(Current Affairs For SSC Exams) Sports | February 2015

Sports

Poland wins Hopman Cup

Poland has won its first ever Hopman Cup title, beating the USA 2-1 in the final. Agnieszka Radwanska showed why she should be considered among the favourites for the Australian Open later this month by beating the world No. 1 Serena Williams in the final.
The world No. 5 Radwanska teamed up with Hopman debutant Jerzy Janowicz to beat the US pairing of Serena Williams and John Isner 2-1.

Avinash emerges champion in National junior snooker

Avinash Kumar continued his giant-killing spree to win his maiden National junior snooker title at the BRC. The 20-year-old Delhi cueist won all his round-robin semifinal league games, losing just three frames.
“He played spectacular snooker. His extraordinary show has caught the attention of everyone in this National meet,” said former World billiards champion Manoj Kothari.
“We will try and get him scholarship from one of the oil companies,” he informed. Avinash, whose parents migrated to Delhi from Patna, did not drop a single frame.
Playing his second league game against Hritik Jain from Madhya Pradesh, Avinash was thrashed 1-63 in the opening frame. “I came to the venue late and hardly had time to warm-up,” he said.
“Though I won the second frame I was still not be able to focus well. I got my rhythm back in the fourth and there was no stopping me.” Avinash lost the first frame to S. Shrikrishna of Tamil Nadu 11-72 in the final league game only to take the next four in a row.

India have slipped to 7th place in Test rankings

India have slipped a place to be seventh in the latest ICC Test rankings after losing the four-match away series against Australia 0-2. India’s slide in the rankings come after the two fighting draws which were not enough to prevent another series loss overseas.
India captain Virat Kohli however has gained three places to be 12th in the batsmen standings after amassing 692 runs in the eight innings Down Under. His Australian counterpart Steven Smith has reached a career-high fourth after piling up 769 runs in the series at a staggering average of 128.16.
Amongst the bowlers, pacer Mohammed Shami has risen seven places to a career-high 31st place after taking match figures of six for 145 runs in Sydney, while Australia’s Mitchell Starc has moved up nine places to 33rd after returning five wickets for 142 runs.
Amongst the other bowlers from the Sydney Test are Australia duo Shane Watson and Josh Hazlewood, up to 38th and a career-high 46th respectively.
Railways’ teams win in contrasting styles
It was double delight for Railways at the 63rd senior national volleyball championship as it clinched the men’s and women’s titles beating Tamil Nadu and Kerala respectively.
While the women’s final was a cakewalk, the men’s title-round will probably go down in the history of Indian volleyball as one of the greatest comebacks in the finals of the national championship.
Railways was down two sets and staring down the barrel before it saved three match points in the fourth set and went on to turn it around and win the match 19-25, 18-25, 25-23, 26-24, 15-9.
Defending champion TN had no one to blame but itself for the result — letting its crown slip when it had one hand on it with some poor defence work and unforced errors in the final three sets.
For Railways, attacker S. Prabagaran was the star performer of the day. He, along with all-rounder Manu Joseph, kept the visitors in the game with some attacking play.

Women’s hockey camp begins

The Indian women’s hockey team began its preparatory camp for a Test series against Spain at the National Stadium.
Goalkeepers: Yogita Bali, Savita, Rajni Etimarpu.

Brett Lee announced retirement from all forms of cricket

Former Australia fast bowler Brett Lee announced his pending retirement from all forms of cricket after a 20-year career.
The 38-year-old pacer quit international cricket in July 2012, but had been a Twenty20 regular, both in the Indian Premier League and the domestic competition in Australia.
Lee, who made the announcement at the Sydney Cricket Ground, remains the equal leading wicket-taker for Australia in ODIs with Glenn McGrath, with 380 in 221 appearances. Lee also took 310 wickets in 76 Tests for Australia.

