Kolkata: Kolkata Police on Wednesday started a probe after receiving a complaint from former Indian cricket team captain Sourav Ganguly, accusing a person of defamation and cyberbullying, a senior officer said.

In an email to Kolkata Police’s cyber section on Tuesday night, Ganguly’s secretary lodged the complaint, while sharing a link to a video.

“We have received an email and are looking into it,” the officer said.

In the email, Ganguly’s secretary wrote, “I am writing to bring to your attention a case of cyberbullying and defamation involving a person named Mrinmoy Das. This individual has posted a video on a social media platform that targets Sourav Ganguly, using abusive language and making derogatory remarks, which are harmful to his reputation.”

“The context of the video constitutes not only an attack on Ganguly but also violates the dignity and respect that every individual is entitled to. We request your intervention in this matter and kindly ask that appropriate legal action be taken against Das for defaming and bullying Ganguly in this manner. We trust that the cyber department will take swift and necessary steps to address this issue and ensure that justice is served,” she added.

Arjun Tendulkar warmed up for the upcoming first-class season with a match-winning nine-wicket haul in Goa’s innings and 189-run victory over hosts Karnataka in the Dr (Capt) K Thimmappiah Memorial Tournament, which is also known as KSCA Invitational, a pre-season meet for state teams.

KSCA XI comprised mostly their U-19 and U-23 players with only two established names — Nikin Jose and glovesman Sharath Srinivas — in the playing XI.

The legendary Sachin Tendulkar’s son had a match haul of 9 for 87 in 26.3 overs across two innings. In the first innings, Karnataka folded for 103 in 36.5 overs with Tendulkar junior taking 5/41 in 13 overs.

In reply, Goa posted a solid 413 as Abhinav Tejrana (109) scored a hundred and Manthan Khutkar contributed 69.

In the second innings, KSCA XI were a shade better, being shot out for 121 in 30.4 overs with Arjun grabbing 4 for 46 in 13.3 overs.

Arjun, who will turn 25 next week, has so far played 49 competitive games across three formats at senior level and picked 68 wickets. In 13 first-class games, he has taken 21 wickets.

Mumbai: Rishabh Pant on Sunday returned to the Test side after nearly 20 months as India announced their 16-man squad for the opening match of the two Test series against Bangladesh starting on September 19.

Virat Kohli also returned to the Test side having missed the five-Test series against England at home earlier this year.

Having played in the second and final Test against Bangladesh at Mirpur from December 22-25, 2022, Pant had met a road accident a few days later on December 30 and made his return to top flight cricket only in IPL this year.

The 26-year-old swashbuckling batter returned to the national side in their title-winning campaign in the T20 World Cup.

However, Mohammed Shami failed to make it to the Test side even though chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar had earlier expressed that the right-arm seamer was targeting a return in the first Test against Bangladesh.

Left-arm Uttar Pradesh seamer Yash Dayal also earned a maiden call-up to the Indian team for the opening Test.

India’s long Test season begins with the first of the two Tests against Bangladesh in Chennai, starting on September 19.

The second Test of the series will be played at the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur from September 27 to October 1.

India and Bangladesh have played 13 Tests so far in which the former has won 11 times while two have ended in draws.

Bangladesh will enter this series having recorded a historic 2-0 win over Pakistan in the opponent’s backyard whereas it will be India’s first Test assignment since beating England 4-1 at home in January-March earlier this year.

India squad for 1st Test: Rohit Sharma (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Jasprit Bumrah, Yash Dayal.

Bengaluru: KL Rahul’s gumption, which helped him pile a patient fifty, found no resonance among his colleagues as India B pacers led by Yash Dayal pushed India A to a 76-run defeat on the fourth and final day of their Duleep Trophy match here on Sunday.

Chasing 275, India A were bundled out for 198 in their second innings as left-arm seamer Dayal (3/50), with able support from his colleagues Mukesh Kumar (2/50) and Navdeep Saini (2/41), led the India B attack.

Rahul top-scored for ‘A’ with a 51.

In the first session of the day, India B made 184 all out in their second essay to muster a handy overall lead of 274.

The India A chase began on a shaky note as Mayank Agarwal departed in the second over itself, wafting Dayal away from his body to Nitish Kumar Reddy, who made a wonderful diving catch at second slip.

That brought Riyan Parag to the middle and the right-hander followed the path set on Saturday by Rishabh Pant and Sarfaraz Khan.

Parag took on the bowlers and pacer Mukesh bore the brunt of his aggression, getting smoked for two sixes and the second maximum touched the roof of the Chinnaswamy Stadium over the mid-wicket region.

Parag added 48 runs for the second with a rather subdued Shubman Gill, who was dropped by Nitish Reddy at slips off Mukesh on 16, and 31 came off the former’s bat in just 18 balls.

