Yeti Airlines crush Galaxian for title

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KATHMANDU, Feb 1 : Yeti Airlines humbled Galaxian Cricket Club by eight wickets to clinch the Birendra Memorial Cricket tournament organised by Kathmandu Cricket Club -a club formed by the cricketers and cricket lovers of Janakpur.

In the rain curtailed title clash at the local Tundikhel, Galaxy elected to bat first but lost wickets at regular interval compiling just 73 runs in 23 overs - 4-over short of the allotted 27 overs. In reply, Yeti Airlines lost the wickets of allrounder Prafulla Vaidhya and Sandeep Shrestha to chase the target in 12 overs.

"Since the match was curtailed we lacked match planning," said Galaxian captain Vikranta Chettri, who also praised Yeti bowling. "They bowled superbly and we in our desperate attempt to pile a handsome target tempted to play big shots," Chettri admitted his team’s flaw.

On the other hand, his counterpart Raju Khadka, who is also the skipper of Nepali national side, credited coordination among the teammates as the key to their success. "We are the same side from a couple of year so my players know about our strategy on the field.

"Apart from this, we individually know the strength and weakness of almost all the Galaxian batsmen, so we went for their weaknesses and fortunately we exploited them quite easily," added Khadka. "He also urged the private sector to invest on sports especially cricket to promote cricket and cricketers in the country.

Galaxians started their innings disastrously when the semifinal hero Sudhir Gwalior went back to the pavilion for nought in the first ball off veteran right-arm seamer Prafulla Vaidhya, who also dismissed Dipesh Shrestha in his very next ball. Vaidhya notched three top-order batsmen of Galaxy in his fiery opening spell. Kaniska Chaugain topscored for the Galaxian belting 30 runs, which included three boundaries. The other two batsmen to reach double figures in Galaxian innings were Sanjeev Chaudhary and Bantu Bataju.

Vaidhya, who was later declared man of the final, claimed four wickets in his six-over spell conceding 26 runs. Left-arm orthodox spinner Raju Basnet continued his consistency claiming three wickets in six overs. Skipper Raju Khadka polished the tail picking up two wickets in an over.

Chasing a small target, bowling hero Vaidhya was caught behind after scoring eight runs. Sandip Shrestha ran away with the match smashing 42 runs off just 41 deliveries. He was dropped by Sanjam Regmi at the silly-point off Binod Das’ first delivery of the innings. The lapse cost the Galaxians dear as Shrestha belted six perfectly-timed boundaries in his fluent innings.

Monik Shrestha played cautiously to remain unbeaten at 18 while Paresh Lohani belted the winning run to score unbeaten four runs. Sudhir Chaudhary and Bantu Bataju shared a wicket apiece for Galaxy.

Rajiv Shrestha of Yeti Airlines was adjudged the best bowler of the tournament for picking eight wickets in four matches after delivering 94 overs. Likewise, allrounder Mehaboob Alam of Janakalyan, Thapathali walked away with the award of best batsman for scoring 183 runs off 101 balls in two matches of the tournament. Sandeep Shrestha was adjudged man of the series. CAN president Jai Kumar Nath Shah, Nepali national coach and Former Sri Lankan Test legend Roy Dias along with CAN treasurer Shashi Dutt Pandey and member Upendra Bhattarai gave away the trophy, cash prizes and certificates to the winners and runners-up.

Rana elected head of OCA

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KATHMANDU, Feb 1 : The National Olympic Committee president Rukma SJB Rana was elected as the president of the Media Committee of Olympic Committee of Asia (OCA).

At a press conference organized in the capital on Saturday, the council confirmed that Rana, after claiming the presidential position in the Media Committee, also automatically became the member of the Executive Committee of the OCA . The OCA General Congress was held in Kuwait from Jan 22-24. He will remain in the post until 2007.

Apart from Rana, the NSC general-secretary Dhruba Bahadur Pradhan and NSC member-secretary Kishor Bahadur Singh were also elected as the member of the Rules Committee and Culture and Education Committee respectively. The representatives of four countries of the South Asian Zone were elected in the Executive Committee of the OCA.

Speaking at the programme organized to extend greeting to the newly appointed National Sports Council member-secretary Kishor Bahadur Singh, Rana vowed to go forward with close coordination with the council. Likewise, Singh also stressed his will to perform in harmony with the NSC. "My sports backgrounds have instilled the spirit of team work in me. So, I know we have to work collectively to develop the state of sports in the country," said the newly appointed member-secretary.

Meanwhile, NOC president Rana also said that the committee is making a project proposal, to the OCA, for grant of US$ 100,000 which would help the development of sports in all the 44 member countries. He also hinted that the election of the committee would be carried out before the ninth South Asian Federation Games.