Short Corner — Chandigarh

Keen competition
The Dutch have already begun partying in anticipation of their men’s team winning the ninth World Cup hockey tournament which commences here on Thursday. It might be a bit premature, but The Netherlands, in the wake of the gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, believe that they can make it a double.

Bakre defeated
Tejas Bakre’s dream of earning a Grandmaster norm was shattered as the Indian crashed to his first defeat in the Asian Junior Chess Championship here today. And yet he won the title and also became India’s 22nd International Master.

Football team
Even as uncertainity hangs over Indian football team’s participation in the Bangkok Asian Games, the All India Football Federation has decided to go ahead with preparations.

Strange decision
Why was Rajiv Mishra brought to Utrecht by the Indian Hockey Federation.If he was not fit in India, how do you expect a player to be fit in three days out of which one day he would take to recover from the non-stop journey to Amsterdam. For a player to come to the World Cup and then not be able to play is like a death blow. A hockey player always looks back on the World Cup and the Olympics as his career highlights.

Games’ baton
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee will receive the Kuala Lumpur Commonweath Games baton at his official residence here tomorrow.

Testing time
Adam Hollioake’s England one-day specialists, dominant in the desert but crushed in the Caribbean, face their most testing assignment in three matches against South Africa starting at the Oval tomorrow.

Tendulkar is back
Indian selectors recalled top stars, including Sachin Tendulkar, while effecting wholesale changes in the 14-member team for the next two matches in the Coca-Cola tri series involving Kenya and Bangladesh.