Belgrade: Vinesh Phogat on Wednesday became the first Indian woman wrestler to win two medals at the World Championships as she clinched a bronze in 53kg by defeating Emma Jonna Malmgren of Sweden here.

The 28-year-old Vinesh had also won a bronze in 2019 edition in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.

It was a remarkable comeback for Vinesh after her shock qualification round defeat as she beat Malmgren 8-0 in the bronze medal round.

She had made it to the bronze play-off through repechage round after losing to Khulan Batkhuyag of Mongolia, the 2022 Asian championships silver medallist, in her first bout on Tuesday.

Vinesh, a triple Commonwealth Games champion, made it to the repechage round after Batkhuyag reached the final.

In the repechage round, Vinesh first beat Zhuldyz Eshimova of Kazakhstan in a Victory by Fall (4-0) decision and then won the next bout after her opponent Leyla Gurbanova of Azerbaijan did not turn up due to injury to advance to the bronze medal round.

Former India opener Robin Uthappa

New Delhi: Former India opener Robin Uthappa, one of the heroes of the 2007 T20 World Cup winning national team, on Wednesday announced his retirement from all forms of “Indian cricket”.

With the Wednesday’s announcement, the right-handed Karnataka batter is eligible to play in leagues of other countries.

Uthappa was part of the country’s 2004 Under-19 World Cup team. He made his India debut two years later and featured in 46 ODIs and 13 T20Is for India.

He scored 934 and 249 runs in ODIs and T20Is. He has 9446 first class and 6534 List A runs under his belt.

Uthappa has won two IPL trophies — one for KKR and one for CSK in 2014 and 2021 respectively.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Wednesday allowed modification of BCCI’s constitution and paved the way for its President Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah to continue in office without having to serve the mandatory cooling-off period.

A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Hima Kohli said that an office bearer can have continuous tenure of 12 years which includes six years in State Association and six years in BCCI before the cooling-off period of three years triggers.

The bench said that an office bearer can serve on a particular post for two consecutive terms, both at the BCCI and the State Association level, after which he would have to serve three years cooling-off period.

“The purpose of the cooling-off period is not to create undesirable monopolies”, the bench said.

The top court’s order came on the Board’s plea seeking to amend its constitution concerning the tenure of its office bearers including its President Sourav Ganguly and Secretary Jay Shah by doing away with the mandatory cooling-off period between tenures of office bearers across state cricket associations and the BCCI.

The BCCI, in its proposed amendment, has sought the abolition of a cooling-off period for its office bearers which would enable Ganguly and Shah to continue in office as President and Secretary despite them having completed six years at respective state cricket associations.

Earlier, the Justice R M Lodha-led committee had recommended reforms in the BCCI which have been accepted by the top court.

The constitution of the BCCI, which was earlier approved by the top court, stipulates a mandatory three-year cooling-off period for anyone who had served two consecutive terms of three years each in the state cricket association or the BCCI.

While Ganguly was an office bearer in the Cricket Association of Bengal, Shah had served in the Gujarat Cricket Association.

NEW DELHI: India was on Tuesday suspended by world governing body FIFA for “undue influence from third parties” and stripped the country of the right to host the Under-17 Women’s World Cup, scheduled for October.

This is the first time the All India Football Federation (AIFF) has been banned by FIFA in its 85 year history.

“The Bureau of the FIFA Council has unanimously decided to suspend the All India Football Federation (AIFF) with immediate effect due to undue influence from third parties, which constitutes a serious violation of the FIFA Statutes,” the FIFA said in a statement.

“The suspension will be lifted once an order to set up a committee of administrators to assume the powers of the AIFF Executive Committee has been repealed and the AIFF administration regains full control of the AIFF’s daily affairs.

” On May 18, the Supreme Court had ousted Praful Patel as AIFF president for not holding elections due in December 2020 and appointed a three- member Committee of Administrators (CoA), headed by former top court judge AR Dave, to manage the affairs of the AIFF.

The CoA also had to frame its constitution in line with the National Sports Code and model guidelines.

The FIFA though is not closing all options for India as it said it is in talks with the spots ministry and hopeful of a positive outcome regarding the women’s age group showpiece event.

“The suspension means that the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup 2022, scheduled to take place in India on 11-30 October 2022, cannot currently be held in India as planned.

FIFA is assessing the next steps with regard to the tournament and will refer the matter to the Bureau of the Council if and when necessary.

