Fletcher feels
going to be more convinced Dravid's role was crucial.
about it."
"Fortunately for me, I went
Dravid was invited to by through a similar phase
the team management to with England where the
address a young side, many older players were left out or

retired and a whole new generation of cricketers came
in. The major difference is
that with the older ones you
just sit back and let them
come to you. No matter how
good and experienced one is,
bad habits sometimes creep
in and you've got to help
them get rid of those small
bad habits without being too
overbearing.
"The younger players are
a bit reluctant because they
don't understand their game
fully. So, you've got to go to
them and talk to them. However, you have to make sure
you send the message very
clearly because otherwise
they can get confused and
start making their game more
difficult.

JK to host 27th Atya Patya National c’ship
Srinagar, July 8: J&K state
is all set to host the 27th edition of the Junior National
Atya Patya Championship at
GGM Science College Jammu
from August 3 to 5.
As per a handout, the
event would be organized
by Jammu & Kashmir
Atya Patya Association in

which around 550 players
and 100 officials are going
to participate, representing various States of the
Country.
Giving details, Senior
Vice-President of the Association, Wasim Raja said that
Association has made all the
arrangements and the event

is set to turn out as huge success.
About Atya Patya as a
sport he said, “Atya patya
is a traditional Indian
sport played nine to a side,
between two sides. It is more
popular in rural areas of
India. It is more commonly
played in Maharashtra.

The Sport is recognized by
Ministry of Youth Affairs &
Sports, Govt. of India, Indian
Olympic Association, School
Games Federation of India,
and Association of Indian
Universities”.
He said the event will be
fully sponsored by J&K State
Sports Council

JKFA women’s football
tourney kicks-off
Srinagar, July 8: The women’s football tournament
organized by J&K Football
Association (JKFA) kickedoff at Women’s College MA
Road here on Tuesday.
In the opening match, Govt
HS School Chanpora defeated New Convent HS School
Goajbagh by 2 goals to nil.
Intika scored both the goals
for the winning side.
In the second match, Govt
Girls HS School Kothibagh
defeated New Convent HS
School Barzulla 2-0. Khushboo and Afreen scored one
goal each for the winners.
Meanwhile, Govt HS
School, Kothibagh defeated

Govt. H.S School Chanapora
by 2-1 in the third match of the
day. For Kothi Bagh, Intika
and Dua scored one goal each
while as for HSS Chanpora
Saima was the scorer.
In the fourth match,

Women’s College, Srinagar
defeated Green Valley Educational Institute, Elahibagh
by 7 goals to nil. For winning
team, Bushra scored four
goals while as Shahnaz scored
two and Rehan one.

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