But the approach was tough to sustain considering the kind of assistance the bowlers were getting here, and soon his massive hoick off Dayal took an edge off Parag’s bat en route to stumper Rishabh Pant.

Gill (21) departed soon, falling to Saini for the second time in the match and on this occasion, he edged the pacer to Pant.

Dhruv Jurel poked Dayal well outside off-stump to Yashasvi Jaiswal at gully, as India batters perished to a combination of bowlers’ persistence on that channel and their own carelessness.

They took the lunch at a queasy 76 for four that soon transpired into 99 for six after the dismissal of Shivam Dube and Tanush Kotian, an hour into the lunch.

However, Rahul batted out 180 minutes 121 balls and milked 42 runs for the seventh wicket with Kuldeep Yadav to delay the inevitable.

The standout shot in an otherwise dour innings was a whistling on drive off Mukesh that fetched him a boundary.

But Mukesh had his revenge soon when Rahul feathered a cut off him to Pant, who completed five catches in this innings, soon after reaching his fifty with a single off Saini.

It effectively signalled the end of the road of for India A, though Akash Deep (43, 42b, 3×4, 4×6) gave a few moments of fun with a cavalier innings.

But beyond the entertainment value, it always was a case of when more than if.

Earlier, resuming from their overnight score of 150 for six India B could only 34 runs more to the total before getting bundled out.

Pacer Akash, whom Sarfaraz Khan carted around for five fours in a row the previous day, found his mojo to add the scalps of Washington Sundar and Saini to complete a five-wicket haul (5/56).

The spell will keep his name floating among the contenders when the selectors sit together soon to pick up squad for two-match Test series against Bangladesh.

Bengaluru: The BCCI’s 93rd Annual General Body Meeting (AGM) will take place here on September 29, but it is unlikely that the election of the new board secretary will take place at the high-profile summit.

However, the AGM will coincide with the inauguration of the state-of-the-art National Cricket Academy (NCA) centre in the outskirts as all the board members will be present in the city.

Currently, the NCA functions at the M Chinnaswamy stadium premises since its inception over two decades back.

While the new BCCI secretary will not be elected at the AGM, the date for the Special General Meeting (SGM) for that purpose could be fixed here.

The appointment of a new secretary was made mandatory after the incumbent Jay Shah was elected unanimously as the ICC Chairman.

However, Shah will not abdicate his present role as the BCCI secretary at the AGM because he has to assume the new office only from December 1.

The other important point in the meeting’s 18-point agenda, which has been sent to all the state associations, is the appointment of BCCI’s representative to the ICC meetings, as Shah will no longer be available for that role.

The name of current BCCI president Roger Binny might be discussed for the board’s representative to the ICC, or it could fall on the incoming secretary.

But at 69, Binny does not have age on his side with 70 being the upper ceiling to be in administration.

Other than those two pressing matters, the AGM will also see the induction of two representatives of the general body in the IPL Governing Council and the induction of one representative from the Indian Cricketers’ Association (ICA) in the IPL Governing Council.

The AGM will also include some regular board activities such as ratification of the annual budget for 2024-25 and the appointment of Ombudsman and Ethics Officer.

The meeting will appoint a Cricket Committee and Standing Committee as per the BCCI Constitution, along with the formation of a new Umpires Committee under Rule 27.

The AGM will also consider the ‘Report of the Internal Committee of BCCI formed under Prevention of Sexual Harassment Policy’, besides approving rules formed by the Apex Council pertaining to domestic cricket.

New Delhi: Indian cricketer Ravindra Jadeja, who recently retired from T20 internationals after India’s T20 World Cup victory, has now entered the political arena by joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The announcement was made by his wife, Rivaba Jadeja, who is currently a BJP MLA from Gujarat.

Rivaba Jadeja took to social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) on Thursday to share the news. In her post, she included photos of both her and Ravindra Jadeja’s BJP membership cards. The post was linked to the BJP’s ongoing membership drive, known as ‘Sadasyata Abhiyan’, which began on September 2. Notably, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also renewed his membership on the first day of the drive.

Rivaba, who joined the BJP in 2019, successfully contested the Gujarat Assembly elections from the Jamnagar North constituency in 2022. Ravindra Jadeja actively campaigned for his wife during the elections, helping her secure a victory with a margin of over 50,000 votes.

At the time of the election, there was a split in political loyalties within Jadeja’s family, as his father and sister campaigned for the Congress party. However, Rivaba Jadeja had dismissed any concerns over ideological differences between her and her cricketer husband, stating, “He and I are not two people, we are one. Our thinking is aligned, and we share the same ideology. There is no confusion in our family when it comes to our political beliefs.”

Veteran BJP leaders Lal Krishna Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi also renewed their memberships on Thursday as part of the ongoing campaign.