“FIFA is in constant constructive contact with the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports in India and is hopeful that a positive outcome to the case may still be achieved.

” On August 5, FIFA had threatened to suspend the AIFF and strip of its right to host the women’s U-17 World Cup, days after the Supreme Court’s directive to hold elections of the national federation.

The Supreme Court on August 3 Wednesday directed the executive committee of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) to expeditiously hold elections as per the schedule proposed by the Committee of Administrators (CoA), which is currently running the affairs of the national federation.

The elections are to be held on August 28 and the poll process began on August 13, as the top court approved the time-line prepared by the CoA.

Nasheman news

BIRMINGHAM: From the beats of Bhangra to the power-packed performance of ‘Apache Indian,’ it was a carnivalesque atmosphere at the refurbished Alexander Stadium here, as a dazzling closing ceremony brought the curtains down to the high-octane edition of the 2022 Commonwealth Games

More than 4,500 athletes competed from 72 countries over the past 11 days.

India finished with 61 medals, five less than their tally four years ago at Gold Coast.

As per tradition, the flag of the Commonwealth Games Federation was lowered to officially mark the end of the Birmingham Games and handed over to the state of Victoria, Australia, the host of the next edition of the Commonwealth Games in 2026.

Prince Edward “proclaimed Birmingham 2022 closed” and made a formal invitation to the Australian state of Victoria for the 2026 Commonwealth Games.

“You have inspired us and hopefully the future generations. You have demonstrated what unites us. On behalf of the Majesty of the Queen, our patron, and in the name of the Commonwealth Games Federation, I proclaim Birmingham 2022 closed,” he said, as fireworks lit up the Birmingham sky.

‘Apache Indian’, Bhangra set up the tempo Indian-origin Steven Kapur, a singer-songwriter and a reggae DJ, popularly known as ‘Apache Indian’ delivered a power-packed performance, belting out chartbusters ‘Boom Shack-A-Lak’, ‘Pass the Dutchie’ and ‘Red Red Wine’ to celebrate sound system culture of the city.

It was followed by model-cum-activist Neelam Gill, who was driven in a yellow MG, while Punjabi MC played out ‘Mundiyan To Bach Ke’ to a packed stadium, celebrating Birmingham ‘daytimers’ culture – the 80s and 90s cultural phenomenon.

There were 20 musical performances, which included musical legends Goldie and Beverley Knight collaborating on the iconic ‘Inner City Life’ in a tribute to Wolverhampton’s pioneering role in rave culture and 80s street art.

Transgender British model Talulah Eve paid homage to the new romantic era and Birmingham queer culture, while current Birmingham superstars Raza Hussain, Mahalia, Jaykae and Ash gave a performance “Looking to the future.”

The musical show was followed by farewell speeches by the president of the Commonwealth Games Federation Dame Louise Martin and Birmingham 2022 CEO Martin Green, among others.

“The closing ceremony was a true celebration of an outstanding Commonwealth Games and showcased the very best of Birmingham, the country and the Commonwealth,” Martin said.

“We have witnessed an incredible showcase of Commonwealth sport across 11 fantastic days and the Closing Ceremony provided a wonderful conclusion to the special competition,” Martin added.

Low-key presence of Indian athletes Star female boxer Nikhat Zareen and veteran table tennis player Achanta Sharath Kamal led the sparsely populated Indian contingent, who walked into the stadium for the closing ceremony in tandem with the Pakistani athletes and officials.

As soon as they entered, Panjabi MC blasted their hit number ‘Mundian To Bach Ke’ with a performance by Lions of Punjab, a Midlands-based Punjab Bhangra dance group, with over 85 years of history.

CHENNAI: It was a rewind back to Lord’s in 2017. If it was England then, this time India, once again came close to making history before falling short against Australia in the final moments at Edgbaston, bagging silver in their maiden appearance at the Commonwealth Games.

Chasing 162, the Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur was in the middle sooner than they would have wanted. Having watched their bowlers take pace off the ball, Indian openers Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma did not waste any time to charge down against Megan Schutt. While they took 12 runs off the first over and Mandhana scored another boundary from Darcie Brown in the next, the party did not last long as the 19-year-old castled the stumps. With Shafali Verma getting out to Ashleigh Gardner in the next over, the onus was on Harmanpreet and Jemimah Rodrigues. 

