Strong Italian team holds Stubbs

Italy's Flavia Pennetta begged Australia's Rennae Stubbs not to retire from tennis as the pair stimulated around Melbourne Park for the past two weeks of the Australian Open, But Stubbs had the great comeback for Italy's world No 25 singles player and world No 2 in doubles."I said to Flavia, 'You can continue my career by losing to us'," Stubbs said yesterday, as the Australian and Italian women headed to Hobart for the first round of the Fed Cup's elite World Group. Stubbs was given exciting farewells on centre court in both Sydney and Melbourne by the WTA. She turns 40 in March and is finally stepping away from the professional tour after 22 years.

But when she took the microphone on both Ken Rosewall and Rod Laver Arenas she told the respective crowds she would keep playing Fed Cup as long as Australia kept winning. Australia is finally back in the World Group after seven years in the zonal wilderness."If we win I'd like to keep playing until the next tie," Stubbs said yesterday. "I just want to be part of it. It took us that long to get back to the World Group and I've been part of that journey. So if we were to win, it would give me some kind of inspiration to keep going."

Fed Cup supremacy is also in the mind of newly crowned Australian Open champion Kim Clijsters. Belgium is also back in the World Group and Clijsters was on a plane home less than 24 hours after building her winning speech. Belgium has drawn the United States in its first round tie to be played in Antwerp. It will be the sixth time Australia and Italy have met in a tie. Australia leads 5-0 in head-to-head encounters. But the last victory was in 1988 when Wendy Turnbull was still part of the squad.

Italy has progress noticeably since then and contested four of the last five Fed Cup finals and was crowned champion in 2006, 2009 and 2010.All of the Italian team is ranked in the top 50 in singles. Australia only has two of its four there with Sam Stosur, No 5, and Jarmila Groth on debut at No 34.Stubbs will line up with Stosur in doubles. The pair has eight grand slam doubles titles between them. World No 67 and Common wealth Games gold medallist, Anastasia Rodioniova, completes the team.

Cisco broadcasts HD videos of the CWG

The recently held Delhi Common wealth Games 2010 was a great success for India winning more gold medals and organising the event with grandeur. The opening and finishing ceremonies will be in memory for a long time. Millions of television viewers prized every moment of the games thanks to technology in the background by Cisco to broadcast high definition (HD) videos and images of the games. The CWG 2010 was the first global project where huge volume of HD uncompressed video (~400Gbps) was broadcast to help viewers witness continuous high quality video of the games, said Sandeep Raina, Senior VP, India & SAARC, Cisco.

Cisco deployed its largest ‘Internet Protocol (IP) Next Generation Network’ Medianet solution – this combines video technologies in home, business, and service provider networks -- for any sporting event at the CWG 2010, he said. Also, for the first time in the history of broadcasting, a disaster revival site was deployed for the main studio (IBC) for the HD uncompressed video contribution service using IP multicast technology. This solution enabled the Government of India and CWG Organising Committee to deliver games applications, communication services and standards of teamwork services to athletes, officials and guests from all over the world, he said.

The services were delivered on the communications network from MTNL and the completion was undertaken by HCL Info systems. The deployment included ‘quad-play architecture’ that bundles mobile, fixed-line, Internet and TV services into one package. The Cisco unified communication and teamwork solution was provided through 3500 IP phones including high-end video phones, he said.Sandeep says Cisco’s IP NGN infrastructure had two separate networks Managed Data Network (MDN) and Broadcast Network (BN). Both the networks were built on IP MPLS technology to deliver multiple services concurrently.

Lewis-Francis sets sights on European Championship medal

After years of censure Mark Lewis-Francis proved his doubters wrong in 2010, winning individual silver at the European Championships and then the Common wealth Games, where he also took relay gold. Now, while the other British athletes who competed in the Delhi Games take a break, Lewis-Francis is approaching on through the indoor season without a pause, his sights set on a medal at the European Indoor Championships in March."I'm doing so well I don't want to stop," says the 28-year-old ahead of opposing at the first major event on the indoor calendar, the Glasgow grand prix tomorrow. "I'm still on cloud nine after the 2010 season. Nobody expected that.

