Category: Sports

India’s Rishabh Pant stumps-out England’s Moeen Ali during the 4th day of the second cricket test match between India and England, at M.A. Chidambaram Stadium, in Chennai.(PTI)

The race to reach the final of the World Test Championship is heating up England, India and Australia vie for a chance to play New Zealand at Lord’s. The inaugural WTC will hold its final from June 18 to 22, with June 23 acting as a reserve day.

New Zealand have already qualified for the final after Australia’s pullout from the tour of South Africa. India and England are engaged in a battle to reach the summit clash while Australia’s chances hinges on the results of the Anthony de Mello Trophy.

The resounding 317-run win over England in the second Test on Tuesday propelled India to second in the World Test Championship standings issued by the ICC.

After the series-levelling win at Chepuak, India have 69.7 percentage of points (PCT) and 460 aggregate points, behind New Zealand who have already qualified for the WTC final to be held at the Lord’s June. New Zealand have 70.0 PCT and 420 points. India, who had lost the first Test by 227 runs at the same venue, need to win one more and at least draw another to make it to the WTC final.

Ravichandran Ashwin, with his dismissal of England opener Rory Burns, became the first spinner in more than 100 years to get a wicket off the first ball of an innings. As India keep fighting against England on the fourth day of the first Test at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Monday, veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin achieved a feat to be proud of.

After Joe Root won the toss, he led his team from the front with a mighty double hundred on his 100th Test. England posted a mammoth 578 in their first essay and in reply, India got dismissed for 337-all out on Monday despite Washington Sundar’s brave 85 not out.

During the visitors’ second innings, India enjoyed a perfect start courtesy of an opening ball dismissal by Ashwin. With his dismissal of Rory Burns, the Tamil Nadu-born bowler became the first spinner in more than 100 years to get a wicket off the first ball of an innings.

Before the 34-year-old, former South African cricketer Bert Vogler achieved the feat in 1907. The first spinner ever to pick up a wicket off the first ball of an innings was former England bowler Bobby Peel in 1888.

Earlier in the first innings, Ashwin had claimed 3/146 including the wickets of Burns, Ollie Pope and James Anderson. He also bowled the longest in an innings of a Test match for India, bowling a total of 55.1 overs.

Most overs in an innings by Ashwin:

53.1 vs England, Chennai (2020/21*)
53.0 vs Australia, Adelaide (2011/12)
52.5 vs Australia, Adelaide (2018/19)
52.3 vs England, Kolkata (2012/13)
52.1 vs West Indies, Mumbai (2011/12)

During his earlier spell, Ashwin also bowled the first-ever no-ball of his Test career. The off-spinner had gone more than 20,600 balls before overstepping in Test cricket.

On the other hand, fellow India spinner Sundar also marked a record during his impressive start to his Test career. The 21-year-old, during his unbeaten 85-run knock, joined an elite list of Team India batsmen with 50-plus scores in debut innings both home and away.

Scoring 50+ in debut innings both home and away (India)

Rusi Modi
Surinder Amarnath
Arun Lal
Sourav Ganguly
Suresh Raina
Hardik Pandya
Mayank Agarwal
Washington Sundar

In their second innings, England have already lost five wickets as Ashwin leads the numbers with three wickets — Burns, Dom Sibley and Ben Stokes. Refusing to enforce the follow-on, the visitors were 1/1 in two overs at lunch.

Tom Brady has done it yet again. The quarterback won his record seventh Super Bowl and the first with his new team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Brady and the Bucs beat the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs 31-9 in what was a home game for the Bucs, played in Tampa, Fla on Sunday, Feb 7th.

Super Bowl 55 capped a difficult and challenging year for the NFL. The coronavirus led to postponements, teams sometimes playing with depleted rosters and many games hosted in mostly empty stadiums.

Brady, the oldest ever to play in a Super Bowl at age 43, showed his experience in the first half, leading the Buccaneers to three touchdowns — including two passes to his favorite postseason target Rob Gronkowski (and setting another record in the process: it was the 13th and 14th touchdowns for a QB-pass catcher tandem in the playoffs). Brady ended the first half with a 71-yard drive in the waning seconds to go up 21-6 at the break.

Tampa Bay’s defense stymied Kansas City and quarterback Patrick Mahomes in the first half. Mahomes, who had been slowed by a toe injury two weeks ago, seemed to shake off the pain but didn’t show his usual brilliance. The Chiefs made mistakes on both sides of the ball and were penalized eight times for 95 yards. In the last two postseasons, Kansas City faced deficits of at least 9 points and won each of them. The Chiefs were looking to become the first team since the Patriots in the 2003 and 2004 seasons to win back-to-back NFL championships.

KC QB Patrick Mahomes struggled for most of the game. Tampa Bay’s defense swarmed him leading to sacks, hurries and knockdowns during Super Bowl 55.

Kansas City started the second half with its biggest yardage gain of the game when running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire dashed 26 yards. But the K.C. offense could only capitalize with a field goal. The Buccaneers answered on the next drive with yet another touchdown as Leonard Fournette scampered 27-yards for the Bucs first rushing touchdown to extend their lead to 28-9. After a Patrick Mahomes interception, Tampa Bay marched down the field to score yet again, a 52-yard field goal by Ryan Succop, to extend the lead to 31-9. That would be all the scoring of Super Bowl LV and in one of the bigger surprises, the Chiefs did not score a touchdown.

This Super Bowl was marked by a number of firsts: it was the first time that a team got to play in its home stadium. Down Judge Sarah Thomas was the first woman to officiate in the NFL championship. And, for the first time in his ten Super Bowls, Brady led his team to a touchdown in the first quarter.

The coronavirus left its mark too. Stadium capacity was reduced to just 25,000 fans in attendance (including 7,500 vaccinated health care workers who received free tickets from the NFL). On television, the stadium looked even fuller because 30,000 cardboard cutouts filled the empty seats with pictures of smiling people who paid $100 for the honor.

Tampa Bay quarterback Tom Brady tossed three touchdowns in the first half of Super Bowl 55. It was Brady’s seventh Super Bowl victory and his first with the Bucs.

It was a record 10th Super Bowl appearance for Brady. He played in nine for the New England Patriots (winning six, a record) in his 20 seasons with New England. This was Brady’s first year with the Bucs and he led his new team to only their second Super Bowl in franchise history. Brady also was named as the Super Bowl MVP — for the fifth time, extending his record.

And good news for Bucs fans: During the post-game celebration Brady said simply, “I’ll be back.” The Buccaneers Super Bowl win is yet another crowning achievement for the Tampa region in the past year. The Lightning won the National Hockey League’s Stanley Cup. The Rays played in the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. And now the Bucs winning the NFL championship in their home stadium caps a stellar run for the region now known as Champa Bay.

(Picture: KSTP TV)

India vs Australia: What helped India win this series? There could be many logical answers and yet there could be no answer to it at all. It wasn’t meant to happen, such things don’t happen at all. The rarity of such this accomplishment is what makes it surreal and overwhelming. Perhaps like a deus ex machina, that enters a play at the last moment and solves all the problems.

Indian players pose with the winning trophy after defeating Australia by three wickets on the final day of the fourth cricket test match at the Gabba, Brisbane, Australia, (PTI) 

The year was 1999 and there was a lot of anticipation in everyone about what lay ahead. It was the end of a century and the beginning of another. In India, it was a time of great change. ‘Growth’ was the buzz word in every walk of life.

But Indian cricket, on the pitch, was stuck in mediocrity, despite having the biggest star the sport had seen till then in its ranks. Sachin Tendulkar was already reaching stratospheric heights with his batsmanship and had earned praise from the greatest batsman ever, Sir Donald Bradman, after his exploits against the Australians in the unforgettable summer of 1998.

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He was the diminutive ‘giant’ in a team that was still a mixed bag of sorts. When he led this team to Australia in the December of 1999 for a three-match Test series, in what was his second coming as captain of the side, there was fear in the hearts of Indian cricket fans and prayers on their lips.

Australia were the reigning world champions of ODI cricket and were an even greater force in Test cricket. To speak in footballing terms, they were the ‘Brazil’ of cricket in terms of dominance.

As was feared, India’s campaign came unstuck and ended in a 0-3 debacle. Tendulkar stood tall in the ruins, along with a certain VVS Laxman, but it didn’t matter much, as the team’s morale had touched its nadir. That defeat followed by a home series loss in years, against South Africa, meant Tendulkar gave up captaincy for good to concentrate on his batting.

It was an hour of crisis off the pitch too with the match-fixing scandal exploding and spinning out of control. India needed a leader, not just of a cricket team but of men and they found one in Sourav Ganguly. The Bengal cricketer had the elegance and charm of a prince in his batting, but he combined that with the tenacity of a street fighter as captain of the team.

(Picture: Yahoo News)

The T20I side is comprised of four players from India, two from Australia, two West Indies and one each from Sri Lanka, South Africa, and Afghanistan. The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced the Men’s T20I and ODI teams of the decade on Sunday and named former India captain MS Dhoni as the leader of both sides.
The T20I side is comprised of four players from India, two from Australia, two West Indies and one each from Sri Lanka, South Africa, and Afghanistan.
Current Indian captain Virat Kohli, pacer Jasprit Bumrah and Rohit Sharma are the other Indians in the T20I team. Former South African skipper AB de Villiers and Universe Boss – Chris Gayle are also included in the line-up.
ICC’s T20I Team of the Decade: Rohit Sharma, Chris Gayle, Aaron Finch, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Glenn Maxwell, MS Dhoni (c), Kieron Pollard, Rashid Khan, Jasprit Bumrah, and Lasith Malinga.

The ICC’s ODI team of the decade led by Dhoni includes star Indian batsmen Rohit and Virat. In the team, David Warner and Rohit have been picked as openers while former South Africa cricketer AB De Villiers is picked as a middle-order batsman. Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan and England’s Ben Stokes are the two all-rounders in the team.
The pace attack includes Australian bowler Micthell Starc, New Zealand’s Trent Boult, and Sri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga.
ICC’s ODI Team of the Decade: Rohit Sharma, David Warner, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Shakib Al Hasan, MS Dhoni (c), Ben Stokes, Mitchell Starc, Trent Boult, Imran Tahir and Lasith Malinga.

