CWG: Wrestlers Sushil, Amit, Vinesh win gold, India bag 8 medals on Day 6

July 30, 2014

Glasgow, Jul 29: Sushil Kumar led the charge as Indian wrestlers put on a stunning show in the Commonwealth Games winning three of the five gold medals on offer on Tuesday.

India bag 8 medalsAmit Kumar and teenager Vinesh Phogat also bagged gold medals while Rajeev Tomar settled for the silver medal in what was a successful outing on the first day of the wrestling competition at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC). The three gold medals also lifted India to fifth position in the medal's standings.

The star of the day undoubtedly was two-time Olympic medallist Sushil, who just took 107 minutes to clinch the gold medal in the men's 74kg freestyle category beating Pakistan's Qamar Abbas in an one-sided affair.

It was Sushil's first major international medal after his pet 66kg category was removed and he had to add nine kilograms to adjust in a new weight bracket. Sushil had won both his Olympic medals, bronze in Beijing and silver in London, 2010 World Championship gold, 2010 Asian Games gold and the 2010 Commonwealth Games gold in the 66kg category.

Sushil was leading 6-2 in the first period when referee V. Keelan decided to give it in favour of the Indian, who managed to pin down Abbas.

Sushil was in dominating form in all his preliminary bouts. He opened his account with a facile 4-0 win over New Zealand's Jayden Lawrence in the Round of 16 and then beat Sri Lanka's Sandrage 4-0 in the quarter-final.

It was the third gold for India after Amit and Vinesh's triumph in their respective categories.

Amit won the gold medal in the men's freestyle 57kg category beating Nigerian Ebikweminomo Welson. Amit won the bout 3-1 on classification points. Amit won six points in the two periods while Welson got two.

Amit had beaten Mauritian Jean Guliyan Bandoo 5-0 in the Round of 16 and then got the better of South African Bokang Masunyane 4-0 in the quarter-final. Amit booked his place in the final with an exciting 4-0 win over Pakistan's Azhar Hussain in the semi-final.

Indian teenager Vinesh Phogat then made it a double delight as she registered a thrilling 11-8 win over England's Yana Rattigan to clinch the gold medal in the women's freestyle 48kg wrestling competition.

Vinesh, 19, is the cousin of Geeta Phogat, who had won the first gold medal for India in women's wrestling in the 2010 Delhi Games.

Vinesh had beaten Canadian Jasmine Mian in the semi-finals of the women's 48kg freestyle category and Nigerian Rosemary Nweke in the quarter-finals.

The only relative disappointment for India was that of Tomar losing the men's 125kg freestyle final match to Canada's Korey Jarvis. In a close contest, Tomar lost 0-3 to Jarvis and settled for the silver.

Tomar had defeated New Zealand's Marcus Carney in the semi-final and Nigerian Sinivie Boltic in the quarters.

Another Indian in fray, Jyoti finished fourth in the women's 75kg freestyle event. Since there were just five wrestlers, the competition was held according to the Nordic System or a round robin format.

In shooting, Sanjeev Rajput won the silver medal and Gagan Narang won the bronze medal in the men's in 50m Rifle three positions.

Earlier in the day, Olympic silver medallist Vijay Kumar failed to reach the finals, Harpreet Singh went on to win the silver medal in the men's 25m rapid fire pistol shooting.

Indian wrestler Sushil Kumar entered finals in the 74kg catagory on Tuesday after defeating Nigerian wrestler Bibo 8-4.Rajeev Tomar, another Indian wrestler also entered finals in the 125kg catagory after defeating New Zealand wrestler Marcus Carney 11-1.

Olympic silver medallist Vijay Kumar crashed out in the 25m rapid fire pistol shooting. The other Indian in the event, Harpreet Singh advanced to the finals

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News Network
July 19,2020

Dubai, Jul 19: On hold for the past two months, the fate of this year's T20 World Cup will be up for a decisive round of deliberation when the ICC board meets virtually on Monday with the BCCI hoping for a postponement to ensure that the IPL can go ahead.

The global event is supposed to be held from October 18 to November 15 in Australia but the country's cricket board had, in May itself, expressed its inability to host amid a second surge of Covid-19 cases in the state of Victoria.

With India's case load also exceeding the 10 lakh mark, including more than 26,000 deaths, the IPL, if it is held, is likely to move to the UAE once the central government gives its go ahead.

"The first step was postponement of Asia Cup, which has happened. We can only start to move ahead with our plans after the ICC announces the postponement. They have been sitting on the decision even after Cricket Australia said that they are not too keen on hosting the event," a BCCI Apex Council member told PTI on conditions of anonymity.

This year's T20 World Cup will likely be held in Australia in 2022 as India doesn't want to swap its 2021 hosting rights with Cricket Australia as of now.

That Australia won't be hosting the mega event was clear after the cricket board told its players to prepare for a white-ball series against England scheduled for late September.

CA has even announced a 26-strong preliminary squad for that tour.

The ICC, on its part, has maintained that it wants to explore all possible "contingency" options before taking a call of such immense magnitude. And it is not unusual for the governing body to wait this long.

"Pakistan was supposed to host the Champions Trophy in 2009. After the terrorist attacks on the Sri Lankan team bus, everyone in their proper senses knew that PCB will never host a big event in distant future," said a source familiar with the functioning of the ICC.

"Yet, ICC deputed its employees in Pakistan for months when South Africa was already preparing to host the event. Everyone knew but a formal announcement of shift took months as threat assessment was part of protocol.

"The ICC couldn't have just postponed 9the T20 World Cup) immediately as initially, the top ministers of the Australian government expressed keenness to host," he added.

The Pakistan Cricket Board has also resigned itself to this outcome after vehemently opposing the Indian board.

