"The Indian Grand Prix will be held in 2011 and not 2010. Bernie Ecclestone and the Jaypee Group are working on the plan," he said.

Kalmadi, who had earlier stated that F1 race will be held in Greater Noida in 2010, refused to answer questions regarding the delay. "I don't know," he said.

Meanwhile, a roadshow by the ING Renault F1 Team will be held at Rajpath here on November 9 with race driver Nelson Piquet Jr expected to get behind the steering wheel.

The roadshow is being held at the invitation of 2010 Commonwealth Games Organising Committee.

Indian Olympic Association president Suresh Kalmadi announced in 2007 he had signed a deal to host a GP in New Delhi from 2010.

Ecclestone has now said it would probably happen later than that but did not explain. Asked if 2010 was still in the pipeline, he said: "It's all going on as usual, but these things take time.

"Probably 2011 is what I want."

India's ambitious F1 plans were unveiled in June 2007 when the Indian Olympic Association said it had received a letter from Ecclestone allowing the country to host a race subject to meeting certain conditions - such as building a track.

Playing videogames was only a passion till he discovered its rewards too. Quick reflexes and the ability to apprehend lurking danger saw 22-year-old Rahil Marwah winning many cash awards at videogame competitions. But to master this art, the BCA student not only needed love for the game but also ``rigorous training''.

In the age when coaching centres for various subjects have turned into a synonym for success for students, videogame parlours in the city are also doubling up as training centres where the likes of Rahil hone their skills to compete in tournaments that range from those organised in neighbourhood malls to the more sought-after international events.

``I practise at least three hours everyday but when a tournament is round the corner, I along with some friends seek the expertise of professionals, who train us,'' says Rahil, who recently made it to the semi-finals of Vixture, an international competition held at Pragati Maidan.

Teens are surely finding their new coaching classes more exciting than their daily dose of algebra and geometry. For 12-yearold Abhinav, the expenditure on gaming is around Rs 150 to Rs 200 daily. ``I spend 2 hours every day in the parlour where sir trains many boys for several gaming tournaments.'' When asked if he is wasting time, pat comes the reply: ``My day is not complete without games. I make sure that besides school and my studies, I don't ignore the training sessions.''

TRAINING FOR THE BIG GAME

Similarly, Yuvraj, who owns World Of Games, a gaming centre at community centre in New Friends Colony, has seen the business growing. He says: ``Hardcore gamers normally don't need much training but for upstarts we have three experts. From time to time, we also keep posting info on gaming tournaments in the city. We charge Rs 40 per hour and Rs 600 for a month.''

Designed to give amateur golfers the thrill of a global championship event, the tournament will see Citigold Select and Citi Private Bank clients teeing off at the Jaypee Greens Golf Resort in Greater Noida.

The Citi World Golfer's Championship will have four regional rounds: Delhi on September 27, Bengaluru on October 4, Kolkata on October 18, and Mumbai on November 2.

Played on the modified stableford format, golfers will compete in one of five handicap flights - 0-5, 6-10, 11-15, 16-20 and 21-24. One winner from each category from each of the four regional rounds will progress to the Grande Finale of the Citi World Golfer's Championship in Amby Valley, Mumbai on November 3rd, 2008.

The five winners from the national qualifier will go on to represent India as a team, as well as individually, in the world final.

Under the scheme of `Preparation of Indian Teams for Commonwealth Games 2010,' 35 players -- 19 men and 16 women -- were identified to be included in the `core group' of sportspersons. Besides, 10 coaches -- eight Indian and two foreign -- were selected to guide the players.

A steering committee of the Ministry asked the Badminton Association of India (BAI) to provide names of a few more players as training would be provided to 20 shuttlers each in men and women's categories.

Besides, the BAI would submit names of the supporting staff -- such as sports analyst, exercise physiologist, physiotherapist, masseur and masseuse.

The training programme will be held at the SAI Centres in Lucknow, Bangalore and Gandhinagar.

