(Current Affairs For SSC Exams) Sports | March, 2014

March -2014

CRICKET

Fastest Century in ODI by Corey Anderson

New Zealand’s Corey Anderson has made world record by his name by blasted the fastest century in One Day International. History was created at Queenstown Events Centre ground against West Indies on 1 January 2014. The left-handed Anderson brought up his hundred off just 36 balls, shattering the previous record held by Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi. Anderson remained 131 not out (47 balls). New Zealand posted a mammoth 283/4 in 21 over. Jesse Ryder too hit a quick ton, scoring 104 off 51 deliveries. Ryder’s 100 are the sixth fastest in ODI history. Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi had taken 37 balls for his ton. Afridi had set the record in 1996 in Nairobi against Sri Lanka. The 22-year-old Anderson, batting at number 5, reached the world record mark in the 18th over of the match, which was reduced to 21 over each due to rain. New Zealand won by 159 runs after keeping the visitors to 124/5 in 21 over. The assault by New Zealand batsmen destroyed West Indies bowling figures. Fast bowler Ravi Rampaul was the most expensive with an economy rate of 21.33. He was hammered for 64 runs from 3 over. All six bowlers went for more than 10 runs per over, the least being 11 by Nikita Miller (1/44 in 4 over).

Fastest Hundreds in One Day Internationals

  • Corey Anderson 36 balls

  • Shahid Afridi 37 balls

  • Mark Boucher 44 balls

  • Brian Lara 45 balls

  • Shahid Afridi 45 balls

First captain to play in four tied ODIs

MS Dhoni on 25 January 2014 became the first captain to be involved in four tied One Day International matches. Indian cricket team captain achieved this feat in Auckland, while playing third ODI match against New Zealand. The third match of India-New Zealand ODI series that tied by the end is the first tied game between the two countries in ODI.

The last three tied matches Dhoni has played are

  • ICC World Cup 2011 match in Bangalore against England

  • ODI match played on 11 September 2011 at Lords against England

  • ODI match played in February 2012 at Adelaide against Sri Lanka

Other cricketers who have faced tied matches in three cases are

  • Richie Richardson of West Indies

  • Steve Waugh of Australia

  • Shaun Pollock of South Africa

Till date, India has been featured in seven tied games in ODIs of which two games are against Zimbabwe and England respectively. Other three matches were played against New Zealand, Sri Lanka and West Indies. New Zealand has participated in six tied ODI games till now. The ODI history has seen three games that have produced totals of 300 or more from both the sides.

The three occasions are

  • New Zealand against India at Auckland on 25 January 2014

  • India against England at Bangalore on 27 February 2011

  • England against New Zealand at Napier on 20 February 2008

International Women’s Championship approved by ICC

International Cricket Council (ICC) on 29 January 2014 approved the introduction of an International Women’s Championship, which is a part of qualification for the ICC Women’s World Cup. As per the approval, each of the top eight ranked international teams will play the others in a series of matches between mid-2017 and the end of 2016. The top teams will automatically qualify for the ICC Women World Cup of 2017 to be played in England.

The team that falls in the bottom sides will fall into the regional qualification structures of ICC to play in a Women’s World Cup qualifier. This qualifier will decide the final list of participants at the Women’s World Cup Cricket Championship.

Competing countries include

Australia, West Indies, England, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, South Africa, India, Pakistan

Shane Warne to mentor Australia’s spinners

Australia has appointed Shane Warne as a specialist spin consultant on 23 January 2014 to support Darren Lehmann ahead of Australian campaign in World Twenty20 to beplayed in Bangladesh. His role in the team will be to train the spinners of the squad.

Warne will join the squad of the team for the three-match series against South Africa at the conclusion of the Test tour in March 2014. Australia has to play three T20 games against South Africa on 9, 12 and 14 March 2014. George Bailey is the captain of the Australian Twenty20 cricket team and at present the team is ranked at eighth position in the list of International Cricket Council. The coach of the Australian cricket team Lehmann considers that the role of Warne in the game will be a crucial turning point for the team.

