MAHENDRA Singh Dhoni was on Thursday dropped from the BCCI’s list of centrally contracted players, raising fresh doubts on the future of the former India captain who has not played since the World Cup semifinal loss to New Zealand last year. The BCCI announced the central contracts for the period of October 2019 to September 2020. The 38-year-old Dhoni was in the A category, which fetches a player Rs 5 crore as annual retainership, until last year. Skipper Virat Kohli, his white-ball deputy Rohit ..

HE hasn’t lost a bout in close to five years and Vijender Singh is determined to keep the record with a world title to boot as he enters the new decade donning multiple hats, including the one of an active politician “with strong opinions”. The 34-year-old trailblazing boxer, who delivered India’s first Olympic and men’s world championship medals in boxing back in 2008 and 2009, has logged an enviable 12-0 record in the professional circuit, which he entered in 2015...

THE question of compromise between the two factions in the All India Chess Federation (AICF) does not arise and the issue will be settled in an electoral showdown, said a senior official, the leader of one of the factions. The AICF is split into two factions one under its President PR Venketrama Raja and the other under its Secretary Bharat Singh Chauhan. “There is no question of compromise. Let the issue get settled by elections. The elections should be held under the supervision of a retired Supreme ..

INDIA captain Virat Kohli said the best aspect of the series-clinching win over West Indies in the third and final T20 International here was that his team finally managed to post a big score while batting first. While India have been good at chasing for a while now, they have been making a conscious effort to amass big totals batting first ahead of the T20 World Cup next year. Kohli led from the front smashing an unbeaten 70 off 29 balls as India beat West Indies by 67 runs in the third T20. For ..

EMERGING Australian batsman Marnus Labuschagne on Thursday posted his third successive Test century to frustrate a resilient New Zealand attack on the opening day of the first Test in Perth. After Australia won a potentially pivotal toss in scorching heat and elected to bat in the first ever day-night Test in Perth, the home team was 248 for four at stumps after facing some challenging bowling from the disciplined Kiwi bowlers. Having toiled without much success in 40C heat, the Kiwis fought back ..

FORMER world number one Tiger Woods said he had turned down offers to play in the Saudi International golf tournament, but defended the right of players to participate in the event. Speaking on the eve of the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, Woods said he had rejected approaches to play in Saudi Arabia despite appearance fees reportedly in the region of $3 million (2.7 million euros). “I just don’t want to go over there,” Woods told ESPN. “It’s a long way.” Golfers participating in the Saudi Internatio..

NUR-SULTANA RUTHLESS India raced to a 2-0 lead in their Davis Cup tie for the loss of just two games as Ramkumar Ramanathan and Sumit Nagal toyed with their teen rivals from Pakistan, here on Friday. In a mismatch of epic proportion, Ramkumar double-bageled 17-year-old Muhammed Shoaib in just 42 minutes in the opening singles.The only time Shoaib made it look like a match was in the sixth game of the second set when he stretched Ramkumar to two deuce points. Sumit Nagal reacts after winning a ..

BARCELONA footballer Gerard Pique has insisted the inaugural Davis Cup Finals in Madrid have been an “absolute success”, although he did admit some changes would have to be made in future. The controversial week-long finals were launched by Pique’s investment company Kosmos, replacing the old World Group which saw teams play each other in longer ties spread across the year. “The competition is an absolute success,” Pique told broadcasters Movistar on Saturday...

DOMINIC Thiem beat defending champion Alexander Zverev to join Roger Federer’s conqueror Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final of the ATP Finals in London. The Austrian fifth seed saw off the big-serving German 7-5, 6-3 on Saturday after Greece’s Tsitsipas, making his debut at the tournament, had earlier beaten Federer 6-3, 6-4. Thiem is playing in his fourth ATP Finals but during his first three trips to the season finale, he won only three matches and never advanced out of the group stage at the O2 Arena. ..

FILIPINO-AMERICAN Grandmaster Wesley So on Sunday hailed Viswanathan Anand as his inspiration, saying that he had no clue how the Indian chess legend was still going strong and was among the best in the world. “He is an inspiration. I don’t think I could play at this level 20 years from now. It’s incredible what he is doing,” Wesley said on the sidelines of the Tata Steel Chess India event where the recently-crowned World Fischer Random Chess champion met budding chess players. Wesley, one of the ..

TOP Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth advanced to the men’s singles second round without playing a shot after his opponent Kento Momota’s pull-out while Sourabh Verma entered the main draw of the Hong Kong Open after clinching straight-game wins in his two qualifying clashes on Tuesday. Srikanth was to play against Momota in the first round on Wednesday but the Japanese world number one pulled out of the tournament on Tuesday. The reasons for his withdrawal were not known. A few days back, the 24-year-old ..

NOVAK Djokovic produced a magnificent performance to thrash seventh seed Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-1, 6-2 on Friday and set up a Paris Masters semi-final against Grigor Dimitrov. The 32-year-old, battling Rafael Nadal for the year-end world number one spot, dispatched Greek star Tsitsipas in only 58 minutes...

