Mashal Sports was created by Anand Mahindra and Charu Sharma with a simple vision to
elaborate Kabaddi as a prestigious sport amongst its Indian audience. The duo was
successful in achieving this when STAR India, which is an International Broadcasting giant,
backed them up.

Ever since Vivo Pro Kabaddi League’s launch in 2014, the sport has earned aspirational
value and has proven to be a successful and viable career option for many. Today you can
see unprecedented participation in the sport from different parts of the globe.

Vivo Pro Kabaddi League will take place from the month of December 2021 and will continue
for months after. The League has launched a number of new teams, including Haryana Steelers,
Gujarat Giants, Tamil Thalaivas, and U.P Yoddha as additions to their existing teams Bengal
Warriors, Bengaluru Bulls, Dabang Delhi K.C, Jaipur Pink Panthers, Patna Pirates, Puneri Paltan,
Telugu Titans, and U Mumba.

Haryana Steelers, owned by JSW Sports is rooted firmly in Haryana and coached by Rakesh Kumar.
The team is backed by India’s foremost sports firm that had also mentored India’s finest athletes and
has also gotten into a recent association with India’s prominent D2C brand in Dried Fruits, Nuts, and
Seeds, Happilo India.

Haryana Steelers will conduct its first match on 23rd December against Patna Pirate after which they
will face Jaipur Pink Panthers on the 25th December. 28th December the team will play against
Telugu Titans and further finish with their final match of the month on 30th December against
Bengaluru Bulls.

Interestingly enough, Haryana Steelers won’t be the first sports team the healthy snacking brand has
associated itself with. Happilo recently associated with renowned racer, Sahil Shelar who participated
in the 12th Edition of MRF MMSC Volkswagen Polo National Championship that was hosted in
Chennai on 11th and 12th December 2021.

Happilo is marking its 5 years in the industry by associating itself with multiple industry bodies. The
brand is also introducing new products in the market for its new and existing customers and has a line
of activities planned for the coming year. The brand has a stronger vision proposed for the coming
year and is excited to share the same with its existing and new audience.

“To me, business was never about buying and selling or making a profit, I have always believed in
delivering quality and have worked towards delivering snacks that were not only healthy but also
tasty. This year Happilo completes 5 years and will end the year on a high note! Our consumers have
been very supportive and to celebrate their belief in us, we will bring in new products and will continue
to deliver the quality our customers deserve”

-Vikas D. Nahar, Founder of Happilo

“Today with over 100 items, channel partners, and multiple affiliations, Happilo has become the most
searched brand on Google and the E-Commerce Industry. We are expecting a business of 300 Cr in
the year 2021-22, the same year where Happilo completed 5 years of glory. Today you can find
Happilo products in over 10,000 (Ten Thousand) modern Trade & Self Service Supermarkets and
Retail Outlets including Nykaa, Udaan, Milkbasket, Snapdeal, Cora Health, Instamart, Supr Daily, and
so on. The vision is to build our D2C stronger and grow to 50,000 (Fifty Thousand) market places in
the coming 8 months.”4

-Rajiv Singh, Head Brand Marketing & Strategic Alliances at Happilo International Private Limited.
The Vivo Pro Kabaddi League is scheduled from 22nd Dec to 22nd February in Bangalore in the
presence of various Media and Industry Bodies and Sports Personalities. The event will adhere to all
Covid necessary safety precautions and safety guidelines and will be played in its truest

New Delhi:The legendary Sunil Gavaskar feels Sourav Ganguly is the best person to clear the air on Virat Kohli’s contradictory statement on the issue of captaincy, saying the BCCI president “surely should be asked” how the difference in perception arose.

Days after Kohli quit T20I captaincy, Ganguly said that the BCCI had asked the superstar batter to reconsider his decision. Kohli had, however, contradicted Ganguly’s statement during his explosive press conference on Wednesday ahead of departure for the South Africa Test series.