India vs Sri Lanka Women ODI series

Indian women team won the three ODI series 3-0 by defeating Sri Lankan women team. In the last and final ODI played at ACD-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam, India defeated the Lankan team by 95 runs. The ODI series will be followed by three Twenty20 matches to start from 25 January 2013. The trophy of the tournament was handed to the Indian team by DV Subba Rao, the president of the Andhra Cricket Association. Indian team was captained by Mithali Raj. The Sri Lanka team was captained by Hettimulla Appuhamilage Shashikala Dedunu Siriwardene.

Kathy Cross is first woman in ICC Umpire’s Panel

Kathy Cross of New Zealand on 30 January 2014 became the first woman to be appointed in an International Cricket Council (ICC) umpires panel. Cross of 56 years in age was named as an Associate and Affiliate panel of International umpires for 2014 following the annual review and selection process. The panel comprises 11 umpires that sits below the elite and international panels-officiates in ICC World Cricket League matches for teams ranked in divisions three to six  and other associate and affiliate tournaments. The panel of 11 umpires’ panel for 2014 has been joined by Kathy Cross and Nigel Morrison. The other members of the panel are Sameer Bandekar, Mark Hawthorne, Wynand Louw, David Odhiambo, Buddhi Pradhan, Sarika Siva Prasad, Richard Smith, Ian Ramage and Courtney Young. Associate and Affiliate Selection Committee has named the panel

Australia - England ODI series

Australia on 26 January 2014 won the five matches ODI series against England 4-1. England lost the fifth match by five runs, while chasing 217 run target score set by Aussies at Adelaide Oval. Earlier, England won the fourth ODI match in Perth with a margin of 57 runs after losing the first three matched of the series. Score of the final and fifth match was

  • Australia: 217 for 9 England 212 all out in 49.4 over England has already been clean swiped in the Ashes series 5-0 by Australia

TENNIS

Australian Open title

Men’s

Stanislas Wawrinka won the Australian Open men’s singles title on 26 January 2014 by defeating Rafael Nadal 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in Melbourne. This is the maiden Grand Slam crown of eighth seeded, Wawrinka. This is
the first victory of Wawrinka over Nadal in 13 career meetings as he had never won a single set against the Spanish, Nadal before the final match on 26 January 2014. Wawrinka’s maiden Grand Slam success comes in his 36th major, only Goran Ivanisevic (37) has taken longer to win a first major crown. With this win, Wawrinka became the first man to defeat the top two seeds at a grand slam since 1993 French Open played by Sergi Bruguera.

Women’s

Li Na of China won the women’s singles title by defeating Dominika Cibulkova 7-6 (3), 6-0 on 25 January 2014 at Melbourne Park. Earlier, Li Na has lost two finals in the previous three years. Li Na, who will turn 32 in
February is the oldest women’s Champion in the Open era in Australia.

Mixed Doubles

 French-Canadian pair of Kristina Mladenovic and Daniel Nestor won the Mixed doubles title of the tournament after defeating India’s Sania Mirza and her Romanian partner Horia Tecau 6-3, 6-2.

IPTL launched by Mahesh Bhupathi

Tennis player Mahesh Bhupathi launched the International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) in Melbourne, Australia on 21 January 2014. He also announced the name of the teams during the launch of IPTL.

The host cities or the teams which will participate in the IPTL are Mumbai, Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong. The sixth host city will be from the Middle East. Mahesh Bhupati linked arms with German tennis legend Boris Becker, and American Justin Gimelstob, a former pro and member of the ATP board to launch the IPL styles IPTL. The IPTL is expected to start in Asia from 1 December 2014 to 20 December 2014 for which the auction of players will be held in UAE on 2 March 2014. Each team is expected to field 10 players. The salary which each team will pay to its players is estimated to be between 4 million dollars and 10 million dollars.

The International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) is a first of its kind endeavour in Asia. The IPTL aims at bringing together some of the best male and female professional tennis players across the world on the same platform.

Brisbane International Title 2014

Serena Williams won the Brisbane International title in Queensland, Australia on 4 January 2 0 1 4 . Serena Williams won over Victoria Azarenka, the Belarusian tennis player, ranked 2. This was Serena’s 14th win in 17 matches played with Victoria Azarenka. Williams is a five-time champion in Melbourne but has not won the title, since 2010. Recently Serena Williams won the Female Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press in December 2013. Serena Williams won 11 titles and ranked number 1 for the 2013 season.

