'The Mumbai-Pune Olympics will be help shift the country's gaze to a region that denotes a new formula for sports, enterprise, and nation building,' argues Shashank Mani Tripathi.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Wednesday.
Narang preferred to remain practical as far as another shot at the Olympics is concerned.
Polo is regarded as sport of the kings. It was played by the likes of Darius, Genghis Khan, and Alexander the Great. Dr Richard T. Caleel, the president of the Federation of International Polo (FIP) was in Jaipur recently. Rediff.com's PB Chandra spoke to Dr Caleel on how the FIP is trying to popularize the sport.
Virat Kohli's insatiable hunger for improvement is a certain characteristic of a great player, says Gary Kirsten, who had coached the Indian captain during his successful three-year stint with the national team.
The minister of state for youth welfare and sports is fine and left for Lucknow in the morning, they said.
Kiren Rijiju exuded confidence that India would put up a better show in the 2024 Games but the main focus remains on the 2028 edition.
Modi wants the BJP to gets an additional 10% of the vote share from what it won in 2019. Plans are afoot to get new faces to replace MPs with poor chances of winning. Sources say more than 100 MPs are like to be axed, notes Modi biographer Ramesh Menon.
IT major Infosys on Thursday announced an extension of its digital innovation partnership with the Australian Open (AO) until the end of 2026. The extended collaboration with Tennis Australia will introduce enhanced broadcast match statistics and new initiatives to make tennis more accessible for all, while continuing to develop innovative digital stakeholder experiences, a statement said. The expanded collaboration will see Infosys and Tennis Australia continue to harness Big Data and Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality and Cloud technologies to elevate the AO experience for fans, players, coaches, partners and the media, it added.
'Everyone wants to get involved when there is success.' 'But what about guaranteeing it?' 'Making sure girls have the opportunity to succeed all the time?'
Soccer's top flight Premier League and the English Football League (EFL) had already announced they were postponing their next round of fixtures.
'Fielding is non-negotiable. Whether you are a batsman or a bowler, you have to be an excellent fielder and you have to be athletic which will help you in running between the wickets. That's how the game has evolved'
Former All England badminton champion Prakash Psdukone tells Rediff.com's Bikash Mohapatra that the focus ahead of the next Olympics should be on winning gold, and not just medals and there should be more support to athletes at the grasroots level.
'Team India's participation in the Olympics couldn't have ended on a sweeter note'
Former Manchester United and Mumbai City forward, Uruguay's Diego Forlan and La Liga's managing director for India, Jose Antonio Cachaza discussed ways for India to become a footballing powerhouse. Norma Godinho/Rediff.com sat in as the duo discussed Indian football and the Spanish League's new India tie-up.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday.
'It's a bit different and a bit weird, but it's just something we'll have to get used to'
PV Sindhu while addressing the newly-appointed Assistant Directors of the Sports Authority of India through an online session, stressed on the importance of parents, coaches, administrators working as a team to build up a champion.
The Solicitor General said, "Leadership develops at the grassroots level and it remains in the state association. By the time, his time comes for being elevated to the BCCI; he has to go for a mandatory three-year cooling-off period. One cannot become a member of the BCCI if he is not an active member of the state association".
'If we want to ensure this isn't a once-in-four-decade phenomenon, then we have to produce 1,800 players all the time, create infrastructure, so that we are constantly challenging at the top of the ladder.'
Turambekar's story is inspiring, to say the least. Read on as she recounts her remarkable journey in conversation with Rediff.com's Laxmi Negi.
Pullela Gopichand says a good mix of foreign and Indian coaches is important for the development of the system but strongly believes that 'second best' overseas recruits will only produce the second best players.
Chaubey, a former goalkeeper for big clubs like Mohun Bagan and East Bengal, welcomed Bhutia in the executive committee as a co-opted member.
A grassroot level swimming programme named after the most successful swimmer at the Olympic Games, American superstar Michael Phelps, is set to be launched in Mumbai first on April 11 before it spreads its wings to other parts of the country.
Stating that India has not made much progress since the Beijing Olympics, Ajit Sharan, Secretary - Sports, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS), said that India needs to become a sporting nation if it has do well in big event.
Brighton & Hove Albion's match against Crystal Palace on Saturday will also remain postponed.
'It is Dhoni, Fleming and the support staff who decide on cricket.' 'The fans expect CSK to do well, and with Dhoni at the helm, CSK is capable of it.'
The court rejected all petitions, including that against the conduct of the party's General Secretary election.
Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore has promised "surgical" precision in distribution of funds to athletes preparing for the 2020 Olympic Games, asserting that centralisation of the process has made bureaucratic hurdles a thing of past.
"When you see world-recognised figures like Juergen Klopp and Pep Guardiola behaving like that, it is then replicated by people in youth football and perpetuates the idea that it is OK to do it," Ref Support UK CEO Martin Cassidy said.
The view is that the attention on the national team is fleeting, incidental and dependent on the results they produce.
Indian boxer Vikas Krishan Yadav is setting his eyes on a gold medal in the third Olympics of his life in Tokyo
The ICC flagship event will return to the country after more than a decade.
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin, who followed FIFA president Gianni Infantino to the podium, directly compared UEFA's revenue to FIFA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Shafali Verma is by far the most decorated of the lot having already played in three World Cup finals at senior level.
The former India captain says he will consider contesting for the president of AIFF in the future.
'The role of sports science, sport medicine is incredibly important in modern day sport. We can't do without it'
Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju on Monday said the government is riding on "mainstay" football to make India a sporting powerhouse and announced the formation of five zonal committees to hunt talent across the country.
The 56-year-old has about 30 employees on the job who work to mass produce face masks, gloves and gowns for frontline workers. They manufacture about 1000 PPE gowns, which are supplied to his friend's company for wholesale distribution.