India’s veteran tennis player Leander Paes has announced that 2020 would be his “farewell year” as a professional before he hangs up his racket. The 46-year-old, who started his professional career in 1991, has won 18 doubles and mixed doubles Grand Slam titles and a bronze medal in the singles at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

Paes won a total of 54 doubles titles in a career spanning three decades, partnering more than 100 players. He is also the most successful doubles player in the history of the Davis Cup with 43 victories in 56 matches.

“I want to announce 2020 as my farewell year as a pro tennis player,” Paes wrote on Twitter post where he also thanked his family for their support. I am looking forward to the 2020 tennis calendar where I will be playing a few select tournaments, travelling with my team and celebrating with all my friends and fans around the world. It is all of you who have inspired me to become me and I want to take this year to say ‘Thank you’ to you.”

At the peak of his career at the turn of the century, Paes was ranked No. 1 in the doubles circuit along with partner Mahesh Bhupathi, with whom he won three Grand Slam titles. The duo won 26 doubles titles as a pairing between 1997 and 2011.

Sana Mir, former captain of Pakistan’s national women’s cricket team, is among the top female cricketers in the world. She’s also a fierce activist who uses her outsized celebrity and massive social media presence to advocate for everything from mental health awareness to an end to body shaming.

That leadership comes naturally to Mir. As a child who moved often, Mir went door to door in each new neighborhood, gathering kids to build a cricket team. But when strict gender norms put an end to the street cricket days in her early teens, Mir walked away from the game and focused on school. While her playing waned, her passion didn’t. And when her mother passed her an article about tryouts for the nascent women’s cricket team, Mir jumped at the opportunity.

Since then, Mir has risen to the top of the sport. In the process, she’s become a source of inspiration for millions of girls — a mantle she doesn’t wear lightly.

Part of Asia Society’s Asia 21 Young Leaders program, Mir was recently honored with an Asia Game Changer Award. In the latest episode of Asia In-Depth, Asia Society Executive Vice President Tom Nagorski speaks with Mir about her extraordinary life — and what drives her on the pitch and off.

Man’s inquisitiveness and quest for predictability has seeped into a multitude of life-spheres, be it politics or predicting which candidate will bag most votes, or even niches like sports and betting on teams, or players, or even bodies. When it comes to cricket committees, there was an air of doubt regarding the post of President of the BCCI, and an implosion was observed in the online circuit of live betting in India, in 2019, wherein the entire nation was divided into two camps, each siding their favourite candidate for Presidentship. The online betting market was flabbergasted, considering that a lot of estimates were shattered and a lot of calculations proved wrong, only by a last minute change in candidature.

Sourav Ganguly’s chances to Presidentship came as a surprise to most, considering Brijesh Patel was the logistical and demographic favorite. In all fairness, the election of the BCCI President was as dramatic as Dada’s t-shirt 2002 escapade at Lord’s, and a sequential set of events preceded until the crown was rightfully claimed by the Prince of Kolkata.

Last Minute Drama

The individuals voting for the Presidentship status had decided en masse, that N. Srinivasan’s elect, Patel would be taking charge of the duties of the BCCI, but similar to the World Cup finals this year, there was a major turn of tables—just like how the world of sports reaches an acumen of entertainment when there is a change of events and late-match drama.

Some sources have disclosed that the former President of the BCCI, N. Srinivasan had bespoken the handing over of power to his chosen candidate, albeit a gathering was called for to make the entire conglomeration of events to be rather ceremonial. A dinner was, therefore, organized and a concourse of concerned individuals were invited. The esteemed individuals were discussing the future course of events of the BCCI, and this is when a drastic change of events transpired.

Anurag Thakur, a member of the Lower House of the Parliament, expressed the name of Ganguly as a probable and eligible candidate for the responsibility of Presidentship of the BCCI. It was at this moment when events started to take a rather different shape. Thakur’s voice and opinion was not only heard, but resonated all across the hall, and was received with valuing admiration, especially by the board members belonging to North-Eastern states, and Bengal, evidently.

It was a risky scenario considering the plethora of evidence connecting Ganguly to a certain political party that were emerging amidst Presidential elections, and Thakur’s position could well be compromised if this election took a rather political angle. However, the bets were laid after a great deal of approximation, and besides, Ganguly’s credentials as cricketer and captain meant that the Prince of Kolkata already had his royal flush even before any hands were shown.

Dadagiri in the 90s

Indian cricket has seen a major decline in quality in the 80s-90s era, primarily due to the prevalent toxic environment of illegal betting, match-fixing, and a multitude of other malpractices. A few cricketers were even caught cheating or indulging in activities like match-fixing; some of the infamous names being that of Azharuddin and Prabhakar. There was a squalid atmosphere in the entire Indian world and a grungy environment in the dressing room, so much so that even the great Tendulkar refused captaincy, lest it might prove to be another declination in the already downtrodden predicament of the organization in general and the team in specific.

This is when Ganguly was crowned the captain of the Indian cricket team, and things started to change for the better. Ganguly took it upon himself to make the board bereft of corruption of any kind. He brought in fresh blood in the form of warriors like Zaheer, Harbhajan, Yuvraj, Kaif, to name a few. He not only ensured that the scum of corruption was removed from the face of the Indian team, but also protected his youngsters from any such malicious activities.

On a performance basis, Ganguly changed the shape of Indian cricket of the 90s, and provided a new light and character to Indian cricket⁠— rightfully considered an avant-garde of modern-day cricket, and that he built the foundation of cricket which MS Dhoni expanded. Not only did he boost his own performance as a cricketer, but also changed the impression of the world about India as a cricket team—one that was previously considered a pusillanimous group of individuals who never won an overseas match, to modern-day valiant sportspersons who refuse to lose one.

Whether Dada will be able to ameliorate the despondent scenario of the board as elegantly as his cover drive, or whether he will succumb to the complexities and intricacies of the board, only time will tell.

The Cricket World Cup 2019 saw some excellent teams fight it out, to be declared the victors in the finals. India had a good knock, but ended up losing to England, and New Zealand in the semi-finals. Indian players had a dearth of boundaries in the semi-finals, scoring just one six; however that is not the case with several online betting sites—here you can score an awful lot if you employ your skills well and find the right betting site in India. However, this is 2019 and the online betting industry has only been on a high in recent times.

With the world cup having concluded, several other one day and T20 matches are being held and IPL 2020 is merely a few months away, it is indeed an exciting time to engage in online betting. Not only are there opportunities galore, with match predictions and interesting fixtures on their way, winning online bets has never been easier and more seamless as it is now.

Having eliminated India, England, led by Joe Root took on New Zealand, led by Kane Williamson in the finals. The finals witnessed some of the finest one-day cricket games ever, with a rather disappointing end: A tie between the 2 teams that was settled by a super-over.

A super-over is essentially a single over played by each team respectively, to decide the outcome of a tied match. Each team sends their best batsmen and a solitary best bowler to fight it out, and the team with the higher runs in the super-over is declared the winner.

As luck would have it though, the super-over also ended up in a tie. As per ICC rules, for super-overs that end in ties, the result will be decided by a number of factors, one of them being that the team that has scored more boundaries in game will win. This led England to be the champions of CWC 2019, while everyone’s fan favourites, New Zealand, sadly lost out. England has scored 22 fours and two sixes to New Zealand’s 16.

Cricketing fans were shocked at a rather senseless rule such as this existing, not just because a team that had played magnificently through the entire world cup lost out, but because the rule made little sense.

Cricket has always been a game of skill more than that of raw power. Although modern formats such as the T20 cricket will have you believe otherwise, building an innings from scratch, hitting the ball between gaps and taking a few quick runs while not losing a wicket is the essence of batting. That is what made Sachin Tendulkar a great batsman. Of course that can be supplemented with sixes here and there, but that should never become priority to decide the outcome of a game, not just because it makes little sense, but also because to truly preserve the value of the game, tie breaker rules must give precedence to more skill based well timed batting than muscled shots, something that the boundary rule failed to do.

Following the match, a lot of Indian greats from the past and present had criticised this rule. This included Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma and Yuvraj Singh, and rightly so.

Sachin Tendulkar went forward to even suggest an alternative as having a second super-over provided the first one ends in a tie. Taking the example of extra time allotted to both teams in football, Tendulkar went on to say that not just for finals but for every one day match whatsoever, a second super-over is much more conducive and fair for deciding winners, thus echoing the sentiments of fans and cricket analysers the world over.

Keeping the sentiments of fans and the opinions of cricketers themselves in mind, ICC Cricket Committee, the Chief Executives’ Committee was thus forced to rethink its rules and make changes to make the game fairer and more in tune with what the fans want. The following changes were thus made to the previous rules:

• The super-over format for deciding tie breakers in one day as well as T20 matches would be continued.
• In the group stages if the super over was tied, the match would be tied as well
• In the semi finals and finals, super-overs would be repeated till the tie was not resolved.

This reflects a few core philosophies that the ICC believes in. These include:

• The super-over format is indeed an engaging and exciting format to decide the outcome of tied games.
• For group stages a tied match with a point to each team is a perfectly reasonable outcome that does not affect the proceedings of a tournament.
• Super-overs themselves and the runs scored in them are much more important than previous incidents in the match itself, including boundaries scored within the match.

Thus, the ICC were able to protect the sentiments of the fans, the opinions of the experts and its own repute in a way that both uplifted the game to greater heights and made it fairer and more exciting.

USA’s Christian Coleman stormed to gold in the event at the 2019 IAAF World Athletics Championships at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha, Qatar on Sunday, completing a flawless campaign after being the only athlete to duck under 10 seconds in both Friday’s opening rounds and Saturday’s semi-finals.

