I should not have gone to Rio Olympics, says Saina

Agencies
August 26, 2017

Glasgow, Aug 26: "I should not have gone to Rio" Olympics, said Saina Nehwal, almost a year after the champion shuttler's early exit proved to be one of the biggest upsets for the Indian contingent at the Games.

The 27-year-old Saina's second round defeat to unheralded Ukrainian Marija Ulitina was the lowest point for India in Rio, having entered the Games as the previous edition's bronze medallist and a winner of multiple international tournaments.

That was a year ago. Now, a rejuvenated Saina marked her return to the big league by reaching the semifinals of the World Badminton Championships here.

"Only I know what I went through. I shouldn't have gone to Rio, I didn't know I had a major injury. The belief of my parents and coach helped me get back. I still have tendonitis in the (right) knee," Saina said after her quarterfinal match.

Her second world championship semifinal appearance is different because she had struggled on court after returning from a career-threatening knee injury and a surgery that hampered her at Olympics last year.

The 27-year-old Indian, who won a silver medal at the last edition at Jakarta, dug deep into her reservoir to eke out a 21-19 18-21 21-15 win over world No. 31 Kristy Gilmour of Scotland.

"I was expecting a tough fight, but I was surprised she was playing so quick," said Saina.

"There were a lot of difficult rallies. She was pepped up and motivated, she put up a great show. I didn't expect she would last so long in the third game."

Saina had come into the match with a 4-0 head-to-head record against the 23-year-old Scottish, but she didn't play her in the last three years. Gilmour had meanwhile won two silver medals at the European Championship.

The London Olympics bronze medallist will next play seventh seed Nozomi Okuhara of Japan, who knocked out two-time defending champion Spain's Carolina Marin 21-18 14-21 21-15 in another match.
"I wasn't sure of a medal, I had a difficult draw. Reaching the semi-finals is a great feeling, but tomorrow will be a tough match."

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News Network
March 5,2020

Mumbai, Mar 5: Former India spinner Sunil Joshi was on Wednesday named chairman of the national selection panel by the BCCI's Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), which also picked ex-pacer Harvinder Singh to the five-member group.

The CAC, comprising Madan Lal, R P Singh and Sulakshana Naik, picked the two selectors with Joshi replacing South Zone representative MSK Prasad.

In an unprecedented decision, the BCCI said the CAC will review the panel's performance after one year and make recommendations accordingly.

"The committee recommended Sunil Joshi for the role of chairman of the senior men's selection committee. The CAC will review the candidates after a one-year period and make the recommendations to the BCCI," read a statement from BCCI Secretary Jay Shah.

Harvinder was chosen from central zone and replaces Gagan Khoda in the panel.

The existing members of the selection panel are Jatain Paranjpe, Devang Gandhi and Sarandeep Singh.

"We have picked the best guys for the job," Lal told news agency.

The CAC had shortlisted five candidates for interviews -- Joshi, Harvinder, Venkatesh Prasad, Rajesh Chauhan and L S Sivaramakrishnan -- from a list of 40 applicants.

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News Network
June 2,2020

Bengaluru, Jun 2: Bangladesh opening batsman Tamim Iqbal has said that he was ashamed on seeing the training regime of Indian skipper Virat Kohli.

Iqbal said that the incident happened two-three years back as he thought to himself that why he cannot do the same even when he is the same age as Kohli.

"I must say this, it is not because I am talking to an Indian commentator, India is our neighbour so whatever things they do, it affects Bangladesh as well. We follow what is happening in India, when India changed its approach towards fitness, it impacted Bangladesh the most," Iqbal told Sanjay Manjrekar in a videocast hosted by ESPNCricinfo.

"I have no shame in admitting this, when I saw Virat Kohli running around two-three years ago, I was ashamed of myself, I thought this is a guy who is probably my age, but he is training so much and I have not doing even half of it. We have a great example in our team as well, Mushfiqur Rahim manages himself well regarding fitness," he added.

During his initial days of international cricket, Kohli was fond of chicken which he has admitted several times during media interaction.

But in 2013, the 31-year-old batsman intentionally shifted his focus to fitness, diet, and training.

Now he has become punctual about his diet which has given him a different character on and off the field.

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

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

Currently, Kohli is ranked at the top spot in the ICC ODI rankings while he is in the second place in Tests rankings.

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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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