SC allows Srinivasan to take charge as BCCI chief

October 8, 2013

BCCI_chiefNew Delhi, Oct 8: India's Supreme Court on Tuesday reinstated N. Srinivasan as the country's cricket chief, but ordered him to stay away from a fresh spot-fixing probe to be monitored by it.

"Srinivasan can take over as BCCI president, but we have also formed a new probe panel to investigate the case," ruled A.K. Patnaik, one of the two judges who heard the case.

The court appointed a three-member panel headed by a former judge to investigate the scandal that has rocked the popular Indian Premier League Twenty20 tournament run by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

Srinivasan, 68, widely regarded as the most powerful man in world cricket, had been barred by the court from taking charge since his election as the BCCI chief for a third year on September 29.

Earlier, rejecting the BCCI's suggestion for a probe by a special committee into the scandal, the court on Monday had said it wanted an independent panel that will not only investigate the scam but also give recommendations to the Indian cricket board.

Senior BCCI office-bearers welcome Supreme Court order

The committee will be headed by former Punjab and Haryana High Court chief justice Mukul Mudgal, with its other two proposed members being additional solicitor-general N. Nageshwar Rao and senior advocate Nilay Dutta, who is also vice president of the Assam Cricket Association.

The bench said the new panel will hold an independent inquiry into the spotfixing issue and submit its report to the apex court.

Top court says no to Arun Jaitley on panel

It may be recalled that earlier a probe panel comprising two former judges of the Madras High Court had been formed by the BCCI and IPL governing council, which gave a clean chit to BCCI president N. Srinivasan, his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan and Mr Srinivasan's company India Cements, which is the owner of IPL team Chennai Super Kings.

This report, which had raised eyebrows, was quashed by the Bombay High Court. The SC had later upheld the HC's order. In their quest to paint a rosy picture about the health of Indian cricket, BCCI president N. Srinivasan and former treasurer Ravi Savant’s note in the Board’s Annual Report doesn’t have a single mention of IPL-VI spot-fixing scandal that rocked Indian cricket.

Secretary Sanjay Patel’s two-page note has a passing mention of the spot-fixing and betting scandal involving big names and the BCCI president’s tainted son-in law Gurunath Meiyappan.

The Annual Report that has a dedicated page on Anti-Doping Methods and Age-Verification Process, also doesn’t mention IPL’s first Indian dope cheat Pradeep Sangwan’s name while it stated that “364 U16 cricketers failed age verification tests.” Former treasurer Savant’s note in the report also has ample indications that IPL-6’s sponsorships as well as ticket receipts have seen a drop from last year.

The 128-page Annual Report of BCCI has the controversial Tamil Nadu strongman terming the year as “memorable and eventful for Indian cricket”.

However, Page-3 of the report that carries the president’s note, only waxed eloquent about the achievements of the various cricket teams including the senior, ‘ A’ team, U-19 and U-23.

Srinivasan concluded his note stating, “IPL, in its sixth year, was a great success in terms of cricket content and attendance at all matches”.

Patel, in his secretary’s report (on Pages 5 and 6), never used the word “spot fixing” anywhere.

Instead, Patel wrote, “The BCCI responded strongly to crisis arising out of IPL-VI. The concerns have been addressed and continue to be dealt with and BCCI will do whatever is necessary to protect the game.” Only in Page 17 of the report, which contains the decisions of the Working Committee during the whole year there is a mention of a probe panel being formed to investigate into charges against Meiyappan.

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Agencies
January 11,2020

London, Jan 11: Former cricketer Sachin Tendulkar's famous lap around the Wankhede Stadium after the World Cup 2011 win has been nominated in Laureas's list for the most inspiring sporting event in the last twenty years.

The moment featuring Tendulkar has been described as "Carried on the shoulders by a nation".

On his sixth attempt at the World Cup and with India not having won the competition since 1983, Tendulkar finally became a part of the team that lifted the coveted trophy. Carried on the shoulders of the Indian team, he made a lap of honour, shedding tears of joy after the victory was sealed in his home city.

The 2011 World Cup was also the first time, in which a host nation ended up winning the trophy.

Apart from Tendulkar, England's Andrew Flintoff is the only other cricketer to feature in the list. In 2005, England managed to defeat Australia in an Ashes Test, but Flintoff chose to first shake hands with Brett Lee rather than celebrate with his side.

Matthias Steiner (weightlifting), Natalie du Toit (swimming), Sky Brown (skateboarding), Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee (triathlon), Xia Boyu (mountaineering) have been nominated in the list.

Female tennis stars also feature in the list for coming up with an equal play, equal pay campaign. After pressure from Venus Williams and others, Wimbledon announced that female tennis players would receive prize money equal to the men's.