LEWIS Hamilton is set to clinch his sixth drivers’ world championship at one of his favourite venues this weekend when he leads Mercedes into what promises to be a close scrap with Ferrari at the United States Grand Prix. Just days after his unexpected, but perfectly-conceived, strategic victory in Mexico, the 34-year-old Briton is in the luxurious position of knowing that only a wildly-extraordinary result at the Circuit of the Americas can frustrate him again. His only title rival, Mercedes team-mate ..

FORMER India captain Sourav Ganguly on Wednesday took charge as the BCCI President, easily the most high-profile name to head the world’s richest cricket board that has been mired in administrative turmoil for the past three years. The 47-year-old Ganguly was officially entrusted with the task of heading Indian cricket for the next nine months at the BCCI’s General Body meeting here, ending a controversial 33-month reign of the Supreme Court appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA). Ganguly’s appointmen..

HOLDERS Tamil Nadu girls beat Maharashtra 86-59 to top the pool A at the 79th junior national basketball championship at Patna. Maharashtra girls started well with captain Abha Lad finding the hoop at regular intervals. She was ably supported by Siya Deodhar who controlled the game beautifully. She repeatedly penetrated the rivals defence to make her team-mates free for easy shots. TN, who were down 17-27 in the first quarter regained their composure in the second to reduce the lead at the half time. ..

SWISS tennis legend Roger Federer said Thursday he will play the French Open in Paris next year. “I will play the French Open. I probably won’t play much before that because I need some time away from it (tennis) and I need some time with the family,” the 38-year-old told CNN. The 20-time Grand Slam champion returned to Roland Garros this year after a three-year absence, falling to Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals. Federer confirmed he will compete at next year’s Tokyo Olympics after Wimbledon and ..

Supports demand for trial match against Mary Kom INDIA’S only individual Olympic gold medallist shooter Abhinav Bindra on Thursday backed Nikhat Zareen’s demand for a trial bout against celebrated boxer MC Mary Kom before India’s squad for next year’s Olympic Qualifiers is decided. Former junior world champion boxer Zareen, who was refused a trial by the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) for the World Championships, has written to Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju, demanding a “fair chance” to make it to ..

SIX-TIME champion MC Mary Kom (51kg) on Thursday surpassed herself as the most successful boxer in the Women’s World Championship history by securing an unprecedented eighth medal before debutants Manju Rani (48kg) and Jamuna Boro (54kg) also joined her in the semi-finals here. The third-seeded Mary Kom defeated a spirited rival in Colombia’s Valencia Victoria, fetching a unanimous 5-0 verdict to make the last-four stage...

FORMULA One boss Jean Todt said Thursday he remains hopeful that “one day” he will be able to attend a Grand Prix race with stricken former world champion Michael Schumacher. Schumacher, 50, has not been seen in public since suffering catastrophic head injuries in a high-speed skiing accident in December 2013. “There is no news other than the fact that Michael is fighting every day to improve the situation,” Todt told Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica. “I’ve been telling the truth, I watch Grand ..

ANDY Murray expressed disappointment about crowds at the China Open tennis, where some of the best players in the world have competed in front of swathes of empty seats. Poor attendances have been in the sporting headlines because of sparse turn-out at the World Athletics Championships in Doha. And at the ongoing China Open in Beijing, the biggest matches have played out to rows of unoccupied seats at the cavernous Diamond Court, the main arena. “I think as the tournament goes on you tend to get better ..

A CREDITABLE eighth-place finish in the World Athletics Championships under her belt, India’s top javelin thrower Annu Rani has called for giving equal opportunities to women in sport as they can also perform and bring laurels to the country. Annu became the first Indian woman javelin thrower to qualify for the final round of the World Championships but in the end finished eighth here on Tuesday. She broke her own national record in the qualification round on Monday with a throw of 62.43m but failed ..

THE issue of workload for national cricket team’s captain has once again surfaced with former cricketer Yuvraj Singh suggesting splitting of captainship load between Virat Kohli and prolific batsman Rohit Sharma. Similar discussion had ensued when Mahendra Singh Dhoni was the captain . The issue was settled with Dhoni himself choosing to relinquishing the captainship of the Test team and opting to shoulder the responsibility of leading the team in the limited overs format games. Subsequently he opted ..

  DOHA :   DEANNA Price of the United States won the gold medal in the women’s hammer at the World Championships in Doha, completing a superb victory after a career ravaged by injury. The 26-year-old from Missouri took gold with her third throw of the night, launching a 77.54-metre effort onto the field at the Khalifa Stadium. Poland’s Joanna Fiodorow took silver with a throw of 76.35m while China’s Wang Zheng claimed bronze with a best throw of 74.76m.   Price ..

   MADRID :  BARCELONA threw on their stars of the present and the future but neither Lionel Messi nor Ansu Fati could save them from a dismal 2-0 defeat away at Granada. Messi was still not deemed fit enough to start at Los Carmenes while Fati, the 16-year-old who has lit up La Liga in recent weeks, also began the game on the bench on Saturday. But while both came on at half-time with Barca trailing to Ramon Azeez’s opener, it was Granada that scored again, Alvaro Vadillo ..

