INDIA NEWS
Dec 16-31, 2020 - Vol 1, Issue 12
SPORTS
Kerala businessman plans Daruvala records his first F2 race win museum in Maradona’s memory Bahrain, Dec 6 (IANS): India’s Jehan Daruvala on December 6 recorded his first Formula 2 victory after winning the Sakhir Grand Prix sprint race as Mick Schumacher won the 2020 championship despite finishing 18th.
Kochi, Dec 7 (IANS): Boby Chemmanur, an admirer and “good friend” of football icon Diego Maradona who passed away recently announced the building of a world-class museum which will house a gold sculpture of the football legend as the main attraction. The life-size sculpture will represent ‘The Hand of God’, as the Argentinian forward described a crucial goal that he scored against England in the 1986 FIFA World Cup which his team went on to win. “The proposed museum is to come up in Kolkata or South India. It will showcase Maradona’s professional and personal life. The museum will blend the aesthetics of art and technology,” said Chemmanur, who is the Managing Director of the Boby Chemmanur International Group here on December 7. Recalling his “close friendship” with Maradona for a decade, Chemmanur said his bond with the football legend began at Dubai in 2011. Later Maradona inaugurated a Chemmanur jewellery showroom in Dubai. “I gifted Maradona a miniature gold statue of his figure. Accepting it, the soccer star expressed the desire to see his life-size gold sculpture related to ‘The Hand of God’,” added the businessman.
Diego Maradona ‘The Hand of God’ goal was scored against England in the quarterfinals of the 1986 World Cup. The 157-year-old Boby Chemmanur Group, headquartered in Thrissur with 50-plus outlets across the globe, had Maradona as its ambassador after the Argentinian signed the deal in March 2018. Maradona visited Kerala for in October 2012 to inaugurate a showroom of Chemmanur Jewellers in Kannur. “The museum is my tribute to Maradona. It will be a storehouse of information related to the great player and his football. It will function as a centre for entertainment of international standards,” added Chemmanur. The curator of the museum will be artist-writer Bony Thomas, a founder-trustee of Kochi Biennale Foundation that conducts India’s biggest contemporary art festival.
Would love to have chat with AB: Carey responds to Border criticism Sydney, Dec 13 (IANS): Australian wicketkeeper Alex Carey, who captained Australia A during their second warm-up match against India ahead of the Test series between Australia and India, said that he would “love” having a chat with former captain Allan Border, who tore into the team and Carey’s captaincy during the second day of the match. “Absolutely, I love talking to the greats that have been in Australian cricket and picking their brain. One of Australia’s best captains and players, I would love to have a chat with AB,” Carey is quoted as saying by ‘The Sydney Morning Herald’ after the third day’s play. “I guess, personally being out there, the attitude wasn’t bad. We were trying. We had difficult situations with our bowlers, as I mentioned, making sure they got the right overs in. It was difficult out there with two set batters, and Rishabh (Pant) slogging it the way he did. But I absolutely would love to sit down and chat with AB for all parts of my game.” Border said while commentating
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on the match for Fox Cricket that the team’s performance in the last session of Day 2 was “one of the worst, lethargic performances” he has ever seen in the final session of any cricket. “This is Australia A, they are representing Australia, they are young blokes trying to make their way. That fielding performance, bowling performance, captaincy performance -- an absolute disgrace. Not up to scratch at all,” said Border. “If Alex Carey is in line to be an Australian captain, he has got a lot of work to do for me. He has gone down quite a few pegs. He is a good cricketer Alex Carey, he has got a bit of energy himself, but yesterday he should have reacted to the way the general feel around the team was,” he continued. Border added that he would accept it if the players had an explanation for what happened in that session. “I’m happy for any of those guys to come talk to me about what was going on yesterday afternoon and stand corrected but very ordinary stuff,” said Border.
Daruvala, 22, had a good launch from second on the grid and was up alongside pole sitter Daniel Ticktum. Tictum squeezed Daruvala on the inside which allowed championship leader Schumacher to go around the outside of both of them. Eventually, Ticktum emerged in the lead, followed by Schumacher and Daruvala in third. A few corners later, Daruvala made a good move to pass Schumacher and get into second. The pair battled for a few laps
for the position with Daruvala going back to third and passed Schumacher again a few laps later to regain the position. He eventually managed to put distance on the German, who will race in Formula 1 for Haas next season, and caught the race leader. Daruvala kept the pressure on Tictum who defended well until finally losing the position for the first time to the Indian with 10 laps to go.