Paris: India’s Nitesh Kumar clinched his maiden gold medal at the Paralympics after beating Great Britain’s Daniel Bethell in a thrilling men’s singles SL3 badminton final here on Monday.

The 29-year-old from Haryana was rock solid in his defence and spot on with his shot selections as he beat Tokyo silver medallist Bethell 21-14 18-21 23-21 in an absorbing contest that lasted an hour and 20 minutes.

SL3 class players, like Nitesh, compete with more severe lower limb disabilities, requiring them to play on a half-width court.

When he was 15, Nitesh had lost his left leg in a train accident in Visakhapatnam in 2009 but he recovered from the trauma and found his calling in para badminton.

Nitesh’s victory on Monday ensured that India retained the SL3 gold after Pramod Bhagat clinched the title three years ago when para badminton made its debut in Tokyo.

Yogesh Kathuniya

Paris: India’s Yogesh Kathuniya clinched his second consecutive Paralympic silver medal in men’s discus throw F-56 event with a season’s best effort 42.22m at the ongoing Games here on Monday.

The 27-year-old hurled the discus to the podium-clinching distance in his very first attempt to add to the silver he won in the Tokyo Paralympics three years ago.

Brazil’s Claudiney Batista dos Santos registered a hat-trick of Paralympic gold medals, creating a new Games record with an effort of 46.86m in his fifth attempt.

Greece’s Konstantinos Tzounis won the bronze with 41.32m.

The F-56 classification covers limb deficiency, leg length difference, impaired muscle power and impaired range of movement.

At the age of 9, Kathuniya developed the Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare autoimmune condition which causes numbness, tingling and muscle weakness that can progress to paralysis.

He was bound to the wheelchair during his childhood but overcame the odds with the help of his mother Meena Devi, who learnt physiotherapy to help him regain muscle strength to walk again. His father has served in the Indian Army.

Kathuniya is a commerce graduate from Delhi’s prestigious Kirori Mal College.

Besides two Paralympic silver medals, he has three world championship medals, including two silver and a bronze.

On Monday, Kathuniya won’t be satisfied with his performance given that he won the silver in Tokyo with a much better effort of 44.38m.

Kathuniya’s toughest competitor, the 45-year-old Dos Santos broke the Paralympic record twice on Monday, first registering 46.45m in his second attempt and then hurling the discus to 46.86m in his penultimate throw.

Dos Santos is a three-time world championships gold-medallist, and has also held the Paralympic record of 45.59m in this category which he achieved in the last edition in Tokyo.

Slovakia’s Dusan Laczko finished fourth and last with a best effort of 41.20m.

Like Kohli, Shubman Gill, another promising top-order batter, also made his mark on the international stage after his successful stint in the U-19 World Cup in 2018. Many cricket enthusiasts and experts have hailed Gill as the next big thing in Indian cricket. Together, Kohli and Gill represent a formidable duo in India’s batting lineup.

However, a fake video recently went viral, falsely depicting Kohli criticizing Gill. In the doctored video, Kohli appears to admonish Gill, saying there’s a “big gap between showing promise and becoming a legend.” The video, which has been widely circulated, shows Kohli comparing himself to legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar. The comments in the video are believed to be the result of lip-syncing, and the incident has sparked concerns over the misuse of AI technology, with many viewers warning that “AI is dangerous.”

In other news, the latest ICC Test rankings released on Wednesday saw several shifts among top players. Virat Kohli has moved up two places to secure the eighth spot, while Indian captain Rohit Sharma has dropped one place to sixth. Young Indian batter Yashasvi Jaiswal continues his rise, moving up one spot to seventh in the rankings.

Veteran England batter Joe Root maintained his position as the top-ranked Test batter in the world, following England’s successful first Test against Sri Lanka in Manchester. Root’s teammate, Harry Brook, made significant gains, jumping three places to fourth overall, surpassing Pakistan’s Babar Azam, Australia’s Steve Smith, and Rohit Sharma.

Babar Azam experienced a notable drop, falling six places from a shared third to ninth after a rare failure in the first innings of Pakistan’s Test against Bangladesh in Rawalpindi. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan climbed seven spots to enter the top 10, achieving a career-high ranking at a shared 10th place following his century in the same match.

Bangladesh’s Mushfiqur Rahim also reached a career-high rating, moving up seven spots to 17th place.

Among bowlers, seasoned Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin continues to hold the top spot, with pacer Jasprit Bumrah and left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja maintaining their third and seventh positions, respectively. England’s Chris Woakes climbed four spots to 16th, while Sri Lanka’s Asitha Fernando made a significant leap of 10 places to 17th. Pakistan’s Naseem Shah (up four places to 33rd) and England’s Gus Atkinson (up four places to 42nd) also achieved career-best ratings after strong recent performances.

In the all-rounder rankings, Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin continue to occupy the top two spots, with India’s Axar Patel ranked sixth.