BCCI's Rs 50 lakh to women cricketers
The BCCI presented Rs 50 lakh to all the Indian women cricketers who lost the ICC World Cup narrowly while the Railways gave Rs 13 lakh each to the 10 players from the department besides promoting them. The board also gave Rs 25 lakh each to the support staff of the team. Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu promoted the 10 Railway players in the Indian team and gave away cash awards amounting to a total of Rs 1.30 crore to them. Prabhu declared team skipper Mithali Raj and her deputy Harmanpreet Kaur as gazetted officers and announced out-of-turn promotions to the other eight Railway players. The Indian eves suffered a nine-run defeat to hosts England in the final. Earlier, the team was felicitated by Sports Minister Vijay Goel at his residence.
Four new teams add zing to bigger PKL
A fresher and bigger edition of the widely popular Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) will begin here on Friday, with a total of 12 teams fighting it out for the top honours over the next 13 weeks. Into its fifth season, the league's popularity can be gauged from the fact that as many as four new teams—Gujarat Fortunegiants, Haryana Steelers, UP Yoddha and Tamil Thalaivas—have been added this time. The new edition will also see a new format in which 12 teams have been divided into two zones of six teams each. Each of the teams will play 15 intra-zone and seven inter-zone matches, prior to the play-offs. Zone A consists of Dabang Delhi, Jaipur Pink Panthers, Puneri Paltan, U Mumba, Haryana Steelers and Gujarat Fortunegiants while Zone B will have Telugu Titans, Bengaluru Bulls, Patna Pirates, Bengal Warriors, UP Yoddha and Tamil Thalaivas. The play-offs stage will comprise three qualifiers and two eliminators, which are scheduled to take place in Mumbai and Chennai. The final will be held on Ocober 28 in Chennai.
Sehwag, Usha named in committee to pick Khel Ratna, Arjuna awardees
Former Indian opener Virender Sehwag and former sprint queen P.T. Usha have been named in the 12-member committee to pick this year's Khel Ratna and Arjuna awardees. The committee, headed by Justice (retd) C.K. Thakkar, will meet on August 3 to select this year's awardees. The other members of the committee are Mukund Killekar (boxing), Sunil Dabbas (Kabaddi), M.R. Mishra (Journalist), S. Kannan (Journalist), Sanjeev Kumar (Journalist), Latha Madhvi (Para athlete), Anil Khanna (sports administrator), Injeti Srinivas (DG, SAI) and Rajvir Singh (joint Secretary, Sports Ministry). Meanwhile, former shuttler and current national badminton coach Pullela Gopichand and ace Indian cueist Pankaj Advani have been named in committee to pick Dronacharya and Dhyan Chand awardees.
Andhra appoints P.V. Sindhu as Deputy Collector
Olympics badminton silver medallist P.V. Sindhu was appointed a Deputy Collector by the Andhra Pradesh government. Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu handed over the appointment letter to her at the state secretariat in the presence of her parents. The state government has asked Sindhu to join duty as deputy collector within 30 days. In May, the state legislature had passed a Bill amending the State Public Services Act to appoint Sindhu as a Group-I officer in the government. As any recruitment in public services has to be only through the State Public Service Commission, selection committee or employment exchange, the government had to amend the Andhra Pradesh (Regulation of Appointments to Public Services and Rationalisation of Staff Pattern and Pay Structure) Act, 1994.
Cook stands firm for England in 100th Oval Test
Alastair Cook marked The Oval's 100th test match with a familiarly stubborn unbeaten half-century, standing firm as the home side battled to 149 for four against South Africa at tea on an absorbing first day of the third Test on Thursday. Former captain Cook battled patiently on to 72 after Vernon Philander, who had spent 50 minutes off the field with stomach trouble, had taken his second wicket of a rain-interrupted day, the prized one of Cook's successor as skipper, Joe Root. With the four-Test series locked at 1-1, the visitors took the initiative after lunch with Cook, still unperturbed after 161 balls at the crease, and Philander, who had excellent figures of 2-8 from nine overs, the key protagonists.
