This week in Asian Sports - July 28

SPORTSTICKER ASIAN SPORTS REVIEW

By V Krishnaswamy SportsTicker Contributing Editor

NEW DELHI, India (Ticker) - Not since 1962, when India won the Asian Games gold medal at the same venue, has an Indian team brought such joy to the Indian football fan.

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It was left to India's best-known club, East Bengal, to script that piece of history by becoming the first Indian club to win an Asian level football tournament. They outplayed Thailand's BEC Tero Sasana 3-1 in the final of the LG ASEAN Cup in Jakarta.

The victory was all the more credible, as BEC Tero are the champion club of Asia and had defeated East Bengal in the first league match of the tournament 1-0.

East Bengal's Nigerian import Mike Okoro opened the scoring for the Indian club side clad in red and gold in the 30th minute. India's star player, Baichung Bhutia, who played in England for a couple of seasons, increased the tally in the 52nd minute before Alvito D'Cunha completed the tally in the 78th minute.

The lone goal for the Thais came in the 55th minute, through midfielder Anaikongopan. Bhutia, adjudged the man of the match in the final, emerged the highest scorer of the tournament with nine goals.

Following this triumph, the Indian National Football League champions have played 93 matches against foreign teams, winning 44 and losing 27, with 22 games ending in stalemate. They have scored 153 goals while conceding 100 from opponents.

East Bengal went into the lead through a snap goal that totally caught the Thais off guard in the 28th minute. Okoro latched on to a guided through pass from the centre circle by Brazilian Douglas De Silva and found the target with a powerful right footer that crashed into the net.

The Thais began the second session hoping to equalize. But Bhutia ruined their plans putting East Bengal 2-0 ahead three minutes into the second half with a solo effort. The Thais beat East Bengal custodian Sandip Nandy in the 58th minute.

The Thais had upset Asia's star clubs on their way to the AFC Champions league final some time back, but East Bengal had them on the ropes. Alvito made the match memorable for him with the final goal as he scored with a thundering right footer from just outside the box.

In the semifinals, BEC Tero Sasana came back from a goal down to defeat a depleted Perak side 3-1 to book their place in the Championship Final. In the other semifinal, guest entry East Bengal knocked out their second consecutive Indonesian club in as many games to earn a crack against the Thai AFC Champions League Finalists. Bhutia was the hero of East Bengal, his 58th minute equaliser cancelling out a 23rd minute opener by Petrokimia Putra midfielder M Jaezal Ichwan. Despite losing Mahesh Gowli in the 73rd minute, East Bengal mustered all their available resolve to hold on until the penalty shootout, the Indian club emerging as 7-6 victors at the end of the match.

The East Bengal club, who had been invited as guests to the ASEAN Cup will get $50,000 as their prize. In addition, their sponsors, UB Breweries, have promised further riches.

English Premiership club Chelsea shone in the second half to outplay Malaysia 4-1 and qualify for the final of the FA Premier League (FAPL) Asia Cup tournament. However, Malaysians had their moments, when coming back from a goal that Hairuddin Omar scored with a header to keep the score at 1-1 at the end of the first half.

Chelsea went ahead in the 36th minute when Frank Lampard squeezed behind the defense to score but Malaysia stunned the visitors just four minutes later as Hairuddin equalized. The Malaysians held out for 70 minutes before Chelsea coach Claudio Ranieri rang in the changes. And it was all over for the home team as three of the substitutes found the target. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (70th), Eidur Gudjohnsen (82nd) and Glen Johnson (84th) rounded off the game.

Spaniard and former Real Madrid skipper Fernando Hierro is to join a Qatari club later next week. He is said to be going on a two-year deal with an unnamed club. The 35-year-old Hierro won 89 Spanish caps and is also being wooed by AS Roma.

HOCKEY: South Korea and Spain will contest the final of the Champions Challenge hockey tournament in South Africa. South Korea beat Malaysia 5-2 in their last league match. Korea, the Busan Asian Games champions, secured 10 points from five matches and will face favorites Spain who defeated South Africa 1-0.

The winner of the final between South Korea and Spain will qualify for next month's Champions Trophy in Amsterdam.