And she did exactly that, taking things into her own hands. While Jemimah struggled to keep up with the run rate, Harmanpreet — who’s going through a purple patch, especially against Australia — creamed Brown for back-to-back boundaries. Brought out her favorite sweep shot against spinners. She used her feet to loft Jess Jonassen down the ground, over midwicket, adjusting to lengths even at the last moment. There were the pulls, cover drives, paddle sweeps and her signature batswing as India controlled the proceedings. With Jemimah, she took India to  118/2 in 15 overs. And then Gardner happened.

Jemimah went for a slog and lost her stumps to Schutt. Pooja Vastrakar was caught in the deep off Gardner and Harmanpreet tried to scoop and the ball lobbed off her helmet with Alyssa Healy completing the rest as India lost three wickets for three runs. They were down to 121/5. A series of run outs happened and they needed 11 runs in the last over. 

Earlier, once again, Renuka Singh Thakur was at the forefront, up against Alyssa Healy. While the first couple of overs were quiet, it did not take long for the pacer to make an impact. She delivered her trademark inswinger — something she has done consistently in this tournament — and with Taniya Bhatia standing up to the stumps, Healy was pinned to the crease. The ball hit her on the knee roll, umpire denied, but India took it upstairs to remove their nemesis from the 2020 T20 World Cup final early.

Beth Mooney was still there and with captain Meg Lanning, the southpaw took charge of the innings. When Harmanpreet brought herself on, Australia milked her for 17 runs, taking them to 83/1 after 10 overs. With momentum on their side, they looked good for another 100 runs. But Radha Yadav had other ideas.

The left-arm spinner throwed the ball, from a Mooney straight drive, back on to the stumps at non-striker’s end to catch Lanning short of crease. Five balls later, she took a blinder at point to get rid of Tahlia McGrath, who was allowed to play despite testing positive for Covid as per the tournament norms. It was the beginning of a phase where India started to turn things around with their fielding. 

However, Mooney — who often goes unnoticed in a team of superstars — notched up another fifty and threatened to take the game away. And that is when, Deepti pulled off a one-handed stunner running back from mid-on to dismiss the Australian opener (61).

It was one of those days where even the players, whom India generally used to hide in the field, were throwing themselves around, hitting stumps and taking the catches at every possible occasion. Deepti and Radha nailed their death overs as India conceded just 11 runs in the last two, restricting Australia for 161/8.

Brief scores: Australia 161/8 (Mooney 61; Renuka 2/25) bt India 152 all out in 19.3 ovs (Harmanpreet 68, Gardner 3/16).

NEW DELHI: Senior opener and first-choice vice-captain KL Rahul is expected to reclaim his place back in the Indian team along with seamer Deepak Chahar when the squad will be selected for the Asia Cup on August 8.

The Asia Cup will be played in T20 format in Dubai and Sharjah from August 27 to September 11.

Rahul was supposed to make a comeback for the away ODI series in Zimbabwe but a bout of COVID-19 has was apparently delayed his recovery from the sports hernia surgery he underwent recently.

What would be interesting is to find out whether the selection committee, headed by Chetan Sharma, picks a usual squad of 15 or extend it to 17, keeping in mind a chance to try out all possible options.

The Indian squad for the Asia Cup will provide a fair idea about the team’s composition for the T20 World Cup as the team is set to play around a dozen games before its game at the showpiece against Pakistan at the MCG on October 23.

While Rishabh Pant and Suryakumar Yadav have been Rohit Sharma’s opening partners in the last six T20 games, Rahul will get back his place at the top of the order in this line-up.

“KL Rahul doesn’t need to prove anything. He is a class player. Whenever he plays T20, it is always as a specialist opener and that would continue. Surya and Rishabh are set to play as specialist middle-order batters going forward,” a BCCI source told PTI on conditions of anonymity.

One of the most prolific IPL performers, Rahul has often been criticised for his dated approach while opening the innings in T20Is.

But with Indian team employing an ‘attack at all costs’ philosophy in the Powerplay, propagated by both Pant and Surya, Rahul will certainly need to change his game in the continental tourney in the UAE.

Debate regarding Virat Kohli

While Virat Kohli’s form has been the biggest worry for the Indian team, there is no imminent threat to master batter’s No.3 slot as he is set to continue in the same slot.

There has been no specific discussions on Kohli’s future in the shortest format and even if he doesn’t have a great Asia Cup, his years of experience and match-winning ability will be difficult to ignore for the marquee event in Australia where experience always rules the roost.

Dinesh Karthik has made one middle-order slot his own while Deepak Hooda is going to be the first back-up option going forward.