HOCKEY

Inaugural title of Hockey World League

Netherlands on 19 January 2014 won the Hero Hockey World League Final by defeating New Zealand 7-2 in New Delhi. To help Netherlands to win the inaugural title of the championship, Constantijin Jonker slammed a hat-trick at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium. The bronze medal was awarded to England that defeated the world champions Australia 2-1 in the match played for third-fourth place. Belgium retained its position at fifth place and sixth place was taken by India

  • Captain of Netherlands: Robert van der Horst

  • Netherlands coach: Paul van Ass

  • Captained of New Zealand: Dean Couzins

  • New Zealand coach: Colin Batch

Individual awards

  • Player of the Tournament: Robbert Kemperman (Netherlands)

  • Goalkeeper of the Tournament: George Pinner (England)

  • Top goal scorer: Kieran Govers (Australia)

  • Best Junior Player: Mandeep Singh (India)

Participant teams of the tournament

Argentina, Australia, Belgium, England, Germany, India, Netherlands, New Zealand

FOOTBALL

FIFA Ballon d’Or award 2013

Cristiano Ronaldo won the FIFA Ballon d’Or award for 2013 on 13 January 2014.He beat Barcelona’s Messi and France winger Franck Ribery in a polling conducted by FIFA. Voting was done by national team captains and coaches and selected journalists in the FIFA member countries. Ronaldo scored 69 goals for Real Madrid and Portugal Collectively in the year 2013 Cristiano Ronaldo was awarded the Order of Prince Henry, one of the Portugal’s highest honours in January 2014.

FIFA AWARDS 2013

  • FIFA Presidential Award 2013: Jacques Rogge (Belgium)

  • FIFA Player of the Year (Men): Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal)

  • FIFA Player of the Year (Women): Nadine Angerer (Ger)

  • FIFA Coach of the Year (Men): Jupp Heynckes (Ger)

  • FIFA Coach of the Year (Women): Silvia Neid (Ger)

  • FIFA Puskás Award: Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden)

  • FIFA Fair Play Award: Afghanistan

FIFPro World XI

  • Goalkeeper: Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich)

  • Defenders: Daniel Alves (Barcelona), Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid), Thiago Silva (Paris Saint-Germain) and Philip Lahm (Bayern Munich).

  • Midfielders: Andres Iniesta (Barcelona), Xavi Hernandez (Barcelona) and Ribery (Bayern Munich).

  • Forwards: Messi, Zlatan Ibrahimovic (PSG) and Ronaldo.

35th Football Federation Cup

Churchill Brothers won the 35th Football Federation Cup on 25 January 2014. In the final held at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Cochin, Churchill Brothers beat Sporting Clube de Goa 3-1 to lift their maiden Federation Cup.

The goal scorers from Churchill Brothers were Balwant Singh, Alesh Sawant, and Abdel Hamid Shabana whereas the lone goal from Sporting Club de Goa was scored by Victorino Fernandes. The maiden Federation Cup, made the Churchill Brothers  richer by 25 lakh rupee which they got as prize money while the Runnersup collected 15 lakh rupees. A total of 16 teams played in the 35th edition of the Federation Cup. The top goal scorer was Balwant Singh of Churchill Brothers who scored 4 goals in the tournament.

About Federation Cup

The Federation Cup is an annual knockout style club football tournament in India. It started in 1977. It is the most important club tournament after the I-League which started in 1997. The winning club of the Federation Cup gets a chance to compete in the continental level in AFC Cup. The 2012 Football Federation Cup was won by East Bengal who beat Dempo SC 3-2 in the final.

CHESS

Parsvnath International Grandmasters chess tournament

Abhijeet Gupta won his second Parsvanth International Grandmasters chess tournament on 16 January 2014. Abhijeet Gupta won against Eldar Gasanov of Ukraine. In 2008 he won the Parsvanth International Grandmasters chess tournament for the first time. Indian Grandmaster Deepan Chakkravarthy beat Russian Grandmaster Alexander Evdokimov to finish third in the tournament. 12th Parsvnath International Grandmasters Chess Tournament was held from 9 to 16 January 2014 by Delhi Chess Association. Grandmaster Aleksei Aleksandrov of Belarus won the 11th Parsvanth International Grandmasters chess tournament in 2013.

