Pankaj Advani and Ajay Maken slam government for awarding Khel Ratna to Sania Mirza

September 2, 2015

New Delhi, Sep 2: Pankaj Advani and Ajay Maken on Tuesday have slammed the government for reducing the Rajiv Khel Ratna to a mere 'popular' award, getting "swayed" by the hype created around Sania Mirza's achievements and conferring it to her.

saniaSania was conferred the award on August 29 at the Rashtrapati Bhavan despite a Karnataka High Court notice on the petition filed by Paralympian HN Girisha, who challenged the decision of Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and Arjuna awards selection committee.

"When we talk about sports in India, we get carried away by the hype generated around a sport. You cannot be swayed by the popularity of a particular sport or a sportsperson. I think when it comes to government awards, let's treat every sporting achievement in a pure way. There are a lot of sportspersons who are not that popular and, because of that reason, it's like a more popular sportsperson getting the bigger award," Advani, 13-time world billiards and snooker champion, said here.

It must be mentioned here that Girisha has argued that he accounted for 90 marks (70 for London Paralympics silver medal and 20 for Incheon Asian Games bronze) during the award computation period from January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2014, while Sania's WTA titles and Wimbledon doubles victory do not count as per the government's performance-based points system.

Also, it was not Sania but the sports ministry that had forwarded her application for the Khel Ratna to the selection committee only after her Wimbledon doubles crown with Martina Hingis.

Maken, former sports minister, concurred that sports awards are losing their sheen because of the controversies surrounding them. "In order to see that such controversies do not happen, the chairperson and the members of these awards committees should be non-partisan people. That's why I made Olympian Rajyavardhan Rathore chairperson of the awards selection committee. I never cared about the political dealings during my tenure. And, he did a commendable job that time. There was not even a single sifarish (recommendation) from my side at least as a sports minister unlike these days," observed Maken.

The 12-member committee was headed by retired chief justice of the Kerala High Court, Justice VK Bali and included three senior journalists.

"I believe there's less weightage for team events, and then you have Sania getting the Khel Ratna for being the doubles world No. 1 which is a team effort. If I talk about the cue sports, our multiple-time national champion and 2013 World Championship gold medallist Vidya Pillai had applied for the Arjuna, but her achievements were not even considered. Why is there discrimination when it comes to selecting people for awards or making policies?" asked the 30-year-old Bengaluru-based cueist, Advani, who recently defended his World 6-Red snooker title in Pakistan.

"When I got the Khel Ratna and Arjuna, the point system was extremely fair. But today, I can't put my hand on the heart and say that the entire system is transparent. We hear cases of lobbying, favouritism and people using their influence. I mean we are talking about sport and let's keep the selection fair," added Advani.

Both Maken and Advani were of the opinion that more and more former sportspersons who have no conflict of interest and are extremely fair should be made part of such award committees.

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News Network
February 11,2020

Dubai, Feb 11: Two Indian players-- Akash Singh and Ravi Bishnoi -- and three Bangladeshis have been charged by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for involvement in the quarrel just after the U-19 cricket World Cup summit clash in Potchefstroom, South Africa on Sunday.

Akash and Bishnoi and three Bangladeshi players -- Md. Towhid Hridoy, Shamim Hossain and Rakibul Hasan -- were found guilty of breaching the ICC Code of Conduct after a few players from both sides nearly came to blows after Bangladesh beat India by three wickets to win their maiden U-19 World Cup title.

"Five players have been found guilty of a Level 3 breach of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Support Personnel ... (they) were charged with violating Article 2.21 of the code, whilst Bishnoi received a further charge of breaching Article 2.5," the ICC said in a statement.

"All five players have accepted the sanctions proposed by ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup Match Referee Graeme Labrooy," it added.

A near brawl broke out after Bangladesh’s historic win over India in the final. The Bangladesh players were aggressive during the Indian innings with lead pacer Shoriful Islam frequently sledging the Indian batsmen.

As soon as the match ended, Bangladeshi players rushed into the playing area.