Kerala HC questions Centre on Chitra's exclusion
The Kerala High Court directed the Centre to explain why was state athlete P.U. Chitra left out of the national squad despite qualifying for next month's World Athletics Championship. The court was acting on a petition filed by her coach N.S. Sijin. It asked the Centre to inform the court on Friday of the process of qualification, and if the Centre has the right to intervene in such matters, and if it had, then to explain which are the relevant provisions in the rules. The court also asked the Centre to explain the source of funds of the various sports organisations. Chitra had won gold in the women's 1,500m event at the Asian Athletics Championships earlier this month with a time of four minutes and 17.92 seconds. According to the selection criteria of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), an athlete can qualify for the World Championships either by meeting the qualification standards or by winning gold at continental events.
'Confident' Indian women's team lands in Kuala Lumpur
The Indian senior women's team arrived in Kuala Lumpur this morning to play two back-to-back international friendlies against Malaysia. Both the matches have been arranged by the All India Football Federation (AIFF) to provide more exposure to the team. The first match is slated for July 29 while the second one is to be played on July 31. The team headed to Kuala Lumpur on the back of a 12-day camp in Delhi. Head coach Maymol Rocky, the first-ever woman coach of an Indian senior national team, informed that the entire squad is "looking forward to the two matches". Striker Bala Devi has been declared the captain, while, Ashalata Devi has been named the vice-captain.
CA ready for arbitration in pay row
Cricket Australia said it will take its long-running pay dispute with players to independent arbitration if agreement cannot be reached by early next week, with a tour to Bangladesh looming. Chief executive James Sutherland said unless a period of intensive negotiations over the next few days produces a compromise his organisation will seek the intervention of an industrial umpire to resolve the impasse. After months of negotiations, the players and CA have failed to reach agreement on a new pay deal, leaving 230 cricketers unemployed since the end of June when their contracts expired. In an escalation of the protracted pay dispute, the players, through their union the ACA, decided to boycott this month's Australia A tour of South Africa and are reportedly ready to do the same for Bangladesh.
BCCI entrusts office-bearers to appoint new ombudsman
The BCCI general body has entrusted its three principal office-bearers acting president C.K. Khanna, acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary and treasurer Aniruddh Chaudhry to decide on the next Ombudsman of the board. The earlier Ombudsman was Justice (Retd) A.P. Shah, who worked with the BCCI for one season. While a few names of retired judges are already with the board, it wants to broaden the pool of prospective candidates and would like its state associations to suggest a few more names.
Respite for Ruidas, AIFF says IFA can't decide his case
Embroiled in a contract row with East Bengal, promising winger Abinash Ruidas got a big boost, with the All India Football Federation directing the Bengal state body not to proceed further with the matter as it would be "beyond their authority". In a strongly-worded mail to the Indian Football Association secretary Utpal Ganguli, AIFF secretary Kushal Das has asked the state body to forward all papers and documents so as to enable it adjudicate the matter in accordance with law, as expeditiously as possible. The development happened after the winger hired a Mumbai-based law firm and sought AIFF's intervention and also wrote to the IFA. Ruidas was signed by Indian Super League franchise Mumbai City FC at its players draft but East Bengal have claimed that the footballer still had a contract of two more seasons. Ruidas claimed that he never signed for East Bengal for 2017-18 and they have "forged" his signature.
UTT: Falcons TTC lead DHFL Maharashtra United 7-5 after four matches
Falcons TTC held a slender 7-5 lead over DHFL Maharashtra United after four matches in the ongoing tie as the race for knockout spots heated up in the Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) at the NSCI in Mumbai last evening. With the final leg of India's first ever professional league CEAT Ultimate Table Tennis moving to Mumbai, the city where the league was conceptualised, the event kicked off in grandeur with batting legend Sachin Tendulkar and Bollywood icon Abhishek Bachchan gracing the match between Falcons TTC and DHFL Maharashtra United at the NSCI Stadium. On Thursday, Shaze Challengers will lock horns with RP-SG Mavericks in the final tie of the league stage.
