(Current Affairs) Sports | April + May: 2014

Sports

Sochi Olympics and India

The names adorning just about every available spot on Indian luger Shiva Keshavan’s speedsuit are written in faint gray letters, barely visible to those even nearby. They are not insignificant. For the Sochi Olympics, those names are essentially Keshavan’s flag. India is not officially at the Sochi Games, the nation suspended by the International Olympic Committee after it refused to ban corruptiontainted officials from running for
elections. The suspension is expected to be lifted after new elections in the coming days, but likely not come in time for Keshavan and two other athletes from India - both skiers - to actually represent their country.

So instead, they will all race under the Olympic flag in Sochi. And in an effort to find a way to represent his country without a flag, Keshavan offered donors a chance to be listed on his uniform. Some of those who
backed his quest for the Sochi Games have their names on the white suit that he will wear on race days.

Dipika Pallikal returns to top 10

India’s top squash player Dipika Pallikal has returned to the top 10 of the world rankings for the first time since December 2012.

The 22-year-old moved two places to be no.10 in the latest Women’s Squash Association (WSA) rankings despite enduring a tough start to the year.

Dipika’s improvement in the rankings can be attributed to her performance towards the end of 2013 when she won the $35,000 Macau Open and reached the quarterfinals of the $50,000 China Open in Shanghai.

The Chennai-born player, who was recently honoured with the Padma Shri, opened her 2014 campaign at the Tournament of Champions in New York where she lost in the qualifiers to Annie Au of Hong Kong.

Exhibition match to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Lord’s

Cricket legends Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne lead the two teams in an exhibition match to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Lord’s, the original Mecca of the sport.

Tendulkar lead the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), the owners of the north-west London venue, while the Aussie spin magician headlines a Rest of the World side in a 50-overs per side exhibition match on July 5.

Tendulkar, who was presented with an MCC Honorary Life Membership in 2010, also said that it will be a privilege to play at the ‘home of cricket’ once again, while Warne, who took 19 wickets in four Tests at Lord’s, said that he is sure that the match will be a lot of fun. MCC, founded in 1787, moved to its present site in the north-west London suburb of St John’s Wood in 1814, with the ground owned by entrepreneur Thomas Lord - hence its name.

Although it is more than 40 years since MCC ceased to run English cricket, it retains worldwide responsibility for the game’s ‘Laws’, as cricket’s rules are known.

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