Panesar earns place on tour to India after hard winter of work
Cricket: Monty Panesar, the Northamptonshire left-arm spinner, has every chance of becoming the first Sikh to play for England after being chosen yesterday as the final player for the tour to India next month. Panesar was preferred to Ian Blackwell, the Somerset left-armer, and Alex Loudon, the Warwickshire off spinner, as fears grew that Ashley Giles may not be able to take part in the three-Test series.
The selectors had left the last place open while they considered their options and Panesar, 23, has impressed them with his winter’s work at the South Australia academy in Adelaide.
The chances of Panesar playing increased with a disturbing medical bulletin on Giles, who has been told to rest by a specialist after suffering discomfort in his right hip in the wake of an operation in December. “The medical team’s view is that it is unlikely that he will be fit for the start of the tour,” Peter Gregory, the ECB’s chief medical officer, said.
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Blackwell is on standby in case Giles fails to recover, but has also been named, along with Loudon, in the England A squad for their five-week tour to the West Indies.
David Parsons, a former off spinner in the Birmingham League and the present England Under-15 coach, has been named as England’s first spin-bowling coach. Allan Donald, however, has withdrawn his application to become the fast-bowling coach after being told that he is wanted by South Africa.
Stenson is master of the East
Golf: Henrik Stenson is in the best form of any professional player in Europe and one of the most improved, so there is justice in the way that he took a one-stroke lead in the Commercialbank Qatar Masters at the halfway stage. On Sunday, in Abu Dhabi, he had finished one stroke behind Chris DiMarco, the champion (John Hopkins writes) .
Stenson followed his opening round of 66 with a 68 yesterday and said: “It was a mixed bag out there today, but a 68 is a 68, no matter what it looked like.” The Swede is within a whisker of winning a place in the Europe Ryder Cup team with seven months to go. “Henrik in the Ryder Cup? I’d put my house on it — if I had one,” Nick Dougherty, the Englishman who had a 67 to lie two shots behind Stenson, said.
It might have been only one but for a three-wood from the fairway of the 9th, his eighteenth, that he hit thin — as bad a shot as I have seen a professional play. At this point, Dougherty suffered a nosebleed, perhaps through embarrassment.
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Danny Denison, 20, the amateur who had led so many top professionals on Thursday, kept going nobly for nine holes until it all caught up with him and he dropped six strokes in five holes. He finished bravely, though, parring his last three holes to ensure his presence today and tomorrow.
Smith on fast track to MotoGP
Motorcycling: Bradley Smith will swap an Oxfordshire classroom for a crowd of 200,000 motorcycle fans when he makes his debut in the 125cc World Championship in Spain in March. The 15-year-old, pictured right, has signed to ride a Honda in the series that is regarded as the stepping stone to MotoGP.
“It’s all happened so fast but I will take it in my stride, not get carried away and face the challenge with an open mind,” he said, while en route to a two-day test in Barcelona. “I can’t wait for the test and this will be a massive learning year for me.”
Gardener puts glory before cash
Athletics: While Dwain Chambers may not be able to afford to race again, Jason Gardener, a fellow British sprinter, has turned down the chance of a lucrative payday. Chambers should learn in the next fortnight whether he will be ordered to pay back dishonestly-earned prize-money before he is allowed to return (David Powell writes).
Gardener, in the meantime, has been spoilt for choice. He has chosen not to defend his world indoor 60 metres title in Moscow because the championship takes place shortly before the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. Gardener, who would earn $40,000 (about £22,500) if he retained his title, has opted for Melbourne because he wants to put all his efforts into proving himself at 100 metres.
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“All my preparations have been geared towards Melbourne, whereas I think a lot of my rivals are trying to do both,” Gardener said. “I understand that, because there is a lot of prize-money to be made.”
Gardener has yet to win an international championship medal at 100 metres, although he was a member of Great Britain’s winning Olympic 4 x 100 metres team in Athens two years ago. He appears today in the Norwich Union International in Glasgow.
Williams sound warning note
Motor racing: Williams launched their new car for the coming Formula One season yesterday in optimistic mood — despite having lost BMW as their engine supplier, HP, the computer maker, as title sponsor and Jenson Button as their leading driver.
The young Briton preferred to give Sir Frank Williams almost £18 million in compensation than move from Honda Racing, but Sir Frank said: “I would be surprised if Jenson did not win a race this year. We are going to be defiant. Losing BMW is a blow, but we have the resources and brain power. We have as much and more than many and are ambitious.”
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Earl holds out
Boxing: Graham Earl, the British and Commonwealth lightweight champion, overcame nerve-wracking final rounds to record the best win of his career against Yuri Romanov, a world-ranked Belarussian, in Dagenham last night. Earl, 27, set a fast early pace but was staggered badly in the ninth and eleventh rounds before holding on for a 116-114 points victory. “On the big occasion, I always deliver,” Earl, who is next likely to face Juan Carlos Díaz Melero, the European champion from Spain, said.
Top of the world
Badminton: Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms have regained the world No 1 ranking, despite failing to convert five match points against Zhang Jun and Gao Ling, the Olympic champions, in last Sunday’s All-England final. The English pair beat Nova Widianto and Lilyana Natsir, the world champions from Indonesia, in the semi-finals, where Lee Jae Jin and Lee Hyo Jung, the top-seeded South Koreans, lost. Emms and Robertson won the China Open and the Swiss Open.
Harlow’s mission
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Bowls: Greg Harlow, the No 14 seed from Cambridgeshire, faces Jamie Hill, a rangy 24-year-old New Zealander, for a place in the final of the WBT World Indoor Singles Championship at Potters Leisure Resort in Norfolk today. Hill beat Richard Morgan, from Cardiff, 11-6, 8-8 in the quarter-finals yesterday. Mervyn King, from Norfolk, who defeated Steve Rees, from Swansea, 7-7, 9-3, will play Robert Paxton, a 27-year-old postman from Exeter, in the other semi-final.
Navka facing ban
Ice skating: Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov, the newly crowned European ice dance champions from Russia, could miss the chance to win Olympic gold at the Winter Games in Turin next month because Navka did not submit to a doping test after the European Championships in Lyons last week. The World Anti-Doping Agency’s policy calls for a two-year suspension for a first offence for an athlete who refuses or fails to submit to a drug test.
Barrett boost
Rugby league: Wigan Warriors moved a step closer yesterday in their attempt to sign Trent Barrett, the Australia stand-off, for the 2007 season. Barrett has been given permission by St George Illawarra Dragons, his NRL team, to talk to British clubs. “I’ll be dropping a note to Wigan saying, ‘Let’s talk turkey’, as we’ve cleared the air with the Dragons,” Wayne Beavis, Barrett’s agent, said.