The 23-year-old swept over the finish line in a world-leading personal best of 9.76 secs — making him the sixth-fastest man in history — to claim his first major outdoor championship gold. Defending champion and fellow American Justin Gatlin (aged 37) took silver in 9.89 secs while Canada’s Andre De Grasse claimed bronze in 9.90 secs. FYI: The 100 m world record of 9.58 secs still belongs to Bolt.

But is Coleman a champion to cherish? Up until three weeks ago, his participation in the championships had been in doubt. Having strongly denied ever using performance-enhancing drugs, he was left facing a lengthy suspension in August after it emerged he had registered three drug-testing “whereabouts” failures in a 12-month period. The violation is regarded as equivalent to a failed drug test and often followed by a ban of up to two years.

Yet Coleman avoided a sanction when the case against him was dropped in early September because of a technicality. Coleman had recorded his first whereabouts failure on June 6 last year, before two more offences in January 16 and April 26 this year. However the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) abruptly withdrew the charges on September 2 after a review of the rules regarding how the 12-month window should be calculated.

As such, Coleman’s triumph on Sunday drew only cold indifference from the crowd — which by the start of the 100 m final had thinned to more than a thousand — which suggested the sport was missing Bolt, its biggest star. That said, Coleman is now the runaway favourite for gold at next summer’s Tokyo Olympics. (In Doha, he has set the quickest time in the world this year.) But not even the staunchest supporter can argue that a one-two of Coleman and Gatlin — the latter being a two-time drug cheat — represents any kind of golden dawn.

Hardik Pandya signalled for a change of bat in the middle of the 45th over of India’s batting innings. When Dinesh Karthik ran in with a choice of blades, India needed 71 runs from 32 balls and the men saddled with the responsibility of this near-impossible task were Pandya and MS Dhoni.

Pandya weighed his options and chose the one that he believed could clear the field. For, believe it or not, until that point India had hit no sixes during their chase while England had smacked 11.

As Pandya took strike, Liam Plunkett ran in to bowl. The ball was slow and short but Pandya’s premeditated thump was executed, and the mistimed shot soared into the hot Birmingham air. And about two metres shorter than Pandya would’ve wanted, it fell down the cupped palms of long-on.

Although Dhoni plodded on till the final ball of the match (he even smacked India’s only six in that over), Pandya’s wicket was when India’s chase had all but ended; an end that was first ushered in when the maharaja of chases, Virat Kohli, was dismissed (also by Plunkett) after he scored his fifth consecutive fifty of this World Cup.

From that point on, India did well to lose by only 31 runs – a deficit that ensured their first loss of this World Cup.

In the 29th over, Kohli attempted to cut Plunkett through square but couldn’t keep the ball down and it was snapped up by the substitute fielder, James Vince, stationed at point. Kohli was out for 66 and even though Rohit Sharma was batting at the other end on a score similar to his dismissed captain, India’s chase now rested on the young shoulders of the man walking in to bat – Rishabh Pant.

Not so much because Sharma was having an off-day and not really timing the ball like he usually does but more due to the fact that Pant can hit sixes at will and sixes were the need of this hour.

First ball, Pant nearly ran himself out. He dabbed the ball to point and looked to get off the mark on his World Cup debut and quickly realised there was no run in it and dived back into his crease just in time. Next ball, he was nearly out LBW – Plunkett’s full delivery had hit the lefty’s pads outside leg stump and Pant managed to get off strike with a leg bye. And even from the non-striker’s end he all but ended his innings, charging down the track when Sharma had hit the ball straight to mid-off and lunged back to make ground.

With exactly 150 runs needed from 15 overs at this point, it was high time for Pant to throw his bat around, advice Pant took rather literally. The Mark Wood delivery was short and Pant swung at it and missed even as his bat flew to square-leg. He didn’t always lose his bat, but almost always Pant missed these premeditated hoicks towards cow corner. And on the rare occasion he connected in the 40th over, he was caught by a diving Chris Woakes at deep backward square leg.

Such was India’s day. And the fans at Edgbaston – predominantly Indian – possibly saw it coming when the innings began with three consecutive maidens from Chris Woakes, who caught and bowled KL Rahul for zero during that period too. Sharma too would’ve been dismissed just as early (on 4 runs) had Joe Root clung on to the chance he got off Jofra Archer’s bowling. But although he went on to get a hundred, his third of this World Cup and 25th overall, Sharma really didn’t hurt England all that much. Such was his day too, peppered with leading edges and skiers falling between fielders.

This was Sharma’s only ODI century in which he did not hit a six. But neither did anyone else apart from Dhoni in the India innings. And by the time Dhoni did, at the very end of his bewildering innings where he seemed relaxed even as he walked his singles when nothing less than boundaries would have brought India close. His knock is bound to reopen the can of worms on India’s middle-order woes but Dhoni wasn’t the reason India lost on Sunday; India’s wrist spinners Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav were, the two of them getting smacked for 160 runs between them.

And in the very end, England’s 11 sixes to India’s one mattered. For, Virat Kohli’s side lost by a run more than what five of those hits were worth.

India cricket captain Virat Kohli has once again become the sole Indian in the Forbes 2019 list of world’s highest-paid athletes, ranked 100th in the table.

Kohli is last on the list of top-100 athletes, headed by Barcelona and Argentina football superstar Lionel Messi, announced on Tuesday. According to the Forbes list, Kohli estimated earnings is USD 21m from endorsements and USD 4m from salary and winnings, taking his total tally to USD25m for the last 12 months.

Ranked 83rd on last year’s list, Kohli has climbed down to the 100th Ranked 83rd on last year’s list, Kohli has climbed down to the 100th spot despite an increase of USD 1m in endorsements.

Meanwhile, Messi has dethroned retired boxer Floyd Mayweather as the sports world’s highest earner, raking in USD 127 million via salary and endorsement

The New England Patriots claimed their sixth title in 18 seasons by edging the Los Angeles Rams, 13-3, in a slog of a Super Bowl LIII on Sunday last week.  Like their previous five Super Bowl victories under Belichick and Brady, Sunday’s was not decided until late, on Sony Michel’s 2-yard touchdown run with seven minutes left.

The New England Patriots’ dynasty began exactly 17 years ago Sunday, when the most fruitful partnership in N.F.L. history launched its transformation from plucky upstarts to league overlords. Coach Bill Belichick tamed the explosive Rams, and quarterback Tom Brady commanded an efficient offense.

The Patriots commemorated the anniversary by securing another championship against the same franchise, in a similar way, for a title that represents not a bookend so much as an ellipsis. New England’s reign is as relentless as a downpour, and without precedent.

On Sunday last week, at the much watched Super Bowl, one final stop — Stephon Gilmore’s interception near the goal line with 4 minutes 17 seconds remaining — punctuated a defensive effort that evoked Belichick’s first masterpiece against the Rams, when he sapped their potency by erasing the versatile back Marshall Faulk. Against this Rams team, the league’s second-ranked offense, New England forced punts on nine of 12 possessions and five three-and-outs.

The Patriots’ performance will ricochet around their empire as Belichick’s magnum opus, but it will be remembered outside New England as a grind, lacking the offensive artistry that defined this record-setting season.

It was as if after all the marks shattered — the most touchdowns scored, the most touchdown passes thrown — the ball decided, in the 267th and final game, that it was just too exhausted to breach the end zone anymore. It did so only once.

These Rams and Patriots will be forever linked in Super Bowl ignominy: the fewest combined points, the lowest-scoring first half in 44 years (3 points), the most time elapsed without a touchdown. That stretch ended at the time when Brady asserts his primacy.

All of Brady’s other championships have come after the score was tied, or the Patriots were trailing, in the fourth quarter. In those situations, Brady was 45 for 59 with 503 yards and three touchdowns and no interceptions. Taking over at his 31-yard line with 9:49 left, Brady connected on four straight passes for 67 yards, including a 29-yard beauty to Rob Gronkowski down the left side that preceded Michel’s touchdown, his sixth of the playoffs.

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(November 7, 2018 – New York, NY) The 2018 International Cricket Council’s Women’s World T20 gets underway on November 9th on Hotstar. The sixth edition of the tournament (and the second hosted by the West Indies) will feature eight cricket rich nations divided into two groups. Group A consists of England, South Africa, Sri Lanka, the defending champion West Indies and Bangladesh, while Group B is home to India, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan and Ireland.

On November 11th, India, led by captain Harmanpreet Kaur, will face rival Pakistan in one of the many exciting matches set for group play. The top two teams from each group will qualify in the semi-finals, and the tournament final will follow on November 24th at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium. Hotstar, the official digital streaming partner for ICC Women’s World T20, will live stream all the matches for the duration of the tournament.

Hotstar has already broadcasted the Unimoni Asia Cup and the Paytm India vs. West Indies Series as part of its 160 days of live cricket this year. Aside from the ICC Women’s World T20, tournaments to look forward to include the Paytm India vs. Australia Series in February 2019, the VIVO IPL in April 2019 and, finally, the ICC Cricket World Cup in May 2019.

“We are extremely proud to be the digital streaming partner of the ICC Women’s World T20 and to give our subscribers the opportunity to root for the women in blue,” said Ipsita Dasgupta, President of Hotstar International and Strategy at Star India. “Hotstar’s cricket calendar this year makes it the unquestioned, go-to streaming platform for cricket enthusiasts in North America.”
Hotstar has introduced an attractive, annual subscription for $99.99, which will give consumers complete access to the cricket calendar and entertainment library throughout the year. For monthly subscribers, a sports + entertainment pack is $19.99 a month.

About Hotstar:
India’s largest premium streaming platform for dramas, movies, and live sports, is now also available in the US, Canada and the UK. Hotstar, a subsidiary of Star India owned by 21st Century Fox, was launched in India in 2015 and became the fastest app to reach a million downloads. The platform offers a bouquet of rich and diverse content encompassing the latest movies, popular TV shows, documentaries, and live sports. By delivering premium, on-demand content across devices and in multiple languages, Hotstar ensures South Asians across the world are never too far from their favorite entertainment. The platform can be accessed through us.hotstar.com, ca.hotstar.com, uk.hotstar.com or via iOS AppStore, Google Playstore, Roku, Chromecast, Amazon Fire Stick and Android TV.

