Bhavkaran to represent India
Pune: Indian golfers Bhavkaran Singh of Chandigarh, Aman Sawhney of Gurugram and Rajesh Natarajan of Mumbai booked their spots to represent the country in the World Finals of the MercedesTrophy scheduled to be held in Stuttgart, Germany in October. Playing at the National Finals of the 18th India edition of the tournament at Pune's Oxford Golf Resort, Bhavkaran in handicap CAT A (1-9) won with a score of 41 points in his category. Aman carded a score of 35 points in CAT B (10-17) to book the second spot while Rajesh playing in CAT C (18-24) scored 44 points to complete the troika of India qualifiers. A total of 45 qualifiers and one wild card entry from across 12 cities participated in the National Finals of the largest amateur golf tournament in the India.
India staring at defeat in davis cup
tianjin: The Indian Davis Cup team is staring at defeat at the zonal level for the first time in five years following shock defeats of Ramkumar Ramanathan and Sumit Nagal on the opening day of the second round tie against China, here on Friday. In the absence of in-form Yuki Bhambri, who skipped the tie due to a minor abdomen injury, Ramkumar Ramanathan was expected to deliver but he ended up losing the first singles 6-7(4), 4-6 to China's new tennis sensation Yibing Wu to let the home side take a 1-0 lead. The onus to bring India back in the tie was on young Sumit Nagal, ranked 213, but the Haryana youngster lost 4-6, 1-6 to Ze Zhang, ranked 247 in just 67 minutes. India's non-playing captain Mahesh Bhupathi described the opening day as "shocking". "It was disappointing display by both. No hunger, no fight and no aggression," Bhupathi said.
Man City face united in derby
london: Manchester City can ease the pain of their Champions league defeat to liverpool by clinching the Premier league title against bitter rivals Manchester United on Saturday in record time. Pep Guardiolas men will become the first team in the leagues 26-year history to wrap up the title with six games to spare if they beat United at the Etihad. City are 16 points clear of Jose Mourinhos second-placed team so it is a matter of when rather than if they wrap up the Premier league title, the first of Guardiolas reign in England. The runaway leaders will be desperate to reassert themselves after their chastening 3-0 defeat in the first leg of their Champions league quarter-final at Anfield.
SGFI to launch Cricket talent hunt
new delhi: School Games Federation of India (SGFI) will launch an ambitious talent hunt in its endeavor to unearth talented young cricketers later this year across India. The initiative christened as the National School Cricket league (NSCl) has been conceptualized with a vision of becoming India's ultimate platform for school cricket. SGFI will scout for talented youngsters across India in the age bracket of 12-18 years and then conduct a School Cricket league which will be held at premier venues and will follow a T-20 format to select the Champion team of India. An esteemed panel of coaches from SGFI and mentors will form the selection panel and will conduct thorough selection trials to choose the talented cricketers. The selected cricketers would then go on to represent their respective city/state team in the league. A total of 16 talented cricketers from the league will be provided five-year scholarships.