“I think it (Kohli’s comment) actually doesn’t bring the BCCI into the picture. I think it’s the individual who has to be asked where he got the impression he had conveyed such a message to Kohli. So, that’s the only thing,” Gavaskar told ‘India Today’.

“Yes, he (Ganguly) is the BCCI president and surely he should be asked why there is this discrepancy. He is probably the best person to ask about the discrepancy in what you seem to have to say and what the Indian captain has said,” he added.

Kohli’s comments had exposed the simmering tension between him and the BCCI officials after he was removed as ODI skipper as well earlier this month.

Kohli had said that his removal from ODI captaincy happened 90 minutes before the team’s selection for the South Africa tour but Gavaskar felt there was nothing wrong on the part of selection committee chairman Chetan Sharma on that count.

“What is the controversy here. As long as the chairman of selectors had told him clearly that we are not considering you for ODI captaincy now, that’s perfectly fine. It is the selectors who have complete authority is selection committee meetings. The captain is just a co-opted non-voting member,” Gavaskar said.

“As long as it’s not something that he (Kohli) has not found out from the media or as it happened in the past that the commander of a passenger flight announced it. I think he has been told by the chairman of the selection committee that he is not going to be the captain, I think that is absolutely okay.

“I don’t know what these people wanted to do. As long as there has been communication between the chairman of selection committee and him, it’s the decent thing to do,” he added.

Gavaskar pointed out that it is time the BCCI starts clear channels of communication to avoid any such fiasco in future.

“Yes, it always helps to have a clear line of communication so that there is no speculation. So from now, from what has happened, there should be a clear line of communication and the chairman of the selection committee can come down and say why he has been picked and why he has not been picked.

“Sometimes, even if that is not needed, a press release is also good enough. A good press release giving all the reasons makes life a lot easier,” the former captain said.

C: @BCCI | Twitter

New Delhi: India’s Test vice-captain Rohit Sharma was on Monday ruled out of the entire three-Test series against South Africa as his old left-hamstring injury resurfaced during the team’s net session in Mumbai where he also took a hit on his hand.

India A captain Priyank Panchal will be Rohit’s replacement opener in the Test series.

“Team India Test vice-captain Rohit Sharma sustained a left hamstring injury during his training session here in Mumbai yesterday. He has been ruled out of the upcoming 3-match Test series against South Africa. Priyank Panchal will replace Rohit Sharma in the Test squad,” BCCI stated in a press release.

The Board has not announced a stand-in vice-captain but it is expected that KL Rahul is the front-runner for being Virat Kohli’s deputy during the Tests.

Other contenders could be Rishabh Pant and Ravichandran Ashwin considering that Ajinkya Rahane has been removed from the role with his place in the eleven not being assured. The Tests will wind up on January 15 followed by three ODIs, scheduled to begin on January 19 in Paarl.

The 34-year-old Rohit also sustained a hit on his hands at the Mumbai nets while taking throwdowns from Raghavendra aka Raghu.

“Yes, Rohit did suffer an injury on his hand but even after that he had batted. So we can presume that hand injury isn’t serious. But thereafter, it seemed the old hamstring problem resurfaced once again and it might take some time before he is fully fit and available.

“They are trying to sort it out. Hamstring injuries normally take four weeks which could effectively rule him out of Test series,” a senior BCCI source told PTI on Monday.

As of now, the extent of Rohit’s injury is not very clear. It is not known whether it’s a strain which is a less serious injury or a tear, which will have to be graded.

“There are some issues but the medical team is trying to sort it out,” a source close to the cricketer told PTI.

The BCCI is yet to share the details of his scan report which will ascertain the degree of the injury.

“Any hamstring injury, even the lowest grade takes a month to heal with rehabilitation sessions. In Tests we have Mayank Agarwal ready to open with KL Rahul, who could potentially be the vice-captain.

“And now we have Priyank Panchal also as cover. We would be hoping that he is fit and ready for the ODI series,” the source added.