The 2018 Youth Olympic Games draw to a close for US athletes Kanak Jha and Amy Wang. Both players have cherished this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to compete in this unique event, both having done their country proud and having recorded the best US result ever.

Indian American Kanak Jha, the first U.S. table tennis player born in the 2000s and the youngest athlete for the country at the 2016 Olympic Games, won a bronze at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Jha won the medal Oct. 10, becoming the first American man in history to win a table tennis medal at either an Olympic or Youth Olympic Games, according to a TeamUSA.org report.

The three-time back-to-back US National Champion took to the group stages and instantly landed a win, with a 4-0 result over Poland’s Maciej Kolodziejczyk. He continued to defeat Nicolas Burgos of Chile, 4-2 and finally Jann Nayre of the Philippines, 4-0. Along with Amy Wang (who won 2 of her matches and lost the third 4-3), he advanced into the last 16 players in the event. The campaign for both players was off to a good start, but Jha had his reservations.

“That’s unbelievable,” Jha, now 18, said of his feat, in the report. “The U.S. has never been very strong in table tennis, so for me to win a medal for the U.S. is amazing.”

He has now competed at all three multi-sport Games – Pan American in 2015, Olympic in 2016 and Youth Olympic in 2018 – and knows the experiences will help him continue to grow throughout his career, it said.

The two finished in the last 16 of the mixed international team event, losing 2-1 to Azerbaijan, while Amy Wang competed with excellence to reach the quarterfinal in the women’s singles, beating a handful of incredibly tough opponents, the likes of South Korea, Serbia and Singapore.

Kanak Jha was the man to leap on opportunity, entering the contest as the 4th seeded player in the Men’s Singles event. The draw was stacked with incredibly tough opponents, the likes of Japanese wonderkid Tomokazu Harimoto, China’s Wang Chuqin, European Youth Champion Ioannis Sgouroupolos, Swedish Star Truls Moregardh, Romania’s upcoming talent Cristian Pletea and of course Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yun-Ju. There were plenty of other big names in the mix too, not only on the Men’s side, but also the Women’s.

“I hadn’t played a tournament for a very long time before this, I think the last one was the Pan American Junior Champs, so I was feeling a little unsure of my form and if I was mentally ready to play such an important tournament. I definitely wasn’t one of the favorites going in, so I knew I would have to play my absolute best game to have a chance to get far, which also caused little pressure for me,” reflects Jha upon his thoughts before the big event.

“Of course knowing that you can only play this tournament once in your life makes me value how important the tournament is and it did change my mindset a lot compared to how it normally is. Feeling not only more pressure, but also more motivation. I think I am lucky to have played important matches before so I had more experience of how to deal with the added nerves. In particular I think Rio Olympics in 2016 helped a lot with this tournament. I already knew what to expect in terms of playing in a big atmosphere, staying in the athlete village etc. So I was not surprised or distracted by the other stuff that comes with playing in Olympics such as media and other factors like when I was in Rio.”

“I was actually feeling a little worried after the group stage. I didn’t feel so good in the matches and just didn’t have a flow or rhythm. I was very fortunate I think to have a good draw in the main draw, and I think I started to get more and more comfortable and more relaxed after each match. By the last day I was feeling very ready mentally and physically.”

Virat Kohli has broken the world record of the fastest 10,000 one-day international runs, needing only 205 innings to get to the mark. He surpassed the record held by Sachin Tendulkar, who achieved the feat in 259 innings.

Kohli reached the milestone while batting on 81 during the second ODI against West Indies in Visakhapatnam. He took a single to long-on off the bowling of off-spinner Ashley Nurse.

Tendulkar, who was the first in history to breach the 10,000 mark in ODIs, got there in 2001 against Australia in Indore.

Twelve other batsmen have scored over 10,000 runs in the format. Tendulkar leads the list with 18,426 runs while Kumar Sangakkara is second with 14,234 runs. The only other active player on the list is MS Dhoni, who passed the milestone against England at Lord’s earlier this year.

Fastest to 10,000 runs in One-Day Internationals

This is how Virat reached every progressive milestone of 1,000 runs:

Two halves of Virat’s ODI career:

(New York, NY – September 7, 2018) 160 Days of Cricket on Hotstar starts with the Unimoni Asia Cup, which will feature some of the most prominent cricketing nations in the world. The tournament will begin with Bangladesh taking on Sri Lanka in Dubai on September 15. Participants include India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Hong Kong.

Defending champion India will face arch rival Pakistan on September 19 in the marquee matchup of group play. India and Pakistan will be joined by Hong Kong in Group A, while Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan compete in Group B. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the Super 4, and the tournament final will follow on September 28 in Dubai. Hotstar, the exclusive and official digital streaming partner for Unimoni Asia Cup, will live stream all the matches for the duration of the tournament.

To keep the momentum going, Hotstar has 160 days of cricket over the next year. Tournaments to look forward to include the Paytm India vs. West Indies Series in October, followed by the ICC Women’s World T20 in November, the Paytm India vs. Australia Series in February 2019, the VIVO IPL in April 2019 and, finally, the ICC Cricket World Cup in May 2019.

“Hotstar has just completed its first year in the United States, and the response from the Diaspora has been phenomenal,” said Ipsita Dasgupta, President of Hotstar International and Strategy at Star India. “As we embark on our second year, we have a comprehensive cricket calendar for fans and enthusiasts in the U.S., who have come to expect this level of engaging and premium programming from our platform.”

To supplement its cricket calendar, Hotstar has introduced an attractive, annual subscription for $99.99, which will give consumers complete access to the cricket calendar and entertainment library throughout the year. For monthly subscribers, an entertainment pack is now $9.99 a month, and a sports + entertainment pack is $19.99 a month.

Hotstar, India’s largest premium streaming platform for Indian TV shows, movies and live sports, is now also available in the U.S. and Canada.

A subsidiary of Star India and 21st Century Fox, Hotstar was launched in India in 2015 and became the fastest app to reach a million downloads. The platform offers a bouquet of rich and diverse content encompassing the latest movies, popular TV shows, documentaries and live sports. By delivering premium, on-demand content across devices and in multiple languages, Hotstar ensures South Asians across the world are never too far from their favorite entertainment.

Hotstar can be accessed through us.hotstar.com, ca.hotstar.com or via iOS AppStore, Google Playstore, Roku, Chromecast, Amazon Fire, and Android TV.

Following a rigorous schedule of talent identification combines hosted in eight cities across the country, a group of 39 players has been invited by the Selection Panel to attend the final men’s selection camp in Houston. Among the group of 39 players, mostly Indian Americans, have been invited by USA Cricket’s Selection Panel to attend the final men’s selection camp in Houston, Texas.

The second half of 2018 marks another exciting time for USA Cricket, with an eye firmly set on the World Cricket League Championship and World T20 qualification, with this camp shaping as a fantastic opportunity for these players to push their case to be included in those plans. All players invited to Houston have demonstrated the requisite skills, work ethic, and a commitment to the selection process and the desired player traits as outlined in the USA Cricket Selection Policy.

In acknowledgement of the tremendous talent observed at the youth level around the country, six youth have been invited to attend the camp commencing today. Having these talented youngsters work with the national coaches and alongside the full men’s squad will be hugely beneficial as they look to graduate and earn representative honors in the coming years. While many youth impressed at the combines, which has everyone excited for the future of USA Cricket, the six youth invited showed various skills that the Selection Panel were eager to see in this final stage.

“This set of Combines has been hugely rewarding, having uncovered many new faces in each city across the country. The upcoming week in Houston will be vitally important as we work hard to stake our claim on the international stage. It was also exciting to see how well the U.S. cricket community embraced these USA Cricket Combines,” said Ricardo Powell, the Chairman of Selectors. Players will arrive in Houston for a series of T20 and 50-over matches, which are to be hosted at the Moosa Cricket Stadium in Pearland, Texas.

Here is a list of selected players who have a potential to be on the U.S. National Team:

Ibrahim Khaleel (Bolingbrook Super Kings, Bolingbrook Premier League)

Jaskaran Malhotra (Triggers Cricket Club, Houston Cricket League)

Steven Taylor (Sheffield Cricket Club, New York Metropolitan Cricket League)

Sunny Sohal (Potomac Cricket Club, Washington Cricket League)

Akshay Homraj (Galaxy Cricket Club, Eastern American Cricket Association)

Shaheer Hassan (Rogers Park Cricket Club, Midwest Cricket Conference)

Mrunal Patel (Vijayta CC, Southern California Cricket Association)

Sagar Patel (Indian Lions, ArkTenn Cricket League)

Alex Amsterdam (Atlantis Cricket Club, New York Metropolitan Cricket League)

Srinivas Salver (Vijayta CC, Southern California Cricket Association)

Monank Patel (Freedom Cricket Club, Cricket League of New Jersey)

Nisarg Patel (Vijayta CC, Southern California Cricket Association)

Arjun Thyagarajan (Sunnyvale Cardinals, Northern California Cricket Association)

Sachin Asokan (Frisco Cricket Club, North Texas Cricket Association)

Fahad Babar (Incredibles Cricket Club, Bolingbrook Premier League)

Camilus Alexander (Kings X1, Atlanta GA Cricket Conference)

Saurabh Netravalkar (Marin 1, Northern California Cricket Association)

Muhammad Ali Khan (Ohio All Stars, Unity Cup)

Jasdeep Singh (Smashers Cricket Club, Cricket League of New Jersey)

Kyle Phillip (Florida Cricket Academy, South Florida Premier Cricket League Inc)

Adil Bhatti (Renegades Cricket Club, Washington Cricket League)

Timil Patel (Vijayta CC, Southern California Cricket Association)

Nosthush Kenjige (Atlantis Cricket Club, New York Metropolitan Cricket League)

Usman Ashraf (Cavaliers, Millennium CL)

Prashanth Nair (Atlantis Cricket Club, New York Metropolitan Cricket League)

Tirth Patel (Somerset Cavaliers, Cricket League of New Jersey)

Usman Rafiq (Smartchoice Sports Club, Houston Cricket League)

Elmore Hutchinson (Caribbean CC, Southern California Cricket Association)

Roy Silva (Covington Conyers, Atlanta GA Cricket Conference)

Jan Nisar Khan (Smartchoice Sports Club, Houston Cricket League)

David Wakefield (Atlantic Cricket Club Inc, South Florida Premier Cricket League)

Srinivas Raghavan (San Diego2 CC, Southern California Cricket Association)

Keshav Pabbisetty (Frisco Cricket Club, North Texas Cricket Association)

Youth:

Amrut Pore (Covington Conyers, Atlanta GA Cricket Conference)

Ali Sheikh (DYCL Knights, Dallas Cricket League)

Yasir Mohammed (CricMax U16, East Coast Youth Cricket League)

Sanjay Stanley (Lions Cricket Club, Triangle Cricket League)

Tejas Visal (Bolingbrook Super Kings, Bolingbrook Premier League)

Shashank Vittaladevaram (CCA U18, California Cricket Academy)

Rutgers University’s cricket team claimed the Shiv Chanderpaul Trophy by winning the 2018 American College Cricket National Championship against the University of South Alabama. The final game was held on April 2 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where Rutgers won the toss and elected to bowl first.

