Seven Indian shuttlers set to qualify for Rio Olympics

May 4, 2016

New Delhi, May 4: An unprecedented seven Indian shuttlers are set to qualify for the Olympics Games at Rio de Janeiro when the official BWF rankings are released on Thursday.

sainaThe cut-off date for BWF rankings is May 5, the day will be used to allocate 34 individual quota places for men and 34 individual quota places for women to the highest ranked athletes in singles event.

London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal, who is currently at the 7th place in the race to Rio qualification, will play her third Olympic Games, while P V Sindhu, who is at 9th position, will be the second Indian player in women's singles competition at Rio.

In men's singles, 2014 China Open winner Kidambi Srikanth, who is at 10th place in Race to Rio qualification, will carry the Indian flag, while Manu Attri and B Summeth Reddy will become the first Indian men's doubles pair to qualify for the Games. The World No. 19 pair are ranked 11th in Race to Rio qualification.

Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa, who had represented India at the London Games, will play their second Olympics in women's doubles competition. They are 9th in the Race to Rio qualification.

However, no Indian pair was good enough to qualify in the mixed doubles event, while Parupalli Kashyap was all set to qualify before a series of injuries robbed him off a chance to play in Olympics for the second time.

Five Indians had qualified for the London Olympics in 2012.

Though the official ranking, which will also consider the ranking points from Asia Championship, will only be out on Thursday, it didn't stop the Sports Authority of India (SAI) and a couple of Rio-bound shuttlers to express their excitement on social networking sites.

"Congratulations @srikidambi @Guttajwala @NSaina @P9Ashwini @AtriManu @Pvsindhu1 and sumeeth reddy on Rio qualification. Best wishes!!," SAI wrote on its official Twitter handle.

One half of the 2010 Commonwealth Games champions, Jwala wrote on facebook: "We made it... Now for the next step..Medal finish."

"I want to thank the fans.. The support and love u gave us..I couldn't have asked for more!! Want to thank the Government of India for funding the Indian team and help us achieve this magnificent feat!!

"And last but not the least Olympic Gold Quest the support u gave us at the right time..."

Jwala, who has got a tattoo of 2012 London Olympics on her back, also wrote: "Super super excited ... And time to add the year 2016 on my back."

Manu said: "It's really great to know that we've booked our berth in RIO OLYMPICS 2016..First ever Indian men doubles pair to qualify for the Olympic Games.

"I would like to thank to all my coaches, my parents, support staff and all my friends ... I think it wouldn't have been possible without you all,the motivation you've given me to achieve my goal was like absolutely amazing," he wrote.

If the euphoria is kept aside, it will be an uphill task for the Indian contingent to return with a medal from Rio if their recent performances are any indicator.

Only Saina has been consistently reaching the semifinals of the recent events and remains India's biggest hope at the Olympics, rest of the Indians haven't shown much promise, making early exits in international tournaments.

Srikanth, who won the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold, has not cleared the opening round in the last five tournaments and has slipped from World No. 3 to 11 in the last BWF ranking on April 28th.

Two-time bronze medallist at World Championship, Sindhu, who won the Malaysia Masters earlier this year, lost in the second round of the last six events, starting with Swiss Open.

Manu and Sumeeth, who had reached the finals of US Open Grand Prix Gold and won the Mexico Open Grand Prix last year, haven't crossed the first round of any super series event this year, apart from the India Open, where they beat an Indian pair in the opening round.

Jwala and Ashwini also have been in poor form as they have not been able to cross the second round in any super series event, sans the World Championship, since last year. They had reached the quarterfinals at World Championship last year.

However, there is still three months to go for the Olympics and Rio-bound Indian shuttlers will look to sort out their problems to put up a good show at the Games.

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News Network
July 21,2020

Melbourne, Jul 21: Cricket Australia's chief executive Nick Hockley has said that the Indian players and staff will most likely be asked to face two weeks of quarantine before the four-match Test series.

This scenario will bring the Adelaide Oval and its newly constructed hotel firmly into view as the sort of biosecure bubble, ESPNCricinfo reported.

India and Australia are slated to face each other in a four-match Test series, which is to begin from December 4 at Brisbane.

"The two-week quarantine is pretty well-defined. What we are working on is making sure that even within that quarantine environment, the players have got the absolute best training facilities, so that their preparation for the matches is as optimal as it can possibly be," ESPNCricinfo quoted Hockey as saying.

"Certainly the fact that the Adelaide Oval has a hotel. It does provide a facility not dissimilar to Old Trafford or Ageas Bowl where the hotels are integrated into the venue," he added.

Hockley also said that an exacting standard of biosecurity and testing would be applied before the series against India as the coronavirus cases are spiking in the subcontinent.

"It's widely known and it's unlikely that international travel restrictions would have lifted by the time that India will be due to come into the country. Clearly there will be testing regimes. We will be able to test people before that they get on to the plane and it is the nature of the situation of making sure we have the quarantine arrangements in line with government and health authority protocols," Hockley said.

"The key thing for the players is that there's regular testing and that we appropriately quarantine them when they come in and all of those plans are currently in development," he added.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Monday announced the postponement of the T20 World Cup 2020 slated to be held in Australia from October 18-November 15 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Following the announcement, the BCCI is likely to go ahead with the Indian Premier League (IPL) in the October-November window. However, it is known where the T20 tournament will be played as cases continue to rise in India.
"I think the BCCI has made no secrets that they are considering what that means for the IPL. For us, it's about getting a bit of an understanding and certainty around what that means. Clearly, in a normal course, some of our best players are obviously top picks for those IPL teams," Hockley said.

"It's a bit premature to speculate on that. We need to understand what the plans are if any and once we understand that we will make decisions accordingly," he added.

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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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News Network
January 12,2020

New Delhi, Jan 12: Flamboyant India all-rounder Hardik Pandya was on Saturday pulled out of the India A team's tour of New Zealand after he failed mandatory fitness tests in Mumbai.

The selectors had picked him in the squad without testing him in the Ranji games.

Tamil Nadu captain Vijay Shankar has been drafted into the India A team and he has already boarded the flight to New Zealand where they will play two 50-over warm-up games, three List A games and two four-day 'Tests' against the home A team.

It has been learnt that Pandya failed a couple of mandatory fitness tests and his scores were well below the permissible range suggesting that he is far from being fit for international cricket. In this situation, pulling him out of the India A squad was expected.

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