Leader Alonso not worried about title race outcome

Abu Dhabi: Front-runner and two-time world champion Fernando Alonso of Ferrari said even if he loses the title race on Sunday he will long remember the 2010 championship while another former champion Lewis Hamilton of McLaren said he has nothing to lose.

When the title contenders were asked on how they would react to lose out on the final day, Alonso said, "Obviously, you feel sad if you lose in the last moment. In my case, I will not really have anything to be disappointed about in 2010. The last two years I was fighting to be third most of the times."

Alonso, who takes an eight-point lead into the final race at the Yas Marina Circuit said: "Ferrari had a tough year in 2009 as well, so this first year of the relationship we are fighting for the world championship in the last race of the championship against two Red Bulls who are dominating by far the season in terms of speed."

Great memory
"So overall I think it doesn't matter on Sunday. It will be a great memory of 2010 to have challenged," the Spaniard said.

Commenting on the strengths of his car, Alonso said, "Well, I think we don't have the cornering speed of Red Bull and maybe we don't have the straight line speed of McLaren. We are not the best in the straight line, we are not the best in the corners, but in general overall we are always quite competitive. We can adapt to any circuit in a good way, so I feel relatively confident for the performance of the car but let's see how it is going."

The Ferrari driver said he would decide what approach to adopt only on Sunday depending on his grid position.

"I think we will still see how Friday goes, how Saturday goes as to how we approach the race on Sunday. I think it will depend on how the weekend is going. We will change the tactics depending on how competitive we are or which positions we are," Alonso said.

Competition
McLaren's Hamilton, who is 24 points off the leader with Red Bull dup Mark Webber and Sebastien Vettel also ahead, said, "For me, I have nothing to lose. The guys in front of me have everything to lose, so for me I am going to be flat out as always."

"They have got generally faster cars than me but that doesn't mean that we cannot fight for a win. Obviously I have to win this race. That's what we plan to do," said the Briton, whose McLaren teammate and defending champion's Jenson Button saw his hopes end in Brazil.

"We are in quite a strong position with engines. Mercedes have done a great job. We have worked very hard over the last few years with the engines, so we have been very, very fortunate this year.

"The reliability has been fantastic. We have got quite a fresh engine that hasn't done many miles, so hopefully in a slightly better position than the guys in front," warned Hamilton.

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Proteas star Prince ready for Pakistan Test

Dubai - South Africa's star batsman Ashwell Prince, who has cracked 11 Test centuries and ten half centuries from his 57 Test matches has joined the squad for the Test series against Pakistan.

After a long training session at the ICC Global Cricket Academy, Prince said: "I feel I am in good nick. I had four four-day games so far and have hit three hundreds. So I feel I am in good form. Test match cricket is a different level but I am hoping to do well."

Left-handed Prince, who had captained South Africa in the absence of an injured Graeme Smith in July 2006, is a good reader of the game.

"We are expecting the wicket to be slower than South African pitches; probably it may spin a bit. We are not expecting bouncy and fast pitches here and it could be similar to sub-continent conditions," said Prince, who has high regard for the Pakistan team.

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Top clubs gear up for third round of Etisalat Cup

Abu Dhabi - The professional clubs in the UAE are competing today and tomorrow without top players in the third round of Etisalat Cup.

The competition is held without the players of the national teams who are either busy with the Olympic team in the Asian Games or preparing with the senior team for the Gulf Cup.

The top match of the week will be between Bani Yas, the leaders of the first group and the only team, from 12, which won full six points from their past two matches, against Al Ain, second in the group with four points.

Bani Yas, who are missing the services of nine players, have defeated Al Wahda 2-1 in the second week and will consolidate their leadership if they win the three points in the encounter tomorrow at Tahnoon Bin Mohammad Stadium.

Bani Yas have defeated Al Ain in the UAE Pro-League some weeks ago 3-0.

Al Jazira, leaders of the UFL, are not doing good in this competition and have already lost five points in two matches and they will host the leaders of the second group, Al Ahli, today.

Al Jazira have a single point while Al Ahli have 4, the same tally of second placed Al Shabab who will host Al Wasl in the late night show today. Al Wasl have two points.

Dubai will host Al Nasr and is crucial for both teams to advance in the standings.

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Indian cricketer Yuvraj Singh drops down in grade

New Delhi: Yuvraj Singh has been dropped from Grade A in the central contracts of the Board of Control for Cricket in India and Suresh Raina promoted to the top grade.

Yuvraj, who has run into poor form and injuries, has been out of the national team for a while now. The dashing left-hander had a disappointing 2010, starting with the World Twenty20 in the West Indies. He was dropped for the Asia Cup but returned to the Tests in Sri Lanka in July-August.

The annual retainer has been increased from Rs6 million to Rs10 million (Dh500,000 to Dh833,000) for Grade A and from Rs4 million to Rs5 million (Dh333,000 to Dh417,000) for Grade B. For Grade C, the amount remains Rs2.5 million (Dh208,000).