South Alabama won the toss and decided to bowl as brilliant sunshine lit up CBRP Cricket Stadium and SONY’s cameras eagerly awaited action. Ryerson was the defending champion but South Alabama had not been this far before as the old Conway Twitty song said. Hassan Khan had performed well for Ryerson in the past, a hard hitting batsman but this time he went for a duck, lbw to Sujal Patel on his 2nd ball.

Jean Paul Rocke came to the wicket and kept getting beaten by the bowling, despite the form he had shown the previous day smashing 97 vs NJIT but he held on for 36 eventually. Bilal Khan however was ablaze at the other end and his 31 included 2 sixes and 2 fours in 17 balls before being out at 41 at 6.3 overs. Talha Kirmani played some glorious shots that delighted the commentators and spectators whilst striking 6 fours in his 47* as he took Ryerson to 144 for 8 in their 20 overs. Varun Bellide took 3 for 25, Neel Patel 2 for 25.

Neel continued his MVP performance with 56 off 44 balls, with 5 fours and 3 sixes as he took the Jaguars to 119, close to the target before being out, but by then with 20 balls to get 26 runs South Alabama was ‘Sailing’ as Rod Stewart sings. Kinal Patel 368 and Uzair Javed 108 took it home in 17.1 overs. The consistent Sujal Patel had an amazing innings of 38 in 21 balls with 5 sixes as South Alabama got to their first Finals in a National or Regional championship in their 6 years.

According to cricketworld.com, after hitting 33 runs in five overs, South Alabama lost three wickets for five runs. A brief recovery partnership of 32 between Kinal Patel (17) and Amjad Muhammad (15) brought them up to 70 but Hassaan Wajeeh’s spin and Junaid Chaudhry ultimately brought them down with 82 all out.

Wajeeh got a four for seven, while Chaudhry took a four for 25, with two wickets for 12 for Anil Kumar, according to an American College Cricket press release. Haider Ali (34) and Chaudhry (32) took Rutgers to victory as they won by 7 wickets in 13.3 overs.

Rutgers had made it to the finals in 2016 but ultimately lost against the University of South Florida but this year they beat the University of Florida, Virginia Tech, the University of Texas Dallas and the University of South Florida, losing to only MIT.

According to American College Cricket, Rutgers was part of the original teams that formed in March 2009 and only began competing very recently as they weren’t allowed to travel and though they made it to the 2010 nationals and won the 2010 North East regional, they were always overshadowed by Toronto’s Ryerson University.

Carlos Coreira, a Mumbai native who has lived in the U.S. since the early 1970s, has been elected as the new president of the United States Soccer Federation. The 62-year-old son of a Goan father and Colombian mother moved with his widowed mother and three siblings when he was 15 years old in 1971.

Cordeiro said in reports that he has “football blood” in his veins for as long as he can remember. “With a Colombian mother and a Goan father, nothing less is expected,” the former Goldman Sachs executive told Times of India. Cordeiro will be tasked with righting the ship of a U.S. Soccer program that saw its men’s national team fail to qualify for the FIFA World Cup for the first time since 1986.

Cordeiro, 61, will serve a four-year term, after a 30-year career in international finance. According to a U.S. Soccer Federation press release, Cordeiro was born to a Colombian mother and a Portuguese father in 1956.

He immigrated to the United States from India with his widowed mother and three siblings at the age of 15 and became an American citizen 10 years later. He is a graduate of Miami Beach High School, Harvard College and Harvard Business School.

A dedicated philanthropist, Cordeiro became a partner at Goldman Sachs in the early 1990s and was later appointed vice chairman-Asia. He advised governments such as Nelson Mandela’s post-apartheid South Africa, global corporations, and financial institutions including the World Bank.

Now retired, he continues to serve as an honorary unpaid advisor to the firm.From 2005 to 2015, he also served as an independent director of BHP Billiton, the world’s largest natural resources company, where he focused on governance, finance and risk management. He first joined the U.S. Soccer Federation in 2007.

“Thank you to those of you who have supported me today,” Cordeiro said in a statement. “This is incredibly humbling. … To those of you who didn’t vote for me, I’m going to work to earn your support and trust over the next four years. I promise I will work for all of you to bring us together as one soccer community.”

For Indian-Americans living in the Greater Buffalo area of New York, July 16, was a landmark day, when they proudly inaugurated their newly acquired rights to park land for the first cricket pitch in Erie County in upstate New York. Now the scores of residents and students who suffered broken bones or abrasions in past years while playing in parking lots and hard ground, can expect an enjoyable game on the grass at Ellicott Creek Park in the town of Tonawanda, N.Y.

The India Association of Buffalo tried out the county’s first and only cricket pitch Sunday afternoon. Until then, the group’s 35 teams had played on parking lots near schools and apartment complexes. But roughly seven months after approaching the county about adding a dedicated field for the popular game, members were already bowling their first balls and running between the wickets.

“The Erie County parks are for everybody. There are hundreds of cricket players that now have a safe place to play and this is going to open up the sport for others,” said Mark C. Poloncarz, county executive. “This is going to grow, without a doubt.”

The simple patch of clay surrounded by soft grass means much more to the Indian-American community in Erie County than a place to play a game. It’s an acknowledgement of the region’s sizable Indian-American community and the sport that is so closely tied to their cultural identity.

Close to 275 people came for the inauguration including County Executive Mark  Poloncarz, and senior Parks Department officials. The prize came after 7 months of negotiations with the County Executive office and Parks authorities, led by the India Association of Buffalo (IAB). The current president of IAB, Sibu Nair, told the media that to-date, despite the lack of a dedicated space for cricket, some 35 to 40 teams met every year to play cricket in the Buffalo area. Now they can use the dedicated park grounds where the community expects to convert the soft pitch to a concrete one after raising enough funds.

So far the IAB has raised $6,000, and that will be used for building a concrete pitch 99 feet by 10 feet which is estimated to cost around $6,500. They also want some bleachers for those coming to watch the games, and a scoreboard, as well as some fencing that could prevent cricket balls being lost in the waters of the creek that runs nearby. The Parks Department will keep up the grass cutting and garbage disposal, and it has already helped roll the soft pitch for the games that avid cricketers are itching to play on, Buffalo News reported.

By Asian Media USA

Chicago IL: Punjab Sports and Cultural Club continued its annual tradition of celebrating the game of Kabaddi along with sumptuous food and cultural programs. On Sunday, July 2nd, 2017, the club organized another very successful “Punjabi Mela” that witnessed over 1500 attendees.

This 17th international entertainment and sport event of Kabaddi and Volleyball tournament was held at Busse Woods Forest Preserve, Elk Grove Village, Illinois USA. During this populous family oriented mega event, people enjoyed complimentary admission, food, mehndi application, and competitive traditional Sports.

Tournaments kicked off after traditional opening prayer (Ardaas) ceremony by Palatine Granthi Bhai Mohinder Singh. The guests of Honor at the program were Consulate General of India, Ms. Neeta Bhushan, Congressman Raja Krishnamurthy, Dr. S P Singh Oberoi, Amolak Singh Gakhal, Sardar Manjeet Singh(Canada), Sardar Jaspreet Singh (Attorney of Law). Ms Bhushan and Mr Krishnamurthy addressed the audience and thanked everyone for joining the celebration. Sardar Amrik Singh, President Punjab Sports and Cultural Club applauded the hard work and determination of the teams that participated in the tournament. This was followed by award ceremony with celebrity guest Hans Raj Hans along with live musical performance by famous Punjabi Singers Jasmine Sandlas, Sharry Mann and Rupinder Handa. The event reflected rich Punjabi traditions and heritage of sport, food and music.

The Game of Kabbadi is physical game originated in India which requires both mental and physical skill and muscle power, and combines the characteristics of wrestling and rugby. It incorporates skill of self-defense, and quick reflexes of psychoanalysis and counter attack.

Competing teams hailed from the States of Wisconsin, Indiana, New York, Texas, Illinois, Virginia, Washington and Michigan. Final championship match was between Seattle vs Yuba City. After intense competition, Seattle beat Yuba City by the score of 39 points vs. 23 points by losing team from Yuba City. Both teams in finales gave very hard competition to each other and in the end Seattle team finished on the top of the podium by grabbing the champions title.