Brett Lee announced retirement from all forms of cricket

Former Australia fast bowler Brett Lee announced his pending retirement from all forms of cricket after a 20-year career.
The 38-year-old pacer quit international cricket in July 2012, but had been a Twenty20 regular, both in the Indian Premier League and the domestic competition in Australia.
Lee, who made the announcement at the Sydney Cricket Ground, remains the equal leading wicket-taker for Australia in ODIs with Glenn McGrath, with 380 in 221 appearances. Lee also took 310 wickets in 76 Tests for Australia.

Advani to meet Sitwala in National billiards final

Six-time champion, Pankaj Advani, will take on PSPB teammate Dhruv Sitwala in the 82nd National billiards championship final at the BRC.
Advani overcame Siddharth Parikh of Railways 4-2 and Sitwala, looking to win his maiden crown, registered a thrilling 4-3 victory over B. Bhaskar of Karnataka for the third entry into the title round.
Advani took three hours to tame Parikh. An unfinished break of 148 gave Advani the first frame at 150-37 and two small breaks of 50 and 66 ensured 2-0 lead (150-87).
Parikh compiled an unfinished 107 to neutralise Advani’s lead of 114 to take the frame at 114-150. The 12-time world champion hit back with vengeance in the fourth.
A lead of 52 disappeared as Advani showed his cueing prowess with a terrific unfinished 154 to make it 3-1. It was a close fifth frame when Pankaj missed a fairly easy canon at 140-138 and Parikh ensured 2-3 in his favour.
The master of green baize, however, proved his class with two good breaks of 70 and 53 to take the frame at 150-45. “I am glad that even on a day when I was not at my best I managed to pull it off,” Advani said.
“Full credit to Siddharth who has come into top four after ten years. I am happy that I am through to the final,” a relieved Advani said.

IPL media rights: BCCI invites tenders

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has invited bids for media rights relating to the future editions of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
The upcoming Pepsi IPL will be broadcast across the world through every technological medium available, thus reaching out to an even larger audience, BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel said in a statement.
Bids should be submitted by February 3, at a meeting of the BCCI Marketing Committee, at which time it is intended that the bids will be opened, evaluated and the tender awarded in the presence of bidders.

Sania wins first title of the season in Sydney Open doubles

India’s Sania Mirza won her first title of the season and 23rd of her career when she and Bethanie Mattek-Sands shocked top-seeded Americans Abigail Spears and Raquel Kops-Jones in the summit clash of the Apia International.
The unseeded Indo-American combine humbled the top seeds 6-3, 6-3 in just 69 minutes.
Panel to decide penalty
The Supreme Court formed a three-member committee to decide on the punishment against Chennai Super Kings (CSK and Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) betting scandal involving co-owners of the two teams.
Former Chief Justice India R. M. Lodha will head the committee that includes former Supreme Court judges Ashok Bhan and R. V. Raveendran.
The committee has been given six months for to further investigate and come to a decision regarding the allegations against Mr. Kundra and Mr. Meiyappan. The two teams face the possibility of being scratched from the high profile domestic T20 tournament.
The Board will have to elect its new president in six months’ time and N. Srinivasan can contest only if he lets go of his commercial interest in CSK. It is East Zone’s turn to have a president. However, BCCI rules allow a candidate from outside the zone to contest if there is a proposer and seconder a from that zone.
It is compulsory for the candidate to have attended two Annual General Meetings of the Board apart from being a principal office-bearer.