It is learnt that Panchal reported at the team hotel this evening.

“Panchal has been asked to report at the Mumbai team hotel tonight. He is there as a cover for Rohit. Also because he recently played in South Africa and scored runs, he was asked to join,” an official associated with the India A team informed.

Panchal is no greenhorn as he has 100 first-class matches under his belt with 7011 runs, including 24 hundreds.

He has been a part of a very successful Gujarat team that won the Ranji Trophy under Parthiv Patel and has been an India A captain.

He was fighting for the reserve opener’s slot with Abhimanyu Easwaran but pipped the Bengal man as the latter batted at No.3 in the A series.

Ban Chang (Thailand): Senior rower Arvind Singh bagged a gold in the lightweight men’s single sculls event while his compatriots won three silver medals as India signed off from the Asian Rowing Championship on a high note here on Sunday.

Arvind leapfrogged his opponents with a timing of 7:55.942s.

Arvind, who finished 11th at the Tokyo Olympics along with Arjun Lal Jat in the men’s lightweight double sculls, beat his rivals from Uzbekistan, China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand.

India drew curtains on the championship with three more silver medals — in the men’s lightweight double sculls, men’s quadruple sculls and in men’s coxless four events.

Overall, India ended returned from the continental event with two gold and four silver medals.

In lightweight men’s double sculls, Ashish Phugat and Sukhjinder Singh won a silver with a timing of 7:12.568s, while in the men’s quadruple sculls, Bittu Singh, Jakar Khan, Manjeet Kumar and Sukhmeet Singh finished second in a photo-finish clocking, 6:33:661s, losing the gold by 0.523 seconds.

Jasveer Singh, Punit Kumar, Gurmeet Singh and Charanjeet Singh clinched the other silver with a timing of 6:51.661s in men’s coxless fours final.

“Overall, another good performance by India. Congratulations and best wishes to all the rowers, coaches, support staff and backend administrators, who managed the team all these months,” secretary general of Rowing Federation of India MV Sriram said in a statement.

“A special mention to Ismail Baig, who consistently, year on year, turns out sterling results for India.

New Delhi: It was waiting to happen after India’s unceremonious World Cup exit and on Wednesday the BCCI ended Virat Kohli’s run as India’s white-ball captain with a rather matter-of-fact statement, handing the reins to Rohit Sharma “going forward”.

The BCCI, it is learnt, waited for the last 48 hours for Kohli, who has already relinquished T20 captaincy, to voluntarily step down from ODI leadership as well but he did not. By the 49th hour, losing the position to Rohit Sharma was simply ‘fait accompli’.

Perhaps, in the most telling way of telling someone that his time was up, Kohli’s sacking was not even addressed by the BCCI statement, which merely stated that the selection committee has decided to name Rohit captain of the ODI and T20I teams going forward.

Kohli lost his captaincy. Just like that.

The BCCI and its national selection committee sacked the decorated Kohli, who perhaps harboured the ambition of leading India at home in the 2023 ODI World Cup.

The moment India were ousted from the T20 World Cup at the group league stage, Kohli’s leadership epitaph was written but the BCCI mandarins wanted to give the captain of last four and half years an honourable exit route.

In the end, it seems Kohli dared the BCCI to sack him, the parent body went ahead and did exactly that and the once all-powerful skipper had no other option but to accept it.

Kohli’s cycle of leadership has been a fascinating story in itself.

he started as a brash captain in-waiting under the ever so-cool Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who took him under his wings and groomed him well enough before he was convinced that it was time to give him white-ball captaincy and at least two years to prepare for a World Cup.

In the next two years, Kohli became the all-powerful captain of the team, who could get things done his way. It only helped that there was a Supreme Court run-Committee of Administrators, who relented to each and every demand of his — some very fair and some unfair.

And then came a time when the traditional administrators were back in the business along with a very powerful secretary and a president, who knows a thing about being a successful captain himself.

