April 2013

India Lost the Series against Pakistan by 2-1

India won the last match of the Pakistan in India ODI Series on 6 January 2013 against Pakistan by 10 Runs. With this win over Pakistan, India lost the three matches one day series by 1-2.

1st Match: The first match was played at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, at Chennai on 30 December 2012. India scored 228 runs at a loss of 6 wickets and Pakistan managed to achieve the target to win the match by 6 wickets (with 11 balls remaining). At the end of the match Dhoni was chosen as the player of the match.

2nd Match: In the second match played at Eden Gardens, Kolkata on 3 January 2013 – (day/night format) Pakistan gave a target of 251 runs for India to win but India was able to score 165 in 48 over with no wicket remaining in hand. Nasir Jamshed was elected as the Player of the match.

3rd Match: India playing first at Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi on 6 January 2013 – (day/night format) scored 167 runs in 43.4 over and Pakistan was all out at 157 runs in 48.5 over. India won the match by 10 runs and MS Dhoni was once again chosen as the Player of the match.

At the end of the series, Nasir Jamshed of Paksitan was declared as the Player of the tournament.

Kevin Pietersen Signed Full-Central Contract with the ECB

Kevin Pietersen on 9 January 2013 signed the full-central agreement with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). Pietersen was dropped from the final Test against South Africa because of the alleged claims that he had sent the text messages to the rival players in which he criticised the then-England captain Andrew Strauss. By the end of 2012, Kevin Pietersen returned back to the team, but he only had his short-term contract. However, now he signed the full-central contract which gave him the same status like other team-mates of England cricket team.

Pietersen saw a very chaotic 2012 in which he announced his retirement not just from the 50-over internationals but also from the Twenty20 internationals. There were doubts about his future in Test cricket as well. Apart from this, Pietersen missed the World T20 in Sri Lanka. He was denied one of the ten central contracts which were distributed in September. Nevertheless, after having conversation with the ECB, he came back to the England team in October 2012 and thereafter in all forms of the game.

Virat Kohli named CEAT International Cricketer of the Year

Vice-captain of Indian Cricket team Virat Kohli on 4 January 2013 was named the International Cricketer of the Year while Pakistan cricket team bagged the top honours for the best team at the CEAT Cricket Awards 2011-12 in New Delhi. Virat Kohli had deafeated Hashim Amla, Kumar Sangakkara and Michael Clarke to bag the prestigious award. Kohli was the top run-getter for India in both Tests and ODIs in 2012 with his career-best 183 which came against Pakistan in the Asia Cup in March 2012 only. The Former Pakistan cricket captain Zaheer Abbas was honoured with the lifetime award while Saeed Anwar got the best audience choice awards. In the special category-India-Pakistan awards, former Pakistan skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq was awarded with the best ODI bastman honour, India’s Sunil Gavaskar-Best Test batsman, Kapil Dev- Best Test bowler and Wasim Akram was adjudged as the best ODI bowler. Unmukt Chand, the man who led the Indian side to win the U-19 World Cup 2012 was declared the Indian Youngster of the Year award.

CEAT awards is based upon Ceat Cricket Rating (CCR)

The Ceat Cricket Rating (CCR) system ranks the best players and teams in the world based on their performance in Tests and One Day Internationals over a period of 12 months from 1st May to 30th April. The points are allocated on overall performances and the system takes into account the batting, bowling, fielding and wicket-keeping performances making truly international, comprehensive and most credible cricket rating in the world.

In its first year of Inception of Award in 1995-96 the ‘CEAT International Cricketer’ award was bagged by Brian Lara. A year later the ‘CEAT International Team’ award was instituted with Pakistan as the best team in the world. During the World Cup in 1999, CEAT also instituted the ‘CEAT International Cricketer of the World Cup’ and Rahul Dravid was the recipient of the award in acknowledgment of his outstanding cricketing performance in the championship.