March -2014

GOLF

Sony Open Golf tournament

Jimmy Walker of the US won the Sony Open golf tournament held in Hawaii on 12 January 2014. This was his second PGA Tour title. His first PGA Tour title came in October 2013 when he won the Frys.com Open, the
first tournament of the new wraparound season. Walker closed with 7-under 63 for a one shot victory over his compatriot Chris Kirk who was placed second.

As a result, he won 1.08 million dollars in prize money. The third place was taken by Jerry Kelly of England. Walker had gone 187 tournaments in seven years on the PGA Tour without winning. However, in last six months he has won two PGA Tour titles. As the first multiple winner for the 2013-14 season, he is leading the FedEx Cup and closing in on cracking the top 30 in the world. PGA tour is the organizer of the professional golf tours played by the men in North America and United States.

Volvo Golf Champions title

South Africa’s Louis Oosthuizen retained the Volvo Golf Champions title at the Durban Country Club held on 12 January 2014. Oosthuizen carded a fourunder- par 68 to win on 12 under, one shot clear of compatriot Branden Grace (68). England’s overnight leader Tommy Fleetwood finished with a level-par 72 to tie for third with Joost Luiten of the Netherlands (71) on 10 under. Louis Oosthuizen was the winner of Home of Golf title in 2010.

VARIOUS

Open du Gard squash title

Mahesh Mangaokar of India on 6 January 2014 won the Open du Gard squash title, the PSA Challenger 5 event. Mangaokar (19) of Mumbai defeated the top-seeded Scottish player Scot Greg Lobban 9-11, 11-3,
11-4, 11-5 in the final match played at Squash des Arenes in Nimes, France to claim the tour title. Mangaokar from Mumbai defeated Lobban in the IMET Open in December and repeated the same again in the sixth edition of the 5000 dollar PSA Challenger event. To qualify for the finals, Mangaonkar defeated the second seeded Ammar Alamimi of Kuwait in the semi-finals. The is the third win of Mangaonkar on the PSA Tour and this also set up a nine-match winning streak for the Indian - the longest of his career.

Semi-finals

  • Greg Lobban of Scotland defeated Christophe Andre of France 11-8, 11-5, 11-7

  • Mahesh Mangaonkar of India defeated Ammar Altamimi of Kuwait 11-9, 11-2, 11-0

75th National Table Tennis Championship

Sanil Shetty and Ankita Das won their maiden men’s and women’s singles championship at the 75th Senior National Table Tennis Championships held on 12 January 2014. Shetty defeated Harmeet Desai 4-2 in the men’s final and won the amount of 2.30 lakh rupees. Ankita Das defeated Krittwika Sinha 4-0 in the women’s final and won the amount of 1.45 lakh rupees. Sanil Shetty is the first national champion to emerge from Mumbai after the great Kamlesh Mehta, who last won the title in 1995.

Results :

Men

Final: Sanil Shetty (PSPB) beat Harmeet Desai (PSPB)

Women:

Final: Ankita Das (PSPB) beat Krittwika Sinha Roy (AAI)

Mixed Doubles:

Final: Sanil Shetty/Neha Aggarwal (PSPB) beat Arjun Ghosh/ Mousi Pal (WB).

Third Lusofonia taken place in Goa

The third Lusofonia Games taken place in Goa from from 18 January to 29 January 2014. It was for the first time the Lusifonia Games are being held in India. Lusofonia Games are multinational and multi-sport games in the World. These games are organized by ACOLOP (Association of the Portuguese Speaking Olympic Committees). The Athletes from 12 Portuguese Commonwealth nations have participated in the Lusofonia Games 2014. These are Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Goa (India), Macau (China), Mozambique, Portugal, Sao Tome and Principe and Sri Lanka. The Indian team participated as Goa (India). The Games has nine sporting disciplines which are Athletics, Basketball, Beach Volleyball, Football, Judo, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Volleyball and Wushu. The first Lusofonia Games were held in Macau (China) in 2006 and second Lusofonia Games in Lisbon (Portugal) in 2009.

Lusofonia Games

India on 27 January 2014 won the basketball gold in the men’s section at the Lusofonia Games by defeating Angola 77-70 at the Shyam Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium in Taleigao in Goa.