He kept out Tictum and eventually put distance between the two cars to take the chequered flag in the lead. His Red Bull Junior teammate Yuki Tsunoda was second, over 3.5 seconds behind Jehan, while Ticktum was third. “Motorsport is pretty big in India.
We obviously have a lot of people, so I have a big fanbase back home. My goal at the end of the day is to do myself proud but also do my country proud and to prove to people back home that even though we don’t have the same facilities and stuff that guys have in Europe, as long as you can work hard you can fight right at the sharp end of the grid,” said an elated Daruvala. Schumacher had to drop out of the points contention due to a pit stop forced by damage on the tyres caused by an early lock up. Luckily for him, he held on to his 14-point lead at the top of the championship table after main rival Callum Ilott also failed to score any points. Schumacher clinched the title with a total of 215 points, 14 ahead of Ilott.
India to support WADA in its efforts: Rijiju New Delhi, Dec 7 (IANS): Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Kiren Rijiju promised Witold Banka, the president of World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), that India would support all the efforts to ensure that the field of sports remains clean. “I am happy to hear from you (Banka) that India’s contribution to WADA will be utilised toward anti-doping research and strengthening the investigative capabilities of the anti-doping community. India stands firmly for fair play and clean sport, and we shall support all efforts to
ensure the integrity of sport,” the Sports Minister said while inaugurating a webinar on AntiDoping and Sports Science on December 7. Rijiju also mentioned that the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) is committed in its efforts to get rid of the doping menace and is implementing all the antidoping rules made by the WADA. “I am happy to say that NADA India is committed to dopefree sports and continues its ongoing support to the sports fraternity to get rid of the doping menace. It has been adopting
and implementing anti-doping rules and policies, which conform to the latest World AntiDoping Code and international standards,” the sports minister added. The Sports Minister also assured the WADA president that NDTL has taken corrective measures on various points suggested by WADA, and hoped that it would soon be allowed to resume dope analysis, as per WADA guidelines. The event was jointly organised by the NADA, National Sports University (NSU) and National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL).
Last few months have been surreal, says Indian pacer Natarajan Sydney, Dec 9 (IANS): Left-arm fast bowler T Natarajan, who came out with an impressive performance during his maiden outing with Team India in the limited-overs series against Australia, believes “last few months have been surreal” for him. On his first international tour, the left-arm pacer stepped up with his yorkers and slower variations, and in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah, helped India to a 2-1 T20I series win against Australia as he picked up six wickets in the three matches at an economy of just under seven. Natarajan made an impact on his ODI debut as well, picking the wickets of Marnus Labuchange
and Ashton Agar in another match-winning spell in the third game of the series at the Manuka Oval. “The last few months have been surreal. My maiden outing with Team India and we won the T20I series. A dream come true moment made special by the champion bunch,” Natarajan said in a tweet on December 9. “I thank my teammates for their constant support and encouragement. Thank you everyone for your love and support,” he added. Natarajan had first impressed the cricket fraternity with his yorkers during the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) played in the United Arab
Emirates. Playing for SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH), he picked 16 wickets in 16 matches and courtesy that he earned an India call-up. The 29-year-old, however, wasn’t supposed to be in India’s T20I squad. He was originally picked as a net bowler, but an injury to spinner Varun Chakravarthy opened up an opportunity and that’s how Natarajan was added to the squad, an opportunity he seized with both hands. The T20I leg of the tour, which ended on December 8, however saw Natarajan posing with both the series trophy and the Playerof-the-Series trophy, which Hardik Pandya had handed over to him, in the team photo.
Long jumper Anju says she reached dizzy heights with single kidney New Delhi, Dec 8 (IANS): Long jumper Anju Bobby George, winner of the historic bronze medal at the 2003 World Athletics Championship, on December 7 revealed that she reached the pinnacle of her career with a single kidney.
fortunate, among very few who reached the world top with a single KIDNEY, allergic with even a painkiller, with a dead takeoff leg.. Many limitations. still made it. Can we call, magic of a coach or his talent,” Anju, 43, tweeted on December 7.
“Believe it or not, I’m one of the
Anju made history when she won
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the bronze medal by clearing 6.70 metres at the 2003 World Championships in Athletics in Paris. Later, she won a gold medal in the IAAF World Athletics Finals in 2005 in Monaco. She won a bronze at 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games and a gold at the Busan Asian Games the same year. Four years later she clinched a silver at the Doha Asian Games.
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