Mumbai won its 40th Ranji Trophy

Mumbai won its 40th Ranji trophy at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on 28 Jan 2013. Mumbai won the final match against Saurashtra by an inning and 125 runs on the third day of Ranji Trophy final. The Mumbai team so far has played in 44 finals of Ranji Trophy. Mumbai in their first inning scored 355 runs while Saurashtra in reply could manage only 148. In its second inning Saurashtra was bundled out for merely 82. Mumbai pacers Ajit Agarkar (4-15) and Dhawal Kulkarni (5-32 & 9-56) did an excellent job. Wasim Jaffar was declared Man of the Match. Ajit Agarkar was the captain of the winning team.

India won the ODI series against England 3-2

England defeated India by seven wickets in the fifth and the last ODI played at Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharamshala on 27 January 2013. Despite England’s win in this match, India won the series against England by 3-2. India batted first in the match and scored 226 in 49.4 overs. In reply, England easily reached the target with seven wickets remaining. The details of the remaining matches are as following:

• First ODI- Played at Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Rajkot on 11 January 2013. England won by 9 runs.

• Second ODI-Played at Nehru Stadium, Kochi on 15 Jan 2013. India won by 127 runs.

• Third ODI-Played at JSCA International Stadium Complex, Ranchi on 19 January 2013. India won by 7 wickets.

• Fourth ODI-Played at Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali, Chandigarh on 23 Jan 2013. India won by 5 wickets.

Suresh Kumar Raina of India was declared player of the series. Alastair Cook was the skipper of England ODi team while Indian ODI team was led by Mahender Singh Dhoni.

Kohli became the Quickest Indian and Second at World Level to complete 4000 ODI Runs

The Indian Cricketer and the right handed batsman Virat Kohli on 19 January 2013 completed his 4000 runs in One day International cricket tournament. He is the 12th Indian batsman and 84th at world level to reach this milestone. By scoring these runs in just 93 innings, he became the first quickest from India and second at world level to accomplish this milestone. Viv Richards, the West Indies player reached this milestone in 88 innings in the year 1985 and is placed at the 1st position in the list of crickets to touch the mark of 4000 runs in less number of innings. Both Richards and Kohli played in 96 matches to reach the score. Before Kohli, the former Indian Captain Sourav Ganguly had this record of scoring the fastest 4000 runs in ODI in 110 matches and 105 innings.

Virat Kohli

• Virat Kohli is an Indian right handed batsman and a right-arm medium fast bowler

• He captained the India Under-19 cricket team, for a memorable U-19 World Cup triumph at Malaysia in 2008.

• Virat Kohli played his first ODI match against Sri Lanka in the 2008 Idea Cup

M S Dhoni climbed up to Fourth Position in the ICC ODI Players Ranking

ICC on 7 January 2013 released the ICC Player Rankings of ODI batsman placing Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Captain of Indian Cricket Team at fourth position in its list. Dhoni was ranked at the fourth position, due to the consistent performance he had displayed in the past three-match ODI series - against Pakistan. Virat Kohli slipped by one rank to third position in the list. Suresh Raina managed to move one point upward to twenty-sixth position and Yuvraj Singh reached to forty-first spot in the latest ranking released.

South African batsman Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers are sharing first and second position respectively in the latest ranking released. Nasir Jamshed, the Pakistani opener batsman managed to jump forty-five places to react thirty-first spot, due to the consistent performance displayed in the three one-day-international series against India.

Simon Taufel to be the First Umpire to deliver the MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture 2013

Simon Taufel, the umpire who has been the five-time ICC Umpire of the Year from 2004 to 2008 would be the first umpire to deliver the prestigious MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture that would take place on 24 July 2013. This announcement was made by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) on 11 January 2013. The lecture of 2013 would be the 13th lecture, ever since its inception and Taufel would be the third Australian after Adam Gilchrist (2009) and Richie Benaud (2001 – the first lecture) to deliver this lecture.

MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture

MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture first began in the year 2001 in the memory of the former Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) president Colin Cowdrey. He played an important role in enshrinement of the Spirit of Cricket in the preamble of the Code of the Laws of Cricket in the year 2000.