The match fee for a player in the Test eleven is Rs700,000, for ODI Rs400,000 and Rs200,000 in Twenty20.

Graded players:
Grade A: Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, V. V. S. Laxman, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan
Grade B: Yuvraj Singh, Ishant Sharma, Ashish Nehra, Praveen Kumar, Virat Kohli, Murali Vijay, Pragyan Ojha
Grade C: S Sreesanth, Amit Mishra, R. Ashwin, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja, Abhimanyu Mithun, Vinay Kumar.

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Indonesia Hoping to Reach Seven Gold

Jakarta - Indonesian contingent hopes to achieve gold medals in seven sports ie badminton, wushu, bowling, karate, dragon boat rowing, weightlifting and beach volleyball at the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou, China.
12 to 27 November next.

Chairman of KONI / KOI Center, Rita Subowo, argued that the Indonesian contingent at a press conference Monday.

Press conference was also attended board sports badminton, bowling, wushu. Rita explained that the prediction was based on the results achieved by Indonesia in the Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, 2006, and evaluation of parent-the parent organization of the sport. "Our target is to improve Indonesia's ranking of the 22 nd position in the Asian Games in Doha, Qatar 2006," said Rita.

Rita asked for community support for the sports ambassador of Indonesia to meet these expectations. "In order to achieve these expectations of course depend on the appearance of our athletes in Guangzhou later and prayers of the entire community.

About the criticism expressed by some parties associated with the projections of the gold medal, Rita asks all parties to get rid of their own interests. "I ask all parties to support the Indonesian contingent of athletes so that we can fight the maximum for the Red and White.

Rita also expressed his gratitude to the Government which has facilitated efforts to prepare a contingent of Indonesia through the Indonesian Program Gold (Prima). The new prime training program about three months was carried out for elite athletes and junior athletes under 18 years old.

According to Rita, for the first time approved a long-term coaching for young athletes through the program as Prima for athletes under 18 years of age. The program for the junior athletes was held jointly with Ministry of Education, Training and Development Program Student (PPLP), and KONI Province.

"To-KONI KONI Region we have asked them to change their vision adopted so far in coaching athletes. If all this KONI target area on the PON, it is now switched its target to the Olympics," said Rita.

Described by Rita that with the same cost incurred by the Regional Sports Committee, held families together is not impossible for an athlete to achieve Olympic medals. "We hope Indonesia can get athletes to the Olympics through a qualifying round. Our target in the 2012 London Olympics can we loloskan 50 athletes and subsequently at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil passed the 100 athletes we can," Rita added.

Indonesia will send 212 athletes who will take part in 25 of the 42 sports contested at the 16th Asian Games later.

Indonesian large contingent will leave for Guangzhou from Jakarta on Wednesday morning, using a Garuda Indonesia aircraft. At the Asian Games to-15 in Doha, Qatar, 2006, Indonesia won two gold medals, 4 silver, 14 bronze, and was ranked the 22nd. (T.A016/R009)

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Youzhny pulls out of Paris Masters

Paris - Russian tennis player Mikhail Youzhny will not appear on the last ATP tournament in London this month after failing to continue the match on her second round at Paris Masters tennis against Latvian Ernests Gulbis on Tuesday.

It requires ninth seed reached the final in Paris to be displayed on the season-ending ATP season, but he withdrew in the second set 0-3 when left behind after losing the first set 4-6.

Ranked 10th in the world before Youzhny back in the early second babgak at Valencia Open tournament last weekend because of back problems. (I015/Z002/S026)

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Chelsea: Drogba Recovering from Malaria

London - Chelsea striker Didier Drogba has almost recovered from malaria diagnosis, coach Carlo Ancelotti said on Tuesday.

The player from Ivory Coast was absent at last month's match against Aston Villa and Spartak Moscow, because of illness before down the field.

Drogba also only played as a substitute in the second round on Sunday when they lost 0-2 at Liverpool, because of illness and the results showed he was hit by a virus.

"The medical team told me Didier suffered from malaria and about 48 hours after that he'll be back," said Ancelotti told a news conference.

"One time (malaria) is a very serious disease, but now different and it is possible to treat it in a short time will heal. He is all right now," said Ancelotti ahead of home games against Fulham on Wednesday.

"Tomorrow he will appear again (since the beginning of the game)," said the coach of the Italian by adding, midfielder Michael Essien will also appear again after all this time had to rest at Anfield.

Previous Ancelotti talked about the sick strikernya.

"He lost his physical initial condition, he could not join the exercise, he lost power. Didier feel like not powered so it can not join the exercise," he said.

"We do not know about where and when he was stricken with malaria virus. Maybe it happened some time ago. He can not go down the field when his health has not recovered 100 percent," he said.

The defender Alex (foot) and striker Nicolas Anelka (back) has recovered to match Wednesday, while midfielder Frank

Lampard, who injured since last August, is expected back from the village halamnnya at Sunderland on Sunday. (A008/A023)

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