Besides Kabaddi, there were volleyball matches too in which 5 teams participated and Tony Sanghera’s team from Chicago was the winner. Second place winner prize to Yuba City Team was Sponsored and awarded by Ghuman Brothers. Other Sponsors of the mega event were Sardar Baldev Singh Salhan, Sardar JPS Khaira, Sardar Paul Singh Khaleel, Dr Bhupinder Singh Saini and Sardar Jagir Singh Sabzimandi from New York. First prize was sponsored and awarded by Sardar Darshan Singh Dhaliwal (Bulk Petroleum) to the winning team Punjab Sports Club Seattle and the team sponsors were Mohna Jodhan, Bratty Gill, Sandeep Gurna. The 2nd Prize was awarded to Yuba Brothers, Yuba City, California and the Team Sponsor was Davinder Nijjar. Sultan Singh Sounspuria was declared the best raider and the best Jaffee Best Raider title was awarded to Pala Jalalpuria.  The commentary was facilitated by Mr. Makhan Ali from Surrey, Canada and Mr. Surjit Kakrali.

After sport tournaments, social and entertainment “Mela” commenced attended bulky crowd and presence of various prominent community leaders including sponsors of event. Punjab Sports & Cultural Club Chicago Members present were President, Sardar Amrik Singh (Chicago), Vice President: Sardar Gurmeet Singh Bhola, Finance Secretary: Sardar Amrit Pal Singh Sangha, S. Jaskaran Singh Dhaliwal, S. Narinder Singh Sra, S. Harvinder Singh Billa, S. Lovedeep Singh Dulat, S. Amrik Singh Amar Carpets, S. Gurmeet Singh Bhola, S. Rajinder Singh Dayal, S. Lucky Sahota, S. Hardeep Singh Gill, S. Manminder Singh Heer, S. Gurpreet Singh Gill, S. Gian Singh Shera. Overall, the event was a great success and all guests raved about the wonderful organization of the unforgettable event. The next big sports event everyone is waiting for will be held on Labor Day weekend on Sept. 3rd Sunday hosted by Sher-e- Punjab Sports and Cultural Club Chicago.

Kavita Akula, an Indian basketball player aged 21, has become the first Indian-born female basketball player to get a full scholarship to a Division 1 (D1) college — Grand Canyon University — in the United States.D1 is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association in the US. D1 is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association in the US.

Akula is born in Bhilai, Chhattisgarh, India and comes from a family of basketball players with her aunt and stepbrother being two of them.She was just 10 years when she made the winning shot for her state defeating Kerala and was then tutored by Rajesh Patel, India’s leading basketball coach making her one of the best female players in the country.

“I want her to stand on her own feet and lead a great life and that would be hard in this small hometown,” her mother said, hinting at the educational opportunities that her daughter wouldn’t receive in their hometown.

At the age of 14, Akula was one of the eight Indian recipients of a basketball scholarship to the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida where she received the opportunity to be in one of the best sports training programs in the world and received an exceptional education.

Under the coaching of WNBA player Shell Dailey at IMG, Akula has learned that in the United States there are many more opportunities for female basketball players than back home.

Dailey said that she was impressed by Akula’s outside shooting skills and after a game of H-O-R-S-E, a shooting game in which participants earn a letter for each shot made, she appointed Akula from point guard to shooting guard. “I could see why [her coaches in India] would want her to play point guard, because she has excellent leadership skills and she is very clear in her directions,” Dailey said.

She was just 10 years old when she made the winning shot for her state defeating Kerala and was then tutored by Rajesh Patel, India’s leading basketball coach making her one of the best female players in the country. Akula had always wanted to either play the sport professionally or coach it in India but her mom wanted more than that. “I want her to stand on her own feet and lead a great life, and that would be hard in this small hometown,” her mother said to ESPN, hinting at the educational opportunities that her daughter wouldn’t receive in their hometown.

An Indian-American cricket enthusiast has announced plans to build as many as eight cricket stadiums across the US at an estimated cost of $2.4 billion to professionalize the game in the country.

The eight proposed stadiums, each having a capacity of 26,000 people in New York, New Jersey, Washington DC, Georgia, Florida, Texas, Illinois and California, would create as many as 17,800 new jobs in the US, said Jignesh (Jay) Pandya, chairman of Global Sports Ventures.

Gujarat-born Pandya is a real estate developer in the US and had been travelling across the globe with his two sons to watch popular international cricket matches.

Pandya, chairman Global Sports Ventures, feels he can professionalize cricket in the United States by creating a league that allows athletes to compete at the highest level and allow fans to enjoy the game at  these world-class facilities.

These cricket stadiums, Pandya said, would be a part of “lifestyle centers” comprising high-rise residential complexes, shopping centers, entertainment centers and office complexes.

Pandya feels that Americans, are the biggest sports lovers in the world and sports economy in the US is around $87 billion. This leads him to be confident that there is “a great market and a readymade audience for cricket in the US”.

He hopes that this plan will fructify when the International Cricket Council (ICC) hosts any tournaments in line with its strategic framework for USA cricket, potentially hosting the ICC World Twenty20 in 2024.

Nikhil Kumar, an 8th grade student from Miami, Florida, has won the World Cadets Chess Championship held in Georgia, a former Soviet Republic, late last month. Kumar, a student at Ransom Everglades in Coconut Grove, Miami, defeated No. 1 Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa of India, who at 10 became the youngest person ever to claim the title of chess International Master. Kumar also defeated Andrew Hong, who is the No. 1 is ranked under-12 player in the U.S. “Becoming the world chess champion seemed like a dream just a few months ago but hard work made this dream become a reality,” Kumar told Local10.com after returning to Miami Oct. 28.

Kumar ranked 25th at the start of competition in Georgia. Coming as the underdog, he finished first in a field of 137 students from 36 countries.

“When I was at the podium and the national anthem was played, I felt that I represented the country and Team USA well,” Kumar who returned to school Nov. 2, said.
Besides chess, Kumar’s favorite pastime includes playing the violin, tennis and participating in Mathcounts at Ransom Everglades.

“We were thrilled to hear of Nikhil’s success in the chess world championships,” Rachel Rodriguez head of the middle school, said both students and teachers were happy to hear about Nikhil’s success. “He is talented and hard-working, and has represented Ransom Everglades with class and dignity. We are proud to welcome him back to our campus today,” Rodriguez was quoted as saying.

A former CIA official has said that Pakistan was “nearly placed” on the list of state sponsored terrorism during 1993 to 1994.  “At the start of the (Bill) Clinton administration, in 1993 and 1994, I was a special assistant to the Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, on loan from CIA, deeply involved in an annual terrorism review which nearly resulted in Pakistan’s being placed on the formal list of state sponsors of terrorism,” Robert L Grenier, a former CIA official told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during a Congressional hearing on Pakistan.

Grenier said that over the past five decades, the US has been willing, episodically to overlook its concerns with aspects of Pakistani behaviour and to subordinate those concerns in the face of what have appeared, at the time, to be overriding national security priorities – only to revert to a more contentious relationship when those interests no longer pertained.

“Thus, in the 1980’s, the US was willing not only to overlook growing evidence of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program in deference to joint US-Pak support to the anti-Soviet Afghan Mujahiddin, but also to provide Pakistan with generous economic and military rewards in the bargain,” he said.

In the immediate aftermath of 9/11 attacks, needing a platform for operations in Afghanistan and a partner to intercept Al-Qaeda militants fleeing that country, the US was again willing to subordinate its broader concerns with Pakistani-based militancy in Kashmir and with Pakistan’s ambivalent attitude toward the Afghan Taliban, he said.

Pakistan has clung stubbornly to its own perceptions of national interest, and refused to compromise them even when it seemed irrational or self-defeating to US eyes, he said. He also said the same has happened in the context of nuclear weapons doctrine, in its assessment of the threat from India, or in its calculus regarding both foreign and domestic militant groups.

Pakistani adherence to its perceived interests, in fact, has persisted, irrespective of US-administered punishments or inducements, Greiner said. However, the former CIA station chief in Islamabad, warned the lawmakers against taking any punitive action or sanctions against Pakistan. In fact he encouraged that the US should help Pakistan maintain a large conventional armed forces.

“Pakistan’s conventional military forces will need to be maintained if we are to avoid quick recourse to nuclear weapons at a time when Kashmir remains a social and political tinderbox, and the threat of Indo-Pak war still hangs like an incubus across the region,” he said. “The US dares not turn its back on Pakistan as it seeks to protect its serious national security interests in South-Central Asia,” Grenier said.

Two teens of Indian origin shone at the U.S. Open at Flushing Meadows, N.Y., defeating their opponents and moving forward in the rankings. Natasha Subhash, 15, won an exciting match in the US Open Juniors against 12th seed Katarina Zavatska of Ukraine, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, on Sept. 5. Pranjala Yadlapalli of India beat Wiktoria Kulik of Poland, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2. She goes on into the round of 32.

Subhash came into the limelight last year when she got a Wild Card from the U.S. Tennis Association and became the youngest Indian-American to play a Grand Slam, American Bazaar reported. She earned three straight wins last year beating higher ranked players and moving up to the 2nd round which she lost due to an injured knee.

Subhash is currently the number one ranked player in the under-16 girls in the U.S. and in the top 60 in the world in singles and doubles. She lost the French Open and Italian Open qualifying rounds this year.

Born and brought up in the U.S., Subhash trains at the 4 Star Tennis Academy in Washington, D.C. Pranjala Yadlapalli, 17, is from Guntur, Andhra Pradesh and is the 2015 Asian Tennis champion. was selected to the International Tennis Federation Touring Team soon after in May 2015, competing in a series of junior tournaments in Europe. She is coached by Ilyas Ghouse at GVK Tennis Academy in Hyderabad, according to a Press Trust of India report.

Before meeting with Poland’s Kulik on Sept. 5, Yadlapalli qualified for the Junior main-draw with a decisive straight sets victory over American Kariann Pierre-Louis, 6-4, 6-4. In the first set the Indian was 2-4 down before winning the next four games and the set.

For someone born on June 19, 2000, Kanak Jha has done well to fit in with the older crowds. This year, 16-year-old Kanak Jha picked up the paddle as the youngest member of the United States’ Olympic team in Rio. He is the first American born in the 2000s to qualify for the Olympics. He’s also the youngest person in the history of the sport of table tennis to qualify for the Olympics.