In the end, there was no place for two separate white-ball captains.

Australia has Aaron Finch, England has Eoin Morgan as white-ball captains. Even India had Kohli as Test and Dhoni as ODI and T20I captain for two years.

But all those who follow Indian cricket closely shouldn’t be surprised with this turn of events.

The worst kept secret in the Indian dressing room is the fact that their skipper isn’t the most popular man in the side. Kohli is an articulate man but closer home among his folks, one has always heard rumblings about him not being a players’ man.

PTI wrote on September 16 about how the dressing room had drifted away from Kohli and it did not happen in a day.

“The biggest problem with Virat has always been trust issues. He speaks about clear communication but where he had lost respect as a leader is lack of communication,” a player, who had been a part of that Indian dressing room a couple of years back.

While former head coach Ravi Shastri, in recent interviews, has advised that Kohli would do better concentrating on his batting, but did he during the skipper’s height of powers point out to that his man management skills left a lot to be desired, not to forget his questionable tactical acumen on big days?

Perhaps no because no one wants to rock the boat. Anil Kumble had tried and failed miserably. There are umpteen incidents where players have felt insecure about their places in the side after a couple of failures.

During the earlier regime, a player would be feted if he was performing and at the top of his game but as a skipper, he never bothered when they went through a slump.

Kuldeep Yadav’s handling by Kohli is one of the worst examples of leadership where a fabulous talent simply didn’t know where he went wrong.

Not only Kuldeep, there were a lot of players, who never knew what exactly their defined roles were.

If grapevine is to be believed, Kohli, towards the end of the England series, didn’t even get along with the Shastri-led erstwhile support staff.

It wasn’t as if they had any ugly fights but it was just that Kohli and Shastri, towards the end of it all, didn’t see eye to eye but since the latter was already mentally done with the job, he bade his time and left with his head held high.

Dhoni’s hotel room used to be wide open and players could come in anytime, order room service, have a game of PS4 (play station) and unwind. It wasn’t about discussion of technique but more about being able to bond well.

Kohli became a detached personality once he was handed leadership and over the years, most of the juniors found an elder brother who offered a “reassuring arm around their shoulder” in Rohit.

He became that guy who would take them out for a meal and when someone scored less than 50 runs in five matches, he would come to them and spell out in no uncertain terms that “Don’t worry, I am there for you.”

It will be a new start for Kohli and one needs to see how he adapts to this change where he is no longer the undisputed leader.

He will still lead in Tests but being is a proud performer, it remains to be seen how he continues as red ball skipper for a longer duration knowing that he isn’t in absolute control.

The Virat Kohli “captaincy regime” is ending and one would see Rohit Sharma’s “leadership era.” It could well be infinitely more exciting.

New Delhi: Indian para-athletes on Wednesday returned from Bahrain after claiming a whopping 41 medals in their best-ever show at the Asian Youth Para Games.

The Indian contingent won 12 gold, 15 silver, and 14 bronze medals at the continental Para youth games held in Riffa city.

India won most medals in athletics with 22 players finishing at the podium — eight won gold, six bagged silver, and eight secured bronze.

The Indian para shuttlers returned claimed 15 medals with Tokyo Paralympian Palak Kohli, Sanjana Kumari, and Hardik Makkar claiming three medals each.

In swimming, India won three medals, including one silver and two bronze, while the country also secured a silver in powerlifting.

Over 700 athletes from around 30 countries participated in the continental youth showpiece event that took place from December 2 to 6.

The athletes competed across nine sports – Para athletics, Para badminton, boccia, goalball, Para powerlifting, Para swimming, Para table tennis, Para taekwondo, and wheelchair basketball.

New Delhi: Virat Kohli was on Wednesday removed as India’s ODI captain with the national selection committee making Rohit Sharma the sole white-ball leader of the team till the 2023 50-over World Cup.
In another significant development, Ajinkya Rahane was removed from Test vice-captaincy, a position which was also given to Rohit.

