Online ticket sales for HWl Finals begin
Raipur: The ticket sales for the much-awaited Hero Hockey World league (HWl) Final has begun online as HI gears up to host the eight-nation event slated between November 27 and December 6 at the newly-built international stadium here. The tickets are priced at Rs. 50 and Rs. 100 for the General Stands, while the VIP Stand is priced at Rs. 1000. With the tournament divided into two Pools (‘A’ and ‘B’), India is placed in Pool ‘B’ along with The Netherlands, Germany and Argentina. India will be playing their first match against Argentina on November 27.
Roy arrested on sexual assault charges
Cuttack: The police on Thursday arrested Sports Authority of India (SAI) coach Susant Roy (45) on charges of sexually assaulting a female trainee athlete of the local SAI hostel here. The minor girl on Wednesday lodged a complaint with the Mahila police station alleging that the coach had been mentally and sexually assaulting her for past several days. The police then registered a case under several sections of IPC and POCSO Act. Police on Wednesday said the coach denied that he had sexually assaulted her but admitted to slapping her twice as an act of reprimand for certain wrong doings by her.
Jayaram, Guru, Thulasi win
Almere (Netherlands): Defending champion Ajay Jayaram and Commonwealth bronze medallist RMV Gurusaidutt advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of the Dutch Open Grand Prix after notching up straight-game wins in Round 2, here. Brimming with confidence after his maiden runners-up finish at the Korea Super Series, World No. 25 Jayaram thrashed Germany’s Fabian Roth 21-14, 21-10 to set up a match against Kasper lehikoinen of Finland in men’s singles. Ninth seed Gurusaidutt also saw off Chinese Taipei’s Chun-Wei Chen 21-14, 21-19 in the second round last night. He will next take on Dmytro Zavadsky of Ukraine. In women’s singles, P C Thulasi also made a positive start to her campaign as she prevailed over Netherlands’s Gayle Mahulette 20-22, 21-15, 21-16. She will play Chloe Magee next.
Messi to stand trial in Spain on tax fraud
MADRID: lionel Messi will stand trial in Spain on three counts of tax fraud. Court documents made public on Thursday say a judge has rejected a request to clear the Barcelona player of wrongdoing and decided to charge him and his father, Jorge Horacio Messi, with tax fraud. Prosecutors had said Messi was not fully aware of his father’s unlawful activities, but the state attorney’s office contended that the Argentina forward knew enough to also be named in the case. Prosecutors had called for an 18-month prison sentence for the player’s father. A judge had recently rejected an appeal filed by player’s lawyers to drop Barcelona star from the case. Messi and his father are accused of defrauding Spain’s tax office of 4 million euros in unpaid taxes from 2007-09. Messi’s father made a payment of more than 5 million euros in August 2013 to cover unpaid taxes, plus interest. A date for the trial has not yet been set.