IPTL will help in expanding the frontiers of tennis

Former English tennis star Tim Henman feels the newly launched International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) is the best thing to happen in Asia, where the sport is yet to pick up.
Henman, who was in the city to conduct tennis clinics for trainees adopted by the ‘HSBC Road to Wimbledon’ junior development programme, said the tournament conceived by Indian star Mahesh Bhupathi will surely help in expanding the boundaries of the sport.
Undertaking a must to contest BCCI elections
Following the Supreme Court’s ruling that BCCI members with commercial interest in BCCI-organised events — including the IPL — are not eligible to contest the BCCI elections, the candidates will have to give an undertaking to that effect to the BCCI.
Elections are to be held for the post of principal office-bearers (president, secretary, jt. secretary and treasurer) and five vice-presidents.
Apart from the IPL, the BCCI organises tournaments in the senior, junior and women’s categories and also organises the annual awards and the M.A.K. Pataudi Memorial lecture. Many other committees are also nominated by each zone. Generally BCCI office-bearers obtain unanimity for selection committees, but there have been occasions when selectors have been elected.
The BCCI by-laws also specify eligibility rules for members wanting to contest elections. Past or present office-bearers or vice-presidents, except the president or a member who has represented his association at two AGMs, can contest for the post of office-bearer (secretary, jt. Secretary and vice-president).
The president must be a past or present office-bearer or vice-president of the Board nominated by at least two full members from the zone, whose turn it is as per the principle of rotation.
He must have attended two AGMs representing a full member.
The BCCI’s rules also say that such candidate or candidates (for the post of president) need not be from the same zone that is exercising its right of nomination by rotation.
According to the by-laws of the BCCI, the office-bearers and vice-presidents who get elected at the next AGM will have a tenure of three years.
But the question now though is, will the BCCI be forced to conduct another election in September 2015, should the Supreme Court’s three-member panel recommend amendments to the eligibility rules for elections.
The Supreme Court has said that the three-member committee’s deliberations will not affect the BCCI AGM and elections to be held within six weeks.

India set for Tri-series with one Eye on World Cup

All set to defend its cricket World Cup crown in less than a month, India will get its preparations underway with the aim to find the right combination for the marquee event when it takes on Australia in the ongoing ODI tri-series.
While this tri-series provides the perfect setting for experimentation, the need of the hour is to get a settled combination going ahead to instil confidence in the side.
Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni will return to international cricket after a little over two weeks since his Test retirement at the same venue, and he will have some decisions to make. The first order of business will be to make a firm choice about the opening combination.
Ahead of Sunday’s game, the team management has failed to specify whether it will be Ajinkya Rahane or Rohit Sharma pairing up with Shikhar Dhawan at the top of the order, or indeed whether a third possibly surprising combination might be thrown up.
Unlike the team’s preparations ahead of any Test match, its net sessions for an ODI do not throw up any suggestive patterns and it was the same on Saturday as well. In no particular order then, all batsmen enjoyed a decent hit in the nets including Ambati Rayudu and Stuart Binny.
Among the bowlers, playing two spinners is definitely par for the course for India, with R. Ashwin and Axar Patel slated to take up those spots.

Starc sets up Australia’s win

Paceman Mitchell Starc took six for 43 to help Australia to a four-wicket victory over India, despite a brilliant century by Rohit Sharma.
Rohit’s 138 at the MCG enabled India post a competitive 267 for eight after electing to bat.
However, Australian opener Aaron Finch countered Rohit’s century with a match-winning knock of his own, making 96 as Australia reached 269 with four wickets in hand and six balls to spare.
He received great support from Steve Smith (47) as the pair put on 101 for the third wicket.
Advani bags his seventh National title, Amee is women’s champ
Pankaj Advani won his seventh senior National snooker title beating Varun Madan by six frames to three in a well-fought final of the BRC Gloster National billiards and snooker championship at the BRC .
The victory also gave Advani a fourth double, having won the billiards and snooker crowns in 2007, 08 and 2009 also.
MP’s Amee Kamani won her maiden senior snooker title defeating defending champion Vidya Pillay of Karnataka .

New Zealand wins series

New Zealand wrapped up its one-day series against Sri Lanka with a game to spare when Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor orchestrated a 120-run win in game six.
Williamson (97) and Taylor (96) provided the backbone of New Zealand’s 315 for eight in 50 overs and Sri Lanka was all out for 195 in the 41st over.
The win puts New Zealand 4-1 up in the seven-match series with one game washed out.
Only Kumar Sangakkara looked at ease in Sri Lanka’s run chase with 81 off 66 deliveries, but none of the other recognised batsmen were able to get past 30 as New Zealand all-rounder Corey Anderson stamped his mark on the game.
Anderson smacked 40 from 28 balls to support Williamson and Taylor during New Zealand’s innings and then took four for 52 with the ball as the Sri Lankan batsmen again showed a lack of fight.