The BCCI announced the 18-member squad for the three Test series which doesn’t include all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, spinner Axar Patel, and opener Shubman Gill due to various injuries.

Hanuma Vihari has made a comeback in the main squad while Ishant Sharma has been able to retain his place despite poor form.

Squad: Virat Kohli (Capt),Rohit Sharma(vc), KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant(wk), Wriddhiman Saha(wk), R Ashwin, Jayant Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohd. Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Md. Siraj.

Standby Players: Navdeep Saini, Saurabh Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Arzan Nagwaswalla.

Kanpur: Tim Southee bowled an incisive morning spell to take five wickets which was then brilliantly complemented by openers Will Young and Tom Latham as New Zealand dominated India to reach 129 for no loss on the second day of the opening Test here on Friday.

The only highlight for India in an otherwise disappointing day was Shreyas Iyer’s (105 off 171 balls) debut hundred.

Playing his 80th Test match, Southee (5/69) took his 13th five-wicket haul on an unresponsive track to send India packing for 345 after they started the day at 258 for 4.

Young then held centre-stage in his fourth Test appearance as he looked composed and unperturbed during his unbeaten knock of 75 off 180 balls.

Latham (50 batting off 165 balls), the seasoned campaigner, survived three on-field decisions (two leg before and one caught behind), negated by DRS, and decided to frustrate the two Indian spinners with a gritty defensive game.

The Green Park track became better for batting on the second day and the turn that was on offer was minimal. The variable bounce wasn’t also there for the better part of the 57 overs that they batted.

Since it was slow turn, the Black Caps duo mostly plonked their front-foot and neutralised the turn. And when they played on the back-foot, there was enough time to manoeuvre on both sides of the wicket.

Both were able to adjust on the back-foot against Ravindra Jadeja (14-4-28-0) and Ravichandran Ashwin (17-5-38-0), both of whom didn’t look threatening on the day.

Also what made it worse for India was that hardly any delivery kept dangerously low, which could have brought the leg-before into the equation.

The most disappointing of all was Axar Patel (10-1-26-0), whose accuracy on the leg stump line was of little or no value and it was once again proved that without assistance from the track, he is not even half the bowler that he is with some help from surface.

Young, in particular, got as many as 12 boundaries while Latham helped himself to four hits to the fence.

While Indian spinners can come back on the third day if the pitch considerably deteriorates but New Zealand would like to take the game deep by getting somewhere close to India’s first innings total and take it from there.

In the morning, Iyer became the 16th Indian cricketer to score a hundred on Test debut but the home side’s lower-middle order caved in meekly save Ashwin (38 off 56 balls), whose counter-attacking effort took them close to 350.

The credit for that went primarily to Southee (27.4-6-69-5), who was tirelessly bowling an extended spell of more than 10 overs from one end, causing extensive damage. The seasoned campaigner’s 13th five-wicket haul came in his 80th Test.

Resuming on his overnight score of 75, Iyer followed the great Gundappa Vishwanath in reaching the milestone at this ground.

Ashwin did the bulk of scoring in the morning session as India added only 87 runs, losing six wickets in the process.

Southee was on target with the second new ball first up as he sent back Ravindra Jadeja (50) on his overnight score.

He used the width of the crease cleverly to trouble Jadeja and got the ball to move from length which was too much for the lower-order players to negotiate.

Wriddhiman Saha and Axar Patel nicked at those deliveries that moved away at drivable lengths.

Sensing that he is now batting with the tail as Saha (1 off 12 balls) is no longer a batter on whom one can repose his faith, Iyer hit a flurry of boundaries but the best shot was a cover drive off Kyle Jamieson (22.2-6-85-3) which took him to 96.

A glide towards wide of third man off Jamieson got him a double and the moment that every batter dreams of.

His century in India whites which would definitely increase the pressure on his captain for the game, Ajinkya Rahane.

