India file

Basketball academy
INDORE: The National Basketball Academy (NBA) here will start functioning from June 1 instead of January 1.The decision was taken in view of representations from parents and students from all over the country to pospone the date due to their inablity to attend the final selection trials and because of student’s final board examinations.

The last date of receiving applications for admission intoNBA from eligible players (boys only) in the 13-22 years age group will now be February 25 next year.

Chowhan elected
NEW DELHI: MC Chowhan has been elected vice-president of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF).

Chowhan, who is secretary-general of the Table Tennis Federation of India, is the first Indian to be elected to the post. The uanimous election took place at the Asian Table Tennis Union’s executive board meeting in Chiba, Japan, recently after his name was proposed by China and seconded by Iran.

Indian probables
MUMBAI: Mohammed Kaif (UP) and Reetinder Singh Sodhi (Punjab), who were part of the India A squad that toured West Indies, are among 25 probables chosen by the National junior selectors for the under-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka from January 11-28.

Probables: Mohammed Kaif (UP), Reetinder Singh Sodhi (Punjab), Yuvraj Singh (Punjab), Sailab Shrivastava (UP), Ajay Ratra (Haryana), Venugopal Rao (Andhra), Niraj Patel (Gujarat), Amit Suman (Delhi), MTripathi (UP), Pallav Vora (Gujarat), Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan (TN), Rakesh Dhruv (Saurashtra), RR Das (Orissa), Amir Hasmi (Bihar), Pradeep Chawla (Delhi), Manish Sharma (Punjab), Amit Deshpande (Vidharbha), Anup Dave (Rajasthan), Manish Mishra (MP), CM Shyam (Kerala), Gautam Gambhir (Delhi), Sushant Manjrekar (Mumbai), Subhamoy Das (Bengal), G Chitra (Karnataka) and Mihir Diwakar (Bihar).

Gupta to lead
MUMBAI: Delhi’s Rajan Gupta was chosen to lead the Rest of India under-19 team against Cooch Behar Trophy champions Punjab in the four-day MA Chidambaram Trophy in Punjab from January 7-10.

Team: Rajan Gupta (Delhi, captain), Uday Karvadara (Saurashtra, vice-capt), Aniket Srivastava (MP, wk), MS Dhoni, Ratan Kumar (both Bihar), Ashok Sharma (MP), Sujay Mohanty (Orissa), Mohd Faque (Andhra), Suhail Sharma (Delhi), Vipul Patel (Gujarat), Vishal Kudwala (TN), Ashu Sharma, Alok Pandey (both UP), Chetan Sharma and Dhruv Mohan (both Delhi).

BCCI clarifies
MUMBAI: The second and finalTest in the forthcoming home series against South Africa would be held at Bangalore between March 2-6 and not from March 1-5, it was clarified by the cricket Board.

Feb 19-21: vs President’s XI at Mumbai, Feb 24-28: First Test at Mumbai, March 2-6: Second Test at Bangalore. March 9, 11,14, 17, 20: One-day Internationals (venues to be identified).

Premjit tops
PATIALA: Railwayman Premjit Singh won the 20-km race in the track championship and collected 39 points while Raminder Singh (34) of Punjab Police and Zorawar Singh (18) of SSCB were second and third respectively.Jeeta Ram (Railways) won the men’s 4000 metres individual pursuit clocking 05:27.01 secs. Sarabjit Singh (Punjab) and Pradeep Singh Sandhu (Punjab Police) with timings of 05:30.07 and 05:26.40 were second and third respectively.

Sangli to host
SANGLI: The All-India Chess Federation (AICF) has allotted the next edition of the Commonwealth Chess to Sangli, which will be hosted by the Nutan Buddhibal Mandal from Feb21-March 3, 2000.

Manisha advances
LUCKNOW: Manisha Malhotra opened her campaign in the ITF women’s Futures tennis championship with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Tara Kanbargimath.

Results: Singles: M Malhotra (Ind) bt Tara Kanbargimath (Ind) 6-4 6-2; Autonia M (Cro) bt Masav (Slo) 6-4 5-3 (conceded); R Chakravorty (Ind) bt S Thakur (Ind) 6-3 6-2; Geeta Marwhar (Ind) bt Harisimran Kaur (Ind) 6-3 6-1; Tong Ka Po (HK) bt S Mossaikova (Rus) 6-1 6-1; U Vesenjak (Slo) bt S Stutti (Ind) 6-2 6-0; Archana Venkatraman (Ind) bt R Tulpule (Ind); 6-3 6-2; A Nefredova (Rus) bt T Grover (Ind) 6-0 6-0.