Indians endure disappointing day at Rio Olympics

August 7, 2016

Rio de Janeiro, Aug 7: India endured a largely disappointing day at the ongoing Rio Olympics with the men’s hockey team and rower Dattu Baban Bhokanal proving to be the only bright sparks.

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The Indian men’s hockey team began their campaign with a morale boosting 3-2 win against Ireland in their opening pool encounter. Bhokanal meanwhile, produced a creditable performance to reach the quarter-finals of the men’s single sculls event.

But the shooters, paddlers, and weightlifter Saikhom Mirabai Chanu (women’s 48kg) proved to be a disappointment.

Tennis

The tennis court also did not yield any positive results as the men’s doubles combination of Leander Paes and Bopanna and the women’s doubles pair of Sania Mirza and Prarthana Thombare crashed out in the opening rounds of their respective categories.

In women’s doubles, Sania and Prarthana went down fighting to Shuai Peng and Shuai Zhang of China in a see-saw first round encounter at the Olympic Tennis Centre.

Sania and Prarthana gave a good account of themselves before going down 6-7 (6), 7-5, 5-7 in two hours and 44 minutes.

Paes was not Bopanna’s partner of choice and the duo clearly did not enjoy the best camaraderie in the run up to the Olympics. That clearly reflected in their on-court performance as the Indians went down 4-6, 6-7 (6) to ‘s Lukasz Kubot and Marcin Matkowski of Poland.

Paes-Bopanna surrendered the first set in 32 minutes at the Olympic Tennis Centre and the second set in 52 minutes.

It was Paes’ record-setting seventh Olympic appearance, which ended on a disappointing note for the veteran star.

Paes-Bopanna converted both break points received but gave away seven break points in the first set. Kubot-Matkowski won three of the seven break points received to win the first set 6-4.

The Indian pair committed 18 unforced errors in comparison to 10 by their opponents in the first set. The second set was closely contested with both teams retaining their serves to stretch it to a tie-breaker.

But ultimately the Indian pair went down fighting 8-6 in the tie-breaker to bow out in 1 hour 24 minutes. They won only 59 of the total 132 points played in the match.

Hockey

In hockey, the Indians notched up a victory over a spirited Ireland despite a shaky performance.

Rupinder Pal Singh (27th and 49th minutes) scored a brace while V.R. Raghunath (15th) opened the scoring for the eight time gold medallists.

John Jermyn (45th) and Conor Harte (55th) reduced the margin for the Irishmen in the Pool B match.

India’s next match is against two-time defending champions Germany on Monday.

Rowing

Dattu Baban Bhokanal produced a pleasant surprise in the men’s single sculls event as he reached the quarter-finals after finishing third in his heat.

In the first heat of the day, the 25-year-old from the Indian Army finished the 2000-metre race in seven minutes and 21.67 seconds at the Lagoa Stadium here.

The Maharashtra lad is the sole Indian to have qualified for the rowing events. He was in second place for the first 500 metres of the race, but started to lag behind once Juan Carlos of Mexico in the second lane picked up pace around the 700m mark.

Cuba’s Angel Fournier Rodriguez finished first clocking 7:06.89 followed by Carlos (7:08.27).

Shooting: Women’s 10 metre air rifle

At the shooting ranges, Apurvi Chandela and Ayonika Paul crashed out after losing in the quarter-finals of the women’s 10 metre air rifle event.

Apurvi was placed in the 34th position with a combined score of 411.6 while Ayonika was 43rd with 407.0 among 51 shooters at the Olympic Shooting Centre.

China’s Du Li entered the quarter-finals, bagging the top spot with a score of 420.7, setting a new Olympic record at the event. Germany’s Barbara Engleder took the second spot with 420.3 while Iran’s Elaheh Ahmadi was third with 417.8.

Apart from the top three, a Russian, two Americans, a Croatian and another Chinese shooter completed the top eight line-up.

“I don’t know what happened, my mind has totally gone blank,” Apurvi told IANS after the event.

