Kapil Dev, who scripted history by leading the Indian team to victory the 1983 World Cup, was Wednesday commissioned into the Territorial Army (TA) as an honorary lieutenant colonel.

Indian Army chief General Deepak Kapoor piped the badges of rank on the Haryana Hurricane’s shoulders at a ceremony at the Army Headquarters in New Delhi.

“This is my second innings. Earlier I fought for the country in my white uniform. Now, I will do the same in my olive green army uniform,” Kapil said proudly.

The 50-year-old former skipped was commissioned in the 150 TA (Infantry) battalion of the Punjab Regiment.

“I am proud I have been given this rank. It took six months for the things to materialise, with the file moving from the home ministry to the defence ministry,” said Kapil, as his wife and daughter looked on.

Kapil’s induction’s will help in attracting talent as the army is facing a major crunch in the officer cadre, an official said.

Encouraged by the country’s performance in the recent Beijing Olympics , the state govt has launched a multi-pronged programme to ensure its participation in the 2012 London Olympics. The project includes the setting up of a world class sports city and a talent hunt at the grassroots to provide scientific training to sportspersons.

“We visited Punjab and Haryana last week to have a firsthand knowledge of the sports facilities there. We have undertaken simultaneous work of mapping sports activities in all the districts at the school level,” said Vipul Mitra, state rural development secretary and president of the state table tennis association.

Mitra was in Kutch to attend the foundation laying ceremony of the indoor stadium of the Kutch District TT Association. Incidentally, the Rs 2-crore-project at Adipur is the brainchild of Mitra, who had thought of this a decade ago, while working as the deputy chairman of the Kandla Port Trust.

He said the port town had seen many national level tournaments and had become the state headquarters of TT. Therefore a need was felt to have an indoor stadium of international standards here. He further said that the Sindhu Resettlement Corporation (SRC) had also allotted land for the purpose.

Mitra said the project will give a boost to sports activities in the border district. He said a sports city will be built on 500 acres of land at a cost of Rs 500 crore on the lines of one under construction in Pune and Dubai. He said the ongoing sports mapping project’s aim is to identify areas for a particular sports . “Since the tribals of the state are good in archery, it would be the natural choice in such areas. Similarly the game of choice for Saurashtra would be wrestling because the people here are well-built,” he said. He added that after identifying the sportspersons, they will be imparted special training to compete in the national and international sports competitions.

Nirmala Gajwani, SRC Chairperson said more projects were in the pipeline for the modernisation of Gandhidham, which was incidentally developed as a new township for the resettlement of refugees from Pakistan in the aftermath of the Partition.

Anjar MLA Nimaben Acharya said that the stadium will not face any funding problems as the post-quake border district was home to many big industrial houses with love for sports.

Saina Nehwal on Sunday capped her dream run in the Chinese Taipei Open by clinching the title to become the first Indian woman shuttler with two Grand Prix crowns under her belt.

The second-seeded Indian, who won the Philippines Open Grand Prix in May 2006, beat unseeded Malaysian Li Ya Lydia Cheah 21-8, 21-19 in the final of the GP Gold event here.

Saina, who reached the Olympic quarter-finals a couple of weeks back in Beijing, played to a plan and attacked her opponent from the word go.

The tactics paid off well for the world number 14 who gave no chance to her Malaysian rival, a slow mover on the court, to bridge the gap in the first game.

The second game, though, saw a determined Cheah fight back but the Indian was up to the task and ran away with the match after some anxious moments.

“I guess this is perhaps my best performance so far. Of course my show in Beijing Olympics gave me a lot of confidence but I think I played here really well,” Saina said.

Asked if she would rate Sunday’s win higher than her 2006 Philippines Open triumph, Saina said, “Philippines Open was a four-star event and this is five-star and it’s unbelievable that I won this title.”

Looking ahead, Saina said she must keep the momentum going.

“Next I play in Japan and China Open, both of which are Super Series events and I have to continue the good work there,” said the 21-year-old Hyderabadi girl.

An elated Badminton Association of India President VK Verma termed Saina’s stunning victory a great achievement for Indian shuttlers.

“I congratulate Saina for her outstanding victory. Her career has been on the up now. She won the Philippines Open Grand Prix in 2006, then she reached the quarter-finals in the Olympics and now she has won a Grand Prix Gold event,” he said.

“It was a formidable victory winning the final in straight sets and 21-8 in the first game was truly amazing.”

Indian tennis ace Leander Paes stayed on course for a grand double at the US Open  when he and Zimbabwe’s Cara Black won the mixed doubles crown at the season-ending Grand Slam on Thursday. 

The fifth seeded Indo-Zimbabwean pair beat the American-British pairing of Liezel Huber and Jamie Murray 7-6, 6-4 in the final.

The triumph increased Paes’s  tally of Grand Slam crowns to eight.

Games went with serve in the first set, which went to the tie-breaker, where Paes and Black fought back from 4-6 down to take the set at 8-6.

In the second set, Paes and Black got the crucial break in the fifth game, breaking Murray. They held serve comfortable thereafter to take the set and match.

Paes will also figure in the men’s doubles final on Friday, when he and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy take on the Bryan twins Mike and Bob of the United States.

In 1999, Paes had partnered Mahesh Bhupathi  and Lisa Raymond to win the men’s doubles and mixed doubles crowns at Wimbledon

When Vijendar was awarded his medal IOA President Suresh Kalmadi and Secretary General Randhir Singh were instead at the Bird’s Nest stadium.

Only the Indian boxing contingent and members of the Indian Boxing Federation were present at Vijender’s ceremony.

Vijender has been named the flag-bearer for india at the closing ceremony. The boxer lost 5-8 to Cuban Emilio Correa Bayeaux in a closely contested semi-final at the Workers Gymnasium. However, his bronze is the first-ever boxing medal for India.

Emilio, a two-time Pan-American Champion, was clearly the better boxer on view with his quick footwork and reach. To Vijender’s credit, he fought gallantly to carry the bout right into the fourth round, though the portents were clear that the Cuban had the edge by the end of the third round.

The Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) on Saturday decided to reward  pugilist Vijender — with cash prizes totalling Rs 45 lakh.

Airlines SpiceJet also announced on Friday that Vijender can fly for life in their domestic flights in recognition of his historic feat of winning a bronze in Beijing Olympics.