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
February 11,2020

Mt. Maunganui (New Zealand), Feb 11: KL Rahul struck a combative 112 but New Zealand completed a 3-0 whitewash of India by winning the third ODI by five wickets, here on Tuesday.

Rahul helped India recover from a shaky start to post a challenging 296 for 7 but the Kiwis overhauled the target with 17 balls to spare.

This is the first whitewash that India has suffered in an ODI series in more than a decade.

Sent in to bat, India were down 62 for 3 in the 13th over after the dismissals of Mayank Agarwal (1), captain Virat Kohli (9) and Prithvi Shaw (40) but Rahul got a useful ally in in-form Shreyas Iyer (62) to take India to a competitive total.

Rahul, who hit nine fours and two sixes during his 113-ball innings, and Iyer stitched exactly 100 runs from 18.2 overs for the fourth wicket to revive the Indian innings.

After the end of the promising innings of Iyer, Rahul shared another 107 runs for the fifth wicket with Manish Pandey (42).

The Kiwis were off to a confident start in their chase with Martin Guptill (66) and Henry Nicholls (80) and putting on a 106-run stand. However, wrist spinner Yuzvendra Chahal took three wickets to bring India back in the game.

Colin de Grandhomme (58) and Tom Latham (32), though, took their side past the finish line with an unbeaten 80-run partnership.

Brief Scores:

India: 296 for 7 in 50 overs (KL Rahul 112, Shreyas Iyer 62; Hamish Bennett 4/64).

New Zealand: 300 for 5 in 47.1 overs. (H Nicholls 80, M Guptill 66; Y Chahal 3/47).

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Agencies
April 12,2020

London, Apr 12: Former Formula 1 legendary driver Stirling Moss died at the age of 90 on Sunday.

"All at F1 send our heartfelt condolences to Lady Susie and Sir Stirling's family and friends," Formula 1 said in a statement.

Often referred to as the greatest driver never to win the world championship, Moss contested 66 Grands Prix from 1951 to 1961, driving for the likes of Vanwall, Maserati and Mercedes, where he famously formed a contented and ruthlessly effective partnership with lead driver Juan Manuel Fangio.

In his 10-year-long stint at the tracks, Moss took 16 wins, some of which rank among the truly iconic drives in the sport's history - his 1961 victories in Monaco and Germany in particular often held up as all-time classics.

Moss won the 1955 Mille Miglia on public roads for Mercedes at an average speed of close to 100mph, while he also competed in rallies and land-speed attempts.

Following an enforced retirement from racing (barring a brief comeback in saloon cars in the 1980s) after a major crash at Goodwood in 1962, Moss maintained a presence in Formula 1 as both a sports correspondent and an interested observer, before retiring from public life in January of 2018.

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News Network
June 9,2020

Bengaluru, Jun 9: Former India skipper Rahul Dravid has said that Virat Kohli understands that the real respect for him as a cricketer will come through success in the longest format of the game.

Dravid, popularly known as 'The Wall', also said that Test batsmanship has become exciting to watch now as batters play aggressive shots more often.

"I actually believe Test batsmanship has become more exciting than before, the aggressive element of Test batsmanship is going forward, players are playing shots and it is good to see, a good thing for India is Virat Kohli really values Test cricket, he understands that the real respect for him as a cricketer will come from his success in Test cricket," Dravid told Sanjay Manjrekar in a videocast hosted by ESPNCricinfo.

He also said that defensive batting in cricket is not irrelevant, but added that players can have successful careers without having a good defensive technique.

"I don't think it is becoming irrelevant, maybe the value of defensive batting is not the same as it was a generation ago, it can never become irrelevant, I think you still need to defend your wicket if you want to score suns, I feel now you can survive without a good defensive technique in cricket," Dravid said.

"Today, you do not need to have a good Test career to have a successful career, look at the best players in the world today, a lot of them have a good defensive technique and they can play out difficult periods of the game," he added.

The 47-year-old Dravid also said that all young players want to represent their country in all three formats during their initial days, but eventually, they become realistic as time passes by.

"I would say in my interaction with the younger players, everyone's hero is someone who has succeeded in all formats of the game. I think all players start off wanting to play all formats, but then guys get a little realistic about their careers, superstars of the game will still want to play to all formats of the game," Dravid said.

Dravid is the only player in the history of cricket to be involved in two 300-plus ODI partnerships.

He played 164 Tests, 344 ODIs and one T20I for India. Dravid had announced his retirement from international cricket in March 2012.

He finished his career with 48 international centuries.

He has also coached the Indian junior sides (India U-19 and India A) and he is now the head of the National Cricket Academy (NCA).

Dravid has also led the side during his playing days and under his leadership, the side had managed to register their first Test series win in England.

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