6 cricketers to get showcause for pub brawl

MUMBAI: Six Indian cricketers who were involved in a pub scrap with fans (at Tequila Joe's in St Lucia) last Tuesday, will be issued showcause notices on Tuesday by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

The players being reprimanded are Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Ashish Nehra, Ravindra Jadeja, Piyush Chawla and Zaheer Khan, sources revealed.

BCCI secretary N Srinivasan will issue the showcause notice to these players at board president Shashank Manohar's behest, chief administrative officer Ratnakar Shetty told reporters after the board officials had a meeting at the BCCI headquarters this afternoon.

"The manager of the Indian team, Ranjib Biswal, today met the board president. The board president and secretary took information from him regarding the West Indies tour and also from the written report (submitted by Biswal earlier)," Shetty said.

TOI has also learnt that four of these players Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Ashish Nehra and Ravindra Jadeja are also to be omitted from the side that will be chosen to tour Sri Lanka for the Asia Cup next month.

The BCCI officials' meeting lasted for over two hours. The officials also deliberated on the detailed report of coach Gary Kirsten. The board is now expected to prepare a new code of conduct for the players besides issuing the showcause notices.

The officials were however happy with captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni's handling of his team though they felt that he had erred in cricketing decisions.

"The board has no issue with the captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and the president doesn't doubt his integrity," said a source.

Biswal, on Saturday, had submitted his report to the board detailing the happenings of St Lucia and also the reasons behind India's poor performance in the tournament. The manager's first-hand information of the brawl that happened between the Indian players and some fans from the US over dinner has led to strong action by the board.

Sources added that there were a few more players than those being show-caused at the pub but they had no role to play in the fracas and hence will be left with a warning for now.

PM calls high level meet to review Naxal strategy

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called a high level meeting to review the government's strategy to tackle the Red menace, a day after the Naxals blew up a private bus near Dantewada in Chhattisgarh, killing at least 36 people.
Of the dead, 24 were civilians and 12 special police officers. It is feared the number of dead will go up.
Monday's attack took place near Chingawaran on Sukma Road in Dantewada, about 550 km south of Raipur. This is an area dominated by Maoists and they have demonstrated this many times in the past.
This is the first time Maoists attacked a private bus. Official sources said some of the SPOs might have alerted the Maoists by sitting on top of the bus in their trademark khaki uniforms.
The sources said the rebels might have accessed information about many SPOs having boarded the bus along the route, assumed to be heavily mined by the extremists.
The last big attack in Dantewada was on April 6 when Maoists trapped and gunned down 75 Central Reserve Police Force men and a policeman.

Mumbai girl at Physics Olympiad

MUMBAI: Three years ago, as a student at Jamnabai Narsee, Aakanksha Sarda just about managed to go past the red line in physics. A decision was arrived at that day: Sarda would pursue English literature at St Xavier's, and would never have to look at the complex formulae and equations that physics throws up. In that short journey from school to college, though, something changed fundamentally and on Monday Sarda became the second Indian girl to qualify for the International Physics Olympiad (IPhO).

Sarda and four others — Mehul Kumar from Jaipur; Sanchar Sharma from Jodhpur; Shivam Handa from Delhi and Vipul Singh from Bhilai — will all represent India in the 41st IPhO 2010 to be held in Zagreb, Croatia, from July 17 to 25. "My mother pushed me to relook at physics and the logic of the subject soon dawned on me. Physics is my favourite subject," said the 18-year-old who has been admitted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to pursue her undergraduate education.

About 36,000 students from across the nation participated in the first level examination. Of these, 312 were selected to move up to the next level, the Indian National Physics Olympiad (INPhO) examination. The INPhO examination was conducted in 15 centres across the nation and 37 students were selected to participate in an intensive training camp from May 4 to 17. On Monday, the five finalists were declared.

"All the students who participated in the camp were brilliant. The top five we have selected will go on and represent India at the International Physics Olympiad 2010 and I am sure they will do the country proud," said Vijay Singh, National Coordinator for Science Olympiads.

In physics, India has been faring rather well at the Olympiads — since some years, the Indian team's tally has remained similar — it has bagged four gold medals and a silver. "This year, we are hoping for all five golds," said Sathaye College student Sarda. A student who has topped the ranks since some years, Sarda also topped the Class X ICSE exams two years ago and has spent the past two years preparing for various entrance tests along with the Olympiads.

"I am sure that Aakanksha will make it to the Indian Institutes of Technology too. But she feels that MIT is where she belongs. She has been a student who used to hate physics, but had an open mind towards it. She is now one of the finest brains in the subject," said Praveen Tyagi, proprietor of IITians' Pace, a coaching academy, where Sarda was tutored.

But does falling in love with physics alter more than her career path? "Not really. I still manage to catch a couple of movies every week. I learn French and I am going for the international linguistics Olympiad. Last year, I won a silver," said Sarda.

Along with Sarda, Mehul Kumar from Jaipur is also part of the team. He said his preparation for IIT-JEE helped him since it required in-depth studying. "Also, several topics for the Physics Olympiad are similar to those in the CBSE curriculum for Standard XI, XII. A strong hold over the basics is also a must," said Kumar.