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Vikas Gowda clinches India's first gold at Asian Athletics Championships

July 5, 2013

Vikas_GowdaPune, Jul 5: Vikas Gowda's towering personality can be very intimidating at times but the Indian discus thrower has been a calm and composed figure. All that yielded rich dividends on Thursday as Gowda opened India's gold account with an authoritative performance at the Asian Athletics Championships.

India also won a silver medal through M.R. Poovamma in the women's 400m while Ratiram Saini clinched bronze in the men's 10,000m run.

Gowda was second behind Mohammad Samimi of Iran till the third attempt but the Indian's fourth throw almost touched his personal best and secured a gold medal for him.

The US-based Indian changed his shoes for the fourth attempt and cleared 64.90m as none could challenge his imposing feat. "It's a good result. All my hard work seems to be paying off well. It is not often that you come close to your personal best in a major event and somehow it happened for me. I almost touched 65m," said Gowda, whose personal best is 66.28m.

Samimi, whose best was 61.93m, bagged silver, while Mohammad Ahmed of Qatar (60.28m) won bronze.

It was only in 2011 after a series of dope incidents that M.R. Poovamma got a chance to make it to India's 400m squad and on Thursday, the Bangalore girl grabbed the opportunity with both her hands.

The 23-year-old quarter-miler looked at ease in the semi-finals on Wednesday but Chinese Yanmin Zhao dominated the proceedings on Thursday, recording her personal best with 52.49sec.

Poovamma, who was also watched by Ashwini Akkunji from the stands, clocked 53.37sec, which was less than her personal best of 52.75sec. The bronze went to Lebanese Gretta Taslakian (53.43sec), while India's Anu Mariam Jose finished a close fourth in 53.49sec.

"At the Asian Grand Prix, the competition is not as tough as it is here. I can proudly say that I have won an Asian Championship silver," said Poovamma.

"In the men's 10,000m, Ratiram bagged India's fifth medal of the event to add to Mayookha Johny and Om Prakash's bronze medals on Wednesday. The men's 10,000m was dominated by Bahrain with a 1-2 finish.

Alemu Bekele Gebre (28:47.26min) won the gold while Bilisuma Shugi Gelas followed him to the finish line in 28:58.67min.

"I am happy but I think I could have done even better because towards the end, I allowed them (gold and silver medallist) to go ahead," said Ratiram, who clocked 29:35.42min.

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News Network
February 13,2020

Feb 13: Veteran India batsman Suresh Raina feels Mahendra Singh Dhoni is the best captain India ever had.

Raina and Dhoni play for the same IPL franchise -- the Chennai Super Kings --, which is also led by the latter.

"I think we have the best captain who has changed the Indian team like anything. Now we have that same aura in our dressing room," Raina said on 'The Super Kings show' on Star Sports Tamil.

The 38-year-old Dhoni has retired from Test cricket but his future in the limited overs formats is a subject of intense speculation.

The two-time World Cup-winning former captain took a break from cricket after India's exit from the 2019 World Cup in England. He is set to be back in action at the IPL, where he will captain the CSK, starting March 23.

With three restricted stands at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai finally being reopened, Raina urged the fans to fill the venue in every CSK home game.

"We have all the seats available. Hopefully, we'll have more fans now so that there is it will be more energy on the field," the 33-year-old Raina, a former India batsman, said.

Raina, who last played for India in 2018, also expressed his excitement about the prospect of playing with CSK's latest acquisitions.

"This year we have a lot of new talent in our team. Piyush (Chawla) is there, then we have Hazelwood, Sam Curran, Sai Kishore from Tamil Nadu, he has been bowling really well for them. So, I think we have a lot of mixture of youngsters and seniors."

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Agencies
August 2,2020

New Delhi, Aug 2: BCCI president Sourav Ganguly on Sunday said the Women's IPL or the Challenger series, as it is better known, is "very much on", ending speculation about the parent body not having a plan for Harmanpreet Kaur and her team.

The men's IPL will be held between September 19 and November 8 or 10 (final date yet to be locked in) in the UAE due to the surge in Covid-19 cases in India. The women's IPL will also be fit in to the schedule, according to the BCCI chief.

"I can confirm to you that the women's IPL is very much on and we do have a plan in place for the national team also," Ganguly told PTI ahead of the IPL Governing Council meeting later on Sunday.

The BCCI president, who is awaiting a Supreme Court verdict on waiver of the cooling-off period to continue in the position, did not divulge details but another senior official privy to the development said that women's Challenger will be held during the last phase of IPL like last year.

"The women's Challenger series is likely to be held between November 1-10 and there could be a camp before that," the source said.

The former India captain also said that the centrally contracted women players will have a camp which has been delayed due to the prevailing situation in the country.

"We couldn't have exposed any of our cricketers -- be it male or female to health risk. It would have been dangerous," Ganguly said.

"The NCA also remained shut because of Covid-19. But we have a plan in place and we will have a camp for women, I can tell you that," he added.

The BCCI's cricket operations team is chalking up a schedule where Indian women are likely to have two full-fledged white-ball series against South Africa and the West Indies before playing the ODI World Cup in New Zealand. 

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News Network
February 10,2020

Potchefstroom, Feb 10: India's under-19 cricket team manager Anil Patel says the ICC has taken a serious view of the aggressive celebrations by Bangladesh players after their World Cup triumph and will be reviewing the footage of the final game's "last few minutes".

Some Bangladeshi players got carried away while celebrating their historic three-wicket win over India in the final on Sunday. While their captain Akbar Ali apologised for the "unfortunate incident", his Indian counterpart Priyam Garg said their reaction was "dirty".

"We don't know what actually happened," Patel told 'ESPNCricinfo' on Sunday.

"Everybody was in a shock, absolutely, but we don't know what happened exactly. The ICC officials are going to watch the footage of the last few minutes and they are going to let us know," he said.

Even when the match was on, the Bangladesh players were overly aggressive while fielding and their lead pacer Shoriful Islam sledged the Indian batsmen after every delivery.

As soon as the match ended, it became tense with Bangladeshi players rushing to the ground and displaying aggressive body language. The two teams nearly came to blows before the situation was defused by the coaching staff and on-field officials.

Patel claimed that match referee Graeme Labrooy met him and expressed regret at what transpired on the field.

"The referee came to me. He was sorry about the incident. He clarified the ICC is going to take very seriously what has happened during the match and the last session. They are going to witness the footage and they will tell us in the morning (Monday)."

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