Australian Open 2013

Novak Djokovic of Serbia defeated Andy Murray of UK in four sets to win Australian Open 2013 final. The tournament was held in Melbourne. It was Djokovik’s third consecutive Australian Open title and fourth overall. Nine other tennis players had won consecutive Australian open tournament, but none three straight years. Djokovic had five break-point chances in the opening set, including four after having Murray at 0-40 in the seventh game, but couldn’t convert any of them. In 2012, Djokovic had started with an epic 5-hour, 53-minute five-set win over Rafael Nadal at the Australian Open, the longest Grand Slam final. Djokovic won his first major title in 2008 Australian Open. He now has six Grand Slam titles altogether. Federer has won four of his 17 majors at Melbourne, and Agassi is the only other player to have won that many in Australia since 1968.

Victoria Azarenka of Belarus on 26 January 2013 won the Women’s Singles title of the Australian Open Tennis tournament at Melbourne. The World Number One defeated Li Na of China, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the final to win the title for the second successive time. The match lasted for 2-hour and 40-minutes which featured 16 service breaks, with Li losing her service nine times.

Top seeded American brothers Bob and Mike Bryan won the men’s doubles title. Americans Mike and Bob Bryan won their record 13th Grand Slam doubles title, defeating the Dutch team of Robin Haase and Igor Sijsling 6-3, 6-4.

Brisbane International Tennis Title

Andy Murray, the third seeded Scottish tennis player retained his Brisbane International Tennis Title after defeating the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov on 6 January 2013. Murray defeated Dimitrov by 7-6 and 6-4 in straight sets. This is the first title won by Murray in the year 2013 and twenty-fifth title of his career.

With this win, Murray was successful in winning 78800 dollar and 250 Emirates ATP Ranking Point and Dimitrov ended up with 150 Emirates ATP Ranking Point and 41540 dollar.

Women’s Doubles

Indian Tennis player Sania Mirza and her American partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands on 5 January 2013 lifted the WTA Brisbane International trophy with a win against Kveta Peschke and Anna-Lena Groenefeld. The second seeded Indo-American pair Sania Mirza and Bethanie Mattek-Sands defeated fourth seed Anna-Lena Grönefeld of Germany and Czech Keveta Peschke with 4-6 6-4 10-7 in the summit face-off of the 1000000

US dollar event.

The win is supposed to be Sania’s first doubles title of the season and 15th of her career. Sania and Mattek earned 470 ranking points each and shared 51022 US Dollar as prize money. On the other hand, In the same tournament World no. 3 Serena Williams claimed her first ever single Brisbane International Title with 6-2, 6-1 victory over Russian tennis player Anastasia Sergeyevna Pavlyuchenkova.

Brisbane International Tennis Title

Brisbane International Tennis Title is an internationally acclaimed Tennis Tournament that is organised every year in the month of January at Queensland Tennis Centre in Brisbane, Queensland in Australia. The tournament is played on the outdoor hard courts and is a part of ATP World Tour 250 series of the World Tour of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) as well as the WTA Premier tournaments of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Tour. The tournament is held before the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam tournament of the season.

FIFA Ballon d’Or Award for fourth time

Lionel Messi, the Argentine footballer won FIFA Ballond’Or Award on 7 January 2013 as a reward to his 91-goal in a year for Barcelona and Argentina, in the year 2012. Messi voted to be the best player for the fourth year in a row managed to beat his close competitors, Cristiano Ronaldo of Spanish champion Real Madrid and Barcelona teammate Andres Iniesta.

To win this award, Messi won 41.60 percent votes and was followed by Ronaldo, who won 23.68 percent votes and Andres Iniesta, who won 10.91 percent votes of all the votes casted. The votes were casted by National Team Coaches and Captains as well as journalists invited. All these people, helped in selecting the top three from a huge list of 23 nominated players.

With this win for the fourth time, Messi has left behind the three time FIFA winners namely Zinedine Zidane of France and Ronaldo of Brazil.