“Of course when I came in this morning, I expected to win. Who doesn’t,” a visibly crestfallen Chandela said before proceeding to see the finals of the competition with her physio Nikhil Ajit Latey, which was won by Virginia Thrasher of the U.S. with a score of 208.

Apurvi had won the gold medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Her other colleague Ayonika Paul had won the silver at the competition. Paul, who too watched the finals from the rear gallery, did not want to comment.

Shooting: Men's 10m air pistol

Later, medal hope Jitu Rai finished eighth in the men’s 10 metre Air Pistol event. Jitu produced a string of poor shots for a total score of 78.7 and was the first to be eliminated from the eight-man final.

Playing in his maiden Olympics, Jitu showed signs of nerves right from the qualifying rounds and made it to the final by the skin of his teeth.

He continued his nervous performance in the final as well and lagged behind in the early stages and was unable to rise above the last place.

The Naib Subedar from the Indian Army slipped to the eighth and last spot right at the start with a total score of 28.9 points after the first three shots.

He ran into further trouble with a 9.7 in his next shot. The 28-year-old continued to struggle with his next couple of shots as the shooters at the top of the pack continued to churn out consistent above 10 attempts.

On the brink of elimination with an overall score of 68.6, Jitu managed a 10.1 but it was not enough to keep him in the competition.

Table Tennis

In table tennis, Mouma Das crashed out in the first round of the women’s singles after a rather one-sided 2-11, 7-11, 7-11, 3-11 loss to Daniela Monteiro Dodean of Romania.

Meanwhile, India’s veteran paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal was knocked out in the first round of the men’s singles competition. The 34-year-old, competing in his third Olympic Games, lost to Romanian Adrian Crisan 1-4 (8-11, 12-14, 11-9, 6-11, 8-11).

World No.73 Sharath fought hard in all of the five games but the 36-year-old world No.90 of Romania was up to the challenge.

Weightlifting

In weightlifting, Chanu produced a disappointing performance and was unable to make an impact in the women’s 48kg category at the Riocentro Pavilion 2 arena.

Competing in Group A, Chanu lifted 82 kilograms in the snatch event, but could not complete any of her lifts in the clean and jerk.

Sopita Tanasan of Thailand won the gold with a total lift of 200 kilograms, Sri Wahyuni Agustiani of Indonesia clinched the silver with 192 kilograms while Japan’s Hiromi Miyake (188 kilograms) took the bronze.

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News Network
February 5,2020

New Delhi, Feb 5: IPL franchise Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) has denied any financial dealings with the controversial Rose Valley Group except for it being a sponsor of the side's official jerseys in 2012 and 2013.

KKR issued the clarification after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) attached Rose Valley's assets worth over Rs 70 crore on Monday. The attached assets include Rs 11.87 crore bank deposits of Knight Riders Sports Pvt Ltd, that owns KKR, in connection with a money laundering probe.

The franchise said it hopes for the matter to be resolved expeditiously.

"Rose Valley Hotels was one of KKR's IPL jersey sponsors for IPL seasons 2012 and 2013. Rose Valley had paid KKR an approx. amount of Rs 11.87 crore as sponsorship fees," KKR CEO Venky Mysore said in a statement.

"KKR had no other dealings with the Rose Valley Group including Rose Valley’s micro finance business," he added.

The statement added that in July last year, KRSPL (Knight Riders Sports Pvt Ltd), received a "witness summon" from the ED in connection with an investigation relating to the Rose Valley Group, particularly its micro finance business.

"The ED continues the investigation of Rose Valley. KKR continues to cooperate with the authorities in all respects," Mysore said.

"As part of the investigative process, sometime in October 2019, the ED placed a lien on the said amount earlier paid by Rose Valley to KKR," he asserted.

The directors of KRSPL include Shah Rukh Khan's wife Gauri Khan, actor Juhi Chawla's husband Jay Mehta, Mysore and two others.

Mysore was questioned in this case by ED's Kolkata office in October last year.

Apart from KRSPL, the ED attached properties of two other entities -- Multiple Resorts Pvt. Ltd. and Kolkata's St Xavier's College on Monday.

