Kidambi Srikanth sails into Australian Open Super Series final

New Delhi, Apr 24: India's World Cup-winning former opener Gautam Gambhir performed the last rites of his deceased domestic help after her mortal remains could not be sent to her home in Odisha due to the coronavirus-forced national lockdown.

Gambhir, also a BJP Lok Sabha MP, posted a tribute on his Twitter page for his employee Saraswati Patra, who was working at his residence for the past six years.

"Taking care of my little one can never be domestic help. She was family. Performing her last rites was my duty," he tweeted.

"Always believed in dignity irrespective of caste, creed, religion or social status. Only way to create a better society. That's my idea of India! Om Shanti," said the 38-year-old Gambhir, who played 58 Tests for India between 2004 and 2016.

Media reports in Odisha said the 49-year-old Patra hailed from a village in Jajpur district.

She was admitted to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital a few days ago and was battling diabetes and high blood pressure for a long period. She breathed her last while undergoing treatment on April 21.

Union Minister of Petroleum and Steel Dharmendra Pradhan appreciated Gambhir.

"Taking care of Saraswati throughout the course of her illness, he also ensured her dignity in death by performing her last rites himself since her mortal remains could not be sent to her family back home in Odisha," Pradhan, who also belongs to Odisha, tweeted.

"His act of compassion will enliven the faith in humanity for millions of poor, who are working far from their home for livelihood and will garner respect from all folds of the society."

New Delhi, Jun 24: Star Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan deeply regrets his "silly mistake" of not reporting a corrupt approach by an Indian bookie to the ICC, leading to his one year suspension from the game.

Shakib was banned for two years, one year of it suspended, for failing to report corrupt approaches during an IPL edition by an alleged Indian bookie named Deepak Aggarwal.

"I took the approaches too casually When I met the anti-corruption guy and told them and they knew everything. Gave them all the evidence and they knew everything that happened," Shakib told Harsha Bhogle on 'Cricbuzz in Conversation'.

"To be honest, that's the only reason I was banned for a year, otherwise I'd have been banned for five or 10 years," he added on the ICC's investigation.

The 33-year-old, who was in brilliant form before the ban, amassing 606 runs in the 2019 World Cup in the UK, said he regrets how he went about the situation.

"But I think that was a silly mistake I made. Because with my experience and the amount of international matches I've played and the amount of ICC's anti-corruption code of conduct classes I took, I shouldn't have made that decision, to be honest."

Lesson learnt, Shakib's advice to all young criceters is to never take any such message lightly.

"I regret that. No one should take such messages or calls (from bookies) lightly or leave it away. We must inform the ICC ACSU guy to be on the safe side and that's the lesson I learnt, and I think I learnt a big lesson," he added.

The all-rounder, whose ban ends on October 29, said he became a bit arrogant and never felt he was doing anything wrong by not reporting the bookie's approach immediately.

"Because you do most things right in your life, you tend to get arrogant with some decisions. You may not realise but you're doing wrong by the books. It never came to my mind that I am doing something wrong

"It was just a feeling of 'okay, what's going to happen, leave it' and I continued with my life. But that's the mistake I made. And that happens," Shakib said.

Melbourne, Jan 23: Sania Mirza's return to her first Grand Slam after a two-year break was cut short on Thursday when the former world number one was forced to retire midway through her first round match in women's doubles at the Australian Open due to a calf injury.

India's Mirza, who won six Grand Slam doubles titles, took a break from the game after the China Open in October 2017 and gave birth to her son a year later.

The 33-year-old made a winning return to the WTA Tour at this month's Hobart International with Ukrainian Nadiia Kichenok, picking up her 42nd WTA doubles title and the first since winning the women's doubles in Brisbane in 2017.

Mirza said she strained her calf muscle in her right leg during the Hobart final.

"It just got worse in the match. It was bit of a bad strain, but I had a few days off," she told reporters. "So I obviously had to try to do whatever I could to try to get on the court.

"It felt okay when I went on the court, but it was tough to move right. I just felt like I'm gonna tear it or something pretty bad."

Mirza won her first Grand Slam in mixed doubles at the Australian Open in 2009 and also bagged the women's doubles in 2016.

Mirza always believed there was tennis left in her which inspired her comeback, she told Reuters on Sunday.

She had already pulled out of the Australian Open mixed doubles, where she was to partner compatriot Rohan Bopanna.

Mirza and Kichenok were trailing the Chinese pair of Xinyun Han and Lin Zhu 6-2 1-0 on Thursday when the Indian had to call it quits due to the injury.

"As a tennis player you want to compete, it is the Grand Slam. If it's any other tournament, you would probably take a call and be like 'I don't want to risk it'," she said.

Mirza, who is married to former Pakistan cricket captain Shoaib Malik, said she would take two weeks to recover and was hoping to play at next month's Dubai championships.

"When you play a professional sport, injuries are really part of it. And it's something that you have to accept," she said. "Sometimes the timing is really not ideal, it's tough that it happened in a Grand Slam, or just before a Grand Slam."