Man City gets $400M investment
london: Manchester City announced on Tuesday that a Chinese consortium is investing $400 million to buy 13 percent of the Premier league club’s umbrella organization in a deal that values the business at $3 billion. Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan bought City in 2008 for around $400 million and since then the club has expanded to create the City Football Group that includes teams in New York, Melbourne and Yokohama.
Joshna becomes highest ranked Indian
Chennai: Veteran Joshna Chinappa on Tuesday became the highest ranked Indian in the world professional squash circuit after climbing up four positions to be placed at 13th spot in the latest rankings list. Riding on her phenomenal show in the Qatar Classic in Doha last month, Joshna jumped from 17th to 13th position. Her victory over World No.1 Raneem El Welily of Egypt in the first round had helped her climb up the ladder. Meanwhile, Dipika Pallikal, who till now was the highest ranked Indian, slipped to 16th from 14th place. Best among the Indian men is national champion Saurav Ghosal, who has dropped a rung to be at 18th.
Yuki, Somdev drop two places
New Delhi: Country’s number one singles player Yuki Bhambri lost two places to be 93rd while Somdev Devavarman also slipped a couple of rungs to be ranked 181 in the latest ATP list. Saketh Myneni, India’s number two, was unchanged at 171. Ramkumar Ramanathan, who won the Gwalior ITF Futures event, jumped 13 places to 260. There was no change in rankings of India’s doubles specialists with Rohan Bopanna maintaining his world number nine rank. He was followed by leander Paes (41) and Purav Raja (93). Myneni was at 126, loss of two places while left-hander Divij Sharan lost three places to 134. In the WTA rankings, Sania Mirza continues to be world number one, a position which she shares with her Swiss partner Martina Hingis. Both of them have 11,355 points each. In singles, Ankita Raina was the highest-ranked Indian player at number 255. The next best was Prerna Bhambri at number 473.
CWG want cricket back
Manikata (Malta): The Commonwealth Games is in talks with the International Cricket Council about bringing the sport back into the four-yearly event, organisers said. The Commonwealth Games Federation, which controls the second-biggest multi-sport event after the Olympics, said it was keen to get cricket back on the bill, with the Twenty20 shortest format of the game a particularly “exciting” prospect. Cricket has only featured once at the Commonwealth Games, at the 1998 event in Kuala lumpur, but CGF chiefs said their 71 national and territorial associations wanted it back in, provided a viable format could be produced. At the 1998 Games, 16 teams competed in 50-over matches. Caribbean countries competed separately rather than as West Indies, while a Northern Ireland team also took part. England refused to send a squad as it clashed with the end of the domestic championship season. South Africa beat Australia in the gold medal match. Cricket is not on the agenda for the 2018 Games in the Gold Coast, Australia, but could potentially feature at the 2022 Games in Durban, South Africa.
‘No place for Benz with les Blues’
PARIS: French Prime minister Manuel Valls has threatened striker Karim Benzema with the loss of his spot on the national squad due to his involvement in a sex-tape case. Facing charges of conspiracy to blackmail relating to an extortion scam, Benzema is suspected of having played an active role in the plot and to have pressured teammate Mathieu Valbuena to deal directly with the blackmailers. Speaking on French radio Europe 1, Valls said “a great athlete should be exemplary. ... If he is not, he has no place within the France team.”