His final win at the Olympic qualifier was the reason why U.S. table tennis gets to compete in the team event. While California-born, he trains in Sweden because the sport is more competitive and popular in Europe. He’s going into his junior year of high school, though he won’t be going into a “traditional secondary school environment,” NBC Olympics reports. He takes online classes.

Kanak, who had begun playing table tennis at age 5, didn’t start taking the sport more seriously until he was 9 or 10, when he stopped calling it “ping-pong” and started calling it table tennis. Kanak competed in both singles, and team competitions at the Olympics.

He believes age is just a number when it comes to his abilities. “I don’t think about it at all,” he tells NBC Olympics. “I’m just trying to prepare for the Olympics. In the end, it doesn’t really matter how old you are.”

He’s one of the 16-year-olds going to the Olympics for Team USA this year, including Laurie Hernandez, a gymnast. His 19-year-old sister, Prachi, is also talented at table tennis — she’s also a national team member.

“It’s definitely a very great experience,” Jha says. “I didn’t know the atmosphere would be as good as it was in this match.”

He knows what a VHS is and grew up watching a few video tapes. Before Pokémon took off on people’s iPhones, he remembers collecting stacks of the trading cards. His iPod includes classics by Michael Jackson and Queen. Jha is still a kid but he also holds the distinction of being the first U.S. Olympian born in 2000 to compete at the Summer Games. He competed in Thursday’s preliminary round of table tennis, losing 4–1 to 23-year-old Nima Alamian of Iran.

The 16-year-old isn’t quite finished yet—he’ll compete in the team event on Aug. 12—but he’s here to enjoy his first Olympics. He did a good job of doing just that on Friday night at the Opening Ceremony, which included selfies with the U.S. men’s basketball team, Michael Phelps, Jordan Burroughs and several other athletes that he gets to call teammates. At this point, his phone is packed with photos of these famous encounters, as he also snapped away at Olympic team processing, taking photos with members of the track team and gold-medalist fencer Mariel Zagunis.

The son to immigrant parents from India, Jha started playing at five years old and has never been a stranger to facing much older competition. When he was seven, he played someone 10 times his age but still came away with the victory over the 70-year-old, his father Arun recalls.

“I didn’t really have too many expectations going into that semifinals match and it was kind of a dream that I played so well,” Jha says. “It gave me a lot of confidence and I started to think about the Olympics more.”

In 2013, Jha had a very successful season, winning 27 of his 28 matches. That’s when he made his first trip out to Sweden to explore his options playing table tennis at an elite level.  “We had all two years planned out with the Olympics as the final moment of the goal and decided to give it a shot,” Arun says. “For Kanak to go into very formalized training with league matches, he would have to stay in Europe. The realization of the Olympics was in 2013.”

In table tennis, it’s common for American players to head over to Europe or Asia to train and dedicate most of their life to the game. So in 2015, at just 15 years old, Jha made the move to Hamlstad, Sweden, with his sister, Prachi. Table tennis remains Jha’s sole focus as he takes online classes and will enter his junior year of high school in the fall. When he’s not practicing, he’s your typical 16-year-old hanging out with friends, playing with his dog Shadow or watching Breaking Bad on Netflix—which he watched sometimes hours at a time. “I see these athletes and so many of them are gold medalists in their sport,” Jha told the media in late July. “It’s humbling to be around them. Many of them don’t know I’m 16.”

In a path-breaking initiative, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has approved the proposed two-match Twenty20 International series against the West Indies cricket team in Florida, United States of America later this month. The decision was taken during the board’s Working Committee meeting held in Mumbai. The two games will be played at the Central Broward Regional Park, Fort Lauderdale in Florida, USA on August 27 and 28 respectively.

The Indian cricket team, for the first time, will be playing an international match in the United States of America. It will take on reigning World T20 Champions West Indies in a two-match T20 International series in Florida’s Fort Lauderdale.  According to reports, the matches will start at 19:30 IST. BCCI president Anurag Thakur said, “As part of our continuous efforts to reach out to new markets and audiences, I am very happy to announce that Team India will play two T20Is against the current world champions West Indies in the United States.”

“This will be a great initiative in our continued efforts to develop cricket in the Americas (North and South America) a very important market,” said Whycliffe Dave Cameron,West Indies Cricket Board President.

India lead 1-0 in their four-test series against West Indies, and the Twenty20 matches will mark the first full member games in the United States in four years, when New Zealand played West Indies.

The Broward Stadium is the only ground in the United States that meets international cricket specifications, and organisers say they have invested about $1.4 million to bring it up to standard including tweaking the floodlights to point at the pitch and erecting big video screens.

The United States would be a big market to crack for cricket bosses. The Twenty20 format is likely to be the most appealing form of the game, in the face of traditional U.S. sports, thanks to explosive batting and a relatively short matches.

“This will be a great opportunity for the cricket fans in America to watch the two champion sides in action. This will be developed into an annual cricketing event in the United States,” BCCI president Anurag Thakur said in a statement. “This will be a great initiative in our continued efforts to develop cricket in the Americas, a very important market,” Whycliffe Cameron, president of West Indies Cricket Board, said.

Golfer Vijay Singh, who was Number 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking for 32 weeks in 2004 and 2005, has accused PGA Tour officials of subjecting him to “absurd” and “unfair” treatment by ignoring the use of deer antler spray, a controversial performance-enhancing drug, by five other professional golfers.

In a memorandum filed with the New York State Supreme Court May 30 Singh, known as “The Big Fijian’, accused the organizers of the main professional golf tours in the U.S., of ignoring the use of that spray by the five golfers playing on the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour, and then lying to the public by “characterizing Singh as a cheater who caught a break,” according to a report published last week in Golf .com and reported by other media outlets, including MSN, based on Golf.com report.

According to Singh, “discovery revealed” that five golfers, identified in the memorandum anonymously as Golfers A, B, C, D and E, admitted to the Tour as early as 2010 or 2011 that they had used the same spray as Singh but were not sanctioned under the Tour’s anti-doping program.

In 2013, the Tour announced it will suspend Singh for 90 days following his admission to Sports Illustrated that he had used the spray, which contained trace amounts of the banned growth hormone IGF-1, but quickly lifted its suspension when the World Anti-Doping Agency determined the product didn’t contain enough of the hormone to be performance-enhancing. The report said that Singh sued the Tour, contending that the announcement damaged his reputation, leading to the loss of his longtime endorsement deal with Cleveland Golf.

Singh’s lawyer, Peter Ginsberg, claimed that the Tour’s legal strategy attempts “to rewrite their rules” to cover their own tracks.

“The Tour during the course of this litigation attempted to justify its arbitrary treatment of Singh by claiming that other golfers who had used the SWATS products played on the Champions Tour and the Program does not apply to Champions Tour golfers,” Ginsberg wrote in the memorandum. Golf.com said the PGA Tour could not be reached for comment.

While the Tour contends that its officials merely followed evolving WADA guidelines, Singh accused Commissioner Tim Finchem of lying when he pinned the Tour’s decision to withdraw its anti-doping case against him on a change in WADA policy that “clarified that it no longer considers the use of deer antler spray to be prohibited unless a positive test results.” Singh contends WADA did no such thing, citing testimony from WADA’s science director that WADA’s position on deer antler spray hadn’t changed in several years.

Ginsberg told GOLF.com the Tour’s treatment of Singh was the result of organizational failure that raises questions about the way the Tour conducts its business.

“As detailed in the filing, the PGA Tour’s bogus rationalization for treating Vijay differently than it treated multiple other players, and then Commissioner Finchem’s unwillingness to remain in his deposition and explain why the PGA Tour ignored WADA’s guidance about the Spray and then misled the public, speak volumes about the golf organization’s conduct and failure to fulfill its duties and obligations. Either the PGA Tour was woefully ignorant or woefully arrogant, but, either way, it was woefully irresponsible and Vijay suffered as a result,” he was quoted as saying.

Gokul Natesan, an Indian-American basketball player has picked up his second all-region award of the postseason, this time from the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC). According to reports, Gokul Natesan landed on the NABC’s All-South Central Second Team after the Colorado School of Mines guard had a standout 2015-16 season to lead the Orediggers to the NCAA Tournament. The NABC awards are selected and voted on by the member coaches in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II.

Natesan was also a First-Team D2CCA All-Region pick earlier this month, according to a press release from the school. The D2CCA stands for the Division II Conference Commissioners Association. This is just the latest in a series of honors for the 6 ft 5 inch, 190 lb Natesan this season. His other recent honors include RMAC Defensive Player of the Year and First-Team All-RMAC (Rocky Mountain Athletics Conference). The junior averaged 20.7 points, 3.6 rebounds, 3.4 assists, and 2.1 steals per game to lead Mines (24-8) to the RMAC Tournament title game and an NCAA Tournament appearance. He was a member of the RMAC Shootout All-Tournament Team.

He’s an achiever off the court as well. Natesan’s classroom performance earned him First-Team Academic All-America and RMAC Academic Player of the Year and First-Team Academic All-RMAC honors.

Brought up in Santa Clara, California, Natesan attended Cupertino High School. He had chalked up many wins and honors while still in high school. Natesan’s detailed game performance on the Colorado School of Mines website tracks his achievements year by year since high school. He spent the 2012-13 season at La Jolla Prep Basketball Academy in San Diego, California, where he averaged 15.5 points per game and put in a stellar performance getting recognition as an MVP, earning selections to various teams. Natesan averaged 18.0 points, 5.7 rebounds and 2.2 steals per game while making 75 3-point baskets as a junior.

He kept up his grades, making it to the academic honor roll all four years, and was a member of the National Honor Society and French Honor Society and was named the 2012 Cal-Hi Sports CCS Winter Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

In 2013-2014, Natesan was named RMAC Freshman of the Year. In 2014-2015,  he scored a season-high 25 three times, and crossed 20 points seven times. In 2015-16, he was part of the team recognized as a CoSIDA First-Team Academic All-American, a prestigious recognition given to teams composed of most outstanding student-athletes, which is administered by College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).

