Saina drops to 3rd in world
New Delhi: Olympic bronze medallist shuttler Saina Nehwal has dropped a rung to be placed third, while Parupalli Kashyap has jumped two places to ninth position in the Badminton World Federation rankings released on Thursday. World Champion Yihan Wang of China has leapfrogged Saina. PV Sindhu has managed to retain her 16th rank and is the only other Indian female shuttler in the top 50. In the men’s singles, Kashyap shot up two places to equal his career-best ninth rank. Ajay Jayaram jumped a place to the 31st spot, while rising shuttler RMV Gurusaidutt dropped to 38th and Sourabh Verma retained his 43rd position. In the mixed doubles rankings, Ashwini Ponnappa and Tarun Kona climbed up two places to the 29th spot, while Jwala Gutta and her partner V Diju had dropped two places to 41.
IOC calls joint meeting
New Delhi: In a significant move towards resolving the issues that led to India’s ban from the Olympic family, the IOC has asked the Indian Olympic Association to fix a date, in consultation with the Sports Minister, for a meeting before the end of this month in its headquarters in lausanne. Three months after the IOA was banned on the ground of government interference, the IOC has written back to the Indian body for a meeting to discuss a roadmap towards resolving the issues by way of holding elections under a revised constitution. The letter was written to V K Malhotra, the acting chief of the IOA before it was banned on December 4 last year, and IOC member in India Randhir Singh, who was also the Secretary General before the suspension.
Kashyap, Sindhu in pre-quarters
Birmingham: Top Indian male shuttler Parupalli Kashyap booked his place in the pre-quarterfinals of singles event after notching up a straight-game win over Jen Hao Hsu of Chinese Taipei in the All England Badminton Championship here. World number nine Kashyap won his first round match 21-17, 21-18 in 43 minutes at the National Indoor Arena. He now runs into seventh seed Kenichi Tago of Japan. Sourabh Verma, who made it to the main draw after playing in the qualifying round, was the other Indian who made it to the round of 16 in the men’s singles event. Verma beat Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka of Indonesia 10-21, 21-14, 24-22 in a hard-fought 59-minute duel. It was, however, curtains for Ajay Jayaram who lost 21-15, 18-21, 10-21 to Zhengming Wang of China in Rd 1.
Sri lankabanking on spin
Galle: Hosts Sri lanka look set to extend their dominance over Bangladesh when they open a two-Test series at their happy hunting ground in Galle on Friday. Sri lanka have won six and drawn one of their last eight Tests on the traditionally spin-friendly Galle wicket, and slow bowlers Rangana Herath and Ajantha Mendis are once again expected to play key roles. left-armer Herath grabbed 11 wickets in the last Test played in Galle in November to help Sri lanka crush New Zealand by 10 wickets. The hosts will be at full-strength, barring the injured Mahela Jayawardene.
Jaffer pulls out of Deodhar
Mumbai: In-form Mumbai opener Wasim Jaffer and Baroda’s Aditya Waghmode have pulled out of the West Zone team for the Prof DB Deodhar Trophy matches to be played in Guwahati this month. The duo has been replaced by Sheldon Jackson of Saurashtra and Akshay Darekar of Maharashtra. West, seeded directly into the semifinals, are to meet the winners of the March 10 quarterfinal between South and East on March 12. The final is on March 13.
Royals sign four new players
New Delhi: Rajasthan Royals have signed up four new players who will represent the team in the upcoming Indian Premier league, commencing in Kolkata on April 3. Kerala’s one-day captain Sachin Baby, wicketkeeper Sanju Viswanath Samson, Jharkhand medium pacer Rahul Shukla and Mumbai left arm spinner Harmeet Singh are all set to join the team’s training camp soon to prepare for the sixth edition of the IPl. The Royals will be captained by Rahul Dravid, while Paddy Upton would be their high performance coach.
‘Push for Wrestling’ campaign
New Delhi: In a bid to garner support for reinstating wrestling into the Olympics, India’s star wrestlers Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt on Thursday flagged off a campaign urging supporters
to show their solidarity with the sport. Over the next week, a petition campaign will travel across cities in Haryana and Punjab to push for wrestling’s bid to remain in the 2020 Olympic programme when the IOC meets in May. “The removal of the sport from the 2020 Olympics would ruin dreams of many wrestlers,” Sushil said. Asked if he was thinking of retuning his Olympic medals in protest, as some of the wrestlers from Russia and Bulgaria have threatened, Sushil said that there are better ways of protesting.
Gambhir named in Delhi squad
New Delhi: After featuring in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, struggling opener Gautam Gambhir will now play for Delhi in the Inter-state Twenty20 league for Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy as the selectors named him in the 15-member squad, to be led by Rajat Bhatia. PNS/Agencies