Selected players and coaches:

Players: Men: Anup Sridhar, Chetan Anand, Arvind Bhatt, Anand Pawar, P. Kashyap, Ajay Jayaram, Guru Sai Dutt, Abhimanyu Singh, Saurabh Verma, Aditya Prakash, Sanave Thomas, Rupesh Kumar, V. Diju, Akshay Dewalkar, Alwyn Francis, Shankar Goan, Arun Vishnu, K. Tarun, Pranav Chopda. Women: Saina Nehwal, Aditi Mutatkar, Trupti Murgunde, Gayatri Vartak, Arundhati Pantawane, Sikki Reddy, P.C. Thulasi, Prajakta Sawant, Jwala Gutta, Shruti Kurien, Ashwini Ponnappa, Nitya Sosale, P. Jyotsna, Anjali Kalita, Shweta Kelkar, Pradnya Gadre. Coaches: P. Gopi Chand, Sanjiv Sachdeva, Surinder Mahajan, Vijaydeep Singh, Ajay Kanwar, Bhaskar Babu, Siddharth Jain, Manjusha Kanwar, Atik Jauhari (Indonesia), Jason Krufort (Australia).

The event, which covers a distance of over 21-km, offers $ 210,000 in total prize money $ 25,000 each to the winner in the men's and women's category.

Registration for the world's richest half marathon started today and more than 30,000 are expected to take part in the event, organisers said.

"In the past three years the Delhi Half Marathon has been the perfect build-up to the 2010 Commonwealth Games. The IOA is proud of this event and wishes it all the very best in the years to come," Kalmadi, who unveiled the logo, said.

Around 28,500 people from all walks of life participated in the last edition.

"The whole city converging on a road to run is a celebration of the human spirit overcoming barriers. The Delhi Half Marathon will celebrate the philosophy with people of Delhi," said Monoj Kholi, Joint Managing Director of Bharti Airtel.

The All India Tennis Association (AITA) had identified a bunch of 20 boys and girls, whom the game's governing body wants to groom keeping an eye on the medals at stake in the 2010 Games, where tennis will make its debut.

Mukherjea, a former Davis Cup captain, said the frequency of the camps would be adjusted according to the availability of players.

"Some players might be playing outside. We will ask them to give us their schedule and then we will work out the feasibility of oraganising the camps. But we want them to spend at least two months with us in these camps," he said.

Mukherjea also revealed that services of a foreign coach could be taken to nurture talented players. "We want to provide them the best training so we have plans to hire a foreign coach," Mukherjea, who was here to see some ITF Future matches, said.

"The news is quite positive," the drinks and aviation billionaire, who is also chairman of the Motorsports Association of India (MAI), told a news conference at the German Grand Prix.

"I happened to be having lunch with the CEO of one of India's biggest banks and he confirmed that they had sanctioned a facility to the developer of the Indian track," he added.

"He has actually bought the land and on October 1 construction of a brand new track will begin.

"So for the first time now I think I feel very confident to be able to say to you that there will be a brand new track and that we will have our first Grand Prix in 2010. It's just outside New Delhi," said Mallya.

Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president Suresh Kalmadi announced last September that Formula One Management had approved two sites on the outskirts of New Delhi with the IOA to make the final choice.

Inspired by what Kumar achieved in the Olympics, the civic agency is planning to provide the much-needed facilities to people of the area in the form of an international stadium which will be built on a 5 acre plot owned by it. Said an MCD official: ``We need to promote sports in the country and for this we want to make a stadium in Nizampur which will boast a boxing ring, a wrestling area, cycling track and a ground for football since these sports do not have the required infrastructure, especially in remote areas. The entire project is likely to cost us upto Rs 5 crore and will take around two years to build. But we cannot sustain such a stadium on our own and would look for some private organisation or sports federation to take up the job of its maintainence.''