Match report quarter wise

  • Till the end of the first quarter India led the game with 19-14

  • By the end of second quarter, Angola brought themselves back in the match with 16-15

  • Angola dominated the third quarter by scoring 23 points against 16 points of India

  • The score went to 77-70 by the end of fourth and final quarter leading victory to India In the women’s category gold was bagged by Mozambique by defeating Angola 73-49 and India won the bronze title. Mozambique men won the bronze defeating Cape Verde 56-37.

Sumit Malik stripped off gold medal

Sumit Malik, the 400 meter gold medal winner in the men’s 400 meter race in Lusofonia Games 2014 has been stripped off from his medal on 28 January 2014. He was stripped for violating anti-doping rules and illegally participating in the Lusofonia Games in lieu of a provisional suspension imposed on him by National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA). He was a gold medalist of the Lusofonia Games 400-meter event. Sumit Malik was served a notice by NADA for violation of the anti-doping rules under the NADA’s Anti Doping Rules 2010. He participated in the Lusofonia Games 2014 in Goa by keeping the organising committee in dark. The organising committee was informed by NADA on 27 January 2014 and a copy was also sent to the Athletics Federation of India. Earlier on 7 January 2014, NADA provisionally suspended Malik and debarred him from participating in any global or national event.

National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA)

The National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) is the national organization responsible for promoting, coordinating, and monitoring the doping control programme in sports in all its forms in the country. NADA works towards a vision of ’dope free’ sport in India. Doping is defined as the occurrence of one or more of the anti-doping rule violations set forth in Article 2.1 through Article 2.8 of these Anti Doping Rules (Anti-Doping Rule Violations).

Third Nations Cup International Boxing Tournament

Nikhat Zareen won gold medal at the third Nations Cup International Boxing Tournament held in Novi Sad, Serbia on 12 January 2014. Zareen defeated Paltceva Ekaterina of Russia in the 51 kg weight category. The
boxing tournament was held from 8 January 2014 to 12 January 2014. She won the silver in the Youth World Boxing Championship held in Bulgaria in 2013. In 2011 Zareen won the gold medal in flyweight division held at the AIBA Women’s Junior and Youth World Boxing Championship in Turkey.

Tax exemption for Olympics, CWG and Asian Games winners

Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on 28 January 2014 issued an order that exempts Indian sportsperson, who won medals at Olympics, Commonwealth Games (CWG) and Asian Games from payment of Income Tax on cash or other rewards given by the government. The order came into effect from the date of its notification Till now, medal-winning sportspersons, who received any cash prize or gift from the government were supposed to pay income tax to the government. While, achievers from other fields except sports like winners of National Film Awards and Ramon Magsaysay awardees were exempted from paying any income tax till now. To exempt the sportsperson from the tax payment for the rewards given by the central or state government, CBDT invoked the provisions mentioned under Clause (17A) of Section 10 of the Income Tax Act 1961 (43 of 1961). Till the notification from the CBDT, the medal-winning sportspersons who received cash prize of gift by the government used to come under the bracket of payment of Income Tax.

Federation Cup National Basketball Championship

ONGC on 9 December 2014 won the men’s title of the IMGReliance 28th Federation Cup National Basketball Championship. The ONGC men defeated Tamil Nadu 61-53 in the final held at YMCA International Centre. Apart from this, Chhattisgarh Women defeated Maharashtra 77-76 in the final. With this, winning team won the prize amount of 1 lakh rupee and a title.The Runners-up were awarded Rs 75000 each.

Most Valuable Player

Men - Vishesh Bhriguvanshi

Women - Smruthi Radhakrishnan

Heena Sandhu sets World record

Heena Sandhu’s score of 203.8 in 10 m Air Pistol set at the Munich World Cup in November 2013 was recognized as World record on 30 January 2014. The declaration was officially made by the International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF). The declaration of the ISSF came following the adoption of new format.

