The Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) has decided to erect bronze statues of VVS Laxman and Mohammad Azharuddin, two of the city’s most accomplished cricketers, at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium.
“We planned this about a month ago. We are honouring Laxman for having played more than 100 Tests and Azhar for finishing just one shy of that milestone,” HCA secretary MV Sridhar told DNA on Friday. The plan, Sridhar added, will be executed within the next three months.
No cricket association in India has ever honoured a player in this fashion. So what prompted the HCA to take this route? Well, Cricket Victoria (an arm of Cricket Australia) has erected statues of many great homegrown cricketers at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Readers may recall that a huge bronze statue of Shane Warne was unveiled at the iconic ground during India’s disastrous tour of Australia.
“We thought it would be nice to honour them in this manner. Each statue will be nine-feet tall and cost Rs 10 lakh. In Laxm-an’s case, the statue will show him acknowledging the crowd with a bat in one hand and a helmet in the other. It’s a moment captured from the historic 2001 Kolkata Test against Australia. Azhar will be shown executing his trademark on-drive,” Sridhar informed. Meanwhile, the north stand of the stadium was named after Laxman at a low-key ceremony on Wednesday. Neither Laxman nor any player from the Indian team was present.

While the laurels and cash rewards continue to flow in profusion, India’s star boxer Mary Kom has just one humble request on behalf of the North East people. “Give us your love and affection,” said the 29-year-old boxer. “I am really upset at the happenings across the nation. If we don’t have unity in the country, then we athletes won’t be able to perform to the best of our abilities. I just hope all the North East people who have fled Bangalore in the last week return to restart their lives.”
India’s golden girl hopes her achievement will be the pacesetter for all those young girls who want to take up sports but are held back owing to financial constraints. “After my victory, I am confident the infrastructure will improve over the next four years,” said Mary Kom. “I hope the young girls get motivated and take up sports as a path to excellence. I just hope they say if Mary Kom can do it despite all the hardships she has gone through, so can we.”
A confident mother, Mary Kom said her medal should be an inspiration to sportswomen for bigger things. “The big problem in Indian society is after marriage, many sportswomen retire to raise their respective families. Considering I was able to win two world championships and a bronze after becoming a mother, I am very confident plenty of women across the country will be able to achieve big things even after conceiving. I just hope I can inspire them.”

North Carolina: Top seed Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga launched his campaign at the Winston-Salem Open with a 6-3 7-6(3) victory over Thomaz Bellucci on Tuesday.
Tsonga, ranked sixth in the world, converted just one of his nine break point opportunities, but saved all five that he faced to beat the Brazilian in a match lasting one hour 49 minutes.
Tsonga, who also beat Bellucci at the London Olympics, was one of 16 seeded players to enjoy a first-round bye. In the third round he’ll face Ukrainian qualifier Sergiy Stakhovsky, a 6-2 6-3 winner over Spain’s Pablo Andujar. Second seed Tomas Berdych, who like Tsonga is appearing for the first time at this US Open tune-up event, needed just 95 minutes to oust Russian Alex Bogomolov 6-3 7-5. Berdych will next play Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen, who beat German qualifier Benjamin Becker 6-3 6-3.
Defending champion and third seed John Isner shook off a slow start to beat 50th-ranked Slovakian Martin Klizan 4-6 6-3 7-5. “The first one is normally the toughest,” said Isner, ranked 10th in the world. “Credit to him, he came out and was playing pretty well, and I wasn’t on top of my game and that’s all it took in the first set. From that point on, I knew it was going to be a battle.”
Isner gained the decisive break for a 6-5 lead in the third set and wrapped up the victory in two hours and two minutes. “I wasn’t that great out there today, but I think as the tournament progresses I’ll keep getting stronger,” he said.
Fourth seed Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov lost only 10 points on his serve and fired eight aces en route to a 6-1 6-3 victory over Taiwan’s Lu Yen-Hsun. —AFP
Jankovic in quarters
Second seed Jelena Jankovic and No 3 Roberta Vinci advanced to the quarterfinals on Tuesday at the WTA Texas Open. Jankovic, the former world No 1, defeated Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands 7-6 (5) 6-2 to line up a quarterfinal clash against eighth seed Sorana Cirstea, a 6-1 7-5 winner over France’s Alize Cornet. Italy’s Vinci encountered little resistance in a 6-2 6-3 victory over Slovakia’s Polona Hercog. She’ll face seventh seed Chanelle Scheepers, who beat New Zealand’s Marina Erakovic 6-4 7-6(3). Fourth-seeded Belgian Yanina Wickmayer was a second-round casualty, falling to Australian Casey Dellacqua 6-4 6-3.