The interesting aspect will be whether selectors prefer an extra opener/keeper in Ishan Kishan or an explosive middle-order back-up/keeper in Sanju Samson.

Either way, one among the two will miss out.

Bowling attack

In the bowling unit, Chahar, who will make a comeback in the Zimbabwe ODIs, in all likelihood, will also be a part of the Asia Cup-bound squad.

“Deepak was one of India’s consistent T20 bowlers before he got injured.

He deserves a fair chance and also we need a like-for-like back-up for Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

Also now that he is coming back, he would need to play a lot of games to get his rhythm back,” the source added.

Harshal Patel is reportedly down with a rib-cage injury and his inclusion in the squad will be subject to fitness.

As far as the off-spinner’s position is concerned, Washington Sundar won’t be considered for the T20 World Cup as the team management wants to go ahead with the experience of Ravichandran Ashwin alongside Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal and Axar Patel.

Similarly, Mohammed Shami has been intimated that he will only be considered for Tests and ODIs.

Asia Cup Squad (In Contention) Certainties (13): Rohit Sharma (captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

Back-Up batter: Deepak Hooda/Ishan Kishan/Sanju Samson Back-Up Pacers: Arshdeep Singh/Avesh Khan/Deepak Chahar/Harshal Patel.

BIRMINGHAM: Ace Indian paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal put up a sensational show to progress to the semifinals of all his three events in the table tennis competition of the Commonwealth Games here on Friday

The record nine-time national champion, who has as many as 10 CWG medals to his name, entered the men’s singles semifinals after beating Nigeria’s Olajide Omotayo 4-2 in a thrilling contest.

Sharath, 40, also reached the semifinals of mixed and men’s doubles competitions along with his respective partners.

He first paired up with young Sreeja Akula to stun two-time silver medallists Liam Pitchford and Tin-Tin Ho of England 3-2 (11-7 8-11 11-8 11-13 11-9) in mixed doubles quarters and then combined with Sathiyan Gnanasekaran to beat another English pair of Tom Jarvis and Sam Walker 3-0 (11-6 11-8 11-4) in men’s doubles event.

Sreeja too dished out superlative performances to progress to the women’s singles semifinals to go with her mixed doubles performance.

The 24-year-old from Hyderabad showed nerves of steel as she scripted a sensational come-from-behind 4-3 win over Mo Zhang of Canada to advance to the semifinals.

She beat Zhang 9-11 11-4 6-11 9-11 11-5 11-4 11-8 in her quarterfinal match.

Gnanasekaran also reached the men’s singles quarters, beating Nicholas Lum 4-2 at the NEC Hall.

However, Sanil Shetty lost 2-4 to Nigeria’s Bode Abiodun.

Sreeja and Sharath had earlier come from behind to beat Malaysia’s Leond Chee Fang and Ho Ying 5-11 11-2 11-6 11-5, while Sharath and Gnanasekaran eased past Bangladesh’s Bawm Ramhimlian and Ridoy Mohutasin Ahmed 11-6 11-1 11-4 in their round of 16 clash.

Defending champion Manika Batra, however, had a bad day as she suffered a 0-4 defeat against Jian Zeng of Singapore in the women’s singles quarterfinal to bow out of the competition.

Earlier, Manika and Sathiyan had lost 2-3 to Malaysia’s Javen Choong and Karen Lyne, while men’s pairing of Sanil Shetty and Harmeet Desai also ended their campaign with a 0-3 loss to Singapore’s Chew Zhe Yu Clarence and Poh Shao Feng Ethan.

In another result, Sreeja and Reeth Tennison entered the pre-quarterfinals with a 3-0 win over Scotland’s Lucy Elliott and Rebecca Plaistow.

Earlier in the day, Manika and Sreeja had entered the women’s singles quarterfinals.

While the 27-year-old Batra steamrolled Australian Jee Minhyung 11-4 11-8 11-6 12-10 to set up a fight with Singapore’s Jian Zeng, Sreeja played out a nerve-wracking encounter against Charlotte Carey of Wales to secure herself a last-eight berth.

The 24-year-old toiled hard but held her nerves to beat Carey 8-11 11-7 12-14 9-11 11-4 15-13 12-10.

Meanwhile, Reeth Tennison, bowed out in the women’s singles event after she went down to Singapore’s Feng Tianwei in a round of 16 match.

Tianwei proved too strong for Tennison as the latter was beaten 11-2 11-4 9-11 11-3 11-4.