
Mukherjea resigns as Davis captain
CALCUTTA: Non-playing captain of Indian Davis Cup team Jaideep Mukherjea today resigned from captaincy. Mukherjea sent his resignation to the president of the All-India Tennis Association, RK Khanna, citing personal reasons.
8220;I was involved as non-playing captain for quite a long time and I did my best to serve the country. But for the last six months there were so much controversy,8221; he said. Mukherjea suggested Ramesh Krishnan8217;s name for a successor.
Double for Blues
HYDERABAD: India Blues, represented by Ashok Ruia, JM Shah, Kamal Mukherjee, Honey B Prabhakar, R Krishnan and Ashok goel, won a double crown by annexing the Dhampur Sugar Mill Trophy, symbol of supremacy in the board-a-match event in the 41st National Bridge championship today. Blues had earlier won the principal team of four duplicate event.
Asian Youth Chess
AHMEDABAD: Local hopes will rest with Valay Parikh and Anoori Shah, who have been given special entries for theAsian Youth Chess Championships beginning on Wednesday. The 10-day event has attracted nine countries Pakistan, Bangladesh, Singapore, Australia, Kazakhstan, Almaty, Iran, Sri Lanka and Vietnam besides the hosts.
Indian squad: Boys U-10: K Vijay Kirti, Rahul Sangma. U-12 Deepan Chakravarti, R Siddharth, Koneru Humpy. U-14: Saptarshi Roy, P Harikrishna, MR Venkatesh, Valay Parikh.
Girls U-10: Mary Ann Gomes, Soumya Swaminathan, Anoori Shah. U-12: Eesha Karvade, R Mahima. U-14: Shraddha Samani, C Delphin.
Zaman stunned
BHIMAVARAM: Kamala Kannan of Tamil Nadu upset third seed Sanzaruz Zaman 6-2, 6-2 and moved into the second round of the men8217;s singles of the All-India Ranking tennis tournament at Cosmopolitan Club.
Results: Men8217;s singles first round: Kamal Kannan bt Sanzaruz Zaman 6-2 6-2. Doubles first round: Kedar Shah/Shiv Shankar bt S Mahesh/N Venkatesh 6-1 6-1, Vinod Sridhar/S Ganesh bt Kamala Kannan/Sanjay 6-1 6-1.
Hanuman8217;s 100
GORAKHPUR:A Rs 1.51 lakh prize money wrestling championship will be organised on March 5 next to mark the centenary celebrations of Guru Hanuman.
Natl equestrian
CHENNAI: The National Equestrian Championship will be held here between December 16-27. Francis-Tyson fight LONDON: Julius Francis, British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion, was confirmed today to fight Mike Tyson on January 29 in Manchester, England. Officials said 18,000 tickets had been sold in two days at Manchester8217;s 21,000-seat arena.
Rafter recovery
SYDNEY: Former World No 1 Pat Rafter has only an outside chance of playing singles at next month8217;s Australian Open. The Queenslander told reporters at the launch of his book, Rocket to the Top, that he may play doubles.
Tallest hoopster
SEOUL: North Korea will send Ri Myung-Hoon,the world8217;s tallest basketball player, to play in landmark inter-Korean matches in Seoul next week. Ri, who at 2.35 metres tall 78217;8quot; has drawn interest from US professional teams,will be among a delegation of 62 athletes and officials to visit Seoul.
8211;ENS amp; Agencies