Two-time champions and hosts India were off to a perfect start, beating Syria 2-1 in the opening clash of the Nehru Cup International Football Tournament here at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Wednesday.
If skipper Sunil Chhetri’s 45th minute strike during the dying seconds of the first-half was enough to put the Syrians on the mat, then substitute Anthony Pereira sealed the contest with his left-footed strike in the 82nd minute. The hosts, though, conceded a soft goal in the 89th minute. Syrian forward Alaa Alshbbli netted the consolation goal.
The match was marred by heavy rain and had to be suspended for about 20 minutes. Thereafter, it was played at a slow pace and didn’t offer much excitement to the small but enthusiastic crowd.
The rain seemed to have disrupted India’s rhythm as they were defensive on resumption. Syria, on the other hand, went on the offensive and created at least three certain chances through their forwards Alshb bli and Hani Altayar.
India should thank their playmaker Lenny Rodrigues and goalkeeper Subrata Pal. Pal conjured up a special performance, saving as many as half-a-dozen chances after the rain interruption. Pal, however, was shown the yellow card by the referee in the 68th minute for deliberately using delay tactics.
In the 37th minute, Pal thwarted an Alshbbli header which was bang on target. Hani Altayar also tested the Indian custodian with a straight right footer. Pal continued his heroics in the second half as the Syrian strikers tested the Indian defence.
Rodrigues was instrumental in setting up both the goals for India. He gave a first-time pass to Clifford Rayes Miranda who set up a header for Chhetri as India got the opener. In the second, his well-measured pass was enough for Pereira to seal the game.
Playing with 4-4-1-1 formation, India demonstrated attacking skills but could not breach the Syrian defence in the last 45 minutes. Skipper Chhetri was closely marked by the tall Syrian defenders. He was involved in some hard tussles, with the Syrians getting three yellow cards. Even though the match was played at a slow pace, the win has come as a relief for new national coach Wim Koevermans, who has been trying to introduce the European brand of total football.
Maldives will take on Nepal on Thursday. India will play their next game against Maldives on Saturday.
Stopwatch: India 2 (Chhetri 45, Pereira 82) bt Syria 1 (Alshbbli 89)

Madrid: Tito Vilanova was still Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona assistant when he hit the headlines last August after Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho jabbed him in the eye during a touchline scuffle in the Spanish Super Cup.
Twelve months on he has replaced his good friend in the Barca hot seat and returns to face his tormentor this time as coach in the first leg of the 2012 edition at the Nou Camp on Thursday.
Holders Barca arrive as King’s Cup winners and it is a first chance to measure up Vilanova’s side against the league champions, with tensions between the Spanish giants eased since last year’s low point. A mass brawl between players at the end of the 2011 second leg resulted in three red cards while television images of Mourinho’s attack on Vilanova led to harsh recriminations.
Mourinho was eventually given a two-match Super Cup ban, and Vilanova one game for his retaliatory gesture, but both punishments have since been lifted by federation president Angel Maria Villar.
Mourinho, who had refused to apologise to anyone but Madrid fans for his actions, calmed the waters earlier this month by saying he was wrong. Vilanova has also sought to put the incident behind him as he takes up the baton from Guardiola who swept up 14 trophies in his four years at the helm.
Barca made a flying start to their league campaign with a 5-1 mauling of Real Sociedad on Sunday, gaining an immediate advantage over arch-rivals Real Madrid who drew 1-1 at home against Valencia.
Vilanova’s league debut as coach was made all the sweeter by striker David Villa’s return from an eight-month injury layoff due to a broken leg to score the fifth goal of the night as a substitute.
Spain’s all-time leading scorer is still short of match fitness and is unlikely to start on Thursday, a similar scenario facing new signing Alex Song.
One man who will start, though, is the irrepressible Lionel Messi, who netted twice and had numerous chances to complete a hat-trick. The World Player of the Year, who scored an incredible 73 goals in all competitions last season, has a knack of finding the back of the net against Real and looked particularly sharp as Barca produced a high-tempo performance full of attacking menace.
“The team still has the same philosophy and style as with Guardiola,” Messi told Barca TV. “The dressing room are still hungry for titles. I want to win everything we play for, like Tito. It’s tough but we will try.”
Messi’s and Barca’s snappy display contrasted with that of Real’s and their leading scorer Cristiano Ronaldo at the Bernabeu.
Albeit against stronger opposition, Real were slow to get into their stride while a quiet Ronaldo failed to fire a single shot on target. “I am not yet 100 per cent but I hope to get back to top form soon,” said Ronaldo.
His Portuguese international teammate Pepe is a doubt after suffering a hefty blow to his head in a collision with Iker Casillas and having spent Sunday evening in hospital as a precaution having momentarily lost consciousness. Mourinho’s men won on their last visit to the Nou Camp when Ronaldo struck the decider for a 2-1 La Liga triumph that effectively wrapped up the title in April. The return leg is at the Bernabeu on Aug 29 —Reuters