The FIFA Ballon d’Or

FIFA Ballon d’Or Award was started in the year 2010 after merging the two, France Football’s Ballon d’Or and the men’s FIFA World Player of the Year Award. It is the association’s football award that is awarded to the year’s best performer. The player is selected via voting process and the votes are casted by the captains and coaches of the International Teams as well as the journalists from across the world.

Mercedes to Launch New Formula One Car

Mercedes decided to uncover its 2013 Formula One car for Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton on 4 February 2013 at the pre-season test start in Spain. The new F1 car called F1W04 would be launched at Circuito de Jerez. Lewis Hamilton, the 2008 world champion joined Mercedes from McLaren, replacing Michael Schumacher, the 7-times champion. The team of Mercedes was positioned at number 5 in constructors list of 2012.

The launch of new cars of other top teams will take place as follows:

• McLaren on 31 January 2013

• Ferrari on 1 February 2013

• Red Bull on 3 February 2013

• Toro Rosso on 4 February 2013

International Paralympic Committee Decided to Launch International GP Circuit for Disabled

International Paralympic Committee (IPC) decided to launch the international grand prix circuit especially for the elite athletes who are disabled. This international grand prix circuit is scheduled to be launched in April 2013. The version of IPC of the strong Diamond League shall comprise of eight meetings in all, at various venues across the world. Two of these venues which also include the final one shall be held in Britain.

Farmers Insurance Open

Tiger Woods on 29 January 2013 won his 75th PGA Tour title in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. Woods entered into the fifth day of play with a six-shot lead over his closest competitors, Brandt Snedeker and Nick Watney. Although, he was far from his fluent best and he dropped four strokes in three holes from the 15th, it did not stop his progress to victory and he finished on 14 under par .He parred his first five holes without any problem before birdieing the 13th after two putting from 52 feet.

Woods dropped another shot on the 17th and missed a 15ft birdie putt on the last, however, his level-par 72 was enough to secure him victory. Snedeker had just five holes to try and put any type of pressure on Woods, but he could produce no late wonderful stint and had to settle for a final-round 69 and a tie for second place alongwith Josh Teater, who also carded a three-under-par round. Watney was placed at the best position to challenge Woods but four bogeys in 10 holes undermined his effort and he finished in joint fourth, alongside Jimmy Walker on nine under. American duo Rickie Fowler and Robert Garrigus and Australia’s Aaron Baddeley finished a shot further back.

Badminton World Federation Rankings

Saina Nehwal, the Olympics bronze medalist on 17 January 2013 clinched her career best second rank in the latest rankings released by the Badminton World Federation (BWF). To clinch the second position in the latest rankings released, Saina scored 80091.7444 points and is leaded by the Chinese Li Xuerui, who has 94626.7153 points by her name. Parupalli Kashyap the quarterfinalist in London Olympics was also successful in clinching his career best tenth position in men’s list and he has 51986.6900 points by her name. Kashyap is the only Indian player to be within the list of top-25 players in the BWF list.

Saina Nehwal regained her world number two position after an interval of two years. For the first time, she achieved this position in December 2010. On the day, when Saina Nehwal achieved the number two position once again she displayed a dominant performance on her journey to quarter finals against Pui Yin Yip of Hong Kong in the Malaysian Open Super Series and won it in the straight sets with 21-12, 21-9 points.

Athlete of the Year Award At JAAA Golden Cleats Awards Ceremony

Usain Bolt, the fastest man of the world and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the women’s 100m Olympic champion won the male and female Athlete of the Year awards respectively on 8 January 2013 at Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) Golden Cleats Awards ceremony which took place at Terra Nova Hotel in St Andrew. Glen Mills, the Racers Track Club head coach won the Coach of the Year Award for the second time in a row, bringing his total of winnings to 3. It was Mills who conditioned Bolt and Yohan Blake, which in turn helped them in grabbing gold and silver respectively in 100m and 200m at the London Olympics. In the meanwhile, the Howard Aris Award was won by Fedrick Dacres, the 2012 World Junior discus champion and Jeneive Russell, the 2012 World Junior 400m hurdles champion. Howard Aris Award was established in 2012 to commemorate late former JAAA president. The award recognises the athletes who represent their county with the distinction in non-traditional events. The athletes additionally, also won the scholarships worth 250000 dollar, acceptable at the University of Technology, the University of the West Indies or GC Foster College. Usain Bolt acclaimed the renowned status by defending three gold medals, which are 100m, 200m and 4x100m at 2012 Olympic Games in London.

