(Current Affairs) Sports | March - 2016

Sports

Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis equaled record for longest winning streak in doubles

  • Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis have equalled the record for the longest women’s doubles winning streak by advancing to the WTA Sydney International semifinals with a straight-set win.
  • The top seeds got the better of China’s Chen Liang and Shuai Peng 6-2, 6-3 in less than an hour and remain on course for a second successive title this year.
  • With Wednesday’s result, Mirza and Hingis won their 28th consecutive match to equal the record set by Puerto Rican Gigi Fernandez and Belarus’ Natasha Zvereva in 1994.

Messi got record fifth Ballon d’or

  • Barcelona forward Lionel Messi won his fifth world player of the year crown at theFIFA Ballon d’Or ceremony
  • He pipped current holder and three time winner Cristiano Ronaldo, as well as his Barcelona teammate Neymar, to the award.
  • Messi and Ronaldo, 30, have hogged the Ballon d’Or between them since 2008.
  • Barca’s Luis Enrique won the coach of the year award at the Ballon d’Or ceremony in Zurich

Sania-Hingis duo won their first title of 2016

  • The world’s top women tennis pair of Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis started the New Year on a brilliant note by clinching the women’s doubles Brisbane International title..
  • The top-seeded pair took just an hour and 10 minutes to beat German wild card pair of Angelique Kerber and Andrea Petkovic7-5, 6-1.
  • This is the Indo-Swiss pair’s 26th win in a row and thefirst title of 2016.

Indian shooter Apuri Chandela broke the world record

  • Indian shooter Apuri Chandela broke the world record on way to winning gold in the women’s 10 metre air rifle event at the Swedish Cup Grand Prix.
  • Chandela shot 211.2 in the event held on Tuesday to surpass the feat of Chinese Olympic gold medallist Yi Siling, who held the record with 211.
  • The result marked a positive start for Chandela, who has al-ready qualified for the Rio Olympics.
  • The silver and bronze went to Swedish shooters Astrid Stefensen (207.6) and Stine Nielsen (185.0).

Read Madrid sacked Rafael Benitez

  • Real Madrid sacked coach Rafael Benitez after just seven months in charge on Monday with club legend Zinedine Zidane replacing the Spaniard.
  • Benitez’s unhappy reign came to an end after a2-2 draw away to Valencia.
  • Zidane scored a sensational winning goal to hand Madrid the 2002 Champions League as a player, but is short on managerial experience having only ever taken charge of Madrid’s feeder team Castilla.

Pranav Dhanawade made world record

  • The boundaries, especially square of the wicket, were short.
  • The opponents were half his height, if not age. Still, Pranav Dhanawade deserves all the accolades for having become the first cricketer to score 1,000 runs in an innings in a competitive match.
  • The Class 10 student from the KC Gandhi School in Kalyan, an eastern suburb approximately 60 kilometres from south Mumbai, achieved the milestone in the Thane district inter-school tournament for the HT Bhandari Shield.
  • The 15-year-old’s 1,009 not out of 323 balls obliterated a 117-year-old record for the highest number of runs scored in one innings which stood in the name of Arthur Collins’s previous record total of 628 in England in 1899.

Lodha panel submits its report on cricket reform

  • Living up to its promise of regaining the “purity of the game” and restoring the dignity of the players, the Lodha Committee has suggested sweeping reforms in the structuring and governance of cricket in the country.
  • One of the most significant suggestions the panel makes is the formation of separate governing bodies for the Indian Premier League and the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
  • Also recommended is the setting up of a Players’ Association to safeguard the interests of the cricketers.
  • Suggesting a uniform constitution for the Board and its affiliates, the panel aims to reduce the number of members in the all-powerful Working Commit- tee to nine from 14, with the president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer and joint-secretary. As a result, there will only be one vice-president instead of five.
  • The strength of the IPL Governing Council, it is recommended, should be reduced to nine and include two representatives from the franchisees, nominees of the Players’ Association and the Comptroller & Auditor General’s office.
  • The Players’ Association, to be constituted by the Board, should include former Union Home Secretary G.K. Pillai as the chairman, former India players Mohinder Amarnath, Anil Kumble and Diana Edulji as members of the Steering Committee.
  • The PA would not act like a union, and all the costs of running the association would be met by the BCCI,” Justice Lodha announced at a press conference after releasing the report.
  • Former first-class players, five years after retirement, would become part of the association.
  • In 2005-06, Kumble was the principal negotiator for the players in a fight for an enhanced share in the profitsearned by the Board.
  • He had then drafted the terms for player contracts, and was instrumental in securing the players a share of the profits in the International Cricket Council conducted events.
  • During his term as president of the Karnataka State Cricket Association, he took steps to make every decision transparent. These initiatives did not escape the notice of the Lodha Committee.
  • The panel, in a significant departure from the past, suggests that one individual hold only one post in cricket administration. The office-bearers would have to choose between positions in respective state associations and the parent body.
  • In a move that was evidently pushed by the players, the senior selection committee, the report recommends, should comprise only three members, instead of five at present.
  • The Lodha Committee also calls for dividing the governance into two parts: cricketing and non-cricketing.
  • The non-cricketing management will be handled by six professional managers headed by a CEO, and the cricket matters — like selection, coaching and performance evaluation — should be left to the players.
  • Another key recommendation tackled the fact that three units from one state now enjoy the power to vote. For example, Maharashtra and Gujarat have three full members each. But Bihar has no representation at all in the Board.
  • The Committee recommended that one association should represent an entire state.
  • The Lodha Committee comprising retired judges, Justice R.M. Lodha, Justice Ashok Bhan and Justice R.V. Raveendran — was formed by the Supreme Court in January last year.

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