Chicago IL : Punjabi sports lovers from the States of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ohio turned out, in huge numbers, to enjoy Kabaddi and Vollyball Tournaments, followed by a vibrant cultural program. The event was organized by Punjab Sports & Cultural Club at Elk Grove Village, Forest Preserve grounds in Chicago.

In the Kabaddi Cup Tournament, there were three Teams from India, USA, and Canada. In the final match, USA Kabaddi Team defeated the Indian Team by scoring 38 points against 19 and won the first prize. The second prize went to the Indian Team.

The first prize of $13,000 was sponsored by prominent businessman, Darshan Singh Dhaliwal from Milwaukee, in the memory of his father, late Subedar Kartar Singh Dhaliwal. The second prize of $11,000 was sponsored by the host Punjab Sports & Cultural Club.

The people watched the Kabaddi Tournament with great enthusiasm, as Kabaddi  is affectionately called the mother of all sports in Punjab. In the Volleyball Tournament, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Sports Club won the first prize of $1500 and Glenview Spykar, the second prize of $1100.

Raja Krishan Murti, the candidate for US Congress, in his address, appreciated the efforts of the Punjab Sports & Cultural Club in promoting love for sports among the people of Punjab. He urged the young generation to give up their sedentary life style. He called upon them to take active interest in their physical fitness and eat healthy food.

Murthi also appealed to the audience to support him in the ensuing Congress elections and give him an opportunity to serve them. OP Meena, Consul at the Consulate General of India in Chicago, who also spoke on the occasion, said that the love for sports among people of Punjab should be a source of inspiration to their counterparts from other parts of India. “This would go a long way in enriching the culture of physical fitness and enabling people to lead a happy life”, he added.

In the evening, the popular singers, Harbhjan Mann and Gursewak Mann, entertained the audience for more than two hours with their hit Punjabi folk songs. The people thoroughly enjoyed the cultural program and many of them, especially youngsters, were seen dancing energetically to the melodious tunes.

Typical Punjabi food, coupled with hot tea, was served throughout the day to the spectators, free of cost. The weather, which was highly pleasant, was instrumental not only in attracting people but also in retaining them throughout the tournament.

Harvinder Singh, President of the Club, Amrik Singh (Amar Carpet), Finance Secretary & Media In-charge, Happy Heer, Jaskaran Singh Dhaliwal, Lovedeep Singh Dulat, Narinder Singh Sra, Gian Singh Seehra, Gurmeet Singh Bhola, Rajinder Singh Dyal, Manminder Singh Heer, Lucky Sahota and Swaran Singh Sidhu, Board Members of the Club, contributed their best efforts in making the event a grand success.

Aasif Mandvi, an Indian American comedian and two Indian entrepreneurs are among Asia Society’s “2015 Asia Game Changers” as per a press release issued here on September 16th.

The list of eight ‘Game Changers’ were recognized for making a transformative and positive difference for the future of Asia and the world.

Indian American comedian, activist and spokesman for Muslims and Asian Americans Aasif Mandvi received one of the honors. Asia Society recognized Mandvi as a ‘Game Changer’ for using comedy to challenge perceptions and work for good. Mandvi initially gained popularity in 2006 as the senior Middle East correspondent on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” where he seized the spotlight to become a powerful spokesperson for Muslims and Asian Americans.

Originally from Mumbai, Mandvi grew up in England and Florida before moving to New York to pursue acting. As his fame rose, Mandvi challenged stereotypes and provided a voice for Muslim Americans, changing the game in terms of how Asians are viewed on television.

In 2015, he co-wrote, produced and acted in the Web series “Halal in the Family” for the popular comedy site Funny or Die, using the sitcom format to tackle Islamophobia. Outside of acting, Mandvi is an advocate for a number of charity organizations such as Relief 4 Pakistan, Partners In Health and Planting Peace.

Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar is the first woman to head an Indian bank and was honored for transforming an industry and empowering the masses, according to Asia Society. She was just 22 years old when she joined ICICI Bank as a management trainee in 1984. By the time she was 47, she was the bank’s CEO. Not only did she make history by becoming the first woman to lead an Indian bank, she also transformed the entire Indian retail banking industry.

Under Kochhar’s leadership, ICICI Bank has achieved great milestones year-after-year by expanding its businesses, leveraging technology to bring value to its urban and rural customers, and partnering with the public and private sectors to create new opportunities. While inspiring many young women, Kochhar has racked up numerous awards and accolades, including the Padma Bhushan, one of India’s highest civilian honors, in 2011; being featured in Time’s “100 Most Influential People in the World” in 2015; ranking 36th on the Forbes “World’s 100 Most Powerful Women” in 2015; and ranking second in Fortune India’s list of “Most Powerful Women in Business” in 2014.

Kiran Bir Sethi, the founder of Design for Change and The Riverside School, was honored for empowering children to change the world. The society said Sethi is the champion of youth volunteerism. Sethi noticed that teachers rigidly stuck to the textbooks and punished students who deviated from the prescribed lesson plan when her son was in school in Ahmedabad. Noticing this issue, she founded The Riverside School in Ahmedabad in 2001 to provide an alternative model which focuses on quality of learning, student well-being and empathy in education.

Sethi used one lesson to have children roll incense sticks for several hours, which led to the children pushing for child labor to be abolished. The teaching methods have resulted in Riverside rivaling India’s top schools on national assessment scores in math, English and science.

In 2009, Sethi expanded on the principles practiced at Riverside to found the “Design for Change” movement with the goal of getting children to drive change in their communities.

The movement to encourage youth volunteerism, which has since spread to more than 300,000 children in 35 countries, is based on a simple model of having kids act on changing problems that bother them.

The “Asia Game Changer of the Year” award went to Philippine boxer Manny Pacquiao. He is a member of the Philippines House of Representatives and was awarded this highest honor for using his sport and fame for good. “This year’s honorees could not be more different from one another,” said Asia Society president Josette Sheeran in a statement. “What they share in common is that they all fight for a better today and inspire the world to do things differently.”

The group of ‘Game Changers’ were selected through a global survey of more than 1,000 leaders. They will be recognized formally for their honors at an Oct. 13 event at the United Nations.

Top seeds Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza beat Casey Dellacqua and Yaroslava Shvedova to win the U.S. Open doubles title on Sunday, September 13, 2015 and cap off a perfect visit to Flushing Meadows, New York.

At 34 years old and already a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, Hingis paired with  Sania Mirza of India to beat Casey Dellacqua of Australia and Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-3 in the final.

Hingis, the Swiss former-world number one and her Indian partner Mirza, tore through the doubles tournament without dropping a set to claim back-to-back grand slams after their victory at Wimbledon.

It has been a productive and busy visit to New York for Hingis who also captured the U.S. Open mixed doubles title with India’s Leander Paes.

Having only joined forces in March, Mirza and Hingis have enjoyed a successful partnership reaching six finals in 12 events and winning two majors.

After easily taking the first set Hingis and Mirza broke to open the second and apart from a late wobble were never really threatened by the Australian Dellacqua and Kazakhstan’s Shvedova.

For Hingis it was her second U.S. Open doubles title coming 17-years after she won her first in 1998 with Jana Novotna.

“With all the pressure on us, all the time, we’re really happy to come through,” Mirza said. Mirza thinks her victory will be a big deal back home in India. “It has been a great year for us,” Mirza said.

“To win Wimbledon was a great year. Then to come back and back it up to win the US Open, we feel like we’re a really solid team. And we came through again today. Grand Slams mean a lot, but obviously being a woman and being the first one to be able to achieve everything that I’m achieving is amazing for, not just India, for Indian women, but for Indian sports, for women to pick up sports in the country and that side of the world,” she said. “So I hope they’re proud.”

Natasha Subhash, an Indian American teen is taking the tennis world by storm. Natasha Subhash, a resident of Fairfax, Virginia, has got a wild card in the 2015 US Open Tennis Championships, becoming the youngest ever Indian-origin player to play for the Junior girls title in a Grand Slam event. Subhash will have her first taste of elite tennis when she heads to the U.S. Open in New York for the qualifying tournament this month. She is not nervous, though, but rather the opposite. “I am very excited for it.”

At just 14 years old, Subhash, of Fairfax, Va., has earned a spot in the U.S. Open, a grand slam tennis tournament in New York. The tennis sensation has been playing the sport for a long time. Her parents enrolled her in classes at the nearby Four Star Tennis Academy when she was just 4 years old, and she has been honing her craft there ever since.

“As soon as I started to compete in tournaments, I knew that this was what I wanted to do,” Subhash told the media. “I think that once I started to compete in tournaments on a regular basis and started doing well in them, I knew that I could be really good at this,” she said.

It didn’t take long for her natural talent to come through, and she felt confident that she would be a great player. In her U-16 age group, Subhash is ranked No. 1 in the Virginia and Mid-Atlantic regions, as well as in the United States Tennis Association standings. Nationally, she is ranked No. 5. of all young girls in the world; the International Tennis Federation ranks Subhash 1,118.

In total, Subhash said she has won around 150 trophies, including 10 gold, silver and bronze tennis balls, for her successes at national tournaments. She is a humble winner, too, earning the Sportsmanship Award at the National Hard Court Championships.

“I usually don’t think about that, because I have to focus on what I have to do in the match,” Subhash said. “But, it’s always nice to know that you have support when you’re playing.” Like a true competitor, Subhash appreciates past success but is driven to get better each and every day.

“My goals now are to just get better every day and to love what I do,” said the young tennis star, who will be attending Falls Church High School in Falls Church, Va., this fall. “My long-term goal is to see if I can be a professional tennis player.”

Subhash was born in Washington, D.C., to parents who immigrated to the United States from India. When she’s not dominating on the tennis court, she loves to read, listen to music and spend time with her friends. She credits her parents and their roots for making her the person she is today. “That has shaped me a lot as a person,” Subhash said of her parents being raised in India. “They’ve taught me all of their values and beliefs, and I couldn’t be more thankful.”