Reliance Life Insurance has posted its first-ever full-year profit of `373 crore in fiscal 2012. Do you think it’s a fantastic figure? What are you going to do with that money?
Well, I think it’s a decent profit. A small part of it has been given as dividend to the shareholders. The remaining money will help us maintain a healthy cash flow to be able to invest in areas that are enabling, like institution-building activities.
What is the vision of your boss Anil Ambani for life insurance in India?
About once a month, we, the chief executives of all the group units and Anil Ambani, meet. On all the occasions that I have met him, the significant message that has come from him is to be focussed on customers, creating customer lifetime value, developing synergies between various articles of financial service, creating customer loyalty, listening to him and changing the processes and technologies to meet his needs. He always asks us to be conscious about the money we are spending to keep the service affordable for the customer and treat him as an equal, if not more.
Ambani thinks opportunities are huge in life insurance in India. He sees opportunities in every deficiency that this country has because the country will be doing everything required to remove those deficiencies. In life insurance, he likes us to learn from LIC. He wants Reliance Life Insurance to be so efficient as to be the most admired insurer in the industry, not only at the national level but also globally. His vision is for an Indian company with global standards.
That is why when we were forging the tie-up with Nippon, he himself went to Japan for discussions. He can speak Japanese fluently. That helped in communicating better his long-term vision for life insurance in India to Nippon executives.
How did Reliance Life Insurance make the transition from a non-profitable firm to a profit-making company? What did you do right?
We did everything right like any other life insurance company, right from the beginning. What people saw as losses initially are actually investments to build various aspects of the business: distribution, capabilities, technology back-up for service and manpower. Life insurers don’t see these as losses though that is how the Indian accounting system would label them. The exponential growth we saw over a 5-year period (2005-09) needed the investment (of `3,000 crore) we made. Consolidation was necessitated by the macroeconomic scenario and we scaled down our investments and began working on the capacity already built up. What we had done over the last four years is, we have not invested heavily in expansion, distribution or infrastructure building, but worked on the capacity and distribution that had been created already.
What this meant is that the intrinsic merit of the policies already sold started coming to the fore. In 2008-09, our losses were `1,000 crore; in 2009-10, the figure shrank to `250 crore; in 2010-11, it came down further to `120 crore; and in 2011-12, we posted a profit of `373 crore. Mind you, it was a normal progression. Only, the focus was on getting the value out of the investments we had already made.
What lies ahead now?
I would say we got the profit as planned. That is why, we think it is sustainable over a long period of time as long as we continue to sell a critical mass of new business. Theoretically, we are at a stage where even if we do not sell a single new policy, we should be able to serve our existing 9.5 million customers with the expenses already provided for.
In that case, do you have any targets at all?
Of course. We are targeting a new business premium of `2,300 crore this fiscal. By the end of this fiscal, we believe we will regain our top position among non-LIC insurers, in terms of the number of policies. The long-term target is to be among the top three in terms of number of policies and premium income. We do not have a bancassurance partner. So, we have a distribution gap. We hope in the next year, we will have a significant bank partnership too and we will be able to bridge this gap. Through them, we can have good number of sales, too.

After two weeks of inspiration and brilliance, after the guts and grit of British athletes being all that they could be, the big Olympics show came to a close. The event saw a thrilling performance by One Direction, George Michael plugging his new single, Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell looking sulky and Russell Brand being a walrus.
The Olympics closing ceremony was meant to be a celebration of this country’s musical heritage. In the chaos of the opening numbers, vehicles covered with newsprint drove around the track and Timothy Spall, dressed up as Winston Churchill, shouted at everyone.
And then came George Michael. For a brief moment, all was well in Olympic land. Sporting a groovy set of silver fox whiskers, George blasted through Freedom, his class and experience as a stadium rocker set him apart from the pack. Then, for his second number, he chose to promote a new song rather than sing one of his crowd-pleasing classics.
This was shortly followed by a dreary fashion tribute as Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell and Georgia Jagger came sashaying in a fashion parade as they minced around in their tinfoil ballgowns. “The athletes are loving it,” said the BBC’s Hazel Irvine.
However, it was the Spice Girls who made for a fizzing pop highlight of this largely mimed show. Geri Halliwell was in a Union Flag peplum, Baby looked sweet, Scary’s bust gets scarier by the day and Sporty had the best outfit, reported the Daily Mail. “Even Posh managed to get through their numbers without too many grimaces, the tracks sounded great and the girls themselves looked marvellous on top of their taxis — if anything, even better than they did back in the dawn of Spice. How cheering!” Also much talked about was the performance by Jessie J in a banana suit.
— Agencies