Indian woman Aditi Chauhan makes debut for West Ham United

August 18, 2015

Dubai, Aug 18: Aditi Chauhan has become the second Indian-born female footballer to play in England after making her debut for West Ham United Ladies on Sunday.

Aditi ChauhanThe 22-year-old Delhi-born goalkeeper endured a baptism of fire in a 5-0 defeat away to Coventry United in West Ham’s Women’s Premier League Southern Division opener, having signed for The Hammers late in pre-season.

The Indian press have billed Chauhan as the first Indian-born player to play in the English Premier League (EPL). However, unlike the men’s EPL, the division she plays in is the third tier of women’s football in England and Delhi-born Fulham midfielder Tanvie Hans, 25, has already preceded her.

Hans holds a British passport, which prevents her from representing the Indian national team, whereas Chauhan — in the UK on a student visa — holds an Indian passport and plays for the national team, which makes her the first India-capped player to feature in England.

Due to her student visa status, Chauhan, who has just finished a Masters Degree in Sports Management at Loughborough University — who she also represented — cannot feature in England’s Women’s Super League divisions one or two due to Football Association rules.

Chauhan sought to clarify that on her Facebook page, tagging Hans, who replied: “This is the truth. What we’ve achieved is not a cake walk for sure, but it is highly achievable. Still, we’re happy to be trail blazers if it inspires people and encourages them to achieve even bigger things in the future.”

In reaction to her signing and subsequent debut, Chauhan tweeted: “Thank you all for the overwhelming response and wishes. I will work hard to make this opportunity count.”

Of their opening 5-0 defeat, she added: “There is no other way but to improve from here. We need to build ourselves back, get together and move forward. It’s a step up for me after playing for Loughborough.”

West Ham United Ladies were still revelling in her signing despite the defeat, however, with an obvious eye on the marketing potential India’s billion-strong population has to offer. Not only were they tweeting links to shirt purchases with Chauhan’s name and number (42) on the back, costing £54.99 (Dh314.93), but they were also appealing for more followers from the subcontinent.

“Trying to work out what percentage of India’s population we’d need to follow us to get us to 20k! I lost count!! #COYI [Come on you Irons],” read one tweet from West Ham.

Chauhan represented the Delhi Under-19 squad at just 15 years of age and was selected for India under-19s at 17, before going on to feature in India’s South Asian Football Federation’s Women’s Cup win in 2012. She’s currently India’s first choice keeper with nine caps for the Blue Tigresses.

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News Network
June 23,2020

Karachi, Jun 23: Pakistan cricketers Shadab Khan, Haris Rauf and rookie Haider Ali on Monday tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

"The Pakistan Cricket Board has confirmed three players - Haider Ali, Haris Rauf and Shadab Khan - have tested positive for Covid-19," said the PCB in a statement.

"The players had shown no symptoms until they were tested in Rawalpindi on Sunday ahead of the Pakistan men's national cricket team's tour to England."

The infected players will go into self-isolation.

"The PCB medical panel is in contact with the three who have been advised to immediately go into self-isolation," the statement said.

Earlier this month, former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi was tested positive for the deadly virus.

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News Network
January 2,2020

New Delhi, Jan 2: On the first day of the New Year 2020, Hardik Pandya announced his engagement with Serbian actor Natasa Stankovic.

The cricketer took to Instagram to share a photo with the actor and captioned the post: "Mai tera, Tu meri jaane, saara Hindustan. 01.01.2020 #engaged".

The 26-year-old shared three pictures and a short clip on the social media platform. In one photo, Stankovic can be seen flaunting her ring.

The couple got engaged in Dubai and were seen taking a ferry ride along with close friends.

On work front, Stankovic was last seen in a song from Bollywood movie The Body starring Emraan Hashmi and Rishi Kapoor. She had also made it to the finals of the TV show Nach Baliye with her ex-boyfriend Aly Goni.

Stankovic first became a household name after appearing as a contestant on famous reality show 'Bigg Boss 8'.

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Agencies
May 23,2020

New Delhi, May 23: Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju on Saturday said India will not host any international event in immediate future and fans will have to learn to live with the new normal of sporting activities happening behind closed doors in the post-COVID-19 world.

Rijiju's statement gain greater significance in the context of the suspended IPL, which the BCCI wants to host in October-November in case of the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia is postponed.

"We have been working for quite some time now to resume sporting activities but before that, we have to think about practice and training. We are not going to have a tournament kind of situation immediately," Rijiju was quoted as saying by India Today.

For latest updates on coronavirus outbreak, click here

"We have to learn to live with the situation where sporting events will have to be carried forward without spectators in stadiums and sports venues," he added.

Talking specifically about the 13th edition of IPL, which has been put on hold for an indefinite period due to the pandemic, Rijiju said it is the government's prerogative to take a call on conducting any tournament in the country.

"In India, the government has to take a call and it will take a call depending on the situation. We cannot put health at risk just because we want to have a sporting event.

"Our focus is fighting Covid-19 and at the same time, we will have to work a mechanism to get back to normalcy. It is difficult to confirm dates but I am sure we will have some kind of sporting events this year," he said.

Rijiju's statement came close on the heels of Sports Authority of India (SAI) laying out a detailed Standard Operating Procedure for the resumption of sporting activities across the country in a phased manner.

"In the background, their (athletes) fitness and everything has been tracked. They are in touch with the coaches, the fitness experts, the high-performance directors. We are monitoring each and every athlete who are of the higher stature, who played for India and higher clubs," he said.

"Now it has been laid out. SAI has prepared a detailed SOP. These are prepared by experts from different fields. This SOP has already been issued to all sports federations and other sports bodies including govt stakeholders. So, based on this SOP training will start."

Coronavirus India update: State-wise total number of confirmed cases, deaths on May 23

The Sports Minister, however, reiterated that resumption of sporting activities will entirely depend on guidelines of respective states and local administrations.

"We have been clearly advising that health and safety are top priorities. Besides that we have to keep in mind two other things, one is the guidelines issued by the Home Ministry, second, is the guidelines issued by the administrations of the respective localities or states. So, these are to be taken into account," he said.

"But we have clearly stated that sports complexes and stadiums are open, other than that there should not be any activities till the lockdown is there or we come up with a renewed kind of advice."

Asked about the prospect of the Tokyo Games that were scheduled for this year but were postponed to 2021 due to the pandemic, the Sports Minister said he is hopeful of the quadrennial event taking place on the revised dates.

"Olympics is still far away and we have full confidence in the Japanese government and IOC and every country will support that the conduct of Tokyo 2021 will not be postponed. There are too many stakes in Olympics, so it is difficult to even foresee that the Olympics can be postponed," he said.

"As far as India's preparation goes, we are at the best stage of our preparation of any Olympics so far in history. This is going to be India's biggest contingent so far and have medal-winning prospects. But I am not saying we are so prepared to finish in the top 10 or 5 but our long term target is that India will be in the top 10 in 2028.

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