FERRARI’S Sebastian Vettel ended his year-long drought without a win at the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday, mastering a hazy circuit to claim a record fifth triumph in the city-state. The German was chased home by team-mate Charles Leclerc, who started on pole but lost the lead to the four-time world champion after making his pit stop, and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who finished third. “It was a very late call on the pit stop and I just gave it everything on the out lap. I was surprised to come out ..

  (Kazakhstan) :   INDIAN wrestling had a lot to celebrate on Wednesday as Vinesh Phogat secured Tokyo Olympics qualification and won a bronze, while Pooja Dhanda put herself one win away from her second medal at the World Championships here. Having endured a medal-less run in three World Championships before, Vinesh finally ended the drought by pinning Maria Prevolaraki to win by fall in the bronze-medal bout. “It is my first World Championship medal and it is a big thing ..

 LONDON :  NORWICH City stunned title holders Manchester City 3-2 in the English Premier League as Teemu Pukki scored one goal and assisted another at Carrow Road. Kenny McLean nodded in a corner in the 18th minute to give Norwich the shock lead over the reigning Premier League champions on Saturday night. Norwich were without 10 first-team players through injury but that did not stop them from doubling their advantage as ten minutes later Todd Cantwell made it 2-0 after Pukki broke clear ..

  MANDALAY (Myanmar) :  ONE of India’s most consistent sportspersons, Pankaj Advani, on Sunday increased his tally of world titles to 22 by winning a fourth straight final in the 150-up format at the IBSF World Billiards Championship here. The 34-year-old has brought home a world trophy every year ever since returning from a professional stint in the UK in 2014. In the short format of billiards, this is Advani’s fifth title in the last six years. “It’s such a ..

EKATERINBURG (Russia) :   COMMONWEALTH Games silver-medallist Manish Kaushik (63kg) hardly broke a sweat as he out-punched Kyrgyzstan’s Uulu Argen Kadyrbek to enter the second round of the World men’s Boxing Championship. Kaushik prevailed 5-0 in the thoroughly lopsided opening-round bout. He will next face the Netherlands’ Enrico Lacruz.   The only Indian in action on Thursday, Kaushik was advised to keep his distance from Kadyrbek by his corner and he executed ..

  PARIS : BELGIUM and the Netherlands both cruised to 4-0 wins over Scotland and Estonia respectively in Euro 2020 qualifying on Monday, while Germany claimed a crucial victory over Northern Ireland in their bid to qualify for next year’s finals. Roberto Martinez’s Belgium, the world-number-one ranked side, were not at their best but still swatted aside a poor Scotland outfit at Hampden Park to make it six wins from as many matches in Group I. Inter Milan striker Romelu Lukaku ..

  PARIS : THE stricken seven-time Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher is in Paris’ Georges-Pompidou hospital for cell therapy surgery, according to French daily ‘Le Parisien’. The Paris hospitals department, contacted by AFP, refused to confirm or deny the news citing medical privacy laws. But according to Le Parisien, the 50-year-old German is in the cardiovascular department overseen by surgeon Philippe Menasche, described as a ‘pioneer in cell surgery ..

 Canadian Bianca Andreescu reacts after her quarter-final win. (AFP) NEW YORK :  CANADIAN Bianca Andreescu became the first teen US Open semi-finalist in a decade, rallying to defeat Belgium’s Elise Mertens on Wednesday and advance to a last-four match-up with Belinda Bencic. Andreescu, a 19-year-old from suburban Toronto, downed 25th seed Mertens 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 to book a clash against fellow Slam semi-final debutante Bencic, the Swiss 13th seed who beat Croatian 23rd seed Donna ..

 TAIPEI :  FORMER champions Saina Nehwal and Sourabh Verma will look to finding their best form when they begin their quest to regain the women’s and men’s singles crowns at the Chinese Taipei BWF World Tour Super 300 beginning with qualifiers here on Tuesday. Top seed Saina returns to the tournament for the first time since winning the title way back in 2008, while reigning national champion Sourabh had achieved the glory here in 2016 and will look to repeat his feat.  On ..

  NEW DELHI : INDIA’S first badminton world champion PV Sindhu was welcomed exuberantly on her return to the country but she said the feeling is yet to sink in given her hectic schedule since the triumph. The Olympic silver-medallist, who out-played Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara 21-7, 21-7 in a lop-sided final of the big event in Basel, Switzerland on Sunday, was mobbed at the airport after she touched down with national coach Pullela Gopichand by her side on Monday night here. Despite ..

 FORMER Manchester United and France legend Eric Cantona is to receive the UEFA President’s Award at the Champions League draw in Monaco on Thursday. The 53-year-old, who won five English championships with Leeds and Manchester United in the 1990s and two French titles with Marseille, joins an illustrious list of previous recipients which includes Johann Cruyff, Alfredo Di Stefano and Eusebio. Cantona is the third Manchester United player to receive the award after Bobby Charlton in 2008 ..