SPORTS JUNE 2014

SPORTS JUNE 2014

• Suspended BCCI chief N. Srinivasan was on 26 June appointed as the new chairman of the International Cricket Council.The 52-member full council approved amendments to the ICC's Memorandum and Articles of Association at the Annual Conference held at Melbourne. The ICC Board also approved that Oman Cricket (OC) becomes the 38th Associate Member of the ICC. However, Affiliate Membership of Brunei was suspended, while Tonga was removed as an Affiliate Member. The ICC now has 105 members.
  
• Indian ace shuttler Saina Nehwal on 29 June won her second title of the season, winning the $750,000 Star Australian Super Series. She defeated Spain’s Carolina Marin with 21-18, 21-11 in the final clash held in Sydney. The sixth seeded Saina had already won the India Open Grand Prix Gold earlier this year.
  
• Ankita Tiwana of Delhi won the seventh leg of the Hero Women's Professional Golf Tour (HWPGT) held at the Royal Springs Golf Course in Srinagar on 26 June. The Tour now moves to Bengaluru for Leg 8.The Hero Women's Professional Golf Tour 2014 comprises a total of fifteen legs spanning across key locations in India.
  
• The National Games will be held in Kerala from January 31-February 14, 2015. It is for the second time the National games will be held in Kerala after a gap of 28 years. Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president N. Ramachandran said the 35th edition of the National Games would be held in seven districts of the state. The games would be held in 36 disciplines and would be participated by 10,000 athletes and officials.
  
  • N. Ramachandran is the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president.
    
• Indian cueist Pankaj Advani on 29th June created history by becoming the first player in the world to win world titles in the long and shorter formats of both billiards and snooker by winning the IBSF World 6-Red snooker Championship in Sharm el-Sheikh, Eygpt. Advani defeated Kacper Flilpiak of Poland in the final. Advani had already won 7 world titles in billiards and 1 in snooker.
  
• Nutakki Priyanka of Hyderabad on 29 June won the gold medal in Asian under-12 girls rapid chess championship held in Uzbekistan.Earlier, Priyanka had won Asian youth U-10 blitz championship gold in Sri Lanka in 2012.
  
• India will be hosting the World Junior Chess Championship and the Asian Youth Chess Championship this year. The world event (boys and girls) will be held at Pune Oct 5-20, 2014 while the Asian meet for Under-14, 16 and 18 will be held in New Delhi Nov 6-14, 2014. The decision to host these two major tournaments was taken at the Annual General Body meeting of the All India Chess Federation (AICF) held in Chennai. The first three players in the tournament will be given the grandmaster title automatically.
  
• Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Najam Sethi elected to the newly-formed all powerful International Cricket Council Executive Committee (ExCo) in Melbourne, Australia on 28th June. The Executive Committee comprises five members with representations from India, England and Australia besides two others with Pakistan being elected as the fourth and the West Indies as the fifth member of the committee. The ExCo would comprise of a number of committees reporting to it and will deal with important matters like constitution, anti-corruption, ethics, integrity, development and HR. This will be the core committee of ICC, which would meet with as much frequency as required to assist and advise the ICC Board on operational, management and administrative activities of ICC. 
  
  
• Former Captain of Bangladesh Mohammad Ashraful (29) on 18 June 2014 was banned for eight years by the disciplinary panel set up by the Bangladesh Cricket Board. He was found guilty on four charges of fixing matches in Bangladesh Premier League of 2013. Ashraful has also been ordered to pay a fine of one million taka (12280 US dollar). He captained Bangladesh between 2007 and 2009 and played 23 T-20 internationals, 61 Tests, and 177 one-day internationals.
  
• Norway’s Magnus Carlsen has won the FIDE World Blitz Chess Championship in Dubai on 18 June. He bagged Gold medal with 17 points from the 21 rounds to emerge the winner in the super fast 5 minutes rounds of chess. Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi won the Silver while Hiraki Nakamura of US got the Bronze medal. India’s Grandmaster Vishwanathan Ananad stood at the seventh place in the blitz round with 13 points. 113 Grandmasters from 46 countries have participated in the championship.
  
• Indian cricket team on 19th June 2014 won the three One Day International (ODI) series against Bangladesh 2-0. With India already having won the first two ODIs, the third and final ODI was abandoned due to rain at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium in Mirpur, Bangladesh. Stuart Binny of India has won the Man of the Series award. The main highlight of the series was Stuart Binny taking six wickets for four runs in the second ODI, which is best bowling figures by any Indian in ODIs. The previous bowling record by any Indian was held by Anil Kumble who took 6 wickets for 12 against the West Indies in 1993 in Kolkata.
  
• Jitu Rai of India on 11th June 2014 won Silver Medal in men’s 10-meter air pistol event at the ISSF World Cup Shooting in Munich. The Gold medal was won by Pablo Carrera of Spain and Bronze was bagged by Pavlo Korostylov of Ukraine.
  
• Second seed Roger Federer won his 14th grass-court title with a 7-6(2), 7-6(3) victory over Alejandro Falla in the final of the Gerry Weber Open tennis tournamentheld at Halle on 15 June. This was Federer’s seventh title at Halle.
  
• Olympic gold medalists The Netherlands defeated Australia 2-0 in the title fight to clinch the women's hockey World Cup at the Kyocera Stadium in the Hague on 14th June. This was the fourth time these two nations met in the women's World Cup title encounter, and The Netherlands have won three of them. Out of 13 women's World Cups since its inception in 1974, the Netherlands have won it seven times.
  
• Australia retained the men's hockey World Cup title by defeating Olympic silver medallists The Netherlands 6-1 in the final held at the Kyocera Stadium in the Hague on 15 June. Before Australia clinched their second successive World Cup, Germany was the only nation to have won two consecutive times. Argentina's men defeated England 2-0 to clinch the bronze medal.
  
• Indian wrestlers Yogeshwar Dutt and Sushil Kumar on 1 June 2014 won Gold and Silver respectively at the International wrestling tournament held in Sassari city of Italy. London Olympics Bronze medallist Yogeshwar won the Gold medal in the 65kg category. On the other hand, two-time Olympic medallist Sushil kumar won the Silver in the 74kg category. Besides, World Championship bronze medallist Bajrang and Satywart Kadian won Silver medal in the 61kg category and 97kg category respectively. Krishan Kumar won bronze in the 120 category in men's freestyle. In women’s category- Shilpi Sheoran and Joyti won the bronze in the 55kg category and in the 75kg category respectively.
  
• Maria Sharapova of Russia on 7 June beat Simona Halep in the final to win her second French Open title. Sharapova won with 6-4 6-7 (5-7) 6-4 in three hours and two minutes at Roland Garros. She has now won five Grand Slam titles.
  
• Rafael Nadal of spain on 8 June beat Novak Djokovic to win his ninth French Open title and a record fifth in succession. Nadal won by 3-6 7-5 6-2 6-4 in three hours and 31 minutes. Nadal is the first man ever to win a major title nine times, taking his Grand Slam total to 14.
  
• The Justice Mudgal IPL Probe Committee on 7 June named former India captain -Sourav Ganguly to assist the committee in its investigation into the betting and spot-fixing scandal in last year's Indian Premier League. The Committee held its meeting in Mumbai on 7 and 8 June 2014.The committee has to submit its report to the Supreme Court by August. The, retired chief justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court -- to probe allegations of spot-fixing and betting against 13 people, including some cricketers who played the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2013, and inaction thereon by Board of Control for Cricket in India president N. Srinivasan. The other two members of the committee are L. Nageswar Rao (additional solicitor general of India) and senior advocate Niloy Dutta.