Date:27/05/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/27/stories/2008052756311800.htm

Sport - Football

Chennai makes a winning start

Kayalpatnam: Defending champion Chennai made a promising start with an emphatic 5-1 victory over Erode in the 17th State youth football championship for the A.G. Subburaman Cup at the Kayal Sporting Club ground, here on Monday. At half time, Chennai led 3-0.

Namakkal entered the quarterfinals defeating Madurai 5-4 in a tie-breaker after the teams were level 1-1 at the end of regulation time.

In an earlier first-round match, a hat-trick by Rasheed helped Kancheepuram thrash Ramanathapuram 8-0.

The results: Second round: Chennai 5 (Venkatesan 2, Augustine Babu, Karthikeyan, Dilip Kumar) bt Erode 1 (Velusamy); Namakkal 5 (Sakthi, Yuvaraj, Girinath, Abdulwaheed, Justin) bt Madurai 4 (Kumar, Ramamurthy, Ramesh Pandian, Alageswaran).

First round: Kanyakumari 8 (Rajkumar, Vikraman, Amuthan, Jackson 2, Zaheer Hussain, Satheesh, Vikdaman) bt Krishnagiri 1 (Loganathan); Kancheepuram 8 (Rasheed 3, Rajesh 2, Arun Karthick 2, Saravanan) bt Ramanathapuram 0.

Muthu shines

At Ramanathapuram, an all-round performance by Muthu (40 and three for 18) helped Majestic Cricket Club defeat host Rainbow Cricket Club by 122 runs and enter the semifinals of the Nayagan Trophy State-level Twenty 20 cricket tournament on Monday.

The scores: Quarterfinals: Majestic CC 184 for eight in 20 overs (Muthu 40, Karuppaiah three for 32, Anand three for 28 including a hat-trick) bt Rainbow CC 62 in 18 overs (Muthu three for 18); Aryangundu CC 103 for eight in 20 overs (Riyaz three for 20, Bousel three for 25) bt Eastern Jamalia CC 102 in 19.4 overs.

Dhanushkodi re-elected

At Madurai, D. Dhanushkodi and R. Sadacharam were unanimously re-elected as the president and secretary of the Madurai District Football Association (MDFA) at its Annual General Meeting recently.

Many members lauded the valuable services of B.T. Bangera, the former president and present chairman of the association.

“Bangera took the leadership of the MDFA a decade ago when it was in scrambles. With the stewardship and guidance of Bangera, the MDFA prospered and got its present status in Tamil Nadu. It was also identified by the TFA, AIFF and even AFC as one among the talented and potential Associations,” Dhanushkodi said.

For his contribution, Bangera was made patron of MDFA.

Other office-bearers: Vice-presidents: N. Chokalingam, M. Nallathambi, S.M. Seeni Mohaideen, G. Sokanathan. Assistant Secretary: C.M. Ramesh Babu. Treasurer: V. Arumugam. Executive Committee: M. Tajudeen, P. Varadharajan, M. Suresh, A. John Benny Victor, P. Rajesh, V.R.R. Ragunath, Immanuel, J. Murali, P. Soundrapandian, S. Samsudeen, T. Sundararajan, Mohamed Noortheen.