Sports Panorama: Top 10 Sports News Of This Week

by Shatakshi Gupta
  • Virat Kohli has resigned as the Test captain of the Indian national cricket team after seven years of captaincy. He first led the national team in Test cricket in 2014 against Australia.  He leaded the team to an unprecedented back-to-back Test series victories. In his statement, Kohli also thanked former head coach Ravi Shastri and former captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. 
  • Tasnim Mir became the first Indian to become world No. 1 in the Under-19 girls’ singles category in the latest Badminton World Federation (BWF) junior rankings. She is currently followed by Maria Golubeva of Russia and Lucia Rodriguez of Spain. In 2021, she won 3 Junior International tournaments held in Bulgaria, France and Belgium, which helped him grab the No. 1 spot.
  • Sania Mirza recently announced that 2022 would be her last season. Sania has six Grand Slam titles in women’s doubles and mixed doubles. Her last headline-grabbing win was with Chinese partner Shuai Zhang in women’s doubles at the Ostrava Open on September 26, 2021. 
  • Pakistan captain Babar Azam has been named the captain of the ICC Men’s T20I Team of the Year for 2021. The ICC Team of the Year enlists the 11 best players in men’s cricket who have amazed everyone with their performances in a calendar year. Unfortunately, no Indian male player has got a place in the team of 11. 
  • The impact of the Corona pandemic on games is unending. Its latest victim has become the Indian women’s football team.  13 players of the Indian team have been hit by COVID-19. Due to this all matches of India in the AFC Women’s Asia Cup were cancelled. The Indian women’s team was scheduled to play its second match against Chinese Taipei on Sunday. Due to the exclusion from this tournament, the dream of Indian team to qualify for next year’s Women’s Football World Cup was also shattered. If the Indian team had reached the quarter-finals of the Asian tournament, then it would have got a ticket to the World Cup. 
  • Ahmedabad and Lucknow, the two new teams included for the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), have officially announced the names of their 3-3 players before the mega auction.  KL Rahul has been added by Lucknow with his team for 17 crores. With this, he has also become the most expensive player in IPL history. 

Read more: IPL 2022: Rajasthan Royals Players Retained In 2022

  • Team India lost the No. 1 spot in the Test rankings due to the 2-1 loss against S.Africa. The Indian team had captured the first place in the Test rankings after defeating New Zealand 2-0 in the home Test series in December last year. Team India  defeated South Africa by 113 runs in the first test match played at Centurion.  After this, the African team not only made a strong comeback by winning the second Test, but also won the third match and captured the series.
  • A big news is coming out regarding the IPL 2022. The tournament will be organized in India itself and all the matches of the upcoming season will be played in Mumbai only. A source from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) confirmed this to ANI. In the meeting held between BCCI and all the team franchise owners on Saturday, the board explained its choice. Board sources said that even after this, if needed, some matches can be organized in Pune as well. Keeping corona in mind, this time too the tournament will take place without spectators. No announcement has been made about the date of the tournament yet, but the BCCI has informed all the franchise owners that it is considering kick-off the tournament from March 27.

Also read: India This Week: Top 10 National News Of This Week

  • Olympian Neeraj Chopra will be honoured with the Param Vishisht Seva Medal by President Ram Nath Kovind on the eve of Republic Day. He is the first track and field athlete to win a gold medal for India at the Olympics.  Neeraj is a Subedar in the Indian Army. He had enrolled in for Rajputana Rifles in 2016 as a direct entrant of Naib Subedar. He was selected to train at the Mission Olympic Wing and Army Sports Institute in Pune.
  • India lost 3-2 to world champion South Korean team despite taking the lead in the Women’s Hockey Asia Cup 2022. It will be the fifth time when South Korea will contest for finals. Team also hold the record for most titles at the Women’s Hockey Asia Cup. At the same time, the Indian hockey team will contest with China or Japan for the bronze medal on Friday.