The ED registered an FIR against the Rose Valley group, its chairman Gautam Kundu and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in 2014.

Kundu was arrested by the agency in Kolkata in 2015 and is in judicial custody at present.

The ED has filed multiple charge sheets in Kolkata and Bhubaneswar courts in this connection and total attachments are now worth Rs 4,750 crore.

The group has been charged by the ED and the CBI with "illegally and fraudulently collecting deposits from public with the intention to cheat them by falsely promising high returns on their investment", thereby perpetrating a ponzi-like fraud.

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News Network
April 15,2020

New Delhi, Apr 15: Indian cricket team head coach Ravi Shastri on Wednesday urged people to beat coronavirus by staying at home and by maintaining social distancing. He termed the virus 'mother of all World Cups' and asked people to combat this disease together and win the World Cup of humanity.

Taking to Twitter, Shastri shared a video post where he cited cricket examples to aware people about the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic. "As I would know, sports teaches you life lessons that can be applied to just about anything you want to pursue in rest of your life.

Today the COVID-19 has put us in a situation where we got our backs to the wall. To combat this coronavirus is like chasing a World Cup where you give your everything in trying to win it. What's staring you at the face is no ordinary World Cup. This is the mother of all World Cups where not just eleven are playing but 1.4 billion are in the playing arena and competing. Guys we can win this. For that, we have to observe the basics. You have got your Prime Minister leading from the front ahead of the curve like other countries have farmed out," Shastri said.

"You have to obey the orders that come from the top: be it centre, state or the frontline workers who are risking their lives. Two orders that stand out: staying home and maintaining social distancing. It is not easy but to win the game you got to go through the pain to break the chain and see the gain. Come on, guys! let's do it together. Let us get out there in a bruit force of 1.4 billion and beat this corona and get your hands on the World Cup of humanity. Let's do it," he added.

With 1,076 new COVID-19 cases reported in the last 24 hours, India's tally of coronavirus cases has risen to 11,439, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Wednesday.

Out of the total tally, 9,756 cases are active while 1,306 patients have been cured/discharged and migrated. With 38 new deaths reported in the last 24 hours, the death toll rises to 377.

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News Network
July 6,2020

Karachi, Jul 6: Former Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq has said that questions will be raised if Indian Premier League is slotted in the window allotted to ICC T20 World Cup in Australia, which in all likelihood will be cancelled in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The ICC is yet to decide the fate of the T20 World Cup in Australia which is scheduled to take place from October 18 to November 15.

"There are rumors that the World Cup was clashing with the Indian Premier League (IPL) and the Australia-India series, therefore, it (T20 World Cup) won't take place," Inzamam said in his YouTube channel on Sunday.

"The Indian board is strong and has control in the International Cricket Council (ICC). If Australia says that we cannot hold the World Cup because of the Covid-19 pandemic, then their stance will be easily accepted, but if any such kind event happens during the same time, then questions will be raised," he said.

The 50-year-old former batsman, who has scored 8,830 runs in 120 Tests and 11,739 runs in 378 ODIs for Pakistan, further said, "People will think, if a country could host 12 to 14 teams (16 teams), then why the ICC could not look after the teams, after all Australia is such an advanced country.

"Another thing is the ICC should not be allowed to give priority to private leagues (IPL) on international cricket. This will lead to young players forcing on private leagues other than international matches."

The former coach, however, agreed that it is not easy to host 16 nations during the T20 World Cup.

"Australia can say that it was difficult for it to manage 18 teams (16) for the mega event as it is not easy. Likewise, the Pakistan team was in England in a hotel and all the facilities were being provided there, therefore, it has not been easy to manage 18 teams (16)," he said.

The fate of Asia Cup which PCB will be hosting in a neutral country for security reason is also an issue as no one knows the fate of the tournament originally scheduled in September.

Inzamam said: "I have also heard that objections are also raised on the dates of the Asia Cup as it is clashing with some other event.

"The ICC, the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) and all cricket boards should sit together and give a strong message that any such kind of impression (giving priority to private leagues instead of international cricket), won't take place," he said.

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