New Delhi, Feb 13: Sanjiv Chawla, a key accused in the match-fixing scandal involving former South African cricket team captain Hansie Cronje in 2000, was extradited from the UK on Thursday, Delhi Police said.
The 50-year-old British national, accompanied by a crime branch team from London, reached IGI Airport this morning, a senior officer said.
He is likely to be taken to the crime branch office for questioning, he added.
New Delhi, Jan 31: Indian women's team captain Rani Rampal on Thursday became the first-ever hockey player to win the prestigious 'World Games Athlete of the Year' award.
The World Games announced the winner on Thursday after 20 days of polling by sports fans world-wide.
"Indian hockey superstar Rani is The World Games Athlete of the Year 2019! Huge congratulations!," the World Games said in a statement.
"With an impressive number of votes, 199,477, Rani is the clear winner of the Athlete of the Year race, where sports fans all over the world have voted for their favourite during 20 days of polling in January. All in all, over 705,610 votes were cast during the poll," it added.
Last year, India won the FIH Series Finals, and Rani was named Player of the Tournament. Under Rani's leadership, the Indian women's team qualified for just the third Olympic Games in its history.
"I dedicate this award to the entire hockey fraternity, my team and my country. This success has only become possible with the love and support from hockey lovers, fans, my team, coaches, Hockey India, my government, friends from Bollywood, fellow sportspersons and my countrymen who have continuously voted for me," said Rani, who was recently named among the Padma Shri awardees.
"Special thanks to FIH for nominating me for this prestigious award. Thank you to The World Games Federation for this recognition," she added.
Rani further said after a successful 2019, she is now looking forward to achieving greater heights with the national team in 2020, which also happens to be an Olympic year.
"It is my privilege and honour to win this award. It is always nice when your country recognises your effort. It is even better when the international sports community recognises it. Thank you so much to everyone who voted for me," she said.
"2019 was a great year for our team because we qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. As a team we want to make 2020 a great year!"
Rani, who has been a member of the national team since she was a 15-years-old, currently has more than 240 caps for India.
"Rani is an inspirational athlete, and a role model for many in India. It was amazing to see the support the Indians, even as high up as Mr Rijiju, the Minister of State, Youth Affairs and Sports, gave to her in this vote together with the Hockey fans all around the world. This is what sport is about: uniting people from different backgrounds and different countries," said International World Games Association President Jose Perurena.
The International Hockey Federation also congratulated Rani on being named for the award.
"Congratulations @imranirampal for becoming the first ever Hockey athlete to win the prestigious @TheWorldGames Athlete of the Year award!" the FIH, who nominated Rani for the award, said in its twitter handle.
"On behalf of FIH and the global hockey community, I would like to extend our warmest congratulations to Rani for having been voted The World Games Athlete of the Year 2019. This is an acknowledgement of her outstanding performances - together with her team-mates - and her dedication to hockey and her leadership," FIH CEO Thierry Weil said.
"This prestigious Award is also a great recognition for hockey globally. Furthermore, we are working hard for and looking forward to having Hockey 5s as a demonstration sport at The World Games 2021."
Congratulating Rani, Hockey India President Mohd Mushtaque Ahmad said, "This is a very proud moment for all of us. She is the first Indian athlete to win this award and through her achievements Rani has been able to draw a lot of attention towards women's hockey. Many people are aware of the team's recent accomplishments and I am confident this team is capable of winning larger goals and I wish Rani and the team best of luck this Olympic Year."
There were initially 25 nominees, male and female nominated by their respective sports federations, which was later reduced to 10 in the final round of public voting.
The FIH has recommended Rani's name for her outstanding performances and her ability to lead by example.
Karate star Stanislav Horuna of Ukraine was second behind Rani with over 92,000 votes and Canadian powerlifting world champion Rhaea Stinn was third.
New Delhi, Feb 7: It was on February 7, 1999, that Anil Kumble became just the second bowler in the history of cricket to take all ten wickets in an innings of a Test match.
He achieved the feat against Pakistan at Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium, now known as Arun Jaitley cricket stadium in Delhi during the second Test of the two-match series.
India had set Pakistan a target of 420 runs in the match and the visitors got off to a steady start as openers Shahid Afridi and Saeed Anwar put on 101 runs for the first wicket.
It was then Kumble who came into the attack and wreaked havoc on the Pakistani batting line-up.
The spinner, also known as 'Jumbo' first dismissed Afridi (41) in the 25th over. After the right-handed batter's dismissal, India kept on taking wickets through Kumble and Pakistan was reduced to 128/6 in no time.
Kumble then kept on taking wickets at regular intervals and he got his tenth scalp in the 61st over after dismissing Wasim Akram.
This effort enabled India to register a win by 212 runs, and Kumble became the second bowler after England's Jim Laker to take all ten wickets in a single Test inning.
Kumble finished with the bowling figures of 10-74 from 26.3 overs.
Kumble announced his retirement from international cricket in 2008 and 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).
Rome, Jan 19: India's star wrestlers Bajrang Punia and Ravi Kumar Dahiya kicked off the Olympic year in style, winning a gold medal each in their respective weight categories at the Rome Ranking Series here.
The 25-year-old Bajrang staged a remarkable comeback to secure a 4-3 win against USA's Jordan Michael Oliver in the summit showdown of the 65kg freestyle category.
Ravi, who competed in the 61kg category instead of his regular 57kg, also bagged gold after getting the better of Kazakhstan's Nurbolat Abdualiyev 12-2 in his final bout late on Saturday night.
The 23-year-old from Sonepat had made the final round after securing impressive wins over Moldova's Alexaandru Chirtoaca and Kazakhstan's Nurislam Sanayev.
Up against one of India's biggest medal prospects in the Tokyo Olympics, Oliver conceded that it was not his night against Bajrang.
The American lauded the competitive spirit of Bajrang.
"Wasn't my night… but I got a lot of work to do to be where I want to be! Hats off to @BajrangPunia dude is heck of a competitor! Until next time my friend," the American tweeted.
Bajrang had to sweat it out in the first round against Zain Allen Retherford of the USA before prevailing 5-4.
In the quarterfinal, the ace Indian wrestler went past another American Joseph Christopher Mc Kenna 4-2, before getting the better of Vasyl Shuptar of Ukraine 6-4 in the semi-finals.
However, it was curtains for Jitender in the 74kg and world championship silver medallist Deepak Punia in the 86kg category.
Jitender won his first bout against Denys Pavlov of Ukraine 10-1 before going down in the quarterfinals against Turkey's Soner Demirtas 4-0.
Jitender got a chance to fight in the repechage after Demirtas entered the final, but the Indian wasted the opportunity, losing 2-9 to Daniyar Kaisanov of Kazakhstan.
In the 86kg category, Deepak crashed out in the opening round, losing 1-11 to Ethan Adrian Ramos of Puerto Rico.
Comments
Add new comment