German international footballer Miroslav Klose was playing for Lazio in Italy's Serie A in 2012 against Napoli when he rose for a ball in the early moments of the game.

The ball came spiraling off his hand and skirted into the back of the net and a goal was awarded. While most players would carry on as if nothing had happened, Klose was honest with the referee and admitted that he handled the ball.

As a result, he also finds a place on the list.

The Laureus Sporting Moment Award celebrates the moments where the sport has unified people in the most extraordinary way.

This campaign has shortlisted 20 sporting stories from the last 20 years that have left their mark on the world.

The winner will be decided on the basis of public voting. It has already started, and the final date to cast the vote is February 16.

Finally, the result will be declared on February 17.
With three knock-out rounds, the top-20 moments will be whittled down to ten then five, with the top-five moments going head-to-head.

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News Network
July 6,2020

New Delhi, Jul 6: India's cricket chief Sourav Ganguly says improved fitness standards and a change in culture have led to the country developing one of the world's best pace attacks.

Spearheads Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah are part of a battery of five formidable quick bowlers that have helped change India's traditional reliance on spin bowling.

"You know culture has changed in India that we can be good fast bowlers," Ganguly said in a chat hosted on the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Twitter feed.

"Fitness regimes, fitness standards not only just among fast bowlers but also among the batters, that has changed enormously. That has made everyone understand and believe that we are fit, we are strong and we can also bowl fast like the others did."

The West Indies dominated world cricket in the 1970s and 1980s led by a fearsome pace attack that included all-time greats such as Michael Holding, Andy Roberts, Malcolm Marshall and Joel Garner.

Recently Indian quicks have risen to the top in world cricket with Shami, Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav and Bhuvneshwar Kumar in a deadly arsenal.

"The West Indies in my generation were naturally strong," the former India captain said.

"We Indians were never such naturally strong... but we worked hard to get strong. But I think it is the change in culture as well that is very important."

Shami last month claimed that the current Indian pace attack may be the best in Test history.

"You and everyone else in the world will agree to this -- that no team has ever had five fast bowlers together as a package," said Shami.

"Not just now, in the history of cricket, this might be the best fast-bowling unit in the world."

Shami took 13 wickets during India's 3-0 home Test sweep over South Africa last year, while Bumrah has claimed 68 scalps in 14 Tests since his debut.

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Agencies
January 6,2020

Washington D.C., Jan 6: 'The Irishman,' and 'Two Popes' were shut out from the winners list despite getting multiple nominations, the movies didn't win a single award at the Golden Globes Award held on Sunday (local time). Other movies in the list include 'Bombshell,' 'Dolemite Is My Name,' 'Harriet,' 'Jojo Rabbit,' 'Knives Out' and 'Little Women.'

According to The Hollywood Reporter, 'The Irishman' may have gone into the 2020 Golden Globes with the second-highest number of film nominations, tied with 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' with five nods, but Martin Scorsese's highly anticipated mob epic for Netflix was completely shut out at the award ceremony.

Netflix landed the most film nominations of any company with 17 mentions, but it won only one award which is the best-supporting actress for 'Marriage Story's' Laura Dern. Netflix's nominated films 'Dolemite Is My Name' and 'The Two Popes' was tied with 'Joker' with four mentions each and failed to grab any awards.

'Dolemite Is My Name' star Eddie Murphy was expected by a number of pundits to win for best actor in a motion picture, musical or comedy.

'Bombshell', 'Harriet',' Frozen 2', 'Jojo Rabbit', 'Knives Out', 'The Lion King', 'Little Women' and 'Pain and Glory' are among the other films that received multiple nominations but didn't win a single award.

On the TV side, Netflix's 'Unbelievable' tied in the race to most small-screen nominations with 'Chernobyl' and 'The Crown' with four nominations, and 'The Crown' won only one award, for star Olivia Colman.

The three-time nominees 'Barry', 'Big Little Lies', 'The Kominsky Method' and 'The Morning Show' also didn't grab any award. 'Catch-22', 'Killing Eve', 'The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' and 'The Politician' who were two-time nominees that were also iced out.

'Hustlers' star Jennifer Lopez failed to take home the best-supporting actress award as she was predicted to win the award by a number of pundits. Billy porter also failed to make history with the best drama actor win for his role on 'Pose,' if he would've won the award, he reportedly would have been the first openly gay African-American to win that award.

'Chernobyl' won two of its four nominations. Despite that, star Jared Harris didn't win the best actor in a limited series Globe which was predicted by many prognosticators. The award was bagged by Russell Crowe for his portrayal of Roger Ailes in 'The Loudest Voice.' But the star was absent from the ceremony.

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