Iyer’s innings had 13 fours and two sixes which showed that he was always looking at ways to score runs rather than merely surviving.

He was finally out for 105 when he tried to drive a slower one from Southee but it landed straight in the hands of the cover fielder.

Kolkata: Rohit Sharma batted in style and led with panache to script a near perfect tale on his full-time captaincy debut as India handed T20 World Cup runners-up New Zealand the ignominy of a 3-0 series defeat after a 73-run win in the third T20 International here on Sunday.

The Indian skipper first made a statement scoring 56 off 31 balls in India’s 184 for 7 and then made some immaculate captaincy calls which witnessed New Zealand’s surrender for a paltry 111 runs in 17.2 overs.

It was a second back-to-back bilateral T20I series triumph with a clean sweep for India after beating the Black Caps 5-0 in their own den in 2020.

Axar Patel (3/9) bowled accurately and also got one to turn as his three wickets in Powerplay literally ended New Zealand’s resistance and the rest was a mere formality.

The New Zealand team looked bone tired after a gruelling T20 World Cup campaign and the result won’t be a fair reflection of the team’s capabilities as they went through the motions for the better part of the three games.

For India, who were aiming to reset the button, the series win will certainly give them a few pointers going forward.

For Rohit and head coach Rahul Dravid, this series was about checking what kind of ammunition they have going forward.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ravichandran Ashwin’s return to form in white ball cricket augurs well as there is no substitute for experience.

Venkatesh Iyer has shown potential and needs to be persisted with. He bowled steadily and needs more game time to become a middle-order enforcer having been a top-order player.

Harshal Patel is a welcome addition with his sincere efforts but the middle order still remains a bit iffy as it didn’t perform up to expectation in any of the games.

A few like Ruturaj Gaikwad and Avesh Khan went untested but the skipper will surely use all his options going forward.

But what he has shown like his predecessor Virat Kohli is ability to walk the talk with performances that his mates will look up to.

When India batted, Rohit’s imperious form was on full display as he laid the platform for an above par score.

In his bid to test the team’s character by batting first, the skipper led the way with five fours and three sixes in his sublime knock but despite a blazing start, the Indians stuttered in the middle overs before Harshal Patel (18 off 11 balls) and Deepak Chahar (21 not out off 8 balls) used their long handles which fetched 50 runs in last five overs.

Ishan Kishan (29 off 21 balls), Shreyas Iyer (25 off 20 balls) and Venkatesh (20 off 15 balls) all got starts but couldn’t convert it into a big score.

Having got two flashy back-to-back boundaries off the very first over by Trent Boult, there was no looking back for Rohit.

There was no preferential treatment as all the fast bowlers were treated with equal disdain as he and Kishan made full use of the of the Powerplay overs, which yielded 69 runs.

Rohit pulled Boult behind square for his first six and hit Adam Milne (0/47 in 4 overs) over long-on for the second maximum and the third off Lockie Ferguson was another pull behind the square into the stand below the giant electronic scoreboard.

Post Powerplay, stand-in captain Mitchell Santner (4-0-27-3) was able to pull things back as Kishan edged an arm ball into the keeper’s gloves while Suryakumar Yadav (0) played a loose shot to a tossed up delivery giving an easy catch to the cover, much to the irritation of his skipper.

Rohit’s frustration was compounded when Rishabh Pant went for an ugly hoick to give Santner his third wicket in his second over.

But Rohit didn’t allow the fall of wicket to bog him down as he got his fifty with a deliberate cut through the vacant third-man area off his opposite number.

His sequence of scores in last six T20 Internationals is 74, 30, 56, 48, 55 and 56 and captaincy hasn’t changed his style of play one bit.

It took a brilliant one-handed reflex catch from Ish Sodhi to dismiss Rohit. Sodhi tried to bowl wide off Rohit’s reach but gave enough air, which enticed him to give the charge without getting to the pitch of the delivery.