National Weightlifting Championship 2013

Manpreet Kaur, 23, of All India Police claimed the women’s +75kg gold medal in the final day of the National weightlifting championship at SRM University campus, Uttar Pradesh on 10 January 2013. Manpreet Kaur lifted 189 kg to secure maiden National title. At the second position stood Binitha Devi by lifting 187 kg and Amanpreet Kaur finished at 3rd position with 185 kg. In the men’s +105kg category, Himanshu Kumar Chang of Railways bagged the top most honour by lifting 346 kg in all. Former champion, Sandeep Kumar of Services on the other hand lifted 328 kg and grabbed the Silver. At the third position was Pardeep Kumar with 327 kg. Manpreet who was also the champion at AIP meet in December 2012 lost to Binitha in snatch by just 1 kg when she lifted 85 kg in the previous attempt. But in her final approach, she winched 104 kg in the last attempt and won the gold.

Final results were as follows:

Men: +105kg:

1. Himanshu Kumar Chang (RSPB) snatch 154kg, clean and jerk 192kg, total 346kg

2. Sandeep Kumar (SSCB) snatch 135kg, clean and jerk 193kg, total 328kg

3. Pardeep Kumar (MP) snatch 139kg, clean and jerk 188kg, total 327kg

Women: +75kg:

1. Manpreet Kaur (AIP) snatch 85kg, clean and jerk 104kg, total 189kg

2. Binitha Devi (Kar) snatch 86kg, clean and jerk 101kg, total 187kg

3. Amanpreet Kaur (Pun) snatch 84kg , clean and jerk 101kg , total 185kg

VARIOUS

International GP Circuit for Disabled

International Paralympic Committee (IPC) decided to launch the international grand prix circuit especially for the elite athletes who are disabled. This international grand prix circuit is scheduled to be launched in April 2013. The version of IPC of the strong Diamond League shall comprise of eight meetings in all, at various venues across the world. Two of these venues which also include the final one shall be held in Britain.

Fauja Singh Announced Retirement

Fauja Singh, 101, the oldest marathon runner of the world decided to stop running in the competitions after Hong Kong marathon which will be held in February 2013. However, before the Hong Kong marathon, Singh will be running in the Australia marathon as well.

Fauja Singh is also popularly known as the Turbaned Tornado in all the international events. Though Fauja Singh announced his retirement from marathon, but he admitted that he would keep running for inspiring the masses. Fauja Singh was born on 1 April 1911. Fauja was also felicitated at the Buckingham Palace by the queen in London on December 7, 2005.

IOC asked Armstrong to return back the Sydney Olympic Bronze Medal

The International Olympics Committee (IOC) on 17 January 2013 asked the all time popular Cyclist Lance Armstrong facing the charges of doping to return the Olympic Bronze Medal and Certificate of 2000 Sydney Games.

The IOC wrote a letter to the defamed Cyclist and the winner of seven times Tour de France and asked him to return back the bronze medal and the certificate that accompanied it for the men’s time trial event. The dominoes continue to fall for Lance Armstrong, with the International Olympic Committee formally requesting that the disgraced cyclist return his Olympic bauble from the 2000 Sydney Games.

Lance Armstrong

• He was stripped off from the seven Tour de France titles that he won from 1999 to 2005 on 22 October 2012 and was banned from cycling for life.

• U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) accused Armstrong of leading a doping programme with his team and submitted a 202 page report

• Lance Armstrong is a cyclist, who used performance enhancing drugs and banned substances.

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