Constantine names preliminary squad for Asian Cup Qualifiers
NEW DELHI: National football coach Stephen Constantine has named 11 players, who represented India in the AFC U-23 Qualifiers in Doha, in the preliminary squad of 28 for the forthcoming AFC Asian Cup Qualifier against Macau scheduled to be held in Bengaluru on October 11.
The squad will assemble in Mumbai on September 28 with practice scheduled to kick-off the next day.
India who have won all their three matches so far sit pretty on the top of Group A with nine points from three matches and a win against Macau will seal their berth at the AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019.
Constantine’s men stay unbeaten in the last 11 matches out of which it has won 10 (including the un-official match against Bhutan), thus, in the process, creating an alltime Indian record of winning nine consecutive international games, including the un-official match against Bhutan.
Constantine, however, is not willing to read too much into the statistics.
“Every match starts afresh. The results of our previous matches are all history and will have no bearing when we kick-off on October 11 at home against Macau,” he stated.
“I am looking forward to start training with the boys and need to work hard to keep alive our chances of earning a ticket to the AFC Asian Cup 2019,” he added. NEW DELHI: The Delhi and Districts Cricket Association (DDCA) members have rejected a whopping 77 out of 103 clauses on good corporate governance including the one on abolition of the controversial ‘proxy votes’.
In what can be called as complete defiance and lack of understanding of the Lodha Committee reforms, the DDCA members during a secret ballot system at the Extra-ordinary General Meeting (EGM) on September 15, also rejected administrator Justice (Retd) Vikramajit Sen’s proposed amendments as per changes in company law.
Sen stated that there were only only 26 items that found favour with the members while 77 including abolition of proxy voting system, which the 3/4th voted against. Proxy voting system as per company law allows a candidate contesting in the DDCA election to collect signatures of his voters, who need not be physically present during voting. ANTWERP (BELGIUM): The Indian women’s hockey team ended their Europe Tour on a high after getting the better of the Belgium junior men’s team 4-3 in a thrilling encounter.
A rampant Indian team started the match with some enthralling attacking play as they earned a penalty corner in the 7th minute, which was well converted by drag-flicker Gurjit to give India the lead.
The defender extended India’s lead in the 11th minute as she converted another penalty corner to make it 2-0.
Skipper Rani also got onto the score sheet as she netted the ball via a well taken field goal in the 13th minute to further extend the lead at the end of the first quarter. The second quarter began with goalkeeper Rajani Etimarpu making her second diving save of the match to deny the Belgians from opening their account.
India displayed grit and fight throughout the second quarter as they held onto their 3-0 lead at the end of 30 minutes. India started the third quarter with some high intensity play, which paid off for them in the 33rd minute as Rani scored her second goal of the match to make it 4-0.
However, Belgium finally managed to get past India’s sturdy defence when Thibault Neven converted a PC in the 38th minute to make it 1-4.
The hosts produced a great field goal in the 42nd minute via William Van Dessel to end the 3rd quarter with India still leading 4-2.
The Belgium carried on the momentum in the fourth quarter as well with Mathias Relik converting a PC to give them their third goal in the 48th minute and reduce the margin to 3-4.
It was a nervy last 10 minutes for the visitors as Belgium piled on some pressure to find the equaliser. But the Indian team held onto their nerves and defended as a unit to have the last laugh.