"India's Akash accepted the charge of breaching Article 2.21 and has received a sanction of eight suspension points, which equates to six demerit points, which will remain on his record for two years," the ICC said.

Compatriot Bishnoi accepted the charge of breaching Article 2.21 and has received a sanction of five suspension points, which equates to five demerit points.

"Bishnoi also accepted a level 1 charge of breaching Article 2.5 for a separate incident during the match, where he used language, actions or gestures which disparage or which could provoke an aggressive reaction from a batter following the dismissal of Avishek Das in the 23rd over," said the ICC.

"For this he received a further two demerit points meaning seven demerit points will remain on his record for the next two years."

Bangladesh's Towhid Hridoy accepted the charge of breaching Article 2.21 and has received a sanction of ten suspension points, which equates to six demerit points, which will remain on his record for two years.

Shamim Hossain accepted the charge of breaching Article 2.21 and has received a sanction of eight suspension points, which equates to six demerit points, which will remain on his record for two years.

Rakibul Hasan accepted the charge of breaching Article 2.21 and has received a sanction of four suspension points, which equates to five demerit points, which will remain on his record for two years.

All charges were levelled by on-field umpires Sam Nogajski and Adrian Holdstock, third umpire Ravindra Wimalasiri as well as fourth umpire Patrick Bongni Jele. Level 3 breaches carry a minimum penalty of four suspension points and a maximum penalty of 12 suspension points.

The suspension points will be applied to the forthcoming international matches the players are most likely to participate in at either senior or U-19 level. One suspension point equals a player being ineligible for one ODI or T20I, U-19 or A team international match.

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News Network
July 14,2020

New Delhi, Jul 14: Indian bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who features in the list of A category players released by BCCI, has revealed his first-ever paycheck.

Bhuvneshwar was participating in a question and answer session on Twitter where he gave his take on fans' queries.

The 30-year-old bowler was asked about his first paycheck by a fan and Bhuvneshwar responded by saying, "It was for Rs 3000. I shopped and still managed to saved some."

During the question and answer session Bhuvneshwar picked Barcelona striker Lionel Messi over Juventus star Cristiano Ronaldo.

The right-arm bowler also revealed that football and badminton are his favourite sports other than cricket.

Earlier this year, Bhuvneshwar was named in the list A category of players. BCCI had released the list of centrally contracted players for the period from October 2019 to September 2020. Annually, A category players get Rs 5 crore.

The right-arm bowler would have been in action for Sunrisers Hyderabad if the Indian Premier League (IPL) had commenced from March 29. However, the tournament was postponed indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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News Network
July 25,2020

New Delhi, Jul 25: Former India spinner Anil Kumble said that he has never understood why people compared him with Australia's Shane Warne.

Kumble was doing an Instagram live session with former Zimbabwe pacer Pommie Mbangwa and it was then that the spinner also talked about being the third-highest wicket-taker in Test cricket.

"It feels really wonderful to finish with these many wickets. I never bothered about statistics or what my average should be, I wanted to bowl the whole day and be the one to take wickets. To finish as the third-highest wicket-taker in Tests alongside Murali and Warne is very special. All three of us played in the same era, there were a lot of comparisons, I do not know why people compared me with Warne. Warne was someone really different and he was on a different plane," Kumble told Mbangwa during the interaction.
"These two guys could spin the ball on any surface so it became really difficult for me when they started comparing me with Warne and Murali. I learnt a lot by watching them both bowl," he added.

The Indian spinner announced his retirement from international cricket in 2008. He finished with 619 wickets in the longest format of the game.

He has the third-highest number of wickets in Tests, only behind Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan (800) and Australia's Shane Warne (708).

Kumble is the second bowler in the history of international cricket after England's Jim Laker to take all ten wickets in an innings of a Test match.

He had achieved the feat against Pakistan in 1999 at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in Delhi. Kumble had bowling figures of 10-74 from 26.3 overs in the second innings of the Test match.
Kumble will be coaching Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League (IPL). 

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