Gilchrist and Ryder to be inducted into Australian Cricket Hall of Fame

Celebrated wicketkeeper-batsman Adam Gilchrist and late former captain and selector Jack Ryder will be inducted into Australian Cricket Hall of Fame at the annual Allan Border Medal ceremony .
ACHoF chairman David Crow today announced that Gilchrist and Ryder were the selection committee’s choice for induction this year
The ACHoF recently expanded its criteria to include a player’s impact off the field following his playing career.
Gilchrist said he was humbled by his nomination alongside many of the greatest players to represent Australia
Ryder was Don Bradman’s first Test captain but it is their association off the field for more than two decades as selectors which had a far greater impact on the game.
A tall and aggressive batsman and lively medium pace bowler, Ryder played 20 Tests for Australia and 20 years for Victoria.
Delhi Open tennis from Feb. 16
The cream of Indian tennis, spearheaded by defending champion Somdev Devvarman, is scheduled to compete in the Delhi Open $100,000 Challenger tennis tournament to be played at the R.K. Khanna Stadium here from February 16 to 22.
In a release issued , the organisers have stated that Yuki Bhambri, Saketh Myneni and Ramkumar Ramanathan would also be seen in action, apart from top players like James Duckworth of Australia and Yuichi Sugita of Japan, ranked 120 and 136 respectively.
Vishnu Vardhan will get a wild card into the main draw by virtue of having won the Fenesta National championship, while the runner-up Sidharth Rawat will get a wild card for the qualifying event, along with the national junior champion Vidit Vaghela.
In the concurrently hosted $25,000 ITF women’s tournament, Prerna Bhambri will gain entry as a wild card as the national champion.
Karman Kaur Thandi who had finished runner-up will get a wild card for the qualifying event. Incidentally, she had also won the junior title in the national championship.

Boxing India to introduce new league, ranking system

In order to work in line with International Boxing Association (AIBA)’s ambitious leagues such as AIBA Open Boxing (AOB), AIBA Pro Boxing (APB) and World Series of Boxing (WSB), Boxing India (BI) has decided to launch the Indian Series of Boxing (ISB) and a national ranking system in the second half of the year.
The apex body has been making an effort for the synergy of amateur and professional boxing by allowing pugilists from professional leagues to qualify for the Olympics. BI’s new step will help the Indian boxers be part of the reforms “that will bring fresh value to boxers and boxing in India”.
Debashis Das holds Topalov
Grandmaster Debashis Das came up with his best performance ever to hold former world champion Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria to a creditable draw in the second round of the Masters’ section of Tradewise Gibraltar Chess festival.
On a day of upsets, Indian Grandmaster Vishnu Prasanna defeated Grandmaster Emil Sutovsky of Israel while former world junior girls’ champion Soumya Swaminathan beat American Kayden Troff to maintain a clean slate after two games. Also ending on a high was Indian GM M.R. Venkatesh who scored a fine victory over Simen Agdestein of Norway.
With eight rounds still to come, it was business as usual for some of the higher-ranked players.
But highest rated Indian P. Harikrishna had to show his endgame-magic before he could secure his second victory in the tournament. ‘Revive defunct IBPWA’
Olympian and former National badminton champion U. Vimal Kumar, said that shuttlers should revive the defunct Indian Badminton Players Welfare Association (IBPWA) and approach the Badminton Association of India (BAI) instead of floating a new body.
He also expressed anguish over the players’ attitude as many thought of floating an association only when they were left out of the Indian team. “This way, they can never be united. Players should have a clear agenda and not be there for selfish reasons,” he remarked.
Vimal said active players and recently-retired ones should take the responsibility of running the association.
Vimal explained how players revolted against BAI in the mid-90s when All England champion Prakash Padukone had formed the Indian Badminton Confederation.
He said BAI permitted players to send entries directly for National-ranking tournaments, and also for international events through BAI for forwarding it to the respective organisers. “The State associations, players and BAI functioned with better understanding,” he pointed out.
Gold for Bindra
Former World and Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra shot gold with a spectacular finish in air rifle in the IWK Hockbrueck shooting championship in Munich .
The 32-year-old Bindra beat Vitali Bubnovich of Belarus by 0.4 points with a total of 208.0. Bindra shot a perfect 10.9 on the penultimate shot after having led by 0.1 points, before the last two shots of the 20-shot final series.
• While Bindra ended with a 10.3, the Belarussian finished with 10.4 and 10.5, that saw him fall short of gold.

