Salgaocar take on Mumbai

MAPUSA: Salgaocar Football Club will miss two of their key players - goalkeeper Karanjit Singh and Brazilian striker Josimar Martins da Silva due to suspension as they host Mumbai FC in a 21st round I-League football match at Duler Stadium, here, Saturday, 4 p.m.

Salgaocar not only gave away their first half lead in their previous game against Sporting Clube de Goa but also lost their two key players after they were shown direct red cards on a day where six yellow and three red card were flashed.

Defender Randeep Kumar will also be missed as he has accumulated four cards and consequently remains suspended for one match.

Salgaocar, placed ninth with 20 points from as many matches, will have fond memories of their previous leg clash as they had managed a solitary goal victory, the first win for the team after a horrendous run at the start of the campaign.

Mumbai FC coach Khalid Jamil admitted to Salgaocar’s strengths and said they have been unlucky in many matches.

“They are a very good team. I believe they would have had better results but were unlucky in many games. We will have to be on top of our game,” said Jamil.

Mumbai are placed seventh on the table with 26 points from 19 matches.

Jamil said he was keen to try out a couple of promising youngsters who have grown in stature over the last couple of months.

“I don’t think it’s a risk because I trust these players. The players are good, they have good temperament and can stand up to the best,” said the Mumbai FC coach.

“There is no secret to the team’s performance in this year’s I-League. It’s all down to hard work and nothing else. We had a poor start but we never lost confidence,” said Jamil.

Meanwhile, Churchill Bros will look to maintain their momentum when they face ONGC in an away match.

In another match, Prayag United SC, fresh from their IFA Shield triumph, are surely at their confident best will take on United Sikkim in Gangtok at 2 p.m. In Kolkata, East Bengal will clash with Air India at Kalyani Stadium, at 2 p.m.

GJM leaders to meet JMM boss for poll alliance

A Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) delegation led by party general secretary Roshan Giri will meet Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) supremo Shibu Soren in Ranchi to discuss plans for an electoral alliance ahead of the panchayat elections in West Bengal.

“We are travelling to Ranchi on March 24 and will meet Mr. Soren and his son Hemant Soren. We have an alliance with the JMM and this meeting will be held to chalk out an electoral strategy for the rural polls,” Mr. Giri told The Hindu over telephone from Darjeeling.

The JMM is believed to have a significant presence in the tribal-dominated areas in the Dooars region of north Bengal.

The two parties have been on good terms for about a year, particularly after Shibu Soren called on GJM president Bimal Gurung in June last year and confirmed his support for the GJM’s demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland. At the meeting, it was proposed that the two parties work towards the creation of a Gorkha Adivasi Pradesh.

The support of the JMM to the GJM has become critical, particularly in the wake of the latter falling out with the John Barla-faction of the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikash Parishad (ABAVP) in recent times.

Mr. Barla and his associates had supported the GJM’s demand for inclusion of areas in the Terai and Dooars within the jurisdiction of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA).

However, differences had cropped up between him and the GJM leadership since the elections in July 2012 to the GTA that were confined to the three hill sub-divisions without the plains being brought into the ambit of the regional autonomous body.