The MCD is also planning to build a boys' hostel in the stadium complex so that people from nearby areas can come and put up there during their training period. Added the official: ``What is ironic is that stadiums made by us in the city are hardly put to use. For instance, barely 60 to 80 matches take place at Ambedkar Stadium in a year. There is a lot of talent in the country and it is just a matter of giving it opportunity to prove its metal. We want to provide similar facilities in all villages surrounding Delhi.'' Work on this project will begin in a month's time.

According to officials, with the Commonwealth Games just a couple of years away and India sadly lacking a pool of players who are able to perform at an international level, the country needs to encourage sports more actively. A three medal-haul at the ongoing Olympics is only an indication of the lack of infrastructure and support available to sportspersons in India. Whether or not MCD's plans shape up future medal winners for India, the initiative itself is a positive indication of the government's willingness to invest in sports.

Meanwhile, MCD has announced that it will get the three Olympic medal winners to meet the primary students in schools run by it.

The Asian Hockey Federation (AHF) held their council meeting during the recent junior Asia Cup in Hyderabad and decided on the major continental tournaments to be held in 2008 and 2009, and one of the decisions taken was to hold the 2nd under-18 boys Asia Cup in New Delhi.

However, the authorities concerned the IOA ad-hoc committee and the selection committee are completely unaware of the decision. "We have no idea about any such tournament to be held in the Capital. There is no communication about it," said Mohammad Aslam Khan, convenor of the IOA ad-hoc committee, responsible for the administration of the game in the country.

When told that this was, in fact, announced during the press conference, he reiterated that there was no such information available with them. Interestingly, the AHF meeting was attended by former IHF president KPS Gill, IWHF president Vidya Stokes and IWHF secretary Amrit Bose, in their capacity as council members, while IOA president Suresh Kalmadi and Aslam Khan were present only as special invitees for a short while on the opening day of the meeting.

When contacted, Amrit Bose said she had no such information. "We will be hosting the under-18 girls' Asia Cup, but that will be only after September, in Gwalior, and only if we get atl east six entries. There is no infrastructure for hockey in the city right now, how can a tournament be held here," she said.

Haryana tourism minister Kiran Choudhry said that the Central tourism ministry has already issued guidelines for setting up of camping sites, especially in view of the forthcoming Commonwealth Games and to augment accommodation with requisite quality and standards. Haryana government was working in close coordination with the Centre and adventure tour operators association to finalize the camping sites. The work was being taken up at camping sites at Surajkund, Hodal, Dharuhera and Morni to attract more tourists.

She said that the Central government has also been approached to provide funds for Damdama camping site, which had already been used as camping sites over the years. This would provide basic infrastructure around camping site including connectivity, electricity, public toilets, tourist reception facilities and parking grounds. The minister added that state government's tourism policy has provision for short-term and long-term leasing policy to private players and accordingly some of camping sites would be leased in public private partnership (PPP) to provide basic facilities to tourists.

The President of the Indian Olympics Association Suresh Kalmadi announced the baton relay in Delhi on Wednesday.

Based on the lines of the Queen's baton relay of the Commonwealth Games, it is a first of its kind.

The Games in Pune will be the third Commonwealth Youth Games and for the first all 71 Commonwealth nations have confirmed participation for the event.

Battling to wash off stains of a bribery scandal and recovering from its absence from the Olympics, the sport has got a much-needed boost in the country.

Ending a long period of uncertainty, the International Hockey Federation (FIH) finally gave the hosting rights of the Men's World Cup to India. It had provisionally given the rights to Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) last year pending fillfillment of some conditions.

"Delhi has officially been given the rights to host the Men's World Cup. We hope this will help revive Indian hockey," FIH president Els van Breda Viersman told a press conference here.

The tournament would be organised at the National Stadium, currently being renovated in the run-up to the 2010 Commonwealth Games.HT

• Facility will be used for national, zonal meets

• Other projects worth Rs.5 crore also approved

The winner and runner-up will represent Delhi in the nationals to be held in Indore later this year.

All entries will close on July 20 and interested players can contact Amarjit Singh, Organising Secretary on 9811025782.