The postponement of Asia Cup, which was supposed to be hosted by the PCB, to 2021 was a big blow to Ehsan Mani and his team.

"We have had a lot of discussions and the feeling is it (T20 World Cup) would not be possible this year. ICC has World Cups lined up in 2021 and 2023 so we have a gap year where we can adjust this event," Mani had recently said while talking to reporters in his country.

It has been learnt that PCB is contacting other boards in the hope of finalising some bilateral engagements as the national team has nothing lined up after its England tour.

Nomination process for Chairman's election:

The other issue that is likely to come up for discussion in Monday's meeting is the nomination process for the next independent chairman of the ICC after Shashank Manohar's resignation earlier this month.

It is learnt that there is no consensus on what should be the criteria in case multiple candidates join the fray.

"The board is not united on whether the usual 2/3rd majority to decide will be used (as its in case of policy decision) or the case of simple majority among the 17 board members," an ICC Board member said.

England and Wales Cricket Board's Colin Graves was considered the top contender with BCCI president Sourav Ganguly's name also being floated.

Ganguly's candidature will certainly depend on whether the Supreme Court waives off the cooling off period and allows him to continue as BCCI president beyond July 27 when he completes six years as an office-bearer in the Indian Board's state and national units.

When asked about the possibility of taking up the ICC job in a recent interview, the 48-year-old said he is young and and in no hurry for the position.

New Zealand's Gregor Barclay, Hong Kong's Imran Khawaja, who is currently the interim chairman, are also being talked about as potential candidates.

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News Network
July 16,2020

Bhubaneswar: Jul 16: The Department of Sports and Youth Services, Government of Odisha on Thursday revealed that ace sprinter Dutee Chand has been given Rs 4.09 crore since 2015 and also appointed as Group-A officer in the Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) currently drawing a gross salary of Rs 84,604 per month.

On Wednesday, Dutee clarified that she wants to sell her luxury car because she is unable to bear its maintenance cost and it will also aid her training for Tokyo Olympics.

The 24-year-old believes after selling her car she can use that money for training amid the shortage of money due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

"Rs 3 crore as financial incentive for medals won at Asian Games 2018. Rs 30 Lakhs for training and financial support during 2015-19. Rs 50 Lakhs for training support for Tokyo Olympics (Released In two instalments on 02/08/2019 and 27/12/2019," the statement read.

"The State government appointed Dutee Chand as Group-A level officer in Odisha Mining Corporation (A Gold Category PSU). She is currently drawing Gross salary of Rs 84,604 (June 2020 Salary) per month. She is not required to come to office so that she is able to concentrate full-time on training. Accordingly, since her appointment in OMC, no official work has been allotted to Chand," it added.

The state government further provided details of the financial support provided by the OMC for her training.

"OMC provided Rs 29 Lakhs to Dutee Chand for Training and financial incentives. The total financial support provided to Dutee Chand from State government/OMC is 4.09 crores(after 2015)," the statement read.

"The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) and Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS), Government of India may also be providing adequate support for the athlete based on performance," it added.

Earlier, Dutee said she is facing a shortage of funds due to the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics to the next year and is planning to sell her car to meet the expense of her training.

"Training is going quite good so far, I have been training here in Bhuvneshwar. Earlier, there was no problem related to funds for training as Tokyo Olympics were coming up and our state government conferred me, but because of coronavirus the Olympics were postponed and I had spent the money which was given to me by the sponsors. Now, I need money for training, I need new sponsors but because of coronavirus I am finding it difficult to find them. Now I have decided to sell my car to arrange funds," Dutee had said.

Dutee, who has been recently nominated for the Arjuna Award 2020, said COVID-19 had impacted heavily on sports and sponsors are not willing to support her at this time.

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Agencies
July 28,2020

New Delhi, Jul 28: 'Your character stood out for me than the number of runs you scored," said India skipper Virat Kohli while explaining his decision to give opening Mayank Agarwal a Test debut in the 2018-19 Australia series.

Mayank Agarwal had made his Test debut against Australia in the third Test of the four-match series.

Playing the third Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Agarwal managed to register a half-century in his very first innings in the longest format.

"I had seen you play for RCB, even then you played international bowlers with conviction and you would take them on. You were performing in first-class matches in a dominating way. That is something always stood out with you, I would say your character stood out for me than the number of runs. I knew you would be fearless without having any baggage," Kohli told Mayank Agarwal in a video posted on the official website of BCCI.

In the longest format of the game, Agarwal has managed to score 974 runs from 11 matches at an average of 57.29 with three centuries as an opening batsman.

The Indian skipper also explained as to what makes him notice in a player and added that it is important that guys in the team look to face new challenges and emerge triumphantly.

"For me, the biggest marker is how a person approaches the game, so for example when you opened and we made Vihari open with you. The first opportunity we presented Vihari to open the batting, he said yes to it and that matters me to the most," Kohli said.

"I opened in my first series for India, I said yes to this opportunity and things worked out fine for me. So, a guy who wants to get into tough situations will come out either holding his head high or learning from his mistakes," he added.

Kohli and Mayank would soon be seen in action for Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kings XI Punjab respectively in the Indian Premier League (IPL) starting from September 19 in the UAE.

The comparisons between Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar keep on growing and many have picked the current Indian skipper to break the records set by Tendulkar.

Tendulkar called time on his career after registering 100 international centuries, while Kohli currently has 70 centuries across all formats.

At present, Kohli is ranked at the top spot in the ICC ODI rankings while he is in the second place in Tests rankings. Kohli has so far played 86 Tests, scoring 7,240 runs with 27 centuries at an average of 53.62.

His knock of 254 against South Africa at Pune in 2019 remains his highest Test score to date. When it comes to ODIs, the current Indian skipper has played 248 matches and has 43 centuries.

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