Aussies break Korean hearts in final

Host Australia won the Asian Cup football after beating South Korea 2-1 in extra time of an electrifying final, substitute James Troisi smashing home a dramatic winner.
Troisi broke Korean hearts with the last kick in the first period of extra time after Son Heung-Min had snatched a dramatic injury-time equaliser at the end of normal time.
Australia’s triumph gave the Socceroos a first title since defecting from Oceania nine years ago, while South Korea’s anguish continued after failing to break a hoodoo in the tournament stretching back to 1960.

Maxwell leads Australia to a crushing win

A career-best performance by all-rounder Glenn Maxwell inspired Australia to a crushing 112-run win over England in the ODI tri-series final at the WACA
Maxwell scored 95 to help Australia recover from a poor start and make 278 for eight.
He then took four wickets and a fine catch as England crumbled in the run chase to be dismissed for just 166 in 39.1 overs.
England, which will face Australia in the World Cup opener later this month, was never in the hunt after paceman Mitchell Johnson claimed three quick wickets (three 27) to have it struggling at 46 for four.
He removed Moeen Ali for 26 and then had England skipper Eoin Morgan bowled without offering a shot, off successive balls.
Maxwell (four for 46) also found himself on a hat-trick after removing Jos Buttler (17) and the hapless Chris Woakes, who had a match to forget, with successive deliveries.

Indian Badminton League likely after June

The Indian Badminton League (IBL), a franchise league, commercially managed by Badminton Association of India (BAI), will be held after June as the organisers are not finding a clear 20 days for the staging of the event for the second time, according to T.P.S. Puri, vice president (administration), BAI.
He said that the earlier plans to hold the league in April appeared not possible as players would be busy preparing for the prestigious Sudirman Cup after taking part in two back-to-back fixtures — the All England championship and the Swiss Open in March.
“Though players and franchises are keen to play, we are looking for a window. Most probably we may stage the event after June,” he pointed out.
He said the IBL Governing Council should take into consideration the availability of players’ world over before finalising the schedule.
He said the league will see new players entering the fray and a good many players may play for the existing franchisees as they were contracted for two years.
“The format would remain the same. Depending on the wishes of the sponsor and the franchisees we will initiate the changes.”
Reacting to Andhra Pradesh Badminton Association’s (APBA) decision to take legal action against shuttlers, who skipped the 79th senior National championship at Vijayawada, he said he would pursue APBA not to proceed.
“Even though APBA wished to move the court, it has to go through BAI. We should emphasise to the players as they need to train hard to maintain their peak form.”
He said a good number of Indian shuttlers were occupying top slots in the world ranking lists and that was possible as they play around 15 to 16 tournaments in a year.
“They need to train hard to sustain the challenge. I think BAI should have a liberal view by permitting the elite players to train,” he said.
A win for Anand
Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand got some consolation after scoring a regulation victory over David Baramidze of Germany in the sixth and penultimate round of the Grenke Chess Classic here.
Coming after two straight losses against nemesis Magnus Carlsen of Norway and Levon Aronian of Armenia, the victory served as a breather for Anand as this was also the first win of the year for the Indian ace.
With just one round to go Carlsen and Naiditsch remain on top of the table with four points each while Caruana remains half a point behind them.
The trio of Aronian, Bacrot and Adams are not far behind on three points each while Anand remained seventh in the eight-player round robin.