I didn't even expect to have such success and I don't want it to end. I was out for such a long time, so to be back is something I don't want to miss again. I haven't got that long left, so I just want to embrace every minute of it while I can."Lewis-Francis is confident he can beat the European outdoor sprint champion,over 60m indoors. "I think I had him for 60m [in Barcelona], I think I definitely did," says Lewis-Francis, who finished 0.7sec behind the Frenchman. "I don't think he was thrashing me for 60m in the 100m, he's just got a really strong last bit to his race. It could be interesting. I don't want to hype it up but it could be a different race this time."

The British team will have to qualify for their places at the trials next month but another name Lewis-Francis may have to look out for is the 33-year-old Dwain Chambers, the European indoor record holder."We'll see what happens," says Lewis-Francis. "If I can go to the European champs and get a medal and then build up my self-confidence for the world champs this summer because we all know the world champs is going to be solid, it's not going to be easy that could just prepare me for it."Despite having won medals at the Olympic Games memorably taking 4x100m relay gold at Athens in 2004 and the world championships, Lewis-Francis is yet to win an individual medal on the global senior stage, an achievement he says he is not happy to retire without.

Asian Games, CWG medal winners to be rewarded today

Uttar Pradesh players who won medals at the Asian Games held at Guangzhou, China and the Common wealth Games 2010 will be felicitated with cash rewards on Friday. They will be given the ‘Manyawar Shri Kanshiram Ji Antarrashtriya Khel Puruskar 2010’ by Chief Minister Mayawati at 12.00 noon on Friday. The award function will be organised at 5, Kalidas Marg, Lucknow. The medal winners happening arriving in the state capital from Thursday morning. Director Sports (UP) Dr Hari Om informed, “Apart from archer Ritul Chatterjee, all the players had reported for the event by Thursday evening. Ritul is presence the national camp, so his award will be collected by his father.

Arrangements for the stay of the players have been made at Hotel Piccadilly.The cost of journey to Lucknow and back to their destinations will be reimbursed. Besides, each player has been provided a separate vehicle at Lucknow. After the felicitation, during which a sum of around Rs 1.97 crore will be spread among the players, lunch will be held at the same venue,” he further added. The gold, silver and bronze medal winners of individual events will be given Rs 15 lakh, Rs 10 lakh and Rs 8 lakh, respectively, while the gold, silver and bronze medal winners of team events will be given Rs 10 lakh, Rs 8 lakh and Rs 6 lakh, respectively.

A senior sports official informed that two rooms are being given to a player who has come with his family if the total number of members are more than four to ensure a comfortable stay to the players. “Besides a car for each player, a bus has also been arranged if the players want to go site-seeing in the city. A ‘rehearsal’ for the event will be organised on Thursday evening for the felicitation function the next day. The players will also attend a dinner which will be hosted by Chief Secretary (UP),” he said. Talking to The Indian Express, gymnast Ashish Kumar said that he was happy with the facilities provided to the players. He, however, said that it would have been very hopeful if he would have been awarded for the bronze medal also which he had won during the Common wealth Games.

Settle dues to Aus firms in 10 days

Taking serious note of the payment dispute between some Australian firms and organisers of the Delhi Common wealth Games, the Sports Ministry has planned the last to settle the issue within ten days.Ajay Maken,the new sports minister, instructed the sports secretary to get in touch with the government officials in the Common wealth Organising Committee and clear all lawful payments after proper verification."I have ordered the sports secretary to settle the issue in the next ten days and clear all verified and legitimate payments pending to Australia and other participating countries.

Four of Australia's biggest event management firms have threatened to slap a multi-million-dollar lawsuit against the Commonwealth Games organisers for the recovery of their dues. Ric Birch, the man behind the successful opening and closing ceremonies of the mega-event, in Delhi from October 3 to 14 last year, has commissioned Slater and Gordon, a Melbourne-based law firm, a to draw up the multi-million dollar complaint that would involve at least four of Australia's biggest event firms - including his firm, Spectak Productions, and fireworks group Howard & Sons against the Delhi Games' organisers.

He refused to comment when asked whether Suresh Kalmadi would be happy to see the back of M S Gill from the sports ministry."I have just taken over and I do not wish to comment on such matters," he said, with a smile. He praised his precursor, Gill, and said he would carry on to push for transparency. As minister of sports, he said, he would like to see younger faces, who have played at the international level, being given more say in the running the sports bodies."Those who have played the games are more passionate and understand the difficulties of the athletes, which the other officials would not be able to do so," he said.