Malaysia will play for fifth place. Malaysia chalked up four points from one win, a draw and three defeats and will face England to avoid finishing last in the tournament.New Zealand outplayed England 4-0 to set up the third placing match against hosts South Africa.

Lee Jung-seon was the hero for the Koreans scoring a hat trick from two penalty strokes and a penalty corner. Seo Jong-ho and Hwang Seung-sun scored the others. Defender S. Kuhan and forward Tajol Rosli scored the Malaysian goals.

The Indian men's hockey team won two events in succession and are now the toast of the nation with lucrative sponsorships likely to come their way. But the women's hockey team in India continues to languish.

The women won the Commonwealth Gold medal in Manchester last year, where other teams included Australia, England, Canada and South Africa, and then recently the Indian women won a tournament in Russia. But for them there is no sponsorship. In fact, it was recently reported that the women's team was living and training in conditions, where even water was not available.

A huge hue and cry in the media saw the situation improve.

After their victory in the three-nation hockey tournament in Russia, the Indian women's hockey team was meant to return to a hockey camp in Delhi on July 20. Poor transport arrangements, lack of coordination and shortage of water for the players delayed the start of the camp by a few days. The team's coach and most of the players are not happy with the organization of the camp.

Team captain, Surajlata Devi, is among those upset with the facilities, as is the coach M K Kaushik. Kaushik incidentally wanted a combined camp of senior and junior women. The juniors will soon be playing a tournament and working out with seniors would have helped them.

The camp ends on August 10, after which the junior team will leave to play a tournament in Japan.

Meanwhile, the senior squad will prepare for the hockey nationals from August 20 along with the Afro Asian Games, the Asia Cup and the qualifiers for next year's Olympics.

CRICKET: Vasbert Drakes, the West Indian fast bowler, who also bats more than usefully, could be the replacement for Indian Virender Sehwag at Leicestershire. The 33-year-old Drakes, who has played seven Tests and 30 one-day internationals for the West Indies, is considered a useful all-rounder. He has been a regular in county cricket for several years, having previously played for Sussex, Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire.

Sehwag, who scored 478 runs in six Championship appearances for Leicestershire, including two centuries, has been told to take a complete break from the game for six weeks. He is reported to have a bad back and he is returning home to ready himself for India's Test series against New Zealand in October.

The International Cricket Council President, Ehsan Mani, will attend the ICC Cricket Committee - Management (CCM) meeting at the Cricket Club of India (CCI) in Mumbai on September 18 and 19. The Mumbai club is hosting the meeting.

Meanwhile, on October 19, the club will also be commending former Indian Test stars who have scored hundreds or notched up five-wicket hauls at Lord's. Also being commended will be Tom Graveney, the first England batsman to score a Test century at the Brabourne Stadium in 1951-52, Charles Fry, grandson of legendary English cricketer C B Fry and MCC's secretary and chief executive Roger Knight.

Mohammad Azharuddin, currently engaged in legal actions against the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for his alleged involvement in match-fixing, will be one of the guests at the function, along with Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri.

GOLF: South African Retief Goosen has confirmed his participation and will defend his title at the $180,000 Singapore Tiger Skins tournament this November. Goosen's presence will add an element of excitement and speculation for fans, as he challenges his opponents to take home the title for the second year.

The 34-year-old South African netted $70,000 in Skins during last year's inaugural event. Last year Goosen competed against Ireland's Padraig Harrington, Fiji's Vijay Singh and Sergio Garcia of Spain.

BASKETBALL: China's giant NBA basketball sensation Yao Ming will play in an exhibition game in Hong Kong next month. His appearance is part of the city's re-launch campaign after the SARS crisis.

Yao, the Houston Rockets star, will be joined by fellow giant centre Menk Bateer, who signed with the NBA's Toronto Raptors last week. They will be in the team for an exhibition game that will feature China's national team taking on Australia's Melbourne Tigers on August 6.

It is not certain whether Wang Zhizhi, the third member of China's "Walking Great Wall" that dominated Asian basketball, will be part of the team.

Yao, who was the third Chinese player to play in the United States' National Basketball Association after Wang and Menk, has made a huge impact since arriving last year after being selected as the NBA's No. 1 draft pick in 2002.

Yao was selected for the prestigious All-Star game in his first