At the Shooting World Cup held in Munich, Germany in November 2013, she had defeated the World Champion Zorana Arunovic of Serbia by 5.2 points in the final to win the Gold. Heena, thus, became the first Indian woman ever to hold the world record in Shooting World Cup. Coincidentally at the World Cup in November 2013, she also became the first Indian woman to win Gold in Shooting World Cup. She shot to fame with winning the Gold at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

Indian Fencers barred from competing in Qatar Fencing World Cup

The four-member women fencing team from India was barred from competing in the Qatar Fencing World Cup in Doha on 17 January 2014. The four-member women team included Ketaki Kaushal, Jyotika Dutta, Pratishth Batish and Midhu Meghna Akurathi. The Fencing Association of India (FAI) was ordered to cough up 1000 euros as penalty to enable the Indian fencers to compete in the team event which will get underway from 19 January 2014. The team was not allowed to compete because of the suspension of Indian Olympic Association (IOA) by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The IOC had suspended the IOA in December 2012 after IOA elected Secretary General Lalit Bhanot was jailed for 10 months on corruption charges related to the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. The suspension of IOA by IOC already has
done immense damage to the sporting fraternity in India. Earlier, London Olympic Bronze Medalist Yogeshwar Dutt had to return back without competing in the Golden Grand Prix event in Azerbaijan.

Anju Bobby George declared winner of World Athletics Final, 2005

Anju Bobby George was declared winner of the World Athletics Championships final held in Monte Carlo in 2005. The decision was given by the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) on 13 January 2014. The decision of the IAAF came following the disqualification of the Gold Medalist Tatyana Kotova of Russia for doping. At the World Athletics Final in 2005, Anju Bobby George won the Silver Medal with a long jump of 6.75 meter. The Gold Medal was won by Tatyana Kotova with a jump of 6.83 meter and the Bronze Medal was won by Grace Upshaw of the US.

Following the decision of IAAF to disqualify Kotova, the new rankings now stand as:

1. Anju Bobby George (India, 6.75m)

2. Grace Upshaw (USA, 6.67m)

3. Eunice Barber (France, 6.51m)

Similarly, Anju also moved up one place to fourth in the new long jump results of the 2005 Helsinki World Championships. This happened after the Silver Medalist Tatyana Kotova was tested positive for doping by the IAAF in 2013.

National Youth Policy, 2014

The Union Cabinet approved the introduction of the National Youth Policy, 2014 (NYP, 2014) on 9 January 2014. The NYP, 2014 will replace National Youth Policy, 2003 which is currently in force. The vision of NYP, 2014 is to empower youth to achieve their full potential, and through them enable India to find its rightful place in the community of nations. The Policy is basically aimed at development of an educated and healthy young population, who are not only economically productive, but are also socially responsible citizens contributing to the task of nationbuilding. For achieving the vision of NYP, 2014; five well-defined objectives and 11 priority areas have been identified. The priority areas are: education, skill development and employment, entrepreneurship, health and healthy lifestyle, sports, promotion of social values, community engagement, participation in politics and governance, youth engagement, inclusion and social justice. The Youth Policy, 2014 will cover the entire country. It will cater to the needs of all youth in the age-group of 15-29 years. According to the Census 2011 the youth in the age group of 15-29 years constitute 27.5 per cent of the population, that is about 33 crore persons. The Policy has proposed broad policy interventions for the youth which are consistent with the 12th Plan priorities. It has not proposed any specific programme/scheme, having financial implications. Rather all concerned Ministries/Department has been mandated to bring focus on youth issues within the framework of their plans/programmes/schemes.

Bernie Ecclestone to be tried on bribery charges

Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula 1 boss will be tried on bribery  charges as per a rule passed by a court in Munich on 16 January 2014. He is accused of making bribe of 45 million dollar to Gerhand Gribkowsky, a German Banker who is serving a jail sentence for receiving the payment for organising the sale in 2005. He was jailed in 2012 for more than eight years for tax evasion and bribery. As per the prosecutor, the payment was made to ensure that F1 was sold to a private equity group of the choice of Ecclestone. The payment was made between July 2006 and December 2007. Ecclestone has admitted of payment to Gribkowsky but he has denied it as a bribe and claimed that he is a victim of blackmail. He has stepped down from the board of the company that runs the sport, Delta Topoco till the case concludes for the interest of the F1 business. He will continue to run the sport in a day-today basis.

About Bernie Ecclestone

  • He is the chief executive of F1 and has ruled it for more than four decades

  • He has been the long-time commercial rights of the sport

  • In 1990s he sold the majority of the ownership of the sport

  • His full name is Bernard Charles Ecclestone.

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